Podcasts about bombas socks

For a full transcript of this episode, click here. First of all, I just want to start out this pod and really thank everyone listening and for showing up for a show like this one. You do it and you are here because you care about patients/members. It's just so easy to feel like we'll never be able to do enough, and that's a rough, rough feeling. Please take a moment to truly hear how grateful I am for you being here and for doing all that you do and that you try to do. I saw on the interwebs the other day a Marcus Aurelius quote. What he said was, “Be satisfied with even the smallest progress.” And I think this is really important to remember because nobody working in the healthcare industry, especially today, is ever probably gonna get anything close to a perfect solution. So instead, just aim for progress—even the smallest amount—and feel good about that, please. This show is an important one for anybody either in the business of healthcare delivery or buying healthcare delivery services. It's an exploration of what works and what doesn't work and how what works can easily become what doesn't work in the face of the real world. This peril of cutting clinical “waste” perilousness all starts with the whole “Hey, let's make some money, so we gotta scale and be efficient. We gotta do our thing at as low as possible a cost and maybe grow as fast as possible. We gotta keep our investors happy or pay off the debt we got saddled with or pay that giant management fee we're being charged or compensate the C-suite at the level they've grown accustomed to.” So again, the “let's be efficient and get everything repeatable” has entered the building. The first point my guest today, Kate Wolin, ScD, makes about all of this—and this is exactly the same point that Rik Renard made in episode 427—efficient to what endgame? Now, it turns out, surveys show, only a small, small percentage of healthcare delivery solution providers are measuring outcomes of pretty much any kind. So, how do we even know if cutting so-called waste is actually waste at all? I mean, in the absence of any actual measures—here's a hypothetical for you—someone could look around: “Hey, I see these nurses. They're all just sitting around chatting with patients and, I don't know, talking about throw rugs? What is this? An episode of HGTV? Who cares if a patient with diabetic neuropathy has throw rugs in their hallway? Let's tell these nurses chop-chop, get them on the computer using AI to be efficient, right? Let's get rid of that clinical waste.” I just made a point in the most sarcastic way possible, but the bottom line is this: It's actually really efficient to not engage patients in these ways, right? Patients, they talk slow, they ask questions that seem irrelevant, and they're time-consuming. It's very efficient to not build relationships or foster trust or, I don't know, assess fall risks … but whatever is going on is also going to fail in that model—from a patient outcome standpoint at least. Here's a quote from Sergei Polevikov, with some light edits. He wrote on LinkedIn: Primary care is not scalable in the same way as Scrub Daddy or Bombas Socks. That's something not taught in MBA and CFA programs. Someone should have told Walgreens, CVS, Amazon, and Walmart. They also probably should tell a whole bunch of point solutions and payers. Also, some health system execs or pharmacy leaders might also want to get that memo. What I really liked about the conversation with Kate Wolin in this healthcare podcast is that she retains optimism in the face of all of this. She offers advice for how to navigate the balance between mission and margin in a way that's better for patients and also sustainable financially. She talks about three points: 1. Founders and investors being in alignment and the essential nature of that 2. The importance of having clinical leadership and a team dynamic that enables innovation but in a clinically sound way 3. How you gotta measure what matters and do it in a way that inspires a mission-driven culture If we're talking about relevant shows to listen to next after you listen to this one, please do not forget episode 331. This is where Al Lewis teaches us how to evaluate wellness vendors and health solutions, but it also teaches us how to be a good wellness vendor or health solution. Also, do come back and listen to the encore with Jerry Durham next week about front desks and the total care experience. Lots of really bad avoidable things happen if the front desk isn't considered—and it isn't often considered. For sure, also listen to the show with Kenny Cole, MD (EP431); that's a must-listen. Then again, the show with Rik Renard (EP427) came up several times in this episode. The show with Jodilyn Owen (EP421) also gets brought up; that's a great cautionary tale there to keep in mind for mission-driven entrepreneurs and investors. And then, I also recommend J. Michael Connors, MD. He writes a lot of stuff in a newsletter along these lines. Last, last, last … Please go to our Web site and subscribe to the weekly email. I am planning on doing a few invite-only sessions for email subscribers. Plus, the weekly email is a really very convenient way to get the episode transcripts and stuff. And if you don't get it, you're making your life less efficient. So, go fix that. Kate Wolin, my guest today, trained as a behavioral epidemiologist and has done research in chronic disease prevention and management. She launched and led a digital health start-up and sold it to Anthem. She's been in the digital health start-up space largely at the intersection of science and product strategy ever since. Also mentioned in this episode are Rik Renard; Sergei Polevikov; Walgreens; Amazon; Walmart; Al Lewis; Jerry Durham; Kenny Cole, MD; Jodilyn Owen; J. Michael Connors, MD; Carly Eckert, MD; and Mike Pykosz. You can learn more by following Dr. Wolin on LinkedIn.   Kate Wolin, ScD, is a behavioral epidemiologist who left academic medicine to launch and lead a digital health start-up, which she bootstrapped to profitability before selling to Anthem. She has since been a C-suite leader, investor, and advisor to digital health start-ups and enterprise organizations on bridging clinical and behavioral science with product strategy and execution. She has been named as a Forbes Healthcare Innovator That You Should Know and a Notable Woman in STEM by Crains. Dr. Wolin is a Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine and the American College of Sports Medicine and teaches entrepreneurship at Kellogg.   06:24 Irrespective of money, what works in clinical care and population healthcare? 09:51 EP361 with Carly Eckert, MD, PhD(c), MPH. 10:26 Why is creating a gathering place and sense of community important in clinical care? 12:46 “Sometimes, we make this about the clinical provider. It always makes me think about the rest of the people in an ecosystem that create trust.” 13:49 EP297 with Jerry Durham. 14:11 Where can things go wrong when we start to think about the margin in respect to the clinical care that works? 16:47 EP427 with Rik Renard. 19:35 “We're actually very unspecific in what we're trying to achieve a lot of times in these digital health programs.” 24:00 “Are you aligned as a founder, as a business with your investors on the pace of growth and what is feasible … ?” 25:30 Why is Dr. Wolin optimistic about achieving growth and still providing value? 28:17 Why is it important to ask why something is being done? 30:39 EP421 with Jodilyn Owen. 34:35 How are people motivated, and how can you use that to reduce turnover? 35:21 Why measuring what matters and communicating that is important.   You can learn more by following Dr. Wolin on LinkedIn.   Kate Wolin, ScD, discusses #clinicalwaste on our #healthcarepodcast. #healthcare #podcast #digitalhealth #healthcareleadership #healthcaretransformation #healthcareinnovation   Recent past interviews: Click a guest's name for their latest RHV episode! Dr Kenny Cole, Barbara Wachsman, Luke Slindee, Julie Selesnick, Rik Renard, AJ Loiacono (Encore! EP379), Nina Lathia, Marshall Allen, Stacey Richter (INBW39), Peter Hayes  

This week, Millie and Danielle discuss VANISHING POINT (1971) and THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971), turning Danielle's home into an artist retreat, ghost riding the whip, and 1970s hammer toes.To see a full ISWYD movie list, check out our Letterboxd here:https://letterboxd.com/isawwhatyoudid/films/diary/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The greatest show to hit TV focused on entrepreneurship is ABC's Shark Tank. In its 15th season, Shark Tank has made millionaires out of entrepreneurs and driven millions in return for the sharks who invest in the opportunities presented to them on the show. And now just released, the list of the 15 most successful companies ever funded on Shark Tank.

Additional background material on this episode is available for Patrons. Jeb and Blake wade into the first episode of season 4 of In Search Of... to learn a thing or two about tsunamis. (Yes, the producers actually said that they called it "tidal waves" because if they'd used "tsunami" Americans wouldn't have bothered to find out what it was about.  I remember being taught the "new" term during my basic education. -B) Lots of good footage, interviews, reenactments, and science in this one!   Nimoy Fashion - Henley Shirt (we assume he's wearing pants below the cut?) To me, it looked like an AARP-style drug ad. The J.K.K. Look Laboratory (in honor of Mr. James K. K. Look - who's death in pursuit of scientific data is honored in the naming) There is shockingly little about Mr. Look on the net and he certainly seems like he deserves at least a Wikipedia page.   Hokusai's famous "wave" - and yes, he really did pioneer "tentacle porn," but I'm not linking to it - nor judging.        This is only a simulation. If this had been an actual podcast, this guy would have tried to sell you some Bombas Socks or a subscription to Wondrium. NOAA monitoring lab Ed Bernard    Steven Froehlich

Grace and Alvina give their favorite gift recommendations for bookish people. See complete show notes at www.bookfriendsforever.com. Click here to become a Patreon member: https://www.patreon.com/Bookfriendsforever1. Click here for Grace's Newbery poster https://shop.carlemuseum.org/category/books/autographed-books/grace-lin. Pre-order "Once Upon a Book" with a free virtual school visit: https://shop.carlemuseum.org/once-upon-book-pre-order

Chris and Cort do something different for Black Friday, and bring you their suggest gifts for the holidays in 2022.  Hear their list of great local items, tech ideas... nuts, socks and more! Suggestions from Chris included: Zupan's Markets: www.zupans.com RingSideSteakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com The Meadow: www.TheMeadow.com Tidbyt: www.tidbyt.com Vivienne: www.viviennepdx.com Finex: www.finexusa.com Steelport Knife Co.: www.steelportknife.com Peak Design   Cort's suggestions: Brooke Paints: www.BrookePaints.com Black Book Guitars: www.blackbookguitars.com  Pacific Hazelnuts: www.pacifichazelnuts.com  Avenue Sweets: www.avenuesweets.com  Kevin Carroll's A Kids Book About Belonging: www.kckatalyst.com  Bombas Socks: www.bombas.com  See Cort in the Nutcracker December 2 or 3, 2022: https://www.etix.com/ticket/o/11869/fired-updanceacademy  Right at the Fork is supported by: Zupan's Markets: www.Zupans.com RingSide Steakhouse: www.RingSideSteakhouse.com Portland Food Adventures: www.PortlandFoodAdventures.com

Has a statistic ever shocked you so much you can't forget it?In 2011, David Heath learned the most requested item in homeless shelters was socks. For such a small and ordinary item, David couldn't stop thinking about the impact they had on people experiencing homelessness. He began carrying extra pairs of socks with him while walking around New York City and handing them out to people he met. While it was a small expense for him, it mattered immensely to these people, some of whom had resorted to wrapping their feet with plastic bags and banana peels.David and his friend, Randy Goldberg, wanted to do more. They began researching athletic sock technology and developed two products: one for consumers seeking top-tier socks for athletic pursuits, and one for a person experiencing homelessness. This was the start of Bombas and its buy one, give one model.Eleven years later, Bombas employs 200+ people, generates $300+ million dollars annually, and has donated more than 75 million new clothing items. We invited David Heath, CEO and Co-Founder, to share how a desire to do good launched a multi-million-dollar business, how Bombas has evolved over time, and how it remains focused on helping the homeless.Listen for more insights on:Starting a business with the sole mission for impact.Building and maintaining partnerships.Enabling employees to drive innovation based on their passions.Exploring new impact areas while remaining aligned with a core focus.Resources + Links:David Heath's LinkedIn“This is the Impact Socks, Shirts and Underwear Can Make” Video2022 Impact Report60K DayThe Black Hive CollectionThe Pride Collection (00:00) - Welcome to Purpose 360 (00:13) - Dave Heath • Bombas (03:15) - The Genesis (12:43) - Response (14:48) - The Name and How It Works (20:47) - Favorite Stories (23:35) - Giving Network (27:23) - Real Time Needs (29:18) - Equal Branches (31:00) - Numbers (31:29) - Black and Rainbow Hives (34:45) - Finding Focus (36:13) - Buy One Give One Model (39:58) - The Future (43:48) - Last Advice (46:36) - Wrap Up

https://slasrpodcast.com/  Welcome to the Sounds Like a Search and Rescue Podcast! Also known as SLASR.  Join an experienced search and rescue volunteer and his friend as they discuss all things related to hiking and search and rescue in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. This week we are joined by our friend Dave Dillon. Dave runs a successful YouTube Channel nd podcast called Chase the Summit where he highlights Trail and Ultra Running, Hiking, Climbing, Fitness Tech, and a variety of other topics including beer. We have a bunch of questions to cover with Dave about gear, running and hiking  tech. Later in the show, in preparation for shoulder season and warmer weather, Stomp is going to give us an overview of forest roads.  Dave Dillon's info Chase the Summit YouTube Chase the Summit Website Chase the Summit Podcast Chase the Summit Instagram Topics Nuclear War talk Guy Hikes the AT carrying a Leaf Blower and we share what weird item we would bring on the AT Moosilauke - Moose-a-lock or Moose-a-locky?  SAR Counterpoint to controversial '10 essentials' article Bombas Socks update Sponsor and Coffee Talk Beer Talk Recent Hikes - Tenney and Welch Dickey Crazy Owl Attack Incident in the Middlesex Fells Dave Dillon of Chase the Summit  Rockhopper Races - Mount Chocorua and Kilkenny Ridge Stomp's intro to forest roads Guy overdoses on caffeine powder   Show Notes Rek-lis Brewing Company Retail locations Apple Podcast link for 5 star reviews Backpacker Magazine's Misleading Article Minus 33 Stellwagen Beer Company Article about Owl that attacked Dave Rockhopper Races Chocorua Mountain Race Kilkenny Ridge Race DC Rainmaker Forest Road Status page - US Forest Service White Mountain Forest Roads and Gates Guy overdoses on Caffeine powder by miscalculating the amount to use (measures in grams instead of mg)   

To celebrate the end of Arcadia June, we're joined by a special guest! Following that, we ponder the best place to charge devices while we sleep, share some of our favourite songs and ask whether socks should cover the ankle nubbin. Irene of Arcadia 00:00:00 Arcadia (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/arcadia-arcade-watch-games/id1479608271)

Join us for this episode of the Good Tidings Podcast, with host Larry Harper—Founder of the Good Tidings Foundation. Today, Larry invites guests and Co-Founders of Bombas Socks, Dave Heath and Randy Goldberg. The idea for the company came quite organically. While scrolling on Facebook one day, Randy came across the fact that socks are the most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. The two had always wanted to start a business together, and after hearing this fact, they felt called to tackle the issue.

Join us for this episode of the Good Tidings Podcast, with host Larry Harper—Founder of the Good Tidings Foundation. Today, Larry invites guests and Co-Founders of Bombas Socks, Dave Heath and Randy Goldberg. The idea for the company came quite organically. While scrolling on Facebook one day, Randy came across the fact that socks are the most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. The two had always wanted to start a business together, and after hearing this fact, they felt called to tackle the issue.

Paris Berelc (The Crew, Hubie Halloween) and Dan discuss Filipino Ube sweet potatoes, her hate of chinese food, and her allergy to, wait for it, oranges. Dafuq? This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

THIS IS A PSA!! LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO COOK!! Chef/Restauranteur Frank Prisinzano (Supper, Frank, Lil' Frankies) and Dan talk about how Frank's Instagram has become hands down, the best place to go if you want to learn to cook, plus they discuss methods vs recipes, servers who take too much pleasure reading specials, and giving away all your cooking secrets to leave a legacy. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan speaks to somebody who makes him convulse with laughter, comedian Jessica Kirson (Talking To Myself). Jessica and Dan discuss the joys of steakhouses, keeping a pandemic fridge fully stocked, and how to properly dispose of squirrels. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s “Green Eggs and Dan”, Dan speaks with his favorite international food host, straight from Tehran, Mr. Taster! They discuss perfect kabab ratios, Iran’s hyper regional cuisine, and how his window into Persian hole-in-the-wall restaurants fill American Persians with nostalgic wanderlust.  This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today I’m joined by the number one international shipping carrier for e-commerce. With customer experience at its core, Passport Shipping is putting the ‘care’ back in ‘carrier.’ They believe that a great international experience demands a considered approach to strategy, software and customer experience, as well as great logistics. So with their end-to-end solution, you can tailor experiences for your customers worldwide. I’m joined by Alex Yancher, the Co-Founder and CEO at Passport Shipping to chat about the company’s unique offering and all about international shipping: the benefits, the challenges and what we can expect in the coming year. IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [04.36] Alex’s background, the personal experiences that have driven his career – and one surprising stat about shipping. [07.30] Alex’s previous business, Lynks, what he learned and how he took those learnings forward to found Passport Shipping. “It made me realize that international shipping is a whole lot more than just the logistics.” [10.26] A closer look at exactly what Passport Shipping does and how it helps its customers. “At Passport, we want to not only make sure that customers are capturing potential revenue, but they’re doing it in a way that doesn’t add undue burden to their operations and customer support.” [11.45] How customer experience, technology and logistics blend together to create the perfect supply chain solution. “These three elements have to come together to provide a modern international shipping service.” [14.08] The benefits of international shipping, especially in light of COVID-19. [18.30] From returns and customer service to differing rules and local knowledge, a look at some of the obstacles holding brands back from jumping into international shipping. [22.09] Different shipping methods and how they align with individual business models. [24.16] The impact that issues like global tax changes can have on your business – and your bottom line. [27.59] How Passport Shipping helped key customer Bombas Socks to resolve core pain points in their international shipping process. [32.28] The ideal customer for Passport Shipping. [34.37] How SME’s can maximise the benefit of the recently implemented U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). [38.05] The future for Passport Shipping, and for logistics, in 2021. “It’s even more critical, now more than ever, to have a solution and a partner like Passport in place to help you manage the change and stay compliant.”   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to Passport Shipping’s website to find out more and discover how they could help you too. Check out our other podcasts HERE.

OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder joins Dan to dive deep into the origins of Pad Thai, his beverage brand, Mad Tasty, and how he would rather commit suicide than ever eat eggplant again. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I'm joined by my food writing IDOL, Ruth Reichl (Save Me The plums, Comfort Me With Apples), and we go deep! We discuss fish sauces of the world, her hate of HONEY of all things, and the potentially dismal future of restaurants after COVID. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan joins his Cobra Kai counterpart, Brett Ernst (Louie), and they discuss first hating each other, then loving each other, then eating their faces off together in Atlanta while shooting. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan and Jonathan Kite (2 Broke Girls, Netflix) discuss taking parents to expensive tasting menus, drinking prohibition booze, and (clicking heals) there’s no place like Tokyo. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Give us about ten minutes a day and we will give you all the local news, local sports, local weather, and local events you can handle.   SPONSORS: Many thanks to our sponsors... Solar Energy Services because solar should be in your future! And to the Kristi Neidhardt Team. If you are looking to buy or sell your home, give Kristi a call at 888-860-7369! And to Steve Samaras from Zachary's Jewelers for always knowing exactly what to say! Today...There may be some new PPP money for businesses and a stimulus for individuals. The Maryland Restaurant Coalition is preparing to fight for their survival. A pop-up COVID testing site is planned for this weekend and we are trying to see if it is legitimate. Navy and Air Force will meet on the gridiron on 9/11/21 to commemorate the the 20th anniversary of the attacks. Dan Haas wears Bombas Socks and now the LIght House Shelter will too. And some final thoughts on 2020 and a Christmas wish for all! And of course, George  from DCMDVA Weather  is here with your local weather forecast! Please download their APP so you can keep on top of the local weather scene! The Eye On Annapolis Daily News Brief is produced every Monday through Friday at 6:00am and available wherever you get your podcasts and also on our social media platforms--All Annapolis and Eye On Annapolis (FB) and @eyeonannapolis (TW)

Negin Farsad (Fake the Nation, Wait Wait Don’t Tell me) and I discuss why immigrants like to play poor people cosplay with groceries, weird Persian milk byproducts, and how sumac will be the next hot food trend. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Business relationships can be hard. No one is perfect, and we all have to deal with people that don't respect us. Zoe Share teaches us how to navigate these difficult relationships with honest communication, clear brand values, and negotiation.Meet ZoeZoe Share was a kindergarten teacher turned marketer. She has a Batchelor's degree in English literature and education, and decided to become a teacher. She ended up not enjoying teaching and decided to go back to school for business marketing. Marketing is at the intersection of education, literature, and business. The value of simplicity You can tell if someone really understands a concept by whether or not they can explain it to a five year old. “Keep it simple stupid”Communication and HonestyChildren are incredibly honest and direct. Communication and expectations go hand-in-hand. Are your expectations clear?Demonstrate how you want to be spoken to. Be willing to admit when you don't know.Trust other people. Brand values and purposeUnderstand what drives you. What is your mission and values? Your mission and values act as a guidepost. Do business with people that resonate with your purpose and value. Even a sock company (a commodity) can have a purpose and values. Bombas Socks - a sock company that donates a pair of socks to homeless shelters for every pair purchased.Being “Good”Marketers are often seen in a bad light. We should try our best to be the best people we can be and to create the best brands we can, but at the end of the day, no body is perfect. What are your intentions for doing good? Are you doing it to get followers, or because you truly believe in it?Consumers act as a vigilante deciding who deserves brand loyalty and who doesn't… at the end of the day though, how do you know?Navigating hard client relationshipsDo everything you can to vet your clients before you work with them. How much would a client need to be bringing into your company for you to tolerate them disrespecting you? No relationship is perfect. It's important to learn to navigate the hard times.Be willing to have difficult conversations when they're needed. Bring integrity to the way you resolve conflict.NegotiationSay what you need. Negotiate toward success. The end result should be a win-win. You are working together toward a mutually beneficial relationship.Business is a two-way street. Both sides of the relationship provide value. Learn to be a good consumerDon't trust all of the ads that you see. Be careful where you put your money. The more we care about how trustworthy a brand is, the more companies will have to prove to us that they are trustworthy. Support brands and causes that align with your values. Follow Zoe:Schmooz MediaLinkedInFollow JacobLinkedInFollow JMH Media:JMH Media: Building Brand Loyalty and TrustLinkedInFacebookInstagramListen & SubscribeApple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsSpotifyYouTubePodchaserOvercastAmazon MusicWe'd love to hear from you!Have some feedback about the show? Feel free to reach out to us at trustcast@jmh.media You can also rate us in Apple Podcasts or your favorite app to help more people discover the show!

