Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michael Scott Peterson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Michael, appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest parts of scaling a business is maintaining quality as you grow. How have you managed to maintain quality? Any stories or advice?
I think when it came to creating My current(next line) Green Label the model I wanted to use was SCARCITY. When I started Premium Blend Brand almost 5 years ago I wanted there to be a precession of how things came to the masses.
The first part of that was giving something affordable to the mass as a whole that wasn’t necessarily expensive but it wasn’t technically cheap. The beauty of this is all of my designs are all printed on industry leading brand Bella Canvas.
My reason for doing so is because I’m a Tshirt guy myself and because most of literally live in our clothing I wanted something you’d be comfortable wearing even if there was a Cannabis themed design on it.
Combine all of that together with creating collections that reminded people of their childhood was just the icing on the cake. It also Gave me a frame of reference of who my customer base is.
Coming back to the current line everything is done by me and my hands with very limited numbers on all items. Thus giving COMPLETE AND TOTAL CONTROL of how and what I want every single piece to look.
All the way down to the tags.
While it’s good to have an established website giving people awesome designs for great prices there needs to be a trade off or a next level or where you want to see your brand go. It usually take some time to get the vision locked in but once you get there just keep driving.
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?
My name is Mike SP, I’m originally from Newark, NJ but I currently reside in Palm Coast, FL and I am the Creator and Owner /Hats Wearer of Premium Blend Brand.
During the day I hangout and co-homeschool my 8 year old son. By night I Run the Assemble line at Stonewood Grill
Cooking wise I’ve been working in restaurants for about 15 years. I’ve done it all from dish to expo. I lot of why I personally got into cooking was because the pay was decent and it helped me work on learning ingredients and what my flavor palette would start to become.
I’ve always been a hard worker because my foster parents instill that in me. Had my first business when I was 8 selling candy. Since then I’ve gone on to have quite a few more businesses as I got older. I got into cooking in kitchens living in Northeast Pennsylvania where food goes to die. Just kidding.
Worked in a few resort kitchens, a few other places and then Florida called.
I got into creating Premium Blend Brand because I’m a Graphic Artist by trade and I’d always saw Stoner designs on shirt that parodied major brands and other things in the like. It wasn’t until I met my former next door neighbor who’d introduced me to Bobby Radical the creator of a lot of vintage artwork in Miami during the late 80s and early 90s.
In this time I was crafting my own designs and creating what would become what is known as Premium Blend Brand. During our beginning development we wanted to create a product but also create a model for how people could create a brand in the niche market that is Cannabis Clothing and Accessories.
I wanted to offer something different from what the norm was becoming so I took from the greatest generations in human history and did my what be know as my artistic kindred spirit Bobby Radical and got my parody game going.
What I’m most proud about is the fanbase I’ve gained over the years.
Plus, this company is the first one I owned that I’ve started getting orders from overseas which I never thought I’d make it to that point.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My wife would say I’m a pack rat but I’d like to think there’s a purpose for everything and when I come up with the purpose the item gets sold.
Being that I started as a dishwasher the Bartenders would bring their empty bottles into the back to throw out during and at the end of their shifts. The thing about people and alcohol is if they could have something cool resembling their favorite spirit they’d be all over or at least that was my thinking.
So I’d take like 20 of the most eye catching bottles and turn them into novelty smoking pieces.
I made about $2000 brought my first heat press and started a shopify site and the rest was history I guess.
We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.
Most of what I do requires me being heavily involved in live social media streaming and local events happening around central Florida
For Alot of us that’s pretty much how it all starts. Pounding the pavement like an underground rapper with loads of cds in the trunk. I think for me it was creating something recognizable and relatable from my head and when I was growing up.
When you share a piece of yourself like that it connects with people we talk about a lot of it in our Instagram live streams Cannabis connects us on so many levels despite differences.
If you’re Goin to do this you have to be willing to give a little piece of you to connect in the community because it’s not just an industry you’re coming into.
Contact Info:
- Website: PREMIUMBLENDBRAND.COM
- Instagram: @premiumblendbrand
- Facebook: Facebook.com/premiumblendbrand
- Twitter: @realmrwakenbake
Image Credits
Taken by myself.