Matt Connarton Unleashed 9-21-24 hour 2
What's This About?
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Speaker 1: It was the world versus you and me. We were both head over heels. Yeah, you remember how that feels. We thought we would win somehow.
Speaker 2: We're laughing at that now. The bad it all fell apart.
Speaker 2: It felt like you were holding my hurting heart. We swore we try again. That was the beginning of the end. And I want to tell you that differend, all that time in love was well spent.
Speaker 3: You know, we had to.
Speaker 2: In a long way so we could look back and smile some day.
Speaker 4: If I could.
Speaker 5: Say I'm sorry, look that way it being, I'd rather say I'm happier, and I know that you are too.
Speaker 1: If I'm mon, I'm over joy.
Speaker 6: Now I know why.
Speaker 7: This is my boy.
Speaker 3: I want to tell you.
Speaker 6: That all that time with you was well spent.
Speaker 7: You know, we had to long way.
Speaker 4: So we could look back.
Speaker 1: And smile something.
Speaker 8: I want to tell you that i'd back then I couldn't know what it meant, you know, I had to know all the way. I want to tell you why.
Speaker 7: I want to tell you that de graand.
Speaker 9: What the time was well spent.
Speaker 4: You know we had to.
Speaker 8: Love the way so we couldn't look back and smile some.
Speaker 4: And A.
Speaker 10: A A a.
Speaker 4: A waiting to smoke, started to clear up. I had a straight past what to say, visions.
Speaker 11: Gone, made a mental note.
Speaker 4: Getting bad, got up your bags, shack drinkard you You'll be free.
Speaker 7: In na.
Speaker 6: That's a little able Blood mental note. Such a great band, able Blood came up in conversation recently. I forget with whom, but they've been on the show and of course we had the Forest Forgets in the first hour if you missed it. A great, great band. Really enjoyed speaking with them, love their music, and we'll have them back in the future of course. If you are just joining us, this is Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are live on this Saturday morning. It is Saturday, September twenty one, twenty twenty four, and Jenny is here as well, of course at the news.
Speaker 3: Table president and accounted far Yes.
Speaker 6: Yes and joining us right now live in studio. We have justin from four HM clothing. Am I saying that correctly? Yes?
Speaker 12: You are sir?
Speaker 6: Yes? Yes? Do you use your full what name do you use?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 13: I have a I go by mister four him on social media, Yes, and then I have my own personal as well.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, tell us about four HM, Well.
Speaker 12: Four HIM was created.
Speaker 13: It was like an epiphany that I had a long time ago because a lot of things always circled back to four Okay, Like I've always had a group of four friends that I was always really close with. So one time we were all on vacation and I was like, you know, what would be cool? And they're like what, I'm like if we created our own clothing line. Yeah, And we kind of like were playing around like with like biblical names and stuff, and we came up with four HM, which is like the four Horsemen, kind of like Rick Flair.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, no, I'm a big, big wrestling fan. I know it.
Speaker 13: Well, yes, yes, So that's where the name came from. Was because the three of us including myself, that's what makes four. We were really close for a long time and we still are there throughout the country.
Speaker 6: I hear I feel like I'm hearing audio from somewhere. I am where is that coming from?
Speaker 12: A mute? Okay, okay, sen it off just to make sure, okay, cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it sounded like it was coming from there. Yeah that's okay. So now why why clothing? I love talking to entrepreneurs, so I'm really interested to talk to you and kind of learned the story of how this started. So what was it that made you want to start a clothing line?
Speaker 13: Well, I've always been into like designing and like fashion, Like I don't have the skills to do it myself, but I've always had the mind for it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 13: So I found a couple of designers and I've gone from there, Like there's this one in Portland, Maine. His name is Lee Giles, Okay, and he's done a lot of the designs, like the cartoonish designs. And then I had a couple of friends out in Kentucky that did a lot of designs to start.
Speaker 6: So this has always kind of been a goal of yours. Is this something you've always wanted to do.
Speaker 13: Since that time when I was in North Carolina with my friends, we were like joking around and I'm like, I really want to start like a clothing line.
Speaker 6: Yeah, don't how.
Speaker 13: I'm gonna do it right, and I'm gonna do it right. And the ultimate goal is I have three daughters and one on the way now is to like build this up big enough that like my family, my friend's family, like it can still be a family business. Yeah, even when I'm like I'm forty five, even when I'm dead and gone, I want to be able to pass it on to my kids.
Speaker 12: Yeah, my friend's.
Speaker 13: Kids, Joe's kids, like, just to have everybody involved in.
Speaker 6: It, is it was it intimidating to start because obviously it's a very competitive thing, you know, just like music. It's you know, there's there's so much music. There's obviously a lot of different clothing lines. And I'm curious, I mean, were you Was it something that was kind of a long time in the making in terms of, you know, figuring out how you're going to go about it, and.
Speaker 13: Like, literally this was a brain child back in two thousand and two, and I didn't really get the ball like heavily moving until twenty fifteen, okay, okay, and then twenty and nineteen, right before co if it happened, that's when I literally like I was like, I have to put this in high gear.
Speaker 12: It's never gonna happen.
Speaker 6: Yeah, speaking of.
Speaker 12: The man, the myth, the legend, Joey Painter himself.
Speaker 6: Joey Painter is here and uh, let me let me get that. I'll get that mic up for you there. Hello, sir, Welcome back. Hello, Hello, Joey Painter. Good to see you. Yes, great to see you. And uh, now are you are you guys partners in this in four Hm?
Speaker 9: Or I'm just a big supporter Okay, okay, sports me. I support him?
Speaker 6: Okay, very good. Now what is it about uh kind of put you on the spot here? So what is it about four hm that uh that makes you want to support justin?
Speaker 8: What?
Speaker 6: What is it that makes you believe in what he's doing?
Speaker 9: Well, we were both into the motivational aspect of everything, and uh just kind of just the regular guy working for his craft and everything that he believes in and y art and uh, I don't know it's he's got. He's just his brand and selling T shirts and art and has really motivated motivated me to do my music. And it's just a motivational thing basically. And story. Okay, he can explain more.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And uh so so two thousand and two is when you were originally thought.
