Marcus Harvey, Founder of Portland Gear, on Brand Building, Product, Living with Anxiety, and Relationships

In this episode, you’ll hear a detailed Water The Bamboo story featuring Portland Gear’s founder, Marcus Harvey, on what it has taken to build the brand, his passion for product, managing anxiety, and why he invests time in relationships and community.

Marcus Harvey had a dream one day that he would open a retail clothing store and have a line of customers and brand fans around the block, just like Johnny Cupcakes had. In May 2015, that dream came true.

Don’t miss this incredible conversation with one of Portland’s most exciting young entrepreneurs, Marcus Harvey.

Episode Highlights:

02:13 - Marcus’s Bamboo Story 07:51 - The scary parts of building a business and self-doubt 09:33 - Passion behind the Portland Gear brand 11:37 - Early relationships that helped Marcus build Portland Gear 14:39 - Mistakes made along the way 17:12 - Day in the life of Marcus Harvey 20:55 - Anxiety and other challenges about separating work and life 25:53 - Appreciation from others after talking about anxiety 28:04 - How Marcus is supporting the community 30:09 - Advice Marcus would give to his 15-year-old self 32:40 - Unforgettable moment in business

Guest at a Glance

Marcus Harvey’s passion is product. Since he was young he has been consumed with the process and how things are made from conception through production. In starting @portland on Instagram, with over 350,000 followers, he developed a new social media-based community around the city he loves. Using the @portland Instagram page he designed Portland Gear, an apparel brand to show and share his passion for the city. Utilizing the concept of pop-up shops and his experience in apparel design and branding, his team has shipped pieces of Portland to over 35 countries and every state in the country. His team opened their first flagship retail store in March of 2015 and have seen exponential growth since, opening two more locations in downtown Portland and Beaverton’s Washington Square Mall. Graduating from The University of Oregon with a degree in Digital Arts and Business in 2012, Portland is where he calls home.

Notable Quotes

“There was six, seven years of screen printing and not making much money and living in low-income housing with a buddy in Portland, just so we could live downtown.” “What is seen as a quick success or what is seen as this Portland Gear thing came out of nowhere, was actually years and years of making ugly t-shirts and making bad shirts for people in printing stuff wrongfully for clients and learning what graphics sold good.” “I think I just have confidence that if I continue to do things that feel right consistently, then it just keeps leading me to kind of the next thing or the next opportunity.” “I'd already had this business entrepreneurial blood inside of me that all of my art had to have a business tie to it.” On Marcus’s team: “It's my job to make them feel valued when they're doing those things that allow me to come over and speak to the Greg Bells and work on what's next for us.” On reflecting on a Halloween shirt design snafu: “We should really pay more attention to groups that we're marketing to or products that we're speaking to, and really having a different set of eyes on that.” “I think we've probably avoided more mistakes than had them, because we have open communication and we're all so close to what's going on.” “I've learned that when I started into this kind of entrepreneurial thing, years and years and years ago that I was only going to get as far as how hard I was willing to work and how much I was going to invest in myself.” “I've always just been interested and found value in like investing in friendship and relations.” “We're not going to get anywhere alone. So all the people that I have here are people that I've invested in with time.” Greg on investing in relationships: “Giant timber bamboo roots will go deep in the ground and connect. We're connected that way. The roots are invisible. If we don't invest in each other and our relationships, the bamboo fall over.”

Learn more about Greg Bell

More than just a motivational speaker, Greg Bell is a thought leader, business consultant, and leadership coach. He provides highly engaging virtual keynotes & trainings. His popular books, What’s Going Well? and Water The Bamboo: Unleashing The Potential Of Teams And Individuals, have inspired an array of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies like Nike, and Disney, to the Portland Trail Blazers and Division I NCAA athletic teams like the Oregon Ducks Football and the Gonzaga Bulldogs Basketball. 

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