Episode III: Call Me Mr. A.D.D.

Man, things are a bit fuzzy. Trying to remember how this all went down is a little more difficult than I thought it would be, and I think I got a couple things mixed up, probably because of the A.D.D. I want to make this blog a little more detailed, so I went into my notes and stuff to build a little timeline. This part of the blog is for document sake, so before I go any further, I gotta back up a bit, and put some dates in here. I almost wanted to start over, but for some reason I feel like if I put something on a blog and leave it there for more than a day, I have to leave it there forever. Does anyone else feel like that? Weird.
Anyway, according to my notes and emails, on June 6, 2008, I registered to break the record on the Guinness website. I got the record agreement and a notice of application review on June 12th, and sent in the agreement that day. They got back to me on July 24th to tell me they had received the agreement and that they would review everything and get back with me again in 4 to 6 weeks. During this time is when I talked to Todd from Universal Information Services, and Nikki from Hebe GB, but we did not make anything final yet. At last, on August 13th, 2008, I got the go-ahead from Guinness!
They sent me the official guidelines for breaking the record for tallest Mohican, the name and measurements of the current record holder, and what they called a “Record Breaking Pack”. It was pretty cool to get this stuff, because it answered a lot of questions, and was very professional. It made it seem more real, more like it wasn’t just a stunt, but rather an achievement that would be recognized by an elite organization, if I could pull it off. It was also a bit scary, because it sank in that I couldn’t mess around, because Guinness doesn’t mess around, that’s for sure!
The guidelines were very specific, and no detail could be overlooked, otherwise it wouldn’t count. First off, they stressed that NO products could be used in the hair for the attempt, except hairspray, gel, or mousse. No gelatin, or egg whites, or anything like that. I was wondering if ordinary, everyday hair products would even make this mop stand up for 2 seconds! It was comforting to find out, however, that there was no time limit on the feat. That meant all I had to do was stand it up long enough for us to measure it and get pictures and other proof. Speaking of proof, that is another thing Guinness takes very seriously. I had to have two witnesses to be there for the whole process, and then they had to sign an affidavit, which I had to then get notarized. I needed video or photographic evidence that was convincing beyond a doubt. Also, as a requirement, it was necessary to get the attempt into the media. Up until now, I did not think that would be a problem, but for some reason this record breaking pack made me pause, and I suddenly became uncertain as to how much interest anyone, or any media, would have in some guy in Nebraska putting his hair into a Mohawk for 2 minutes. Well, I shook that off pretty quickly, and took solace in the fact that I already had some good people on my side, and the last guy was on a national television show. Suffice to say, the serious nature of Guinness lit a serious fire under my ass, and I knew I had to get to work, and do this right!
So, now we’re back to where we left off. Where was I? Oh, yes, the salons. I mentioned in the last episode that it was difficult to find a salon to sponsor me. I had a couple of friends who were stylists that said they would help, and a list of salons around town. The only thing is, I wanted the salon to be the primary sponsor, so I was asking for more money for the sponsorship. (The sponsorship fees were to help for promotion, charity, and whatever was left over helped me out with school). I had contacted a few salons, and they all turned me down pretty quickly. Most of the salons I contacted said it was not in their budget, but the weird thing is, some of them actually said they did not want to associate themselves with this kind of event. This kind of event? I thought this was tailor made for a salon! However, some of them thought that the Mohawk was not appropriate. I guess they thought it would somehow “tarnish” them. It was only a few of them that said that, but it was surprising to me.
So, my search for a salon continued, as well as my search for other sponsors. I had gone through the phonebook, looked on the internet, and talked to friends to compile a list of small businesses in town to contact. The first ones I contacted were in a certain demographic I was going for, which generally revolved around fashion, music, art, and entertainment kind of businesses, or anything that someone who was into Mohawks might also be into.
And that’s the situation, as of August 23rd, 2008. I had the OK from Guinness, a general plan, and two sponsors so far. I had no date for the event set yet, no venue, no bands, no hair stylist, no photographer, and a lot of work to do. I was feeling a bit scatterbrained, like everything was up in the air, floating around. I guess that’s because it was. I remember fighting with myself a bit, telling myself, “Hey, I got time”, and then thinking, “No, don’t think like that and procrastinate, get yer ass movin!”
That’s it for this episode. I know it was short, so the next one will be posted quickly, and I will make sure to start where I left off on this one, with my ass movin’!