Speaker 13: Of this, That's when the epiphany happened. Yes, ok, two thousand and two when I was on vacation with my three close friends down in North Carolina.
Speaker 6: Yeah. And then twenty fifteen is when you started.
Speaker 13: Yeah, twenty fifteen is when I really like started like trying to find like who could design the logo the exact way that I wanted it. And then by twenty nineteen, that's when I really I came to conquered. I filled out all the application, put in the money, and then I literally found a guy in Kentucky that literally designed the whole website, designed a bunch of shirts for me. Yeah, that are on Stell currently on the website as we speak.
Speaker 6: Okay, And then so what when you when you started in twenty fifteen, did you did you go through did you put together a business plan and the whole thing.
Speaker 13: Business plan like where I like the overall vision of the whole thing. Like, like I said, we pretty much are. Our ultimate mission is to inspire, to be motivational, to like help people with their mental mental health and like find their strength.
Speaker 6: I like that. That's something that we talk about a lot on the show, and you know, and we also talked to about how doing things creatively, how it's a great It's sort of to me, it's like the best therapy, right, being able to create things, you know, especially with you know, we talked to a lot of musicians obviously, Like we've had a Joey Painter on we've we've played some of his music, and I appreciated that, by the way, Oh of course, yeah, no, happy to do it. But I think I think we even talked with you about how, you know, dealing with trauma, dealing with with negative experiences.
Speaker 6: If you can take that and create something with it, that's like, you know, the best thing at least because at least then you're you're taking it and doing something constructive with it, you know. And it's one of the tools that we have to work through things, is our creativity and to use that to want to inspire people and to put positivity out in the world. I think that's wonderful.
Speaker 13: Because everybody's like motivated by different things. Yeah, Like that's what the four the overall four things of the brand is. It's like what motivates you to do you? Are you home motivated? Are you hustle made? Are you hungry motivated? Or are you like hot mess motivated? Are you motivated by making money so you can go out and party on the weekends. There's like I wanted four different pillars of like the brand of like what what it means to anybody.
Speaker 6: When you look back now in twenty twenty four, when you look back to twenty fifteen, has this what form is for? I'm sorry, what four HM has become? Does it match with what you had envisioned? Or has it changed along the way? Has it gone through some different.
Speaker 13: Not really, It's pretty much been the same. It's like a motivational brand. Like what gets you to get up out of bed in the morning? Yeah, like right now, my motivation is my wife and my three going to be four dollars?
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, well going to be for so you've got another one on the way, congratulations, papa. Yeah, so I assume this shirt is a four HM shirt for those watching online? Uh what moves do you?
Speaker 9: Uh?
Speaker 6: What moves you to do you? How many different like like right now? How many different.
Speaker 13: Shirts are there's available? A lot, a lot, Yeah, different price points. I have shirts as low as seventeen dollars on the website and then you just pay for shipping. Yeah, and then as high as thirty five depending on the design.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Now is it just shirts or do you also he hates yeah, excellent, excellent and wristbands, oh, wristbands.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm always saying get that on wristbands and uh that's one of the shows and stuff.
Speaker 12: Yeah, totally, we've had shuckers.
Speaker 3: People love wrist bands and they'll put them on. They'll keep them on too.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, yeah, Do you have headbands too? Not yet?
Speaker 12: Okay, no headbands and brace and uh, wristbands yet?
Speaker 6: Okay?
Speaker 4: Do you.
Speaker 8: Like?
Speaker 6: How do you what? What is your marketing strategy? Like I assume because of your association with with Joey Painter, for example, I assume you you are you kind of involved in the hip hop community in terms of the marketing and promotion of what you do.
Speaker 9: Can I say that this guy is like one of the biggest supporters of local hip hop in New England. He loves everybody that does hip hop, whether it's this genre of the young age or the older heads doing the boom bap. Still, yeah, he supports everybody.
Speaker 6: Yeah, excellent.
Speaker 13: Most of the most of the shows that show does, like I try to make up on appearance. I try to be there for most of them. Yeah, if I physically can be. Yeah, I set up a table. I sell like special T shirts there. Yeah, designed a couple T shirts for Joey specifically cool that are exclusive on the website.
Speaker 9: Oh very cool, I get I guess to go back to that question that you asked for, I just thought about it too. It's like a lot of mental health awareness. Get yourself up and do the work so that you feel good later. That's stuff that I've learned, especially working with him and writing the songs that I've written. And he's like, if he supports you, he's gonna let you know. And that's He's totally supported me for the years. And that's why I'm like, yo, okay, let's get you going. Come on, bring a table out.
Speaker 9: Anytime I have a show, I don't care where it is. If we can get it going, do it.
Speaker 6: That's excellent.
Speaker 9: And he's selling them. Man, they're out there. P Rob loves it. Who else copped a bunch.
Speaker 13: Of I've the farthest It's gone. It's there's a hat kicking around in Missouri. There's a hat kicking around in Tennessee. A couple of t shirts in Tennessee with the local artists out there.
Speaker 12: His name is Big Smoke. He's been on A and E.
Speaker 13: And Okay, Big shout out, Big Bar Rescue. He's now running a food truck, so he's kind of like taking a hiatus.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so now you get.
Speaker 3: Little pieces of youth starting to spread across the country.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I wanted to do that. I was doing that for joe before, Like literally I was his street team, Like when I went on vacation One Man Street. He would give me a stack of CDs and I'd literally, hey, listen to my friend. Hey we go back ten years. Take a listen to this. My brother's in Vegas. I'm like, here, take this. And one of the funniest experiences I had, me and my wife were going to a hip hop show in Wally's in Hampton Beach and there was an artist named Echo from Las Vegas that I met years ago, and he was he was like walking around and I could recognize him because I knew him from the past.