Nicole Byer (Nailed It!, Why Won't You Date Me?) and I explore the transcendent combo that is cheesy potatoes, eating gold and glitter, and why she thinks pickles need to die. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alonzo Bodden (Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, Amazon Original) and Dan discuss cruise ship eating strategies, Fiji (yes, Fiji) water, and peeing next to Gordon Ramsay. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan convinces Lauren Lapkus (The Wrong Missy, Threedom) to give fermented food a chance, plus they get picky with fast food and talk about quarantine cooking. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan and Padma Lakshmi (Top Chef, Taste the Nation) get into the origins of Persian food, how's she's treated in restaurants, and her VIP bottle of Tabasco that was made specifically for her! This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Phil Rosenthal (Everybody Loves Raymond, Somebody Feed Phil) and Dan discuss his obsession with French fries, the essentialness of a Food Travel show during COVID, and how after massive success in the comedy world, nobody wanted to give him a food show. This episode is brought to you by: Bombas Socks were made to give. For every pair of socks Bombas sells, they'll donate a pair to someone experiencing homelessness. Go to bombas.com/GED for 20% off your first order. Ritual Multivitamin is a clean vegan-friendly formula made with key nutrients to help fill gaps in the diet. Ritual makes healthy habits easy. Go to ritual.com/GED for 10% off your order. Panasonic's 4 in 1 Multioven is a microwave, a broiler, an air fryer, and a convection over all in one. To receive special offers, go to panasonickitchen.com and become a Panasonic Insider. The Genius Recipe Tapes is a new podcast from Food52. Host Kristen Miglore speaks to the geniuses behind iconic recipes, and uncovers the recipes that changed the way we cook. Listen today. Produced by Andrew Steven and The Podglomerate.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

An unexpected and all around lovely package from a listener came at just the right time.  Find out what Dana desperately wants to carry around as a flask. A friend's instagram post put Jessica in a tailspin over the required maintenance of a front loading washing machine.  When the holiday beverages are already currently sold out, Dana's food ordering anxiety rekindles.  Oh Wow Corner highlights a Brooklyn man and his typewriter which he uses to write letters with strangers for those that could use a good old fashioned letter in the mail. Excuuuuuse Me Corner begs to ask the question, why do people need to get dirty when it comes to naming a donut after Santa?  Rave #1 is State Bags, a company that gives a backpack filled with school supplies to a child in need each time you purchase a bag from them.  Bombas socks give one pair of socks to the homeless with every pair you purchase.   State Bags - https://statebags.com/ Bombas Socks - https://bombas.com/

