This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Welcome to a brand new week of the program. Asada Soul School, my name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. I have a special announcement before we begin this week. For those listening in real time, at least, tickets to the 2020 World Domination Summit are going on sale tomorrow. Again, this is for those in real time.
That would be October 8th, 2019. If you're listening, maybe like in the future, 2025. Well, you know, we had this thing called World Domination Summit and it happened. But hey, if you're in real time, go to sidehustleschool.com/wds to learn more. This will be our 10th annual celebration in Portland, Oregon next summer with all kinds of remarkable people, including many of our listeners, maybe some other authors or podcasters that you follow.
So if you wanna come and see what it's all about or just check it out, again, sidehustleschool.com/wds. You can also Google World Domination Summit and you'll see thousands of independent reviews. Okay, on with the show. In today's story, a recent college graduate creates a clothing brand from the ground up based on a popular Instagram account that he acquires. Really interesting story here.
I'll tell you how it all works. He only posts about his products twice a month. Everything else is all about community and celebrating the city he lives in, just so happens to be Portland, Oregon, my city as well. But despite his limited promotion, he now owns a retail store in addition to a thriving e-commerce business. Okay, so we could say this is a story about jumping on an opportunity and giving it all you've got.
A combination of circumstance, taking advantage of that opportunity, and then just working really hard. He is a great guy and deserves all his success. We're gonna call the story, "Popular Instagram Account Becomes Fashionable Clothing Brand." That story is coming up in just 30 seconds. [Music]
When Marcus Harvey graduated from the University of Oregon and moved back to his hometown of Portland, he entered into a partnership where he co-ran an apparel design agency. Through that process, he became an expert in clothing design, screen printing, and fashion marketing.
The agency started picking up clients here and there, many of them local to Portland. And that's when Marcus began to appreciate his city in a whole new way. There were a lot of great companies in the area, and he wanted to not only help them design products, but elevate their brand recognition. As a personal project, Marcus convinced the owner of the @portland account on Instagram to sell him the handle name for $1,500. Now at the time, this was a few years ago, and the @portland account was being run by a middle-aged dad somewhere on the East Coast with no connection to Portland, Oregon, who mostly posted pictures of his daughter.
So he wasn't actually using the account, he just happened to be the one that registered at Portland at some point. So Marcus purchased that account and then used it to post pictures of the city. Because the name was so simple, a lot of people found it organically. Some people were searching for local events or tourist hotspots. Some tagged him in their photos without realizing it.
And so without much work at all, Marcus got his first few hundred new followers. After a few weeks, he began to mention in the captions that if other people wanted their photos featured on the page, they should include the hashtag Portland Northwest or Portland NW when they posted. In the coming weeks, Marcus got dozens of high quality images, which he quickly reposted twice a day, every day like clockwork with credit to the original photographer. Between all the tagging and back and forth engagement with Portland natives, the account just grew and grew. 3,000 followers, 8,000, 20,000.
A consistent posting didn't just make for a good looking feed. It created a digital community around Portland and beyond. Marcus had tapped into something that wanted to exist but didn't have a hub for communication. And that's when he realized he was sitting on something more. His growing list of followers were just as passionate about Portland as he was.
So in late 2014, Marcus began working on an idea. After seeing some poorly designed cliche and uninspired Portland themed clothing, he realized he could do better and that people deserved better. That's when he created his first iconic design, a capital letter P with the shape of the state of Oregon making up the center hole in the letter. In November, a year and a half after creating the account and 60,000 followers later, Marcus ordered a few dozen t-shirts from a local screen printer and set up his new website, portlandgear.com. He wasn't sure if anyone would want to buy his shirt design but with such a large following, it seemed like a no brainer to try.
That was on Thanksgiving. The next day was Black Friday. So it seemed like as good a day as any to tell everyone about the new t-shirt. He posted a quick image of the shirt mockup and told followers where they could go to order. Marcus remembers it being a rainy morning.
He was walking through the streets of Portland when suddenly his phone vibrated. When it vibrated again and it didn't stop, within 24 hours Marcus had sold over $5,000 worth of t-shirts. He immediately reinvested the money into more shirts so he could keep selling. He also kept posting twice a day, engaging with commenters and growing the Instagram account, all while sales steadily rolled in. Within a few months, he had made shirts in different colors.
Then he made a sweatshirt. Then he created a hat with that popular P logo. At some point he briefly considered getting a loan so that he could open up some stores, take out ads and scale quickly, but it never felt right. Building his community organically had been the true key to success so far and he knew it was the most authentic way to keep celebrating the city he loved. So he made a new rule for himself.
He would only post about his products twice per month. That would ensure that followers wouldn't feel bombarded or overly monetized and that the app Portland account could continue to be a community hub. Other than that, there wasn't much grand plan. There wasn't a strategy. Marcus simply paid attention to what his community responded to.
What product do they want to see next? Did he have the money to create it? If he did, he would do it. If he didn't quite have the capital for another big order, he would just wait until he did. This slow, authentic approach worked.
In under four months, with only eight posts about his products on the app Portland page, Marcus had sold over 1,300 pieces of apparel. In 2015, Marcus began getting messages from local event organizers and nonprofits asking about potential partnerships. Once again, he didn't have a big strategy. He was mostly concerned with authenticity. Did the organization or event align with his goal of elevating Portland and its people?
If so, he would work with them to create partnered items. Over the years since, he's created Shirts for Pride, a breast cancer awareness race, a local mental health organization, breweries, coffee shops, and more. Now sitting at 338,000 followers, the @portlandinstagram account is still Marcus's number one referral source for portlandgear.com and his two-year-old Portland Gear retail store. Oh, and he still only posts about his products twice per month. [Music]
So it could be easy to look back now and say, oh, you know, of course an Instagram account with the name of a city would be worth a lot.
But this is a few years ago, and $1,500 was a big investment for him. I mean, he was really young. He talks about being really worried after making the payment. You know, was he gonna lose all his money? Not just that, there was the matter of transferring the account, which Instagram doesn't really have a process for.
So for a few seconds there, he was pretty scared, you know, that something could go wrong. But then it wasn't just a matter of having that account. He had to post twice a day consistently. And by sourcing the user-generated content, he had a lot of options to choose from, but he still had to instill that habit. You know, posting all the time and then acting with restraint.
Like having the discipline to just promote his new product twice a month of the account, respecting his followers. In other words, you know, is why to me, this is a story of circumstance, meaning hard work and drive. Like a lot of hard work and drive. I know Marcus, he works really, really hard. I've actually been to the store and purchased multiple items myself, including a Portland gear hat for my dad.
So truly fantastic success. I'm excited to see what he comes up with next. And listeners, I'm excited to know what you're up to next as well. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to @portland, which you can probably find yourself, but you know, along with anything else I mentioned in the episode, are at sottasleschool.com/1010.
That is 1011-1010. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure you're subscribed. We got a whole bunch of stuff coming out in the weeks to come, and I hope you'll join me for it. My name is Chris Guillebeau.
This is "Sottasleschool." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
