INBOUND Bold Talks: Johnny Earle aka Johnny Cupcakes lecture "Reinventing Your Ideas"

Key Takeaways

[Music] [Applause] [Music] how's it going everybody uh my name is Johnny cupcakes cupcakes is not my real last name if it was my future daughter would be very promiscuous [Laughter] um so I like w tank Clan I like oysters I like Mario Kart 64 I like to floss my teeth all the time and I really love home alone but the people who now live here do not love solicitors what I don't love is traffic and growing up as a kid in Hull Massachusetts I would see my family come home from their 9-5 job with not too much time to spend raising my little sister and I so at a young age I was inspired to be an entrepreneur there's me with all my toys not much has changed I still have all of those toys and I can still fit into those clothes um as you can see I didn't grow up with too much money and my mom would have to cut my own hair all the time but it's what's inside that counts there's me pretending to eat my little sister when she was born um when I was younger until this day I say do more of what makes you happy unless it's heroin or prostitution um but you know what I mean Follow Your Passion life is too short and it's unfortunate that sometimes it takes a near-death experience for us to realize how precious our time and our happiness is so I started off young lemonade stands I graduated a heav yard sales when my family wasn't home I'd sell my sister's My Little Ponies um I would hustle in the winter shovel snow even though I could push I could barely push this snow shovel it worked out to my advantage because people felt bad for me so they gave me extra money I'd sling drinks illegally up and down Nantasket Beach and when I was 8 years old I got into magic this was when and everything changed I realized that I could do something that makes me happy and that makes other people happy and I could figure out a way to get paid for this I began getting paid $20 a half an hour to do magic this is my first magic show and I was infatuated with the audience seeing people's eyes light up inspired me to create experiences with all of the different businesses that I've started um because I realized everything in the world's been done before and it's all about how we do things different people have so many options why are they going to choose our product our service or our personality um my mom gave me a scrapbook recently and it had the actual advertisement that she put in the newspaper when I was 8 years old two things I want to point out is one my mom would straight up drop me off at complete strangers houses and number two I'm not 8 years old anymore so if I put this in the newspaper now it looks a little molesty so I was diagnosed with multiple learning disabilities I never took any drugs for it mostly because my family didn't afford it and I I looked at it as a superpower because I knew right away what I did not want to do which was like all of my homework but when I found that when I found one thing I was passionate about whether it was magic or doing this or that I would focus 110% and almost obsess over it but that didn't stop me from getting good grades bad grades I'd have to go to the Charter School south of Boston um um I made the school's very first yearbook I used to wear really big clothes because I wanted to be a gangster when I was little made the first school yearbook I made so much money that the school realized that they should be making a yearbook and I had to come up with something else to sell PeeWee Herman was one of my biggest Role Models both both before and after the whole movie theater thing um so I began selling pranks I got an Oriental Trading Company catalog which was a gold mine I realized the value of wholesale and that you could buy anything in the world at in inexpensive prices and I was reinvesting the money that I would make back into more pranks instead of you know uh getting some new sneakers or doing this or that I reinvested my money itching powder fart spray stink bombs I was hustling these in between classes itching powder was a big seller so much so that this one person got an allergic reaction and had to get rushed to the emergency room because they were allergic to the itching powder their back was covered with hives um I this isn't their back I actually got this off a Google image search at first I typed in rash and then I was like oh no so then I typed in back crash so I got suspended I was like sweet school vacation I had to go back to school with something else to sell and since all of my friends in Hull were selling drugs at the time I decided to sell candy even though there's a school store I had all the good stuff I was coming home every day with a backpack full of cash and candy making eye contact with people I was friends with the gothic kids the thugs the Athletic kids and the nerds in my school because my parents taught me to be very acceptant of others so by leaving my immediate Social Circle it allowed me to Blossom with all of my businesses and ideas um on a good week I could come home with ,000 cash and that was a lot of money that was money that the government did not even know about back then so uh so even my drug dealer even my drug dealer friends were like did you really make that much money and I was like God you actually bought most of the candy for me when you had the munchies so I had to stop selling candy I made more money than the school store did the school store donates money to school functions I donate money to whoopy cushions and not having to get a real job so um I realized the value of my time at a young age and I began cutting back on a few things your time is the most valuable thing that you have it's more valuable than money it's something that you can never get back um so I was cutting back on video games I cut back on TV I had a girlfriend at the time who was not super supportive I broke up with her I was sad for a week and then I was like whoa look at all this money I'm saving this is awesome and then even though I grew up wanting to be a gangster and I listen to rap music Still um I've never actually tried any drugs and I've never even had a sip of alcohol so the amount of money that I've been saving my whole life on Thursdays Fridays Saturdays Sundays and recouping Mondays five days a week my entire life I've had this time that I've been able to fail and fail fast which has allowed me to learn and eventually find my passion and support my family um even though I don't party I will go to parties I'll brown bag of Capri on Juice drink so nobody heckles me and I'll bring Ora gel with me or gel is like a gel format of Nova cane it makes your mouth numb when you have a