Stickers on the Mic Podcast

Join us in our latest podcast episode as we host John Clinton, the creative mind behind ColoradoCool Apparel. Born out of passion and a relentless desire to be different, ColoradoCool Apparel is the brainchild of a designer who's always looking to push boundaries and create designs that embody the spirit of Colorado.

Growing up in Colorado, John's love for the great outdoors and the state's vibrant culture always found a way into his art. It was this consistent theme in his designs that birthed the idea of ColoradoCool Apparel. From its humble beginnings as a personal project to improve his design skills, it has evolved into a brand that's all about celebrating Colorado's unique lifestyle.

ColoradoCool Apparel is more than just a brand - it's a growing community of Instagram brand ambassadors across Colorado and the globe who resonate with the brand's designs and lifestyle, giving life and meaning to ColoradoCool. The brand is all about its people, those who love Colorado and the lifestyle it promotes.

And as the brand continues to grow, John is committed to giving back to the Colorado community. Whether it's investing in environmental preservation or providing gear to those less fortunate, ColoradoCool Apparel is all about embracing and enhancing the Colorado lifestyle.

Tune into this episode to hear more about John's journey in creating ColoradoCool Apparel, how he challenges the norms of design, and his vision for the future of this unique brand. Check out this inspiring episode anywhere you get your podcasts.

Joshua Mehzer tried to germinate his first cannabis seed while in high school, after attending one of the early public protests in the UK to decriminalize cannabis in the year 2000. Shortly after moving to the USA in 2010, he found himself dropping out of the University of Santa Cruz to grow medicinal cannabis full time. Since then he has grown cannabis hydroponically, aeroponically, soil medium, indoors, and outside in greenhouses and full sun. He developed the worlds 1st pair of smart electric scissors for timing cannabis and has participated at all levels of the industry. His love of plants goes back to an early age, but cannabis is his favourite and he has grown a lot of it.

He started A Pot for Pot and A Pot for Plants to empower people to grow their own plants and to combat the stigma that pot is difficult to grow.

He's been approached by countless amateur home hobbyists who would like to start a small personal grow, but don't know where to begin. They're overwhelmed with information, and think there must be some secret sauce to growing great plants. He created a kit so anyone can grow their own clean, plants at home. Everything needed is in the box. Just add water, seed, and sun. The simple directions take customers through the process step-by-step, and make it easy to grow their own natural herbs right on their desk or balcony, or in their living room or home garden.

In this episode, Josh covers a lot of ground regarding how difficult it is for cannabis brands to advertise and grow their business in the current internet marketplaces, how he developed this product, and how he is scaling and moving into new markets with his brands.

Charminta Brown is the founder and owner of Brown Joy, a brand that highlights the importance of representation, worthiness, and normalcy by featuring Black and Brown characters in everyday products, such as stickers and other industries where Black and Brown people are not commonly seen.

Char has daughter named Joy, and as a mom, she always wants Joy to see herself in everything positive specifically in children’s products. For example, every time Charminta would take her daughter Joy to the Pediatrician, Dentist office, or business that gave children stickers, Joy would always receive stickers of animals or of characters that do not look like her. Charminta was exhausted from witnessing the lack of representation in sticker selection, so she decided to create Brown Joy where Black and Brown characters can be showcased in everyday items we love and enjoy.

Brown Joy wholeheartedly believes that all children need to see positive images of Black and Brown characters. The purpose of this brand is to create images that showcase Black and Brown characters to increase recognition. Due to the scarcity of Black and Brown characters portrayed on children's products, they believe it is crucial to create a space for diversity and inclusion to promote representation, worthiness, and normalcy of Black and Brown people.

Brown Joy is a Black Women Owned Business that is on a mission to display Brown Joy characters on children’s products to promote cultural competence.

In the first year of her business, Char found herself and her story written into the United States Congressional Record for her contribution as a distinguished Black female business leader in Central Florida. A truly historic moment, and one to shout from the mountaintops.

Listen in to the early days of this business, and where it's going next.

The Black Chef Movement was inspired by activists and Black and brown communities stepping up to fight social injustice. Disturbed by civil unrest and the inequities in urban communities, Executive Director and chef Rasheeda McCallum used her love of food and passion for justice to create the Black Chef Movement.

BCM works to create a network of Black and brown chefs together to provide healthy and nourishing meals to folks in need of mutual aid. In just three years, BCM has grown to include nearly 250 volunteers and has fed thousands of activists and families across New York State.

Listen in to hear how Rasheeda started the organization and what's next as she continues to serve her community, one meal at a time.

Tiphanie Anirah started CreeAnna's LLC during the COVID pandemic, selling cookies, muffins sweet breads and African meat pies. Now, her products are available at almost every event in Pocatello, Idaho.

