Matt Connarton Unleashed: Justin Michael of 4HM Clothing and Joey Painter

0:00 Speaker 1: In joining us right now live in studio. We have justin from four h M clothing? Am I saying that correctly? Yes you are sir, yes, yes, do you use your full uh what what name do you use?

0:11 Speaker 2: Well?

0:12 Speaker 3: I have a I go by mister four HM on social media, yes, and then I have my own personal as well.

0:18 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, tell us about four HM. Well four HM was created.

0:24 Speaker 3: 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. Yeah, 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.

0:53 Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh yeah, no, I'm a big big wrestling fan. I know it.

0:56 Speaker 3: 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.

1:10 Speaker 1: I hear I feel like I'm hearing audio from somewhere. I am where's that coming from? Okay? Okay, off, just to make sure, okay, cool?

1:22 Speaker 4: Yeah, it sounded.

1:23 Speaker 1: 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 and kind of learned the story of of how this started. So what was it that made you want to start a clothing line?

1:38 Speaker 3: 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.

1:46 Speaker 5: Yeah.

1:46 Speaker 3: So I found a couple of designers and I've gone from there. Like there's one in Portland, Maine. His name is Lee Giles, okay, and he's done a lot of the designs, like the cartoon ish designs. And then I had a couple of friends out and Kentucky that did a lot of designs to start.

2:02 Speaker 1: Yeah, so this has always kind of been a goal of yours. Is this something you've always wanted to do.

2:06 Speaker 3: 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.

2:14 Speaker 1: Yeah. I don't know how I'm going to do it right, but I'm going to do it right.

2:17 Speaker 3: 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, Yeah, my friend's kids, Joe's kids, like, just to have everybody involved in.

2:39 Speaker 1: It, is it was it intimidating to start because obviously it's a very competitive thing, you know, just like music. It's uh, 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 gonna go about it.

3:03 Speaker 3: 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 two thousand and nineteen, right before COVID happened. That's when I literally like it was like, I have to put this in high gear. It's never gonna happen.

3:20 Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of the man, the myth, the legend, Joey Painter himself, 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.

3:35 Speaker 5: Good to see you.

3:35 Speaker 1: Yes, great to see you. And uh, now are you are you guys partners in this in four HM?

3:41 Speaker 5: Or I'm just a big supporter Okay, okayports me. I support him?

3:45 Speaker 1: 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 that makes you want to support justin? What is it that makes you believe in what he's doing?

3:56 Speaker 2: Well, we were both into the motivational aspect of everything thing and just kind of just the regular guy working for his craft and everything that he believes in and art and.

4:11 Speaker 5: I don't know it's he's got.

4:14 Speaker 2: He's just his 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.

4:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and uh so, so two thousand and two is when you were originally thought of this, That's when the epiphany happened.

4:36 Speaker 3: Yes, okay, two thousand and two when I was on vacation with my three close friends down in North Carolina.

4:41 Speaker 1: Yeah. And then twenty fifteen is when he started. Yeah.

4:43 Speaker 3: 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 still currently on the website as we speak.

5:07 Speaker 1: 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.

5:15 Speaker 3: 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.

5:31 Speaker 1: 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 played some of his music, and I appreciate 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, 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 taking it and doing something constructive with it, you know.

6:10 Speaker 1: And and it's one of the tools that we have to work through things is through our creativity and to use that to want to inspire people and to put positivity out in the world. I think that's wonderful.

6:23 Speaker 3: 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? Like I wanted four different pillars of like the brand of like what it means to anybody.

6:48 Speaker 1: 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, four HIM has become Does it? Does it match with what you had envisioned? Or has it changed along the way? Has it gone through some different Not really, It's pretty much been the same.

7:10 Speaker 3: 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?

7:19 Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, wow, going to be for so you've got another one on the way. Congratulation. Yeah, So I assume this shirt is a four HM shirt for those watching online? What moves do you? What moves you to do you? How many different like like right now, how many different.

7:38 Speaker 3: Shirts are There's a 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.

7:51 Speaker 1: Yeah. Now is it just shirts or do you also hats, hats, hooties? Yeah, excellent, excellent. And wristbands, Oh, wristbands. Yeah.