As Randy Goldberg says, ‘no one dreams of going into the sock business.’ But if there is one sock company you can name off the top of your head, it’s probably the one Randy built with co-founder Dave Heath. Bombas Socks has grown from a small Ecommerce company with a mission into a $100-million dollar enterprise, and the success they’ve had all boils down to remembering the fundamentals.  On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, Randy takes us through his journey to Bombas. He details why founders need to avoid ‘shiny object syndrome’ and focus their sights on the basics if they want to succeed. Plus, he talks about Bombas’ culture of transparency and how to decide between leading with the company mission or the merits of the product when trying to attract customers. Key Takeaways: Bring in the Right People. Scaling requires people — employees, execs, investors, and mentors. Lean on your network, ask questions, hire carefully, and create a dialog with other D2C companies to learn from them. Pro tip: It’s time to bring someone else in when you start to ask questions that neither you nor anyone on your team can answer Ask Yourself, “What Matters More?” When it comes to getting better conversions, don’t let shiny objects distract you. For example, changing the copy or placement of a video matters a lot less than the speed of the site. The faster your site speed, the more conversions you will have. Stay focused on what investments really convert Transparency Impacts the Bottom Line. When employees feel invested in the company and comfortable in the environment you create, they begin to ask more questions, buy-in to the company mission, and work harder to achieve success for themselves and the company For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length. --- Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we’re ready for what’s next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce --- Transcript: Stephanie: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Up Next In Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles, co-founder of mission.org. Today, I'm really excited to have Randy Goldberg on the show, the co-founder and Chief Brand Officer at Bombas. Randy, welcome. Randy: Thank you for having me. Happy to be here. Stephanie: Really excited to have you. Thanks for taking the time. I'd love to dive into your background a little bit before we get into Bombas, a little bit about what brought you into the world of Ecommerce and starting Bombas. Randy: Yeah, I guess, we have a sock company, an Ecommerce sock company. I say this a lot, but I don't think anybody ever really grows up dreaming of being in the sock business. It was kind of a winding path for me to arrive at Bombas and to think about this company. My background is in branding, so I was a copywriter and a strategist, and I worked for digital agencies and I worked for a lot of brands through the years. Writing brand books, trying to find out where they had gone astray, brands that were sort of struggling a little bit. I think through that work, I gained a perspective on what I thought a good company looked like, talked like, acted like. At some point, I moved from the agency side to the media side and I was working at a digital media company, and that's where I met Dave Heath, my co-founder in Bombas, and we sort of cooked up the idea when we were working together way back then in 2011. Stephanie: Cool. Why did you guys think, I want to start a sock company? Did you both want to start this or did one have to pitch to the other? Randy: Yeah. Well, I don't think we thought of it as a pitch. We were friends and we were both very entrepreneurial in our outlook. Our families were entrepreneurs. We just, I think, had that same point of view on the world, and we liked the idea of maybe starting a business one day. We weren't actively writing things on a whiteboard and crossing off a list, but we would just talk about things and the business landscape at the time. It wasn't, we need to get this done this year, we were just having a regular day, and Dave was on Facebook, and he saw a campaign that the Salvation Army had been doing with Hanes. Randy: The Salvation Army, they had a quote in there that said socks are the most requested clothing item in homeless shelters. We were having lunch, and Dave said, "I saw this quote, did you have any idea about socks and homeless shelters?" And I said, "No, and I don't even understand why." We started to call around to some shelters in New York, and we were talking to people and we just realized that there was a real problem here. If you're living on the streets, a fresh pair of socks, foot hygiene means a lot. You might be walking more and have less frequent opportunities to wash your clothing. And then, shelters don't accept used socks for donations. So they were always having a shortage and it was always a big need and people would have to buy new socks and then donate them. Randy: People just tended to donate the things that they had worn or gently used. We really just wanted to help solve the problem. So, we started thinking about that, we started buying socks and donating them. Then, I guess just the way our minds work, we started to think there's probably an opportunity here. We looked at the success that Toms had been having and saw their one-for-one business model, and Warby Parker had just launched at the time and they had a charitably inclined business. We thought, maybe this business model really works for this product. It really maps well to it. Just because this is a product that people really aren't allowed to donate on their own. Randy: Then we started to think about socks and we just got obsessed with socks. We were like, socks just haven't changed in 50 years. Athletic socks look the same. They're cardboard, they're white or they're black. Even if you're somebody who cares tremendously about the things that you wear, where they come from, what you're putting on your body, the last thing you get to generally is socks. We thought there was an opportunity to make something really great, to really improve on a product that people take for granted, and that are afterthought in the consumer market, to help solve a problem that's an afterthought sort of for shelters and organization. Randy: Just like, if we can make something really great, we'll sell a lot, and if we sell a lot, we can donate a lot, and if we donate a lot, we can help solve a problem in the community where we work and live. It's easy to look back and say that, but at the time, it just took a while for us to wrap our head around this and think about it as a business idea. Stephanie: Very cool. I will say that I'm definitely someone who had socks as an afterthought, but I will say when I tried on Bombas, I was like, this is a whole different level of socks. I didn't realize I cared about them at all. I would normally just get black ones and just be like, whatever, as long as they're short, I don't care. Then I tried them on, I'm like, oh, these are game changing. They're amazing. Randy: Thank you. I think that's what we're going for. We want to change the way people think about socks, and make it hard for you to go back once you put on a pair of Bombas. Stephanie: Oh yeah. You can't. In the early days, when you were starting out, how did you think through the economics of developing the one to one program? Randy: The early days for us, that meant making sure that we could, from the start, bake into the unit economics, the donation pair, so that no matter what anyone said along the path, if we were raising money, if we were building the business, that there's nothing anybody could do because we were ironclad around the donation model. We built it into the covenant of the business. We've codified it. It's just something no one could ever really take away, but just focusing on it from the beginning and making sure that we could afford to do it, as a for profit enterprise, was a big early step. We've grown and we've gotten smarter about it and we've built a big network of giving inside of the company. It's all gotten bigger and better, but it really started with that idea. Randy: I think that's the right question. Did you think about it from the beginning? Yes, or else we wouldn't have been able to do it and maybe somewhere along the road, we would have compromised, but it's been a big part of how we've talked about the business and the brand and a big part of the success of the company, and having a great product on the side for the consumer allows us to afford the development costs of the donation product, which is an important thing to make sure we're making a product for people who are experiencing homelessness or living on the street. All of these things have been really thought out from the start. Stephanie: It's amazing. I think I saw that you reached profitability by year three. What does your revenue look like now, annually? Randy: Well, we don't typically share exact revenues like numbers, but it's a multiple hundred million dollar a year company at this point and profitable. Stephanie: Very cool. Yeah, I think that's what I saw, but I wanted it to come from you instead of me saying what I think that I read. Randy: Yeah. You read correctly. Yeah, so profitability, I think you're seeing a lot of direct to consumer companies and Ecommerce companies now really starting to think about profitability in this moment. The way that people are raising money and what companies who are handing out money have been looking for, it's forcing a lot of companies who've raised a lot of money and had profitability as a down the road kind of goal, shift how they're operating and shift how they're thinking. I see that, and I've talked to founders who were dealing with this and it seems really painful. I think for us, it was a goal from the beginning. We wanted to have a really solid conservative financial outlook, get to profitability quickly, build a business for the long-term, for the long haul. Randy: We want our grandkids to be wearing Bombas. That's one of our core values. I think that plays into the way that we built the business from the unit economics and financial side of things as well, and the way that we approach marketing, which obviously as you know, as a direct to consumer company, is the hot topic, of course. Stephanie: Yep. Were there any issues that you ran into along the way? Because scaling to over a hundred million revenue is probably pretty tough. Is there any lessons you learned along the way or things that you're like, ooh, we did this great, or we maybe should have done this a bit different? Randy: I think the number one lesson is about focus. Know what you do really well, know why your company exists, why your product deserves to exist in the world, and then focus on doing that well, focus on telling the same story over and over and over again. Whenever we've been able to really focus on that product on the donation, on the sort of foundational elements of the business, that's when we've done the best, and that's when the company has grown really well. When we've gotten distracted by, hey, let's try this pop-up retail idea, or let's advertise in this new place that is unproven, but seems good for this one specific reason, and it's taken our focus away from the things that we do best, that's where we've had the most trouble. I think that's been the big theme for us in the early years, is just focus has really led to growth, and it's where we've had the most success as a company. Stephanie: Very cool. When thinking about the first conversion or a brand new customer, do you think the social good aspect of the business sells the product initially? Because it's pretty hard to convey how good the socks are on the website. Randy: Yeah, it is. It's hard until you, I guess, you try them on, and we just want to get as many socks on feet as possible. But yeah, there has been a constant debate at Bombas since day one about what comes first and the way we talk about the company. The quality of the product comfort or the mission, our commitment to give back to the community. Some people come for the product and stay for the mission, and some people will come for the mission and stay for the product. I don't think we've solved that debate. We poll our customers and we're surveying people and we're thinking about this a lot, but I think the thing that works the most in marketing for prospects, people who haven't heard about our company, is talking about comfort, is talking about the quality of the product. Randy: The mission definitely helps complete a sale, helps with the follow on sales, and our customers, people who've already made purchases, expect us to close the loop, report back on how we're doing with the donations that we promise we would do on their behalf. That storytelling element helps us with both sides of it. It's just about where we show up with the mission and where we show up with the product marketing, at what time in the life cycle. It's an ongoing debate and we stay nimble around it, but those are still the two elements, and they have been since the beginning that show up the most in our communication. Stephanie: Cool. The other thing I saw that you all had was the happiness guarantee, which I was like, how do they remain profitable? Because one of the things I think I saw in there was, if your kid outgrows a sock in a year, which I have three kids, so I'm like, that could happen quick, or if your dog chews up a sock, which our dog, [Tossy 00:11:14], does that every day, how do you make sure that people aren't abusing those rules? How did you come up with that happiness guarantee? Randy: I think for us, we think about the great companies that we all like to work with, or shop at, or interact with. A common theme is that they have great customer service and they stand by their products. We wanted to make that a hallmark of Bombas. In the early days, Dave would take all of the calls that would come in to our phone number on his cell phone. So we would be out talking about the business or in a bar, back when there were bars. He would get a phone call and go outside, and an hour later, he'd come back and he'd just talk to a customer. I think that idea of just making sure that we're taking care of the people who are spending money with us, that led to the idea of the happiness guarantee. Randy: We have our internal customer service team, they're called the customer happiness team, and we've also, just sort of connecting it back to the business, to get back to your question, people who interact with our customer service team have two times the lifetime value of customers who don't. We're trying to turn issues that people have into positive experiences, and that turns people into bigger longterm customers, because then they trust us, they trust that we take care of them. Sure, there are people who try and abuse the policy, but that's far outweighed by the number of people who are just trying to solve a problem, or get to the bottom of something and want things to be right and don't want to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there. Randy: For us, the good of having that really strong internal team to deal with our customers and to respond to problems, and yes, to make sure that if your kid outgrows the sock that's expensive or that ... We'll be there to grow along with you. All those things are ... we just want peace of mind as people go through the process and think about, should I be making this purchase right now? Stephanie: That's great. How do you train your customer happiness team? Because I feel like it takes a certain kind of person to be peppy and to, like you said, have a higher lifetime value with the people who interact with that team. What kind of training process do they go through? Randy: It's pretty rigorous. I think Dave passed on the mentality of our customer happiness team to the person who originally ran the program, and he's still running that team. I think, like almost everything at Bombas, when we have something that we want to do and we feel like we've reached the limit of how we can handle it ourselves, we try and bring in people who are way smarter than we are and have the right skillset, and really focused on hiring great people. It also helps that, people who come to work at Bombas, tend to want to give back to the community and are inclined to support and work for a company that cares about that as well. Then, we in turn, care tremendously about our company and the company culture, and all of those things lead us to find, I think, the people who are right for the roles and write for the company and speak to those core values, and that's how it works with the happiness team. Randy: They're trained, not only on what to say in the situations that come up most often, but how to deal with Bombas customers, how to put the extra spin on it. It's about, I guess, just that level of care. Our whole team really appreciates that customer service team, and we make sure that they know how appreciated and important they are as the first line of defense for our customers internally as a team. I think giving them the support and love that they need as the team that has to deal with a lot, and has to clean up mistakes when they happen and make sure that everybody's happy, and then understanding how we want them to communicate with the world as a brand. The way that we talk in an ad versus a video, versus on the phone with the customer, versus internally, none of that should really be different, right? We're trying to be really consistent as a brand. Stephanie: How do you create that consistency? Because I can see as a company grows, and I've seen this happen before, where you start developing silos and the teams are kind of off doing their own thing, maybe trying their own marketing campaigns, and it starts getting a little bit chaotic. How have you kept a consistent culture and feel at Bombas? Randy: Yeah. We're not immune to some of the issues that you just brought up. But just recognizing it, being honest about it, trying to get ahead of those things, and focusing on that core messaging and communicating well internally. We're also at the stage where we're really thinking about planning and processes as a company as we've grown to 150 employees and being remote, how we interact and how we work cross departmentally. Those types of things are at the front of mind right now. We're hearing it from our team, we listen to ideas, we bring in people to help us. I think we're laser focused on making sure that some of those breakdowns and that siloed work doesn't get the best of us. We have seen that and we're working on it. Randy: I think any company that starts off operating like that, when you have five or 10 people, that would be overbearing, and I don't think the type of people who end up coming to a company that small would appreciate that, but as you grow, you have to adjust and you have to get ahead of it so that people keep that same feeling of freedom in terms of thought, in terms of how they can innovate in their work and get things done, and expectations around their jobs, all that stuff becomes really important to be more documented, to have tighter processes so that people feel freer to do the things that they love to do. That's what we're trying to work on, but it's not an easy thing. Stephanie: Yeah. It's definitely a tough juggle. If someone were to join and they're employee number five, and then all of a sudden, there's 150 employees, it's like, okay, well, I used to be able to do everything at the company, and now you want me to shrink my role. A tough thing to work through with employees. Randy: Yeah. It's a challenge. You want to retain the people who made Bombas, Bombas, but you also want to make sure that people are growing in the right way, and there are opportunities, and the new people who come in at certain levels understand what they're supposed to do and what everybody else is supposed to do. You just start to get into these things that maybe you thought you would never have to deal with if you started a company, but as it grows, this is what it looks like. Stephanie: Yup. Were there any resources that you leveraged along the way when you were growing quickly, when you were like, I need to learn this or I need to figure this out, or companies that you were watching to learn from? Randy: Yeah. I think that's been our mindset since the beginning. Just from our early advisory board, just to fill in the gaps, to hires that we've made, the things that we tend to lean on are people. Dave and I are like, we don't know the first thing about performance marketing, when we started this business. We need to bring in somebody who's an expert in that, or at least, have somebody on our advisory board who can help answer questions for us as we grow that until we have that right person, or to help us find the right person. That's been a big part of how we've grown this business, is leaning on our network to reach out to people, to ask questions, to make good hires, and then watching other D2C companies and having a good dialogue with the other D2C companies who have grown to our size and larger. That's been really helpful as well. Randy: Then you also think about companies like Toms. They've been really helpful to us, in terms of watching out for certain mistakes that they've made along the way with their donation aspects of their business. They've been really open with us about those things and helping us avoid them. We try and do the same with other companies who reach out and want advice from us as well. Stephanie: Very cool. How did you think about building out the website? What kind of things did you want to have on there to make sure that you kept with the brand story, but also, sold enough to be able to be profitable to keep the model working? Randy: It's a great question. The idea of what a website looks like when it's your only store is so important. You want to have that right blend of storytelling, but you want people to be able to breeze through the checkout process the right way. That's been a journey for us. I don't think it's anywhere near where we want it to be, but I would think that you would ask any direct to consumer company and they have a lot they want to do, and their technology roadmap is pretty long, and that's part of it. You're always building, you're always tweaking, you're always improving. You're looking at the data and you're making changes to just make it better. Randy: In the beginning, at some point we have to replatform. But just the processes along the way to get us from where we started to where we are now, to where we're heading, it takes a lot of care and attention. Like I said, when it's your only store, I think it's your job and your duty to make sure that it works and operates really well. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. How did you know it was time to replatform and what was that experience like? Randy: I knew it was time when we just had so many issues with managing traffic or the backend or uploading content. It was wrong. We launched the business and the website in 2013. Since 2013, there've been a lot of changes in technology and the way that Ecommerce works and looks. If you went back to a site from 2013, as a 2020 consumer, you wouldn't last a minute. You'd be out. Stephanie: You'd bounce right away. Randy: You'd bounce. There was a lot more tolerance then, but less people using Ecommerce because the experience just wasn't great. I think, if you go back even further, and I think about this a lot, if you were starting a direct to consumer company in 2009 and you didn't have a lot of money that you would raise, building the website itself would have been prohibitively expensive for most brands, for most companies. But if you managed to get it up, the marketing was basically free. There was no algorithm that was holding your content back. If you had a Facebook page, whatever you posted, everyone who followed you with anyone who shared it, and anyone who got added to your page, not some of these early companies, resources to build a site were able to build huge businesses. Randy: But then, as it shifted, now, if you want to launch a direct to consumer company, the technology is basically free, getting that website up, but the marketing is prohibitively expensive. It's totally flipped. We just happened to launch, I think, in a sweet spot where the technology had gotten more affordable and the marketing was still affordable, but it was not free like it had been in 2009, and it wasn't very hard or challenging environment like it is now. We sort of had time to figure out both pieces, and we had runway to figure out the marketing and we could afford the technology. Then that got a lot better, and just have to stay on top of and ahead of all those things. Stephanie: That makes sense. To focus on the website piece first, and then we can jump into the marketing aspect, so the website, was there any like big fundamental changes that you made where you're like, this made the biggest difference when it came to sales and conversions and even getting traffic in the first place? Anything that you remember that you change where you're like this had the biggest improvement for us or a couple of things? Randy: Site speed, I think is the number one thing. As a person who comes from the creative side of the business, a copywriter or strategist, there's nothing that I could do from my previous job or as a brand person that would make the improvement of one second of site speed in terms of how something loads or how it acts. Just sort of getting over some of the sort of shiny objects into saying, oh, if we change the copy here, or what if we put this video here, or had this type of look on our site? If you make your site faster, it will convert better. Things like that, just understanding the fundamental way things move and what people want from you, layering the other stuff on top then becomes just sauce and becomes fun. Then you can start to have incremental changes and things that work. But I think, just looking at site speed, if you want one good thing, that's where I would start, as dry as that might be. Stephanie: Yeah. No, that's a great one. Was there anything affecting the site speed that you were surprised by? Randy: I think the way that you manage and load images, obviously has a big effect on that. Your product architecture and understanding Randy: I think some of these things you don't realize when you're starting out, but the way things are organized, hosted, served, there's sort of best in class ways of doing that now. But if you want to have your variants of your products perform a certain way, or if you want to create bundles in a different way than most companies do it, then all of a sudden, you're creating ... you could be creating extra things that are weighing your site down, even though you think ... it helps you organize the things that you want to sell the way that you see them in your mind. It doesn't always benefit you because maybe you're slowing things down. If people are bouncing before they're even seeing it, then what's the point? Again, this isn't my area of expertise, but these are the things that you learn along the road when you're doing everything in a business when there's five people. Stephanie: Yeah, I think that backend infrastructure piece is hard to focus on in the beginning because you're so excited about the product and the marketing, and like you said, getting good copywriting and telling your friends that you don't really think about how to set up, maybe the data and the backend piece to actually create a good performing website. Randy: Totally. Listen, like I said, my background was in branding. I was a copywriter. I think we built this business around the brand because it's, in many ways, a commodity that you turn into a brand. You do that by being really consistent and having good storytelling and build a moat through brand. But none of that exists if you don't get the infrastructure piece right, and you can't get to that. I talked to founders who were starting companies, and they're so focused on hiring the right creative agency or branding agency, they'll put together the right logo, and it's just not the right place to start in my mind, even though I love that work and I love thinking about that for companies and thinking about how you communicate to the world and understanding why your product exists, but without that fundamental infrastructure piece, no one's going to care about that other piece. It's just maybe a little bit of a sad truth for creative side of business people. Stephanie: That's okay. Got to hear it sometimes. Randy: That's right. Stephanie: One thing I saw that you guys were doing was that you were investing in a data science team and embedding more data elements into the customer journey. Can you tell me a little bit more about that and how you knew it was the right time to bring on a team like that? Randy: How will you know it's the right time is that when you start to ask questions that you can't answer, and nobody internally can answer it. That's the truth, and when one person ... Randy: You also know when you're having a debate about something in the business and somebody is able to pull out data or a statistic related to what you're talking about, and the conversation ends because it's hard to argue with the data. When you see that and you've thought about it the other way, and you're not trying ... You can't convince data, right? I know [crosstalk] manipulated. Stephanie: There's no argument there. Randy: That's right. Then you sort of think, this is really valuable, and rather than trying to think about something from the perspective of, I think it should work this way, you want something to show you how it should work, and you want to be able to interpret data the right way and be able to use it to your advantage to build out a strategy, rather than just making assumptions and going off of somebody who has the most experience or who has the most seniority. I think companies get in trouble when they just rely on the loudest voice in the room or somebody who's the most persuasive at arguing rather than bring data as a voice into the room for decision making. Randy: I think it started to creep in when we would understand a little bit what we don't know, and then have debates that were a little bit out of our depth and we didn't have the right people. We didn't really have that skill in the beginning. We knew that it would be a big part of this business, even back in 2013. We just knew that it wasn't the first thing we were going to invest in. It just sort of came naturally to the time. We were always excited about the idea of what a data science team could bring to the table for a sock company. There was a point where you almost can't operate without it anymore. Stephanie: Yeah. That's awesome. What does it look like now having that team, and what kind of metrics are you guys paying most attention to? Randy: A lot of the metrics are the same. You'll see a lot of Ecommerce companies paying attention to, but what the team looks like, and what's interesting is, now that we have the team in place, getting other teams to work with that team the right way is the key, and getting our directors and decision makers accustom to partnering with the data team, to help surface solutions to problems and present them and work, it goes back to some of the work that we're doing, trying to figure out the processes and cross departmental work and to avoid some of the siloed behavior that you brought up earlier. A big part of that is the data team and how they can help support. There's support teams within an organization, there's execution teams, and that's very much a support team, and they love answering questions for teams, and some teams use the data and analytics team more than others. Randy: We just try and be really loud about it at our all hands meetings and present back case studies so that people understand how they could better use that team. It's a process and something that was getting better all the time, but you just sort of have to make it central to how you operate as a company. That doesn't happen overnight. It's a big change. We've been working on that for the last six months to a year in a major way. I think it's really paying off for us. Stephanie: Very cool. Yeah, I definitely have seen business intelligence teams in the past struggle with being able to create a partnership with the product team or the engineers. I like the idea of showing a case study. So instead of pushing it on a team member, it's like, well, here's what another team did. Look how great this turned out, and encourage them to want to partner with that team even more. Randy: Yeah. You're making decisions, how many times a year should we ... We're not a promotional company. But if you wanted to ask a question, like how often should we do a sale? There's logical times of the year when you think that should happen, and the merchandising team might have a different perspective than the marketing team, and using the data team to think about the effect on customers or prospects. There's so much information that could help steer a decision like that, that is major to the business. Those are the types of things where you start to see a lot of power in the team like that. Stephanie: Yeah. We're talking about data. I want to also shift into the aspect of transparency. I read that you and your co-founder both had subpar experiences with transparency at previous companies you were at. I wanted to hear, how do you think about being ... Well, first tell me the story. I want to know all the nitty gritty details, and also how did that influence your culture now? Randy: Sure. I don't know, the cliff notes is that was a major influence on our culture now, but we had the experience together. Like I mentioned, we worked together at a previous company, and at that company, the person who ran the company brought amazing people together, and there was a great team, and the work was fulfilling and we learned a lot, but it was really hard to have conversations around career growth or compensation, or how well is the company doing? Or data. One person tended to hold on to decisions for so long that it was counterproductive and it was demotivating for people. You felt nervous to even ask a question, and nobody understood their stock options. You would ask questions about it and you'd get them response months later. Randy: That sort of fogginess around the things that people really care about when they're going to work at a smaller company, it was really hard for us. We knew no matter what company we started together, building a culture of transparency, where people really understood the why behind the business, the core values, the financial performance, what their ownership meant, and a culture of being able to ask questions, that was hallmark from the beginning. We just wanted to create the company that we would have loved to have worked at and centering our employees in the business, and thinking about them just as much as we do our bottom line. Our theory was that it would make the bottom line better. People would be more inclined to give something beyond their capacity or to continue to learn or to grow if they felt safe and supported at the company. Stephanie: Cool. Yeah, that definitely is a good way to build a company from the ground up, and maybe not fun to have that experience, but hey, you learn from the best people you work for and the worst people you work for. Randy: Absolutely. I wouldn't trade that experience because that's what led to the culture that we've built at Bombas. I think, if you talk to our employees and the way they think about it, we're maybe more proud of that than anything else that we built in this company. Did I give you enough nitty gritty details? Is that good enough? Stephanie: Yeah, I was hoping for a little more drama, but I'll take it. That was good. Randy: There was plenty of drama. We can talk about that offline. Yeah. Stephanie: That sounds good. Earlier, I mentioned, I also wanted to hit on your marketing a little bit. What kind of channels do you focus on? What are you seeing success in right now in any new channels that you're excited about? Randy: Yeah, for us, listen, we're a direct to consumer company that started in 2013. Can you guess what our number one marketing channel is? Stephanie: Facebook? Randy: Bingo. Right. Okay. I think we still see a lot of success there, and while it might've been a way larger percentage of our marketing mix in the early days, and we've diversified away from that a fair amount, it's still an important driver for us. In the beginning, in the early days, we would create a video that we didn't even intend to be an ad, just a thank you to our customers, and then eventually it gets turned into an ad on Facebook that's seen a hundred million times. Leaning into the trends and trying to see around the corner at Facebook. now working closely with that team. has really helped grow our business. Randy: One of the things that we have had since the beginning is ROI positive or breakeven on first purchase. We're not over our skis on Facebook spend, while lot of companies are to just to try and build up their customer base. For us, it was important to really be disciplined. We knew that if we were going to grow our budget and grow our company, and we were a really marketing led company, we'd have to diversify away. So, Hello Podcasts, radio, direct mail, TV. Those are all big parts of the business now, and they're all growing probably at a faster rate as a percentage at least of the business than our online ads on Facebook. But search has grown for us tremendously in the last year and a half as our brand has grown and recognition has grown. Randy: Some of that comes from broader marketing, like on TV, and then people are searching Bombas by name, and we can lean into search advertising and that works better. Some of these things are just about timing. Yeah, we still have a tremendous success sort of trialing things out online. We've never used a creative agency. Everything is internal at Bombas, so all of our creative direction and the marketing team and the partnership between the creative team and the brand teams and the marketing team operates as an internal agency. We like places where we can test things, test creative, test lines, test different cuts of videos, see what works, preview it, and then build it out into bigger campaigns that could work across all those different places that we talked about earlier that I mentioned. Randy: I don't know, that's sort of more of an overview than what's working now. But if I think about the last few months, when everyone's at home with COVID, people who were still able to afford to be buying things right now online are looking for comfort, and socks have done well in this moment. On the other side of things, we talk a lot about our efforts in the community and how we've adopted and been able to help out in this moment above and beyond how we normally do. That's also something that people want to hear about. For us, it's the combination of the product and the storytelling and the marketing mix, and making sure that we're nimble enough in all three of those places to make adjustments as we build and grow. Stephanie: That's awesome. Do you find that you have a community also, because it seems like with your story and your brand, you would have this community of people who want to lift you up and talk about you and spread the word organically without you really having to push too hard? Randy: Yeah, absolutely. Community is a big word at Bombas. Something that has been since the beginning. I think about the community of giving partners that we have. In the beginning, when we wanted to donate the socks, you buy a pair and we donate a pair on your behalf. We didn't know how to do that. We started with one giving partner that would accept socks from us, and we learned a lot from them. Then we built a specific sock that we donate, that's more tailored to the needs of the homeless community. Since then, now we have 3,500 giving partners across all 50 States. These are the people who are working really hard on the front lines helping out that community and doing what they can to serve their communities, and our job is to support them. Randy: That is a big community. We get a lot of feedback from them. Then you have our customers who really care tremendously about the product and the donation aspect of it, and they're telling our story on their behalf. You mentioned earlier about one of the keys, I think for us is consistency. The more you're telling the same story in different nuanced ways, the easier you make it for other people to tell your story on your behalf, and that word of mouth marketing, or letting people explain to somebody else when they're having dinner that, hey, they just got these socks and they're really excited about them. Randy: They donate for every pair they sell, and they also just happen to change the way they feel about putting on a pair of socks in the morning, and they feel more supported and comfortable in their daily life. That's a pretty amazing thing that you can get somebody talking about socks at dinner. I think all of this stuff is related, making sure the messaging is tight, keeping that internal, having a marketing team that's nimble and always trying new to new and different areas, and then having that product that's really high quality to support all of that, to give you the confidence to go out and sell something. Stephanie: That's great. How do you keep things organized? Because I'm thinking about, you have all these community organizations that you're mentioning to do the one to one program, then you've got your own product that you need to focus on. How do you make sure that you're spending the right amount of time with each area? Randy: You don't want to be playing whack-a-mole, I guess. You want to be seeing ahead of things a little bit. There's a certain element of making sure ... You start to see when some friction comes into a certain side of the business and you need to spend a little bit more effort getting your go-to-market process ironed out, or on the technology side, if we don't install an ERP process in the next X amount of time, we could see a lot of trouble. I think that starts with a leadership team that communicates really effectively, often open, and is really humble, and then syncing up on our company roadmap, and making sure that when something does seem like it needs a little bit more attention, that people spend their time on it. Randy: That's the idea. I guess some of that is also thinking about, and talking to companies that are a year or two ahead of us, and have been through some of these sort of growing pains at the same times, and looking for the pitfalls that they went through and trying to get ahead of it rather than to have to be reactionary. Stephanie: The D2C community, it seems like they're very helpful with each other, and you just mentioned, looking to someone who's maybe two to three years ahead of you, how have you utilized that community and leaned into it to get advice or build friendships or mentorship? Randy: Yeah, it's a great community. For us, we're a pretty open group. We talked about transparency and communication as pillars of Bombas from the beginning. We want to help out other companies who are coming up behind us, and then we've looked to other direct to consumer companies, and other, generally, just good companies to try and help us out. You ask the question and you find that people are generally willing to say like, yeah, this is how we did this, or connect with this person on our team. They know that at some point they'll have a question for you. We've always been just asking questions outside of the organization. It's the same approach with hiring. We want to bring in people who are smarter than we are. Randy: We want to ask the questions to the companies who are ahead of us. You don't get the answer if you don't ask the question. It's just an important thing, and I'm not sure why this group of companies especially is more open or collaborative, seeming than other groups that you've been in, but maybe it's this generation of founders and the way that we grew up and the interest in community, and the expectation from customers that our company just can't look the way it used to look or act the way it used to act, and it has to have more of a purpose. Maybe that just drives us all to be a little bit more open and a little bit more flexible and a little bit less guarded about some of the things that we're doing. Stephanie: Yeah, I agree. It also just seems like there's so many opportunities. It's not like you're going to be talking to someone who's doing exactly what you're doing. There's just so many opportunities and so many things to start and try that I'm sure that also helps with people wanting to share and show how they did things. Randy: Yeah. I don't really feel competitive with anyone in that space. In some ways, those companies, you could see them as more of our competition than another sock company, because we're competing for the attention of people online. It doesn't matter what you're selling. If somebody else is taking away time that somebody might spend thinking about Bombas, then I guess that's competition, but approaching it, from a lens of collaboration and like, if they can help us know we can help somebody else, it's just the way we've done it. I'm not sure it's right, or it does feel like it's helped us. It is nice to feel like there is a community around this. I like to think about these companies, I like the community of the businesses. Randy: I'd rather be lumped in with these companies, as a community of people that can help each other with the business side of things, than on the brand side of things. I'm wary of being one of the direct to consumer brands out there, because I don't feel like that set of companies always looks the best or the type of press that is out there is always positive. For me, it's just about the people running it and the people at these companies, and making sure that people in our teams are connecting to people who've done something that they maybe don't know how to do perfectly. Stephanie: All right. Before we jump into a few higher level Ecommerce themes, I wanted to hear what is the best day in the office look like for you? Randy: Oh, the office. Stephanie: How do you walk home when you're like snapped in and you're like, that was a good day. Randy: Remind me of what an office is. Stephanie: Okay. What's the best day from your bedroom look like? Randy: Well, okay. It is interesting to think about at home versus at the office. The office is a big part of who we were as a company and getting everybody together and that spirit of community that comes into it, and being able to sit down with someone face to face. We do miss that. Although the teams are really productive and risen to the challenge of working remotely. The best day feels like when something goes well beyond what you expected and teams are celebrating each other and recognizing each other. Also, when we have a speaker from one of our giving partners to give us perspective on what's happening in our work life and why maybe it's not the most important thing in our life and in our world. Randy: When all of those things are kind of clicking together, I think people remember why they work at this company, what's truly important, how they can impact it, and then the collaboration and the spirit that comes along with it. Those are the best days for me, when you're reminded of what's important and how that impacts the company. Stephanie: I think it's good to document those days too. I really like, there's a coffee shop, Philz, right up the street, and they have all these pictures of their employees and just having fun and team meetings they have. It's on the way when you're headed to the bathroom, but it's really fun. I would think as an employee, but also as a customer to see and remember like what it felt like that day and how excited this person looks when they're receiving this award. Because it seems like it could be easy to forget when something's moving so quick. Randy: Totally. I love that idea. I also think about the times when we all got to volunteer together. Now we tend to volunteer in smaller groups which is obviously still great. We have sign up sheets for all of our volunteer opportunities and you have to pounce on them to get the spots that you want. I think that speaks a lot about the culture of the company, but some of the photos you look back on from those moments, or those days when the team feels really connected, those are really exciting days. Stephanie: Yep. All right. A higher level Ecommerce question. What do you think the future of online shopping looks like, like in 2025? Randy: Ah, like when we're all driving around in flying cars, what does Ecommerce look like? Stephanie: Yup. I'm on Mars. Where are you? Randy: I might be on Mars too. Do you want to have a rival colony? I'm down or maybe we have a collaborative colony. Stephanie: Okay. Oh, I'm down. Maybe, we'll see. Randy: We'll see. Okay. All right. We'll see. We'll figure it out then. Stephanie: It depends if you accept my LinkedIn request, I guess, then I'll know. I'll be like, is it any cooler now? Randy: Wait, that's how we judge if you're cool, is if you accept our LinkedIn request? Stephanie: I just made it up, but we'll see. I might have higher criteria afterwards. Randy: Okay. All right. We'll put a pin in that. I don't know what the future of Ecommerce looks like, I got to tell you, I know the percentage of people who get comfortable shopping online, that's only going to go up. I know that companies are going to invent new ways to make it easier for people to buy their product, to review their product, to look at it. I think ease is the name of the game. In a world that's going to be more and more competitive, the way to stand out is going to change. All I know is it's not going to look like it looks right now, and having the attitude that, even if you're doing something right, that the way to succeed in a few years, it's going to be a different version of right, then you'll be okay. Stephanie: Yep. I love that. All right. Before I move into the lightning round, anything that you wanted to share that we missed, where you're like, I really wish you asked this, Stephanie, and you just didn't? Randy: No, like I said, I'm here for you guys. You want to talk about Mars and infrastructure, then great. Whatever you want to talk about. Stephanie: Mars and the moon, that'll be the next podcast. Anyone who wants to sponsor it, hit us up. I don't know what we're going to talk about, but we're going to need help to figure it out. All right. Lightning round brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. This is where I ask you a question and you have a minute or less to answer, Randy. Are you ready? Randy: I'm ready. Stephanie: All right. What's up next on your reading list? Randy: Can we just start that over? Sorry. Stephanie: Yep. What's next on your reading list? Randy: Up next on my reading list is the Mike Nichols book. I'm not sure what it's called, but I'm excited to read it. Stephanie: What's it about? Randy: Its about the director, Mike Nichols, and his life. Stephanie: Cool. We'll have our producer, Hillary, will find the link to that and everyone can go explore it there. Randy: I don't tend to read business books. I know that they could be helpful, but I'm more interested in people, humanity, fiction, novels. Stephanie: Yep. Cool. Any podcasts you listen to? Randy: Yeah. There's a great podcast I listened to about words called The Allusionist, Allusionist with an A. Love that podcast. I have a whole list, but let's just do one. Stephanie: Yeah. We'll check that out. Any hobbies that you're really getting into these days? Randy: Hobbies that I'm really getting into. I really like this sport called paddle tennis. It's not pickleball, it's not ping pong. It's called paddle tennis. If you look it up, it's like a fast version of tennis. You play with a paddle and a tennis ball, but you poke a hole in it. There's like a really small, but passionate community around the sport. It's really fun. Stephanie: Do you play on a tennis court? Randy: You play on a small tennis court. It's basically the service boxes and two-ish foot baseline, and a net. You serve under hand, and you can't serve [inaudible 00:52:55], and you poke a hole on the tennis ball so it doesn't fly everywhere, but it still bounces. It acts and feels like tennis, but like a faster version. It's really cool. You can play in New York. There's courts in New York in StuyTown and Peter Cooper Village, and there's courts in Venice Beach in California. Those are kind of the two centers in the US. It's not a very big popular sport. Stephanie: We will have to bring it up to Palo Alto. I will be the one do that. That would be my initiative over the next year. Randy: Do it. Stephanie: All right. If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about, and who would your first guest be? Randy: Oh man. If I was going to have a podcast, wow, I don't know. Do we need another podcast? Do we need a podcast from me? Stephanie: Yes, we do. Randy: Maybe it would just be rants. Just do like a short rant every week. I don't know. Stephanie: I like that. Hey, that seem to do well sometimes. Stephanie: That's okay. All right, this one's slightly harder so you might have to think. What one thing will have the biggest impact on Ecommerce in the next year? Randy: I think the thing that will have the biggest impact on Ecommerce in the next year is the timing on reopening the economy and stores and retail. If people can't go to stores or don't feel comfortable going to stores, they're going to, inevitably, accelerate their comfort level with shopping online. We already see that happening. I think it's just going to push that trend line even further forward. I'm for one, excited about it. I think the biggest, biggest test for this will be this Q4 and the holiday season, and to see what percentage of shoppers are shopping on Ecommerce and what they're demanding of Ecommerce retailers that they weren't a year ago when the percentages were smaller. Stephanie: Yeah, I completely agree. Great answer. Randy, it's been a blast having you on the show. Where can people find out about you and Bombas? Randy: You can find out about Bombas at bombas.com, and everywhere else you would expect, B-O-M-B-A-S. That's it. Thank you for listening and thanks for having me. Stephanie: Yeah. Thanks so much. It's been fun. See you next time. Randy: All right. See you next time.  

