Everyone loves a good success story, and Kory's is no exception. From launching a successful Kickstarter campaign to a deal on Reddit that skyrocketed the sales, it's an entrepreneurial story for the books. But it's not just about business. Kory opens up about the emotional connection in the shoe business, the challenges of selling a product with a specific unemotional purpose, and the risks of using social media to express thoughts on mental health.
Finally, as we wrap up our conversation with Kory, we dig deep into his decision to sell his company and his future business plans. Kory shares his mental health journey and generously imparts advice for new parents. So tune in, because this episode is a potpourri of wisdom, laughter, and surprising twists you wouldn't want to miss!
Please connect with Trevor on social media. You can find him anywhere @thetrevorcrump
Everyone loves a good success story, and Kory's is no exception. From launching a successful Kickstarter campaign to a deal on Reddit that skyrocketed the sales, it's an entrepreneurial story for the books. But it's not just about business. Kory opens up about the emotional connection in the shoe business, the challenges of selling a product with a specific unemotional purpose, and the risks of using social media to express thoughts on mental health.
Finally, as we wrap up our conversation with Kory, we dig deep into his decision to sell his company and his future business plans. Kory shares his mental health journey and generously imparts advice for new parents. So tune in, because this episode is a potpourri of wisdom, laughter, and surprising twists you wouldn't want to miss!
Please connect with Trevor on social media. You can find him anywhere @thetrevorcrump
Yo, what's going on, everybody? Welcome to the Unstoppable Marketer Podcast. With me, as always, is Mark Goldhart, my lovely co-host. Mark, what's up, dude? Hey?
Mark:what's up? Man Just just vibin'.
Trevor:Yeah, yeah, you're in a beanie. Today it's beanie season. You're like you got the thermal jogger beanie. You kind of got like the grunge yeah it's beanie Brick beard, yeah, a little beard Grunge, look, going.
Mark:Yeah, I'm pretty grungy A little sexy, you know. I was listening to some smashing pumpkins today too.
Trevor:That sounds really fitting for your outfit. Yeah, it does actually I was hoping nirvana or something like that.
Mark:But smashing pumpkins is good. Yeah, I. My hot take is that smashing pumpkins are actually better than nirvana.
Trevor:But sorry, I disagree with that, but I like smashing pumpkins. I mean I like nirvana too.
Mark:But Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you take smashing pumpkins first three albums, you can literally listen to them like front to back how old are you guys, and there's a whole enough variety there 35?, 34.
Kory:Oh, 34. Dude, we're real. I was gonna say I feel like we're vibing here. Yeah we are.
Trevor:Yeah, so okay, Past smashing pumpkins.
Mark:I dig it, but, dude, I feel so bad. I said this in the last podcast, but I feel so bad for kids now discovering music, like they'll never get that moment of discovering a CD from their brother. Or like finding a CD at their friend's house and like putting it on and just getting their minds blown.
Trevor:Going to like the FY, it was the FYEs, the. What Wasn't that like the? Wasn't that the music store FYE? Oh well, Geez, what media play.
Mark:Dude, we had virgin music.
Kory:Virgin music, yeah, virgin music. So you're California boy Amoeba music. Yeah, yeah, yeah, california, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay I think it was all the things I think it was.
Trevor:FYE in the mall, I think it was 4U Entertainment.
Mark:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Trevor:Dude, I would go there and I remember. You guys have ever remember the band Power man 5000? Does that sound familiar, Power man 5000. We'll have to clip that.
Mark:I can't believe it. I mean, if you said Andre 3000, I'd say okay, of course, yeah.
Trevor:But anyways, I used to like. I used to as a 12 year old, like get the CDs that had parental advisories, and we just beg moms who'd walk in the store to buy them for us. No way and some moms would do it. Can you believe?
Kory:that, dude, my first. I just want to buy a cigarette for you. Dmx. Dmx is my first explicit album, sick On a tape.
Trevor:That my homie gave it to me.
Kory:Oh, that's amazing.
Mark:Love it. Oh, you got a little friend hookup, little older brother we got to introduce our guest.
Kory:Yeah, sorry, corey's just talking and everyone's like who is this majestic voice?
Trevor:Well, let's introduce it, and then we can keep jamming here for a second. So we're super excited about this guest. His name is Corey Stevens. He is the founder of Taft, former CEO, recently sold Taft, father entrepreneur, et cetera, et cetera, fashion designer, whatever else you want to call him. He's here with us, corey. What's up, dude? How are you, hey, good?
Kory:morning guys, Thanks for having me.
Trevor:Kind of excited to be here.
Kory:Kind of a week.
Trevor:I'm not the best like introducer of guests, but it's tough. Yeah, you hear some podcasts, like Forbes one. You know 40 under 40, you know they do all the things and do.
Kory:That doesn't matter. I mean, I'm a friend.
Trevor:Yeah.
Kory:I'm a Utah, you're a Utah entrepreneur. Yeah, I mean a migrant into the state. But yeah, I mean I'm here, I'm a friend, father, husband.
Mark:Yeah, we're California by birth. You're a Utah by choice. That's right, there you go.
Trevor:We're stuck to have you. So, listen, I've got, when I, when we can, I try to go back to some roots that one of us have with you, with our guest and you. I have roots with you in a way. Memories won't call them roots, okay, so one my little brother used to work for you and has like nothing, nicky, nick, nicky, nick, Nicky, pots and pans. He has nothing but good things to say about you.
Kory:He is with me every day because he gave me a key chain that I use every day, and so I think of your brother literally 10 times a day.
Trevor:He is a very, very thoughtful human being. He's going to say that sentimental chip yeah. He's amazing.
Kory:I really, really love your brother Never met anybody who you know.
Trevor:so I was like I came, I was a CMO, I got brought in as a CMO and as a partner at Fondesign and like I was this is going to sound super conceited, but I was like hot snot, like the rock. Oh yeah, we got this, you know, and I like I was feeling like on top of the world and that like I was going to help this company and do all this, you know. And then, and then we brought Nick on, maybe like what, mark was with us too. We brought Nick on probably like a year and a half into it. Yeah, I hired him. Yeah, so Mark hired Nick and it was like almost instantaneously, everybody with no coercion, by the way.
Mark:It wasn't. It wasn't like coerced into it, there was no nepotism.
Trevor:There was no nepotism, but almost almost immediately everyone loved Nick. Yeah, 10 times more than they love.
Kory:He's electric. Like I was the crump.
Trevor:You're just like I was the grumpier guy and everyone loved Nick he's a special, special guy. Yeah, so he's a good guy. So that's one thing. The second thing is I I supported your Kickstarter campaign. No way, dude, I supported your Kickstarter campaign. Wow, the no sock look was how did you hear of it?
Kory:Do you remember how it came across your point? I wish I had a good story for you, because at that point I was literally cold, emailing every single one of my Facebook friends. Yeah, I probably just but we weren't Facebook friends.
Trevor:Are you connected with? No, that wouldn't be it. Facebook friends I don't know who. I don't dude, that's amazing.
Kory:I literally almost brought you some today because I was in my office. I was like, what can I bring these dudes? And I looked through the shirts. They're all size small. I had some socks in this box and I almost brought them.
Trevor:They won't know what they are. I actually still have pairs that are unopened.
Kory:Dude, amazing man. Thank you, man, you changed my life. So supported the Kickstarter campaign, the.
Mark:Kickstarter was no socks.
Kory:No show socks. That's how the business started. No show socks.
Trevor:Wow, I didn't know that we didn't even say what Taft was. Taft, by the way, guys, is it's an awesome shoe company, luxury shoe.
Kory:What would you do? Yeah, I mean yeah pretty kind of expensive, you know $300 plus shoes from both dress up to like little streetwear, to European sneakery vibe Exactly.
