<editorsnote>Hi, I'm Jen Friel, and we here at TNTML examine the lives of nerds outside of the basements and into the social media, and dating world. We have over 75 peeps that write about their life in real time. (Real nerds, real time, real deal.) Sit back, relax, and enjoy some of the stories!!</editorsnote>
<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Morgan. I met him when he was the manager at the Coffee Bean near my house. See, I was the mayor at the time, and then explained to him one day over a vanilla latte the awesomeness that was Foursquare and a few months (and many more coffees later) we totes became besties and he started writing for the site. This is life as told through his eyes in the keyword of nerd. HIT IT MORGAN!!! </editorsnote>
#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @maniacalmorgan
December 2010, I took a leap of faith, forever changing my professional destiny. For four years I was stuck in the same old rut- serving coffee to complete strangers for next to no compensation. Through the amazing support of friends Jen Friel and Tucker Gumber (just to name a few), I decided to get up and take control. Within a month, I had landed a job with SpiritHoods doing their social media and have been happily employed as the "Director of Social Media Marketing" for the past year. Yay life!
For those of you who don't know me, hello! My name is Morgan. Not only am I a total nerd, but I'm also unapologetically awesome. There are many of you who don't know me, but I go back a few years. Since taking on my position at SpiritHoods, I've had next to no time to write here on TNTML, but here I am. Nerds need loving too. Enough of this little tangent. Back to the story.
Life effin' happens to me on a seemingly regular basis. For instance,when I was 21 I found out through MySpace that I was adopted. You have to roll with the punches and adapt to the circumstance. Sometimes, when things seem to reach a stale mate, the puzzle pieces seem to just come together. I've lived in Los Angeles for 90% of my life. As much as I love it here, there has been a voice in the back of my head telling me that I need something different. I need a change. In July, one of my good friends (of 10+ years) from NYC came to visit me during 4th of July. I've always loved this girl and she's been an awesome friend, but things went from love to love. How would things ever work out between two people on opposite coasts? In August, I went out to NYC to visit and not only did continue to fall more and more in love with her, but I fell in love with NYC. Could it be that the puzzle pieces, which I never even realized were pieces of a puzzle, were starting to fall together? After spending a few months over on the East Coast, I decided that it this was the change I needed - I'm moving to NYC.
So great. Now that I've decided to move 2,000+ miles, what's the next step? How am I going to support myself. Having known Jen for a few years, I seem to always have her voice in the back of my head telling me, "Morgan, you're awesome. Go be awesome." I have this passion for social media, but what do I do with that. It clicked- I am going to start my own business. Talking about the pieces coming together, I remembered that I had a friend who owns her own PR firm who just opened a new office in Manhattan. After talking with her, not only is she making introductions to some of her clients, she is giving me office space to work out of. I gave myself from October until December to figure out how I was going to support myself in NYC, and I actually met my goal. Social Media, here I come!
Here's where things get dicey. I am making the move into self-employment sooner than expected. SpiritHoods is my first client, and as of now my only client. Wouldn't be a problem, but I am making this transition starting February 1st. Let me tell you, in the freelance social media world, one client isn't enough to support yourself. Like the theme of this post, life effin' happens. Adapt and overcome. I could be scared and paralyzed by the thought of not knowing what I am going to do, but that's not me. It's crunch time and I'm hustling. Despite the fact that it's happening sooner than expected, I welcome this change with open arms.
Don't let your destiny control you; control your destiny.
Yeah. Totally not kidding. Wanna know how it happened?
Because of my spirithood.
Like period. End of sentence.
Actually, first, let's take a few steps back. Did you guys know I even got the new Night Owl Spirithood? No prolly not - cause I haven't even posted on it yet - bahhhh!! BAT SHIT!!!
