Sell A How, Not A Why
Man, this hat had seen a lot less wear when I snapped this photo in December ‘18 (Photo by NGL)
If you’ve seen me in the last two years, you’ve probably seen me wearing this hat.
It’s a pretty simple hat. Cheap, too. I bought it wholesale for about $5 and proceeded to empty the kitchen sink in figuring out how to screen print the UP logo on. I was about to give up before an idea came to me out of nowhere: I cut out an UP sticker with my vinyl cutter, took a pot from the kitchen, pressed the hat against the rounded edge of the pot, and hand-painted the logo using the negative space of the sticker.
This hat means a lot to me. It shouldn’t, but it does. It’s been through a lot right alongside me. I can distinctly remember three times when I was walking in a crosswalk and the hat blew off into the middle of the street, only for me to go sprinting after it. One time, it happened on Michigan Avenue right in the heart of the Loop.
Once I started to develop the idea of Unplugg’d past just being my personal outlet for commentary on sports and pop culture, a question started bouncing around my clothed head. I know what this hat means to me; and yet, what should it mean to others?
I’ve thought about this an unhealthy amount, especially when friends have remarked on the amount of compliments they get when rocking one of our hoodies or tees. Okay, so I can make a hoodie that people like on design alone. But even if I spent a good chunk of high school learning Adobe, at my core, I’m not a designer. So what association should people be making when they see the UP logo?
Given past experience, there were three buckets I focused on:
The design itself. “That’s a dope hoodie that person’s wearing right there! I would buy it solely because the design looks nice, the hoodie is comfortable, and that’s really all I care about when I make purchases!”
Me. “That person’s wearing an Unplugg’d hoodie! Isn’t that that company that Nate runs? I would buy that solely cause Nate’s a solid guy and I want to support him with whatever it is he does!”
An abstract concept. “That’s an Unplugg’d hoodie they got on! I love what they stand for —about not fitting into a box or adhering to the mainstream, speaking your mind, creating and consuming longform content, and more. By rocking an Unplugg’d hoodie, I’m now announcing to the world that I’m part of this community passionate about authentic dialogue.”
While I think the first two bullet points are important — I like making cool designs, and I am trying to lean into my personal brand more — I’ve always believed that this thing can only grow with the third. And yet, even if I have a copious amount of scribbles in my notebook as to what Unplugg’d means, I spent the entire month of April trying to figure out how to key in on the messaging.
What’s the why?
Nevertheless, if you know me, you know I hate sitting on my hands for two long. One revelation that came to me was by way of Adam Grant’s book Originals. In it, he tells the story of UBeam’s founder, Meredith Perry, who sought to create the first wireless charging device. Problem was, she had a difficult time recruiting engineers because no one wanted to commit to a vision that seemed impossible.
So Perry pivoted. Instead of focusing on why people should join the project, she focused on how they could. She asked this person to build this part, and that person to build that part until pretty soon, she had all the parts necessary for her revolutionary product.
Basically, what I’m saying is this: if there’s anything you take away from this letter, it’s that Unplugg’d is a creation on par with the likes of wireless charging.
In all seriousness, I think this observation was key to me. Sell a how, not a why. I can write articles about coffeehouses and craft pitches preaching “change through dialogue” all I want; a lot of the time, those things do resonate with people.
That's where the Relaunch came in. Yeah, it didn't exactly blow up, and our products weren't exactly flying off of the shelves. More people actually visited the website on Thursday and Friday, anyway. At the same time, though, I'm focused on the concept of doing things that don't scale (a topic for another day). Nobody remembers when Apple officially launched in a garage. When you're not under the microscope that comes with scale, you can build and iterate and relaunch all you want.
For me, the best thing was figuring out that how that had alluded me for so long. Look, we're not a pure media company, and we're certainly no longer focused on building the Coffeehouse platform. I hate the term lifestyle brand because I believe it's incredibly generic, but once it all came together, it made too much sense. In a world that's trended towards brevity and immediacy, we believe in the power of longform. It holds up with our values: depth, context, vulnerability, and creativity. Therefore, everything we do, everything we create, will aim to embody those values.