Our topic this week is a virtue that's become more necessary than ever: mindfulness.  Welcome to For Dummies: The Podcast.  This week our host Eric Martsolf is diving into “Mindfulness For Dummies” by Shamash Alidina. Shamash didn’t start out as a mindfulness expert, in fact he earned multiple masters degrees, including one in chemical engineering! But as he explains it, he was “bit by the mindfulness bug” and began a journey that has since had him teaching mindfulness since 1998. Shamash is a leading light in the field, and we’re incredibly happy to have him with us this week. Please help us to bring you products from sponsors that mean something to you!  Take one minute and fill out our DUMMIES SPONSOR & PRODUCT  SURVEY:  https://survey.libsyn.com/fordummiesthepodcast This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks.  Bombas socks provide support in places you didn’t even know you needed it.  Go to BOMBAS.com/DUMMIES today. ABOUT ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shamash Alidina is a professional mindfulness teacher trainer, coach and speaker. Shamash has over 14 years’ experience teaching mindfulness. He currently runs creative workshops for organisations and speaks at conferences worldwide. He offers online training, teacher training and professional development in mindfulness-based approaches. @ShamashAlidina - Twitter (Blue check mark) shamashalidina - Instagram (Blue check mark)  

Hackers are not the all-powerful Gods of the Internet as portrayed in some movies, but cybercrime and identity theft are very real, and you may be targeted from people ranging from your friends and neighbors to someone on the other side of the world. Today we’re going to be talking about a completely different kind of hacking that can have major positive benefits for your business and your life.  Host Eric Martsolf is diving into “Growth Hacking For Dummies” by Anuj Adhiya. Anuj learned the concept from the guy who coined the term, “growth hacking” and put it in practice for years at startup companies. This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks.  With tons of different colors, patterns, lengths, and styles, shop at Bombas.com/DUMMIES.  ABOUT HOST, ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark) ABOUT ANUJ ADHIYA Anuj Adhiya is the Category Growth Lead at The Predictive Index. He is on the team responsible for brand growth and evangelizing talent optimization.  Before this, he was the Director of Engagement and Analytics at GrowthHackers. He was responsible for growing the community. He was also the data analyst on their growth team.   Additionally, he's a Growth Mentor at Seedstars. He also serves as Marketing Specialist at Harvard Innovation Labs. At both places, he coaches startups to help uncover their best growth opportunities and solve early challenges. He recently began hosting The Beaten Path podcast where he explores how successful travel startups have grown. Everything he's learned about growth has been from Sean Ellis and the amazing GrowthHackers community.  Ask him about anything related to growth (or not - like public speaking, ping pong, whiskey, travel planning, food - go wild!) Twitter - @AnujAdhiya

Nick decides to leave the American Express club, and discusses exploding soldering tools. Joel talks about his favorite soldering gear, and Nick ruins the theme of the podcast with a “tech success” story. Joel brings it back by recounting his horrible experience with Android Auto, as well as his frustrations with soap dispensers and water faucets. This episode of the Hidden Node Podcast is sponsored by being all over the place.Some of the links below are referral links, which indirectly support Joel and Nick, who both directly support the podcast by talking into microphones.Stuff from this episode:Head for Points: https://www.headforpoints.com/The Points Guy: https://thepointsguy.com/Bombas Socks (referral link): https://refer.bombas.com/x/siV9BeTechmoan: https://youtu.be/I6El_iKwQsYFreshbooks (referral link): http://fbuy.me/oRQy1Electroboom: https://youtu.be/DFQG9kuXSxgElectroboom’s foot operated faucet (language warning): https://youtu.be/ZrQD3HpHbIcJoel’s recommended soldering gear (all referral links):Hakko FX888D: https://amzn.to/2TfF75zHakko Flush Cutters: https://amzn.to/2SX0OIFHakko Wire Strippers: https://amzn.to/390nHApHakko Tweezers: https://amzn.to/32sAAAOAven Circuit Board Holder: https://amzn.to/2Pns4huFluke 101 Multimeter: https://amzn.to/3cExTRrSolder: https://amzn.to/38Bie1Y

2020 Fitness Trends for Older Adults - Sabrena Jo Fitness Friday Series with Sabrena Jo Welcome to The Not Old Better Show Fitness Friday edition, I'm Paul Vogelzang, and this is episode #430. Today's show is brought to you by Bombas socks! Our show today is part of our Fitness Friday series, and it's another great one in our Fitness Friday programs. We'll be hearing from returning guest, Sabrena Jo. On the Fitness Friday program, we talk with Sabrena Jo about excise and fitness. But, with the new year, our new year's resolutions, there are many new trends to help keep us on track with those worthy resolutions. We'll be talking to Sabrena Jo about these trends, which are distinct from fads. A trend defined as “a general development or change in a situation,” and a fad defined as “a fashion that is taken up with great enthusiasm for a brief period.” I love speaking with Sabrena Jo, American Council on Exercise (ACE) Fitness Director of Science and Research Content, because of her research orientation. Research, fact-based analysis, and outcomes orientation is critical to our Not Old Better Show audience. I spent considerable time researching 2020 fitness trends for older adults and today on the Fitness Friday show, we'll hear from Sabrena Jo about wearable technology, HIIT (that's H I I T, for High-Intensity Interval Training), health and wellness coaching, exercise as medicine, and much more. Fads, no, and trends yes, and the trends identified could predictably appear for several years as all of us in the Not Old Better Show audience age better, and when the industry compares the historical results. Likewise, fads may appear but they may drop off the list in subsequent years because they're fashionable, but don't have that ‘staying power' we in the Not Old Better Show audience embrace. Please join me in welcoming to The Not Old Better Show via interview phone, ACE Fitness' Sabrena Jo.  My thanks always to Sabrena Jo, ACE Director of Science and Research Content for joining us today. Of course, my thanks to Bombas Socks for sponsoring the show…remember, B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash notoldbetter for twenty percent off! And to you, my wonderful Not Old Better Show audience. Please keep your emails coming to me with show ideas, suggestions, and comments: @ info@notold-better.com Buy your Bombas at BOMBAS dot com slash notoldbetter TODAY, and get twenty percent off your first purchase. That's B-O-M-B-A-S dot com slash notoldbetter for twenty percent off. BOMBAS dot com slash notoldbetter.  bombas.com/notoldbetter Please support our sponsors! Thank you.

Our topic this week is a virtue that is under constant threat in the age of technology: mindfulness.  Welcome to For Dummies: The Podcast.  This week our host Eric Martsolf is diving into “Mindfulness For Dummies” by Shamash Alidina. Shamash didn’t start out as a mindfulness expert, in fact he earned multiple masters degrees, including one in chemical engineering! But as he explains it, he was “bit by the mindfulness bug” and began a journey that has since had him teaching mindfulness since 1998. Shamash is a leading light in the field, and we’re incredibly happy to have him with us this week. Please help us to bring you products from sponsors that mean something to you!  Take one minute and fill out our DUMMIES SPONSOR & PRODUCT  SURVEY:  https://survey.libsyn.com/fordummiesthepodcast This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks.  Bombas socks provide support in places you didn’t even know you needed it.  Go to BOMBAS.com/DUMMIES today. ABOUT ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark) ABOUT THE AUTHOR Shamash Alidina is a professional mindfulness teacher trainer, coach and speaker. Shamash has over 14 years’ experience teaching mindfulness. He currently runs creative workshops for organisations and speaks at conferences worldwide. He offers online training, teacher training and professional development in mindfulness-based approaches. @ShamashAlidina - Twitter (Blue check mark) shamashalidina - Instagram (Blue check mark)  

How do you get a new job? Unless you have an inside hookup, it’s all about how you market yourself, and the main way we market ourselves to prospective employers is with our resume. In this episode, join host, Eric Martsolf as he dives into “Resumes For Dummies” by Laura DeCarlo. You could scour the entire world for a better expert on resumes than Laura, but you’d come up empty. She is recognized as a “Career Hero,” and is the founder of Career Directors International, an organization that trains resume writers and career coaches. We’re thrilled that Laura is joining us to help us achieve our future career goals. This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks, with tons of different colors, patterns, lengths, and styles.  Save 20% on your first purchase when you shop at Bombas.com/DUMMIES. Please help us to bring you products from sponsors that mean something to you!  Take one minute and fill out our DUMMIES SPONSOR & PRODUCT  SURVEY:  https://survey.libsyn.com/fordummiesthepodcast ABOUT ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark) ABOUT LAURA DeCARLO Laura DeCarlo is recognized as the business success coach for career and resume professionals who want to authentically grow their businesses and dramatically enhance their skills. In her second year of private practice as a resume writer and career coach over 20 years ago, Laura successfully broke the six-figure revenue mark. It is her mission to help other career and resume professionals to experience similar success as she wholeheartedly embraces the belief that, “Ours is an industry with a soul where you can make a major difference while also making an extraordinary living.” She has championed the ‘career hero’ mantra by pioneering efforts in visibility, credibility, and quality within the career services industry for both job seekers and career professionals as the founder of the global membership-based company, Career Directors International. Throughout her career she has spearheaded the development of numerous training programs and presentations for job seekers and career professionals, including the most recent, Certified Professional in Online Job Search & Reputation Management. An industry leader, she has earned two degrees and 11 industry certifications and designations such as Master Career Director and Certified Master Resume Writer. She is credentialed as an Infinite Possibilities Certified Trainer, Money Breakthrough Method Certified Coach®, and Certified Money, Marketing and Soul Coach®. She is a member of the elite Forbes Coaches Council. Further, she has received the industry’s most prestigious awards in resume writing, career coaching, and job placement. Laura is the author of  Resumes for Dummies, 7th Edition (Wiley), Interviewing: The Gold Standard and Interview Pocket RX as well as co-author of Job Search Bloopers (Career Press); she has also been featured in over 15 resume and cover letter compendiums. As a resume writer, career coach, and career director for her former private-practice, A Competitive Edge Career Service, LLC, Laura held the role of national//international resume expert for 54 professional associations such as PMI, AMA, AJST, ASAE, ASME, AVMA, and ASCE. She has been a guest columnist on career issues for The Florida Today newspaper and been quoted in publications such as Forbes.com, Forbes (IMPRESS), US News & World Report, Monster.com, SmartMoney.com, Working Mother, the Wall Street Journal, and NBC 7/39 News in San Diego. Website: www.careerdirectors.com Blog: https://careerdirectors.com/blog/ Email: laura@careerdirectors.com  

This week we will be exploring how to manage your stress level not only during the holidays, but throughout the whole year.  We are joined by Dr. Allen Elkin, author of “Stress Management For Dummies."  Dr. Elkin isn’t just your typical Ph.D. in clinical psychology with a thing or two to say about stress. He is the director of the Stress Management and Counseling Center in New York City and a nationally known expert on the subject. We’re bringing in the big guns to fight stress this week! This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks, with tons of different colors, patterns, lengths, and styles.  Save 20% on your first purchase when you shop at Bombas.com/DUMMIES. Please help us to bring you products from sponsors that mean something to you!  Take one minute and fill out our DUMMIES SPONSOR & PRODUCT  SURVEY:  https://survey.libsyn.com/fordummiesthepodcast ABOUT ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark)

James and Chelsea get to SHUCKING in our review of Hulu's Pilgrim. This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks! Save 20% on your first purchase when you shop at http://bombas.com/deadmeat. Mail stuff to Dead Meat! 13535 Ventura Blvd STE C PMB 423 Sherman Oaks, CA, 91423 Dead Meat Podcast ► http://deadmeatpod.libsyn.com/website  Dead Meat on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/deadmeatjames  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/deadmeatjames  Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/deadmeatjames  Discord ► https://discord.gg/GHazvA5  Steam Official Group ► http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DeadMeatOfficial  Chelsea Rebecca on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/carebecc  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/carebecc  James A. Janisse on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/jamesajanisse  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/jamesajanisse  Practical Folks (James and Chelsea's other channel): https://www.youtube.com/practicalfolks  MUSIC!! ~~Logo~~ "U Make Me Feel" by MK2

James and Chelsea are coming to you straight from the extremely haunted Stanley Hotel this week to tell stories about bad Halloween costumes & discuss Chelsea's very bad taste in candy. This episode is sponsored by Liquid Death! Liquid Death is only available in a handful of stores, so you have to order it online. Just go to http://liquiddeath.com/DEADMEAT for $2.00 off every case. This episode is also sponsored by Bombas Socks! Save 20% on your first purchase when you shop at http://bombas.com/deadmeat Pre-order your DEAD MEAT EDITION of the 80s horror documentary In Search of Darkness here: https://80shorrordoc.com/pages/deadmeat Mail stuff to Dead Meat! 13535 Ventura Blvd STE C PMB 423 Sherman Oaks, CA, 91423 Dead Meat Podcast ► http://deadmeatpod.libsyn.com/ website This video (including the awesome new intro) was edited entirely by Chelsea - I provided nothing but that sweet Dead Meat voice. Dead Meat on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/deadmeatjames  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/deadmeatjames  Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/deadmeatjames  Discord ► https://discord.gg/GHazvA5  Steam Official Group ► http://steamcommunity.com/groups/DeadMeatOfficial  Chelsea Rebecca on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/carebecc  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/carebecc  James A. Janisse on Social Media: Twitter ► https://twitter.com/jamesajanisse  Instagram ► http://instagram.com/jamesajanisse  Practical Folks (James and Chelsea's other channel): https://www.youtube.com/practicalfolks  MUSIC!! ~~Logo~~ "U Make Me Feel" by MK2

We spend so much time and money at restaurants that many of us have thought about opening our own restaurant.  But there are so many hurdles in the business that few of us ever take the plunge.  As always, there is a “For Dummies” book that can help turn this dream into a reality.  This week we are diving into “Running a Restaurant For Dummies” by Michael Garvey along with co-authors Heather and Andrew Dismore. Michael is a veteran restaurant manager. He knows what he’s talking about folks! This episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks, with tons of different colors, patterns, lengths, and styles.  Save twenty percent on your first purchase when you shop at Bombas.com/DUMMIES.   ABOUT ERIC MARTSOLF With over 3500 episodes of television under his belt, Mr. Martsolf has been providing "love in the afternoon" for NBC Daytime for the last 17 years. His portrayals of Ethan Winthrop on "Passions" and currently Brady Black on "Days of our Lives" have resulted in numerous industry accolades. He made daytime history in 2014 by being the first actor ever to win an Emmy in the Best Supporting Actor category for "Days of our Lives." His television credits expand into primetime (Extant, NCIS, Rizzoli & Isles), and his musical theatre repertoire consists of over 40 productions, including his critically acclaimed role as the Pharaoh in the Osmond Broadway Tour of "Joseph." Fans of the DC Universe will most notably recognize him as Justice League member and futuristic hero Booster Goldfrom the series Smallville. @ericmartsolf - Twitter (Blue check mark) ericmartsolf - Instagram (Blue check mark)   Michael Garvey is Director of Operations at 'wichcraft, a division of the renowned Craft restaurant corporation.    

This episode features David Heath, co-founder and CEO of Bombas, a comfort-apparel company, focused on making the best socks in history, and donating a pair of socks to the homeless community for each pair they sell. The e-commerce company is located in New York City. David and co-founder Randy Goldberg established Bombas in 2013. The idea for the company came to David a few years earlier, when he saw a Facebook posting that said socks are the no. 1 most requested article of clothing at homeless shelters.  Soon after, David and Randy began extensive research and testing to come up with their ideal for a comfortable pair of socks. Their modifications included “honeycomb” support to hug the mid-foot, an improved toe seam and an overall way to have socks be more contour-fitting. They also used high-quality, natural fibers – cotton and merino wool – to make their socks.  Initial capital for the start-up came through a crowdfunding campaign. Later, an appearance on the reality TV show “Shark Tank” led to a deal with Daymond John, one of the show’s on-camera investors and the founder of FUBU, a trendy apparel company. Revenue growth has stayed on a sharp trajectory, and in April, Bombas announced their first new product category – T-shirts, continuing their commitment to offering customers comfortable, everyday apparel, while providing new, specially designed items for those in need. The company offers products for men, women and kids. Since it began, Bombas has donated more than 20 million items to those experiencing homelessness throughout the United States. Life’s tough – you can be tougher, like Bombas, a visionary company that shows how doing good is also good for business.

