Author: Adam

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’”
– Audrey Hepburn

Wow.  The altMBA blew my mind.  I went into it hoping that it would give me some new things to think about.  I had no idea that it was going to change my world and my perspective so deeply.

This warrants a conversation.  I’m serious.  We need to have a conversation about this.  In person.  I’ll be working on that.  😉  Y’all stay tuned.

To my fellow altMBAers: was so inspiring to work with all of you!  I’ll see if I can get Disqus installed on this blog so that all of you will feel at home in leaving comments.  🙂  I have a new found appreciation for how offering feedback can be an act of love.

Emerging from the cocoon – Badass Backpacks

2016 is shaping up to have a clear theme for me: it’s time to redefine what I believe is possible.  When I saw the above Audrey Hepburn quote in the email footer of Julia Brunzell (new altMBA friend) I thought to myself, “that’s exactly it.  It’s like I’m on a new mission.  Mission: I’m possible.”

Towards the beginning of the altMBA, Adi purchased bag #12 and came to my house to pick it up.  He knows how much I appreciate ceremony, and he brought a ceremony of his own to celebrate Badass Backpacks, the altMBA, and bag #12.  Adi spoke specifically about celebrating all that is to come – celebrating all that is possible.  Adi, your timing has me smiling.  I’ll start to resurface from the altMBA soon – I can’t wait to get started on what happens next.

The #altMBA program is rocking!  And wow!  It’s everything that I had hoped it would be … and yes, even more.  I got kicked off with the altMBA last week, and the pace is unbelievable.  The work is potent.  We students are digging deep on understanding our goals & priorities, we’re riffing on business plans (fast riffing), and we’re learning about decision-making (that was week 1).  I got my week 2 projects earlier today — I’ll be slipping back into that altMBA cocoon again, but first, a quick update:

One by one, we are connecting with our first buyers

Adi (Adrian Ionescu) just bought a bag tonight!  Thank you Adi and I can’t wait to get it into your hands!  So excited for the journey you and your bag are about to go on!  You are amazing and the journey you are on is real!  Buying a bag from us is more than just getting a new backpack — you’re getting a new companion and a daily reminder to ask yourself big questions about what you choose to bring with you, and how you might put yourself inside.

In earlier posts, I’ve talked a little bit about the various parts of the bag (reference the links below for some of those posts).  Last Friday night (Jan 15) I had a chance to host an ad-hoc Backpacks for Dinner conversation with some of the most amazing people in my life.  Eric, Rusty, and Nancy were all there — meeting with my parents to give my Mother her new Badass Backpack!

This was an extremely important one: because my parents are inside of these bags.  In more ways than one.  There’s a lot of handwriting — on the inside of the bag, on the tags, and on our packaging.  ALL of the handwriting used for Sincerity Inside comes from the amazing penmanship of Paula Lemmon, my amazing Mother.  Here’s a sample crop-out for some of our packaging (and also a hidden printed portion that’s on the inside of Sincerity Inside):

And those tiny little tags that you see dangling off of her new bag — those have her handwriting too:

Thank you Mom!  Your handwriting that’s in the bag is stunning!  And we are so thankful that you bravely stepped up to play with us in our stumbling creative process.  You give so generously.

Eric and Rusty:  after you left on Friday night.  My Mother immediately thought of something that she meant to ask us for — she wants our entire team to hand sign her bag.  To put our names next to Cheryl’s on the inner top flap.  Such a beautiful request Mom!  Since Eric and Rusty had already left the house — Nancy and I jumped right into it — and I’ll arrange to add Rusty and Eric signatures onto her bag sometime soon.  Bag #6 has begun a new journey — thank you my dear Mother!  I can’t wait to hear what happens with your bag next!

Mom:  you are really really really amazing!!!  Thank you!!!

Sincerity Inside – Other Parts of the Bag:

• The Lid
• One side of the bag
• The other side of the bag
• The FRONT
• The back
• Inside the bag: Part 1

I’m getting ready to shut down and get some needed rest.  Tomorrow is a really big day for me.  At 5am CT, I’ll get my first altMBA project.  I’ve spent a lot of time over the last 5 days getting all set up with the altMBA team so we can be ready to hit the ground running.