Trevor:So anyways, so I supported that. And then I remember like I got them and there was nothing like it at the time, at least here.
Kory:Dude, I sprayed all of them with cologne and we packaged them. And I bought a bunch of curved cologne for TJ Maxx, sprayed all the socks and hoped, and no one ever once mentioned that they smelled like cologne, like I think it was gone by the time they arrived. But yeah, dude, I freaking packed those up myself. That's amazing.
Trevor:Okay so support the Kickstarter. Number one I have no idea how I heard about it. Number two I caught word that you were doing a warehouse sale in Bluffdale. Yeah, before Bluffdale there was anything over in the warehouses. Yeah, yeah, and I went and that I probably bought, you know, $100 for the box, because we would.
Mark:Bluffdale and other houses in Bluffdale. Now, yeah, yeah, that's where I built my house.
Trevor:Yeah, oh that's right next to my first house we built in like right next to you.
Kory:Yeah, dude, now it's crazy, but that was where our first warehouse was.
Mark:Yeah, oh, that's Bluffdale. Yeah, yeah, that's what I'm sorry, I'm from. I'm from, like, salt Lake City, so we just kind of consider everything South like Sandy, yeah, yeah.
Kory:Like Sandy, it's like West Sandy. Yeah, bluffdale, what is?
Trevor:Bluffdale. I would tell people West Draper, it's like North of the Middle East. It sounds a little bit dignified.
Mark:I love West Draper, not Bluffdale, dude, that's that Winnie the Pooh meme right there. Have you seen that? No, where he's like slouched on the couch and it's like you'd say like Bluffdale, and then it's him in a tuxedo. Oh yeah, yeah, west Draper, yeah, west Draper.
Trevor:So anyways, yeah. So then I sat in life for probably three hours to get socks and that the prices were crazy, nuts, I probably imagine what I got for a hundred bucks worth of socks?
Kory:Yeah, no, you would have cleaned us out.
Trevor:Yeah, I still, I think I still have those socks.
Kory:So how long was it just socks? It was just socks. 2014 was the Kickstarter campaign and then it was just socks until November 2015. So a little over a year, it's a long time ago, Dude, you got.
Trevor:okay, listen, we don't have to spend a ton of time on your founder story, but what I want to know is I want to hear the story, the transition story. What made the socks take off, Dude? And then what? How that?
Mark:turned into shoes.
Trevor:So this is, I think this is a good time. I'll try to go really. I'll try to go really fast, cause it's a long story, you're good.
Kory:So my wife and I, we graduated from college and I didn't get a job offer, so we were in Europe. I took all our scholarship money.
Mark:I'm like so what did you?
Kory:study I studied linguistics and is this management, nice, and I wanted to do consulting, but you know, bain, bcg, mackenzie hire like one guy or one student a year, whatever, and so I didn't get a job offer. Then I wanted to work for, like FIFA, us, us youth soccer, but then I saw the pay it was like 30 K and Frisco, texas. I'm like I'm not doing that and why were you in Europe? So so we, instead of like, we found out my wife was pregnant and we had some scholarship money saved up from people. We were both on scholarship at BYU and so we took it and we went to Europe for six weeks and while there, we saw amazing shoes, but everyone was with the sockless look and I wore that like my whole life right.
Trevor:Like.
Kory:Sparries, jack Purcells I was wearing. I was like taking my moms. We call them. Peds they're like sheer your toenails, rip right through them, but I was rocking those, but then I'd, if I'd ever have to take my shoes off, dude, I'd be so embarrassed. And so we go on this trip. We had amazing European shoes. We're in Italy, croatia, rome, paris, france, you know. And we have this idea let's make men's no show socks that like stay up.
Kory:We'll put some cool like silicone on the heel but, we'll make like masculine patterns, we'll make them thicker, and so we get back from that trip. My net ID at BYU still works and so I'm using, like I'm learning illustrator on BYU's dime. Essentially, I'm still going into library, yeah, signing up for classes and learning how to design socks. And then we we launched a Kickstarter campaign, like six months later, and we we fund almost 50 grand and it's you know, you were part of that. That's freaking amazing. I did not know that.
Trevor:That's cool. There's not that many people. I need 20 bucks. 20 bucks of that 50 K was me big. Yeah, dude.
Mark:And in 2014,. That was like the heyday.
Trevor:Oh dude, Kickstarter right.
Kory:Yeah, Indiegogo and Kickstarter, yeah it was like the only way to go. Yeah and so. Then this is also the heyday of growing an Instagram account, and so did we make an Instagram account. We go from zero to like a hundred K in I don't know six months, 14 minutes, because I'm taking like amazing, amazing pictures. Probably felt like 14 minutes, yeah, for real.
Kory:I'm taking like pictures of shoes with the socks, and so I'm going to like all the Nordstrom racks. I'm going home to Burbank, I'm going all the Nordstrom racks I can find. If I'm ever out of town, I go to the Nordstrom rack, buy any cool shoes I can find, bring them back, photograph them with the socks and return them, because Nordstrom rack is like no questions asked in 90 days. And so all of a sudden, we're growing a pretty big Instagram account that's essentially shoes. We're trying to sell socks and everyone's like I want the shoes, I want the shoes. We're like buy the sock, buy the socks. So eventually, you know, a year later, because you can't see the socks, right, yeah, you, yeah, exactly, you can't see them. So it's like and dude, there are some really weird people on Instagram, like foot people, like weird people, and so we were getting a lot of weird interest and we're like okay, no more feet pics, no more sock pics.
Trevor:Like killed only fans. Yeah, super weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kory:And so it's like people can't take pictures of just the socks and the feet?
Trevor:Yeah, because people are super weird.
Kory:It was, it was weird, like me and my wife young baby and we're like we're dealing with these weird DMs.
Trevor:We're like okay so it's just shoes. Give us more fingernail, give us more turn out. Just just shoes, yeah.
Kory:And we're, we're taking amazing shoe pictures for Instagram, yeah. And so people think we're a shoe company, and we were getting inbound messages from shoe factories that are like hey, we see, you're a shoe company, we want to produce for you. We're a sock company. But eventually we're like hey, if we want to do this, if we want to go big with this, we need to sell something that doesn't cost $10. Yeah, what about selling shoes that cost $200? You know, if we want to go from hundreds of thousands in revenue to millions, we need to change it up a little bit. And so I have a question yeah, Did you like?
Mark:I just want to see if this lines up with the progression of your company. Yeah, you're selling no show socks, but in order to show a no show sock, you can't have shoes on right.
Kory:Right, and so we're just showing the look of the feet.
Mark:you got weirdos, yes. So you kind of wanted to only post pictures with shoes?
Kory:Yeah, and we'd always make sure that they were. You know, either they'd be a shoe with a sock rolled up in, kind of in like the shirt, or someone wearing them showing ankle, so you can get the look and probably at that time they didn't have the carousel swipe where you could maybe have like a shot of the shoe and then the no dude, a single, a single picture, yeah.
Mark:And so like, was it kind of these, like naturally occurring events that pushed you into this position? We're like all. We're showing your shoes now and now we got to just start selling shoes Basically. Yeah, Because we're talking at this point when we kind of had to make this decision.
Kory:We're talking hundreds of thousands of followers, yeah, and we look like a shoe company, yeah. And so it's like and everyone, we post a picture and everyone's like where can I get those words? And I can't direct them to Oram, utah, nordstrom, rack, sure. And so eventually we realized there's this need for unique men's shoes, because our shoes are super polarizing, yeah, like, not everyone likes them and but no one knows where to get unique shoes. And so eventually we're like we will be the source for unique shoes and we were using these pictures as a way to test what resonates with our audience, and it was always the crazy unique stuff that you couldn't find, you know the stuff that Norse from Rack.
