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

Alright, Ron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My friend, Chris Clemmer and I started The Abstract Athlete, 5 years ago. We were both high level athetes and now are both creatives in creative fields. We started this business, as we see and understand the relationship between physical and creative practices. The importance of both of these practices on mental health and wellness has always been the driving force behind what we are doing. Mental health at this point has become an epidemic. Finding ways to “decompress” or quiet the mind are invaluable. We want to inspire others to practice both physically and creatively every day. Getting to work with former athletes and veterans who are creative you can immediately see how people gravitate towards these people. It is simply the most rewarding work that I have ever done;

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Growing up I was always known as an athlete. While everyone knew me as an athlete I was always creative, kind of in the shadows. I played football, basketball and baseball. I had an opportunity to be drafted in baseball out of high school but my parents wanted me to go to school. I was recruited by many schools, but ended up at The Ohio State University. . I left school after a year and became a rock singer, returning to school 8 years later to become a painter. I met Chris working at a record store and we always discussed doing something together. The Abstract Athlete came together from many discussions about how these two seemingly different things really connect in so many ways. I think our goal as a business is to impact everyone (if that is possible). To show how being creative and physical on a daily basis really does improve or health and mental wellness. I always tell students or people we work with creativity isn’t just painting or drawing, it is what you want it to be. I want people to find something they like…because if you like it you will want to come back to it and continue to practice. We have products that can get people started on this journey as many people are sometimes scared to start being creative as they dont believe that they are or don’t want to be vulnerable in this way. I think that is one of the coolest parts about the business is walking into a room with an enormous former NFL lineman who is now an artist…it knocks down that wall. I shows them as #morethananathlete…it gives people permission to be creative.

How’d you meet your business partner?

Well I kind of touched on this earlier, but I met my business partner working in a record store in Columbus Ohio. I was at that time not in school, while he was in school studying industrial design. We kind of had an immediate friendship over music, movies (especially Fletch) and sports. We always chatted about goals and what we were interested in. He graduated before I did as I returned to school. He left Columbus to work for different companies like Marvel and others before he started his own toy companies (Sprig and Beginagain). I eventually graduated and went to graduate school in Richmond, but we always stayed in touch.. AsI became a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Chris got married and was living in Colorado. I started a yearly (if not more) drive across country taking photographs that helped inform my abstract paintings. I would always visit him and his kids. Along the way we kept talking about ideas, and how we could work together. Even though we were on two separate creative tracks we always had a very familiar language and idea set. The Abstract Athlete was quite literally born on a drive we did to Area 51, or at least it really came together on that drive. I think our histories are very similar in the athlete background and kind of hiding our creative sides for fear of ridicule. Some or our first conversations wer literally about CTE and could creative and physical practices “change or fix” the brain…luckily we now work with a world renowned brain doctor, Dr. David Cifu…he can answer all of our wild questions. Eventually I was I met Percy King who is a former football player with The Ohio State University and NFL. He is an incredible artist and I met him literally at his first art exhibition. We immediately hit it off. He became part of The Abstract Athlete quickly. Our first round of product, our Get Stacked Paint and Puzzle kits, are a collaboration based on his works. Pretty soon after that I was introduced to Darrel Branch through a mutual friend. Darrel is a former cheerleader at JMU and marketing executive for companies such as Coke a cola and PPG…he brought such expertise in the world and of course the “software” that his nephew played football at The Ohio State and in the NFL….we just knew this was meant to be. The last kind of perfect business partner was Tim Peyton. Tim bought Chris’ second toy company, BeginAgain. Tims love of sport and helping others rounded out what I believe is an incredibly effective, unique and talented company.

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

I think the resilience is part of our athletic pasts. All of us are willing to outwork others because thats how we were taught. This is personally my first go at being a business owner…it is quite literally a rollercoaster. There are such ups and downs but I think the key is to maintain a level head, and maybe most importantly work with people you genuinely like and are talented as all hell. I honestly feel lucky that everyday I get to do what I do and to be surrounded by people like Chris, Darrel, Percy and Tim. They are first and foremost my friends, then business partners. I can say that somehow we created a business that somehow smashed my two favorite things together…and we are helping people change their lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theabstractathlete.com
• Instagram: @theabstractathlete
• Facebook: The Abstract Athlete
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ron-johnson-4b480615/
• Twitter: @abstractathlete

Image Credits
All rights to The Abstract Athlete