When sourcing an Amazon business, there are many complex factors that go into finding the right product and getting the right margins. Today's guest founded Sourcify, a SaaS product that helps people source the product and improve the manufacturing process. Sourcify takes a look at every factor possible when building out margins and lead times to optimize the logistics behind the ordering process. By decreasing costs, revenue increases and therefore the value of your business goes up. Nathan Resnick started this fast-growing b to b software-driven sourcing company in 2002. His fascination with e-commerce and foreign imports goes back to when he was living in China as a high school exchange student and started importing products to the US, making a few thousand dollars a year. He started a Shopify store at age 19 and reached his first six-figure income year. Nathan became fascinated by the process and the capacity of these factories. Sourcify makes it easy for you to bring products to the marketplace, streamline errors, and cut unit costs. Episode Highlights: How Sourcify's offices are structured for optimal global presence. The current tariff policy issues and how Nathan recently landed in the press. Ways a strong team and strong factory relations benefit both sides of the sourcing process. IP protection and factory relationships. Percentage margins sellers should look for in a factory. Shortcuts to avoid with suppliers. The importance of having quality control parameters in place before shipment. Markets where Nathan sees production increases emerging apart from China. One of the most common problems with Amazon business when it comes to inventory management. Avoiding duties and taxes via Mexico. The domestic and international laws that can allow for this at certain values. Mistakes in creating and retailing that Nathan sees and his tips for going around them on the manufacturing side. How important/beneficial it is to visit the factories for e-commerce entrepreneurs. Scaling up and understanding the factory's capacity to match that scale. Transcription: Joe: Mark, one of the biggest challenges for startup entrepreneurs much like Amanda talked about on the podcast is sourcing great products. There's lots of experts out there with podcasts that help and they're very, very good information but sometimes people need a little bit of a boost; a little hand-holding. And I understand you had Nathan Resnick from Sourcify on the podcast to talk about just that. Mark: Yeah, absolutely. So he founded Sourcify.com which is a SaaS product. They have thousands of pre-vetted factories, hundreds of product categories, and what they do is they help you source that product and also improve that entire sourcing process. Because there's a lot of complex factors when it comes to A. finding the right products and then B. making sure that you're getting the right margins out of those products and getting your timing right. I mean Joe how many Amazon businesses have you looked at where the owner says well if you could just figure out the inventory ordering system because I missed out and ran out of inventory business could have done so much more. It's like every single business, right? Joe: Every single one I asked the question have you ever ran out of inventory? The answer is always yes, the follow up question is how much revenue did you lose during that time period and then how do you overcome that? And yeah it's often working capital, better planning, software, things of that nature. It's always a challenge though. Mark: Well, so the software does this. It takes a look at … and he explained this. He says imagine you're selling watches; you're not just working with one factory because that factory might be ordering the wristbands from a completely different part of the world and so you need to factor all of this in when you are building out your lead times and also understanding your margins as well. And so we talked a lot about how do you negotiate better rates, when should you negotiate better rates, how do you establish good relationships with your manufacturers and other ways that you can really optimize logistics behind your ordering process. This guy … I'll just be blunt, he's way smarter than I am. Joe: Okay, well that's not very hard though Mark. Come on now. Mark: Well, that's not. That's like 95% of the people in the podcast. Joe: I understand he had one really, really cool tip in terms of importing. Mark: I'm not going to try and explain what it is here on the intro. You're going to have to wait and listen for it but he talks about using Mexico as a place to import products to be able to save a substantial amount of money on that importing process. So I'm going to let you guys listen to that and tell me … send me an e-mail if you found that tip to be absolutely killer because it literally … like you'll probably hear me in the interview, he threw me off my normal pacing that I don't have because I didn't know where to go. I was like wow that was really an incredible tip. So listen for that and … yeah, a really interesting guy who's done a lot in just a couple of years. Joe: Well, I think any tips and tricks that people can learn to decrease their cost increase their discretionary earnings increases the value of their business if and when they ever decided to sell it so I'm looking forward to listening to this one myself. Just a quick reminder everyone, movie quote, if you heard it, if you want to rewind, if you know what it is, drop it in the notes below and we'll give you a shout out on the next episode. Mark: Nathan thanks so much for joining me. Nathan: Mark, it's my pleasure. I'm really excited to be here. Mark: You and I just met. We met at Prosper Show. We talked for I think like two minutes before I was like you got to be on my podcast. I want you to come on board. And you were very gracious to agree. Would you mind giving everybody just a quick background on who you are, the company you're with, and why I asked you to come on the podcast? Nathan: Totally. Yeah, I mean I run a company called Sourcify. We are the fastest growing B2B manufacturing order management system. What we do is enable companies to source out the best factories in the world as well as bring their supply chain online so they can be data driven and understand how their unit cost, lead times, and quality defect rates have been fluctuating per product and per factory. People always ask okay Nathan how did you get in to all this? And really it actually stems 10 years ago. I was living in China as a foreign exchange student with a host family that didn't speak English, attending a local Chinese high school, and started importing products from different markets in Beijing where I was living. So we import all sorts of products, sell them on e-Bay and Amazon. In high school, I think senior year where you're just making a few thousand dollars a month and then by the time I turned 19 I had my first low six figure year through my own Shopify store and really just became so fascinated by e-commerce as well as the power of these factories to produce all sorts of products. So about two years ago I started Sourcify and we've been on an awesome journey so far. I'm really excited to continue to help organizations streamline and optimize their production overseas. Mark: Yeah, I just was doing a little bit of show prep here and people that listen to the show are probably going to laugh at that because we don't do a ton of show prep. That's why I don't do the intro. But you've gotten some really impressive press with what you're doing. I saw Forbes publish a piece on you and the growth in Shopify. Share where your offices are right now. You have multiple offices all across the world. Nathan: Yeah, so I mean kind of crazy [inaudible 00:06:05.0] with us and press was last year, especially with this China trade tariffs. Everyone was talking about how these tariffs are affecting companies that are importing products from China. And for us we have offices in China, Vietnam, and India and run production everywhere from the Philippines to Pakistan; basically every country in Asia. And so we became a hot topic. We were on CNN, CNBC, and nearly all over the news and it was an exciting time and still is. I mean I think really if you looked at China as a whole it's gotten more expensive and so for us, we've got three offices overseas and then in America; we're headquartered in San Diego and have small offices in Las Vegas as well as [inaudible 06:43.7] Utah, right outside Salt Lake City. Mark: Yeah the Las Vegas area, that's got to be just for all the conferences that are held there right? Nathan: Yeah. Mark: I mean we're always out there. Nathan: Yeah. Not for all the partying. Mark: Right. I wish I had known this a year ago … or not a year ago but when all the tariffs that was hitting. I had James Thompson who's the co-founder of Prosper Show. I had him come on the podcast and we were joking that we had to have a Canadian come on the show to explain US policy as it relates to China but cool. How old is Sourcify? Nathan: So we started in March of 2017 so just about two years old and it's been a pretty amazing journey. We produce in over 300 product categories; everything from hair extensions to bags to bunk beds. I mean you name it. Our abilities are widespread and really that stems from having a strong sourcing team as well as strong factory relationships. So a lot of times organizations when they work with Sourcify they're able to increase their margin just by buying in volume through our customers that might be producing similar products and so that's one of the main benefits I think. Mark: Yeah, I want to get into a lot of the kind of details of these … of sourcing products and also some of the differentiation. And you kind of … you touched on something that I was going to ask about so I'm going to jump the gun a bit here with this. Is this an open sort of book where you can see some of the other products that are being manufactured here and if so the question [inaudible 00:08:12.1] Joe's mind is protection of IP through your platform. What does that look like? How do you protect people's intellectual property? Nathan: It's a great question. So first and foremost every customer that uses Sourcify has complete transparency. They can see who the factory is and our goal as a software driven sourcing company is to enable these organizations that work with Sourcify both buyers and factories to have better workflow management and a production process to actually understand what's going on in the production runs. Right now like pretty much every company we talk to is using e-mail and Excel spread sheets to manage production and that works to an extent but it gets very complex. And so from an IP perspective number one every customer keeps their factories in their own database and number two basically when we talk about IP it's protected at the borders. So a lot of organizations and a lot of people ask Nathan should we go try to file trademark, should we go try to file patents in China or through Asia and most of the time it's not going to be worth your money or time to go out and try to file those patents or trademarks in China. But what you should do is file trademarks and patents here in America on your products. So if a company is importing your products under your brand name or trying to sell on Amazon under your brand name a lot of times you can show the Customs and Border Patrol or Amazon themselves and say hey I own this brand, this company is clearly knocking me off. I did not authorize them to import or sell these products on my behalf. And the right thing that these law enforcement agencies or Amazon should do is to give you full control of your products to sell them yourselves. Mark: Okay cool. So let's talk about you've already mentioned that some of these guys are kind of they're starting out with these in Excel spreadsheets and to control the manufacturing process and it works for an extent. I would love to know because in our world we're helping people prepare their businesses for sale. We run into this all the time. We have people who come to us with all the metrics that they think they should be presenting and all the metrics that they think are important when it comes to selling and then we have to kind of adjust their mindset as to alright that's a good start here's what we should be doing. So let's start with this, how do you find people mostly attack that product sourcing and product development? Nathan: Yeah I mean I think first and foremost it stems from a vendor analysis. Are you actually working with the right factory that should be producing your product? Hopefully, you've done enough due diligence with your supply chain to understand if you're working with a factory or trading company or wholesaler or agent. Best bet is you're working with a factory that's great, that's fantastic. Hopefully, you haven't outgrown them. There's a lot of organizations that we see haven't renegotiated their terms or prices in two or three years and you've 10X the production volume that you're buying at and you're still paying a higher rate. I mean the smart thing you do is go renegotiate those existing contracts and prices with that factory. If you do an analysis and you find out you are working with a trading company or agent number one you've got to understand okay how much margin do I think this trading company or agent is making. We see a lot of organizations that a rep will say we see the factory numbers they're only making 1% or 2% on my production run. I mean unless they're a really large scale facility that's trying to just take up but like keep their production line going there's no business that's going to run off of a 1 or 2% margin. I mean you can't even put bread on the table with a 1% margin in most organizations. And so when you come with that perspective in mind and you think that you've out negotiated everyone and really have a strong factory it's not to say that they're not strong factory it's just to say that I mean I don't even think you should try to get your factory to run on a 1% margin because it's just not sustainable. They'll probably be even making quality cuts or messing up the lead times or working with the wrong vendors because I think what a lot of people and supply chain team members don't necessarily understand about manufacturing is that most of these facilities that are exporting products to America or Europe or wherever your products are going are dealing with a lot of sub suppliers. So they have suppliers that handle the different components that make up your products. So, for example, let's say you're producing watches. Those watch factories are going to have the watch strap, the watch taste, the watch movement, the watch hands; all of these little pieces that make up that watch are assembled and put together by the factory that you're working with. And until you get to a scale where you're spending at least a few hundred thousand dollars probably more so a few million dollars on production overseas you aren't going to dive into those sub-suppliers and really understand okay how much is each little component costing. And even then building relationships with those sub-suppliers to cut costs is not going to be worth your time until you're spending a significant amount of money on production overseas. Mark: Yeah. So what margin should people be expecting there? You said 1% is probably not realistic. What should they be expecting? Nathan: I mean we've had the opportunity actually to invest and buy factories at Sourcify and we haven't done that and I don't think we will in the near future. But I mean most factories that are attractive to us are running on at least 15 to 30% gross margins and I think that's sustainable. I think as a business you want to have some margin to reinvest in new machines. You want to have the margin to invest in your team. You've got to have margin there to grow and create a good environment. And I think that's a key dynamic of any business let alone factories and especially even factories when sometimes especially as your brand might grow you try to sell into larger retailers like Walmart or Disney or whatever it may be. Those larger retailers have their own requirements of your facilities to be able to sell your products in that retailer. So if your factory can't pass a Walmart cert or a Disney cert you're not even going to have the opportunity to sell into those larger retailers. Mark: Yeah, so that makes sense to just be investing and making sure that … I think that the mindset that I hear sometimes from both buyers and then also some of the owners of these businesses when they're renegotiating these contracts over and over with their suppliers is forgetting that on the other side there's somebody still trying to run a business and it affects that downstream quality. I'm sure it's downstream, probably upstream quality of the product that you're getting in return and trying to sell which leads nicely into my next question which would be what are some things that people should be looking out for with their current supply chain and maybe trends over time? Everything starts out good with the first batch of products you receive and everything is going well, what should things that would people be looking for on a regular basis from their suppliers? Nathan: Definitely. I mean I think first and foremost there's a lot of people that I think try to take short cuts in their supply chain. I think the biggest short cut that I see people taking is not booking quality control inspections before shipment and before you pay that production balance. I mean you can get a quality control inspection done through our partner for QC is Asia Inspection. They just rebranded to Qima. They charge under $300 or around $300 to send a person to the factory to inspect those products before shipment and before you pay that deposit. And if you don't have a quality control inspection process or program in place you're going to be getting a container load that might have defective products or might all be wrong and there's no reason for you not to put those checks and balances in place on every single production run. I mean I don't care if you've been working with the factory for two or three years there's always going to be some products that might be defective. And I'm not saying these QC teams are going to check every single product. They might check 10, 20, 30% of the products depending on the size of the production run but at least you have images and an analysis of what's going on with those products. And sometimes these are very simple mistakes or quality defects where like for example on … I know one of the production runs that we had going on this week there was threads that hadn't been cut on these bags. There were loose threads. We said hey before these are shipped we like all these threads to be cut. We don't want these bags coming into America with these threads hanging out. So sometimes it's very simple quality control metrics and other times you find out the code being on certain furniture or certain lamp is wrong whatever it may be. And so having that in place I think is really just a must. I mean there's no reason not to have quality control in place before shipment because you don't want your products showing up at an FBA warehouse or your own warehouse and you find out oh wow the 30% of these products are defective. So you've got to have checks and balances in place before shipment and then also one of the things that we do at Sourcify that I recommend everyone do if they can depending on their buying power is say to their factories and put in contracts, say we aren't going to pay for defective products. If the products don't meet our quality control inspection we aren't going to pay for them and we're going to discount them from our purchase order. So let's say 3% of your products have quality control defects, well now you're saving 3% of your PO because those products are defective. And so putting that in writing, making sure that's clear with the factory is really I think the biggest kind of misstep I see companies doing when they're producing products overseas. And then when we talk about trends it was really the last year it still is right now but transitioning and diversifying supply chains outside of China is huge. I mean so many companies literally every single day are talking to us about producing products in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, with Philippines. I mean all across Asia. I was on a flight last quarter the Philippines back to Guangzhou from Manila and on my right and on my left were two Chinese factory owners that have just transitioned some of their facility to the outskirts of Manila to start factories in the Philippines. And the reason being is labor rates are more affordable in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia. The biggest challenge stems from the operations of a factory which these Chinese factory owners already know how to operate a factory effectively and you know really just the raw material where do these raw materials come from or produce these products. These factory owners in China have that figured out and there are some free economic zones in certain parts of Southeast Asia where you can actually import products from other countries into this free economic zone, manufacture the product in that economic zone and then export it for free. The benefit of the country is just to really increase labor rates in that area. And so that's I think really the biggest trend and kind of what's most overlooked in current companies that are producing products overseas. Mark: Yeah, you anticipated one of my questions which was the different markets where you're seeing production increase. I know with the tariffs were being threatened and imposed there was a lot of question about well where can we go if these prices rise up? And dump tell that in with some of the reality of the issues that Amazon sellers are dealing with producing China, right? This three month kind of standard lead times if you're shipping on an ocean it makes it really difficult for people to manage their inventory. So on this side of the ocean what countries are you seeing emerge at this point as potential viable players if any? Nathan: Definitely, I mean I think right off the bat I want to touch on the inventory side in terms of inventory planning. I think we're both friends with Chad at Skubana. I think they do a great job of inventory management and helping you manage that across different channels. One of the key components that I think a lot of companies fall short on is how do you tie that data into factory lead times. And so when you can take lead time data from Sourcify and tie it into you inventory analytics that you have through a tool like Skubana that's a lot of powerful insight that you can put together. And when you're starting to diversify your supply chain outside of China you've got to understand that now the raw materials are potentially coming from a different country than your products should be manufactured in. So for example in Vietnam, we work with a pretty high end apparel brand and they get their fabric from Taiwan. It's about a two week lead time to get the fabric from Taiwan and put it to their facility in Vietnam and all the cut and sew there and so another timeline that they have to put into their analytics and planning. I mean I think forecasting is a huge challenge with any e-commerce business. Ad I think in any … I mean you probably see this all the time in any Amazon business or any e-commerce business a lot of times when you're going through a high growth period there's going to be a time where you're almost running out of inventory or you did run out of inventory either because you misplanned or because you're going to have to cash to put in the inventory. And so I think it's a crazy dance that these e-commerce companies play when they're trying to understand okay how much money should I put in the inventory, how much should I spend on paid acquisition. It's a balance that's really hard to figure out on the early days and until you have the data to forecast more effectively you're going to be playing that dance. And I don't know if there is like a one size fits all answer. I mean you might know … have a bit more insight in regards to that than I do but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on that. Mark: No. Honestly again I mean as I know a lot of the people that listen to the podcast here are looking for their own acquisitions and they're trying … they look to this podcast for some insights and if you can figure this one part out this is the number one problem that we … no maybe not the number one problem but one of the most common problems I see with Amazon businesses is that most have some level of seasonality; typically Q4 unless … but I mean not always but some have some sort of seasonality. And so we see one of two things happen either they run out of inventory at the most crucial time of the year on some of their best sellers or they overbuy or their shipment dates miss the seasonal period. And so let's say that you overbuy and you have a seasonal product where you're hitting December … November and December for that Q4 Christmas rush now January hits and you got to sit on a whole bunch of inventory for a year. Or even worse … and again this happens more often than people might want to admit, they get those shipments late. They get them the second week of January. And it could be even more difficult if you have spring seasonality because you have Chinese New Year in there. And if you get caught up in that well you can completely miss all of your windows there. So the idea of combining something like Skubana; yes Chad is a friend. I had him on the podcast. A great guy. Super smart. Combining that with Sourcify, anyone who figures that part out most of the businesses that we list are undervalued in some way given that they've missed their hot periods one way or another. Nathan: Yeah I mean I think that ship times there is something that you should be able to control in terms of planning at an early stage. That could be a bit challenging, I could see. But in terms of your ship times I mean that's something that you should really have under control and under wraps with your freight forwarder and with your factory. What's crazy to me just talking about ship time briefly is that even a lot of freight forwarders they're getting looped into factories over e-mail and trying to go back and forth to schedule a freight pickup. I mean all of that should be able to be effectively synced up and e-mail is a fine channel to do that but I mean I think there's got to be a better method. I mean a lot of companies that use Sourcify they link in their freight forwarders so they communicate directly with their factory online and track what's going on. But otherwise it's just a bunch of people CC'ed on different emails and it's actually kind of entertaining sometimes to see the back and forth between a factory and a freight forwarder got to figure out when they can schedule a pick-up of products. Mark: That's fascinating. Alright, I'm not going to skip on the other question though about this side of the ocean countries and emerging markets if any and maybe you are going to say this— Nathan: Oh in terms of like North America? Mark: North America or even South America, but [crosstalk 00:23:42.8] three month sort of lead time. Nathan: Yeah. So I've actually been doing a lot of research into Mexico. We're headquartered in San Diego and so there is a huge amount of opportunity in Mexico just south of the border here. And I think it stems from … basically, it's kind of a similar dance that these companies play that are transitioning production outside of China is where does the raw material come from. There's a lot of … not a lot of raw material sources in Mexico and so a lot of those facilities that are doing injection molds or cut and sew are importing those products from other countries. But there are a lot of companies that are producing products in Mexico and I think it's a growing opportunity. The other dynamic that I want to touch on that a lot of e-commerce companies are starting to look into and I think it's a huge trend is actually handling their warehousing and fulfillment right out of Mexico just across the border from San Diego. And you can actually if you're doing pick and pack B2C shipments directly to consumers you can actually avoid duties and tariffs no matter where the product was produced. And I'll walk you through in how this works. So basically you can avoid duties and tariffs by handling your fulfillment and warehousing in Mexico while having the same experience as if these products were fulfilled from California. And the way that that works is there's two laws you have to know of. Number one is Section 321 which is an American law that says when you're importing a product that's valued under $800 you don't have to pay duties or tariffs and that product. The law number two that you need to know is the IMX program which is part of NAFTA; the North American Free Trade Agreement, and what that enables our organization to do is import a product into Mexico and export a product back into America without having to pay any duties or tariffs between America and Mexico. And so the way that this works is that you import your products from China or Vietnam or any country that are producing these products to import them in bond into the port of Long Beach, have them trucked down in bond across the border, warehouses directly across the border from San Diego, your warehouse and pick and pack your products out of there. Every time you have a customer and buy a product in your website it's pre-labeled in Mexico and there's trucks going across the border every single day and under Section 321 because those products are pre-labeled and each under $800 in value you don't have to pay duties and tariffs on those products. And it's basically these trucks go across the border every day, drop these products off at USPS, UPS, FedEx, there's distribution centers literally right across the border from Mexico and San Diego and it's been incredible doing research and exploring that dynamic down there. And there's companies that are literally wiping off millions of dollars in duties and tariffs from their balance sheets just by handling fulfillment and logistics out of Mexico. And there's a lot of big companies that we all know like Taylor Guitars, Bombas Socks, these hundred plus million dollar organizations have been doing fulfillment and warehousing in Mexico for three plus years now. I mean it's really a robust operation and there is one provider that I know of called Baja Fulfillment that handles mid to smaller sized e-commerce companies. But for the most part, most of these organizations are focused on larger enterprises because that's where you're going to get the volume. Mark: That is phenomenal. It's actually such good information you knocked me completely off my game as to the other questions I wanted to ask. Nathan: Well, I mean we can answer questions in regards to this because a lot of people don't necessarily understand the dynamics and how it works. It's nothing necessarily new but here's the key dynamic. So every drop shipping entrepreneur that's drop shipping products from China into America they're using Section 321. That's how these e-packet shipments work because you don't pay duties and tariffs on those products because each one is pre-labeled and pre-sold and shipped over via China Postal Service and then USPS into America. And the reason why those products are so cheap is number one those shipments are subsidized by our government. There's a lot in the air in regards of those if that's going to change but Section 321 is here to stay. I mean that's a law that's been passed through Congress even if something were to happen … would happen with our current Trump administration I mean he wouldn't be able to change it himself is basically what I'm saying. And so there are millions of packets that come into America every single quarter that are based on Section 321. The key dynamic here is instead of having to warehouse your products in China or wherever you're producing your products you can actually import the container duty free, truck it down to Mexico in bond, and then you're basically picking and packing those products out of Mexico with the same fulfillment experience as if it was out of California because these trucks are going across the border every single day. So it's pretty crazy dynamic and there's not many providers or even e-commerce companies that are really doing it right now. But being here in San Diego it's something that I've been spending a lot of time on and really just become very interested in. Mark: That's fantastic; I'm going to completely shift gears mainly because I don't have any questions on that. That was a phenomenal bit of advice. I want to talk a little bit about that product manufacturing process and developing new products. Obviously most e-commerce businesses you need to be continually releasing new products or at least variations on that. What are some of the mistakes that you see from people creating and retailing some of these proprietary products in that process of looking for the factory, the manufacturer, and maybe shortening up that exchange that happens between the manufacturer and eventually getting it out to retail? Nathan: Yeah definitely. That's a great question. I would say if it's a product under IP protection what a lot of companies do is have one piece made at one facility, another piece made at another facility, and then either have one of the facilities assemble it or assemble it here in America. I would not suggest really assembling domestically just the labor cost and headache is going to be too much. But sometimes it doesn't make sense to diversify your supply chain to have more IP protection under place. I think at the end of the day a lot of this IP protection in China really revolves around your factory relationship and dynamic with them. But then again if it's a really, really hot selling product like these fidget spinners or the inflatable chairs that came out the other year; those things shot up like a rocket ship and literally everyone was claiming to sell them and invent them and all this is craziness. So I think really when it comes IP protection it still stems from having that dialed in here domestically but overseas it's a matter sometimes of diversifying your supply chain, building a relationship with your factory, and I would also recommend visit them face to face. I mean I'm in China once a month at our office in Guangzhou and in Vietnam and it's a lot of travel but it really helps us establish a brand and connection overseas. Mark: How important do you think that is? Because I've had clients play on both sides where they are there at least once a year, I've had other people say I visited once like five years ago and I just don't see the need to visit more frequently. Nathan: Yeah I mean I don't think it's necessarily a need. I think it depends on your business. For us, we've got a subsidiary in China. We have a dozen or so full time employees in China and more in Vietnam and in India. And the dynamic there is mostly just our business puts me in a position where it's a lot of management and making sure things are operating smoothly there. But if I was an e-commerce entrepreneur I mean as long as I have my checks and balances in place, communication is fluid, and everything is going smoothly, there's not necessary a reason to go over there. All you're going to do is see the facility, probably have some tea at the facility, grab dinner, maybe drink some bijou or something and basically break bread with your factory which is awesome. It's a great experience and really a cool culture dynamic. But I think if you just … if you're really going over to optimize costs or really negotiate in person I mean that could be beneficial especially if you're having a challenge with kind of things getting lost in translation between communications with your supplier. So I think it depends on the business. I mean I know eight figure e-commerce companies where the founders have never met their suppliers before and do exceptionally well and I know eight figure founders that don't go … that go over once a quarter or pretty often. So it depends, I mean I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to that. I just think it depends how your supplier has been performing and I think it's the key question that you have to ask. Mark: I want to talk real quick about scaling and also scaling up with the factory and their ability to match scale. Have you seen clients run into problems with that where they scaled so quickly manufacturers simply can't keep up and finding quality factories to be able to backfill that demand? Nathan: Definitely. I mean I think there's two key ways for Amazon businesses to scale up. Number one is just increasing paid acquisition or ranking higher for keywords, the other is to diversify your product offering; start selling products and product categories that you weren't selling in before. And there's different strategies, I mean if you're selling products in new product categories you're going to have to do a lot of sourcing work to make sure you're getting those products made effectively and that's … it takes a lot of work and a lot of time. Whereas if you're scaling up with the same products every factory that you work with if you say hey I'm going to order 10 times the number of units they're going to be thrilled. They're going to be very excited. Does that mean that all those products can be produced at their own facility? Maybe not, there could be a dynamic where they produce products with sub-contracting factories that might not have the cleanest facilities, might have a higher quality defect rate. And so that's something to be aware of as really understand okay, what is my actual true factory capacity? That's hard to understand without actually going to visit the facility but there is … I think kind of the key way to understand that is what I call just the kind of white paper trick where you could basically have the rep that you talk with at the factory write your name and date on a piece of paper and have them go around the facility filming a video with that piece of paper in the video or pictures so you can actually see what that facility looks like without going there. And that way you know at least this rep that you're talking to you has theaccess to that facility. Who knows if it's the actual factory that is producing your products or not or maybe you'd be able to see your products on the production line but at least you know that that rep has access to that facility. Mark: This has been really useful and we're unfortunately running out of time. So let's end it with this and I'm … you've offered a ton of useful information so let's talk real quick about Sourcify and the particular benefit that Amazon sellers are going to see from it. You touched on it at the beginning but this is a kind of chance to be maybe a little more direct with that. Nathan: Yeah totally. I mean our goal is to enable organizations to optimize our supply chain. Typically when a company works with Sourcify, they save anywhere from 10 to 50% of their costs overall in their supply chain. The way we do that is either by enabling them to work more effectively with their existing factories through our software, diversify their supply chain across Asia, or diversify the vendors that they're working with in China if they're just producing products in China. So we got boots on the ground here. You're more than welcome to come visit us and we'd be happy to connect online. You can find me on LinkedIn [inaudible 00:35:18.8] just Nathan Resnick or if you go to Sourcify.com that's where we're at. Mark: Very cool. Thanks so much for coming on and a huge shout out to John Corcoran and Jeremy from Rise 25 for connecting us actually at Prosper Show. I think I was talking to Jeremy and he's like hey you got to meet this guy. He's great you're going to love him. And he was right. So thank you guys for the introduction. Thanks for coming on and yeah I'm sure I'll be talking in the future. Nathan: Awesome. Thank you. Links and Resources: Sourcify Nathan's LinkedIn Skubana