Speaker 13: And I was like, Hey, I got a couple CDs of my boy Joey. You want to take a take a listen to these, and take a couple of pictures just so I can help my buddy. And he's like, yeah, no problem, that's awesome, And we got pictures online with him home to a Joey CDs. One was in the rap group that he was in at the time called Kingdom and the other one was his brand new CD that just came out.
Speaker 6: Oh very cool. Yeah yeah that was when you have to fill in order for somebody in another part of the country. That would be pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 13: I get notifications on my phone because of the app I use, and it's fun, like not everybody buy stuff, but it's pretty awesome when you see, like I'm irishman Ai and when you see like Ireland pop up on your phone and it's like somebody from Ireland's looking at your website. Like it's just mind blowing and like some of the places that you never would have thought would actually look at, like American stuff that like they have like a reputation of not liking us, and then you see their country pop up on your phone saying you look, even if it's like fifteen seconds.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool.
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's it's not like universal yet, but just getting those little not notifications when it pops up saying that somebody from somebody else is looking at your stuff, It's like, holy crap.
Speaker 3: Oh yeahested to see on where what people tap into you after the show because we're broadcasting everywhere.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, well that's the beauty of the of the internet. Yeah, you plug the website.
Speaker 9: What it's called.
Speaker 12: Yeah, it's www urhm clothing dot com.
Speaker 6: Yes, yes, it's prett easy to remember.
Speaker 12: And we're also.
Speaker 3: Carrying out your Facebook page and links as well into the Yeah round pretty much?
Speaker 12: Yeah, gotcha, thank you. Yeah, we're on.
Speaker 13: I'm on Instagram Instagram as roychim Clothing. I'm also on TikTok as mister foychim Clothing or mister fouryhm.
Speaker 6: I'm curious so over over the course of this, so it's been nine years, right, because I'm bat of mouth because he started in twenty fifteen. What are some of the just like I said, I love talking to entrepreneurs, what are some of the challenges.
Speaker 13: Just getting people to like respect you and like take your look, like a serious look at it, and like not just think. I've been doing it since twenty nineteen, Like that's when I literally put the four hundred dollars up at Conquered and was like, I'm registering the name.
Speaker 12: This is the website, like.
Speaker 13: Oh, twenty nineteen, Yeah, twenty nineteen is when I physically wanted the business. Twenty fifteen is when I started looking for people that would actually listen to my ideas.
Speaker 12: Oh I draw the design.
Speaker 13: Yeah, yeah, which one of them? Think one of them was Joey's friend at first. Yeah, was this guy called mister Crane and he's out in Washington. He did some of the cool designs I did. At first wasn't exactly what I wanted, but it was all right, a step in the right direction. And then I found the guy in Kentucky. Yeah, and he listened. He like took the like I literally it's fun when you literally can just tell somebody like what you're thinking and they can physically do it, like I did that with a T shirt or Joey's Like, I was like, I want toys in the attic, but I want Joey as like a bearded little kid finding a stack of hip hop albums.
Speaker 9: That's cool when I say, I almost wore that shirt today too. I have recently lost some wheat and I'm swimming in it.
Speaker 12: I did you need a new one? That's what you're saying.
Speaker 6: I need to That's good, Yeah.
Speaker 9: And that's part of the motivation. And like I take that. I tell them. I was like, bring your brand to the gym. I go to, you know, jump on the treadmill, wear his hat all the time. I think I wore it for like a year straight, that black and white one.
Speaker 12: That got lost. Yeah, he wore that every day. Somebody still but I think you dropped it in the store. But yeah, well somebody took it.
Speaker 9: It's gone. I hope they're rocking it.
Speaker 13: That happened to my daughter too, Like my youngest daughter, Aliah put me, I'm sorry, put the hat on her sister. And we were like trying to get a car starter for our other car to jump started, and it was snowing out and I think it fell out of like either at Walmart and Seabrook or at like a VIP and like nobody noticed that. It was gone for like a long time. And then my daughter's like, my hat's gone. I don't know when my hat went. So literally she was upset because her sister lost it. We have no idea where it went.
Speaker 13: So there's one, there's a United States flag one kicking around. So I had to get her a new one for her birthday.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and she loves it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, good good. So so part of the challenge of finding people to work with to design.
Speaker 13: No not really not anymore like Lee Giles out in Portland is Off Giles.
Speaker 9: Sorry correction, that was my bad too.
Speaker 6: Giles.
Speaker 12: He's a really good artists.
Speaker 13: Like literally with the kids in the attic design, it literally was like, I want this album cover, put your own spin on it. Yeah, but it's Joey finding a cit like you can pick any you can pick whatever hip hop albums you want, ok, whatever, And he threw some like some subtle hints in there. He threw a Joey Joey Painter's record in there, Joey's Sun Convide. He left that in there, and it's such a cool shirt.
Speaker 6: That's a great concept, that's a great idea.
Speaker 9: Lee is super talented too. That guy can do. He should do more work than he does. He did a Deadpool Wolverine opening night, come out see the movie and get yourself portrait the way I draw a comic book. It was so good. Yeah, he's awesome. He deserves you deserve four hm, Lee Giles. They they work really hard.
Speaker 12: Yeah, I forget you. You work really hard.
Speaker 13: He does so much locally to like this dude just literally I wish I had a table there. He literally just him and a neighbor behind our Walmart store that we work at, was literally like, I saw that show that you guys did in the parking lot of Walmart. Oh, and I literally want to throw a back to school drive in my front yard.
Speaker 9: Shout out Richard Riley.
Speaker 3: Do you do tables at events?
Speaker 6: Yes?
Speaker 12: With Joey, I've been to a handful of them. Yes.
Speaker 3: Oh, I might have one that you might be interested in, but I don't want to get into that yet. I want to ask you a question about four HM clothing. I noticed that you have a sponsored collection.
Speaker 13: Talk about what that is, well, a sponsor collection right now, Joey's actually bigger than a sponsor now, Like at first he started as like, hey, I'll design, I'll come up with ideas, I'll design shirts, I'll send them your way, you give the stamp of approval, and if you like it, I'll sell it to promote you as well as my brand. And Joey's like yeah, so like his album cover of his last album was literally not supposed to be the album cover. It literally was a design that I was like, I love that, I want to run that as a T shirt.
