The School of Greatness - 736 Blake Mycoskie: TOMS Shoes Founder on Changing Business and the World

Episode Date: December 24, 2018

THE MORE YOU GIVE, THE MORE YOU LIVE. You need to have a why. Why are you hustling every day? Why are you pushing yourself? Why are you sacrificing? If you have a purpose, you’ll have the passion you need to follow through. There is nothing more powerful. And it’s become a necessity- in today’s world, it’s difficult to be a successful entrepreneur unless you are connected to a greater good and you communicate that with others. Storytelling can be your greatest tool. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk about creating business with purpose with the creator of the One for One® model: Blake Mycoskie. Blake Mycoskie is the Founder and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS, which has provided over 86 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006. TOMS Eyewear has restored sight to over 600,000 people since 2011 and TOMS Roasting Company has helped provide over 600,000 weeks of safe water since launching in 2014. In 2015, TOMS Bag Collection was founded with the mission to help provide training for skilled birth attendants and distribute birth kits containing items that help a woman safely deliver her baby. As of 2016, TOMS has supported safe birth services for over 25,000 mothers. Before TOMS, Blake, a native of Texas who always had an entrepreneurial spirit, started five businesses. His first was a successful campus laundry service, which he later sold. Between business ventures, Blake competed in the CBS primetime series, The Amazing Race. With his sister, Paige, Blake traveled the world and came within minutes of winning the $1 million dollar grand prize. Blake is an avid reader and traveler. He is passionate about inspiring young people to help make tomorrow better, encouraging them to include giving in everything they do. His hope is to see a future full of social-minded businesses and consumers. Blake is passionate about using commerce to make money while creating social good. He says that people want to help others, they just need to be given the opportunity. He says that it’s important to connect in a way that lets the customer be the hero. So get ready to learn why it’s powerful to connect people’s wants and needs on Episode 736. Some Questions I Ask: What was your original inspiration for doing a buy one give one model? (2:00) Do you think a business can thrive with one story? (9:30) How do you stay inspired? (11:00) If you were going to create a new business in a new space, what would it be? (19:00) What is the biggest challenge you face? (26:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How storytelling can help your business (5:00) Why modern business has to have a purpose (15:00) How you can use critique to your benefit (21:30) Using the concept of “essentialism” to plan your time (28:00) Why Blake is passionate about gun reform (35:00) The one thing entrepreneurs need to stay passionate (49:00)

This is episode number 736 with Tom's Shoes founder, Blake Mycoskie. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Oprah Winfrey said, don't worry about being successful, but work toward being significant

and the success will naturally follow. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season as we're wrapping up the end of the year. And I'm going to be sharing some of my end of year lessons, some of the biggest lessons I've learned from this year. And it's been a lot, trust me, especially a lot happening towards the end of the year. But I'm excited about this interview with Blake because he has done some incredible things for business and charity and making the world a better place. He's done it all and he's combined it in a powerful way. And if you don't know who Blake Mycoskie is, if you've never heard of Tom's Shoes, he is the founder and chief shoe giver of Tom's and the person behind the idea of one for one, which is a business model that

helps a person in need with every product purchased. You've probably seen this. You've probably bought Tom's shoes. You've probably bought from this model from another company because many companies and brands have taken this model and implemented themselves where you buy a product and they give that product to someone in need as well. It's a very popular model right now. And this simple idea has grown into a global movement. Tom's Shoes has provided almost 90 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006. And in this interview, we talk about the benefits of having a business that gives back. How to deal with negative backlash with empathy. So how to deal with the backlash when you try to do good in the world, but people make you wrong

for it still. The power of storytelling for your business and how your business will ultimately suffer if you don't have a great story. Some of the major challenges that entrepreneurs are facing right now and what they need to do to get out of them, and what every business and entrepreneur should be thinking about in terms of charity and giving back. That and so much more. We cover things about his latest initiatives, which are mind-blowing what he's been able to create with his platform,

how to do good in the world, how to change policy in the world through your platform, and so much more. This is a really important interview. And I'd love you to share this out with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 736. Let Blake know on Instagram what you think about this. Tag him as well. He's at Blake Mycoskie and at Tom's Shoes. You can check them both out there. Guys, this couldn't be more timely of information. If you are looking to build a business, if you're looking to build a side hustle, a consulting business, a brand, you've got to be thinking in terms of how can I do good in the world? How can I give back? How can I serve

more people than just serving myself of making money? And I believe that if you're not thinking about this and mindful about this, your business will ultimately struggle and suffer if you're not looking for ways to give in a more holistic approach in your business and in your brand. So I'm very excited about this. Again, make sure to share this with your friends,

lewishouse.com slash 736. And without further ado, let me introduce you to the one, the only, Blake Mycoskie. Welcome, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. We have the legendary Blake Mycoskie in the house. Good to see you, man. How are you doing? That's a nice introduction. You doing well? You doing well? I wish my wife would say that when I walk into the kitchen in the morning. Well, we have like, I don't know, probably a couple hundred mutual friends probably in this kind of. For sure.

I think every single book here is a book I've read and I know the author. I was looking at your Instagram page recently and I saw Jesse Itzler was doing a video for you. And we were talking about Scott Harris and so many mutual friends who are entrepreneurs. Probably Adam Braun you probably know and all these guys. So a lot of people have been on here. A lot of people have recommended having you on here, so I'm glad you're finally here. I'm so glad to be here. You are well known for creating Tom's Shoes, which has been kind of like the gold standard for how to run a business with social good behind it.

Thank you. And everyone uses you as an example. They're like, well, I'm the Tom's Shoes of sunglasses. I'm the Tom's Shoes of this. I'm the Tom's shoes of this. I'm the Tom's shoes of everything, right? So everyone is kind of doing this. You buy one and we give one model, right? What was your original inspiration for doing that?

And did you think it would actually last 12 years and grow? Or was it like maybe we'll make it past a few years and then give away a bunch of shoes? I mean, literally, it wasn't even a business when we launched it. We called it the Thomas Project. And what's so interesting is that there's been so many people that have emulated this one-for-one model. But we didn't really think about, like, we were creating a model. We just wanted to keep track of it. Like, it's the easiest way to keep track of this.

Because, you know, I was traveling in South America, specifically Argentina. I saw all these kids in the streets, you know, street kids, you know, kind of sniffing glue and kind of, you know, really going through tough times. And none of them had shoes on. And I asked this woman one day, I was like, you know, why are these kids not in school? And she said, well, one of the reasons they're not in school is they have to have a school uniform to go to school. And part of that uniform is a pair of shoes, a black pair of shoes, actually. And they can't afford it. And so if their families can't afford the uniform and the shoes, then that...

They don't go to school. Yeah, school. Can't get education. Then they get into all kinds of bad stuff. And so when I think back to that moment, the idea I had was so simple. I basically went and volunteered with this organization for the day who had gone and gotten donated shoes. So they went to wealthy families in Buenos Aires, collected these slightly used,

they weren't even new shoes, but used shoes. They took them to the kids before the school year and that was their donation. And I went and volunteered and donated shoes and got the joy of seeing kids get shoes. And that night I came home and I was talking to my buddy who is a polo teacher of all things. His name is Alejo. And I said, Alejo, I said, this is what I did today.

It was amazing. Like I felt so good. Like I felt like so full of spirit. And he said, yeah, but what's going to happen when they need their next pair of shoes? And it was like I went from like a 10 to like a 5. He was like, oh, like I don't know. And like maybe we didn't actually do something good today. Maybe we just like prolonged a future problem.