In this podcast episode we discuss how to find joy in your running and training so you can stay motivated year after year. Plus we check in with a listener who just finished the Jerusalem Half Marathon -a great destination race!Finding the Joy in Running In 2017 I ran my first marathon and blindly followed a running friend through a rather unusual training plan. The race was tough and I searched for a better training plan for marathon #2. MTA came along and saved the day (of course!). I LOVED the training plan and although race #2 wasn’t brilliant, it was fabulous by comparison to #1. This year marathon 3 is coming up but I’m just not loving training. Work and family responsibilities are much heavier this time around and I feel tired and frustrated. I am not rolling or stretching nearly enough but when it comes time to do so and I have to choose between sitting staring vacantly out of the window or getting to work……I want to find the joy of running again – any suggestions? -Lyndi This is such a great question because this feeling is so common, especially after going through a long cold winter. While training for your first couple of marathons it’s so new and exciting (and scary) that it often means you have more enthusiasm for training. You often feel like you’re holding on for dear life to take on such a big challenge. But, by the time the 3rd marathon comes around, it can just start to feel like hard work and it’s easy to focus on how much time is being taken up or how much energy is required. Systems Not Goals I’ve certainly gone through ups and downs with my training. There have been many, many days, weeks and months when I just wasn’t feeling it. Knowing that these ups and downs are normal has helped me to focus not on one specific goal but on the kind of person that I want to be. My overall goal is to be a strong and healthy runner for life and this helps me to commit to the process of training. Then when a day/week/month comes along when it’s not exciting I remember that good habits have a compounding effect (and the same is true for bad habits). It’s not groundbreaking or sexy but the truth is that we get what we repeat. Little habits over time make a big difference (an excellent book on this topic is Atomic Habits by James Clear). If you feel like you’ve let bad habits creep in or have lost the joy of running it might be more beneficial to focus on systems, not goals. “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” -James Clear Putting effective systems in place leads to goal achievement because you don’t have decision fatigue every day trying to decide if you’re going to run or foam roll or strength train. When you’re able to fall in love with the process this brings greater commitment which leads to success. Examples of Systems Versus Goals . . . 1) Training to be healthy and strong for life vs. only training for a specific race. If you’re only training for a race it may lead you to not see the importance of certain runs or maintenance activities (or even sleep). You may make the decision to try and run through injury even though you know it won’t help you in the long term. On the other hand, training to be healthy and strong for life means that there is no end date. The good habits that you develop are compounding to make you strong and healthy now and in the future. Your identity as a runner is secure no matter the challenges you face along the way. 2) Cleaning up your house vs. having systems in place for keeping it clutter free. Doing a blitz clean and seeing the results feels very satisfying but if you don’t change the reasons why the mess happens then it won’t be long before it returns to its untidy condition. Putting a system for order in place will give you the long term satisfaction of maintaining a clean house. 3) Changing eating patterns to reach a goal weight vs. eating to have energy and strength. Most of us have gone on a diet to achieve a specific weight or physique. However many times the methods we used weren’t healthy or sustainable in the long term. Maybe we got close to our goal or even reached that magic weight. But the minute we started slacking off and returning to our old patterns of eating the pounds returned in full force. In contrast, when you eat to fuel your body and to have energy and strength it can change your perspective. You’re no longer satisfied with temporary results and feel skeptical with claims that you can lose 10 pounds in a week. You’re more likely to make a meal plan, shop wisely, meal prep, pack a snack, and not keep tempting foods in the house. These behavior changes can lead to sustainable change and an increased sense of mastery. What helps bring the joy back to running differs a bit for each person. When people start getting burnt out with running it’s often a sign that they don’t have enough margin in their life. It’s easy over time to get so busy and overcommitted that running just seems like another chore to accomplish. Focusing on getting more sleep, eating healthy, starting a meditation practice, saying no more, and taking the pressure off yourself can often help you regain joy in life and running.Wisdom From Academy Members . . Change it up! “Perhaps switch it up. Go for a run on a new trail. Join a local running group for in person motivation. Try running at a different time of day. Sometimes it is hard to get out of a rut. Trying something outside your comfort zone can help jump start your motor again.” Aaron “I’ve always believed you should be feeling “Hell yes!” or terrified – if you’re not excited, why do it? Try to figure out what’s your why? My suggestions: Change something. Maybe use a different plan? If you’re running 3 times how about doing one with 4 runs instead? How about working with a coach? Or picking a race in a location you’re excited about? Maybe do a trail run? Or an ultra? Or maybe dropping to a half? For me working with a coach has really lit a fire in me and I started doing 4 runs instead of 3 and surprisingly enjoyed that more.” Farida “The heavy miles of marathon training can feel daunting for most of us. If you’re feeling burdened by it all I’d suggest not doing a full this Spring and focus on shorter races instead.” Peter “I was in a rut too and have switched to focusing on trail half marathons which has been perfect for me. It’s less hours of training but challenging still plus the weather is starting to become beautiful once again (unless you’re in the southern hemisphere that is). If you could find ways to incorporate work or family into some of your exercise routines that might be helpful. (Biking with the family, run commuting are a couple ideas.) Good luck!” Andrea “Sign up for some 5K and 10K along the way.” GretchenEnlist Some Help! This can include everything from finding a running partner, signing up for a race with a friend, joining a running group, and hiring a coach. We’ve heard from so many people who have been able to have breakthroughs in their running by enlisting a strong support system. One of the reasons we created the Academy was to be another source of encouragement, motivation, and practical help to runners of all abilities. “This is also where a good coach can come in handy. They can help modify your training so that you’re not always so mentally burnt out; they can suggest best practices for cross training instead of a run-only schedule; they can come up with creative workouts that don’t focus only on mileage or speed; they can also help keep you accountable, which for many is a great motivational tool when the lure of Netflix calls on a weekend! If a coach is too much of a commitment, finding running buddies can give you a similar effect especially when it comes to accountability. When I schedule a morning speed workout at 6:00am on a Tuesday morning before the sun comes up, it’s pretty unlikely I’ll make it. However if a friend asks me to join them, I can almost guarantee I won’t miss it!” Coach SteveBuy yourself some new running gear! Running shoe therapy This may be as simple as some new socks, a new pair of shoes, running sunglasses (like Goodr), Bluetooth earbuds, a new watch you’ve been eying, scheduling a massage, getting some running books (Let Your Mind Run by Deena Kastor is particularly inspiring) and new music. Inject some fun! Deliberately think of ways that you can add enjoyment to your running. This may include doing a costume run, a beer mile, an obstacle course race, participating in Parkrun (a free weekly timed 5k run now in 21 countries and growing), trail running, volunteering at a race, or signing up for a bucket list race. It may even mean taking the pressure off yourself to go after PR’s which take a lot of mental and physical energy. You could also give yourself the challenge of taking one or more interesting pictures during every run or thinking of three things that you’re grateful for during your run. Another positive idea would be challenging yourself to pick up a bag of trash during every run.Focus on other exercises and activities for a while It’s very helpful both physically and mentally to diversify your activities so that running isn’t the only sport you enjoy. This might mean taking swimming lessons if you’re not confident in the pool, dusting off your bike and doing some cycling, taking a new class at the gym, trying something like Orange Theory or a treadmill class, and working with a strength coach to dial in your weight training. It’s often been during a slump in my running that I’ve developed other interests. After my first marathon I struggled with ITBS and started doing yoga regularly—something that is very important to me to this day. When I was going through a hormonal imbalance a couple years ago I worked with a strength coach at our local YMCA to take the focus off my lack of progress in running and to get stronger. Doing that has helped me to stay consistent and enjoy strength training to this day.Sign up for a destination race! In this episode you will hear one of our coaching clients named Brooke Taylor tell us about the Jerusalem Marathon. Brooke ran the half with her son at the end of a two week tour of the Holy Land. The Jerusalem Marathon is only 8 years old but brings together about 40,000 runners from many nations and has been called by Haaretz Newspaper “the most cosmopolitan event around.” You can read Brooke’s race recap here. Every action you take is a vote for the kind of person you want to become. -James Clear Also Mentioned in This Episode John Muir Trust– contribute a tree to the MTA Forever Forest. We went with the idea of planting 262 trees as a nod to the marathon distance, with donations going toward our tree planting fund to create an ‘MTA Forever Forest’. “Come to the woods for here is rest. There is no repose like that of the green deep woods.” -John Muir MetPro – Take a metabolic assessment and schedule a complimentary consultation with one of their experts by going to www.metpro.co/mta Topo Athletic -a gimmick-free running shoe company delivering footwear solutions for healthier, more natural running patterns. A roomy toe box promotes functional foot movement and the cushioned midsoles come in a variety of thicknesses and heel elevations, so you can pick your unique level of protection and comfort. Healthiq.com -Marathon Training Academy is sponsored by *Health IQ*, an insurance company that helps health conscious people get special rates on life insurance. Go to healthiq.com/mta to support the show and learn more. Bombas Socks -every pair comes with arch support, a seamless toe, and a cushioned foot-bed that’s comfy but not too thick. Use our link for 20% off! Atomic Habits by James Clear -what we are reading. The post Finding the Joy in Running appeared first on Marathon Training Academy.

Welcome back to Drinking Alone, With Friends! This episode 2 of the 3 hosts are coming from States that they are normally not in! Also, Tud finally feels human, Chris overcomes the odds to not die and Obert highlights a new brewery!   Also in this episode: One Night in Nashville, ALL THE NEW ENGLAND IPAs, hangover cure/prevention, new brewery highlight, HERE'S THE MAIL, Happy Birthday CJ! and hashtags!  Three Handles: Black Mirror: Bandersnatch: https://www.netflix.com/title/80988062 CJ's Birthday Cake! (Frosting recipe linked in recipe): https://addapinch.com/the-best-chocolate-cake-recipe-ever/ Bombas Socks: https://bombas.com/

“Getting to that first million is pure hustle” - Allen Burt   This week on The Commerce Lab, we're talking about one of the most important milestones of every business, especially in the ecommerce industry. There are several reasons why it is significant to reach your first million in revenue. First of all, this will show your market fit at scale. It's a revenue level that will allow you to pull profit and capital, and give you the momentum to push towards the next milestone of $5M, $10M, etc. Finally, reaching the milestone of your first million is an integral achievement in the eyes of investors.   In this episode, you'll hear from two leaders in the ecommerce industry who have made it to their first million and beyond. Learn the strategies that they utilized to build a firm business foundation, and how they used that momentum to continue building.   “I like to believe I have a really good understanding of what makes the customer tick when buying a product.” - Dave Heath, Bombas Socks   Nate Checketts is the founder of Rhone Apparel, a performance brand for the modern man. Nate discusses the importance of building relationships as you build your brand and the hustle of the first million. Learn the strategies that Nate and his team implemented in regards to building a team at the right time, and the necessity of becoming more comfortable with self-promotion.   “In the early days, you want people that will work their tails off and feel as committed to the vision as you do.” - Nate Checketts Rhone Apparel   Dave Heath, founder of Bombas Socks, leveraged a brand to meet a humanitarian need. Designed for optimum comfort, Bombas implements a “buy one, give one” strategy, donating pair-for-pair to the homeless population. While Bombas gained notoriety on a season premiere of Shark Tank, Dave discusses the systems that were already in place that led to sustainable growth. Listen to this conversation to learn more about systems, and organic virility, or, the ability for your product to stand on its own. Some Topics we talk about in this episode:   Introduction - 0:00 Nate Checkett's Journey - 3:25   How to Do Ramp Up Post Million - 9:24 Dave Heath, Bombas Socks - 12:12 Strategies and Process Bombas Used to Get from $0-1M - 13:42 Systems to Prepare for an Influx - 17:27 Shifting Strategy to Account for the Growth - 19:52 Wrap-up and Takeaways - 23:57 How to get involved Join the community of brand owners and industry influencers in the Facebook group The Commerce Lab or visit thecommercelab.com. Visit www.bluestout.com for more information   If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

Alright, call the priest, Em's future child is causing poltergeist activity again with their baking soda volcano. This week Em brings us the rollicking, spooky tale of Popper (aka Pooper) the Poltergeist, which leads us to contemplate the holy water evaporation cycle and teen girl angst. Meanwhile, Christine shares the traumatizingly dark story of Katy Harris and Krystal Surles. Christine prescribes many King of the Hill episodes post listening to this story. We also announce our spin-off show, "Poor and Spicy in Missouri"… and that's why we drink! Please consider supporting the companies that support us! For a total of $60 off - that's $20 off your first 3 Hello Fresh boxes - go to hellofresh.com/drink60 and enter promo code DRINK60 Get 20% off your first order of Bombas Socks when you go to bombas.com/drink and enter promo code DRINK Sign up for Firstleaf with our personal link to get your first 3 bottles of wine for just $15 plus free shipping! Then get an extra $10 off your next box when you rate those wines. Go to tryfirstleaf.com/drink Sign up for stamps.com to get up to $55 free postage, a free scale and a 4 week trial! Go to stamps.com and click on the radio mic at the top of the homepage to enter promo code DRINK

Did you know that San Francisco, aka America’s queer capital, is currently home to ZERO bars exclusively for queer women? Ditto for Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, New Orleans, and a growing number of cities around the country. So why have lesbian bars become an endangered nightlife species? Caroline and Cristen explore their complex cocktail of historical and cultural impacts and hear from y'all about what it means for communities when these near-and-dear, queer watering holes dry up. In need of an Unladylike Pep Talk? Send in your requests for pep talk topics and talkers by calling out hotline - 262-8-GALPAL. Hear our new bonus episodes about the best books to give as gifts on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Signed copies are available at podswag.com/unladylike. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter.  This episode is brought to you by Bumble BFF [bumble.com/unladylike], Fossil [fossil.com/unladylike], Thirdlove [thirdlove.com/unladylike] and Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE]. 