Speaker 13: But the album cover that he had for some reason Spotify wouldn't approve it really, so then he was like, I had to go with the yellow Shirk design that you loved. That's the album cover. Yeah, And I was like, holy crap, that's awesome.
Speaker 6: Oh very cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 12: He has a couple.
Speaker 13: There's an artist that literally I met through Joey in Portland. We were doing a festival in downtown Portland like a couple of years ago, and there's this kid called, well, I think it's called blue Boy blue Jay, and he does like R and B hip hop, like really like touching stuff and he just hit me up one day and he's like, I want to I want to be I want I don't know how how that works, but I'd love to tag you and say that you're sponsored by me, like I sponsor you. And I was like okay, yeah. And then I have a kid out in New York that's struggling with like like a disease that's like really ripping up his pancreas and his name is b K. He's he was huge in the Underground Seed back in the day.
Speaker 13: He's trying to like get his health back so he can go back and tour the country, like not to America. This guy was huge, like in like other countries like Czech Slovakia, Like all these foreign countries would literally pay him like thousands of dollars to fly over there, do hip hop events and fly home. But going back to that, like the coolest thing that ever happened at a Joey show was a couple of years ago. There's this rapper called m Dot out of Massachusetts.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I'm familiar with them, Dot and a shadow to m dot, ems Undukati all them, sorry.
Speaker 12: And I'm not used to it.
Speaker 13: I was like, I really liked that he shared of yours, Would you mind taking one of mine? And I'll take yours and I'll and I'll rock yours every chance I get to wear it, because it's just this freaky Mike Tyson design, Like it's Mike Tyson from the eighties. He's like bloodshot eyes and he has like a Michael I'm sorry, he has a Freddy Krueger glove. And it's just like an eerie picture because it's like the killer Mike Tyson. Yeah, everybody was terrified to this Mike Tyson when he was twenty years old, and it's like a horror Mike Tyson so I was like, I'll if you don't mind, I'll give you my s shirt and I'll take yours if that's all right with you, And he's like, yeah, anything to support local people.
Speaker 12: He literally took that on tour.
Speaker 13: With him, like in like Germany and was wearing it. Oh cool, and he's like took pictures and sent them back to me. I was like, that is so awesome.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't I don't know if I'm supposed to say it, but t I dub amplified Audio a big shout out came through and they're actually working on He's got a beat with EMS members, m DOT, a couple others working on a song collap for a project that might end up on a Tidob album. But he's talk about hustlers and uh, you know, mental health awareness, like that's what the song is all about too. I hope, I hope it comes to light and it's really really good.
Speaker 6: Oh that's cool.
Speaker 9: I hope they do a video and wear he shirt is something that'd be so cool.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, no kidding know.
Speaker 13: Last summer we actually shot a music video together for one of his songs, and it was probably one of the funniest experiences I've had, like, like I used to do media when I was in like high school, but I've never been part of a music video like in like actually like featured in it. Yeah, And it was just like a cool, like a total cool experience.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 12: We literally shot it in Dover.
Speaker 9: Oh shout out Brian Linguist And what was the name of that song? Joey left right?
Speaker 6: Okay, so that's on YouTube, I assume, right, Yeah, we.
Speaker 3: Got all four videos.
Speaker 9: So the cool thing about that is Press Froom, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, October fifteenth. I'm gonna plug real quick. We're doing a show where we're going to perform to all four music videos. So this guy's gonna be up on the big screen like you know, projected if it works out right. And then his brand is that that video that he's that we did was a bunch of shots. I was wearing the hat, you know, he's wearing his shirt, just totally highlighting a quickly, you know, four hms because it's all about product placement too when they see that videos and stuff.
Speaker 9: Hey, what's that I'm gonna look that up?
Speaker 6: Yeah exactly, exactly.
Speaker 9: Yeah, So performing to all four music videos, we've got like the set version of the videos with no lyrics there, and it'll be really really cool.
Speaker 6: Oh sweet.
Speaker 9: He was a definite inspiration for that second video.
Speaker 13: Like the good thing about Me and Joey, Like at first I was more of like his rockie, Like I was trying to figure out how I was doing, how I was going to do this, but I was seeing what he was doing, like this kid started recording rap music in his kitchen, like with like run of the mill stuff that you could buy, and I was like, Joey, this is awesome. Like we met through work, Like I didn't know he was into rap music. We just were talking one day and he was.
Speaker 9: Like, you knew a bunch of people I knew too, Yes, so that was a small world.
Speaker 13: Yeah, And then I was we were talking about rap music and I was like we were chopping it up and I was like, do you do rap music?
Speaker 12: And he's like, yeah, you didn't know. I was like no. So literally, out of the blue, he came in he handed me a CD.
Speaker 13: One day and I was like, if you're giving me something, I want you to sign it to tell me what it is. So if I don't, I don't want to get it. Lost in the shuffle of the other. You know how it was in the early two thousands, like everybody had a big, huge book. Of course, you get in trouble for whold knees while we were driving. You could drive your phone, you could drive your car with your knee, or you were trying to grab a new CD.
Speaker 6: I remember that.
Speaker 9: Well, got my ironic CD booklet, that thick book in my trunk right now. Ever since high school, I've like I've never let it go.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I used to call that when I was working ems job security. Yeah, the newspaper and the book on the steering wheel. Oh, I know, with watching the road. I mean, what's what's that work?
Speaker 9: I know what you were doing. Yeah, you're looking for a song my horoscope.
Speaker 13: I think I'm like Joey. I literally think I have a couple of those books at home. But luckily you can just hook the phone into the internet right now, yeah, and literally just turned Spotify it on and play like hours and.
Speaker 6: Music exactly exactly.
Speaker 13: I have to try to drive the car with your knee, yeah, trying to grab the new CD.