And that's when I had the idea is like, you know, I've never been in charity. I've never been in philanthropy, but I'm an entrepreneur. I've started a few businesses. And what if you could start a business where every time you sold a pair of shoes, you would give a pair away. And then that way, it's really easy for the customer to understand. It's really easy to keep track of. It's not like, oh, 5% or 10% or 30% of your sales go to this nonprofit. And then how much actually gets to the kids. It was like, okay, like you buy a pair, we give a pair. That simple. We'll call it one for one. And that was it. And it was just

like, you know, I mean, at the time, I mean, I was kind of running another company, an online education company that I started. This was like a side project. We didn't have like a business plan. We didn't even have a checking account. Like, it was like, oh, let's just do this. And truthfully, at the time, I mean, I was a single guy, like 29 years old, loved Argentina, loved going down there. I love Argentina.

Right? And so I thought, like, okay, this is cool. Once a year, right before school, I'll go down there. I'll give a couple hundred kids shoes, and then I'll come back at Christmas, give them all shoes, make it sustainable, and it'll be my cool little project. That was the idea. Now, we've given 88 million children a pair of shoes. Wow, man. That's amazing. 88 million. It's been amazing. I think the fact that there's been so many other companies take this one for one and actually call it a model now and emulate it has been one of the things that I think I and people at Tom's are most proud of. Like, it's amazing that when we read about companies that are helping people with eyeglasses, like what Warby Parker's done, or you look at other companies that have done it in everything from diapers to, you know, mattresses.

You look at other companies that have done it in everything from diapers to mattresses. I mean, it's like there's actually a really interesting way of offering a product to someone that they want to buy and at the same time help someone who has a need that would never be able to afford it. And so that's, I think, one of the things we're most proud of is that it has permeated business culture around the globe. How many of these one-for-one models are out there? Oh, there's hundreds. Really? There's thousands, yeah. I mean, and I go to Korea, and they're like there, and it just, I guess it just made sense to people. Like, it was like, okay, there's a lot of people that want something, and there's a lot of people that need something, and you connect the want and the need through

commerce, you can actually, you can make it work, and so. Do you think this model would have worked 30, 40 years ago for companies? I think the reason why I think it – the number one thing that I say that if you really plot the growth of Tom's, 2006 is when I started. It's also the year that Facebook went off campus. And social media in general. 2007 was the year that YouTube started. Wow. So literally you can plot – 2008 is probably general. Yeah, 2007 was the year that YouTube started. Wow. You know, so literally you can plot. 2008's probably Twitter. Yeah, yeah. So you can literally plot our growth to the growth of social media. Wow. And so it's, and I think that the reason that is so important

is, and this is why other brands have emulated this both from a giving perspective, but also from just a business perspective, is that it became about storytelling. And that's so much what you're about. So it's like, it's about like. And that's so much what you're about. So it's like, it's about like connecting people to a story, to the power to be part of something bigger than themselves. And you could never do that through advertising because it wouldn't be authentic. But what is authentic is when you got your first pair of Toms in 2007, and you watched a video of us giving them to children in Argentina, you wanted to post that on your Facebook or MySpace, it was a big deal back then, and say, look, I did this. I actually am wearing these shoes because it's helping these kids get shoes.

And so I think that's a big part of why we were able to grow. And then the other part of our growth that is really unique is I had no investors. And it went from zero to half a billion in sales with no investors in five years. Half a billion in sales in five years. Six years. Six years. Wow. So that's crazy.

Yeah, it's nuts. These are like affordable shoes. Yeah, $48 shoes. These aren't $300 shoes. No, no. It's a lot of shoes. $48 to, our boots sell for like $150. Yeah, yeah.

But back then. Yeah, it was all $40. $40. Yeah. Wow. Half a billion in sales. Yeah. But that's because of connecting in a way that allowed the customer to be the marketer.

It allowed the customer to be the hero. The storyteller. Yeah, exactly. And so that's what I think is so unique. And then frankly, you know, we got to half a billion in six years. And then over the last six years, we haven't grown hardly because it's been hard to have that fresh story. It's been hard to have a reason for someone to get as engaged. Now people love our shoes and we still, you know,

sell a ton of shoes every year. And the business has been real successful and we've helped, you know, millions of kids every year get new shoes. So our mission has stayed great, millions of kids every year get new shoes. So our mission has stayed great, but we haven't had that astronomical growth again because so many people have emulated it. It's like, okay, I like your shoes, but I have no need to go on to Twitter or Facebook or Snapchat or whatever

and tell all my friends I bought a pair of shoes. It would actually be weird. It would be weird if you were like, guess what, I got Tom's shoes today, and they helped give a pair to a child in need. All your followers would be like, yeah, like, I know that started 12 years ago. Yeah, yeah. Right? So unfortunately, our success and the number of kids that we've helped around the world,

while it's been incredibly gratifying, it hasn't until recently had, like, another big story to tell and so so that's what's been like any business you have to kind of and then you become more focused on the fashion trends and getting the styles right and we built a great men's business over the last couple years but that doesn't happen overnight do you think a business can thrive off of one story after 10 years i think you can maintain so i I guess thriving is all relative, right? Maintain meaning get the same amount of sales. Yeah. I think you can maintain that base. We've maintained basically a half a billion dollar business, a little bit less than that over the

past four or five years because we have that base and they're buying the shoes because they're connected to the mission. They respect Tom's as a brand. They like the styles. They like the quality. They like the quality, all that. But in order to have another level of growth, I think you need to engage your customers in a new story or in something that they feel that when they move, it makes a difference. And so that's been something that you can never predict

when that's gonna happen or how that's gonna happen. But I think when you look at like, I mean, Apple's a great example of that. You know, if you look at the different peaks and valleys of Apple over a 40-year period of time, you know, Patagonia is a great example of that. Like, I mean, they had a huge rush with the original Patagonia in the late 80s. I mean, I don't know if you had one when you were a kid, but everyone I knew had one. And then they kind of came down quite a bit and they plateaued and then in the last five years they've really grown again.

So I think it's Vans is a great example in the footwear space where in the 70s it became the hottest thing. Then they almost went bankrupt. And then now they're a $4 billion business or something. It's crazy. So. Wow.

And how have you stayed inspired by the same story? Yeah, it's been. You inspired by the same story? Yeah You've had every press coverage there is possible. Yes decade sure you're in every commercial for the first four or five years Yeah, I think I'm ever seen like a Chase Bank commercial one time. Yeah, AT&T commercial Yeah, a bunch of them commercial that we're promoting which also helps sell shoes Yeah, when you're sharing this when other people are talking about your story of the story. But yeah, how do you stay inspired for that long? Well, it's been hard. I mean, part of what has inspired me a lot in the last, say, four to five years is, I say, going from being the athlete to the coach.

I was like the star athlete for, say, the first six or seven years. Yeah, you were Tom Brady. Yeah, that's a nice compliment. I'll take that compliment. six or seven years. You were Tom Brady. Yeah. That's a nice call. I'll take that. I'll take that compliment. But then the only way to stay inspired was to move more into a coach role. And not just a coach for people at Tom's. About four years ago, I decided to sell half the business. And the reason I did that is because we had built it to this size. We had kind of plateaued. We're trying to figure out how to grow more international, retail, things that I didn't

really know a lot about. And I just was lonely. I had no board of directors, no partners. Every time we wrote a $30 million check, it was like my personal checking account. Wow. If we wanted to place a big order or try to do some new stores, literally it was like the equivalent of writing a personal check every single time. And so I ended up bringing in a partner.

I sold 50% of the business. We brought in a great CEO, amazing guy from Starbucks, Jim Olling, who was there with Howard for many years in building Starbucks, great servant leader. And that allowed me, A, through having less pressure day to day to be running everything, but also a huge liquidity event, allowed me to start investing in other social entrepreneurs. So a big part of what's inspired me the past four years has not just been like kind of being the spiritual guide of Tom's, but really helping other nonprofits get started, other social entrepreneurs get started, and really seeing them thrive.