cavity when my friends aren't looking I'll put this on the rims of their drinks so by the time they go hit on some cute girls they'll start drooling down their numb face so I find ways to laugh every day while saving money and remembering everything and it's good I tried College out for a little bit it wasn't for me I made made an investment in a pin making machine off of eBay I'd sit home watch Cartoon Network make these pins at one point I teamed up with a friend of mine our business ended up failing I realized that in the future I'm going to start a business by myself so that I'm responsible for the success or failure of whatever it is that I do while my friends were hanging out with cute girls I hung out with cute old ladies at Joan Fabrics I made scarves for $5 uh I would get a yard of fleece fabric cut it in three strips sell them for $30 each making a pretty good profit it eventually I got a full-time job at Newbery comics and brain tree Massachusetts I had a bunch of random nicknames Johnny Cupcakes being one of them and I made some shirts as a joke they made uh upset people smile and it confused people and I like to trick people and I like to make people happy so I kept making these t-shirts kept hustling making time for my craft um and this is why we're a little bit different we try to add an experience to everything so we released a breakfast themed t-shirt around uh breakfast time and we even gave out real breakfast with every t-shirt purchase we sold these limited edition shirts for $40 to $50 and they sold out within 24 hours we made a connection with our customers up here in their stomachs in their hearts and it's now a memory that's associated with their t-shirt we try to do this with just about everything we replaced our beauty mark with a little teeny cupcake um we collaborated with Hello Kitty collaborations are great you you have that cross-pollination and I can't recommend it enough um hello posted this on their fake Facebook fan page which gave us quarter of a million dollars in sales in 24 hours with zero traditional advertising and we recently were like all right let's do this with Ninja Turtles we didn't do it with Ninja Turtles that would be weird but we collaborated with Ninja Turtles and um we made some T-shirts and what else can we do to make this difference to add to that experience well we had the turtles themselves go out to my shop on London on carnaby street and surprise our customers it's those little experiences they make people happy they give people something to talk about and if you can put your advertising budget into building unique experiences through your products your events your retail space people will do the advertising for you people thrive off of new experiences there's my mom she dressed up as Marge Simpson people thrive off of new experiences so much that they will camp out for [Applause] days [Applause] so my concept is strange but strange is good strange is important it gets people talk and it separates you from the rest few examples you may or may not like their music we all know about kiss they do something a little bit different weird concept for a video game the most popular video game franchise weird concept for a movie very popular movie franchise raise your hand if you know about the Rainforest Cafe keep your hand raised if you really love the food there all right right it looks like 100% of us got diarrhea um now we know why they call it the Rainforest Cafe on a serious note we all know about the Rainforest Cafe CU they do something unique and different and whether you like the food or not we all know about that experience so always ask yourself what are 12 plus things that make you unique people have so many options why will they take a risk with you before all the success I'm living at my parents house touring selling shirts out of my my suitcase my parents house filled up with boxes of shirts I learned about packaging and realizing all the packaging that I've saved on to over the years and and that good packaging does not get thrown away so I implemented it into my business to add to that experience we package our t-shirts and little Happy Meals and we just give people something extra special to uh look forward to when they buy their shirt to add to that memory Halloween shirts and VHS tapes that come with movie theater popcorn count spatula so all these little things help add to that experience and again it's a it makes your customers excited and they it gives them something to post on Instagram and again that that value keeps going up with that free advertising so we'll put random things in people's orders to get people to be give them that shock value of whoa I just got a doll's head in my order or I got a $20 bill or a Snickers bar and it makes them want to post things online and share that experience so um I can't stress enough the importance of those little details sometimes we'll hide secrets on the inside of the shirts um before that success I opened my first store in Hull Massachusetts it was $700 a month on rent we built a community customers began getting the logos tattooed on themselves um I met this guy in the airport out of everyone I sat next to this random person did not recognize me but he recognized my t-shirt and he's like oh I like Johnny Cupcakes check out this tattoo I just got I was like oh that's cool so uh real quick I took a big risk open on Newberry Street it was the turning point of my brand I took a risk of spending more than $7,000 a month on rent with zero business experience I just had that feeling I was so excited I got to work with my dad growing up my dad was an alcoholic he's been sober for the past 10 years and I get to spend all this time um with my family now I was so excited to work with my dad if you look close I look a little too excited um but I can assure you that's just a baggy suit on a short person opening day 400 plus customers lined up forever with no traditional advertising even kids that used to make fun of me were in line with money store set up like a bakery smells like a bakery we have terrible reviews because we don't sell real food and before I wrap things up I just want to read to you this review he put his real name he said this is not cupcake shop overpriced t-shirt and not even one cupcake only when you pay for parking and enter the storefront you realize you wasted your time comma capital o on the storefront they have signs Galore freshly baked no sugar not even one sign say they sell cloths no cupcakes they think it's clever nope before I sign off I want to show you guys what's clever I'm going to put this on a T-shirt and sell it for $35 thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] you