Kory:What eventually filters out is the stuff that there's a million pairs that you know, it's like the basic, basic millions of pairs stuff, or the crazy stuff that never sells, yeah. And so I was grabbing the crazy stuff that never sells, putting it on Instagram, and I built this community of people that do like the crazy stuff, yeah, and that's eventually what the what the business ended up being. So then my wife and I make this decision. We're like let's pursue it. So, from my second child.
Mark:It's funny that you say that, because a lot of a lot of founders don't have the. I didn't say a lot, that's a little, that's generalization. Some founders have a hard time accepting who they actually are as a company and who they're not.
Trevor:Dude this was an idea Because I looked at your shoes and I want to be I remember looking at them and saying, like it's just not my totally.
Kory:it's just not my style, Totally.
Mark:But I can see why other people like it Like. It's not me judging other people's styles.
Kory:It's just yeah, no, it's like a little person we're going after, that's not my style particularly, but that's why you were successful, cause you knew what your style was but very much nicks, very much yeah, very much yeah.
Trevor:Nick was way into it.
Kory:And I do, to be honest, like I stopped designing product that I liked a long time ago. Yeah, the stuff that I like doesn't sell.
Trevor:Yeah.
Kory:The polarizing, crazy stuff that draws attention is the stuff that ended up selling, and that's what we basically became a shoe company of really unique designs. So, dude, we, we make, we, we, we make some shoes, we, I go to Spain, I book a plane ticket from from the hospital room. When my second daughter was born, we thought she'd have to be delivered via C section. She, she was delivered without a C section and so I was like, okay, I can book flights for like two weeks from now. We'll be okay, I go to Spain, design a collection. Come home, I get the shoe samples like a month later, yeah, and then, dude, that holiday season, this is November 2015. My wife and I had no money, like we're talking, like no money for rent, and so I post kind of quietly. I put, I put an item up up on the site called the sock grab bag, the no show sock grab bag. Hey, can I, can I pause? Yeah?
Trevor:Yeah, what were you? Were you doing anything besides this? Yeah, dude.
Kory:So I was buying and selling board games on Amazon Nice. So like just basic arbitrage, trying to make a few cents on board games. Okay. And then I was also assisting my friend as a fly fish Nice. So he was the expert fly fisher and I could, I could teach the basics and I was just like the pack mule carrying lunch and hiking through the got it, the woods. So I was making like 20 or 40, $40 a day doing an outing fly fishing, trying to sell board games and sell socks. I mean our first year of socks we did 117 K. That's impressive for socks, which is dope.
Kory:Which is super dope, but remember but remember, this is 50 K of. That's a Kickstarter, yep, and so post kickoff.
Kory:I'm like, okay, I'm gonna go to the store. We spent all the Kickstarter money on making socks, sure, and then I'm living off of not much, got it, yep. So then we make this sock, this no show sock grab it's 10 pairs for 20 bucks. Yeah, and I made it. I listed it from church, like I had the Shopify app and I built this product. Yeah, I uploaded the pictures and I 10, $10 for 20 bucks. Because I'm like, how can we even afford right to this holiday season?
Kory:Like we can't, we can't pay rent, sure and dude that night, and I didn't post it on Instagram. Yeah, so I'm like this would be brand elusive, these things I'm reading about, right.
Trevor:If you don't want to harm your brand.
Kory:No discounting you know, but I'm like I got to make. I got to feed my wife and my children. Yeah and dude. That night someone posts on Reddit Yo, the sock, the sock company. I like it's. 10 pairs for 20 bucks, pick them up. Great deal and dude. Order started pouring in, and I mean hundreds and thousands of orders.
Trevor:I'm almost confident that I was one of those orders.
Kory:I am Were you on Reddit like 2015?.
Trevor:No, I wasn't, but I'm pretty sure I get spread.
Kory:I'm pretty sure I think spread.
Trevor:Participated in this.
Kory:So this grab bag, this made it to the top item in frugal fashion, which is a pretty big subreddit on Reddit. Frugal fashion 10 pairs for 20 bucks and people are hammering it. And so that night I hop, I make. I don't even know what Reddit is, but the Shopify app is like redditcom, like the source of 100,000. You know, like what is this? I go to it, um, I make an account and I start responding to every single comment, yeah, and I'm just like thank you. So I mean they changed my life, right, and I'm like, thank you, thank you, thank you, it's been a rough year, you know, whatever? Yeah, and then that story gets picked up by best of subreddit, which are you guys on Reddit much like best of is. Essentially, I know it enough to know you're talking about.
Kory:Reddit curates the best things that are happening on Reddit and like amplify them to the homepage, essentially, and so this gets picked up. It's like Redditor lists sock deal, owner of sock company shows up to show his gratitude and that makes it to the homepage of Reddit. Yeah, and so we have. So sales get even bigger. Oh, dude, it went. Yeah, cause at the time I had you know, shop. The Shopify app has that chaching. Yeah, oh yeah, at the time I mean that's like a hit of dopamine as a young entrepreneur and it was literally like my phone's audio couldn't keep up with it. Right, like it was like the locks or the home screen was just I could do this for minutes and I wouldn't hit the bottom.
Kory:And so then I had these samples of these shoes. We run out of socks. I've that. Sunday I go. I go to the warehouse in Bluffdale by your first home, that's right, and we're literally, my wife and I, and my baby on a strap to our chests, are counting the socks, cause we're like we have. We never thought there was an end to supply. There were so many and we sell so few that we didn't even check our inventory at the time, right. But when you have thousands of orders that each orders 10 pairs, yeah, suddenly you're like crap. So we spend all Sunday counting the inventory. We're like we got to shut it off, yeah. But on on Reddit I'm like hey, I have these shoe samples. Does anyone want to see them? Like you know, they're from Spain.
Kory:I set some arbitrary price One, they were 189 at the time, yeah. And people are like I'd buy them. Those are sick. This is the jack boot which has is still a best seller. I own a pair that night. Oh, do you? I do, yeah, you do. Brad Nick has a lot too.
Trevor:Yeah, I'm sure Nick does. Nick does have a lot. Yeah, he's got a lot. Can we do?
Mark:an over and under on how many pairs Nick has right now? Yeah, do you?
Trevor:want me to, I'd set it. Do you want me to set it? I'd set it at 22.
Kory:Dude, cause we used to give him away for free. Yeah, yeah.
Trevor:I bet that he's probably. I bet he would know more than I would. Actually, I bet that 22 is probably right. You'd set it at 22.
Kory:I'd set it at 22 and make you guys set over under 22.
Trevor:I'm going to go over.
Kory:You are.
Mark:We gave him away for free. Dude, I was going to go over too, and he's and he's got a.
Trevor:I just remembered him telling me he's like I just happen to have the shoe size that like, yeah, we generally have like a lot of, if you're like a nine or a 10. Yeah, and he worked a 10. Yeah, you got a lot yeah.
Kory:You could, yeah, cause we took all the seconds, all the defective pairs or all the returned pairs. We'd put them all in the office, we'd set a draft order and we'd go until they're all gone, and so people would be on the phones with dad, brother, boyfriend friend, whoever, and they're drafting for it. I mean, it's like being on the clock for real you know 30 seconds.
Trevor:It was stressful. I don't think I ever got any, but I was part of it, yeah.
Mark:Um, we had to set the over under higher than you got to set it like. The line's got to be like 33. I don't know though cause?
Kory:I actually don't know. I don't know, I think 20 was a week.
Mark:I really do think that's pretty good Cause I'd go over too, though you know that's no fun.
Trevor:Yeah, yeah.
Kory:Well, Nick, let us know.
Trevor:Let's stop talking about Nick, I guess Um so that night we list the shoes I make product.