A lot of you have been asking me what the #altMBA is all about.  The quick summary goes like this (paraphrasing Seth Godin and the altMBA team here):  The altMBA is a one-month leadership workshop where we [the students] are asked to change, we are asked to stay committed to the hard work of emotional labor, we are asked to take responsibility and to give credit, we are asked to trust the process, we are asked to be generous, we are asked to use the altMBA method (Noticing, Asserting, and then Analyzing), and we are asked to bring our full selves… we are here to level up.  Ultimately, we are asked to tell ourselves the Truth (class will see our work), and we are asked to tell others the Truth (giving feedback is just as important as getting feedback in the altMBA), and we are asked to trust each other as we step into a Universe of Possibility and work together to make a ruckus.  It’s 14 projects in one month’s time.  It’s a lot of work.  It’s an amazing group of people, with an amazing group of coaches to guide us through the process.  And I really believe that it will be a vehicle of change for me and for Badass Backpacks.

And now I slip into the altMBA cocoon.  I will certainly hop back over here during the workshop to post some quick updates, but don’t be surprised if my posting slows down here over the next month.  Feb 8 the program will wrap up — and I’ll post some follow up here once I get ready to emerge.  🙂

Last thought and a quick bag production update: Badass Backpacks is not going to sleep during my altMBA time.  As soon as I get my next shipment of bags from Tucker & Bloom I will be giving that moment its due celebration on this blog, and shortly following that, I’ll be posting some details here about how you can buy one.  The timing overlap of getting Badass Backpacks kicked off with our first ever bag sales and getting kicked off with the altMBA feels a touch scary — but it somehow makes a lot of sense.

I’m so excited that I can’t explain… here we go!

Hello to several new followers on the blog!  Thrilled to have you following the journey of Badass Backpacks.  [Heads up that I use the BFD acronym for “Backpacks For Dinner” — you can read a touch more about BFD and how we’ve used Tuesday nights if you’re still getting oriented to what’s going on here.  :-)]

We just wrapped a beautiful BFD session tonight.  I had mentioned before that tonight marks the end of a long running tradition.  I am officially counting down the days before the #altMBA begins for me and the altMBA3 crew.  The altMBA workshop will be eating up a lot of my time between Jan 11-Feb 8.  It’s a sprint.  And then it will be done.  Following the altMBA, the Badass Backpacks team will be hosting a special BFD session to create a plan for what lies ahead of us, and a plan for what lies all around us.

Tonight’s conversation was an amazing progress report.  I don’t mean a bullshit progress report — I’m talking about an expansive conversation that encompassed the entire existence of this project, and all of the possibilities that can’t seem to stop presenting themselves.  I love what Seth said in this blog post about “Your Progress Report”:

a. the difficult questions that remain unanswered
b. the long-term goals where you don’t feel like progress is being made
c. risky, generous acts that worked
Even more important: All the things that aren’t on your list, but could be.   — Seth’s Blog (Nov 11, 2015)

Difficult questions abound: things like  are we spreading our butter over too much bread?
Long-term goals without progress:  We thought we’d be moving more quickly by now.  (lots to unpack in that one statement  :-))
Risky generous acts that worked:  we have finally begun to sell bags.  (I even sold another one tonight to my good friend, Ian — thank you Ian!!!)  But more importantly — we are finding ways to put ourselves into each box that we are shipping.  While I’m unsure that we can sustain the current model, it’s earth shakingly satisfying to see our first buyers get so excited with us as we continue to go one by one, selling these first bags.  It’s an amazing moment to be a part of.  It is the purity of watching the Possible wake up.  And then watching the Universe conspire to make it a joyous awakening.
All the things that aren’t on your list, but could be: We want to create backpacks that will spark conversations.  The things on our list to accomplish that one singular goal are feeling beyond numerous.  At this moment in time — I don’t feel like there’s anything missing from our list.  And that brings us right back to that other big question from Seth:  Are we spreading our butter over too much bread?  Possibility awakens — and it is welcomed with joy.

Thank you Tuesday night BFD sessions.  It has been an amazing run.   #altMBA — here we come.  5 days and counting.  Next Tuesday night I’ll be on a phone call with my altMBA3 cohort — I absolutely can’t wait!

… The holidays had our house looking very different … here’s a pic of Nancy with her feet up, TopoChico at the ready, Christmas living room chilling in the background, while Ivanna and I played with some bag patterns on our extended kitchen table:

Tonight’s pace was totally different than the holidays… tonight was hustle hustle hustle, scurry scurry scurry … a lot to prepare and think about with the kiddos launching back into the school routine starting tomorrow morning and Nancy and I back into our routines as well.  I mentioned previously that I’m excited about the #altMBA — that will get kicked off on Jan 11.  So I have one week of time to shake the dust off, get back into a routine, and then be ready to rock and roll for the start of the altMBA.  That means we have one Tuesday left for our traditional Tuesday night BFD session.  Eric and Rusty:  y’all should be warned that I’m very much looking forward to it.  🙂

Quick bag update:  One by one, we’re beginning to sell our bags!

