12/05/2025
I remember reaching out to John for the first time back when he was at GSD&M almost 25 years back. Whenever he picked up the phone, it was a breath of fresh air. You could hear him smiling. He actually appreciated the energy, the effort. He was busy but not rushed, and even when he had to dip quickly, he had a ton of grace for us wild-eyed over-caffeinated rookies. He told me feel free to call him anytime.
Before you knew it, we were actually working together. Then came the day I got a call from Karen Jacobs, with the news that she and John and Zach Rener were starting a brand new thing in Austin called Greatest Common Factory. Right from the beginning the three of them let us know they wrote it into their business plan to only work with people they totally believed in, and then to take care of the relationship.
That’s John Trahar through and through. Probably got to do between 100-200 things with him over the years, and he and the GCF team made us feel part of the family every single time. Creative calls were all about movies and bands and favorite records and shows...and dares to take things out of bounds. We’d hang on shoots, or anytime he and the team were in San Diego or anytime we were in Austin. When he found out I surfed through the winter without a wetsuit, he had all the pre-cold-plunge-craze cold water science you could ever want. To this day if I ever hit the hot water in my shower I feel like I’m lowkey betraying him.
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