8:00 Speaker 2: I'm always saying get that on wristbands and uh that's one of the shows and stuff.

8:04 Speaker 5: Yeah, totally.

8:05 Speaker 1: We've had schuckers.

8:06 Speaker 4: People love rist bands and they'll put them on. They'll keep them on too.

8:10 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Do you have headbands too? Not yet? No?

8:15 Speaker 3: No, okay, no headbands and brace and uh, wristbands yet?

8:18 Speaker 1: Okay?

8:19 Speaker 5: Do you.

8:22 Speaker 1: Like 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 of the marketing and promotion of what you do.

8:37 Speaker 2: 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.

8:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, excellent.

8:53 Speaker 3: 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.

9:01 Speaker 1: Yeah.

9:02 Speaker 3: I set up a table. I selled like special T shirts there. YEA designed a couple T shirts for Joey specifically cool that are exclusive on the website.

9:12 Speaker 5: Get I guess to.

9:13 Speaker 2: Go back to the question that you asked for the guy, 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. Anytime I have a show, I don't care where it is.

9:43 Speaker 2: If we can get it going, do it.

9:45 Speaker 1: That's excellent.

9:46 Speaker 2: And he's selling them. Man, they're out there. P Rob loves it.

9:50 Speaker 5: Who else copped a bunch of I've.

9:53 Speaker 1: The farthest it's gone.

9:54 Speaker 3: It's there's a hat kicking around in Missouri, there's a hat kicking around in Tennessee, a couple t shirts in Tennessee. But yeah, local artists out there. His name is Big Smow. He's been on A and E and oh okay shot Big Bar Rescue. He's now running a food truck. So he's kind of like taking a hiatus.

10:12 Speaker 1: Yeah.

10:13 Speaker 4: So now you get little pieces of yous starting to spread across the country.

10:16 Speaker 1: Yeah.

10:17 Speaker 3: 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.

10:22 Speaker 5: One Man Street.

10:24 Speaker 3: 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, and I was like, hey, I got a couple of 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.

10:58 Speaker 3: And he's like, yeah, no problem, that's all 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 The Kingdom, and the other one was his brand new CD that just came out.

11:09 Speaker 1: Oh that's very cool. Yeah, yeah that was when you have to fill in order for somebody in another part of the country. That must be pretty cool. Yeah.

11:18 Speaker 3: 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 at time 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.

11:33 Speaker 1: That you never would have thought would actually.

11:35 Speaker 3: 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 that you look even if it's like fifteen seconds. Yeah, I'm like, wow, that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's it's not like universal yet, but just getting those little notifications when it pops up saying that somebody from somebody else is looking at your stuff, It's like, holy crap.

11:56 Speaker 4: Oh yeah on where what people tap into you after the show because we're broadcasting everywhere.

12:02 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well that's the beauty of the of the internet. Yeah, you plug the website.

12:09 Speaker 5: What it's called.

12:10 Speaker 3: Yeah, it's www fouryhmclothing dot com.

12:14 Speaker 1: Yes, yes, it's prett easy to remember. And we're also.

12:17 Speaker 4: Carrying out your Facebook page and links as well into the.

12:19 Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, gotcha, thank you. Yeah, we're on.

12:23 Speaker 3: I'm on Instagram, Instagram as roychim Clothing. I'm also on TikTok as mister Foychim Clothing or mister foym.

12:32 Speaker 1: I'm curious so over over the course of this, so it's been nine years, right, because i'm bat of mouth, because you started in twenty fifteen. What are some of the just like I said, I love talking to entrepreneurs, what are some of the challenges.

12:44 Speaker 3: Just getting people to like respect you and like take a 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.

12:57 Speaker 1: This is the website, like oh, twenty nine.

13:00 Speaker 3: 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. Oh I draw the design, yeah, yeah, which one of them? Think one of them was Joey's friend at first. Yeah, was this guy called mister Crane. He's out in Washington. Oh, he did some of the cool designs I did. At first, it 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.

13:26 Speaker 3: 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.

13:42 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.

13:43 Speaker 5: Like when I say I almost wore that shirt today too.