Wow. There's this great organization I always love talking about because it's one of my very first investments called Artlifting. And it was this really smart young entrepreneur from Boston. And when she was going to school every day as an undergrad, she would see homeless people on the street, but they would be trying to sell artwork that they could create. And she was like, if you took this art and you put it in a gallery,

and it wasn't had the stigma of someone who's homeless, you would pay a lot of money for this art. So she created the first art gallery for profit to represent homeless artists. And she's taken, and she now expanded all over the world. And so now you have all these amazingly talented people who unfortunately have had some negative events in their life that ended up getting them on the streets. Now they're not only selling original pieces in galleries, but then they're licensing them

to hotel groups like Hilton. There's Billabong, you know, board shorts are buying. So that's a perfect example of what's inspired me is it's called art lifting, is finding people who are like, okay, I see a problem in the world. I have a entrepreneurial for the world. I have an entrepreneurial for-profit solution and putting them together. And then usually they need some capital and a little bit of mentorship. And that's where me and my wife have spent a lot of time. Wow. How many people have you invested with? I think we've invested in like 30 or 40 of these

companies now. Not all of them have worked out, but a lot of them are actually thriving businesses. Not all of them have worked out, but a lot of them are actually thriving businesses. It seems like the younger generation wants to buy things that have more social good behind them. There's more causes behind them. 100% data behind that. I mean, there's some people that just want the Gucci or whatever, the most fashionable thing. But most people, I feel like, are interested in learning about giving in a certain way when they buy something that is doing something good in the world. Do you think if an entrepreneur starts a new business today that they can grow and thrive without having a giving back component?

Or are they more likely to fail without giving back? You know, it's a really good question, something I've thought a lot about, and I get that question a lot when I speak at universities and stuff. I think that a company has to be transparent with their social purpose from the beginning to really connect with, especially Gen Z and millennial customers. I don't think they have to have a one-for-one, and I don't think they necessarily even have to have a percentage of their sales is going to this thing. But I do think they have to be very clear on why they exist and it can't be just to make money.

So like it could be their supply chain like Everlane is a great example. A brand that says look. They just sponsored the show actually. Really? Yeah. It hasn't come out yet but that's one of our sponsors. Really? Great.

I just found out about that. You can't get more seamless than that right? That was not planned. I was literally just looking at the new day because I'm supposed to pick out some outfits. And I was like, this stuff looks really good. It's absolutely great. Yeah. So that's a perfect example. And Everlane, I think, is an example of an organization that while they're not doing one for one, they've been inspired by Tom's to say, okay, our mission is to have a radically transparent supply chain to provide quality apparel at a price that cuts out the middleman. Very similar to what Warby Parker did. Yeah, yeah.

And so Everlane's a great example where— But they're not giving back the cost. But they're not giving back. They're just saying we're taking that money and you don't have to give it to us. Yeah, and making it more transparent. And so I think—so to answer your question, I think— Smart. That's what modern business has to do.

You have to have a purpose bigger than just making money. If your purpose is just to sell a widget and make money, I think it's very hard to attract and retain young customers. Yeah, unless you're like a software that just has the best solution for some of the problems. Sure. I think in tech you can get away with it. I think, you know, social media you can get away with it. I think social media, you can get away with it. Probably anything that is highly addictive, coffee. Doesn't have to get back. But if it's something where there's a choice

of multiple brands and all things are equal, I think what you'll find is that customers would rather support an organization that has a social purpose. And a powerful story behind that purpose, right? Yeah. How easy is it to create a social purpose. And a powerful story behind that purpose, right? Yeah. How easy is it to create a social impact business? Well, I think it's one of the things that's harder is you have a

cost structure that's different than a traditional business. Now, the only way it financially can make sense is if the cost it takes to either have a different supply chain or the cost it takes to do giving like us that that cost is not just seen as a cost but as an investment in your marketing customer loyalty that is marketing essentially so it is so because how many shoes do you give away let's say 10 million shoes a year a 10 million and how much does that cost yeah so that's costing almost, say, $50 to $70 million a year. $50 million a year on giving away products as opposed to

running advertising. Exactly. Totally. But what you find is that because you're doing this, and it was more in the early days than it is now, is it is connecting people in a way, your brand that advertising can't buy.

That's the difference, I think. It's like, it's really hard. Now, some brands can get away with it, certain types of aspirational advertising. I think Nike's a good example of that. Or it's just part of the culture. Like, you know, it's like they create ads that really make you feel a certain way about the brand, which then causes you to purchase it. Tell you great stories.

feel a certain way about the brand, which then causes you to purchase it. Tell you great stories. But most brands, if you want to have that level of intimacy and connection with your customer, it's got to be deeper than the surface level of advertising. And that's where I think giving is really a unique opportunity. Or I say giving, meaning also something like the supply chain of transparency to Everlane. Giving back to you. It's got to have a bigger purpose. Yeah, interesting.

If you were starting a business today and you were starting from scratch, what type of business would you create that wasn't Tom's or anything you were working on? If you're just like an entrepreneur starting from scratch, what industry would it be in? What give back would it have or component would it have or transparency would it have? And why would you do that? So I've thought about this and I have too many other things going on to do this business. So maybe someone will take this and run with it and build something great. But I really think in the clean energy space.

And I think one of the biggest issues of our time is going to be climate change. It already is. And I think that there's more technology today. And every day, it's like microprocessors, like solar, wind, like this stuff is getting more and more affordable. And there's all different types of incentives to get into these businesses. And I think what's happened is the incumbent is these big power companies. And so it has every checkbox for me of what is a great entrepreneur opportunity. It's got, you know, the big guys are slow and fat and happy. It's a new technology that is rapidly getting better.

It is what young people really care about because this environment they need, this earth they need to keep for a while. If I was starting from scratch, I think there are so many opportunities in the clean energy space that entrepreneurs of all different sizes can capitalize on. Yeah, you could have an energy company and then with the recycled energy, you can give it to a community that can't afford it. There's so many ways to do that.

You could power like a thousand cities a year or something. You know what I mean? One of the biggest things, problems, we do a lot of work in places like Malawi or Haiti or Cambodia, all these different places that oftentimes people are living without running water and without electricity. And one of the biggest health issues is, especially for kids who are wanting to do their homework and stuff at night, it gets dark very early in some of these communities, different times of the year,

and they're inside these huts or in these dwellings and they're burning coal or something to have light, but they're breathing that smoke and they get horrible lung diseases. And so from a public health perspective, giving people solar or some type of energy is a game changer. It's powerful. Yeah. I'm curious. I remember hearing this maybe like five years ago, maybe it was five, six years ago about all this negative backlash you were

getting where Tom's shoes was getting like, okay, I can't remember what the articles were, but it's something about like, you're giving the shoes, you're not empowering people to work, or this and that, right? How do you deal with the critics or the haters or the backlash of trying to do good? Your mission and intention is to serve humanity, and yet, shame on you for trying to help us. We're not doing it right.

You're hurting people here, you're screwing people out of jobs, or whatever it was, I can't remember specifics. Combination of those things. Combination of those things. Combination of those things. How do you handle that type of high and then low right afterwards of the negative effects that people are talking about? Well, the first thing is you develop thick skin. Yeah.

six, seven years ago to today, and my ability to deal with critics or the kind of faceless people online that can really dig in on comments on social media or whatever is tough. But at the same time, I think one of the best lessons I learned was to try to be curious enough to see where it's coming from and to really see is there a way to maybe not like get into a debate with that group but to learn enough to say like okay well maybe there is some business opportunity here so one of the most my favorite stories to tell is like i think it was five six years ago one of the biggest critiques we were getting was you know the kind of like you should teach a person to fish not give them fish and. And I was like, yeah, I agree. Like in a perfect world, I could teach people to become a shoemaker.

