Megan Campagnolo: Small Business Badass, Entrepreneur, Maker of the Coolest Objects, Ceramicist

@camarocrybaby 
@rosehoundapparel
rosehoundapparel.com  

The scene:
We are in Manchaca, Texas at Blaze Foley’s gravesite sitting on a Mexican blanket having a fruit picnic and drinking Topo Chicos.  We are playing Blaze’s songs in dedication and memoriam to him and we are mostly alone, with the exception of Longhorns in the field next to us.  It’s even nicer than a peaceful park, which is strange to say in a graveyard.  Join us and Blaze for a sun-filled evening sharing stories like old friends.

Highlights:
+ Founder and Owner of Rosehound Apparel
+ Degree in Fashion Design
+ Being a Canadian from Toronto, moonlighting in Austin, TX
+ Thriving under pressure
+ If you want something bad enough, you’ll make it happen
+ The importance of branding
+ Starting out with embroidery, patches, and pins
+ Blowing up at Urban Outfitters and Zara
+ Pop-ups in Japan, London, New York, LA, Vegas…
+ Selling in the under $20 pricepoint
+ Missing making with your hands
+ The appeal of imperfectly made things
+ Buying your own kiln when covid shut down studios
+ Doing something yourself when you can’t find someone to do it
+ Screen-printing mirrors
+ The satisfaction of putting your work online and having positive response
+ Not meeting the demand and being more exclusive
+ Interning students from your university
+ Making and selling through FSG (Fine Southern Gentlemen) in Austin
+ Ceramics: ashtrays, pipes of various shapes
+ Moving to Austin in a 200 sq ft silver 1952 Spartan trailer
+ Renovating an old trailer and making it your new first home
+ Thriving in “non-essential” talents
+ Why Austin (and not Los Angeles)?
+ The importance of friends and family and ride-or-dies
+ Tenacity, impulse, time management, resourcefulness
+ Learning to make your art come first
+ Using your art as relationship therapy
+ Knowing you will always be ok
+ Being inspired by other artists, not threatened
+ Being an entrepreneur frees you from constraint
+ The Id and the Super-ego see-saw (Carl Jung)
+ Traveling 30 states in a camper van
+ Learning low maintenance through travel
+ You create opportunities (they don’t find you)
+ You might think you want a mullet, but you really want a Francoise Hardy
+ Penis pipes and penis waffles

A taste:
“People who shoplift aren’t afraid to take what they want.”

“[I’m] definitely freed from a lot of structured thinking. I’m extremely independent. I know that I can make money out of my own shit. I don’t have to worry about a paycheck. I can put things off and I can work harder and I can make more money and I believe that I am able to do that.”

Favorite saying:
“Tough times never last, only tough people last.”
“Radical acceptance.”