K. So, on Tuesday, @maniacalmorgan hit me up (who is our former co-editor that now works social media for spirithoods. Tangent: See, we sold so many of 'em they wanted to offer me commission or something. I said that was lame, and staying hungry kept me motivated. How about taking that money and giving my co-editor who worked for me for almost a year ENTIRELY FOR FREEEEEE a job. And poof! He got it - been working there since like January. They're all so happy. Dude, it was a perfect mix. That just had to happen. SO STOKED!) and said that Spirithoods had 4 VIP passes to see Conan later (they literally have VIP for TV shows. It's weird, but they make sure you can see well and not have like a 6'8" duderino in front of you. Very kind).
EITHER WAY!!! I get invited to the show with one of the creators, one of the exec assistants, and Morgan. Spirithoods just released their night owl a few months back, and I hadn't seen it yet - so I asked Morgan if I could borrow it for the day. Sure, no problema - he came picked me up, let me wear it ... and we had SOOOOOOO MMUUUCHHHHH FUNNNNNN!!!
Here are some screen grabs I got from TeamCoco.com!
Upper right hand corner of the screen!
There we all are - just hangin out. Conan is a big supporter of Spirithoods after Vanessa Hudgens introduced him to them a few months back. And dudes- that was TOTALLY ORGANIC!!! She didn't contact his people, they didn't contact spirithoods - nada. She was just genuinely passionate about 'em and gave one to Conan when he interviewed her. AMMAAZIINNGGG!!
So yeah! We were going to leave, and one of the creators was like yo, we need to give you some more. How many do you have? I told him I had the panda (thanks to you loverly people), red wolf, night hawk, and leopard. He then said, here's a snow leopard to your collection and he also totally let me keep the night owl. AMAZING since I think it totally fits my personality:
Wisdom » Truth » Clairvoyance The Owl is often regarded as a messenger between worlds. The Owl Spirit is at home in the night and embraces darkness to their advantage. Owls easily see through the facade to the core of things where truth lives and breathes. People with the Owl Spirit are swift and precise with their thoughts and movements. Owls are highly aware beings awake to protect that which is sacred when most of the world sleeps.
IMHO clearly. But dude, I'm totally a messenger. That's like my bread and butter to life!!! I can cut out the BS and break things down for non-nerdy peeps on how they can use social media for their businesses, etc. Totally gets me excited.
So on Tuesday - that happened. And on Saturday, still clearly excited that I got the night owl, and after it being a tit bit nipply out - I decided to wear it to the Prince concert as well.
My new roomster works for LiveNation, so they had given her tickets, and passes to get into the club forum (the super fancy pants area where you can get drinks and chill before, during, and after the show). Not too shabby!! We were walking up to get our tickets at will call, and I was just completely geeking out. Like HARDCORE!!! I am a DIE HARD Prince fan. It's my fav channel on Pandora, and um - yeah ... the little duderino makes my life.
There I was in my spirithood - LOSSSINNNNGGGG MY MIINNNDDD even just staring at my ticket, and the guy behind the counter goes ... I really like your hat. Here, these will get you next to the stage - have fun. He proceeds to put a golden bracelet around our wrists.
I am almost about to faint at that point. WAIT - the STAGE?!?!?!!? Like how close?!?! OMG!!! I grab Julie (aka the roomie) and say we HAVE to see how far this thing will get us.
We proceed to walk into the Forum, and everyone stops us. Sure we had our seat tickets, and the badge to be back in the club Forum area - but people were so perplexed by our bracelets. Gold?? One security guard said. No, to get to the floor you need red and white.
Now, I KNEW that guy was not BSing me. It was a gut reaction - that guy didn't want anyone to know we had those passes. Another security guard approaches - those are the family passes. Let them through.
FAMILY PASSES??!?!?!?! WE ARE GOING TO SIT IN PRINCE'S FAMILY AREA FOR THE SHOW?!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!
We start walking down the stairs - I am barely able to contain myself, but anxious at the same time wondering how many people had this pass, would we be standing, sitting - who cares, shut up Jen - it's PRINCE!!!
We walk all the way down. Literally ... all. the. way. down. to. the stage.