Episode II: Thank Goodness for Friends, and Local Libraries!

So now I was excited! First stop; The Guinness website. I went there and filled out all of the necessary forms and faxes and sent them all in. When I was done, after about 3 days of e-mailing and confirming, the final go-ahead had to come from Guinness, and it was gonna take about four to six weeks for them to get back to me. Ok, that gave me time to do some planning, and there was a lot of planning that had to be done! While I was investigating the Guinness website, I saw all kinds of record attempts being made. Some were grand scale accomplishments by companies, like the most to parachute from a balloon simultaneously sponsored by the Paraclub Flevo of Lelystad, The Netherlands, and some were simple stunts, like the guy who sat in in a bathtub with the most rattlesnakes. Yikes!









What I had in mind was something in between the parachuting people and rattlesnake guy. One thing I did notice is that most of these record attempts had sponsorship. Did I need sponsorship? Heck, I could just find a couple hair styling friends, shave my head, measure, and be done with it. But wait a second; the last guy who did this was on the Ellen show, fer cryin' out loud! And he was on there for doing something that I could top! If I’m gonna do this, I better do it right. I started to get a vision in my head of a press conference with media coverage, and a big measuring ceremony. And why not spread the attention around? I could get my band some publicity; get some charities involved, maybe some business owner friends of mine. Then my wheels really started turning. I need a hairstylist…no…a salon to hold the event, and a benefit concert for charity…yes! I could play in my band with the Mohawk on full display! Of course, the first charity organization that came to mind was Locks of Love. They take donations of hair and weave wigs for cancer patients, so they were a perfect match. I also wanted to get a local charity involved, but that would come later. So…I needed a venue for that, I needed other bands to play, I needed to find the other charity, some conference tables, refreshments, a yardstick…I better do a couple of test runs, I need new cloths, a press release…man…I need help!
Now I had a vision of a whole day of events planned around this record breaking attempt, and no idea where to begin. So where did I go? The library, of course! I checked out an excellent book on how to plan events, get sponsorships, and write press releases and proposals. I also knew that I was lucky to be working at Universal Information Services. I was friends with the Vice president, Todd Murphy, and he deals with the media, media events, and press releases almost on a daily basis. All I had to do was come up with a good enough proposal to convince him to come on board, and then he could help me sort out some of the other things that were whirling around in my mind.
So I read the book, nailed down some demographics, and came up with a proposal for Todd. When I met with him, he loved the idea. I knew that he would see the potential of what I was trying to do, and Universal information Services became my second sponsor. I had already talked to a friend of mine, Nikki Pettis, who runs Hebe GB Tatto, and they were on board.
So the deal with Todd was that I would get their name out there as best as I could while talking to the media and stuff, and in exchange he could help me with proof-reading and writing the press release and proposals, put me in contact with some of his contacts, as well as use their services to record all of the media exposure I would get. Also, as it turned out, his wife, Stephanie, ran a local charity
called Project Nightlights, which helps sick children build their dream bedrooms. That sounded great to me, so now I had another local charity involved.
Of course, Todd is a busy man, and I did not expect him to do all the work for me. I had already written a proposal for the next sponsor I was going to go after, which was Big Brain Productions, Tattoo and Piercing Studio. I already had an appointment with Smitty, the owner of Big Brain before I talked to Todd. I really wanted Todd to know I was serious.
So now the ball was rolling, but I had a few problems. I could not set a date until I heard back from Guinness, because I didn’t want to set it too soon, (like before I heard back from them), and I didn’t want to get too many people and business involved yet, just to hear that my claim had been denied from Guinness. Also, I hadn’t even gotten a stylist yet! I measure my hair myself to make sure I could break the record, but I would need a professional hair stylist to pull this off. As it turned out, to my surprise, getting a salon to become involved as a sponsor was one of the most difficult tasks I was about to tackle, and I thought it would have been the easiest! Weird, huh? I’ll tell ya all about it, in episode III, so stay tuned!