Kory:This is I have a picture of me at my at my sister's house. The moment I'm doing it I have a Coke can and my laptop. Over Sunday dinner I I list them live on Shopify and we sold over 400 pairs that night. Whoa Pre-order. I said they'd be here in January. Yeah.
Mark:This is November.
Kory:This is November 17th 2015.
Trevor:Were they there in January.
Kory:They, they, they were there in January. Whoa, nice, amazing, right, that's awesome. That is. We set a price of 189, too low, cause at the time I had no idea what they were going to cost you, dude customs, importing, shipping like I knew nothing, and so the price was too low. But it worked out and the products that's why they're all named after I mean the business is named after my son, all the shoes are named after family members, friends, characters and movies. Sure Um, but the jack boot, I was at Jack's house. Jack is my nephew, nice, and so Troy is my nephew. Like it's all how.
Trevor:How were the quality Like did you get happy Dude? They're as good as they are today. Serious, yeah, that is the factories freaking amazing.
Kory:That's awesome. We, we lucked out. They they inbound messaged me hey, we're a shoe factory, let us make your shoes and I'm like we're a sock company, but, okay, interesting, I like, I actually do like some of the stuff. Who sent me? I booked, I spoke Spanish, I booked a flight to Spain, I went to the factory. They took, you know, like dude, I'm a nobody, yeah, but they see hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers and they think oh, this guy's legit.
Trevor:Well, and 2014 was also the heyday. Well, it was very challenging to find manufacturers harder to find manufacturers. Right, they found you, and so it was the heyday in the sense that, like your competition when it came to finding a manufacturer was like slim, totally.
Kory:Yeah, this is a small small family owned factory in a small town in Spain, so it was exactly what we needed, and we still use them today. They're still our main supplier. That is the coolest thing, and they're like family to me, man, I love them with all my heart. That's amazing, dude, no question.
Mark:I think a lot of a lot of founders and entrepreneurs are going to have this question for you what so? What's the biggest thing that you've ever seen For you? What so? What was the margin on that? Right, so you're getting these imported from Europe. A lot of people are going to Asia, yeah, so there's got to be some kind of differential there. It's expensive, yeah.
Kory:So when you said that it was too cheap, I mean dude those, those same boots.
Mark:Did you? Were you even able to make any money off of that initial pre-order?
Kory:But those boots now cost $2.75. To give you an idea, Okay To make. No, no, no, it's retail retail. So I listed it for $189, almost $100 below what they are now. Yeah, so that kind of shows you that.
Trevor:For sure.
Kory:I was pretty off after factoring in customs and shipping and fulfillment and totally all that stuff. I had no idea.
Trevor:What made you decide to go to Spain versus Asia, like most other people normally would.
Kory:Dude. I mean I had sampled. I had sampled in China, because I had a Bob Dylan fan.
Kory:I had a friend that lived in China and kind of brokered stuff, and so I sampled shoes before with him. They just weren't the quality we needed. Sure, there's part of it is just pure coincidence. Like they messaged me I liked their style, they were willing to work with me, so there's just like that, you know, that natural feel to it. But also, honestly, I didn't trust myself to overcome. Like, when you say that shoes are made in Spain, there's automatically things that go into your mind around quality Totally.
Trevor:Oh yeah, there's a little more elevation ship yeah luxury like you already do that.
Kory:You're on your own. Yeah and I didn't trust myself as a marketer at that time to articulate that have to Educate people on that. That was, that was a freebie that the location of manufacturing gave me did you did you Think of that yourself, or did that happen?
Trevor:And then you're like, oh, no, that's I.
Kory:This is pretty cool. That's that's hindsight, because that's awesome. I wasn't that savvy. Now it's over the years it's kind of become the way I tell the story totally. But no, I was not. It was literally like I speak Spanish. Yeah, they'll work with me and they're already in my DMs. Amazing like I don't have to go Board of flight to Asia and go find you know I. I've lived in Cambodia, which is a major manufacturing hub for the world. It's like you, you go to China and China goes to Cambodia, and I Didn't even feel comfortable trying to go find manufacturers where I've lived before you know so it was just, it was just a coincidence, it was Providence, it was Destiny in some ways, because I mean it's just amazing.
Kory:And these people, they gave me a chance and I owe everything to them so how much, how much money did you end up doing like how in? Revenue.
Trevor:It, this song I want to know. Sock like that, sock, grab back. Do you have an idea of how much?
Kory:Yeah, we did 57,000 amazing in my 20 dollar chance right.
Trevor:Like a day and a half. That's awesome Okay.
Kory:All right.
Trevor:And then year one. What does year one look like you when you start selling shoes?
Kory:Dude, we go from revenue we go from 117 K Year one. We do 1.7. You're one of shoes. We do introduce shoes, we do 1.7. Awesome, yeah, so cool, very profitable 1.7.
Trevor:Awesome. Okay, and then how long did it? Just because we're talking numbers, yeah, but how did yeah?
Mark:what was the scaling economics there? Because if you weren't selling them for enough money at the time? Well were you just profiting off of the Instagram booms? So there's just so much organic. You didn't have to worry about paying for ads at that time.
Kory:Yeah. So so it was all. The marketing budget was essentially zero. All I had to do was the only marketing we did was paid posts on Instagram, okay, and so we did 1.7 that year and bottom line was 390, which isn't crazy profitable in some industries but for me, when I got hit with that tax bill, I'd say it's pretty. I was shocked and now, dude, that profit margin would be a dream at the scale you know that we had, like, that wasn't always the case. With that first year, 1.7, 390 K. And then I get hit with this huge tax bill that I had. I was like for a small business, taxes, you know, whatever but yeah, we had to pay a, yeah, worked, that was painful, I got, I got really worked, and I learned, you know. But then the next year we went to 5.7. So 1.7 to 5 oh my gosh, it's huge, yeah.
Mark:Yeah, and still, how many more products or lines Did you release?
Kory:we launched, yeah, a lot, a lot of shoes. At that point we probably had 20 different shoes, the first that first year, jack.
Mark:You're one of shoes. Yeah, the jack baby jack, luca Troy.
Kory:Those are the three you released within one year, yeah, yeah, and then next year, you added on 20 more, 17 more.
Kory:I mean, I'm talking colorways to, though. So, yeah, we introduced the Rome boot, we introduced the Viking boot, and this is still when I'm designing stuff that I actually really like. Yeah, right, like, my style was kind of I Thought it was cool and I was designing what I liked, and so, yeah, we probably went to 20 different shoes. We had like a real collection page. At that point. It wasn't like a sock company selling a couple shoes. Yeah, like, if you look at Ben right now and color, it's a shirt company selling some shoes, right, yeah, we were a sock company selling some shoes. The next year, it was like we are a sock company socks or we are shoe company. Socks are off the site. Yeah, we are just a shoe company. Yeah, we really owned it, and we went from 1.7 to 5. So I was disappointed In the sock.
Trevor:Mm-hmm being gone.
Kory:Do you do? Yeah? Do we never made another run? Yeah, we made the Kickstarter run and we lived off it, off of it for two years I was too poor to buy your shoes like I remember it.
Trevor:Yeah, I mean, they heard one. I remember thinking like a one socks 189.
Kory:dude, going from ten pairs for twenty bucks, yeah, this thing that costs ten dollars, yeah, retail to asking two hundred dollars for a pair shoes. I mean, dude, I, I Was not our customer, sure I couldn't. Yeah, I was making twenty bucks a day fly fishing, right? Yeah, I Was not our customer. That sounds like a dream, though I mean now, it's the dream.
Trevor:I.
Kory:Didn't appreciate it enough. I don't feel okay, so one.
Trevor:So they're. They're revenue rampings that, they're revenue milestones that every founder looks at as like that. This is what I want to get to and everyone has a challenge, right. So, like, the first one is like how do I make my first six figures? Right, that's, that's a revenue milestone. Yeah, this one. The second one is how do I make my first million? Okay, right, there's there's argument that the third one can be around like this like like five million, five.