They could have shoes for their kids. They could sell them. Like, yes. And that's typically what I find with critics is they're coming from an idealized, oftentimes even kind of more kind of academic perspective, which is great. But they're not like in the real life. They're not like in one of my favorite quotes that Theodore Roosevelt talks about, the man in the arena, right?

They're not in the arena. They're outside the arena. And so what you have to do is you have to recognize with empathy that they're outside the arena, and you have to say, okay, well, how can I take this and potentially transform it into something that works in the arena? And so with the criticism we were getting around, like, well, we need to create more jobs. Like, if you really want to transform people out of poverty, you've got to create basic needs, which is, you know, food, shelter, eyesight, shoes, education. And then you've got to create jobs.

And so... The shoes provide education, which provides jobs. Well, the shoes can provide education. But I think that in some level, the critique about job creation was a fair one. Sure. Especially because we got to a scale where we could, by making some changes, we could have an impact on these communities. So in 2000—God, it's hard to believe. 2013, I said, okay, by 2016, we were going to create 25% of all Tom's giving shoes in the countries we give them in.

That's powerful. That was a big statement. We ended up going from 25% goal to 50% in two years. Wow. And it made us more money. So it was like the best. And the reason it made us more money was we were now sourcing it like in India, in Kenya, Ethiopia, some of these places.

We were making the shoes there so we didn't have to pay for shipping, which is one of the most important things or cost things. And we were able to use the materials, local materials. So now we're creating jobs, we're satisfying a ton of critics, and we're more cost efficient in getting the shoes to the people that need them the most. So the critics were actually a powerful- In that one little case, it helped. Now, there was a lot of other criticisms that probably weren't helpful.

But in that case, what I learned was if you just immediately kind of fight opposition with opposition, then you miss the ability to really understand what an adversary or someone is coming at. Because if you understand them enough, then you can potentially use it to your power. And so what I realized was people were not critiquing us because they didn't appreciate our giving model. It sounded like they didn't appreciate it. But what they really were saying was a company of your scale should be more responsible with the supply chain. And if you can, you should create more economic stimulation. So we've had some failures too.

We tried to do a factory in Haiti, and that was the first factory we did outside of our traditional supply chain. And everyone celebrated it, and President Clinton talked about how great it was, and it was all this stuff. Two years later, we had to shut it down. And it was super painful because what we realized

is we were trying to do something to answer the critics, but we weren't really thinking about what was good for the business. Wow. So then we went to India, and we said, okay, India actually has some really great factories that by working with them, we can create more jobs in these communities that desperately need them, and it can be sustainable. And now we make school shoes for kids in India, leather school shoes, and it's been great for the business

and great for the impact. So it's just, it's one of those things where you kind of have to take the criticism and you have to look at it with a curious, what do I say, a beginner's mind, but you also always have to have in the back of your mind that it has to be sustainable from a business perspective. It can't just be a response.

Serving a critic's need, yeah, but it's got to be smart. That's interesting, though. What would you say is the biggest challenge you face personally right now in your life? Man, right now, my schedule. I just, on the way here, my wife and I just got into it. I mean, it was just not pretty. I mean, I have two kids. I have a four-year-old and a one-year-old.

We split our time between Wyoming and Los Angeles. I know we're going to get to it, but literally I went from kind of semi-retired chairman of Tom's, maybe coming to the office a couple times a month, to now I've been working like I'm back in the startup days. And this is kind of throwing my family through a tailspin. So my biggest challenge right now is I'm so passionate about this new campaign that we're working on with Tom's, and I think it's potential impact on American history. But at the same time, none of my family needs have changed. And my wife's like, okay, who's taking our son

to snowboard lessons? When was the last time you got quality time with your daughter? When was the last time we had a date night? Why are you on a plane again? So I think with a lot of people who are entrepreneurs who love what they do, one of the biggest challenges is managing your time because it's just everything that is an opportunity to move your mission forward is something you want to do. It takes time. It takes time. Yeah, it takes time. So how do you manage it all then? So what I'm trying to think about now, because I have been, is really just, there's a great book called Essentialism.

I don't know if you've read it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I think that book's great. I'm really kind of trying to go back to that book right now and start each week with, okay, what are the things that only I can do? Like literally, like there might be the most amazing person that wants to meet with us on this new campaign we're working on, the most amazing person that wants to meet with us on this new campaign we're working on, but they absolutely have to have me in the room or could they get 90% of what we could get done

if I'm not there but my chief of staff is there or the head of marketing or whatever's there. And so I think the biggest thing is just really trying to remove yourself from meetings because that often takes the most time. Only I can do this, right? So this is what I need to be spending my time is communicating and meeting with people, you know, who have

audiences of engaged people that are, or want to be activated. I need to spend less time saying yes to, you know, meetings and that's, and that's good because I don't really like being in meetings. Right. But it's so hard when you have people who really have great ideas and great opportunities for partnership, not just to say yes, and the next thing you know, you have no time on your calendar. I always try to create the list of all the things I'm doing right now, all the things that I don't need to be doing that I am doing, and the things that only I can do. Yeah, and that third part is so critical. And try to just focus on, okay, well, here are two other lists that things I'm doing and things I don't need to be doing but someone else can do, we've got to start pushing that over as fast as possible so I can focus more on that one list of key things,

like doing the interviews or doing the phone calls with the new introductions, with people or the lunch meetings, whatever it may be. Yeah, that only you can do relationship that only I can do. I think the other thing is eliminating, whenever you hear the word should in your vocabulary, that's something you probably shouldn't do. So whenever you say I should do this, it's actually your guilt or your way

that you've been programmed to think you have to do something that you really don't have to do. So I've found myself, whenever I catch myself, you know, I should go to that tonight, or I should be in that meeting, then I actually know that's a trigger of, no, actually you shouldn't be. Because if the reason you're going

is because you have this kind of guilt that you should be there, it's probably not absolutely necessary. Interesting. Yeah. What do you think entrepreneurs struggle with the most right now with all the social media out there

and all the different opportunities and building a team and hiring and managing people what do you think is the biggest challenge for all of it yeah I think that right now we're in a very unique time where there is a lot of capital to a lot of crappy ideas yeah you know there's a lot of venture capital getting thrown at entrepreneurs that really don't have real businesses. And so I think the hard thing for entrepreneurs right now is, and I worry about entrepreneurs, you know, wasting five years of their life,

you know, chasing something that really there's not a purpose for just because they can access the capital. And then they're going to look back and then, you know, who knows what's going to happen with the economy. And that capital is not going to be there. But the worst thing is time. Because you could spend, there's so much capital available now to mediocre companies and mediocre ideas that it's not so much about losing that capital. That's going to happen. But I mean, venture capitalists are big boys and big girls, and they expect that to happen. But what worse is the loss of time and so if you're if you're peak time to start something

in your kind of mid-20s to mid-30s before you have a family and all these other things and you can just go focus and you waste that time on something that's just kind of a mediocre idea and you never get any sales exactly launch anything yeah you don't do it because you have so much capital. You can just keep trying to make it perfect. We always say, it's progress, not perfection. And some of the best things, I think, that came out of the last bust was the minimum viable product. Really trying to get launched. Doesn't have to be perfect. Try to get revenue. Try to get customers. So I think the biggest thing that I worry about with the state of entrepreneurship now is just there's just too

much capital. Yeah. I've never taken, raised money from anything. I've always kind of like just hustled on my own for the last eight years. That's great. And just reinvested the money back and building the team and everything. And I always get like friends who are raising money and they'll raise a few million here and there. Some of them works out. Some of them it doesn't and they go start a new thing

and raise more money and I'm like, I don't know if I can live with myself if it didn't work out and I didn't pay these people back. Yeah, no. Because you can just be like, all right, it didn't work out.

