Why the monkey suit?

My 1-2-3 Cents

I’ve talked about my other brand, My 1-2-3 Cents a few times on this blog. It’s a pro wrestling blog, podcast and YouTube channel I’ve been working on for nearly eight years. Over time I’ve added new elements to the brand, including the monkey logo in late 2014.

I feel like with the monkey (which I still haven’t named and I’m open to suggestions) helps define the brand. He’s wearing a lucha mask and is clearly ready to rumble. By the way, the monkey was born from the Jittery Monkey Podcasting Network. Each show there has a monkey as the mascot (created by Joe Dodd).

In 2017 I attended my first conference in the world of marketing and social media. The Midwest Digital Marketing Conference was a game changer for me in terms of my view on branding. My buddy Tom Harness convinced me to break out of my shell and wear a couple of crazy suits to stand out. It worked as my Star Wars Stormtrooper and Pink Flamingo suits received a warm reception which broke the ice for this painfully awkward introvert.

Being shy and withdrawn are not good attributes for someone trying to build a brand and get out in front of people. That’s why when I learned Shinesty Suits makes custom jackets, pants and ties I had to jump on the opportunity. In addition to my news anchoring duties, I also serve as a ring announcer for Stride Pro Wrestling. I thought having a suit with my wrestling brand for wrestling shows would help in my quest.

It’s working. I’ve had the suit a little over a month. I first wore it to a WWE event. I lost count of how many people stopped me that night to take a photo with the suit. I’ve also worn it to the last two Stride shows. Our most recent event was a fundraiser for a woman in the community. Most of the fans there were in attendance for her and not necessarily the wrestling. When someone asked me what the monkey meant, it gave me a chance to explain and I gave her a business card with the website, podcast and social media channels. After the explanation and a photo, I got a response of “cool”. I’ll take it.

Right now the only way to measure the success of the suit is by tracking the numbers on said pages. However, soon I will have a store at ProWrestlingTees and it’s my hope that when people see more of the monkey suit they’ll want to take the primate with them. Stay tuned for details as this branding experiment kicks into high gear this fall.