We first sit in the VIP area and just grab a seat. Julie looked a bit nervous, but I grabbed the closest seat to the stage, and just plopped my lil fanny down to enjoy the show. 2.5 seconds later - security came by. Where are your passes?
I show them the wristband. Oh! We're family.
OOHHHH family? You guys aren't in this section - you are in the even SMALLER ... even CLOSER section to the stage.
I very literally almost fainted at that point.
This teeny tiny little roped off area RIGHT next to the stage that looked like it held mayybbeee 20 people!?!?
SHUT.THE.FRONT.DOOR!!!
I don't think you understand how excited I was at that point. They warned us repeatedly though that people have been kicked out of this section for taking pictures so do not under ANY set of circumstances take pictures.
Now, anyone that knows the internet knows that it's "pics or it didn't happen!" What was I going to do if I couldn't take pics? How on EARTH was anyone going to believe that this is happening???
HMMMM!!! My feet!! HAHAH!! They can't yell at you for taking pictures of your feet. Clearly, we were on the floor - so maybe someone, somewhere, would have believed that.
Meh ... not so much, but my vans were pretty kickin.
HAHA!! Omgggggg at that point - I honestly didn't care. This moment was happening, and however I could tell the story I would figure out how to tell it. This was a very very very special moment.
Oh, did I mention that Halle Berry and Olivier Martinez were sitting RIGHT behind us??
Like literally - thank GOD I remembered to put on deodorant because that would have been awwkkkwwaarrddd!
No like I cannot stress how close we all were the ENTIRE evening. First off, we were in family VIP and they were in regular VIP - albeit with the best seats, but holy crap their knees were totally touching my bum the entire night!!! ANNDDD at one point, Halle fell from dancing, and totally knocked into Julie.
Like seriously? How is this my life right now. WHAT IS GOING ON!!?!?!?!?!?!
Oh and dude, Prince was RIIIGHHTT THEREEEEE!!!! When he hit the stage, I seriously almost started tearing up. It was like I was just kickin it in my living room which magically transformed into a big arena, and Prince was performing on top of the coffee table. I mean there are no words to describe how close we all were, except that at two points during the show - his pants were so tight, and he was so close, I could see the outline of his penis. No joke - the dude doesn't wear underwear. HAHAHAHA even Halle and Olivier were commenting on that as well. SO BAT SHIT!!!!
Oh, and at one point - the jumbotron camera duderino came by to film Halle, and her security guard stopped him by standing DIRECTLY in front of his lense. Not wanting to just abruptly stopped he panned a little - ONTO JULIE AND I!!!
DUDES WE WERE ON THE JUMBOTRON AT THE PRINCE CONCERT AT THE FORUM!!! BAHHH!!!
Oh but wait, doesn't stop there either. Because how could it right?
During the show Prince is known for pulling people up on stage to dance. At one point he grabbed Halle, and during his second encore - he grabbed more. Who do you think got to go up there???
ME AND JULIE!!!!!
HAHAHA OMG! Top 3 favorite moment of my life!!!!!
Clearly, again - I couldn't take pictures ... but I scoped all of twitter last night for twitpics and found at least a couple that shows what I was in the middle of ...
Yep, that's Susan Sarandon up there as well ... DUDES! She TOTALLY busted a move with Craig Robinson!!!
Aka the duderino from Hot Tub Time Machine!
WHICH is even MORE bat shit because our suits for the pilot totally did Hot Tub Time Machine!! So like Craig knows the people I'm currently working with. Insane right?
ANDDD I also had already had a moment with Susan when I was 17 and living in NYC. I worked at a clothing store for a hot minute on 5th ave, and she was a regular customer. Seriously, she is like the nicest person on the planet. So so so so so sooooooo down to Earth.
WHHHAAATTTT IISSS GOOIINNNGGG ONNNNN!!!!
Insane. In. The. Mother. Fucking. Membrane.
Oh, and look what Julie grabbed from stage ...