I'm going to do another thing. Sorry, we took your money. Yeah. We're going to try something else. Yeah. For me that it's more of like the time is not a big deal for me it's like letting people down that believed in me yeah and then i said

sorry i can't pay you back yeah but i'm gonna go try something else and make money here yeah i've got nothing to worry about like yeah no it's nothing's on my back because you knew the risk it's great that you had that perspective because that's very rare and that's unfortunately I think part of the reason that's rare is our media meaning our financial media You know has done a horrible job of celebrating money raising not making money, right? It's like this person is raised this much and then seven years later. They still have done it I'm not even gonna say the names of companies that like have like eclipsed Tom sometimes in the media like love and I'm like but they make no money zero like they've raised a ton of money and I was like and you know I'm like isn't the purpose last time I checked if you start a business to make money and make it sooner than later yeah you get this like false belief around yourself like all the

press is talking about us and look what people yeah six people invested in us. We got all these press hits. But then three months later, no one talks about you. And you still haven't launched anything for a year. And I just feel like that's, it's so enticing though because you can have a nice background or degree. Sure, yeah. And like resume. And have a great pitch deck. Yeah.

And have two or three like key people on your team and say, we've got this next big idea. Give us $5 million. Crazy. And then live off that for a few years. Yeah. And not have to execute. Yeah. It's not going to last much longer.

So if you're an entrepreneur watching this and you've got some money, I would hoard it. I'd really try to get something launched. I'd try to get some revenue quick. Because I think we are, unfortunately, we are headed in a direction where there's going to be some challenging times ahead. Yeah, that's tough. Now, so you took kind of a backseat the last few years. You sold half of it.

You said you were in and out of the office like a couple days a month. I'm assuming someone else was running it. Oh, yeah, still, yeah. Yeah, someone else was running it, but you're still like the face, I guess, the ambassador, chairman. But something happened recently, or I guess it's been happening for the last couple of years, where all these shootings have been happening in schools and in clubs and bars and things like that. And one happened here in Los Angeles recently. And what happened to you and your family when that happened?

And what happened to you and your family when that happened? Yeah, so, I mean, a crazy statistic is in the last 340 days of the year, this year, 2018, we've had over 300 mass shootings. 300? 300. What's considered a mass shooting? More than four people killed. Four people are shot or killed? Killed, I think. Four people are killed.

Wow. 300 of those. 300. In the United States. In the United States, yeah. Is that for real? Almost one a day, yeah. No way.

Do we just not hear about some of these? You don't hear about them. Smaller towns? No, no, it's not small towns. It's actually communities of color. It's inner cities. Yeah, I mean, this is where gun violence, I mean, you know. So it may not be like a terrorist thing.

No, this is plaguing these communities day in, day out. The only ones you do hear about are the more, you know, mass shootings at a club or a synagogue or a bar. So what happened was, is many people, we've read about everything. You know, we read about what happened in Parkland. And we read about, you know, what happened just a few months and a half ago in a synagogue. And then you read about what happened in Parkland, and we read about what happened just a few months and a half ago in a synagogue, and then you read about it happening in a yoga studio. You somehow kind of get a little bit numb to it because it's happening so often, and you almost start to expect that this is the new normal.

Until it happens to you or your community. That's the thing. And unfortunate, I wish that was not the case, But, you know, in my case, that was. And it is what it is. Yeah, about a month ago, we had a shooting in Thousand Oaks, which is 15 minutes from my house. 12 people were killed. My wife called me the next morning. I was actually on my way to Tom's, back of the Uber.

And I was just, like, catching up on some emails and stuff. And she said, you know, I'm not going to take our son to school today. And I'm scared. And, you know, this happened in a synagogue just a couple of weeks ago. And I read about a yoga studio and I just don't know where we're safe anymore because Thousand Oaks is in the news reports that it's listed as one of the top 10 safest cities in America. And so if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. Yeah. It's not like it's in the ghetto in LA. This is like a suburban neighborhood. Yeah. Suburban neighborhood. North of LA. Yeah. And so my wife, it was interesting. She said, someone has to do something about this. And I said, I agree. I agree. And I said, okay, well, I'll see you when

you get home tonight. You know, she was a pretty emotional and I got off the phone, and I've told this story now a few times. It was as if, I mean, whatever your religious beliefs are, it was almost like a divine moment for me where I realized she was saying rhetorically, someone has to do something, throwing her hands in the air. But everything in the universe and in my brain said no that's you like you have a platform you built a business to help people you've got millions of customers you know you have the access and you have the resources through tom's success to you know take some of those resources and do something and and if you don't do it who's going to do it like i mean like and so i wrote a very passionate

email to our ceo and to my partners and our board. And I said, look, guys, we've been talking about doing other things for years. We've given shoes, 88 million pairs. We've given hundreds of thousands of people their eyesight back through our sunglass program. But we've always been talking about the last couple of years, how do we have more of an impact on issues in our country that are plaguing us? Like how do we really dig in right here locally and really have an impact beyond these basic needs? And we've been talking about this for a couple years. I said, guys,

if we don't do something now, like this is like one of the biggest issues of our time. I don't think we're ever going to do anything besides give us shoes and eyewear. And that's fine. our time. I don't think we're ever going to do anything besides give us shoes and eyewear. And that's fine. And that's great. But if I'm really going to be engaged in our organization and really feel that we're walking the walk and, you know, not just talking the talk, like we got to do something, we got to do something now. And of course, they were like, whoa, you know, like, come on, Blake. I mean, like, yeah, we personally agree. Like, you know, like this is, you know, this is really sad. And like, you know, we can make a donation. And I said, no, guys, I don't, I really, you know, I'm not going to, I can't force us or want to force us or anything.

But I really think this is a moment in time where our country needs leadership and needs leadership from the corporate side. And if we don't use our voice, then there's going to be more and more of this happening. And so we made a really bold decision. Within three days, we literally made a commitment. So you convinced them all. Yeah, it took three days. Three days. So like, talk all of them.

Three very long days. Long, long days. How many people? Is it 10 people? Five? Probably about eight people. Probably about five people in terms of my financial partners and our CEO, and then about 10 more people on the leadership team.

And it's you calling them. It's emailing them. It's like, get behind me. It's calling them, it's emailing them as I skip behind me. It's calling them, it's emailing them, it's begging them, it's late meetings. It's like the most, you know, I basically took every single ounce of relationship capital and business capital I had and said, we have to do this. So did you need 100% participation on this or was it majority? No, I didn't. I mean, I kind of picked one person off at a time.

And then over time, you know. And the truth is, is everyone I talked to at the company, you know, philosophically was like, yes. Like, we agree. Like, someone has to do something. Like, this is getting to epidemic proportions. Like, we personally feel that, you know,

there's real sensible gun legislation that we could, you know, greatly reduce gun violence. But the main thing was, is this right for our brand? Are we going to alienate a lot of customers? Because this is very political. Yeah, we might. So there was all this very real concern about how it was going to affect our business.

Are we the right brand to do this? Do we have credibility in this space? Like all of these things, which were very fair and something in my gut. And this is where I give a lot of credit to my partners and our CEO. I just said that guys, like there's only a few times in your life when you just know something. And I know I can't show you the data. I know I can't show you this, but like, I know in my gut that like, we are the ones to do this. Wow. And so that's the type of conversations I had. That's amazing.