When you log onto our website, we're not just creating a gift shop. Whether it's a t-shirt, puzzle, or even a card game, every design has a story. I know a big thing that drives me is creating stuff that can help other people, so you'll start to see that a lot of the products we release are mission-driven. Plus, this open ourselves up to collaboration such as the one we're putting on with EndingCovid!
We're still going to be publishing longform stories with UNPLUGG'D MAG — as well as releasing my podcast, and bringing back ‘Whistles’ for another season — because that's what we do, and this is our brand. We're storytellers. We aim to spark authentic conversations about topics we believe people aren't talking about enough, but we're also interested in the things people are talking about. I firmly believe that there's plenty to be gained from approaching entertainment in a longform fashion.
Finally, though, the value proposition is simple: it's all about the people. By joining our community, you're joining a group of people who aim to live and breath longform, with an emphasis on consuming good stories, of going past headlines and diving into those aspects of culture and life that really make us tick. A group of people who's here to engage in real dialogues and give things the space and time they deserve in order to understand them in full. To swim upstream and rebuke the notion that marketing teams lead us to believe: that humans no longer have the capacity to pay attention to anything for more than six seconds.
That's my how. A thriving, active community; stories and conversations that dig deep; and branded designs that both raises money for awesome causes and strengthens your connection to this awesome community. Not everything this company does has to change the world, but if we can do good while also sustaining ourselves as a business, then why not try?
I believe that we can really build this thing together. Right now, the why isn't that important, but the how is! If you want to really go past this newsletter and really dive into what we’re all about, we're giving you exclusive access to our Discord channel, where our team and our fans are coming together to talk about what Unplugg'd is up to, discuss the topics and stories we're passionate about, and collaborate on how we can grow this brand together!
Plus, check out our collaboration with EndingCOVID! Between the podcast with Tejas, the blog post, and the designs, I had a lot of fun creating this thing with a good dude in Tejas Sekhar. His story is an interesting one -- this dude simultaneously dances, writes, plays tennis, and codes, all while graduating Northwestern in three years with a degree in neuroscience. His venture EndingCOVID aims to raise money for and distribute PPE for hospitals and essential workers, as well as donate food and funds to vulnerable communities such as homeless and veteran shelters in the St. Louis area.
What we really focused on with the collab was how to merge the two organizations into one seamless design while making them practical and, well, dope! You’ll notice the lightning bolts motif combined with our powder blue, as well as the St. Louis skyline faded in the background of our remixed logo. You can view and purchase all products in the collaboration through our online store, with all proceeds going to EndingCOVID and their mission to address inequities exacerbated by the pandemic!
Oh, yeah, one last thing before we wrap up here. We’ve started a referral program with our newsletter — refer 10 people, get a free tee of your choosing! Point people to beunpluggd.com/letters, where they’ll be able to sign up and write who sent them there. We have some great designs up in the store right now (and more coming in the near future),
Other than that, as always, you can follow me on Twitter @bynategl, as well as Unplugg’d @unplugg_d. Log onto the website at beunpluggd.com. And yeah, let’s get into it!
Links (and Other Things)
Media and Misinformation in the Age of COVID
I’m sure there will be plenty of thinkpieces and op-eds on this topic in the years to come. Heck, there already are some anyway!
But what really struck me about my podcast conversation with Tejas was how much emphasis he put on the importance of getting factual information from credible sources. One of the main inspirations in creating EndingCOVID was a hackathon he participated in with other college students from Berkeley to WashU in St. Louis. His team decided to create an online tool called an “NLP parser” from scratch with a goal to automatically back up credentialed sources on social media in an effort to combat fake news.
