"It's a chair, on a card. The directions on how to assemble it are written around the edge."
That's a line I must've said a thousand times at trade shows. Back in 2004 I created a product called Pop-Out Furniture. It was laser die-cut paper furniture for theatrical models, dollhouses and dioramas. Back before everyone had 3D printers or personal lasers, I had the idea that tiny furniture could be easily produced and pre-cut so that people wouldn't have to waste so much time making them by hand. After 5 years, the business went the way of the dodo, and I was left with thousands of these business cards:
Around the same time I had this idea that if I could sell each one of these chairs for just $1 I could potentially become a thousandaire. (This was back when people were selling pixels on a webpage and making millions... ah, the early 2000's, how weird you were.)
It took a few more years for me to actually come up with a reason WHY people would want to buy a chair for $1. They wanted to be a part of a giant art project! I must've given away thousands of these at trade shows and people were impressed with the idea that this was a chair. So selling them a chair for $1 and asking them to tell me something about themselves seemed like a great deal. I'd write about the people, create a nice online blog, and the rest would be history. Cut to 2010...
Work was slow, I had piles of chairs, had some small amount of internet fame due to a couple good product ideas, and decided to pursue this venture and The Million Chairs Project was born. I put the word out there the best I could for 2010. Facebook, friends and family, and word of mouth. I blogged about the people who wrote in. Over 420 people bought a chair. And then it just faded away, like Pop-Out Furniture. The idea was good, but I didn't have the reach, the notoriety or the means to keep it going. So it went on the back burner.
13 YEARS LATER. Post pandemic. Two COMPLETLEY different presidential terms. Two more kids, a few more decent business ideas and I find myself revisiting this project. I've spent the last 6 years talking to the internet on twitch.tv, creating art and explaining the process while telling stories and meeting thousands of people. But in the back of my head the thought never left me "Who are the people who are watching me? What are their lives like?" So I began to ask. I had a short run interview segment called Ice Cream with Streamers, I hosted parties, I went back to cons. But this time I did it with the idea that I wasn't there to promote me, but to learn about the other people.
On a road trip with my wife, I was talking (once again) about the Million Chairs, and she suggested I try and create a live show from it. We are both theatre people (both designers), and she said "What you need to do is get into a Fringe Festival and see if this thing has legs. If it does, run with it, if it doesn't, let it go." So I promptly signed up for the Omaha Fringe Festival 2023. I managed to secure a spot and in August I will be performing the first live version of The Million Chairs Project.
In the summer of 2023 I premiered The Million Chairs Project at the Omaha Fringe Festival. Three days, countless guests and three special interviews. The show was a success but I wasn't sure where it should go from there. That same year I decided to change directions with my career. I decided to invest in becoming a Professional Speaker. I've taken many courses, got a coach, a few mentors, a few accountability partners, and in the process of "getting my name out there" I started doing a lot of guest appearances on podcasts. It was during one of these interviews that I remembered this project. I was on all of these other podcasts telling my story to their fan-base when I realized that The Million Chairs Project would be excellent as a podcast. And that is where I, and this project, lie. Not at ground zero, but with a long road ahead. Ideally this will become a blog, a podcast and a live show. All the ways to meet and learn about and from new people. I hope you will join me on this, and perhaps you'll pull up a chair and tell me YOUR story.
-Paul
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