A Friendly Reminder from Mr. Fonzworth Bentley

On Saturday, June 2, 2012 I was blessed with the opportunity of a life time while attending the 2012 NASAP Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. The NASAP Conference is a week full of professional and leadership development  for student leaders that attend Historically Black Colleges and Universities commonly known as HBCUs. The conference it self was amazing but of course you know there was one session that definitely peaked my interest. 

The gentleman featured in this post and the keynote speaker for 2012 NASAP "Men's Smoker" is none other than Mr. Fonzworth Bentley. We were allotted this time to converse with Mr. Bentley  about anything  related to manhood. Within the session we covered a large number of topics including personal image and branding, how to develop a business, grooming yourself for the field you wish to enter, and even the importance of growing spiritually. Oh yeah, and we most definitely talked about style and clothing.  

A lot of what Mr. Bentley spoke about was confirmation for the vision that Steven and I have for the Pasture. He told us that it was ok to start small and be very specific with what it is we wanted to do and do that specific thing very well. I asked Mr. Bentley what advice he would lend to young designers who were just getting started with building their brand...he responded "Focus on making a quality product..." He then went on to expound upon the importance of having a good simple good looking website. [We think we are doing a fairly good job with that. Hope you all would agree.] He closed his response by saying " ...think about what your point of view is...because ultimately that's what people will invest in and hopefully your point of view will come from a philosophy..." 

The comments during Mr. Bentley's lecture were inspiring in many ways and a reminder that Steven and I are on the right track in regards to building the brand of the IXTH Pasture. Ultimately, we want the Pasture [online and in person] to be a place for creative people like ourselves to come together and inspire each other to do bigger and better things. We are just using clothing as an outlet to usher people into the concept. If you need a reminder of what the we are about check our launch post entitled "ALIVE" or view the "About Us" section.

I had the opportunity to expose Mr. Bentley to the brand during a conversation we had after the lecture. We spoke for about twenty-five minutes and he told me that it sounded like we had everything in place and we just needed to keep moving forward.  This was monumental for us simply because it let us know that the year and a half we spent simply coming up with the philosophy for the brand was well worth it. Mr. Bentley if you're reading this we can not thank you enough for the valuable time and advice you shared in your time during our interaction. Please know that we do not take it lightly but recognize it as a blessing. In closing, we just pray everyone can find something within the brand to align yourself with whether you purchase something or not. There are more photos from the event below and we will be posting a recap video very soon so stay tuned follow us on twitter @IXTH_Pasture and always remember to commune. - Dave.

Everyone in attendance received a signed copy of Mr. Bentley's  "Advance Your Swagger: How to Use Manners, Confidence, and Style to Get You Ahead."  It is an excellent read and a great reference for style tips, etiquette tips, etc.