And so- You don't say that all, you haven't said that in 10 years. Never in my life, yeah. You said that like 12 years ago. And I've been pretty quiet. I mean, there's been a lot of decisions at Tom's the last four or five years that maybe I wouldn't have made them exactly that way,

whether it was a product thing or distribution thing or giving strategy. So when I spoke out this strongly, it was a point where it's kind of like, okay, if we don't do this, then that's going to have its own implications. Yeah. It might be gone forever. Who knows? I mean, I never had to do an ultimatum. It was never that way. But the thing was, as I said, guys, look, this is a moment. We built Tom's because we believe

in a better tomorrow and believe business can be part of a better tomorrow. And so this is an opportunity for us to truly walk the walk, to be super bold. And I know, because I know our customers. I built this company from the ground up. I know they'll be there with us. They might not agree 100% with us, but they will appreciate the fact that we're putting it on the line. So, yeah, after three days, convinced the team and it was a Herculean effort, not just with me, but with, as I got one or two people, then I,

you know, started like cobbling them, everyone together. And then three days later we went on Jimmy Fallon or I went on Jimmy Fallon. So three days of convincing. Yeah. And then three days later you hadn't created anything yet. No, no, no. Well, we were kind of doing both. Like I kind of was like convincing and having a small team here, kind of creating stuff just in case I got the yes. In-house startup. Yeah, it was totally an in-house startup. And the biggest thing we had to do is we created a simple technology on our homepage, which is the other reason why people were nervous is this was right before the biggest sales week of the year.

This was Black Friday, Cyber Monday, you know, all that stuff. Wow. Which is our biggest, I mean, our whole year is based on- 30% is that week. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So, and I said, I want to take down all the shoes and put a technology there to help people send a postcard to their representatives urging them to pass universal background checks. On Black Friday. On Black Friday, or two days before Black Friday. Oh my gosh. So that was also kind of like part of the reason why it was such a heightened. They're like, can we wait a week later? And that was the question.

And I said, no. I said, look, if you wait a week, it looks like a marketing campaign. You know, it looks like you can't. Like if we believe in this and we don't want another shooting to happen, we want to get people, you know, moving in the right direction. We got to do it right. Do we care more about our profits on Black Friday or about saving people's lives? And that was it. And then when you had it that way, it was actually an easier discussion to have

because everyone really at Tom's is there for the right reason. And even though they want to be responsible for fiduciary responsibility, they also want to make sure that if we can actually make a difference in people's lives, we do that. And we've always led that way. And I've been very proud of Tom's in that regard. But what happened was, is we literally created this simple technology where any single person in the United States could go on the website, put their name and address. The address would tell them basically trigger who their representative is in Congress. In their state. In their state. And then they present. And then we would print and mail and pay for the mailing a postcard to the representative.

And so the goal was is to get, you know, thousands of people to do this, to get all these postcards to flood the offices of these Congress people so that when it comes back in session, they would vote for universal background checks. Wow. And universal background checks. So it's not like getting rid of guns all in all? No, no, no, that's the most important thing. This is for what reason?

Yeah, so basically we are 100% pro Second Amendment, 100% pro guns. I mean, I grew up in Texas hunting. I have lots of friends that are hunters. We have no problem with guns. What we have a problem with is when guns get in the wrong people's hands. And that's where you see this huge spike in gun violence.

So right now in our country, there is no universal background check at a federal level. So that means you can be a felon. You can get out of jail. You can go and buy five AK-47s. No way. Yes, 100%. No background check?

No background check. Go get it. You can go to the gun show. You can go to a private dealer. You can do this. Second thing is you can be a person that has a mental health track record and go buy guns. You can be a domestic abuser. You can have a record of abusing your spouse and go buy a gun.

And you can be on the terrorist watch list and still go buy a gun. No way. I swear. This is why, so it's like when I learned this, that's why I was like, guys, we're not picking a fight politically. This is a human issue. Ninety percent of Americans say they're in favor of universal background checks. But there has not been the political will to get it done because it's become so politicized. Right.

Because people just hear guns and, oh, you're taking my guns away. And so that was the biggest thing I had to really get across on Jimmy Fallon and the media I did after is like, look, we have no problem with guns. What we have a problem with is people going and buying them so easily where they're not fit to have them. Wow. And so once we started convincing- This is what people have been saying in the media all year, the last couple of years as more shootings happen.

Yeah. They've been bringing up that point about background Yeah, exactly exactly they keep talking about it and media keeps talking about it, but no one's been doing anything Well, no one created an organized way to write how to harness the voices So what we did is we did two things we said look we're gonna make the largest Corporate contribution in the history of the United States We gave five million dollars and that was five times larger than the second largest contribution. $5 million for what?

To the organizations that are working to end gun violence. So that is March for Our Lives, Mothers Demand Action, Faith in Action. So these organizations are doing the hard work, because it is a complex issue, of all the different ways you can decrease gun violence. Then we created the technology on Tom's.com where any American can go and send a postcard in less than 30 seconds. That was,

we launched it like, I think like 18 days ago. Now when this is shown it'll be probably, you know, 24 days or 30 days. And we have already had almost 700,000 Americans

send a postcard. That's crazy. I mean, we were hoping to get like 20,000. Really? I mean, we didn't,

it's hard. It's hard to get people to act. It's hard for people to actually take time out of their day to go to a website, to fill out a form. But we realized there were so many people in our country that were so fed up of reading about another shooting and needed a way to feel that they can be part of the solution, not just saying, oh, our thoughts and prayers are with you. They actually, there's this pent-up demand.

We didn't realize at the time for people to actually have a real opportunity to act. And so by giving them the ability to go to Toms.com, to send a postcard, to help get universal background checks passed, it kind of unleashed this pent-up need that so many people had. And it's been amazing. And then the other thing that's been amazing, and this is something we can never predict it, but some of our biggest supporters have been gun owners. The lead singer of the band Florida Georgia Line, country music, huge band, millions of fans. He's a gun owner. And he put a video on Instagram and said, look, I'm a proud gun owner, but I'm also a parent.

And I've got a daughter, and I don't like the idea that she's going to go to school and have to do a lockdown. Wow. You know, and then we had another person that was a gun owner. And so what we've seen, especially on social media, the videos that have gone the most viral on this have all been gun owners. Because they're like, look, like, I'm a gun owner. Like, I have no problem with that, but we've got to be more sensible. And I think that's why we're seeing the tide turning. And I was speaking to Congressman Thompson today from California, who's working on the legislation that's going to be on the House floor the second week of January. And he's like, he's like, I've been working on this for six years. Like we're,

this is going to pass in the House. And if we do things properly and keep showing that the American people want to be heard, this could be a law. That would be a change in American history. This is something that over decades has not been able to happen. It's exciting. This is like Tom's Circa 2006. 2008. It feels exactly like that.

Social media taking off and spreading the story. There's a new pain in the world that you're solving. Yeah. It's like we've, in a sense, I think for me personally, and I think this is a lesson for entrepreneurs or anyone who feels that there's like these peaks and valleys in their careers. It's like you need a battle to fight. You do. Otherwise, it's like we're just trying to make more money. Yeah.

We're just trying to. You do. Otherwise, it's like we're just trying to make more money. Yeah, and even if you're doing something good, even if you're helping get tens of millions of kids shoes, over time, if you're really an entrepreneur in your blood, it's like you need that battle to fight. You need to do the impossible. And so when I pitched this to my internal team and there was resistance, I'm actually glad there was resistance. If they would have said, yeah, great idea, I don't think we would have executed as well. But because there was some initial resistance, because there was concern about sales, because there was concern about if this was going to be seen as a political move and we have a very equally split politically customer base,

because of that, we executed so intensely and so carefully. And because of that, you know, we've seen this go viral. We've had, you know, something like 7 billion media impressions in three weeks. I mean, it's just nuts. And so to me, what... And how have sales been through Black Friday and the holidays? So the great thing is, is we don't have all of our numbers for our wholesale accounts, but all of our online numbers have been up. And up significantly, double digits. So not what we were expecting. Because there was no shoes to buy, right?

Was that true? Or you could go down the page and find them? Well, you could still find shoes down below. But it's like right on the whole page. Above the fold, there was only the postcard. Wow. And it's been that way for almost two weeks. Almost 700,000 as of us recording this.