While we’re not quite ready to start taking online orders at large — we have started selling a few backpacks one at a time.  I just sold one this weekend!  Packing up these initial bags and getting them ready to ship is nothing but pure adrenaline for me.  It’s a lot of fun to polish the buckles, attach the tags, tuck the tissue paper, and seal the box… I will be very eager to start openly selling as soon as we can.  But until then I continue to celebrate each of these initial sales,    one      by       one.     Drip by drip, he we go shipping… Packing up this box tonight felt like the absolutely most perfect way to officially wrap up the holidays:

Happy New Year Everyone!  A couple of weeks of silence on the blog.  Whew, the holidays have been full to the brim, and bringing 2015 to a close for Badass Backpacks felt very big.  Nancy and I have a short-running tradition of closing out the year with a fire in our backyard fire pit, where we share conversation about the past year – and then we write down things to say good-bye to… then we burn them in the fire.  We also talk about things to come in the year ahead – and then we write those things down… then we burn those in the fire too.  It’s just as simple and unstructured as it sounds and even though last night’s ceremony was cut short (by our waking children),  I love bringing in the New Year this way.

For about the last 6 months or so, my laptop has had this Hugh MacLeod (Gaping Void) artwork decal showing on the outside of the lid.  I love this artwork.  I’m looking at it now, and it makes me smile.  It feels very perfect as we get the new year started.

“If I were to wish for anything I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of what can be, for the eye, which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible.  Pleasure disappoints, possibility never.  And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating as possibility?”
–Søren Kierkegaard

Needless to say — there are updates galore that I feel a certain sense of urgency to get posted up on the blog.  🙂  I’ll make some time to get that done soon… but until then.  I will stay (happily) intoxicated by possibility.  Happy New Year Everyone!  2016 is off and running!

It’s a Tuesday night.  BFD.  For a just a few weeks longer I get to carry the Tuesday night BFD banner.  But come early 2016, I’ll be changing up my schedule a bit so that I can fully invest myself into the altMBA workshop that I’ll be participating in.  That means that for the first time in a long time, Tuesday nights will look a bit different for me.  Have no fear, and make no mistake — I’ll be figuring out a different night of the week to make sure that I keep the BFD candle burning at both ends.  And following the #altMBA, Eric, Rusty and I will be diving in for some needed planning sessions.  Part of that will be figuring out a pace for the rest of 2016.  A pace that will help us keep moving this project onward.

The altMBA reading list is amazing.  A couple of weeks ago, the altMBA team sent me a box full of amazing books.  Including The Art of Possibility by Rosamund and Benjamin Zander and The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  These two books have me absolutely enthralled at the moment, and they are building a lot of anticipation for me towards starting the altMBA workshop.  Reading these has me laughing at myself, and almost skipping along as I consider a new way to think about the possibilities that lie ahead of us, and indeed, all around us.

Those of you reading this blog that are close to me most probably know that I’ve been a tad bit stressed and concerned about the very poor timing at which we are approaching the diving board to launch.  I had originally thought, of course, that we would have been ready to launch Badass Backpacks before the Christmas 2015 season.  And disappointment began to set in for me when I finally reconciled within that we would not have our bags in time to get them up for sale prior to Christmas.  Damn.

And then — just as I really needed it to… the altMBA nudges me along, looking toward something so much more important than that momentary feeling of disappointment.  Look at the possibility.  Look up and think about how beautiful this moment is, that our first small batch of bags, has arrived.

