We were lucky to catch up with Jordan Moshi recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jordan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Ha! When it comes to how I started, it began as a passing interest from seeing interesting weapons in media. I’ve been practically obsessed with Star Wars since I was a child, lightsabers always had a fun appearance to me. I loved seeing that they were all totally different looking, and wondered how hard it would be to make my own. However, I had no idea how to weld, forge, or fabricate anything. I needed the skillset. So, I spoke to another person on here, Wayne Bodmer, to see if he could mentor me. He (graciously) accepted, and I’ve been skill-building and working on projects since! It’s come to the point where I have ideas that are definitely my own, things I am excited to build and work on, now it comes down to actually taking time and putting everything to paper. Admittedly, I am still IN the introductory phase in between “idea” and “execution” of a business. I have inspiration, I have reinforcement, I have mentorship, I just need a little more effort, and I feel like I have some hope of striking something big!
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?
I am a starting fantasy fabricator/blacksmith! My specialty is going to be creating and recreating weapons from various series, anything from video games, TV shows, anime, alongside original works inspired by things as simple as tabletop RPG’s and as complicated as imagination as long as I have a reference of it! As far as I have seen, I feel a bit different from other fabricators because I have a deep, deep connection to a lot of the media that I pull from to create things. I love Dungeons and Dragons, I love Warhammer, I love anime and video games, and I watch and play all of those things, and have for years. It allows me to go into detail with making certain things that adds a bit of charm for people who have possibly seen or been a part of the franchises before.
I am definitely most proud of my progress. I feel that I have not hit the peak of my potential yet, I feel like I have a lot more techniques to learn, and ways to learn them. My brand isn’t much yet, but I’ll get there, and I hope to rise to the same heights that some of the legends even on this page have made it to. I want you all to know that I will be continuing to develop my skills and learning alongside these wonderful people to make great content as affordable as possible for the nerds who are already spending a lot of money directly on the hobbies they and I love to participate in!
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
While I’m still on the practice stage of fabrication, my clientele is built on friends and friends of friends. My best source of practice and also early-level funding comes from support from the people I work with and show off my products to. The hope is to build a bit of a portfolio so I can start branching into different social media. Once I feel like I have enough content to sustain myself, I’ll hopefully begin marketing more openly!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Not quite how I met a cofounder or business partner, but my mentor will certainly do the trick! Meeting him was a bit of a surprise, and quite a departure from the usual meeting stories. I am close friends with Wayne’s daughter, as we were coworkers at the time. I was maybe sixteen years old, her and I had a late night chatting outside of her house, and her dogs inside were barking pretty intensely, as I was a stranger on their lawn past 11PM. The man who would later teach me how to weld and forge was inside the house with a shotgun, stalking the windows. Rightfully so! He had no idea who I was, his daughter wasn’t home yet, and his dogs, after waking him up, have been snarling for fifteen minutes straight. We didn’t actually meet face-to-face that day, I just saw his armed silhouette in the window and called it a night. We DID meet later that same month and have had strong laughs about it when he took me under his wing years later around when I turned twenty-two. He has been teaching me since!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @black.fortress.armory
Image Credits
Wayne Bodmer