Speaker 6: Although physical CDs are still so very much a thing. In fact, you know, our previous guests we had on the first hour of the Forest Forgets, he brought us a CD. We actually have a I tell everybody this week, we actually have a CD player here in the station. I think the only one who uses it is Rob as a Vedo on Granted State of Mind on Fridays. But we actually have a we do have a functioning CD player here. But yeah, that's funny now. I remember the days with the big Book of CDs very very well. So uh yeah, So obviously, so you're you're really plugged in with the hip hop scene, which is I mean, would you say that that's probably essential?
Speaker 13: I would think right if it wasn't for them, I don't think I'd be doing as good as I am, Like because of me being originally being like Mickey for Joey and then the roles of kind of like we've kind of both nicking each other. We're kind of both micking each other now. Like literally I'm like when I'm feeling down and like, I don't know if I want to keep doing this. Yeah, like I'm not making the money that I think I should be doing. Yeah, Like it's still kind of a side hustle, Like I still have a regular nine to five to support my family.
Speaker 13: The ultimate goal is to not have a nine to five and literally have a hopefully someday like a a brick and mortar store. Literally you can come in and touch the product, feel it right. But until then, it's pretty much just a print on demand, Like you literally go to the website, you see something you like, you place the order, it gets sent to me, it gets printed, and then it gets sent out to the consumer.
Speaker 3: I love one of them, but I can't tell you which one because it's a bad word.
Speaker 6: Oh something, we can't but it's my.
Speaker 3: Favorite word that I say in almost all of my speeches.
Speaker 13: Oh okay, that's probably Joey's least favorite one.
Speaker 3: The BS one.
Speaker 9: Oh, I can't. I have to look at it again.
Speaker 13: One of the newest ones he's not a fan of. But I'm a I'm a towny kid and it was in a towney movie and I just changed the F.
Speaker 12: To a pH and I love and I love that.
Speaker 13: I love that because it was a as a towny kid. Like when you have aspirations to do big things, there's people that have done big things before you, like Bill, Bill Barr, like Mark and wall Mark.
Speaker 12: I'm sorry, Mark Wahler.
Speaker 9: He almost said Marky Mark.
Speaker 12: I did almost said Marky Mark.
Speaker 13: And like Ben ben Affleck and like Matt Damon, they're all from like the areas where I was originally from. Yeah yeah, and like literally came up from nothing.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 12: That movie was a big inspiration because.
Speaker 13: There's a lot of of uh product placements and a lot of scene placements that I've seen that I grew up in. And I'm like, there was a scene in that movie where one of them set it to the other one, and that's where I came up with.
Speaker 12: That T shirt.
Speaker 13: Oh okay, And then I just threw the Red Sox colors, the Bruins colors. I think there's a forty nine Ers colors because that's my West Coast favorite team. And I think there's a I don't like to say this word on TV, on on the radio, A Yankees one.
Speaker 6: Oh, just you know, yes.
Speaker 12: I have to, I have I have to.
Speaker 13: I have to have it for the New York I have to have it for the New York kids that are diehard hip hop fans. Of course, fine, but it's only one. If you see there's like every Boston team on there.
Speaker 3: All right, I can give you that I can give you.
Speaker 6: Now, how does that work with Have you ever run in any kind of issues with trademarks and things like that. I know sometimes people in your field they run into that where maybe somebody somebody sends a season desists because they don't like you know, they think you've infringed on their trademark or their copyright somehow.
Speaker 12: But you've never run I have not run into that yet.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 9: I actually ran into that. Remember years ago, Joey did have that happen. My nickname was Asthmatic and on Facebook, this guy came out of nowhere and was like I got this artist out of I think it was Texas or something like that. It was literally a cease and desist. Yeah, like stop everything, I want you to take everything down. All my friends are like, don't do that, right, But I just stopped using the asthmatic thing and trademarking it. But everybody knows me as Asthmatic anyways. You know, just a little nickname if you know, you know.
Speaker 6: Right, because I think I still use it on Facebook, isn't it You have it in parentheses, don't you? Yeah?
Speaker 9: Yeah, yeah, that's why I was like, take a buddy, I literally told him.
Speaker 13: I literally told him the same thing when he was like, justin this guy's starting to assume me. I'm like, I don't think you can own a name, but if you.
Speaker 9: Could know you can.
Speaker 12: If you can, I'm like, can I see what it looks like?
Speaker 13: And he sent it to me and I didn't think it looked legit enough to be real, right, So I was like, I wouldn't worry about it. If you got a real one that had like an attorney signature on the bottom, then I think you'd be a little more afraid of it, right, Like this looks like something this dude typed in his basement and said it to you to like scare you because he's trying to build the name for himself. Like if somebody knew who this other guy was, there would have been a lot more people going, hey, Joey Right.
Speaker 3: That happened to me years ago on Facebook because on Facebook I have this little it's the Liberty Lady, and this woman like sent me this nasty grill like I had that for I just ignored her. I'm like, yeah, whatever, lot.
Speaker 9: I think in a UK or I might have been Australia, I can't remember, but there's like plenty of them out Oh yeah, yeah, it's ideas are used up all the time. You can't threaten to sue somebody just because of that.
Speaker 3: You scare the little.
Speaker 9: Guy like trying to make a name for himself.
Speaker 6: Let it go.
Speaker 13: I actually like his name better now did Joey? What he actually has it broken down to stand for. I think it's a lot, like has more meaning behind it than the asthmatic. Like, I agree, I get why he used the asthmatic at first was because of the asthma, and he was like taking a weakness and turning it into a strength.
Speaker 9: Yeah, but I like his new like the nude. What if Joey stand for now?
Speaker 6: And I can I can relate to asthmatic.
Speaker 9: But yes, I'll beauter all what I I literally took my name and made it a acronym. Just only explain yourself.
Speaker 6: Oh see, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 9: I never put it on a T shirt or anything. But I mean maybe maybe that's a good idea, but I literally like after that happened, I was like, real name, no gimmicks. I don't care. I'll just go Eric Serimon on him. It's okay, Yeah, Joey painter has a good ring to it. I think now he goes aside, but you know it's just easier. Was there's no trademark. What are you gonna assume me for my name? Get out of here. That's my real name. Sorry, And I think you.