Probably when this goes out, close to a million. Hopefully, yeah, yeah. And if you're watching and we're not to a million yet, go to the website and you could be like the final person. I want to go back on Jimmy Fallon when close to a million. Hopefully, yeah, yeah. And if you're watching and we're not to a million yet, go to the website and you could be like the final person. I want to go back on Jimmy Fallon when we hit a million. So what do they do? They go to toms.com. Yep.

Just right in the homepage still. It'll still be there. Christmas, this is Christmas Eve. We'll still be on the homepage front and center. Through January 1st. Yeah, definitely through January 1st. So it'll be right there. Until Congress is back in session.

That's January 4th. Gotcha. It'll take, what do you do? 22 seconds. 22 seconds. You just type your name, your zip code. Yeah, yeah. And it tells you where to send it, and you click send.

And then we pay for the- You pay for the postage. And the printing of it, yeah. Does there a thank you at the end? Yeah, you get a thank you, and then the thank you has a button you can click, and it will send to all your Twitter, Facebook, everyone. Smart. Yeah, and so it becomes a viral loop.

Wow. You know, so that's what's been. So, yeah, so, I mean, it's working. You seem fired up about this. Ah, I mean, so fired up. You know, because it's good to be part of a solution. Like, I just hate hearing about and experiencing things of pain and suffering in our world knowing that we have, as humans, the tools and the technology to make it better.

And what I also am realizing, the macro thing that now has gotten me so fired up is, as a brand, we're going to look for things going forward that have become politicized that are not political or human. Because there are more and more things that are dividing us now that used to be not political. And to me, that is the pain point I think I've identified, is there are things, and I don't know what the next thing is going to be yet, but I know there will be a next thing. This is a human issue that whether you're on the right or the left, or you're from this part of the world, we all care about the same thing. And Tom's going to be a

business that brings people together to make those changes. And so that's where I'm realizing that's really what Tom's 2.0 is about. And the interesting thing, as you look at what's the business impact, one of the things that's just been fascinating to me is, and I saw the statistic today, so it's fresh in my mind. So up until four weeks ago, 85% of our sales were women and 15% male. And that's been pretty much that way since I started. Why is that? Because.

The original shoe we did was this slip-on called the Alpragada. Oh, yeah. And it's a more feminine looking shoe. There's still a lot of guys. Millions of guys have worn it over time. But for the most part, it gravitated more towards women. And then because. It's like a flat.

Yeah. It's like a flat, like more thin kind of slip-on. So about two years ago, and this is like kind of look back now, I'm like I'm so grateful. About two years ago, we realized that if we were going to grow our business and kind of get that next grade of growth, we had to bring on a great men's designer. And we had to create like boots and trainers and shoes that guys could wear, you know, beyond our original shoe that we're known for. And so we actually built this amazing product line for guys in the past two years. The problem is we can never get any guy's attention for them to see it because most guys just assume like, oh, Tom's what my girlfriend wears, right? That was the thing.

Or my mom. Yeah, exactly. Uggs is a great example of this. That's why they hired Tom Brady. You look cool now. Yeah, but we couldn't afford to hire Tom Brady. So we had this issue for two years. Now we have great men's product, but we never get enough attention because we don't have a huge marketing budget because we spend so much money on giving. So this happens. People who want to end gun violence don't have a gender connection, right? So now about half of our traffic to the website was guys and half was girls. Pretty cool. As of now, this last week, 40% of our sales are men now.

No way. From 15% to 40. So think of that. Three times. Because they saw it. They saw it. It's cool. It's cool, yeah.

So they went there for a postcard, and then they saw these boots that are really masculine and they're waterproof and it's freezing cold and snowing in Wyoming right now. And so one of the things that's interesting to me is, and this is kind of the entrepreneur lesson, you can have the right product. But if you don't have the right mechanism to get the right people in front of your product, your business isn't going to grow. mechanism to get the right people in front of your product, your business isn't going to grow. And so what I've realized is while our growth has been kind of flatlined the last few years, even though our product has been better than ever, the reason it's been flatlined is we didn't have a fight big enough to attract this attention. And now that we have all these- And you're not spending advertising. No.

Right? Yeah. Yeah. And we're spending $5 million in giving. So it's a significant investment in resources. But what that's done is it's gotten all these guys to Tom's maybe for the first time. And then they see these boots or they see these sneakers or they see these shoes. They're like, oh, that's actually for me. And so I think that what we're going to see if I come on a year from now, I think we're going to have a much bigger business. and I think we're going to have a business that's much more balanced from a gender basis, which makes it a lot more dependable

or predictable in the future. That's pretty cool. So it's been really amazing to me to see how many lessons we've learned in such a short period of time just by doing the right thing. At the end of the day, we took a huge leap of faith.

Big risk. And it was very risky four, we took a huge leap of faith. Big risk. And it was very risky four weeks ago. It feels less risky today. It seems like you're the smartest guy in the world. This is one of my favorite quotes about entrepreneurs. It says, when you're an entrepreneur, every day you wake up and you know you're either gonna be a genius or an idiot,

but you will never be a regular guy or girl trying to get through the day. You'll always be remembered for something, right? Yeah, you'll never be remembered as like, oh yeah, they really got through the day. It's always genius or idiot. And so I've been an idiot plenty of times in my career, a genius maybe a couple of times. I don't know ultimately how this is going to affect the business long term because we're getting a lot of awareness now. But what I do know is everyone at Tom's internally has this kind of renewed kind of hope and purpose because they realize that we can use business, use our community,

use technology to have an impact in something that politicians have had a hard time doing. So that's what's exciting. That's really cool. Yeah. Man, 700,000. That's cool. Let's get it to a million. Yeah, let's get it to a million. Go to toms.com right now where you're listening to this. Take a screenshot on your phone. Yes. And tag it on your Instagram story. Tag you as well. I don't know if you check your Instagram stories. Oh yeah, all the time. Yeah. So tag Blake. Are you at Tom? Well, either at Tom's or at Blake Mycoskie, both. Okay. Yeah. Blake Mycoskie. Make sure to tag Blake and myself. Let's get this message out there far and wide. I want to ask three final questions. Okay, great. This is called the three

truths. Oh, cool. Okay. Three truths. So I want you to imagine that you get to choose the day that is your last day on earth. Okay. It can be 500 years from now for whatever reason. Any day you want in the future. You've achieved everything you want. You've grown the businesses, helped the entrepreneurs, solved human problems. Yeah. All the things that you want to do in your lifetime, you've done it. And it's a beautiful moment, but it's your time to go. You've got to go at some point. Yeah, yeah.

And for whatever reason, all the things that you've created in your life, your books, your videos, your work, your businesses, they have to go with you. So no one has access to your information. Okay. Okay. But you get to leave behind on a piece of paper, three things you know to be true about all your experiences in life. Wow. These would be the three truths or the three lessons that you would leave behind to the world. And you know, you get to share three things. What would you say are your three truths? Wow, that's such a good question. Well, I think I would start with the phrase, it's used a lot, but it's been really important to me in my life since I was 18. I had one of my best friends pass away when I was 18. And I could have been on the plane.

It was a plane crash. I could have been on the plane with him, and I wasn't. And I realized that I could never predict when that day would come, and so that I should make the most of every day. And so when I was 18, I started signing every letter, because we didn't really have email back then, Carpe Diem, seize the day. And to this day, every email I ever write, I sign at Carpe Diem. Every thank you note I write, I sign at Carpe Diem. Every book I sign, I sign at Carpe Diem. Every thank you note I write, I sign at Carpe Diem.

Every book I sign, I sign at Carpe Diem because I believe that the greatest honor we can give to the people who've come and passed before us and the greatest kind of honor we can give to whatever your spiritual belief in terms of how you've been created is to seize the day, is to truly live every day as if it's your last. And so if this is the last conversation I have with someone that gets recorded, I want to make it the best one. You know, if tonight when I go home and I read my son his story, I want to be present to that because I want to be the best one. So Carpe Diem would be my first truth. My second truth was also, has been very influential in my life.