Tejas isn’t an expert on COVID-19 by any means, but he is applying to med schools after graduating from Northwestern in three years with a degree in neuroscience. Plus, his mom is working on the frontlines of the response, so he knows all about the personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages that hospitals are facing and the disproportionate effects of the virus on vulnerable populations.
And yet, we kept coming back to the messaging from the media. I pointed to an example from February to analyze how information spreads in modern times. At a press conference, Trump mentioned a rumor that Rush Limbaugh had been peddling: the novel coronavirus was a biological weapon created by some combination of the Chinese Democrats, and Obama in an effort to undermine the president. If we trace this line backwards, it looks something like this:
Trump amplifies this message to the entire world. Since some people regard him — and the position he holds — one of expertise, all of a sudden, what he says can become fact in some circles. If the president is suggesting this thing is a biological weapon while simultaneously attacking journalists, why trust the latter when his word must be true?
Trump listens to Rush Limbaugh’s radio show. It’s no secret that the president consumes a decent chunk of media (reportedly up to 7 hours per morning). Trump is a big fan of Limbaugh, even awarding him a Medal of Freedom earlier this year, so it’s no surprise he picked this whole thing up from the radio host.
Rush Limbaugh writes his show based on debunked conspiracy theories. Big social media companies have been struggling to regulate misinformation on COVID-19 since January, and it’s no surprise that Facebook has been one of the biggest culprits. Private groups have flourished in spreading rumors; Limbaugh got his from a group that touts anti-vaxxers.
Rush Limbaugh at the State of Union Address in February (Mark Wilson/AFP/Getty Images
Let’s be real: since Trump first started using the term “fake news” in the buildup to the 2016 election, it has become a meme, used colloquially across all buckets of culture. What Tejas and I both agreed was scary, though, is that we have many, many examples of fake news regarding the coronavirus right now, and misinformation is causing real harm in front of our own eyes.
“I think now — more than ever — we have a need for honest and authentic dialogue,” Tejas told me on the podcast. It’s a big reason why he decided to collaborate with us in the first place — because he believed in our mission to spark conversation and ultimately do good through longform. We concluded the pod with me asking him how everyone can best contribute to the fight against COVID past things like money and donations. To paraphrase: “Stay home and stay as informed as possible from credible sources like the CDC and New York Times.”
LEt’s MAke Christian Bale as Mike PEnce happen in ‘Vice 2: Summer camp’!
Even if it’s not by design, this letter certainly seems like it’s shaping up to be quite focused on the Trump administration and their coronavirus response.
No matter. On April 28, you might’ve seen Mike Pence decline to wear a face mask during his tour of the Mayo Clinic, which requires all visitors to cover their mouths and noses because of the, ya know, global pandemic ravaging the globe. There was a whole Twitter controversy about whether or not the vice president was notified of this policy before walking into the facility, but that’s not what really caught my attention.
No, it was this press conference he held later in the day:
I’ll admit that I haven’t heard many interviews from Pence in the past. I don’t know a whole lot about him other than that he hails from Indiana, he’s a former lawyer, and he has a lot of experience discriminating against the LGBTQ+ community.
What I realized when watching that press conference, however, was just how much he looks and sounds like an older, eviler version of Christian Bale. From the get-go, Pence stares the reporter down before responding with a tone that simultaneously registers as lackadaisical, pompous, menacing, and a whisper. “Well, let me just say,” he says before swinging his head dramatically, “as vice president of the United States, I am tested on the coronavirus on a regular basis. And everyone around me is tested for the coronavirus.”
It’s cool that he gets to say that when, you know, it took two months for most people to actually be able to access testing.
Nevertheless, I did some investigative journalism and realized that as it turns out, Bale and Pence really do look like each other:
Then, like any normal human being would do, I decided to fire up Adobe Photoshop to see what Christain Bale’s beard-clad face would look like on the vice president’s body:
But then, to finally explore whether this synergy could work, I took out the beard, cleaned up the skin, and added some edits in the background that I really felt screamed “America!”