Mark:But, but I'm gonna call it ten, like that.
Trevor:It's getting up to that ten million. I found that, like that's where a lot of people really really struggle is is to the ten million. What took you from? Because you said you went you're like a hundred and fifteen grand or sixteen grand at one, seven, five point seven, ten point eight. What took you to ten million from that five million year?
Kory:dude, we were doing five point seven. That five point seven year was me, my wife, an Office the size of this podcast studio and one part-time customer service rep from BYU and then were you guys three PLE. Three PL, dude, you've been where we had that warehouse sale was our three PL nice? And so then, what took us to ten point eight, dude, I mean, some of it honestly is just pure luck. Okay, like that is a time where how dare you I, I know, I know you want like tactical, tangible things.
Mark:No, I actually appreciate that because there is an element of luck dude in life, and I think people are. Do you know how I built this guy razz, how I built this podcast?
Kory:Yeah, at the end of each episode he's like hey, look what you build, is it, is it for you? Look what you build, is it, is it? Luck is a hard work, dude. If I were on that podcast I would say it is a hundred percent luck. I'm serious because think of the hardest working people. You know they probably make below minimum wage. Sure, you know my parents. I have seen them my whole life wake up well before to slide outside Work until way after sunset. Sleep what?
Kory:your parents do my, my dad was. He did craft service In the movies so he'd be, you know, call time at 4 am. Yeah, he'd have to be have breakfast ready. You know is like he works insanely hard. Yeah, my mom. Currently she manages a cafeteria.
Kory:Yeah works crazy hours and They've never you know, they've never had Real wealth. Sure, and I think about, you know, people that come to help me at my house. They work harder than any of us, yeah, and They'll never have what we have. And so for me, you know, I, I beg To be on that podcast someday. Yeah, I just feel like, yes, absolutely hard work puts you in the situations where you can get lucky. So I believe that right, but I think we all work. I think living at all is hard work. Sure, I think getting out of bed is hard work. That's the hardest work I do all day.
Kory:Yeah, and for me, I just think, like I, I like to acknowledge the element of luck. Yeah, because I got totally lucky. I never set out to start a business, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is freaking uncomfortable the lack of security, the instability, the unpredictability. For me, my personality wants the opposite, totally. And all of a sudden, I found myself freaking, designing socks, yeah, and selling shoes, and I was reacting to things that were happening and I'm launching new products, because that's kind of what was asked of me and I'm, you know, and I just think, man, I, I am so lucky and the further I get from it, the more lucky I, the more luck I can see, sure, like man. We're so lucky. Yeah, and any successful business is lucky. Yeah. Of course there's a minimum level of strategy and thought and intelligence and hard work, of course, but dude, they're the most amazing businesses out there. Never make it past 10 million or even a million, or even.
Kory:They never get off the ground right, like for sure great ideas sound stupid at the beginning and the market doesn't always reward that event. Sometimes you can push through that right. But, like I just think taft was the result of so much luck and so much love to our customers, to our teammates, to our suppliers. But man, dude, you can't deny the luck in our story. So I'm like no, I love it.
Mark:Well there's randomized I mean, that's the thing, though there's randomized luck.
Kory:Yeah right, there's random luck, there's like a positioned luck, yeah yeah.
Mark:So it's not that everything was luck, but it is important to recognize that even Positioned luck is still luck at some time. So yeah for example, the Instagram boom Was such a lucky time to be starting a business.
Mark:Oh yeah, totally We've talked with so many founders in this state that were like I just wanted to do this one thing. And then I was like left with this huge business and overwhelmed and like hating my life because I don't want. You know, and a lot of them have said like they don't want to sound like ungrateful, but it's not that they set out to make a big business. That's not what they were trying to do. It's just Instagram at the time.
Mark:Yeah, just yeah like all, all ships go with like rising ties, right, it's just like, took them all up and they're. Right now I've got a five million dollar business and I'm drowning and work and I don't know what to do and like, yeah, I thought there's just gonna be a fun like part-time job, and now I'm yeah, I thought I was gonna be a mom Doing something on the side.
Trevor:Yeah, something like that. Yeah, like dad, like now who's.
Mark:I wanted like a nice, secure job and I'm in this job and like, how do you balance it? Yeah, so it's funny that you say that, because like that's Kind of lucky if you decided at the time, oh, I'll just make a bag and or shoe or whatever product and throw it on Instagram and now I make successful business. Yeah, like you said, he was two, three people with a five million dollar business like that's literally overnight success yeah it really was and it was not intentional.
Kory:Yeah, and you know, we never, ever ever thought of what it would become.
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Mark:Yeah, I want to ask you when you got to the $10 million mark, because I'm trying to make some assumptions here from what you've said and I want you to tell me if I'm wrong and then give your side, because you said, yeah, a lot of it's luck to get to that $10 million. But what you said at the beginning of the podcast resonates, because you said I stopped making things, that I really resonated and just focused on serving the customers and what they wanted. How much did that help you go from $5 million to $10 million at the time? Is this part of the transition of you only trying to do what you wanted and trying to more do what your customers wanted?
Kory:I think that when I started I thought that the business model was the magic. I thought, okay, this D to C, cut out the middleman. No wholesale markup. That story is what's going to, what people are going to latch on to, yeah. But I think I realized that that kind of that inflection point was that the designing of the shoe, like the actual shoe designs, were the magic to Taft Totally.
Mark:And.
Kory:I wasn't expecting that. I thought this is when the D to C, this is like the D to C heyday, right.
Kory:It was like tell this D to C story. Show a bar graph where, like, one has a wholesale markup, one doesn't, yeah, and that's the magic People just are eating anything up. That's D to C. But then I realized two things. One is the stuff I can't design for me. I need to design for the customers. Yeah, and we have hundreds of thousands of people to give me litmus tests on what's working. Secondly, wait, what did I just say? We were just talking about it. I already kind of said this.
Trevor:It was the you had to start designing for other people.
Kory:Designed for other people but then there's another thing, right? I just said it.
Mark:I was thinking, I don't know that's.
Trevor:I was just. I was just engulfed in the story. Yeah, me too For a second. Oh dang, the point you were making was oh, the point you were making was the design. Oh, the design yeah.
Kory:So one, I stopped designing the stuff that I like. Yeah, because it was clear, the stuff I like doesn't sell.
Trevor:Yeah.
Kory:You know, I buy it from other brands that are very successful at it but, like the plain brown stuff that I like to wear wasn't working. And then this story of realizing that man, the design, that's what I'm uniquely providing to Taft.
Trevor:Right.
Kory:It's not the business model, it's the actual shoe design. That's what people can't find anywhere else. Yeah, you know, because at this time you had Jack Irwin, you had greats. I don't know if you remember Jack Irwin. Yeah, jack Irwin was kind of the first mover and they raised a ton of money. They had huge valuations and some like, oh, dtc works and they sell plain brown and plain black, boring shoes out of New.
Trevor:York, but you're not seeing the cost per acquisition on those. No, yeah, yeah.
Kory:And then that business went away overnight, but just realizing that man, the product was the magic and not the DTC business structure.
Trevor:It's the product and it's the community in which you sell it.
Kory:Oh well, dude, I mean if, yeah, if you want to talk about like stuff I've learned, I mean, yeah, dude, like dude, that's.
Trevor:that's like one of the. We've interviewed a ton of founders. We've probably that's actually that's a relative thing to say so to us it seems like a lot, but it probably isn't We've probably interviewed what Like maybe 50 to 60 founders in the last probably about 50.
Kory:18. Dude, that's a lot. I would think that's a lot, but you probably like some people like that is no, no, dude, that's a lot, that's a lot.
