We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brian Awitan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Brian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

The opposite of cynicism isn’t authenticity, it is sincerity. My fascination with the creative process, curiosity and visual experience informs all of my work. Each piece is the part of an exploration finding wit, surprise, honesty and joy in the world around us.

One of the things I find today is the false hope in chasing clout to achieve success. In my experience, I have met many individuals with clout, but no access. Adversely every person I know with access automatically has clout. The ability to “get-in-the-room” is the real luxury. Access is true success. But to achieve that is something to nurture and build upon. Time is your friend here if you crawl, walk, run. Create meaningful relationships that are earnest and mutually beneficial. Be a ladder or a light for others and they will always seek you out to remain woven in their sphere. This is what it takes to be successful.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

The last 30 years has been utilizing nurtured relationships and applying the business acumen of corporate life to small businesses. Large and small, from inception launches to reshaping, I leverage my network amassed and tap my pedigree for pretty dynamic work. While I still consult with many apparel brands, I have expanded my scope to include film, music, motorsports and hospitality. With the connectivity of today’s world and the convergence of media, I have been lucky to apply my skills to other industry where I continue to push my personal growth and align with emerging culture.

With the current velocity of how people engage in goods and services, the fast-pace, just-add-water disposable culture we live in – I still provide the craft that is needed to build relationships, share the network, enhance connectivity and deliver a human experience, I am old enough (53) AND lucky enough to have engaged in business with a pre-internet brain. There are nuances to understanding how culture connects, being sensitive to where movement is, to be still enough (despite the frenetic landscape we work in) to sense vibrations of emerging thoughts and ideas. I pride myself on having a keen sense of these cultural shifts and therefore can direct my clients towards or away from (based on the desired end game) for the measured result of what success looks like. Being an avid consumer of food and clothing, I am never not engaged with what is next, but have the advantage of age, wisdom and time of threading provenance and helping my clients understand the landscape to further enlighten and serve their end constituency.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

With the birth of my two daughters back in 2000 and 2002, it was infinitely important for me to be home and participate in their lives. I had solely worked corporately up that point and shifted to purely freelance and consult work. This allowed me to never miss a piano recital, ballet lesson, horseback riding competition, or gymnastics meet. I picked up and dropped off most days at school and was determined to spend as many milestone moments I could capture. “Living” more than “working” actually made me a happier, satisfied and more complete human being that carried over in every professional aspect of my life. Someone once said; “you can live to be 100 if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be 100.” Pivoting that way, for me, has been the single biggest success for me in every aspect.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I worked as a buyer for a retail store in my early 20’s. When I made the conscious decision to switch sides of the table and go into wholesale apparel, I badgered the VP of Sales at DIESEL jeans, pretty consistently for months. I recall learning about his girlfriend’s favorite kitsch postcards from this very specific specialty store in Dallas, Tx. and I would send her bunches of them, periodically – to work his personal angle and stay top-of-mind. 2 years later, he had left DIESEL to start a new Swedish brand to launch worldwide. He called me up and said he thought of me, first. Having experienced my consistency, tenacity and attention to detail, he expressed those were the exact qualities he was seeking to lead sales for the brand launch.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://voyagehouston.com/interview/meet-brian-awitan-thick-thieves-global-clear-lake/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-awitan-31958a272/

Image Credits
Sean Sullivan Chris Corona Danny Clinch Magda Wosinska