Check out our very own Marketing Director and Resident Apparator (seriously, we never know where he comes from), Courtland Thomas, gettin' his real-talk on in this exclusive interview with FFI. A few highlights:
S: What advice would you give to someone interested in starting a magazine?
CT: The mistake many first-time magazine publishers make is a lack of balance. A magazine, while it can be all creative, isn’t truly successful without the business side. Who are you writing to? Doesn’t something like this exist already? How will you make money? These are the questions that anyone turning a creative hobby into a career needs to contemplate. Find someone who loves doing what you hate. If you don’t want to look at financials, find a statistics major who loves Excel, and vice versa. It’s about balance.
S: How do you juggle all of your commitments? You seem like a pretty busy guy.
CT: I get this question a lot. It’s about passion and discipline. If you think about it, everyone from Alexander Wang to James Franco has 24 hours in one day. You should often prioritize and aim for simplicity. Setting yourself up for success helps: Barack Obama only wears brown and black suits because it is one less decision he has to make each morning.
S: Any networking advice?
CT: Call it ‘making friends,’ not networking.
Read all about what it took for him to bulldoze into the fashion world here!