I Built the Wrong Brand. Here's What I'm Doing Different.

I'm six months into Lost Mixtape, I finally understand what it's really about, and this is my thought process behind the shift.

Everything Happens for a Reason

There I am, going about my business, buying vinyl records, sorting through my old CDs, and sipping pour-over coffee while in long, dark contemplation about the state of the world, when a moment of clarity hit me like the sour notes of a Peruvian blend.

Until that moment, I felt pretty good because I designed a brand around the things I love, believing that the analog nostalgia is what I appreciated…

Yeah, No

If you haven’t tried it, analog listening is a fantastic departure that I enjoy deeply. I’m listening to some deep house hits on vinyl right now, but it hit me that what I’m truly enjoying isn’t the vinyl, but the removal of my face from the blue-light on the 9:16 screen of my mobile device (I try to not call it a phone anymore, because I don’t talk on the phone much — text me if you want my attention). It’s the disconnection from my digital existence that I appreciate, for which the analog media plays a part.

You know how sometimes you suddenly and unexpectedly start noticing specific things popping into view for you; something you saw once and now you can’t not notice them. Like when you’re thinking about a new vehicle you saw on the street, and anytime you’re on the road, you inexplicably see one?

That’s the Baader-Meinhoff phenomenon, or the frequency illusion, which is a cognitive bias where once you learn of something new, you suddenly start seeing it everywhere. And that’s exactly what happened to me once I had my philosophical epiphany.

I started noticing people everywhere talking about deleting social media, disconnecting from their phones, taking on new physical hobbies, and wearing clothing that embodied that sense of self. It all made perfect sense.

Lost Mixtape isn’t a nostalgia brand. It’s about removing ourselves from our digital existence and moving into more human experiences.

When I made that connection, the world opened up to me. With only the analog nostalgia by itself, I felt boxed in, like I could only make shirts about records and cassette tapes. Now I know other people are feeling the same things I think about daily, and the creative opportunities are more available to me, which brings a whole new set of daunting challenges.

This broadening of the scope required deeper analysis, and there were four areas I needed more clarity on before I pushed further.

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