On May 11, 2017, I spoke at Ignite Minneapolis about my Mugshot Monday project–Every Mug Has A Story. Every Ignite speaker prepares a deck of exactly 20 slides. The slides auto-advance every 15 seconds for a 5 minute presentation. There is no stopping.
Ignite’s motto is, “Enlighten us, but make it quick.” I was the first speaker out of 18 that evening.
I usually forget my own name when I speak in front of an audience, so this was a personal goal of mine to give a talk in front of 100s of people. I also loved going to Ignite Minneapolis over the years and was inspired to participate.
I’m stoked with how it went and still can’t believe I did it! Lots of room for improvement with speaking, of course. It was exhilarating and the audience and venue was fantastic.
Another cool thing about giving this talk is I can share out the origin-story of my Mugshot Monday project with others. It helps make sense of why I can’t stop posting weekly stories about coffee mugs.
I hope after watching this talk, you’ll never look at a coffee mug the same way again.
See also: Watch the entire Ignite Minneapolis 12 program including program introductions by Ignite founder Patrick Kuntz and Ignite 12 MC Zach Coulter.
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The 20 slides and the script I wrote for my Mugshot Monday talk
Hello! Show of hands, how many of us drink coffee? How about tea? Okay, lots of us do. So, chances are you have that FAVORITE mug to drink from. Maybe it’s “magical” because it makes you smile when you use it. Or the design is funny.
Or maybe that handle feels super good. Maybe it fits your personality. Maybe it reminds you of someone. But I bet that mug also has a story.
In fact, if we were sitting in your kitchen right now and we opened the cupboard, I bet that you could pick out 1 or 2 mugs and you could tell me a good story about them.
It seems obvious to me now, but I didn’t discover this until I started my Mugshot Monday project. I’d like to tell you about my project and by the end of my talk I hope you’ll never look at a coffee mug the same way again.
So what is this Mugshot Monday project? When I started my project, the idea was simple: What if I post something every week? Something with a theme? I had a lot of coffee mugs, and I drink A LOT of coffee.
What if I posted a picture of myself holding a unique coffee mug, in front of MY MUG, EVERY Monday? And I would call it MUGSHOT MONDAY. [mind blown]
I started posting, But I didn’t really do the math. That’s 52 mugshots if I wanted to do this for a year! I ran out around week 33.
But I remembered some old mugs from college. I found the box! And there was that old Pizza Hut coffee mug. It belonged to my girlfriend in college. She had a coffee maker in her dorm room and we’d talk after classes drinking coffee. That plastic mug brought back so many good memories.
We’re married now. We have 3 kids and we still talk over coffee all the time. When I posted that mugshot, I just HAD to tell people why I would own this crappy little plastic Pizza Hut coffee mug. I had discovered that “Every mug has a story.”
So I forgot to mention: The first Mugshot Monday I posted was about 8 YEARS AGO. And I just can’t seem to quit. At first, there weren’t stories – I’d just mention the mug and the coffee I was drinking. Now, with the added stories, it’s become something I look forward to every Monday.
Since then, I’ve posted 383 Mugshot Mondays. Now that’s not every week – I’ve missed some. And I’m ok with that. Because … life is hard sometimes. But there are only 2 duplicates! … THAT is a lot of coffee mugs.
This is a picture of me in about 20 years. But seriously, people ask me questions:
How many mugs do you own?
Did you INVENT Mugshot Monday?
Where do you keep all those mugs?
Is your wife okay with this?
So, let’s talk about Mugshot Monday. Did I invent it? Yes, I did. BUT so did 100s of other people! This is a “thing” now on Instagram and I love it. I love seeing artists creating all of these mugs and I’ve even started buying some and telling their stories.
I’ve made some mugs, too – like my Shark-Hat Rubber Duckie mug on the left. And I made that tumbler in my ceramics class when I studied abroad in Japan during college. I was TERRIBLE at handles, by the way. That’s Kanji which means “Front” so I know where the front is.
The most common “mug with a story” is a souvenir mug from a trip or family vacation. We took the family to Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado and stayed in A YURT! I love yurts. And we went to Boxcar Roasters in Boulder. My Twitter handle is @Bigboxcar, so I was super curious about that. Their cold press is AMAZING.
I don’t really dress up for these mugshots, but when Halloween lands on a Monday I’ll be Iron Man or wear a taco costume all day. I grew up on Star Wars. That Kylo Ren mugshot was the first time I saw a new Star Wars movie WITH my kids *IN A THEATER*. That was awesome.
I love “CABIN MUGS”. These MISFIT mugs get demoted from your kitchen at home and get brought up to the cabin. What’s cool is they end up representing the new stories of the good times at the cabin.
I like to feature causes. If you don’t know Nora McInerny – look her up, She’s an amazing person. I met Nora way back in 2010 by accident. She photobombed the Mugshot Monday I was taking at Wilde Roast and I LOVE it. She’s started a non profit called Still Kickin’. And every month they help someone who’s struggling. Please consider buying one of their mugs.
Other people got into my mugshots, too. I think some are even here tonight. For these mugshots, the MEET-UP and the PEOPLE became the story rather than the mug. But the mug tethers it all together.
The COFFEE is a very important part of my mugshots and Peace Coffee has been in my mug the most often. Full disclosure, back in 2009 they sent me a free mug and some free coffee. And I’ve loved the coffee AND the company ever since.
But sometimes I’m NOT drinking coffee in the mugshot. Sometimes it’s COFFEE BENDER!! Anyone drinking Surly tonight? I’m gonna join you all in about 30 seconds. But listen…
I wanted an Ignite mug for my collection, but none existed. So I made one.
Maybe some day a friend will see this mug in my cupboard and say, “Hey – IGNITE! What’s that?” And I’ll never forget being here, right now with all of you. And I got to go FIRST! And as I pour some coffee in that mug, I’ll say to my friend: “Well…let me tell you a STORY.”
Thank you!
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It was a 5 minute talk – slides advanced every 15 seconds regardless of where I was at in the presentation. Ignite’s motto is, “Enlighten us, but make it quick.” I’m terrified of public speaking and I know I shouldn’t be, so I decided to submit my topic idea. It was accepted and I was given the opportunity to speak in front of 900 people at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis. That day also happened to be my birthday. It was an amazing experience and I still can’t believe I did it.
You can see my ‘Mugshot Monday – Every mug has a story’ Ignite presentation from May 11 in this archived Facebook Live video.
See also all my mugshots posted to my Tumblr, my Facebook and my Instagram. Thanks for reading!
Photos from the evening:
