We did it 🎉 PizzaCoffee survived its first year in business!
It is anything I expected? No, not really. I learned a lot, took some risks, put myself out there and made a few new friends. Hard to complain about all that. However, this project started as an outlet for creative endeavors and was nearly cancelled a few times due to the overwhelming monotony of everything other than creating that goes into starting a business. But we pushed through and PizzaCoffee made it to its first birthday. PizzaCoffee was one of many other things that brought A LOT of change into my life this past year, and adjusting to what feels like an ever-changing routine is, at best, challenging. We started with a bang, bright eyed and eager to shout PizzaCoffee from the mountain tops. We made a lot of goofs and some cool and silly stuff. Seeing people catch our vibe and rock our merch is the most rewarding part of this business, and really the only reason it even exists. As the year went on, finding time to produce, refine, update, market and innovate content became much more difficult to balance with my limited free time. At the end of 2024 I made a decision to ease up on all things PizzaCoffee. The last thing I want is to be burned out in my creative space. I’ve reclaimed some of my free time to be inspired again, try some new things, spend time with my family and friends and attempt to organize my chaotic schedule of work and projects. Truth is, I haven’t picked up the pen to draw in a while. I've still been devoting a lot of time into other creative projects, but, like many of you, I’ve been fairly disillusioned by the world unfolding in America recently. Creating from a space of dread and anger, although cathartic at times, for me, never resonates in the way I want it to. The political collection and My Guy Trump Cards (still a handful of sets available) were some of my most prolific moments of the year and brought some great laughs to a lot of people even with depressing circumstances on the horizon. Political content will probably always be a chunk of what PizzaCoffee produces, but at the moment it feels like a hat on a hat considering the brain-dead bizarro world politics has become. Who would have thought I’d be wondering if an ugly drawing of the president could get me thrown into a South American Gulag?
Okay, enough doom and gloom. It’s party time! We’re alive and look great, fabulous and sassy, serving and slaying, eating and cringing. There’s a good amount of content in the wings and rattling around my brain that I’m excited to share when they’re ready. I’m also exploring new merch products and design processes to keep things fresh. For now, almost every price in the store has been slashed to irresponsible margins because I’d rather PizzaCoffee be in your closet than in a warehouse. As always, none of this would be possible without your support and I love ya to death for it. Cheers to a year around the pizza colored sun and whatever comes next!
Thanks again friends,
Cody