13:46 Speaker 2: Oh you should, but I have recently lost some wheat and I'm swimming in it.

13:51 Speaker 1: I did not you need a new one. That's that what you're saying. I need to need to know. Like, man, that's good.

13:56 Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's part of the motivation. And then like I take that. I tell them I was like, bring a 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.

14:11 Speaker 1: That got lost. Yeah, he wore that every day. Somebody still but I think you dropped it in the store.

14:16 Speaker 5: But yeah, well somebody took it. It's gone. I hope they're rocking it.

14:20 Speaker 1: Something that happened to my daughter too.

14:22 Speaker 3: Like my youngest daughter, Aliyah 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 start it, 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. So there's one.

14:51 Speaker 3: There's a United States flag one kicking around. So I had to get her a new one for her birthday.

14:55 Speaker 1: Yeah, and she loves it. Yeah, good good. So so part of the challenge of finding people to work with to design.

15:04 Speaker 3: No, not really, not anymore like Lee Giles out in Portland is off Giles Giles.

15:09 Speaker 5: Sorry correction, that was my bad too, that Lee Giles.

15:14 Speaker 1: He's a really good artist.

15:15 Speaker 3: 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 credit 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 ther He threw a Joey Joey Painter's record in there, Joey's Sun Convide.

15:36 Speaker 1: He left that in there. And it's such a cool shirt. That's a great concept, that's a great idea.

15:42 Speaker 2: He is super talented too. That guy can do He should do more work than he does. He did a Deadpool Wolverine opening night. Yeah, come out see the movie and get yourself portrait the way I draw it comic book. It was so good. Yeah, he's awesome. Wow, he deserves you deserve four HM Lee Giles. They work really hard.

16:06 Speaker 1: Yeah, I forget you. You work really hard.

16:08 Speaker 3: He does so much locally to like his 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.

16:27 Speaker 5: Shout out, Richard Riley.

16:28 Speaker 4: Do you do tables at events?

16:30 Speaker 1: Yes, with Joey, I've been to a handful of them.

16:33 Speaker 4: Yes, Oh that 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. Talk about what that is.

16:43 Speaker 3: 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 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.

17:12 Speaker 3: 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 shirt design that you loved, that's the album cover.

17:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was like, holy crap, that's awesome. Oh very cool. Yeah. Yeah, he has a couple.

17:29 Speaker 3: 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 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.

18:06 Speaker 1: And his name is b K. He's he was huge in the Underground Seed back in the day.

18:11 Speaker 3: He's trying to like get his health back so he can go back and tour the country.

18:14 Speaker 1: Like not just America.

18:15 Speaker 3: This guy was huge like in like other countries like Czecho, 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.

18:35 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm familiar with them Dot.

18:36 Speaker 2: And a shadow at m dot ems undoucati all them sorry.

18:42 Speaker 3: And I'm not used to it. I was like, I really liked that shirt 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.

19:00 Speaker 1: He has a Freddy Kruger glove.

19:02 Speaker 3: And it's just like an eerie picture because it's like the Killer Mike Tyson, Like, yeah, everybody was terrified of 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 shirt and I and I'll take yours if that's all right with you, And he's like, yeah, anything to support local people.

19:21 Speaker 1: Yeah. He literally took that.

19:23 Speaker 3: On tour 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.

19:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, 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 ti IDOB album. But he's talk about hustlers and uh, you know, mental health awareness, like that's what the song is all about too.

19:56 Speaker 5: I hope, I hope it comes to light and it's really really good.

19:59 Speaker 1: Oh that's cool.

20:00 Speaker 5: This I hope they do a video and wear his shirt is something that'd be so cool.

20:03 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, no kidding.

20:04 Speaker 2: Know.

20:05 Speaker 3: 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 like a music video. Yeah, like in like actually like featured in it. Yeah, And it was just like a cool, like a total cool experience.

20:22 Speaker 1: Yeah. We literally shot it in Dover.

20:24 Speaker 5: Oh shout out Brian Linguist.

20:25 Speaker 1: And what was the name of that song? Joey left right? Okay, so that's on YouTube, I assume, right.