Speaker 13: Can do a lot of cool like play on words with Joey's name, Joey Painter, like you can make you could. There's thousands of paint companies that have cool designs, like literally, you can make a thousand different Joey Painter t shirts.
Speaker 6: Literally.
Speaker 13: One of his rap songs is I'm I'm only a painter or or I'm just a painter.
Speaker 9: Rapper, I'm a painter.
Speaker 3: Yeah, my mom did a logo from years ago. She had a lot of fun with the last name Coffee.
Speaker 9: You could do anything. Oh yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: My son used to have friends that called him mister decaffeinated.
Speaker 6: See the nice thing about my name is, uh, the the chances of a Matt Condorton emerging somewhere and saying, well, you can't call your radio show Matt Conderton unleashed because that's my name. It's just not gonna happen. Like, there's very few Connorton's it's just going there.
Speaker 3: Is one other Matt Connorton spelled the same way as you, and it's your uncle's.
Speaker 6: Right, that's right.
Speaker 12: I don't think your uncle's going to see you.
Speaker 13: He may want to come on the radio show once in a while, right, at least seven.
Speaker 3: Jennifer Coffee's in the state ofum here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, Jennifer Coffee is a common name. Yeah, yeah, but but yeah, I don't uh, I don't have that that issue certainly, So what now? So the long term goal is is to to really blow up and make this a full time.
Speaker 12: So that's the ultimate goal.
Speaker 13: Like, the ultimate goal is to be big enough that I can employ my wife, my kids, Joey Painter's kids, my other friends that are all over the country's kids.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 13: The ultimate goal before I die is to like be like Nike. Yeah, maybe not as big as Nike, but like limited edition T shirts, Like I don't want everybody to have the same shirt, like right, like a hundred maybe one hundred and four shirts of one design and then when it hits one hundred and four, like put it in retirement, okay, and then come up with a new design. So like literally, not everybody has the same shirt.
Speaker 6: Right do a Do you have like a plan and a strategy to get there or is it more adjusting?
Speaker 13: You're just gonna keep grinding, Just keep grinding. That's that's the fun of the hustle about it. Like literally, that's what gets me up in the morning. Like I always kept circling back to it. Yeah, Like I was dabbling in so much other things at one time, Like I wrote poetry for the longest time. When I was going to school, I wrote short stories, and then I had a teacher when I was in college, like creative writing was like you can say all the same things without trying to put like a thousand people in it.
Speaker 13: Okay, you can simplify it. Yeah, So I was doing that for a long time. I still have that on the back burner at home. But this, this always was like the calling. It always kept circling back since two thousand and two, like how am I going to do this? And even when I was dabbling other things for some strange reason, like the universe always pulled it back like out of nowhere, Like I'd see something and I'm like, oh, I could make a design with that. Yeah, Like I physically can't draw it, but I can find somebody that would listen to me and put their spin on it and it would be pretty close to the like the division that I had.
Speaker 6: Sure, is that ever frustrating to you that that that you can't just draw yourself.
Speaker 12: Or yeah, it's a big frush, like I try.
Speaker 13: Like there's literally one of my coolest shirts that I ever that I ever had designed.
Speaker 12: I literally couldn't draw it.
Speaker 13: So I was working at work one day and I literally looked at my boss and I'm like, I can't get my point across to this artist, and she's like, tell me what you want and I'll draw it and you take a picture of it. And you said it to them Kelsey, my boss, you never told me that. So there's literally, Kelsey, there's literally there's a literally like a cool pit bull dog looking up at the sky. And it was around the time DMX died, So it was for my daughter, who loves dogs. I love pit bulls, she loves all dogs.
Speaker 13: So I was literally like, DMX just died, she loves dogs. What if the dog's looking like up in the sky with the rain falling down kind of like because the dogs sad and most of the time when it's drizzling and drizzling outside, like you get that like sadness. So I was like, that would be such a cool idea, but I couldn't, like we kept getting lost in translation. Yeah, so literally, my boss is like, tell me what you want. I will draw it the best of my ability, which is ten times better than I could draw.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and she drew it.
Speaker 13: I snapped a picture of it, sent it to the artist and he literally got the vision like that. And I was just like, can I thank you for doing that for me? And she's like, yeah, no problem, That's what friends are for. And I was like, because I don't think he would have been able to get the actual image that I was trying to betray, and that's happened before. Literally I've got frustrated and I'm like, just forget it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, do you ever, excuse me, do you ever have to present it to you know, because it sounds like you have more than one artist that you work with, right, So do you ever find yourself presenting something to an artist and they're just not getting it? So then you have to take it to a different artists and yeah, have them take a crack at us.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 12: I've literally had to do that before.
Speaker 13: Yeah, a couple of times there was a there was a cool design that I was trying to come across, which was it's not release jet, but it's one of the sponsored artists that Joey hooked me up with, and it's like I wanted him like kind of like a scarecrow with like the Blue Jays landing on him. And I sent it to one designer that I've worked with before that's done some cool designs from like the Czech Republic.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and he's like, I can't. I can't touch that. I can't.
Speaker 13: I don't know what to do. It's not my style, it's not my way of doing things. And I was like, okay, Ye.
Speaker 12: Then I went on to.
Speaker 13: I went on to Lee and I was like, Lee, this is the kind of concept I want. I'm like, I'm giving you free reins, but this is what I want in the picture. Just do what you do. Yeah, And he literally sent me back and I would have never thought of that.
Speaker 6: Oh wow, it's.
Speaker 13: Not release yet, it's still on the back, Like I still have to I think I sent the picture of the design to the sponsored artist. I just haven't posted this shirt yet because I like Joey when I when I put something online, like I want the physical. I want to physically be able to have it and physically give it to the artist, Like Joey has a couple T shirts that I've designed and he's bought or I've given them. Yeah, And that's what pretty much the ultimate plan was was like once it was designed, like present it to this artist and like here you can wear it at shows if anybody wants to, just let them know where you got it.
