Belladonna schools the Catholic church

Anyone who looks at a newspaper on a regular basis has almost surely read something about the annual World Youth Day festival that’s scheduled to wrap up later today, July 20, in Sydney.

Earlier this week, it seemed as if every international news outlet on earth had either printed, posted, or broadcast some sort of comment about the Pope’s historic apology to those victims of sexual abuse who’d suffered at the hands of a Catholic clergy member. Most everyone seemed to have a similar opinion about the apology, which seemed to go something like this:

“Sure, it was an historic event, and yes, it was certainly a start. But it didn’t go anywhere near far enough.”

Incidentally, beginning this Thursday and running through the end of the weekend, the city of Sydney will be hosting a convention of quite another sort – the 2008 Sexpo, which bills itself as a “Health, Sexuality & Lifestyle Expo.” From what I can gather, this isn’t strictly a sex or pornography convention, but rather an event meant to broaden people’s perceptions about the joy of sexuality itself. According to the Sexpo’s website, “The aim of the exhibition is to allow adults to access frank and accurate information on [health, sexualty, and adult lifestyles] all in one convenient location.”

At any rate, the American porn star Belladonna will be appearing at this year’s Sydney Sexpo for the fifth time. Apparently she decided to fly in early for the event, and just this past Friday, she managed to land herself a bit of press in the Daily Telegraph, a respected Australian broadsheet. “Porn star offers free sex advice to priests“, was the title of the July 18 article, which explained that Belladonna had offered to give away 300 copies of her own films to the priests of the Australian Catholic church.

Here’s what she had to say: ”The Pope has indicated he might apologise to victims of sexual abuse and that is a positive thing to do. But unless he follows up with some practical advice that addresses the sexual needs and desires of clergy, the problem will simply continue.”

Belladonna has always been one of our favorite porn stars here at YP Media. After all, she’s an extremely successful entrepreneur who operates her own production company, and she’s only 27. And although I don’t know much at all about the way business is done in Southern California’s porn industry, I’m sure Bella’s career was not an easy one to create. In other words, she’s clearly one of the business’s most fascinating characters – she’s probably one of its most intelligent, too.

Of course, it’s highly unlikely that the Pope or the Australian Diocese will be taking Belladonna up on any of her offers. According to the story in the Daily Telegraph, ”She also offered to donate some of her own time to help set up a ‘meaningful set of exercises for priests to help them deal with sexual tension and stress.’” 

But still, what a great lesson about the advantages of guerrilla marketing! Belladonna had a bit of a laugh, she made a political statement, and she got her name in probably dozens of international newspapers and websites, at all once. Of course, it’s quite likely that none of that would have happened if Bella wasn’t a well-read and inquisitive sort of person – the sort of person who makes it a point to keep her eye on world affairs and current events. If you’re involved with entrepreneurship or small business on any level – global or otherwise – you should be doing the same. And by the way, one of the easiest ways to do that is to read the Economist, which has tons of free content online at Economist.com.

Johnny Cupcakes’ Melrose Avenue vision comes to life…

I often have such an incredibly difficult time explaining to people exactly what I mean by the term Young Pioneer. A Young Pioneer, for instance, isn’t just any ol’ entrepreneur. It’s an entrepreneur who is absolutely filled with extreme and total passion for his business. It’s an entrepreneur who believes so strongly in his vision, that he’ll often make decisions that don’t necessarily seem guided by his quest for money. Or to put it another way, a Young Pioneer is doing what he’s doing – whatever he’s doing - because he absolutely has to.

He’s not doing it to get rich, although many Young Pioneers do eventually become very wealthy. He’s certainly not doing it to get laid, although conveniently enough, most women are understandably attracted to truly passionate people.

He’s doing it – whatever it is – because it’s what he was put on this earth to do.

But still… that’s not entirely clear, is it?

I don’t know about you, but I’m a visual person. I almost always need to see something with my own eyes before I really understand it. And that’s why the second Johhny Cupcakes webisode, which was just posted to the video-sharing site Vimeo, completely blew my mind: It’s essentially a short film about extreme passion in action. In fact, before you watch the video, which is a sneak-peak inside the Melrose Avenue store that’s scheduled to open on August 2nd, read Johnny’s brief post, which is underneath the screen.

He says: “My parents and select friends think I’m insane for putting so much time, energy and money into my LA shoppe. I really just want it to be a fun, different, memorable experience… Most companies try to cut corners to turn a huge profit, and don’t think twice about making the customers happy via spending extra time, energy & money on attention to details & experience. Well I’m ALL for the little (and BIG) details. It is all about the experience, because at the end of the day we’re all just humans hustling a product to consumers. Why not make it an unforgettable adventure for both parties?”   

Wow. WOW. I can’t even begin to imagine how much money this LA store is going to set Johhny back (seriously, watch the video), but here’s my prediction: The LA Times is going to cover his grand opening, and the New York Times will do some sort of piece on Johnny and his Melrose store within six months – probably in the Sunday magazine. And I’ll bet he sells out of T-shirts during the grand opening, too. After all, how could he not? Supposedly he’s got a bunch of super-fans who are planning to sleep outside the store on Melrose for three nights straight, just to make sure they’re able to get inside the store on the big deal. Unreal. You think maybe Johnny knows a thing or two about customer loyalty that pretty much every other company on earth doesn’t?

• [Click here for the first Johnny Cupcakes webisode]

Off to the Philippines

This is just a really quick note to let anyone who may be interested know where I’ll be – and when – over the next four or five weeks. The short version is that I’ll be leaving for Philadelphia International tomorrow morning, and I’ll be spending the following month in the Philippines. I’m updating the “Manila” and “Around Manila” chapters for the next edition of Lonely Planet’s Philippines travel guide – I’m pretty sure it’s the 10th edition. And thanks to my very kind coordinating author, GB, who happens to live in Manila with his family, I’ve managed to secure accommodation for myself in an actual real house! I’ll be staying somewhere in central Manila, and watching over six cats for a Canadian family of four (or maybe five?) who are going on vacation for a month… or something like that. I spoke on the phone – briefly – with the man of the house, and he seems like a great guy. He’s even offered to pick me up from the airport in Manila, and that seems to me like a sign that this is going to be a wonderfully relaxed and (hopefully) rewarding trip.  

And by the way, if any Manilia- or Philippines-based journalists, travel writers or guidebook authors are reading this, please feel free to get in touch. I don’t know anyone in town, and I’m more than happy to buy you a beer or two (or lunch, or whatever) in exchange for a bit of up-to-date insider-info. Shoot me an email at: dan@youngpioneers.com. I’ll be getting a phone with a local number once I arrive, and I’ll probably be posting that number here, so check back in a few days if you’re interested. In fact, if you’re a Manila-based expat, artist, PR person – or whatever – and you’d like to get together at a cafe or something to talk about local politics or what not, I’d love to hear from you as well. Get in touch at that same email address, above. 

Finally, if I manage to get all my work done early, I’m planning on rewarding myself with a 5- or 7-day trip to either Beijing or Shanghai… or possibly Jakarta, during the trip’s fifth week. We’ll see how that goes…