Jason and I were invited to visit MailChimp.com in Atlanta Georgia and join them for a "Coffee Hour" lecture and Q & A for about 100 employees and a few hundred more watching via live stream from their desks. When we first got asked to do this lecture, I was utterly intimidated... What would we talk about? What if we sucked? What if what we said had no meaning? There is always some level of fear in everything I do in front of a camera or an audience. But I think the key is to reign in that fear and turn it into a focused motivation. And in all the fearful chatter in my mind I arrived at a super simple way to handle our "Talk".
We all know skateboarding is amazingly creative and inspiring for us, but let's face it... it's not that way for everyone. My goal was to trace back to the roots of what drew us into skateboarding; the art, the music, the fashion, characters like Tony Alva, The Gonz and Lance Mountain, and bring these people in the audience into how inspiring and rich our culture was and is... and make it relatable to what they were passionate about in their own lives. Skateboarding is our Passion.
If your truly doing what you love, regardless of the long hours, financial struggles, or obstacles you face, you really never work a day in your life.
But beyond this love of what we do, we are all forced to evolve with our dedicated passions, how we relate to them, and finally to share what we learn along the way and educate and inspire others. It all went smooth and we had a blast. The staff really seemed to enjoy learning about skateboarding history, Stereo Skateboards, and even had a few good laughs at our silly stories.
Special thanks to MailChimp Co-founder Dan Kurzius, Ashley from MailChimp and Calvin Florian for organizing such a great trip to Atlanta. - Chris Pastras
The MailChimp "Board Room"
Chris Pastras, Dan Kurzius (MailChimp Co-Founder) & Jason Lee
We sessioned around town all day afterward. This was a fun spot! I was trying to drop to tailslide on the curb below but had to settle for a tail.
Photos by Ron Rauto