20:33 Speaker 5: Yeah, we got all four videos.

20:35 Speaker 2: So the cool thing about that is press Room, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, October fifteenth. I'm gonna plug real quick. Yeah, 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, projective if it works out right. Yeah, 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.

21:09 Speaker 5: When they see that videos and stuff, Hey, what's that? I'm going to look that.

21:13 Speaker 1: Up exactly exactly.

21:15 Speaker 2: Yeah, so performing to all four music videos, We've got like the set version of the videos with no lyrics there.

21:22 Speaker 5: And it'll be really really cool.

21:23 Speaker 1: Oh sweet.

21:24 Speaker 5: He was a definite inspiration for that second video.

21:27 Speaker 3: 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 like.

21:52 Speaker 5: You knew a bunch of people I knew too, Yes, So that was a small world.

21:57 Speaker 3: And then I was we were talking about rap music and I was like, we were chopping it up and I was like, you do rab music And he's like, yeah, you didn't know. I was like no, he's literally out of the blue.

22:06 Speaker 1: He came in.

22:07 Speaker 3: He handed me a CD one day and I was like, if you're giving me something, I want you to sign it. I have 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 hold nees while we're driving. You could drive your phone, you could drive your car. What could need while you were trying to grab a new CD?

22:28 Speaker 1: I remember that.

22:29 Speaker 2: Well got my ironic CD booklet, that thick book in my trunk right now.

22:35 Speaker 5: Ever since high school, I've like, I've never let it go.

22:38 Speaker 4: I used to call that when I was working ems job security. The newspaper and the book on the steering wheel. Oh, I know, with watching the road, I mean, what's what's that worth?

22:49 Speaker 5: I know what you were doing. Yeah, you're looking for a song my horoscope.

22:55 Speaker 3: 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 playing like hours and music exactly exactly to try to drive the car with your knee, Yeah, trying to grab the new CD.

23:10 Speaker 1: Although physical CDs are still so very much a thing. In fact, you know, our previous guests we had on the first hour, the Forest Forgets, 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 Vido 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?

23:41 Speaker 1: I would think, right if.

23:43 Speaker 3: It wasn't for them, I don't think I'd be doing as good as I am, Like, yeah, because of me being originally being like Mickey for Joey and then the roles of kind of like we've kind.

23:51 Speaker 5: Of both nicking each other.

23:53 Speaker 1: We're kind of both mickeing each other now.

23:55 Speaker 3: Like literally I'm like when I'm feeling down and like, I don't know if I want to keep doing this, 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. The ultimate goal is to not have a nine to five and literally have a hopefully someday like 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.

24:32 Speaker 4: I love one of them, but I can't tell you which one because it's a bad word.

24:35 Speaker 1: Oh something we can't but it's my.

24:38 Speaker 4: Favorite word that I say in almost all of my speeches.

24:40 Speaker 1: Oh okay, that's probably Joey's least favorite one.

24:47 Speaker 4: The BS one.

24:49 Speaker 5: Oh I can't. I have to look at it again.

24:52 Speaker 1: One of the newest ones.

24:53 Speaker 3: He's not a fan of but I'm a towny kid and it was in a towney movie and I just changed the F to a pH.

25:00 Speaker 1: And I love and I love that.

25:02 Speaker 3: 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 Mark.

25:14 Speaker 1: I'm sorry, Mark Wahlberg.

25:15 Speaker 5: He almost said Marky Mark.

25:17 Speaker 3: I did almost said Marky Mark. 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.

25:28 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

25:29 Speaker 3: That movie was a big inspiration because 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 that T shirt. 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.

25:58 Speaker 1: Oh you know, yes, I have to. I have I have to.

26:02 Speaker 3: 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.

26:06 Speaker 1: Of course.

26:08 Speaker 3: Fine, but it's only one. If you see, there's like every Boston team on there.

26:13 Speaker 4: All right, I can give you that. I can give you that.

26:15 Speaker 1: 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 they run into that where maybe somebody somebody sends a season desists because they don't like, uh, you know, they think you've been fringed on their trademark or their copyright somehow. But you've never run I have not run into that yet. Yeah, that's good.