She learned about African food and culture as a student at Idaho State University, and she started making food at home to share.

On the behest of her friends, she soon started sharing her food with more than just friends. Tiphanie harnessed her passion for baking and started her brand by focusing on African Meat Pies, a flaky, pastry filled with meat, vegetables and African spices, as her flagship product. She added cookies, sweet breads, cakes and chin chin, which are small, fried, doughnutlike treats native to West Africa, to her menu.

She used her middle name (CreeAnna) as inspiration for the business name and purpose. Now nearing her fourth year in business, she has plans to expand and grow the brand. Listen in to her how she got started and what's next.

Ethan Levy is the founder and host of Dork Dancing. Ethan, diagnosed as bipolar, has been hospitalized twice for his episodes of mania. These experiences were life-changing, altering his perspective on life entirely. During the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown, Ethan reflected on his values, purpose, and story. He decided to fight for a cause, advocating for mental health through dance. Ethan is going out to the streets making a statement and helping others let loose. Ethan is on a mission to help others move well and break free from psychological barriers.

Dance holds tremendous power and Dork Dancing is helping more people tap into that power by letting loose. As a community, Dork Dancing is growing together while raising awareness for mental health. Dork Dancing is something that's visible, that's positive, and that can spread. Dork Dancing means dancing like dorks to do something good for mental health. Dork Dancing is also project of the Colorado Nonprofit Development Center, and StickerGiant is a sponsor of their stickers.

Ethan joined the show to talk about how the idea is growing and helping to bring about awareness for mental health.

Chuck Williams is the Senior Director of R&D Global Platform at the Avery Dennison Corporation, and he joined the show for a special National Sticker Day episode where he talked about polymer science, sustainability and his path at Avery. He shared a few terrific stories, including his meeting with R. Stanton Avery, the founder of Avery Labels and the reason StickerGiant chose January 13th (his birthday) as the date for National Sticker Day.

In his thirty years at Avery, he's been able to work on development projects that have changed the way labels are produced, and how the label industry continues to evolve.

Jennifer Santi is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Zingerman's Deli.

Zingerman's is a community of eight food-related businesses all located in the Ann Arbor, MI area that has become an institution in itself. Their mission is to share the Zingerman’s experience selling food that makes people happy and giving service that makes people smile.

Jennifer spoke on the podcast about Zingerman's iconic designs, local focus and community-oriented growth. She shared how they bring the Zingerman’s Experience to as many people as possible by focusing on their 3 Bottom Lines (Great Food, Great Service, Great Finance) and about how their Guiding Principles shape how they work together, how they relate to each other, to their guests, to their suppliers, and to their community.

Listen in to learn more about how Zingerman's impacts the community in Ann Arbor and what's next for this growing group of businesses.

Hunnie Butter is a small family business owned and operated by husband and wife team, Jonathan & Jasmine. They are located in Mesa, AZ, but they are proud Los Angeles natives. They met 10 years ago at a bakery and they have been on the same team ever since. Their mission is to make incredible and beautiful, scratch-baked goods like layered cakes, cookies, bars, round cakes and caramels.

Jasmine joined the show to talk about how she's growing her eCommerce brand while also creating a local business that offers Hunnie Butter baked goods and classes.

Jasmine's passion for culinary arts, impeccable attention to detail, and customer-centric business ethics have helped her mold Hunnie Butter into what it is today. Her great grandmother instilled in Jasmine a passion for baking that gave her th extra push to go to culinary school. After completing school, she had some amazing opportunities to come her way including participating on four competitive baking shows: Cupcake Wars, Cake Boss: Next Great Baker, Duff til Dawn(winner!), and Cake Wars.

After getting married and starting a family, Hunnie Butter was born. When the brand was being built, Jasmine wanted to tap into another one of her passions: teaching. Now they also share their years of knowledge and practice with others interested in learning the craft.

Nithin and Susan are two of the co-founders of JKL Teahouse, publishers of "R Is For Rice." They joined the show to talk about Asian American representation in children's literature and starting a self-publishing brand.

As Asian Americans growing up in the U.S., they rarely saw themselves reflected in popular books and media. They created their first book, R is for Rice, to celebrate Asian cultures infused in daily American life. Their goal is to take readers on a journey through the alphabet with the ABC’s of Asian American foods.

At JKL Teahouse, they are proud of their multiple Asian heritages, and they are proud to be Americans. Their mission is to inspire a broader definition of “American” by offering products that reflect Asian Americans and the impact of Asian communities on American life.

They also spoke about starting their publishing and ecommerce brand, and how the creative process works in their business. Listen in to learn more about they are working to create a more inclusive world through kids books.