Did you know that San Francisco, aka America’s queer capital, is currently home to ZERO bars exclusively for queer women? Ditto for Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, New Orleans, and a growing number of cities around the country. So why have lesbian bars become an endangered nightlife species? Caroline and Cristen explore their complex cocktail of historical and cultural impacts and hear from y'all about what it means for communities when these near-and-dear, queer watering holes dry up. In need of an Unladylike Pep Talk? Send in your requests for pep talk topics and talkers by calling out hotline - 262-8-GALPAL. Hear our new bonus episodes about the best books to give as gifts on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Signed copies are available at podswag.com/unladylike. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter.  This episode is brought to you by Bumble BFF [bumble.com/unladylike], Fossil [fossil.com/unladylike], Thirdlove [thirdlove.com/unladylike] and Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE].  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I love this time of year, and for me, finding Christmas gifts that really match the person you are buying for is a fun challenge to take on. If you have a runner who you want to get the perfect Christmas present for, or if you are someone who is unsure what to ask for yourself, maybe this runner gift guide will give you some ideas to make it a little easier. Now I am getting back into running higher mileage again and running is certainly a big part of my life again, I have been able to think about what runner goodies are making our lives easier this year. Some of my list were on my 2017 list, and many are new, with a special thanks to my running for real superstars community for giving me some of these recommendations. Some of these products were sent to me for free, but my opinions are my own, and my reviews are honest, if I don't like a product, I will never put it on my website (remember a few months ago I turned down a big payment for a product I could not endorse), so you know these are my true recommendations for the best gifts for the runner in your life. Let's dive in: For the Runner Stocking Filler: Bombas Performance Socks ($12-$17) You may have heard me talking about Bombas a lot lately, and I really do love what this brand stands for. It makes my heart swell knowing that they donate a pair for every pair that is purchased, and they are also very interested in sustainability and looking after our world for the future. Now, for the part you actually care about, are the socks comfortable? Well, if I tell you I ran a half marathon race in the rain with them on and didn't have a single blister or sore spot? Or how about that I have done pretty much every run, certainly every long run (2hrs-2hr 30) in them for the past few months. So yes, I love them, and you can get 20% off your first order with the code running4real Find Bombas socks here. For the Runner with a Baby, Toddler, or Young Child: Chicco TRE Stroller ($379) I never thought I would be a stroller mother runner, but here I am, running most of my runs each week with my stroller, taking Bailey around the local area. Thankfully, it actually works quite well as she takes a nap, so I come back refreshed, feeling good as I got my run in, and she comes back rested and feeling ready to play. This stroller is a little heavier than some of the other models, but it is also very luxurious for the baby, and has a lot of really cool extras that I really enjoy. I gave a bigger review of the stroller in my postpartum running guide, but it comes down to, I love this stroller! Find the Chicco TRE Running Stroller here. For Running Safety: Run Angel ($99) I have become a lot more aware of safety in the last year, and with the attacks that have happened recently, my Run Angel helps me feel safe and prepared. There are quite a few safety style products on here, but this one is my most valued and this is one of the products I recommend to friends above all other running products. Your safety is more important than anything, and this watch-looking device you wear on your wrist will send out an alarm the loudness of a rock concert if you push the giant button in the middle. It will also send an alert to three loved ones when you push it. You can get 10% off with code running4real Get yourself one, and all your loved ones too. Find Run Angel here. For a Runner Who....well, a runner who runs ;): Garmin Forerunner 235 ($299) I love love love my Garmin! I may be a nowatchmeadvocate and tell you not to look at your GPS watch while you run and especially while you race, but I still wear one, every day. I love it, and it is just so easy to use. If you are looking for a running watch, look no further...unless you can afford the higher end models, in which case, by all means go for that instead! Find Garmin Forerunner 235here. For the Runner Who Enjoys Wearing Nice Running Clothes (who doesn't!): Mercury Mile ($125-$150) I have many friends who are huge fans of Stitch Fix, and as much as I love the idea of it, being real, I wear running clothes or activewear most of the time, so it just seems a little silly. However, Mercury mile does the same thing, with running clothes, from emerging brands and long time running brands alike. You fill out a survey with some measurements, choices, styles you like, and more. From there, a personal stylist picks you out a full outfit, and sends it to you. Whatever you like, you keep, whatever you don't you send back. They will then charge you for the pieces you kept. I LOVE the idea of this, and we all know that running in cute (or handsome for my male readers!) clothes can motivate you and help make even the worst runs feel better. Besides, they are good at picking out matching outfits...something I am terrible at. This is the perfect gift if you are unsure what to get your runner loved one. You can get 10% off using code running4real Mercury Mile and order yours here. For the Runner Who is Trying to Eat Healthy: Ikea Silicon Baking Sheet ($5) I recommended this last year, but it really is a great gift for a low price. I am starting to see more of these around the stores, including a 3 pack in Costco last week, so you may not have to go around the rabbit hole that is Ikea, but a silicon baking sheet for a runner is a lifesaver. They are so easy to clean, and you are helping to look after our world by limiting your foil use :) Find the Ikea Silicon Baking Sheethere (or at your local Ikea!) For Runners Who Listen to Music and Podcasts: A running headset (price varies Now, there are plenty of brands you can choose from here. I have heard good things about most of them, even the cheaper ones you can get on amazon. I am still using my VI, I love it, and it works well for me. If the runner in your life listens to music or podcasts, having a headset that is made for running is going to be so much better for them than using the headphones that come with their phone. It makes a huge difference and a happy runner. Find more about VI here. For Runners Who Love to Read: Brave Athlete Calm the F*ck Down ($17) I recommended this one last year, and I will recommend it again as it is so good for us to be reminded of how much of a mental sport running is, and how we can actually learn to be better, rather than just trying to fight against something we understand. This book covers the science, but explained in a way that makes sense. Find The Brave Athlete here. Let Your Mind Run ($18) I have not read this one, but I have heard SO MANY people say how this book by Deena Kastor has changed their life. I know Deena Kastor is someone who we all look up to for the incredible achievements she has, but from what I hear, she is very real in this book, and the advice is actually simple enough for us all to use. My superstars RAVED about it, and if your runner wants to learn to be their best, this one should be on your list. Find Let Your Mind Runhere. Girl, Wash Your Face ($16) Okay, so not a running book, but this book is AMAZING. Each chapter addresses a lie we tell ourselves that destroys our confidence and the way we see ourselves. Rachel is actually a runner, so there are a lot of analogies in here, but it is the way she explains her story, then gives actionable advice that really speaks to me, and if you are anything like me, speaks to you too. One note though, this is definitely a female focused book :) Find Girl, Wash your Face here. Endure ($13) I am a HUGE Alex Hutchinson fan, and he is a wonderful friend who I know will always come out with useful information to help us achieve our best in running. This year he released his book on the capacity of the mind, and it was fascinating. I read it while Bailey was really young and asleep on my chest, and then I had Alex on the podcast to talk about it. If you are interested in the mental side of our sport, I strongly suggest giving this a read. Find Endure here. Road to Sparta ($15) If you listened to my podcast episode with Dean Karnazes, you would have noticed the connection Dean and I had, and it was mostly because I felt I had got to know him through reading this book. Our conversation was amazing, as was this book. Honestly, I am not really a history book kinda person, so I was not sure what I would think of this. I also thought Dean would be very commercial, and it just wouldn't be authentic. I was wrong in both ways. Find Road to Sparta here. For the Runner Who isn't a Size 0: Day/Won Leggings I am SO excited there are more running and activewear brands making their way into the industry, and I am especially excited for Candice Huffine, "plus size", or more accurately, curvy model, who has created her own fun line of clothing for runners from sizes 0-32, and they are SO cute. I love my block print leggings, especially that they are high-waisted, and I think this company has a bright future ahead. Find Day/Won Clothes here. For the Runner Who Gets Sore orTight and/or Travel often: CTM Band This was created by my good friend Kyle Bowling, a Chiropractor who is a runner himself. Not only have I loved getting to know him because he actually gets us, and doesn't just try to stop us running, but he has created a product that is absolutely ideal for runners. It gives you compression, tension, and movement (hence the CTM), which allows us to go further than a foam roller or compression gear alone. These have been flying off the shelves, and some of the best elites in the world have heard about it and are using it. Get yourself or your loved one a CTM band, especially if they have to travel a lot. They will thank you. Running for Real fans get $10 off using code running4real here. For the Runner Who Needs More Confidence: Strong by Kara Goucher ($14) I do not yet have this journal, but I absolutely want it. I have heard Kara on multiple podcasts talking about this book, and it sounds like it is the kind of journal I will LOVE, and I am sure you will too. If you struggle with confidence, especially when you are in the thick of training and things are hard, this journal will help you keep your mind in the right place and see the good in what you are doing. Race day will arrive, and you can feel confident you are ready..and strong! Find Strong here. For the Runner Who is In Heavy Training: Bodyhealth Perfect Amino  ($39.95) I took Perfect Amino for the final few years of my elite running career, and I really noticed when I forgot to take it. I really did notice that it helped me to recover faster and feel better. Now I am back to running harder again, it is great for the same thing. If you have a race coming up that is important to you (or your runner loved one), you can't get a much better gift than the gift of faster recovery! Especially if you are a little injury prone, the faster you can recover, the less chance your body has of breaking down with injuries. Find BodyHealth Perfect Aminohere and use coupon code TINA10 for 10% off. For the Runner Who Wants to Look After Their Feet: Altra Escalante ($130) I have been testing out all kinds of runner shoes this year, and these have become my favorite. Honestly, I never thought I would wear Altra...they were always a little...well, weird-looking, but they have come a long way with their designs, and I really appreciate the wide toe box (a podcast in a few weeks will explain why). I have raced in these and run most of my workouts and long runs in them without a problem. If you are used to a high drop, you may need a little time to get into these as they are zero drop, but I went from my 4mm drop shoes to these with ease. Also note, Steve has been wearing Altras for years, and has been raving about them, that is what ultimately gave me the nudge to get them. Find the Altra Women's Escalante hereand Altra Men's Escalante here. For the Runner Who Has to Run in the Dark Often: Black Diamond Spot Headlamp ($30) I had never really been someone who had to ever run in the dark. Maybe on the odd occasion, but most of the time I would stumble my way through, and somehow manage to not fall over by staying in the lighter areas. Now, as a mother, sometimes you have to get your run done early. I talked about runner safety and how important it is in a recent blog post, but I also realized that by not wearing anything to be able to see where I was going, I was putting my safety at risk another way. There are so many headlamps out there, but this one had great reviews and was relatively inexpensive, so I gave it a try, and I liked it a lot. If you or the runner in your life runs in the dark often, this will be just what they need....although one word of advice, this does chafe my forehead (not a good look!!) if I wear it right on my head, so I either wear a cap or headband underneath, so it is not directly touching my skin. Find the Black Diamond Spot Headlight here. For the Runner Who Has to Run in the Dark Often Part 2: Amphipod Running Vest ($30) Now, when it comes to safety, another element I never really considered before was actually being seen! I always kind of assumed I would be fine, and thankfully, I was, but it doesn't mean that I was safe. People who are up and about in the early hours of the morning are not expecting to see a runner, and in most cases, they are running late...so trying to get somewhere quickly, which means they won't expect to see you. I didn't think I would wear this very often when I purchased it, but I do wear it often, sometimes when it is not even dark out, but because I just feel so much safer with it on. It is bright enough to catch the attention of a distracted driver, which could be a life saver with the number of people on their phones while driving now. I really like this vest, and I have worn it with just a sports bra and shorts, so I can vow that it does not chafe :) Find the Amphipod Xinglet Vest here. For the Female Runner Who Wants to Run with her Phone: Koala Clip ($28) I never used to run with my phone. In fact, I used to laugh at family who would ask me to take my phone with me. I was too serious for a phone. Now though, I see that was not just stupid logic, but also could have put me in danger many times. I love to listen to music or podcasts on some of my runs, and rather than using a safety pin to hold my phone in a pocket in my tights, this Koala clip is ideal. It also means the phone stays close to my bluetooth headphones, so they don't loose connection (which they would sometimes do when in my tights). This is especially good for hot summer days as you can strap your phone to your sports bra without any fear of it bouncing around, and it is sweatproof, so keeps it protected from your perspiration. I will admit it does not work that well with my Lululemon Enlite bra on its own, but overall, this was one of my favorite finds of the year. Find the Koala clip hereand use code running4real for 10% off. For the Runner Who Has to Run in the Cold: Brooks Cascadia Vest ($110) and Brooks Canopy Jacket ($120) I love running in vests. I am not sure why, or where that came to be, but most of my winter runs involve one of my three running vests. I usually like to underdress a little, as I hate being hot, but I find a vest is such a good compromise. You can keep your core warm, but then it does not cover your arms...okay, lets be real, armpits up, which is where we tend to get hot. I just got this Brooks Cascadia Thermal vest, and I LOOOOVEE it! I might even get myself another one to just wear day-to-day. It is comfortable, it is light, it is warm (but not too warm). If you have cold runs ahead, this is going to be something you will wear all. the. time. Find the Brooks Cascadia Vest here. I also love the Brooks Canopy Jacket. EVERY runner needs a good running jacket, and this one is wind resistant and water-resistant, while being SO LIGHT, you could stuff it in any bag to be ready when you need it. In the winter, the cold can cut through you like a knife, and having a good jacket means you can throw it on top of however many layers you need that day, and feel warm enough. I also love the color options. I have the maroon, but they also have a nice blue. Find the Brooks Canopy Jacket here. For the Female Runner: Lululemon Enlite Sports Bra ($98) I know, I know, I need to shut up about this damn bra, but years later I still love it, and years later it was absolutely worth the money spent. I know $100 seems like a lot for one bra, but I am telling you, mine look exactly the same as they did the day I purchased them, because that is the thing about Lululemon, their stuff lasts SO well. I have things from 10 years ago, that are still in such good condition. This bra is just my favorite, and it is just worth every penny for me (as long as you get the right size!) Find the Lululemon Enlite Sports Bra here. For Runners Who Are Proud to Be: Sarah Marie Design Studio ($30-$60) Sarah has done such a fantastic job of making us runners feel good about what we do, and show that we are in this amazing little community. I have multiple Sarah Marie outfits. Some I workout in, and some I just wear day-to-day. They are good quality, they are cute, and they are practical. I have yet to have someone come up to me and ask if it is one of her designs, but the day it does, I will be SO excited. If you or the runner in your life loves to talk about running or show pride in our sport, this is the perfect gift. Find more about Sarah Marie Designs here. For the Runner Who Wants to Cook More: Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow ($16.50) Last year I featured their first book, and I use it often, but this year, Elyse and Shalane released their second cook book, and it has even more fantastic recipes including three new variations of the ever popular superhero muffins. We have made quite a few things from this book already, and we have given Bailey a lot of the meals/snacks too as we know she is getting good quality food into her body. She LOVES it, and if you have a runner (or not for that matter!) in your life who is trying to eat healthy, they will too. Find Run Fast. Cook Fast. Eat Slow here. For a New Race Day Shirt (while giving this lady a little support): Running for Real T-Shirts, Tanks, Sleeveless Vests, and Cap ($22-$27) I would love if you could support me and what I do by purchasing one of my Running for Real apparel pieces. It would make my heart swell 1000000 times if you could wear it for an upcoming race and tag me in a photo, but even if you just wear it as a pajama top, it would mean so much. They are really soft materials, and performance made, so they will wick the sweat away and keep you comfortable. I hope you love these as much as I do. Find Running for Real Apparel here. For a Treat for Your Runner: Sunglasses ($12-$40) Goodr has exploded onto the scene the last year, and around a year ago, a fan of mine (thank you Liz!) sent Steve and I a pair each. At the time, I was unsure what they were and wasn't sure about the bright blue color I was given. Fast forward a year, these are not only my go to glasses for life as well as running, but they are my number one lifesaver for when Bailey is fussy. Seriously, I save them for a last resort, and they usually work to distract her. They are apparently indestructible, and look the same as they did before I let a baby chew, hit, and play with them for hours on end. Do yourself a favor, save your money for expensive glasses, they just get ruined anyway, get yourself a pair of Goodr...plus you can be part of the cool crowd, that's what we all want, right? ;) Goodr Sunglasses here. For Every Runner: Road ID ($24-$30) Once again, coming back to safety. If you are out running and something happens. Maybe you didn't eat enough that morning and passed out, or maybe you are dehydrated, or something much worse, it can be almost impossible for a random person to know how to contact your loved ones. Road ID has been around for years, but they are SUCH a good thing for a runner to have, especially if you do not carry your phone...or if that phone is locked. Road ID contain the contact details of your loved ones, along with allergen information for you, and anything else that would be important to note. None of us would want to be in a situation where this would be used, but really, none of us are exempt from it happening, so it is something simple to keep you safe, and allow your loved ones to feel reassured that they will know if you are not safe. Find Road ID here. For the Marathon Runner: SPIbelt ($22) I do not have one of these, but the Running for Real Superstars Community RAVES about them and to be honest, I really need to get myself one after years of trying to stuff too many things in my sports bra or in pockets too small. One of these belts is handy for not having your possessions bounce around while you run, and this one is ideal for summer runs...or winter runs below layers. Find the SPIbelt here. For the Runner Who Struggles to Switch Off: Headspace Subscription ($96 for a year subscription) I have always been someone who tries to do a million things at the same time. My mind is always running, and it is not surprising I have been through bouts of insomnia in my life (talked about working with a sleep therapist here). However, even with Bailey in the picture, although I have been able to slow those thoughts a little and be in the moment with her, I still feel overwhelmed a lot. I was introduced to Headspace by my current therapist, after hearing people talk about it for years. I wasn't sure it would work for me, I have never been good at meditation in past, but this is just 10-15 minutes a day, and the founder, Andy Puddicome, talks you through it in such a calming, soothing voice. I have not managed to do it every day, but I have done it probably 5/7 days a week, and I really am starting to enjoy it. Note, it is an app, so you will need to download to your phone. Find out more about Headspace here. They also have a free 10 meditation trial. For the Runner Who Needs a Hug: Oofos Shoes ($60-120) I just got myself a pair of these recently as I was curious after hearing so many of my Superstars tell me that these shoes were their favorite running product. Now I have a pair, I can see how comfortable they are, and really do feel like a hug for your feet. I am excited to wear these around as they really do feel nice on my feet, and although I try to be barefoot as much as possible, this time of year...it's just not realistic, these are a perfect every day shoe! I have both the flip flop (thongs) and the shoes, which is great, as I can now give my feet the recovery they deserve in winter and summer. Find the flipflops here or the Oofos shoes here. For the Runner You Love the Most ;) : A Sports Massage (price varies) Who wouldn't want a sports massage? Runner or not, it feels SO good to be pampered, and if you have been stressed out by life lately (who hasn't), this is something most of us will never do for ourselves, but we would appreciate so much. It doesn't have to be a sports massage, but any kind of massage can go very far in our busy world. If the runner in your life is training hard for a race or has just raced, this would be ideal to help them get back to feeling themselves again.   Resources: Last week's episode with Fiona Oakes  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order!   Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iApple Podcasts (iTunes), Stitcher, CastboxOvercast, Spotify, Google Playand now iHeartRadio Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe on iTunes, you can find out here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show. What would you add?