Trevor:And the most successful people who come on. That is something that like. That is a trend that continues to arise in what they. They may not say it clearly the way you just said it. Another podcast guest we had on was Chris Hall from Bruce Bull.
Kory:He said the exact same thing.
Trevor:It's like product and the community in which you sell to like that is the magic. It's not the business plan. I mean one can say that that is part of the business plan, but most e-commerce founders what I've learned don't have the business plan first. Right, they fell into something like that's generally how it ends up working, but it's like if your product can be one, the quality is amazing. Right, and when I say quality is amazing, I also mean it does what it says it's going to do. Like it accomplishes the need want whatever.
Trevor:And then to you like you it it is interesting to a specific niche group of people Like then you can win. Yeah, you know it's like, it's important. It doesn't matter what your marketing strategy is. You're going to win because they're going to tell they're going to get on Reddit.
Kory:Yeah.
Trevor:Right and say these are dope.
Kory:Go buy it. I have, I have, like I have kind of a formula You're hinting at a formula that I I I talk a lot about. One is like if you want to win like I feel like this is, I could replicate this in any industry and win. It is a unique, differentiated product coupled with incredible customer service. I'm talking like treat them like family, your team and your customers. And then time, patience to to let the word spread. Yeah, like if, if you do those three things, it will be successful.
Trevor:Yeah.
Kory:Like I really believe that. I mean, as I think about what's next, like I am thinking about unique, differentiated product. Yeah, treating people like I mean, dude, you have access to your customers, there is a proximity to all of your customers that has never existed right now. Yeah, like, I can call. I call my customers, I can text them, I can take a package to their doorstep, I can meet them for lunch. Like, dude, if, if you have a problem in your business, go to your customers, they will like you.
Kory:Like right now, it's like, okay, get in the conference room, we need to talk about this problem. It's like no, nick Crump doesn't know the answer. Yeah, but like all of my customers do, sure, and I can just meet them, I can text them, I could group chat them. Like that, for me that's like you know, you kind of hinted at. Or in a text message you're like, hey, what's like the biggest problem? You see, yeah, brand, like the biggest mistake for me it is we were masters of communicating with our customers. Yeah, they, they had a hand, they were, they were the most important employee. You know, you think about like Seattle football, like the 12th man, like our 12th man was our customers, they were the best employee we ever had. They gave us all the answers. And right now there are so many tools and there is an intimate relationship you can have with all of them.
Kory:Yeah, like dude, you have a problem? Call your customers, ask them. Like I, I I have delivered packages in my truck. If I ever saw an order come through in Utah, it's like I'm delivering it. I'm going to go take it to them. I'm going to, you know, ask them questions. I'm taking them to lunch. Have focus groups, meet up. Say hey, post on LinkedIn or whatever. Like, hey, guys, I'm going to meet up at Red Fuego in Lehigh at 1230. Come, meet up, I'll buy you lunch. Like, let's chat. Like people, people rack their brains and have meetings and spend so much time on higher consultants. It's like the answers are with your customers. Yeah, and I think that so many times people look to other sources for answers. Yeah, but for me it's like dude, the customers always have the answer. Yeah, and, and you just have to ask.
Mark:As you started making the shift of doing stuff that you liked and you started talking with your customers, how were you able to identify, like, the emotional connection that they were feeling to your products? Right, because I think sometimes it's hard with biases and you know personal opinions, because a lot of times like, oh, they don't know what they want. Yeah, they don't know what they're talking about. How are you able to talk with these guys that wanted a different kind of shoe and you're like that's it, like I need to make that shoe for these people or I need to provide them with a few more samples of this design? Yeah, because this is when you started coming out with, like those more unique patterns right, like the fabric patterns.
Mark:Yeah, I mean, so you've made this huge jump, yeah, yeah. What made you like? How did they give you that feedback? How did you actually dive down into getting even crazier? I mean, we did like because clearly that's a very underserved market.
Kory:Yeah, and so.
Mark:I'm sure they felt some crazy brand loyal to you too.
Kory:Yeah, when you started providing it. You know we, we, we use social media heavily to gather feedback, like the, the polling feature and Instagram stories like massive for us.
Trevor:Sure.
Kory:We'd send out email surveys. I also think that like. But what if your your competitors see?
Mark:Yeah, yeah, it's like dude, it's all execution. It doesn't matter Everyone always says that we can't tell. Ask what colors they like. Yeah, it's like.
Trevor:I remember being that guy saying that, yeah, I'd be honest with you. I thought that.
Kory:It's like man. What if, like Thursday, boot sees this? It's like we're different worlds and it's okay.
Kory:I also do think, though, not to like undermine your question, but like I think it's okay. One thing that I've realized is, like you know, we I talked early and and often about mental health on on social media. As, as a shoe business, I felt early on that like okay, if we're going to have half a million people watching what I do, then I need to make this about more than just shoes, yeah, you know. So we've tried to tell the story of like be your bold and like these, like tag lines around, like shoes and like wear confidence and stuff like that. It's like okay, sure, maybe that's what the emotional connection people are having to to the shoes, yeah, but like they're actually just shoes, yeah, and it's okay for a product to just serve a very specific unemotional function.
Mark:Sure, or even if the emotion is just simply they like the style.
Kory:Totally. Yeah, it's like hey, I just like them. I don't like stand for it.
Trevor:They don't.
Kory:Yeah, yeah, like and so I feel like we tried to go there Lots of times with like let's, let's, let's hire agencies and let's think through like what's our mission as a shoe company? It's like, well, we're a shoe company, yeah, and, and we had to get okay with, we had to be okay with that, that we're just like, hey, we make shoes. Let's remember that we just make shoes. Okay, there's way more important things and that's where mental health, that's why I could, you know, I had people like you know, investors, even question like dude, you can't go on freaking social media, talking about like suicide when you're trying to sell shoes.
Kory:Like that's a huge turn off, that's hurt the business, you know. And it's like, well, I don't care, yeah, you know, it's like it doesn't matter. And so I think that the emotional connection people had to the business, to be honest, was a lot of. It was to me, to me as the founder, I mean, as I've stepped away, that's the message I'm hearing. You know, customers are like dude, man, that's, you're a big loss because you're the whole reason.
Kory:I like your company but like I feel like brands are always digging deep for like to try to harvest some sort of like really emotional connection to a watch and they come up with something like own your time or like you know, whatever it is, like you know, and it's like dude, you make a watch like it's a it's a function.
Mark:It's just a function and it's okay.
Kory:But like, if you can find ways to like be more than just a watch company, which is which is what Taft kind of did, and I think that Taft punched like Taft's revenues. We were never a big business, but people thought we were. We punched way above our weight in terms of influence on footwear and also influence on social media. It's like we can do things that no other shoe brand can do, because we talk openly and transparently and like a family and it really worked.
Mark:you know that's a double edged sword, though right For sure it's super risky. No well, what I mean more is like it's a double edged sword for the founder because we see a lot of companies they want to hit this kind of escape velocity from depending on a person like the founder I had.
Kory:I thought. I've been thinking I've been prepping for that for years Like everyone's like.
Mark:I just like again, like all the pressure, all the pressure, yeah.
Kory:So because how do you sell, how do you ever sell the business?
Trevor:If it's so dependent, if you're attached to a single individual.
Mark:Or is it necessary to sell a business? I mean, you're the someone who's done it. Is it really? Is it the right move?
Kory:It might have been the right move for you. Yeah, but is it?
Mark:always the right move, Like is it is the goal of the business to always sell it, or is the goal of the business to provide a good life? I think that it could be one or the other Generations could be synonymous to, and I'm not saying that's there's a right choice here. It's. I think it's individual based.
