How did we end up, like…here?
This is exciting!
Ben’s exceptional redesign of the Dancakes website means that we’ve got a blog, it’s integrated with our mailing list and our store and all the other mammajammas, and I can hop on and curate my pancake-related thoughts from time to time. So, y’know, expect that, or whatever.
In the last few weeks some exciting new things have happened that have given me a profound sense of gratitude for being where I am, besides this website. A few nights ago Ben, Dana and I had some of our preserved pancake art pieces on public display at the Mad Art Gallery in St. Louis as a part of Brock Seals’ yearly ‘Art, Mimosas, and Pancakes’ event. We just received a review copy of the box that our pancake art griddle will be packaged in (did we formally announce that yet? bah whatever people know). We just had a great meeting to discuss some of the new things we’re gonna undertake in the next few months, some additions to our studio space, and just…well, it’s awesome. This is definitely a moment for reflection, on where we’ve been, what we’ve done, and how we got here.
It’s hard to believe that ten years ago I was getting hired at a greasy spoon diner after I’d been fired from my gig as a host at a local applebee’s, for being an unreliable doofus. It’s hard to believe that any of this is really happening; it runs so counter to so many of the narratives about success I absorbed as a kid. I was supposed to go to school and study to become some kind of a teacher, or a game programmer, or an architect or something. Instead, I find myself in the middle of an unfolding pancake art career with some of the smartest and hardest working people I’ve ever met, all putting their energy towards this weird, amorphous shared vision of what this might possibly become.
I wouldn’t be anything without the help of my friends. It’s so exciting to see something that was initially my own good fortune become shared and transformed with those around me. It seems like every part of this company is strong specifically because it isn’t my story any more.
I hope we can keep this train a-rolling for a long time to come. It’s crazy to think that we’re doing something that other people in the world might be interested in. I guess there’s a self-doubt in me that feels like that doesn’t make any sense. I dunno.
Whatever the case, if you’re reading this, if you like or support us and the things we make, I’m grateful you exist. It’s weird to be on this side of a success story. I hope it keeps building.
Dan