I had a chance to sell our first ever bag tonight.  Bags #1-5 were all gifts.  And that was a beautiful milestone to reach.  But hitting this milestone of finally selling our first bag — just wow.  It felt amazing.  I met with my friend Cody at Yahala, and we had a chance to talk about Badass Backpacks for the entirety of the evening.  It was pure joy.  And watching Cody open the box was a lot of fun.  One more time Cody: thank you for your amazing and enduring belief in me and in this endeavor — your encouragement has helped me so much!  Cody chose Lucky bag #13.  So that’s the first bag that we sold.  Bag #13.  🙂

As 2015 prepares to come to an end, and as I prepare to enter a new phase for Badass Backpacks (altMBA and beyond) — we will eventually be launching BadassBackpacks.com (as soon as we can in 2016) so that we can sell to a larger audience.  But in the meantime, I’m going to savor and enjoy some of these initial connected moments that I will get to have, as I sell some more bags, one at a time.  2015 has been an absolutely incredible ride for Badass Backpacks.  And tonight’s milestone has me feeling just as light as a feather.  Cheers to the possibilities found in connecting.  2016, here we come!

First 100 Production Update

Many of you have heard me saying, “we’re almost, just almost, almost there” with regards to finally shipping our first bags.  It’s annoying, I know.  Watching a stumbling, bumbling, wandering, pre-nascent project team bring something to life. … (something that might or might not work at that!)

What’s the hold up been?  I mean, Adam, you had bags #1-5 months ago… does it really take this long to get the others made?
We’ve been patiently and compassionately waiting for our maker (a collaboration between Tucker & Bloom and Rock Solid Sewing & Design) to finalize the production of bags #6-100.  The delays have been human.  There’s no getting around it.  Part of the story here is that the bags are hand-crafted.  There’s a touch of human variability built-in to every bag and this short-run production path.  So I find myself directly in the middle of learning some important lessons.  Is it really December?  Well look at that — it is December.  Yes, it has taken this long to finalize the making.

Bags #6-25 are currently en route between Tennessee and Austin TX!!!  When I got the txt from Tucker & Bloom earlier this week – it was an absolute moment for a 3-minute-milestone celebration.  I’m extremely excited!  (Bags #26-100 will arrive in 2016.)

When this next small batch of bags arrive, I’ll make sure to get a photo posted up on the blog.  But in the meantime, with a tracking number in my hand for this highly anticipated arrival — my focus is now shifting to you, Badass Backpacks’ first followers, and how I’ll start selling these initial bags one at a time.

So what’s the plan?  What’s the story?
This first shipment of bags will arrive later this week.  Eric, Rusty and I have more work to do for preparing our beta site that will allow us to start processing online orders.  And I have a bit of leg work to do to finalize our boxes, tags, and packaging.  So yes, there’s more time before we start selling via www.badassbackpacks.com  — and that means that I unfortunately will have to end this post at the same spot where we’ve been for a while:  We’re almost, just almost, almost there.

But we’re closer than ever… and I’m grinning ear to ear.  Thank you to everyone who’s been following along with the blog.  As you can tell, I am bursting at the seams to get Badass Backpacks launched.  Drip by drip.  Step by step.  Stumbles and bumbles, we’re almost there.

On a few of my posts I’ve done some logo play with our Badass Backpacks logo.  I love the interplay of the two tiles working together — both of equal size, and both playing an equally important role.  Together they become something new – an optical illusion that the tile on the left, is larger than the tile on the right.  Our brain plays this trick on us… it can truly feel as though the tile on the left IS actually bigger than the tile on the right.  Sometimes this works to our detriment — we get caught up in our fear and we nurture that story, following it from one conclusion to the next in our daydreaming minds.  Sometimes this works to our benefit — as we might remember that if we can somehow find even the smallest amount of light, and if we can focus on it (for even just a short moment), that light will grow.

…Your emotions become your reality … if you look for the light you can often find it.  But if you look for the dark that is all you will ever see … [we] have brought darkness and anger so that is what you see now.  But YOU have light and peace inside of you and if you let it out you can change the world around you … many things that seem threatening in the dark become welcoming when we shine a light on them.
–Uncle Iroh, from Legend of Korra, Season 2, Episode 10

Choose which story to feed.

The inside of our Sincerity Inside bag includes a combination of fabric linings: slick two-ply Taslan nylon, thick Ballistics nylon, a mesh and foam layered laptop sleeve in the main compartment, and finally a touch of printed fabric with a special message that you have to work a bit to fully read.  Intentional.  The top of the main compartment has a rucksack-like cinch closure.  And the front pockets are lined with more Taslan and Ballistics.

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(*I’ve never posted a photo gallery like this before so if you are reading this post via the email notif… you might have to click over to view the post online if the gallery doesn’t come through in the email message.   Some photos here of the inside of the bag.)

Parts of the bag:

• The Lid
• One side of the bag
• The other side of the bag
• The FRONT
• The back
• Inside the bag