Musician and Owner, Pladd Dot Music

>> My name is Chris Mitchell and I'm a musician. I'm also the owner of Pladd Dot Music. We manufacture guitars and amplifiers here in Statesboro, Georgia. And we have a myriad of other things that we do with our company, from teaching lessons to renting band and orchestra instruments as well as serving the community with any musical needs that they may have. Part of our -- a big part of our focus is education. And one of the branches of that education is a program that we call The School of Rock. And what it is we have a lot of students that go from taking lessons on to being in rock bands and then getting paid for the performances they're in. So they are able to pursue music as a business as well. My day can literally -- I think Mike Tyson said it best when he said "Everybody's got a plan 'til my fists hit their face," and that is the way it is when you're an entrepreneur and you're a business owner. You wake up, you have a plan of what you'd like to accomplish that day and then all of a sudden life happens and an emergency or a situation comes up, and as the owner, the buck stops here. I've got to deal with it. And it can be a very good positive situation and sometimes it can be something that you didn't see coming, hiding behind that tree in the woods, and you just have to deal with it and roll with the punches as they land. I have to say that Pladd Dot Music was an idea and a concept started when I was in college, and it happened to be my freshman year. By mistake. I was making a flyer and the flyer had a black dot on it. But I fell asleep, I was so exhausted making the flyer at 3 o'clock in the morning that my sharpie soaked in a big ol' black dot on the page and I said "Wow, wouldn't that be cool if it was a plaid dot." Then I said I could, "Maybe I can call that the name of my music company, Plaid Dot Music. And it got to the point to where it really stuck. I ended up liking the name. Me and my best friend decided that we would spell it a little differently to get people's attention and it did. And it actually now it's the symbol on every one of our headstocks now. So it went from an absolute mistake to being how I make my life. So it's, you never know where it's going to lead you. We call this, this one is called Georgia Honey. We try to name all of our finishes after locale since we build them right here in the Statesboro. This is the Georgia Honey we also have one called Georgia Sunset, Statesboro Blue, and little known fact, we are coming out with one after while called True Blue. That's on the lock down, but we're going to come out with a really color that's specific to GSU. It's going to be a nice thing. You know, it's funny, and I'd like to say this to any prospective music major's out there. One of the things that -- I never got a degree in business. My degree is in music education. And one of the things I think they like to tell you in business school is that for your business to succeed you need to slowly remove yourself from it. But I have to say that in music it's almost impossible to do that because I am a musician and I still perform over a hundred shows a year. So even with the aspect of manufacturing, I still teach 25 students a week. It's just in my blood. I can't not do it. So it's like the old adage of a musician who's a road dog who's out on the road all the time. Instead of that lifestyle I've chosen to work here all the time and to constantly play gigs, about 100 shows a year, 25 students a week, still manage all aspects of the retail establishment and, you know, the manufacturing. So it's just, I do what I love and that's a plus.