The Barbie movie is taking over the world. Have you seen it yet?

Back in 2006, I did an essay about Barbie for NPR's This I Believe series, titled A Grown-Up Barbie. 

Like many girls, I learned to sew so I could make clothes for my Barbie. The essay is about how the blond-haired, blue eyed Malibu Barbie affected my red-haired, freckled self -- and my career as a fashion designer.

An excerpt: "I consider myself a feminist and I feel like a moron admitting it, but it's true: I believe in Barbie.

For me, as a kid, Barbie was about cool clothes, a cool job, cool friends and cool accessories: the airplane, the apartment building and the camper. I learned to sew so I could make outfits for Barbie and her friends, who took turns being the airplane pilot, the doctor, the fashion designer. Barbie was never about Ken. He was always a little dusty and in the corner."

Show Notes & Links: 
https://fashionbrainacademy.com/barbie/

The original NPR essay recording: 
https://www.npr.org/2006/05/22/5419659/a-grown-up-barbie

This I Believe book: 
https://thisibelieve.org/store/this-i-believe-paperback/

My guest today is SO HONEST about the struggles of his first clothing line and what he's doing differently the second time around. 

Grant Janke is a former network engineer who hated his job and decided one day to quit to start a business - even though he didn't have a clue what business it would be. He's currently working on his second clothing business -- this one in the mountain bike apparel niche, called El Roo Bike.

Grant shares his failures, struggles, and the ways he thought things would go. 

• "I spent all this money trying to develop this artwork for these stupid damn t shirts and no one liked them."
• I had to have the perfect pattern. I had to have the perfect material. I had to have the perfect artwork. I had to have the perfect this... 
• Meanwhile,months are going by, and I'm not making any progress. I was stuck in that concept phase and the dollars just keep going and going and going.
• I was totally of the "build it and they will come" mentality. Which did not happen. I had no customers. 
• Week one, I was dead in the water and couldn't run any ads. I'm serious, my ads ran on Facebook for like, a day.
  
• I'm still in the stumble phase, but the stumbles are getting easier to recover from.

Show Notes and Links: 
https://fashionbrainacademy.com/grant/

El Roo website: 
https://elroo.bike/