As an early entrepreneur I was selling chewing gum in between class bells. With a 150% mark up I was pulling in between $5 and $20 per week. Unfortunately I squandered my fortune on candy and Mad Magazines. 

Won an award for best photo of the week in the Camp Woodward photography class. With a tough field of five young teens I was seen as a standout.

Made the last call for the first season of Real World. They were so cheap then that I had to drive from Cincinnati to NYC in a snow storm. The experience was great. I later found out I was up for the part that Julie got. She was cuter than me and agreed to meet her estranged father for the show. I didn’t agree to the same. All in all I’m glad I didn’t make it.

I shot for Raygun magazine. If you remember Raygun you know they were awesome. I met with them on a trip to LA in which I crashed my rental car on the way back. Crashed it right into a vintage car... Luckily they had a metal bumper and were unharmed... My hood was not looking good.

And I didn't get insurance because my mom said that my car insurance would cover anything, but I had to throw down $500 for the deductible... That sucked when my yearly income was about $1500.

But I got a job out of it. I shot Jim O'Rourke for an inside spread. Truly a great and fun shoot. And I was offered $50 to shoot it. However my buddy who wrote for them occasionally said I'd never get paid... And I spent probably around $80 on film and processing... So all in all I was down $580 for that shot.

Well worth it as shooting for Raygun was one of my goals as a photographer.

Dr Maya Angelou complimented me on my hair. She said she liked it. It was a nice little faux-hawk. Ironically I was told just a couple weeks before that my hair “is a little unprofessional but it’s your thing”. 

For what it’s worth Maya Angelou is one of the most amazing people you can hang with for a day. We spent the day at her house and the whole photo and video crew left walking on air.

I spent a week at the Target Chalet at the 2007 Winter X-Games. My official reason to be there was to take photos for the internal Target Magazine. It was there that I met Gary Ream. 

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Gary was/is the owner of Camp Woodward... Remember them from my photo award? We chatted and I told him that without the photo class I may have never been a photographer. And without being a photographer I may have never become a designer. And had I not been a designer I would probably not be having that conversation with him. It was pretty cool.

Also cool was getting a massage 20 feet away from Mat Hoffman. Growing up he was one of my favorite freestyle BMX riders. We hung most of the week. It was truly a great experience.

I got to ride Mat Hoffman’s bike. On a second photo shoot I found myself in Mat’s hometown in Oklahoma. I got to ride one of his bikes in a bike park he built. Technically life could get cooler than that but not by much.

I was working on concepts for a newspaper ad for breast cancer awareness for Target with my copywriter Adam Reynolds. We had a concept that had an ad running through the whole paper from the front page to the back. We pitched it to many newspapers and none would allow an ad on the front page. 

Months later our CMO, Michael Francis, spoke to the Newspaper Association of America and relayed the story of our trying to get the ad buy. He mentioned that papers should be open to change, especially for unique concepts. 

In 2009 the New York Times started putting ads on the front page. We like to think we had a lot to do with that... 

Labor was a collaborative process but during labor I was responsible for playlist among other things. I was complimented on my addition of “Push it” by Salt-N-Pepa. Also ran a dad blog called Smonk You but started that about nine months earlier. 

Had my first word accepted into the Urban Dictionary. The word is gobot poor which refers to a kid who grew up playing with Gobots instead of Transformers because he/she was not as rich as others.

I had a Moosejaw soft shell jacket named after me. Called the Kenny Friedman Softshell Jacket. It came about when they were holding a Humans of Influence promotion and were asking folks why they thought they should have a piece of clothing named for them.

I wrote up a little letter and posted it on my blog... Bam, a long 10 months later I had the jacket and people were able to buy and wear me.

I had my six seconds of fame (and then later a few more six seconds) when one of my Vine videos was featured on a Mashable Vine Challenge. Scroll down a little to see two of Jesse LeDoux's Critter Splitter dogs falling in love. The challenge was special connections and I made this one the day DOMA was struck down to celebrate.

I got a job not entirely because of this resume, I've done some good stuff, but it was a factor in showing my voice, creativity and who I am. So I'll say that's a win for this resume.

Sometimes you gotta go on a journey to figure out you belong where you started. Got a job at the agency my career started, Upshot. 

Launched FPO Goods, a tee shirt and clothing line that celebrates individuality by creating one of a kind letterpress tees (and probably some other stuff in the future). 

Unanimously voted Coolest Parent by my tween's friends. This award is harder to get than a Nobel Prize.

Created a world of puppet-like creatures via Midjourney AI art and tell their story on Instagram at @CreaturesOfFPO.