Kory:I think our generation is sell, but we see this generation of like 60 year olds that have HVAC and plumbing and electrical companies that are like no, it's like Taft and Sons and I will do this for the rest of my life. Yeah, the problem for me with that was I Don't really care that much about shoes. Like you know, I stumbled into this. I didn't it's not my passion and my passions Didn't align with what I was doing. Necessarily. I mean some of it, of course community, family, you know, friends, like of course, but like there is no way I was gonna attack for my whole life.
Trevor:Yes, no way well. It also sounded like some of the things you said were like Entrepreneurship was never on your radar. No, no, and and if entrepreneurship is not on your radar and you become an entrepreneur, like that is a I'm trying to think the best way to say this that's an amazing Opportunity and accomplishment, but also can be a massive gut punch every single day, totally because of the like. I am somebody personally who, like Luckily, I don't deal with anxiety very much. However, like entrepreneurship was never on my radar, like I never wanted to be an entrepreneur and then I became one Because of some things that happened in my life that made me say this is the route I have to go down, but like I just dragged you into it, really.
Trevor:But like I've since become a more anxious person since becoming an entrepreneur. It's the only thing that's ever given me anxiety in my life. Wow, you know, because of what you said, it's like I Don't know where my next paycheck is coming from. Some months I might have to give up more money, right, you know, and I. And then when you hire somebody, that brings a whole new level of anxiety when you, when you start to Open up a retail store, that you know what it means, like every decision you make is a level of anxiety, so it sounds like that's probably another thing. Like you were, just like when you don't want to be, like when you didn't want to be an Entrepreneur's necessarily, then my guess is, a lot of times the goal is to sell it like if you had something that.
Kory:Yeah, yeah, yeah, like I think about the wordle guy. He is no the wordle, right. Yeah, like the wordle founder, like he, he created this game that he liked for himself and all of a sudden, within like a couple weeks, I mean that guy was never gonna do wordle forever, right? And that's a more clear example of it's like he's just gonna sell it to wall New York, new York Times and, you know, make seven million dollars. Yeah, for me I mean it's interesting, because what was the other game where the guy just shut it down because he's, oh, flappy wings dude, the Vietnamese developer that made this game?
Mark:and it was like too sad. I hate it. I don't like what's crazy.
Kory:Like I'm done, that was a great game though, but like as we're talking, like I am actively pursuing entrepreneurship again, yeah, so but here's the thing, though You're gonna.
Trevor:What it sounds like, though, is you're going to.
Mark:You're going.
Trevor:It's different pursuing it now after you've had an exit right Well not only that, but now, like you're going into probably something you're gonna be a little more passionate about, so I like that's gonna be probably a checklist gauge for what I will pursue.
Kory:Yeah, I mean, the filters are stringent, totally and Numerous, right like I will not just jump into socks because it made sense and right shoes because it happened to me. Yeah, it's like now my, my gauges and my calibration for what I'm gonna do next. There's a lot of filters to make sure it's something that I can yeah, hit your values and and what you hope totally and expect life.
Trevor:So what you saw. I know I want to get to a couple questions because I put out like a so on LinkedIn, on Instagram, and then I have like a broadcast channel that I've got a few hundred people that nice like are in my Instagram, like I asked. I just said, hey, like I'm having Corey founder taft on. I Shouldn't say that I was surprised. I'm actually surprised with how many people ask questions like an insane amount of people.
Kory:That's, that's cool. I like an insane amount of people. I'm like pretty shy and I don't leave my house a lot.
Trevor:So, so I want to get to that, but before I would, I would love to know and I think what a lot of other people would like to know when you, when did you sell taft?
Kory:I sold July 13th 2022.
Trevor:Okay, Do you remember what your revenue was right around when you were selling ballpark.
Kory:So 1.7, 5.7, 10.8, 14.4, I think 15.2. Covid, covid, covid ruined everything. I would say probably around and you know people will be surprised, but probably around 15 Sweet well, it's just.
Mark:Spain got hit pretty hard with COVID too, didn't?
Kory:they oh yeah.
Trevor:I mean we have happened with your manufacturing, oh sure.
Kory:They. It was. It was really rough they had. So. Normally it's like you get to the factory at 7 am, you have breaks in between two to four o'clock, you go home.
Kory:Yes, we're seven yet we're not see us. Dita, four to seven pm, you come back and you finish the day. Yeah, the way it worked during COVID in the factory was they split into two teams so that half the number of people in the factory and you could only work half the day, and so it was essentially like a limitation on capacity. Yeah, and so we couldn't make any shoes. Yeah, and so COVID. You know it's interesting because COVID was really tough in in the moment, but we really felt the effects of COVID in In 2022.
Trevor:Oh, I'm sure kind of like the yeah, delay and actually most brands we talked with, it's very similar.
Mark:Yeah, you know, we were during.
Kory:COVID, we're like we kept everyone on. We didn't fire single person. All of our store employees Just sat at home watching Netflix on their normal pay, like we treated everyone how you should. And and coming out of COVID, we're like we made it, we survived, and there was this real lag for us to feel the pain of COVID Until you know it's late 2021.
Trevor:Yeah, just for a couple years. Yeah, yeah, for sure, cool, let's. Do we get to some questions, or do you? Did you have any other questions?
Mark:No, I was gonna ask the the one question that someone asked. Oh, ask probably the most important one on there. Ask it. Oh, I think it was who's your favorite player at Liverpool?
Kory:Oh my gosh, who asked that question?
Trevor:Let's see here oh.
Kory:Oh, is it Tavis Johnson? Yeah, ah.
Trevor:Tavis underscore Johnson.
Kory:Tavis underscore Johnson, one of my best friends. I Really dislike Liverpool. My favorite player would be Salah, though. Did you watch Beckham the documentary? Yeah, okay, I.
Trevor:That's not a question. So you're a big Premier League fan.
Kory:Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm obsessed with sports. I am, I don't miss anything. Yeah, like if it's cricket in India my senior capstone was cricket in India. Like if it's rugby. Like I am aware of all of it. Yeah, but Premier League is my passion most. I mean the Dodgers, but my biggest passion is Premier League. Yeah, but my biggest passion within the Premier League is Manchester City. I'm upset. I am beyond obsessed.
Mark:Okay, and Holland ripped off. For what?
Kory:We're not winning the oh Ballon d'Or. Yes, absolutely, it's like a treble winner, like dude, I don't, we don't need to get into it.
Mark:The you know, but messy did win the World Cup.
Kory:Yeah, sure, it's like whatever, but so the documentary. I've watched one episode with my wife and the whole time like my blood is boiling, really, because it's like Gary Neville, freakin, david Beckham, sir Alex first all these people I I I have a natural distaste, for sure, and so it's like I'm trying to appreciate it for face value and but it's like all my least favorite people in one documentary it's.
Kory:I'm trying to partition, like my own part and my passion for man City. Yeah, just like. Enjoy it like I would any other piece of film, but I can't. Yeah, so I've gotten what I'm one episode in.
Trevor:I just can't.
Kory:I can't watch it.
Trevor:All right, let's go. Let's go this one here. Um what would you consider your greatest accomplishment at Taft?
Kory:My greatest accomplishment was building a team, a team that loved each other, that felt like friends and family. You know people so many people love to like, make fun of the idea of like a team being a family. You know, you see it in our state it's like sure, and then you lay, and you lay them all off. Yeah, we, we built, and as, after I sold, I realized just how special we had. Sure, because I was suddenly Injected into a new environment. I was like, oh, actually, what we had was really great.
Kory:Yeah, so I think I think the team and the attracting the type of people, but then also one of the things I'm most proud of which is not the same question, but one of the things I'm most proud of is, during COVID, we kept everyone on, yeah, regardless of their position, everyone full-pay, full-paid, fulfill benefits, whether they were sitting at home for six months or not. Yeah, like that's one of the things. That sure was I discouraged by some investors from doing that. Of course, was it the best business decision? Not necessarily right, but for me, in my heart, I will always be proud of that awesome.