26:38 Speaker 5: I actually ran into that. Remember years ago, Joey did have that happen.

26:43 Speaker 2: 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.

26:52 Speaker 5: It was literally a cease and desist.

26:54 Speaker 2: Yeah, like stop everything, I want you to take everything down.

26:57 Speaker 5: All my friends are like don't do that, right, But.

27:01 Speaker 2: 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, right, because.

27:11 Speaker 1: I think I still use it on Facebook, isn't it? You have it in parentheses, don't you?

27:15 Speaker 5: Yeah?

27:15 Speaker 1: Yeah?

27:15 Speaker 5: Yeah, That's why I was like, eh, yeah, take a hag, buddy.

27:18 Speaker 1: I literally told him.

27:20 Speaker 3: I literally told him the same thing when he was like justin this guy's threatening to assume me. I'm like, I don't think you can own a name, but if you could, know you can. If you can, I'm like, can I see what it looks like? 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 a name for himself.

27:50 Speaker 3: Like if somebody knew who this other guy was, there would have been a lot more people going, hey Joey, right, that.

27:56 Speaker 4: Happened to me years ago on Facebook Because on Facebook I have this little it's a nick the Liberty Lady, and this woman like sent me this nasty girl like I had that for I just ignored her. Oh yeah whatever.

28:10 Speaker 2: Written I think in uh uk Or I might have been Australia. I can't remember, but this, 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, you scare the little guy like trying to make a name for himself.

28:29 Speaker 1: Let it go. I actually like.

28:30 Speaker 3: His name better now did Joey? What he actually hasn't 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.

28:46 Speaker 1: Yeah, but I like his new like the nude. What does Joey stand for?

28:49 Speaker 4: Now?

28:49 Speaker 1: And I can I can relate to asthmatic?

28:51 Speaker 2: But yes, I'll beaut all what I I literally took my name and made it a a acronym.

29:01 Speaker 5: Just only explain yourself.

29:03 Speaker 1: Oh see, I didn't realize that.

29:05 Speaker 2: I never put it on a T shirt or anything. But I mean, babe, maybe maybe that's idea, but I literally like after that happened, I was like, real name, no gimmicks, I don't care. I'll just go Eric sermon on him. It's okay. Joey Painter has a good ring to it. I think, no, he goes aside, but you know it's just easier.

29:24 Speaker 5: Was there's no trademark. What are you gonna assume me for my name? Get out of here. That's my real name. Sorry.

29:28 Speaker 3: And I think you 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.

29:41 Speaker 1: Literally.

29:42 Speaker 3: One of his rap songs is I'm I'm only a painter or just or I'm just a painter.

29:47 Speaker 5: Rapper, I'm a painter.

29:48 Speaker 4: Yeah, my mom did a logo from years ago. She had a lot of fun with the last name Coffee.

29:53 Speaker 5: You could do anything Oh yeah, that's awesome.

29:55 Speaker 4: Oh yeah, my son used to have friends that called him mister decaffeinated.

30:00 Speaker 1: See. The nice thing about my name is, uh, the the chances of a Matt Connorton emerging somewhere and saying, well, you can't call your radio show Matt Connorton unleashed because that's my name. It's just not going to happen. Like, there's very few Connorton's. It's just not gonna happen.

30:15 Speaker 4: There is one other Matt Connorton's spelled the same way as you, and it's your uncle.

30:19 Speaker 1: That's right, that's right.

30:21 Speaker 3: I don't think your uncle's going to see you. He may want to come on the radio show once in a while, right, at.

30:26 Speaker 4: Least seven Jennifer Coffee's in the stadium here.

30:28 Speaker 1: Yeah, Jennifer Coffee is a common name. Yeah yeah, but uh but yeah, I don't uh, I don't have that uh that issue certainly. So what now? So the long term goal is is to to really blow up and make this a full time that's the ultimate goal.

30:44 Speaker 3: 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. Yeah, the ultimate goal before I die is to like be like Nike. Yeah, maybe not as big as Nike, but like 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.

31:12 Speaker 3: So like literally not everybody has the same shirt.

31:16 Speaker 1: Right, do you have a do you have like a plan and a strategy to get there or is it more adjusted?

