Inspiring Conversations with Austin Boogie Boughner of Manifest Green

Hi Austin, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
It all started with a gift/obsession with 4 leaf clovers. Once I experienced the tranquility of finding my first one, I literally spent years sifting through the grass to harvest them to use as gifts at festivals. This trained my sight to spot the unordinary in nature.

Five years into my festival career I was given the opportunity to volunteer on the green team at Sacred Vibrations in 2017. I had an incredibly empowering and enlightening experience. I had never felt so much love and appreciation at that moment that it inspired me in so many ways. My eye for the clover evolved into my micro-trash vision.

Over the next two years, Sacred Vibrations had me take lead on the Green Team operation. In my final year, I was able to hand pick my team. Word of my recent endeavors reached Sacred Hive, a festival collective in Nashville, TN. I was offered the great privilege and opportunity to run the green team at their flagship festival, Sound Haven, in 2019.

I couldn’t find a ride so I teamed up with a friend and hitchhiked to Tennessee from Detroit where I was living. It took us 5 long adventurous days. I had with me over 100 epoxies 4 leaf clover pendants and key chains I used to barter for rides and used as a currency on the lot. This journey was exhausting and humbling but motivated us toward our goals so much. This is what planted the seed of my company.

I was unprepared with volunteers I didn’t know, in a scene of unfamiliar faces, with only the bag I could travel with. I worked the best I could with the experience and resources I had channeling out nothing but pure passion. Hundreds of people complimented me and showered me with love that inspired me to take this seriously and do this the proper way.

Shortly after Sound Haven, Jered Ardry, the leader and founder of the collective reached out to me and sincerely shared his gratitude. He offered that if I move out to Tennessee that I could manage the green team at all the Sacred Hive festivals. That was a life-changing conversation that fed so much water to my company’s seed. He connected me with a homie that is now family, and I moved to Nashville two months later.

Immediately upon arrival, the manifesting began, and my fresh company started getting booked to all the smaller local festivals and events. I learned so much so fast that this passion project started to evolve into a career.
The first year we launched we did 15 festivals, and I poured my heart into them.

Around this time I met a wonderful woman, who became my girlfriend, Sierra. She has stood beside me and supported me on my path to keeping my mind clear and my vision focused. She fully supports me and helps me bring this dream into reality. She does all of the scheduling, and a lot of the organizing, and is the manager of our information booth that she is so passionate about. She gives me great advice on tough decisions and is there for me through every situation. She is especially good at helping me keep our volunteers in check, and she helps manages our social media. She grounds me and keeps my mind so much clearer with good advice and fresh perspectives.

Going into my second year I was approached by a friend of mine, Devon MacPherson. I met Devon through the festival scene. In the past, I had helped him re-launch some of his Airbnb projects when wrapping up large renovations. Sometimes I’d work around the clock, bring others along, hauling trash hanging lights painting running a team, organizing making supply runs– you name it. I think It’s safe to say I made a good impression as a hard worker with a good attitude.

I had talked about my whole manifest green vision with him many times and one day he asked if I was interested in an investor to help really get the company off the ground. He gave me a full pitch where he described how even though I would get to where I needed to be on my own, he could fast forward my business trajectory 5 years right now. With a cash injection, we would get my company from a grassroots movement to a professional organization in the same year. The only hard part for me was that bringing on a real partner would take it from my company to our company. This was a difficult part for me at first but after hearing his vision and working alongside him I knew it was a good idea for our future.

There were so many different elements of the project that we were able to tackle together. We got right to the basics: we need– trucks, golf carts, trailers, trash frames, bags, communication devices, etc. We set out to customize our products from the get-go and found a manufacturer to make us folding trash frames (easier to store and less bulky in the field) powder coated with a color I chose for the company, (Malikite green) and then custom trash bags with our company logo on them colored to match. While I was waiting for my new house to open up, Sierra and I crashed in a spare room at Devon’s house over the winter.

We also did a merchandise run after Devon negotiated a sale of custom art by local artist Chris Fun. All in all, within 6 months we had a basically new F150, 2 golf carts, 200 custom green folding frames, 25 recycling frames, an entire pallet of over 8,000 custom bags, signs, merchandise, and a reputation of seriousness to match the passion and dedication that I had already poured into the project. After a couple of months had flown by Devon sought my permission to invite his long-term business partner, Cameron Sloan to join the project.

I was now blessed with a pair of investors that are my partners and brothers. They believe in me because of my passion and dedication to making a difference in our scene. Devon and Cameron picked Manifest Green off its feet and set it on the course to success. Because of them, we have all of our own equipment and supplies to run successful operations. They have transformed our company and I continuously learn more and more from them every day.

This past year we also were blessed with an intern from a university in Michigan (Perry Boyd,) who specializes in environmental sciences. She brings inspiring and enlightening statistical facts to our information booth and has instilled in us the importance of sustainability. Because of her in the future to come we will be able to provide all sorts of information on sustainability and waste mindfulness to the community, and workshops! Also wanted to give a huge shout out to my team leaders, they have been a major role in the growth of our company. I couldn’t do this without them, they are so passionate and work so hard!

The manifestations have been smooth. The gratitude I get from the community is the smoothest and the reward sensations from keeping our home clean are immeasurable.

But yes there have been many rocky roads. With me being a grassroots business still, I have found myself being taken advantage of often. Especially in the beginning stages when I was still discovering our worth. It’s shocking what the budget for waste is at many mid-tier and under festivals. And it’s hard for me to not hook my homies up that throw local festivals. The biggest struggles were before we got our infrastructure established.

Hand fulls of festivals I was booked to did not have the supplies I needed to do my job effectively that was agreed upon. Things like having enough trash barrels, having the right bags, having enough bags, having a golf cart, and being fed. The roads can always be a little rocky, but with mindfulness as your suspension, it will always be smooth sailing.

Manifest Green is an inclusive collective of passionate individuals who share a commitment to maintaining a clean and safe environment for all festivals we have the pleasure of servicing. We focus heavily on micro trash, our mission leaves no trace and inspires the collective about waste mindfulness.

We have an information booth on sustainability and statistics about microplastics/recycling and other trash-related topics. We are also curating a sustainability workshop and a rewards program for patrons who bring us trash.

Books and podcasts on mindfulness, spirituality, ancient gods, aliens, space, science, and physics are my cups of tea.