Meet Jim Harper

We were lucky to catch up with Jim Harper recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jim, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I’m pretty sure, from my parents. I have legitimate guilt when I relax, and it’s something me and my therapist are working on. 🙂 I go from the moment I get up until I collapse, I rarely sit down to relax. It’s not really smart. I hung out in art school with some overachievers who pushed me to constantly create. While some people came in during the day, attended class, and made stuff casually, my group worked weekends and evenings; we lived at the studio. It was all about constant creation, and I think I still feel like I have to make something every day.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Almost ten years ago, I owned an agency with a group of friends, and we helped launch an ice cream brand in St. Louis, a parlor in Lafayette Square near downtown. It was called Clementine’s Ice Cream. Even after I left the agency to become a consultant, I kept doing various projects with Clementine’s, from posters to merchandise and more. Last year, I got more involved as the brand was growing into their 7th and 8th location, and Tamara Keefe, the CEO, asked me to come on as Chief Marketing Officer with a team of driven people who were very invested in the company. Since I joined, I’ve learned a lot about marketing and how patient you have to be, and how diligent you have to be in order to plan ahead for the way the marketing rolls out, and how some small things affect the brand on a large scale, and some big things improve the brand, but don’t affect the cash flow. It’s a balancing act of a lot of things. Since we are still a smaller local business, it’s still very hands-on. While we are in the office running the business, there are still moments where we’re scooping and running events, and it’s very helpful to work in all aspects of the business. When I worked with clients like Bacardi and Brown-Forman and other beer and spirits businesses, it was very helpful to work behind the bar as often as possible. I firmly believe people in executive positions benefit from being on all the lines, not just working in an office. Nothing works better than boots on the ground. That all being said, I still manage my consultancy, harpersbizarre.com, as well as plaidcoffeeroasters.com, where we are waiting on permits for our first brick and mortar café.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

1.) Work hard and do everything. Early on in my career, I tried everything. See if it works. If it does, you acquire a new type of skill. If it doesn’t, who cares if it fulfills your emotions or your passions. If you start doing something when you’re young, and you still enjoy doing it decades later, more power to you. I had to try a bunch of different kinds of design and thinking until I realized there are some I like more than others. You really have to roll up your sleeves and try a lot of things in my area.
2.) Ask people for things. Ask for help. Ask for advice. Ask for resources. There are some people who want to be left alone, but some people love to share and help and guide. You need mentors or sherpas. A tool in Illustrator I use CONSTANTLY was shown by someone younger than me late in my career, and it was one small trick that I used all the time. Be a sponge and ask. Sometimes you have to ask the internet, but solve a problem you have immediately, and it won’t slow you down in the future.
3.) Patience. People think creatives solve problems quickly. If you could magically spew out solutions and magic the first time you do something, you could charge a lot of money. But research is really key to good work, and sometimes you need to look really hard before you find a solution. There are basics and yes, those come quickly, but excellent work comes from, well… work. Find out the origin of something, give it meaning. We don’t always have time to slow down, but asking for someone to brand something or solve a major problem in a short amount of time is rude and stupid.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Honestly, I get more out of David Sedaris’ books than any others. Why? Because he observes things that are interesting everywhere. He finds amazing quotes from cab drivers, random strangers, doctors, people who drive him to a signing. He listens better than anyone. Self help marketing books are ok, but it’s usually like 220 pages of filler with 3 decent nuggets of wisdom that could have been told to you in a paragraph.

David Sedaris books, from “Me talk pretty One Day” to “A Carnival of Snackery” have memorable, amazing stories that inspire you in ways you didn’t know you could be inspired. You learn that everyone on this planet is interesting in one way or another, and it could be because they are a brilliant mind that deserves to be made into a movie, or because they say something so incredibly stupid, that it needed to be shared.

I re-read his books constantly, and they inspire me to write myself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://harpersbizarre.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harpersbizarreagency/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/harpersbizarreagency
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harpersbizarre/
• Other: plaidcoffeeroasters.com, clementinescreamery.com, fineprintsmallpress.com