31:22 Speaker 3: You're just gonna keep grinding it, Just keep grinding. That's the that's the fun of the hustle about it. Yeah, 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 I wrote poetry for the longest time.

31:36 Speaker 1: Yeah.

31:37 Speaker 3: 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, 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. Okay, it's 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.

32:10 Speaker 3: 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.

32:26 Speaker 1: Sure, is that ever frustrating to you that that you can't just draw yourself? Or Yeah, it's a big frush like I try.

32:33 Speaker 3: Like there's literally one of my coolest shirts that I ever that I ever had designed. I literally couldn't draw it. 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.

32:52 Speaker 4: Who said it to him?

32:53 Speaker 1: Kelsey, my boss?

32:54 Speaker 3: You never told me that, So there's literally Kelsey, there's literally a 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. 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 dog's sad and most of the time when it's drizzling and drizzling outside, like you get that like sadness.

33:28 Speaker 3: So I was like, that would be such a cool idea, but I couldn't, like we kept getting lost in translation. 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.

33:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, and she drew it.

33:47 Speaker 3: I snapped the 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 portray, right, And that's happened before. Literally, I've got frustrated and I'm like, just forget it.

34:09 Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you ever 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 have them take a crack at us. Yeah.

34:27 Speaker 3: I've literally had to do that before a couple of times. There was a there was a cool design that I was trying to come across, which was it's not released yet, 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, and he's like, I can't, I can't touch that. I can't. I don't know what to do.

34:54 Speaker 3: It's not my style, it's not my way of doing things. And I was like okay, and then I went on to I went on to Lee and I was like, Lee, this is their 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. Oh wow, it's not released yet. It's still on the back burner. 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.

35:26 Speaker 3: 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.

35:47 Speaker 1: Right right now, who designed your logo? I really liked the logo did well.

35:54 Speaker 3: 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 in like the underground, like like country rap scene, and one of the country rappers that I was talking to was like, you should really look into this guy.

36:13 Speaker 1: And I was like, what's his name?

36:15 Speaker 3: And he's like, he's called Caesar Beavers because his last name is Beavers and his first name was 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. 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, George.

36:46 Speaker 3: 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. That's the the staple one. Because a lot of people tell you have to have like three designs. Right now, we only have two, okay, 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 a symbol, which would be the tribal design by itself with no no writing in it.

37:17 Speaker 1: 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.

37:39 Speaker 3: Yeah, 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.

37:54 Speaker 1: Yeah, like it it would.

37:56 Speaker 3: 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 like deals. I think the deals are what more people are looking for, because I've done a couple of deals and that's what drove 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 real good for like a couple of designs that I've did.

38:26 Speaker 1: 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? There was a guy I met at a UFC event years ago. He ran.

38:40 Speaker 3: His name is Mark and her 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, Like I saw different brands like I kind of run it more like a TapouT 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.

39:51 Speaker 3: 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.

40:00 Speaker 5: I love when he does an event and he comes a and I'm like, dude, you sell anything. He's like, yeah, that's so great.

40:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, that you take that motivation to the next thing you're going to do, and so on and so on and so on.

40:11 Speaker 5: It's awesome when you sell things.

40:13 Speaker 1: It shows Yeah, no, that's excellent. That's excellent. Before we run out of time, too. I do want to ask you, uh.

40:20 Speaker 5: For the record, I'm sorry I was late.

40:22 Speaker 1: Oh that's okay, that's okay. Here, but how did the how did the show? Do you did that benefit show at Walmart that you were promoting last time you were here? Did that go? Well?

40:32 Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah?

40:32 Speaker 2: 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.

40:46 Speaker 1: Excellent.

40:46 Speaker 2: This year we tried it out in the parking lot, thinking we'll have more room.

40:51 Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, only what was it? What did we do?

40:55 Speaker 1: It wasn't as big, It wasn't as big.

40:57 Speaker 2: 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.

41:04 Speaker 5: We did last year.

41:05 Speaker 2: Okay, so the census of the employees that were involved, the volunteers. We're going to bring it back out front under the Walmart sign next year because that's like the revolving crowd.