And it was given to me by a great entrepreneur named Bob Dedman. Bob Dedman started a company called Club Corp. And he was one of the largest donors to SMU, the college I went to. And I got to meet him when I started my first business, which was a laundry business. And I asked him for a piece of advice. And at this stage, he was probably in his late 70s. Very successful. Billionaire. for a piece of advice. And at this stage, he was probably in his late 70s, very successful, billionaire. And I said to him, I said, so if you give one thing, write down your piece of advice,

kind of like you did with me. And he wrote down on a piece of paper, the more you give, the more you live. And that I think is absolutely true. There is nothing that has given me more joy, more fulfillment than the moments of truly giving and giving outside of your comfort zone. Not just giving when it feels comfortable or it's an easy check to write, but giving when it really kind of feels sacrificial. Giving when it causes you to get on a plane

to fly halfway around the world to be with kids in a slum. Like really, the more you give, the more you live. And I've never had a day on this planet where I involved or incorporated giving into it that I felt like was not one of the more meaningful days. I would say Carpe Diem, the more you give, the more you live. My third one, and this one doesn't come to me as immediately as those two because those have been so ingrained in my life's work.

But I do think that one of the things that I've worked on a lot and my wife has really helped me a ton is really to be present. Because there's so many things going on. There's so many digital distractions. There's so many people pulling at your time. And so you can come up with all the different strategies in the world about how to manage your time

or how you're going to commit to certain things. And we talked about that earlier in the show. But I think the thing is, is you can only truly be in one place at one time. Multitasking is kind of bullshit, I think. Like, I am here right now, and I am fully present with you. And I'm excited about answering these three truths. But when I get home, I only have the opportunity to be present with my kids or my wife, you know. And then tomorrow, if I'm with a friend and having lunch, I have the ability to be present with them.

And I think that that is a practice that takes a lifetime, and you'll never perfect it. We'll always try to get better. But I think the more moments, I actually have it tattooed right here on my arm, because I want to be reminded every time I look down, just be present. Because that's the only moment that we actually have is the present. And the more that you are present, especially with your loved ones and the people you care about, that's what creates those memories and those moments that you will hold on for your entire life. Wow.

Yeah. So seize the day. Be present was the last one. The second one was the more you give, the more you live. The more you give, the more you live and be present. I love those, man. You talked about your wife a few times throughout this. Can you share the greatest lesson that she has taught you

and how important she is in your life. Yeah. It's so interesting because when I'm at my best self is when I'm most connected to her. When I'm truly thriving, whether it's in business or with our kids or with my friends, it's when I'm really, really spending time listening to her and listening to her in a way that she knows kind of what's best for me. I think that's what her superpower is that she, not just me, but other people, I think she really can understand. And she has a gut intuition that others don't. And she can really understand, like, when you're in your best place. she has taught me the most is really goes back to the thing that I still continue to struggle with,

though, is just that life is about these very important moments with the relationships you have and you've got to make time on your calendar to have them. You know, I mean, she is so good at saying no to things and I'm not. We want to say yes to everything. Yeah, and she is so good at not answering emails and so good at not answering text messages. I mean, it drives people in my life crazy sometimes, like my mom. She's like, Heather is not texting me back. And I'm like, she's present. She's present. She's living her life.

Yeah, and so I think the thing that I'm really grateful to Heather is she's really helped me slow down, kind of really understand what's important, what relationships, what do I absolutely have to do versus just saying yes to everything. And sometimes that's, the reason I know that that's so important in my life is it's also the thing I struggle with and it's the things that we argue about. And it's like, because it is hard to do. But when I do it is when I feel the most connected and the most present. And so, you know, it's that.

And then the other thing is she is just an incredible defender of anything that's unjust. You know, she's a huge animal activist. I mean, she will do anything for any animal on the planet. She is the original phone call and saying someone has to do something about this after the Thousand Oaks led to all this and the ending gun violence. I mean, when something is not right, she is not afraid to speak out,

even if it's not politically correct, even if it's going to be uncomfortable in a group setting. She speaks her mind, and that gives me more confidence to speak mine and to use my platform to do things that might be outside of my comfort zone. That's cool. Sounds like a powerful woman. Yeah, cool, sounds like a powerful woman.

Yeah, very much so. Well, I want to acknowledge you for a moment for doing the challenging things. I feel like you've been leading the way in your business for a long time, doing the thing that people have said, this is crazy, you can't give up. You can't give a shoe for selling a shoe,

that's too much cost, how you you're gonna build it for doing the hard thing constantly because this right now is not like a popular thing to do with your team with your business until it is yeah but you to have the vision and the courage to constantly step beyond what's possible is really inspiring and i would acknowledge you for constantly serving other entrepreneurs with your heart with your leadership leadership, with your words, and your actions, most importantly, by doing the hard thing and making a real change in the world. So I acknowledge you for everything, Blake. It's been really cool to connect with you. And I hope you achieve everything you want for your whole life.

So make sure you guys go to toms.com. Right on the homepage. It takes 22 seconds. Fill out the form, send it in. They'll pay for everything and do it all. It takes less than 30 seconds. Check it out right now. Take a screenshot of it. And you'll get to celebrate with us because this is going to get passed. This is going to literally change the history of our country as it relates to gun legislation. And so one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about people doing this is not just because it's going to be effective, but I want to give everyone that joy to be able to say,

in 2019 or in 2018, Christmas Eve, I sent a postcard, and in 2019, a law was passed because of that. Crazy. That's what I want. I want everyone to have that experience because it's gonna happen Wow That's amazing Make sure you guys do that right now. This is a final question and we can follow you on Twitter. Yeah Yeah, it's at Blake my Kosky for Twitter Instagram everything and then at Tom's

Okay, yeah, and for anyone that wants to do that solar energy give back. Yeah DMU DME for sure to do that solar energy give back. DM you or something. Maybe we'll invest in the next great entrepreneur. The best thing is to DM me on Instagram. Final question is what's your definition of greatness? So my definition of greatness is someone who lives authentically, someone who is present,

and someone who really seizes the day. Because I feel like when you are an authentic person and you are present in the moment and you don't take any moment for granted, that's when you can live your best life. And when you live your best life, that's when you can achieve greatness. There you go, Blake.

Thanks so much, man. Thank you. Appreciate you, brother. Awesome. Appreciate you. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Blake Mycoskie. Make sure to take on the challenge.

Go to toms.com and follow through on this. Please, please, please share this with your friends. lewishouse.com slash 736 for the full show notes, the video, all the goodies we talked about. It'll all be linked up on the show notes there. Tag Blake and tag Tom's. Let them know you enjoyed this. Share with your friends. We got to get this message out far and wide. If you have an entrepreneur friend, make sure to tag them over on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram to listen to this, to watch this, and to share it with their friends. This is an important topic, guys. I really hope you share this with your friends.

This episode is a powerful one, and I loved connecting with Blake. Love is mission, and everything is up to. And make sure to take care of yourselves this holiday. You know, wherever you are in the world this holiday, make sure you reflect on a lot of the things that you've gone through this year. Make sure you're spending quality time with friends and family. And I'm going to be doing a recap episode here soon of 2018 biggest lessons, biggest successes, and what to think about moving forward in 2019. So stay tuned for that one coming soon. If this

is your first time here, please subscribe and leave a review over on Apple podcasts on iTunes. You can subscribe over on Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, all the places online that podcasts are. We are there. Please subscribe. Leave us a review. We love you.

We appreciate you. And as Oprah Winfrey said, don't worry about being successful, but work towards being significant and the success will naturally follow. Focus on doing something that matters. Focus on doing something to give back, to pay it forward, and to integrate a holistic approach to making an impact in the world with your business to the best way of your abilities. I love you guys so very much,

and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.