Trevor:How many employees did you have when you left, like when you guys sold? How big was your team? Like 40, sweet mid 40s? Yeah, you don't have to answer this one. I'll try. I'll try. Will Taft's quality remain the same after you step down? Who has that? I probably don't know, joe Mama.
Kory:Joe Mama, Joe Mama with the dagger Joe Mama. There's a lot of underscores between Joe and Mama. Yeah, yeah.
Trevor:Joe underscore there's three of them.
Kory:I can't, I cannot guarantee that yeah, I have no, I've no say anymore, but I do know that the current factory makes amazing shoes and we have contracts with them that will not change. I think that's a good thing, and we have contracts with them that will not change that.
Trevor:So awesome should. Yeah, how's your mental health doing?
Kory:Horribly really yeah, yeah, I mean.
Trevor:I lost my son last year. Yeah.
Kory:I mean, and it's always been horrible, but coupling depression and anxiety with grief is a recipe that I was not prepared for yeah. So yeah, I mean I'm I'm not doing great, yeah, but I'm trying. Sure sounds like it. I'm really trying.
Trevor:Yeah, it's like it's all my heart. This is a good one. Added into call duty two years ago and he never dropped in with me.
Kory:Who is this who?
Trevor:is this? Who is it? Ryan Petrell.
Kory:Oh yes, dude, Okay yeah. So so I have my friend Bronson Cofusi. He, he gave me an Xbox and I I've never played video games in my life, yeah. And so I really like I got really into twitch, watching twitch streamers and and so, yeah, call of duty, I was like super into, I loved it. I try, I'm so bad. Yeah, so, ryan, it's not you, it is literally my skills and like I couldn't even play with people.
Kory:Yeah, it's like you drop in, you wait in this lobby, you drop in, you parachute for 90 seconds and then I get killed immediately, and so I'm like this isn't fun, so I don't, I don't like it, but a ton of people ask, like Any thoughts on what your next business is going to be.
Trevor:And if you can't, what can?
Kory:you give lots of thoughts, yeah, lots of thoughts. Um Nothing, nothing public, yeah, and it's not like a competitor's gonna see it, kind of thing. Um, it's just, I'm still trying to figure it out, but Good things are happening thinking e-com still, do you see? Kind of I. There's like three or four things that I'm like oh my gosh, yeah, this is freaking good, yeah, and so Nothing. Yeah, I mean I'd love to plug it. Sure, like, have me on in six months, and I got plug it Done for right now.
Mark:I don't, I don't know we have a question for you and we probably only have to stitch it back. So you know, if you don't want to go there, don't. But you said you lost your son. Yeah, is this? Uh, was that infant? I don't know this story.
Kory:Yeah, I mean, I'm happy to tell it. You don't have to go into detail. No, it's okay, yeah.
Mark:The main question I want to ask is like what's your advice for greeting parents?
Kory:Hmm, so no one's asked why I sold. Necessarily, I sold because I lost my son and I gave I couldn't. There were several of those really yeah, it's like yeah, I mean Sorry, no you're good. Um, it's like I Lost my son in June and I sold my business in July, so it's like I mean that's kind of tells the story right.
Trevor:Sure yeah.
Kory:Um, I yeah things, things that the business were difficult and there were other ways I could have gone about it and kind of solved it. A lot of it would have involved firing lots of people and I didn't. I didn't feel like that was authentic to the brand, even if it meant the survival of the brand as I knew it. I felt like it would be very hypocritical to Fire these people that I love In an effort to save the business from selling it.
Kory:Sure, sure and so that was one route. We had other Other financing routes that that didn't quite feel right and in my heart I was just done yeah, like when you lose a child, like, imagine trying to sell shoes after that. It's, it's crazy difficult, right. It just felt so silly when my heart and my mind are buying a grave plot for my son and putting on a funeral and and it's like this customer Scratched his leather shoes, what should we do? You know, corey, like, what would you recommend? I'm like, what would I recommend?
Kory:I'm thinking about my son's funeral, or I'm thinking about how to help my children understand why their brother isn't home anymore. You know, like, and so Advice for grieving parents. I I Feel it's the same way I feel about mental health. It's like I am very Advocating of mental health, talking about it, trying to share what I've learned while also suffering From it myself, right, like. I think that typically, it's like if you were to get on LinkedIn and start talking about cancer and how to deal with cancer, you would expect that that person had beat cancer.
Kory:Yeah and so I feel like a little bit silly. I mental health is like my platform, it's what I'm passionate about and I know so much about it, mm-hmm, and yet it's not helping me that much. Right, and I'm on this relentless pursuit to get better and I'm pursuing everything and I'm spending all the money I have on these crazy things, but I'm I'm not better. And so, for grieving parents advice I Am in the thick of it. You know, like I. I've learned some things, but I don't necessarily Feel like I can confidently say like Grieving parents, here's what you should do because it helps me. It's like I am the worst I've ever been. I.
Mark:Guess, maybe, instead of what's your advice, what would you want to say to other grieving parents? Oh man, what do you wish people said to you? I?
Kory:Hate the. I Think in our state and in our kind of predominant religious beliefs, there's this feeling of like oh well, he's in a better place, yeah, or you'll see him again. It's like I don't want to see him again, I want him in my arms, and so there's a. There's just a lot of like people in their own pain and in their own desire to help and comfort. They're saying things that are like oh, you don't get it, you know. But then there's people that grieve and there's this understanding of you like.
Kory:I know I've known what the word Grief means, right, you know, obviously by definition, but I could never have been prepared for how it feels, and so I love when people are just like, hey, I am so sorry, and that's that's for me, yeah, that's like the most powerful thing, because it's like, hey, I Don't really want to hear your Like, your comfort, because you, you just can't. Yeah, yeah and and and. So I think when people are simple and just like, just hey, I'm so sorry, if there's anything I can help with, I also think that, as, as someone that's around, someone that's grieving, I think Like, hey, can I bring you dinner?
Trevor:like no, no, no, just bring them dinner, yeah yeah like I will never ask, you're gonna say no, I will never ask for anything, right?
Kory:and and and grieving people are not thinking straight and they're not gonna ask and they don't want to think, oh, let me spread my grief around and burden this person with needing to prepare dinner. But, oh my gosh, do when someone like proactively does something hey, dude, I got these tickets for you and your family. Like, if you can, if you can muster up the strength to get out of the house, use them, yeah. Or, dude, hey, I dropped something off in your porch. Like, if you can, don't, don't ask. Right, if you're gonna do something, kind, don't ask. If you're willing to do it, just do it.
Kory:And, dude, I mean those people like there are people that over the last year and a half since my son passed away, like I, they will mean so much to me for the rest of my life. And it's people that the, the people that have been best, are not people you to expect necessarily, like it's, it's it's these unexpected people that just make me feel better. It's the people that are like, dude, like I Mean that key chain that your brother gave me and obviously he understands it more than other people do but like, yeah, that key chain. He didn't ask. Like, hey, can I get you a key chain. It's like dude. He showed up with my son's initials engraved on this key chain.
Kory:Yeah, and people that just proactively do it. Oh my gosh, it's, it's, it's. No one's gonna ask for it, no one's gonna say yes. Like dude, like me, in the way that, the same way you got me this soda, it's like oh, dude, don't worry about it, save the three bucks. You freaking bring it. Dude. Like it's just that productivity, that that changes, that changes lives and it means so much when you're in that Horrible place. Yeah.
Mark:I appreciate that. Yeah, I think that's. I think that's really beautifully said. Like my parents lost a child. I, I, I, I, I, I I.
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