41:22 Speaker 5: Everybody's dropping it in.

41:24 Speaker 2: People leave the store, they don't want to go back and park, get out of their car. Do this, you know, it's way more effective and when people are saying, hey, you guys need to do that out front next year.

41:38 Speaker 5: It was way better.

41:39 Speaker 2: You got to 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 got to listen. But it was a success totally. It was awesome.

41:49 Speaker 4: And before we go, I want to make sure we mention that you have a show coming up on September twenty ninth porch Fest in Rochester, New Hampshire.

41:56 Speaker 5: Yes, Yes, porch Fest.

41:57 Speaker 2: Shout out King Polo in the way. 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 Portsfest was one of them. Very excited Rochester, New Hampshire. Uh, Portsmouth is actually doing one today.

42:18 Speaker 5: What are they doing out here?

42:20 Speaker 1: Oh?

42:20 Speaker 4: 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.

42:37 Speaker 5: Yes, I like that.

42:39 Speaker 2: I like that for the community Rochester. Uh struggle in town. Sure, honestly, all 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.

43:11 Speaker 5: Oh cool, awesome, Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a good stuff.

43:15 Speaker 1: Was standing.

43:15 Speaker 2: Oh, King Pole is gonna have like a hundred goodie bags for like kids and stuff he's gonna hand out.

43:19 Speaker 1: Oh really true if you can, oh, 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 him Where they.

43:33 Speaker 3: Can pop onto the Facebook page, which is four chim Clothing, they can pop onto the website itself, which is Foychimclothing dot com. I'm sorry www dot nobody uses the w.

43:45 Speaker 4: Oh my god, you have no idea? I dare to say that this one.

43:50 Speaker 1: I mean, I think we did a whole segment one day on the show saying WWW.

43:55 Speaker 5: Do you remember what WWW stands for?

44:00 Speaker 4: Worldwide Web?

44:01 Speaker 1: Yes, that was correct.

44:03 Speaker 4: I do it every once in a while, and he gets you.

44:06 Speaker 5: Don't need to say that.

44:07 Speaker 3: The good thing about it is literally you can type in Fohm clothing and believe it's the first thing that pops up on most search engines.

44:15 Speaker 1: Oh, no doubt ye.

44:15 Speaker 3: It was awesome, by the very, very googleable.

44:19 Speaker 4: I like that word. I'm not going to try and say it, but I like that word.

44:22 Speaker 1: 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 to have.

44:47 Speaker 5: Had the title as WWW.

44:50 Speaker 1: 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 crow that day 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 sure.

45:12 Speaker 4: There either, but I just remember that, yeah.

45:14 Speaker 1: I'm sure that. Yeah, there 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. Absolutely absolutely, And 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 Beatsmith Madoor on the cuts is that's that's the title, right, I'm a painter.

45:52 Speaker 1: I'm not leaving anything out, okay, And those are swears of this one, right.

45:54 Speaker 2: No, there was not, Yeah, I believe I loved it the last time we were here. If there is one, you definitely play it before.

46:00 Speaker 1: Yeah I did. Okay, right, Yeah, I.

46:02 Speaker 5: Love the Edits. By the way, thank you.

46:03 Speaker 3: That's on the beat. Joey's son is getting so good at everything.

46:10 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, we talked about that a little bit. Yeah, does he have music up? Unavailable?

46:15 Speaker 4: He has music?

46:16 Speaker 5: Okay, he's eighteen.

46:17 Speaker 2: Okay, you know, there's a lot of like conversations in which direction to go.

46:22 Speaker 5: He knows what he wants to do yet it's like, all due respect.

46:28 Speaker 1: That was an inside all due respect.

46:30 Speaker 5: 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. I want to bring him on.

46:43 Speaker 2: He's got a lot of good stuff to talk about.

46:47 Speaker 5: Yeah, so artist, well we'll set it up.

46:49 Speaker 1: Okay, cool, cool, sounds good, sounds good. All right, So we will end the hour with this again. Thank you both so much, thank you for having us.

46:56 Speaker 5: Thank you.

46:57 Speaker 1: And here it is. I'm a Painter by Joey Painter.