Speaker 6: Right right.
Speaker 10: Now.
Speaker 6: Who designed your logo? I really liked the logo did well.
Speaker 13: The secondary logo is four HM clothing line, which was designed by Caesar Beavers. He's out, he's the artist that's in Kentucky, and he's big and like the underground like like country rap scene. Oh really yeah, And one of the country rappers that I was talking to was like, you should really look into this guy, and I was like, what's his name. He's like, he's called Caesar Beavers because his last name is Beavers and his first name is Christopher, and they called him the Goat. So I was like, oh, send me some of his stuff, send me his website so I can take a look at it.
Speaker 13: And literally he was like, yeah, I can do that for you. So when I got my first like big check, I sent it to him. I was like, how much will it cost for you to like build this website and come up with some designs and let me see what you what you got. And he's like, I can build your I can build the whole thing. I can throw like a different variety of shirts on there. You tell me what you want, like what colors with designs, and we can go from there. So this is the secondary design. The first one is kind of like a tribal design.
Speaker 13: That's the like the staple one, because a lot of people tell you have to have like three designs. Right now, we only have two, but I know there's like a third one where it's like either you take both designs and like put them together, or you just take one and have it stand alone by itself, like kind of like just the symbol, which would the tribal designed by itself with no no writing in it.
Speaker 6: Oh, okay, gotcha, gotcha. If you are just joining us, we have Justin here from a four HM Clothing, and Joey Painter is here as well. I'm really curious too about marketing in terms of your strategy. Obviously, you know you're really plugged in with the hip hop scene here. What about what other strategies do you use? I would imagine a lot of social media, right, Yeah.
Speaker 13: We've done social media in the past. We got to get back heavily into that again. But with the fourth thought around the way, like I'm just kind of doing things in baby steps. Yeah, Like before I would take like fifty dollars a month and like throw it to like Facebook and Instagram, and it really wasn't sticking.
Speaker 6: Yeah, like it it would.
Speaker 13: You'd see, like the traffic would go up, like people would come look at it. I think more of the best thing to do is like just a heavy promotional side of it, like run more promotions, like advertisements and like yeah, like deals. I think the deals are what more people are looking for it because I've done a couple of deals and that's what the brand like a lot, right right, Like oh, you can get like simplify one shirt and like settle it for like ten bucks, and that seemed to go over really good for like a couple of designs that I've did.
Speaker 6: Oh okay, have you had any excuse me, have you had any mentors along the way, like has there been anyone else who does this who's kind of helped you and given you advice or not? Really?
Speaker 13: There was a guy I met at a UFC event years ago.
Speaker 12: He ran.
Speaker 13: His name is Mark and he ran. He runs a clothing line. It's called HDF You okay, I can't say what the actual name stands for. It's a fighting it's a fighting brand, okay, okay. And like I saw him back in like two thousand and nine when I was still in the infancy stage of the whole brand, and I saw what he was doing. And that's where I got even more of motivation, because in two thousand and two, I was like, how am I going to do this? Then we saw him and he got sponsored by Dana White. He had like a uf like Dana White had the fan expo years ago and he was there and I was like, this is what I want to do.
Speaker 13: Like I saw different brands like I kind of run it more like a tap out than anything else, Like throw stuff in the truck, pay local designers to design the stuff that I'm thinking and then go to a printing plus a printing press in like Portsmouth, like the Painted Frog in like Hampton and literally have them print the shirts and then I bring the box with me and then sell them, not out of my trunk like any old hip hop album, but like at a table at an event like last February. I think we did a fashion So that wasn't a big success, but it was successful enough that I sold some stuff, rub some elbows with some people.
Speaker 9: I love when he does an event and he comes a and I'm like, dude, you sell anything. He's like, yeah, ah, that's so great. Yeah, you take that motivation to the next thing you're going to do, and so on and so on and so on. It's awesome when you sell things.
Speaker 6: It shows Yeah, that's excellent. That's excellent. Before we run out of time too, I do want to ask you for the record. I'm sorry I was late. Oh that's okay, that's okay here, but how did how did the show? Do you did that benefit show at Walmart that you were promoting last time you were here to that?
Speaker 4: Go?
Speaker 9: Well? Oh yeah, always it's funny that, uh we tried a different location than last year. So last year in uh we were out front right underneath the Walmart sign. Yeah, we raised eleven hundred dollars excellent. This year, we tried it out in the parking lot, thinking we'll have more room. Yeah, yeah, only what was it? What did we do?
Speaker 12: It wasn't as big, It wasn't as big.
Speaker 9: I can't remember the total, but we broke our goal for the monthly goal. But what we raised out there wasn't as much as we did last year. Okay, so the census of the employees that were involved, the volunteers, Yeah, we're gonna bring it back out front under the Walmart sign next year because that's like the revolving crowd. Everybody's dropping in, People leave the store, they don't want to go back and park, get out of their car.
Speaker 6: Do this.
Speaker 9: You know, it's way more effective. And when people are saying, hey, you guys need to do that out front next year, it was way better. You gotta listen, right, Those are the people donating, Those are the people contributing. Those are the people that are coming to check out the show. So you gotta listen. But it was a success totally.
Speaker 6: It was awesome.
Speaker 3: And before we go, I want to make sure we mentioned that you have a show coming up on September twenty ninth porch Fest in Rochester, New Hampshire.
Speaker 9: Yes, Yes, porch Fest. Shout out King Polo in the Wave. King Polo actually got the slot and he's just kind of brought in a bunch of people to just kind of rock with him here and there, and Porchfest was one of them. Very excited. Rochester, New Hampshire Portsmouth is actually doing one today. What are they doing out here?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 3: It's It's a community arts festival that's been going on all week and then today there was a street part of it. I actually looked it up after we came in because I'm like, God, what else and I knew about it and I totally forgot about it. It's an arts festival. Yeah, maybe here I'll check it out a little bit more and maybe get involved.
Speaker 6: Ye good stuff.
