Johnny Cupcakes

After attending the State House celebration, it was time to head over to Boston College for my lecture.

When I pulled into campus, I was on the phone getting directions from the event coordinator. I told him that I was near the building that looked like an old fashioned church. Then I looked to my left and right, and I was surrounded by buildings that all looked the same. To my surprise, the entire campus was like this. It was awesome though, I felt like I was in another country… or better yet, back in time. Before getting too lost – my good friend Alex met up with us and jumped in the cupcake mobile. He directed me to the correct hall where I was lecturing at. And there it is! Another awesome, old fashioned church building…

It was very dark and quiet outside. 10 pm was approaching on a Thursday night, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. As I pushed opened the cold, heavy doors with uncertainty, I heard lots of voices…

…I was very happy to see these college kids filling the hallways before the lecture started. Apparently they were there for nearly 2 hours beforehand, in hopes of getting some goods seats… or should I say seats in general…

I saw some familiar faces too. Brett and his crew were there! Brett alerted me about this store that was selling fake Johnny Cupcakes baseball t-shirts. My mom and I went to said store to get to the bottom of it. We found out some information and I’ve actually met a few other leads to the people who were making these. Poor print quality, bad t-shirt bodies, NO Johnny Cupcake tags or embellishments. And it makes no sense at all for a random person to want to by a baseball shirt with a cupcake on it from anywhere but my shop which is set up like a bakery. I will find them. Anyways, Brett and his friends are good people and have been supporting my brand for some time now. (unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get some photos of them.) Brett sings songs too.

LLBEAN! Seeing this backpack brought me right back to my childhood. I never owned one of these, but I always thought it was a neat concept when I was younger.

Hello everybody. Thanks a ton for coming out and taking a break from the normal college activities that usually take place on thirsty Thursdays. The entire lecture hall ended up getting so full that many people had to sit on the stairs, on the ground, etc.. You couldn’t even see any bit of the ground in the entire room because of it’s consumption by all of the curious students and customers. I know a lot of you had numb bum bums when my keynote presentation / lecture was finished, thank you for sitting through it. I spoke for over 2 hours and this room stayed completely full.

After the lecture was over, I hung out for a while, signed posters, t-shirts, and talked with some students about their business ideas and what not.

Some students even came equipped with scooters to get around campus on. How funny would it be if Heely’s made business-esq dress shoes for professionals to zoom around the office in?

This kid reminded me of the famous Tay Zonday who wrote and performed that Chocolate Rain song. It’s a compliment! That dude is known world wide!

I spotted some more customers who ventured onto campus. Lisa not only ventured onto the Boston College campus, but she also traveled across country for the grand opening of the Johnny Cupcakes Los Angeles shop. I think my favorite thing about Lisa, is that every time I see her, she is wearing comfy pants. Sweatpants, pajamas, flannels… she manages to dress well AND pull off the many lounge pants. It’s difficult for guys to do it because ummm.. yep.

Alex and his crew were responsible for making all of this possible. Thanks again guys!

The 3 Musketeers! Some of my hometown buddies hung out and helped a bunch too. Micah, Alex and Lucas. I’m going to take them out for a great meal when I get home. Thank you guys!

I ended up leaving after 1:00 or 2:00 am to drive back home, which is an hour away. I went to bed super late, woke up and packed for my weekend trip to Philly. I would like to speak at a bunch of schools every month forever. I’m working on sorting out west coast dates for this winter.

Have your school or special committee / organization contact;  PR@johnnycupcakes.com

I received many positive e-mails from all of the students who attended. This one humorous e-mail stuck out, who was from one of the stray people that ventured out to the lecture;

Before my lecture at Boston College, I was attending a ceremony / celebration at the Massachusetts State House. Before doing so, I had to find a parking spot. The State House is located by an enormous park in which you have to spend 20 minutes driving around every time you miss out on finding a parking spot. This happened to me more than a handful of times. I almost lucked out when I found the parking garage, but I remembered that I had a super tall van that would not fit inside. After much time wasted circling around the park and it’s dense traffic, and taken parking spots – I finally found one!

A few minutes of face freezing, I ran up the street to the State House. How do I get in though? There’s a bunch of entrances, but they are all locked!

Should I jump the fence? Climb a tree? Am I going to get shot by security? Alas – an opened entrance has been found!

Just when I couldn’t be any more late, I had to remove thirteen lbs of pack-rat rubbish + coins from my pockets.

What were those directions the security man gave my friend and I? Was it the 3rd hall or 30th hall? 5th elevator or 15th elevator? There was nobody to ask, we were lost in The State House and I felt like I was in The Shining.

Ooo look at all these neat little tiles…ok ok, I have to hurry, I’ll look at these cool tiles later.

Finally! Phew. Hello everyone. I met a bunch of great people. There was a handful of other Massachusetts hustlers who were finalists in BusinessWeeks ‘Americas Best Young Entrepreneurs‘.

I love jazz trios. I wish I knew how to play a real instrument.

I met this cute couple at the event. Brendan and Elizabeth. Brendan started a neat company called Ten Minute Media, which has been going great. And Elizabeth is going to be opening a Houdini Museum! How dope is that?!! I used to be a magician and I did magic shows at kids birthday parties when I like 11 years old. I still dabble though. I love magic. Oh yeah — doesn’t Elizabeth sorta look like the actress from the My Girl movie from back in the day?

They presented a couple of awards to me.  The ‘Citizens of Commonwealth of Massachusetts Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence‘ and the ‘Massachusetts House of Representatives Award’ for the success of my brand and for being named ‘America’s Best Young Entrepreneur’ of 2008. Thank you everyone and thank you Massachusetts!

Now it’s time to spread this knowledge + entrepreneurial experiences. I had a lecture at Boston College that I had to bolt to.

TO THE CUPCAKE MOBILE!

Tonight – Thursday November 20th – I will be lecturing at Boston College at 10pm.

Apparently this is open to the public too! Perhaps I will see some of you there?

Location: Higgins 300

*Bring cash — I will be selling t-shirts at a special school discount price!

“Johnny’s topics would address: Independently Starting a Business (both web based & retail), Marketing and Branding, Acquiring a passionate following, Personalizing his business; why customers camp out for days to purchase his products, Inspiration and how it continues to lead to his success, Art and Graphic Design as it applies to his business, Creating a unique shopping environment, Word of mouth through viral marketing, Developing a fun and healthy working environment, Living and Promoting a substance-free lifestyle, and more. Johnny’s keynote speaker appearances have proved to and continue to inspire both students and faculty alike.”