PRINCE'S GUITAR PICK!!!!!
(She grabbed 2 of 'em!! So we could each have one. AMAZING!)
We waited til the very very very last encore, and at least took some pics next to the stage.
Oh, and here we are with Prince ...
Hands down one of the greatest moments of my life. hahahaha look at the play by play of it in social media in my Facebook wall posts ...
And here were some tweets from it happening. I even RTed friends who I didn't even know were there that were in the audience and saw it go down!!
Like seriously - that just happened. Dudes, spirithoods are totes the new raspberry beret!!!!!
Alright, so SpiritHoods is doing something pretty darn cool if you ask me. I mean, you're not asking me... which just leaves me pushing my opinion on you. IT'S COOL DAMNIT! Anyway, for every "like" they get on their Facebook page, they are going to be donating 25¢ to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The goal is to raise $10,000 in 48 hours. Tell your friends!
OMG!!! It's the polar bear, the loopy leopard, the panda, and the snow leopard spirithoods. BEAAUUUTTIIFULLLL!!!!! See, these are the real deal. I love the pics you guys send me where you think you've spotted 'em - but the vast majority of them are rechid knockoffs. Breaks my heart actually, because I know first hand just HOW MUCH LOOVVEEEEEE goes into making one of these things. Dude, they're a bunch of hippies in downtown LA, need I say more? Amazing.
Thanks so so much Jimmy!!! This made my morning - er, afternoon!!! HA!!!
Dude, there is so much social engineering into what makes something successful. Like clearly you have to have a rad product, but it amazes me how it's all such a science ... x amount of influencers show their support to x amount of base - and again, as long as it is organic and not all phooey pooey, you can do some really fucking cool things man.
Well, hello there. It's been a while. Wipe those tears away, I'm still alive and kicking. And not just any kicking, I'm kicking stylishly. Anyway, there's some cool shit going on for you folks local to the Los Angeles area. SpiritHoods is going to be having a bonfire down at Dockweiler. Here are the details.
When: Friday, February 25 · 5:00pm - 10:00pm
Where: Dockweiler Beach 12001 Vista del Mar Los Angeles, CA 90293
For those of you curious as to where Dockweiler is and are far too lazy to Google it, it's 2 beaches south of Venice, right by LAX. Come by, say hi! I'll be there along with some of the other SpiritHood folks. You'll also get to meet all kinds of awesome people that are avid supporters of the brand. Here's the Facebook invite. There's going to be a giveaway too! Just thought you'd like to know ;).
Life effin' happens to me on a seemingly regular basis. For instance,when I was 21 I found out through MySpace that I was adopted. You have to roll with the punches and adapt to the circumstance. Sometimes, when things seem to reach a stale mate, the puzzle pieces seem to just come together. I've lived in Los Angeles for 90% of my life. As much as I love it here, there has been a voice in the back of my head telling me that I need something different. I need a change. In July, one of my good friends (of 10+ years) from NYC came to visit me during 4th of July. I've always loved this girl and she's been an awesome friend, but things went from love to love. How would things ever work out between two people on opposite coasts? In August, I went out to NYC to visit and not only did continue to fall more and more in love with her, but I fell in love with NYC. Could it be that the puzzle pieces, which I never even realized were pieces of a puzzle, were starting to fall together? After spending a few months over on the East Coast, I decided that it this was the change I needed - I'm moving to NYC.
Here's where things get dicey. I am making the move into self-employment sooner than expected. SpiritHoods is my first client, and as of now my only client. Wouldn't be a problem, but I am making this transition starting February 1st. Let me tell you, in the freelance social media world, one client isn't enough to support yourself. Like the theme of this post, life effin' happens. Adapt and overcome. I could be scared and paralyzed by the thought of not knowing what I am going to do, but that's not me. It's crunch time and I'm hustling. Despite the fact that it's happening sooner than expected, I welcome this change with open arms.
@maniacalmorgan | tagged 