Speaker 9: I like that. I like that for the community Rochester
Speaker 9: Struggle in town. Sure, honestly, I'll due respect. So when they do that event, it's awesome. Last year was so good. Shout out Tommy Ghost and his band uh Melodies of Ghost Road. He he is rocking in front of Harvey's at four o'clock. We're on at three o'clock in front of City Hall. We're gonna try and combine and do our acoustic set and then jump over to his Oh cool, awesome, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 6: It's a good stuff standing.
Speaker 9: Oh, King Pole is gonna have like one hundred goodie bags for like kids and stuff he's gonna hand out. Oh really if you can, oh.
Speaker 6: Very nice, very nice, excellent, excellent and uh so before we yeah, before we run out of time too. So uh justin where should people go to keep up with everything that you're doing with four HM?
Speaker 13: Where they can pop onto the Facebook page, which is four chim Clothing, you can pop onto the website itself, which is four gimclothing dot com. I'm sorry, Www dot nobody uses the wh You have.
Speaker 3: No idea I dare to say that this one.
Speaker 6: I mean, I think we did a whole segment one day on the show a.
Speaker 3: Saying WWW.
Speaker 9: Do you remember what w w W stands for Worldwide Web?
Speaker 12: Yes?
Speaker 3: Correct, I do it every once in a while, and he gets.
Speaker 9: You don't need to say that. Most of the body knows that.
Speaker 6: Now.
Speaker 13: The good thing about it is literally you can type in FOURM clothing and believe it's the first thing that pops up on most search engines, no doubt. Yeah it was awesome, very very googleable.
Speaker 9: I like that word.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to try and say it, but I.
Speaker 6: Like that in fairness, so I have to admit. We had a band on recently. I forget now who it was. They were having an issue with their website where you did actually have to type in there was the browser www, because if you did it without that it wouldn't work. It was weird and well, they were working on it though. The whoever in the band was the web designer. He knew what the problem or he had an idea what the problem was.
Speaker 9: To have had the title as www.
Speaker 6: No, it wasn't that. He kind of explained it to me because I'm a web designer too, but I don't remember what his explanation was, but it was some weird thing with the domain that he had to fix that day. Yeah, because I was like, I was like, oh, and yeah, I even tried it myself. I was like, really you have to, and I tried it and sure enough, yeah, you had to. I can't remember what band it was, but and I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure they're either, but I just remember that.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'm sure that.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 6: Was an off air conversation we had. I was like, why do you have to do that, and he explained it to me. But but it's probably been fixed by now. But but yes, but very easy to google of course for HM clothing and and uh, yeah, I love what you're doing and and thank you, thank you both so much for being here today, having absolutely absolutely and uh, if you are listening live, stick around. We have Stephen Michael Dunn coming up in the third hour with some new music. But we are going to end this segment with because we did reference the song earlier, I'm a Painter.
Speaker 9: Beat beat Smith Mandoor on the cuts.
Speaker 6: Is that's a that's a title, right, I'm a painter. Not leaving anything out, okay. And there are no swears of this one, right.
Speaker 12: No, there was no.
Speaker 9: Yeah, I believe I loved it the last time we were here. If there is one, you definitely played it before.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I did, okay, right, yeah, Now I love the edits.
Speaker 9: By the way, thank you. That's on the beat Sho.
Speaker 12: Joey's son is getting so good at everything.
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, we talked about that a little bit. Yeah, does he have music up unavailable?
Speaker 9: He has music? Okay, he's eighteen, Okay, you know there's a lot of like conversations in which direction to go. He knows what he wants to do it yet it's like, all due respect.
Speaker 6: That was an inside all due respect.
Speaker 9: So eighteen is a bit is a is a tough time. It is you know, when I'm like, hey, you want to do this, that and the other thing? I want to do this, He'll figure it out. Yeah, Yeah, he's got it.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 9: I want to bring him on.
Speaker 3: He's got a lot of good stuff to talk about.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 9: So artist, well we'll set it up.
Speaker 6: Okay, cool, cool, sounds good, sounds good. All right, so we will end the hour with this again, Thank you both so much.
Speaker 12: Thank you for having thank you.
Speaker 6: And here it is I'm a Painter by Joey Painter.
Speaker 10: Yeah.
Speaker 14: On the beat, Smith, Mador run the cuts AMPI fied audio list. Go you got, Michael.
Speaker 4: Here been my message. Honey, what Latin men's.
Speaker 14: Being crazy confessions, crazy depressions for this got to be brained for Roses. It's not racing your wmar o' clock in the morning life for roses, declaring all out more to get out of these special health runts. Man, I fell a cop was going on crazy. I'm saying straight up nuts. I'm working right now, you will be with focused, focused focus, done with this and that drimind that time where I'm hopeless, but I'm always continuing and you'll see me with got these bars, I free me in, got me screaming with Prince.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I haven't missing things since.
Speaker 6: But I have to keep my eyes on the price with my pride. You have to fly and a pride.
Speaker 14: This is fine, reply ger.
Speaker 4: Poor, I was a fly.
Speaker 14: I'm disappointed in myself for things for have you signed your tears? Is on my weight and for the tracks I got a little left the straight I'm on my head.
Speaker 15: Yell is not just a humble, not just a pain, humble brother, not just a rap. Umble was not just a painment my humble tip.
Speaker 9: Am I the only one that understood that?
Speaker 14: Man, Shia, I'm poor mind desire with this passion from the shy, I feel my head is being held hier to the seven event motivation and consistency eighty minutes of equal ten.
Speaker 3: How was this.
Speaker 4: Denison of marble?
Speaker 6: Don't want to get out of bed, so.
Speaker 14: Depressed and said this is what I confessed.
Speaker 6: Greatness will come to you? Would you truth one of greatness.
Speaker 14: I'm working right now I'm here. No weightless rhymes, noill face this right. A man create this, deploying everything in sight and yet some leaf and traces, shot faces and places, or man's on the mic. Monovation and consistency, second time and saddy right, keep it going. How last he owed you become obsessed with your routine.
Speaker 11: You'll see I told you.
Speaker 14: Get your mind ready
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