So if there’s anyone this is for, it’s Adam McKay, director of The Big Short and co-creator of Funny Or Die. In 2018, McKay directed Bale in Vice, a biographical drama of one of the most-hated men in American history, former vice president Dick Cheney.
Here’s the thing: Pence might not be at the legendary status of Cheney yet; in fact, he might never fully reach the Pantheon of Dastardliness, even if he’s trying his hardest. Nevertheless, this pitch is more one for convenience. Bale — who has a reputation as an-oft crazy method actor — doesn’t have to gain nearly as much weight to play the role of Pence as he did for Cheney. Plus, even if tales of the former governor of Indiana growing up romping around the Crossroads of America don’t exactly captivate the average viewer, let’s be real — worse sequels have been green-lit in the past.
Honestly, with movies getting postponed across the industry, McKay and Co. could probably film this one over Zoom and contend at the Oscars. And even if Bale doesn’t capture that elusive golden man in portraying Mike Pence, he should at least take Lorne Michaels’ call when SNL needs their guy for a cold open.
An Emmy’s still worth something, right?
TOTW: It’s like ‘The Office’…but in Space!
Jean Ralphio, Jian-Yang, Phoebe Buffay, Sue Sylvester, and John Malkovich (from Being John Malkovich, of course) walk into a bar, all brought together by Michael Scott.
What do you get? A show that is guaranteed to be incredible.
Brought together by Carrell and The Office producer Greg Daniels, Space Force (debuting on Netflix on May 29) is a show set to explore the group of people tasked with establishing the sixth branch of the United States Armed Forces: the United States Space Force. Through mishaps and hijinks — Roy Williams, Jr. pops up to inform Carell’s leading character that a rocket malfunction costed the same as four middle schools — this workplace comedy aims to satirize the ridiculousness of the Space Force’s $738-billion-journey since President Trump first announced it in March 2018 and it became a reality on December 20, 2019.
It might feel a little raw now given what’s going on in the world right now, but gawdammit, we could use the laughs.
What I’m Watching: The Art of Self-Defense
Imogen Poots, left, and Jesse Eisenberg, right, in The Art of Self-Defense (Bleecker Street Media)
Over time, I think I’ve really developed a love for black comedies. Barry and Atlanta are two of my favorite television shows of the decade, while movies like The Death of Stalin and Birdman stick out in my list of all-timers.
This is a big reason why I’ve wanted to watch The Art of Self-Defense ever since I first watched the trailer leading up to its theatrical release. The oft-underrated Jesse Eisenberg stars as Casey Davies, a boring, bland accountant with a nondescript demeanor and a penchant for being ridiculed. The film really gets going when Casey gets attacked by a gang of masked motorcyclists and then decides to sign up for karate classes with a mysterious, cult-like sensei (played by Alessandro Nivola in a role that somehow balances intimidating menace and laugh-out-loud humor).
I couldn’t stop the word “offbeat“ from continuously popping up in my head as I watched TAoSD, and about ten minutes in, I almost turned it off in favor of the ever-entertaining, ever-rewatchable The Social Network. But I’m glad I stayed for the ride, because the movie ended up serving as what I deemed to be a critique on contemporary masculinity as Sensei preys on an idealistic follower in Casey who can’t help but start listening to heavy metal and give in to violent urges.
The Art of Self-Defense ultimately offered an effective lens of growth and discovery for straight men in the 21st Century, and I don’t think I’m the only person this film will resonate with. Also, Casey works towards redemption, culminating in an ending that includes one of the best moments I’ve seen in a move, like, ever. If you have Hulu, I recommend checking out The Art of Self-Defense, though be warned — it definitely deserves the ‘R’ rating it received.
NGL is an O.G. sneakerhead, diehard Big Lebowski fan, and huge ultimate frisbee nut. You can follow him on Twitter here and sign up for his newsletter here.