Running for More Than Yourself Every runner runs for a reason. Many people run to stay in good health. Some run for the dreams of obtaining medals, breaking records or becoming famous. Others run because they’ve been told they will never be able to run again. Hate it or love it, runners around the world are out there putting in the miles. One person in particular runs because it gives her a platform to share what she believes in. Fiona Oakes has dedicated her entire running career to a cause she is passionate about. She openly admits that she doesn’t enjoy running, but when she discovered she could be good at running she decided to use it for good in the best way she knew how. Since that discovery, Fiona has set four world records—you’ll have to read this slowly to comprehend what they all are. Fastest female to run a marathon on each continent—aggregate time 23 hours 27 minutes 40 seconds Fastest female to run a marathon on each continent plus the North Pole—aggregate time 28 hours 20 minutes 50 seconds Fastest female to run a marathon on each continent plus the North Pole (elapsed time -225 days) Fastest half marathon runner in an animal costume (female) If Fiona doesn’t enjoy running, then why all the trouble to be so great? Fiona’s passion is veganism. She runs her own animal sanctuary where she has rescued and nursed hundreds of animals. She is passionate about taking care of all of these creatures and has used running as a means to spread her message. Trailblazer Fiona Oakes is one of a kind. She decided to run her first marathon in order to prove that vegan athletes could be successful. At the time, both marathons and veganism were relatively novel and under-researched. She decided that if she could run well, veganism would gain more positive publicity as a legitimate and healthy lifestyle. She excelled. Over the years Fiona Oakes has continued to raise awareness by completing marathons in Antarctica and the North Pole. One of her most impressive races has been the Marathon des Sables. The MdS is a six-day, 156-mile ultramarathon that takes place in the Sahara Desert. Facing Moral Dilemmas For anyone working towards a good cause, there comes a time when they must make difficult decisions. The world is not a perfect place and working to make it better is no small task. Any non-profit foundation can probably give you several novels worth of information on the difficulties that have arisen from trying to do good. A simple and well-known example is giving a crying child candy. You want the child to be happy (and to stop crying for heaven’s sake), but you know rewarding bad behavior will not be beneficial in the long run. Now. Scale that to worldwide, social issues. You want to do good. You want to stop the suffering. But you know that if it isn’t done correctly, it may just add to the problem. Fiona has faced some of her own moral dilemmas as she has done all she can to promote her causes. When asked about the amount of fuel consumption and pollution created as a result of traveling around the world to try to promote a clean lifestyle, Fiona was ready with her answer. “I needed to find a platform or remain silent.” She was aware of her footprint and made the decision that she must either stay in her own little world or be the voice that she knew how to be, in the way she knew how to. The moral of this moral dilemma? Do all you can to do good. Consider before you act. Know who and what you are affecting. And in the end, remember that there will be some give and some take. Running for Good At the age of 17 Fiona lost a kneecap to an illness. Anyone familiar with knee injuries knows that running can be one of the most painful and difficult things to do when faced with this type of injury. Many “ex-runners” change to something less impacting, such as swimming or cycling. For Fiona, that could never be the case. Her cause was always bigger than herself. She used the biggest platform she could find and worked as hard as she could. Running for more than yourself can be incredibly motivating when the going gets rough. Consider evaluating all the reasons you run for. There may be sources of strength you have yet to tap into or people you can help, even if you don’t consider yourself a great runner. Fiona suggests, “You never know the impact you are having. Don’t ever underestimate your own impact in whatever you are doing.” You may just be able to be a bigger voice than you realize. Why do you run?   Resources: Last week's episode with Sarah Crouch  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Running for Good Documentary Fiona’s Website Fiona’s Facebook Fiona’s Instagram Fiona’s Twitter Tower Hill Stables   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order!   Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iApple Podcasts (iTunes), Stitcher, CastboxOvercast, Spotify, Google Playand now iHeartRadio Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Fiona, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

How to be a Positive Runner When You Don’t Seem to be Improving PR. Perhaps the most commonly used jargon in the running world. In a sport that is largely about competing with yourself, a personal record can mean everything. Hours of pain, sweat, and tears can seem to mean nothing if you don’t believe you are improving. For many runners, coming in even a second earlier is the difference between elation and depression. What is it that makes us feel so deeply about certain numbers? Should we allow ourselves to have such strong emotions about something that is physiologically insignificant? If there’s one person that is qualified to speak on this subject, it’s Sarah Crouch. Since the age of 14, Sarah was an elite runner. For 11 years straight, she set a personal record. Whether it was a 10k, a half marathon, or a full marathon, she had a race time she could celebrate, and a hunger to improve. However, around the age of 25 her luck seemed to run out. For the next four years, Sarah could not beat her past self. It wasn’t until she was faced with increased uncertainty that she found what she was looking for. What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Grateful Tumor. A word that Sarah has become familiar with. This year, Sarah was told she had a tumor in her calf. The size and depth were enough for the doctors to warn her that she may not be able to competitively run after removing it. Before the surgery, Sarah took some advice to go for a run in a beautiful place and reflect on her running career. As she ran, she let the feeling of possibly never running again sink in. “Letting that feeling hit you like a Mac truck rather than hiding from it, can actually be a really valuable experience,” says Sarah. Facing difficulty head on is an effective way to grow. Once you have allowed yourself to think through one difficult thing, new fears are easier to overcome. “Being afraid, and letting that fear affect your behavior are two completely different things,” says Sarah. Just a few weeks after surgery, with the bandage from the stitches still intact, Sarah lined up to run the Chicago Marathon. Although typically anxious and nervous prior to a race, this time Sarah only felt grateful. Allowing yourself to think what life would be like without running can be the key to enjoying it more fully. It doesn’t take a catastrophe to know what you are lucky to have. Embracing Adversity After four years of training without a time improvement, Sarah learned how to combat negativity. Many psychologist experts agree that 70 percent of self-talk is negative. When you add in the pain the body goes through as you run, that number increases in an attempt to get you to slow down. Sarah compares this negative self-talk to a radio that is constantly playing in the background. Instead of listening to the radio, she creates her own sounds to listen to—a personal drum kit. “It’s about recognizing the voice and understanding that it doesn’t control you,” Sarah says. “You actually have the ability to consciously choose to listen to [another] sound that your brain is producing.” Become familiar with the fears and negativity that your brain naturally produces. Once you realize you can control them, their existence alone won’t have any power over you. In fact, you can even use them to your advantage. When the negativity radio comes on, let it be a que to start pounding on your air drums. Preparation: Negativity’s Worst Nightmare What about when the negativity is coming from outside sources? Even when you have mastered the self-talk dilemma, other people’s talk may bring you down. Prior to the Chicago Marathon there was a lot of talk about which American was going to come in first. Although Sarah had been a top-ten American in several recent races, she was not invited to the prerace press conference. She also overheard other runners talking about their lofty goals and the records they wanted to beat. Hearing all that noise could’ve made anyone feel down. Instead, Sarah kept reminding herself, “Well, they still have to run the race.” She had run 4 previous Chicago Marathon’s and knew that her experience was going to mean a lot. Knowing this particular course, the times to push it and the places the crowd will pick you up, was crucial for Sarah. Her preparation, and her confidence in that preparation, made all the difference as she ran across the finish line as the first American. The “unexpected” first made it that much sweeter. For the Love of Running After four years, Sarah did PR again. However, she hardly uses a watch now. Her lifelong marathon goal is still to come in sub 2:30, but she admits that probably isn’t likely to happen until she stops focusing on the numbers. Luckily, she has an incredible amount of love for running. She will run as fast as she can, for as long as she can. The takeaways? Run fast and run your pace. Don’t let a clock control you. Prepare. Face your fears and negative thoughts head on. LOVE running. Play your own drums. Be grateful. Celebrate your victories, and then let your hunger to improve start up once again. Resources: Last week's episode with Jeff Galloway Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Sarah’s Website Sarah’s Instagram Sarah’s Twitter Sarah’s Facebook 361 (Sarahs Sponsor)   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order! Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Sarah, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Even if women sweep the 2018 midterm elections, they will still occupy less than a third of congressional seats. So, what does the political pipeline look like for today’s Tracy Flicks and Olivia Popes who are dreaming about running in tomorrow’s elections? To find out, C&C revisit the one place where American girls get to be president. Plus, they get schooled about political ambition and what makes or breaks a women's decision to run for office. Hear exclusive bonus episodes of Unladylike on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter. This episode is brought to you by And We Evolve [andweevolve.com with code UNLADYLIKE], Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE], Daily Harvest [daily-harvest.com with code UNLADYLIKE], Fossil [fossil.com/unladylike] and Simple Health [simplehealth.com/UNLADYLIKE].

Even if women sweep the 2018 midterm elections, they will still occupy less than a third of congressional seats. So, what does the political pipeline look like for today’s Tracy Flicks and Olivia Popes who are dreaming about running in tomorrow’s elections? To find out, C&C revisit the one place where American girls get to be president. Plus, they get schooled about political ambition and what makes or breaks a women's decision to run for office. Hear exclusive bonus episodes of Unladylike on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter. This episode is brought to you by And We Evolve [andweevolve.com with code UNLADYLIKE], Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE], Daily Harvest [daily-harvest.com with code UNLADYLIKE], Fossil [fossil.com/unladylike] and Simple Health [simplehealth.com/UNLADYLIKE]. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What Does it Take to be an Elite Short-Distance Runner? Every young athlete dreams of being the best at his or her game. Think back to your childhood days and envision yourself kicking a soccer ball in the backyard. Each tree is a suspect defender waiting for your signature juke. You can hear the crowd roar as you sprint past each victim and net the ball into the upper 90 with no time left. You whisper under your breath as the announcer in your head yells, “Goooooaaalll!” The game ends and you lie on the grass almost feeling yourself being lifted off the field by your teammates as the stadium chants your name. Okay. Maybe this isn’t the exact scenario that played out in your head. But you’ve had a dream before too. Whatever it was, it was glorious to you. Dreaming is fun, and instantly rewarding. But do you have what it really takes to become a true elite athlete? Enter Jake Wightman. Jake is a highly decorated short-distance runner who recently won the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City. He also won gold at the 2013 European Junior Championships and has won bronze in both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships, all in the 1500-meter event. At the age of 24, Jake is just getting started. He is dedicated to his craft and reviewed with us what he has done to stay at the top of his game. Putting in the Work: Physical Training Once a dream becomes a goal, the real work begins. This can be both daunting and exciting. Jake’s success hasn’t happened on accident. He follows a rigorous training schedule, with concrete workouts every day of the week. Here’s what a typical weekly workout looks like for Jake: Monday: Fast run. 8 miles at a 5:40 pace. Yoga in the evening. Tuesday: Hill runs. 15 reps of 75 second near-sprints up and a jog back down. Strength conditioning for 2 hours in the evening. Wednesday: “Easy run.” 8 miles (or two 5s) at a 6 min pace. Evening stretches and light workout of calves, hamstrings. Thursday: Another fast run. 5 miles at a 5:40 pace. Additional drills and sprints. Friday: Easy run or recovery day. Saturday: Time-based runs. Strength conditioning. Sunday: Long run. Up to 17 miles, but comfortable. A pace you can have a conversation at. SO, if all you have written out for your daily workout is “Run,” you might want to take a page out of Jake’s book. Depending on your distance of choice, the best type of training routine for you could be drastically different. While an elite marathon runner logs 100-120 miles a week, someone like Jake puts in 65-75 miles. Elite athletes train hard, but they also train smart. Make sure you are doing what is good for YOUR body and your type of competition. Staying Mentally Tough If you are reading this article, you probably already know that the majority of athletic success comes from mental toughness. Naturally gifted athletes with raw, physical abilities will not last long against persistent, mentally tough, run-of-the-mill competitors. For Jake, it’s all about embracing the opportunity of a competition, staying positive, and remembering to be human. After you have committed to putting in the training time, every competition can be treated as a reward, a time to show what all that hard work has accomplished. For those that get nervous or anxious as the competition gets closer, Jake says, “You’ve got to remember the work you’ve put in…the race should just be the icing on the cake.” Speaking of cake, another task of being a great athlete is remaining human. “Although it seems like [great runners] live the strictest lives possible, we’re also human,” says Jake. He goes on to say that runners at every level need to have moderation in everything. Never allowing yourself to cheat and have your favorite dessert or beer once in a while can be more damaging than helpful. Mental toughness is also about being realistic with yourself. Be dedicated, but make sure to enjoy life at the same time. Maintaining a Positive Image Have you thought about what changes when you actually become an elite athlete? It’s probably mostly a waste of time to think about what you will do once you become a superstar athlete. (It’s like dreaming what you will do when you win the lottery.) You ought to focus on the day-to-day and what will get you there. However, there are a few things to consider once you finally “make it.” As you climb the ladder of success, more and more eyes will be on you. Young athletes especially will begin to pattern their clothes, pre-competition routines, and attitudes after you. Jake Wightman gives back to the running community by volunteering at training camps and giving advice to those hopeful athletes that are hoping to break through. Remember that you are representing your sport, your city or country, and your friends and family. Being a “Pollyanna” isn’t a requirement when you start to get a little success, but remember, it’s bigger than just you. If you are a hopeful athlete yourself, Jake gives some of his best advice to those that are determined to make their dreams a reality. “It’s just a game of being patient,” Jake says, “I guarantee if you stay with it and don’t do anything stupid or lose your head or lose your love for the sport, you will get the success you deserve from all the hard work you put in.” So, what are you waiting for? Go out there and work hard, be patient, and never stop loving your sport and you too will find the success you deserve. Resources: Last week's episode with Jeff Galloway Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Jake’s Twitter Jake’s Instagram New Balance   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order!   Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10

Every runner knows that walking during a run sort of feels like cheating. Runners only walk after they cross the finish line. Walking is often seen as a sign of weakness reserved for beginners, the injured and the defeated. After all, we call ourselves runners, not walkers. Right? What should I do when I don't feel like running?...walk! Consider this: Jeff Galloway, former Olympic runner and professional running coach, ran his fastest ever marathon at the age of 35 coming in at a cool 2:16. He is now 74 years young with hundreds of marathons behind him and plenty more ahead. He hasn’t dealt with a running injury in over 40 years and has coached over 1 million runners to feel as great about running as he does. His secret to his success? Walking. After returning from the navy, Jeff was out of (running) shape and was attending graduate school at Florida State University. He started training with a goal to qualify for the Olympic trials and was quickly introduced to the heat and humidity of the Southeast. Without taking walk breaks Jeff would literally start to hallucinate during his runs. He found that taking a one-minute walk break after each mile he ran dramatically increased his ability to train for the Olympics. He did qualify for the Olympics in 1972 and went on to run the 10,000-meter race in Munich representing the U.S. Several years later, he was asked to create a training program for beginning runners. He implemented the “Run Walk Run” theory that he used to train for the Olympics. However, he underestimated the effect he would have not only on beginning runners, but many advanced runners around the world. Why walking is for everyone Walking isn’t just for beginners or people getting back into running shape. Since Jeff began his “Run Walk Run” campaign, his team has done studies on how taking short walk breaks can improve runners of nearly all levels. They have found that someone who hasn’t previously used the “Run Walk Run” method improves their marathon time by an average of thirteen minutes when they incorporate walk breaks. Oh, and that PR Jeff set at the age of 35? Yep. He even took several walk breaks during his best marathon. But how? Why? For Jeff, it’s all about the mental game. When he takes walk breaks (which can last anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds) he is able to focus his mind on how he’s running. He does a quick check to make sure he isn’t slumped forward, his strides are landing correctly, and his overall form is flawless. These short breaks have helped thousands of runners keep their energy up throughout long distance runs. Jeff also attributes his injury-free running career to this technique. Each break allows him time to refocus on race strategy, correct bad form, and give his legs a short break. Better form and less fatigue is the key to injury prevention. Short breaks from running make that possible. So, what are you waiting for? Start walking! Having a positive running attitude Jeff approaches running with an immense amount of positivity, which he mostly attributes to his parents. Just listening to Jeff’s voice gives you the impression that he could spend hours giving advice to any inquisitive runner. In fact, he spends 5 to 6 hours a day answering emails from his running students. In this podcast, Jeff relates two heart-warming stories that show his genuine spirit. After qualifying for the Olympic 10k, Jeff made it his personal goal to help his good friend Jack Bacheler qualify for the marathon event after Jack did not qualify for the 10k. Jeff paced Jack for that trial event and slowed down during the last few seconds to allow Jack to take the final spot on the team. Jeff Galloway also talks about his favorite student he ever had. That student went from only being able to run the distance between two telephone poles, to qualifying for Boston at the age of 75. (Listen to the podcast to find out who that student was. No spoilers!) Approaching a race as you age is something Jeff has mastered. At some point everyone has to face the fact that their body can’t do what it once could. Joining a strong community of runners and having the attitude of “we’re all in this together” can help ease the transition. Jeff recommends changing your goals as you age. “I can focus on something else,” he says, “I can be injury free. I can enjoy every run. I can run with family and friends.” Running (and walking) is for everyone. Coming to terms with how YOU run is important to experiencing lifelong running fulfillment. Being real with your own training and avoiding the comparison trap is crucial to being a healthy and successful runner. This is Running for Real. Resources: Last week's episode with Lori Richmond  Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Jeff's Books: The Walk Run Method Marathon: You Can Do It! Half Marathon: You Can Do it! Running Until You Are 100 Mental Training for Runners The Story of the Human Body By Daniel Lieberman Jeff’s website Jeff on Twitter Jeff on Instagram Run Disney   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order!   Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10 Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Jeff, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

This children’s book writer and illustrator is the artist behind View from My Run, where she does scenes from along her runs in the same time it takes her to do the run itself. She indicates on her site that she has always been an artist but it took her 39 yrs to become a runner and a bit longer to marry the two together. Lori was successful in the business world as a Corporate Creative Director and then moved on to a career that blended her passion for art and children’s literature. We discuss the process Lori goes though in developing her books and the amazing process it takes to let the picture build the story with a limited number of words allowed in the genre of writing for children. As Lori progressed as a runner she found she was using her run time to problem solve in her business life and had a desire to blend the two together. From that A View From My Run was born, where she paints scenes from her runs in the same time that the run took. She has also now worked with the NY Roadrunners Club and others to help runners develop their artistic side. Today’s Guest Lori Richmond is a picture book illustrator in children’s publishing. She has appeared on Today, Good Morning America and CNN. She lives in Brooklyn NY with her husband and two sons. She runs and draws her runs in New York. What you will learn about: How Lori jumped, at age 39, from a 20 yrs career in a Corporate Creative Director role to go back to her roots as an artist. She built herself an 18 month exit plan that allowed her to return to a passion of art and children’s literature. The process Lori follows in developing a story idea into a picture book where the words and the story blend together into a cohesive whole. How Lori considered herself a fitness failure from childhood, but at age 39 she realized she also needed to take charge of her health in addition to taking charge of her business career. She was inspired by her sister and others in her studio that were runners, including one studio mate that wrote the first C25K program. Her first road race was a half marathon. We discuss how she blended running and art. Her inspiration was realizing her training was paralleling her art work and how she used her runs to problem solve in her artistic life. A photograph taken on a run across the Manhattan bridge inspired her to paint the scene and then realized that a good side project for her to relieve stress was to paint the scenes from her runs to marry the two together. We discuss the comparison trap, how we compare ourselves to others, rather than focusing on how we feel when we are doing an activity. You don’t have to be the best to get something out of it, the joy comes from the feelings. When you run, you have to trust your plan and training. When you do art, or any endeavor, you have to also trust your plan. You have to go forward from where you are, not where others are. Stay with your own compass and where you are in your own plan. We discuss how Lori paces her drawing like her running when trying to determine how to finish a scene in the same time as her run duration. She adjusts her strategy to use materials or details based on the time she has. The same applies to race strategy where she adjusts based on the times she is actually running vs a plan. How she has found that she sees her surroundings differently now that she is paying attention while she is running vs being so how we are so over scheduled and busy that we neglect to admire what is around us. Inspirational Quotes: Children are fearless in their artwork and use their imagination to draw the most beautiful vision they see in their mind. And then at some point we are taught that if it does not look like what you are drawing, it is wrong. When it is imperfect, that is what makes it yours. Concentrate on how you feel rather than what it looks like. Drawing is visually expressing your idea, and if you communicate, even with as simple as a stick figure, it is a success. The unfinished ones sometimes end up being the most interesting ones. Resources: Last week's episode with Derek Murphy of Marathon Investigation Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Lori on Instagram Lori on Twitter Lori's website Bunny's Staycation Book Oopsie-Do Book A Hop is Up Book Skelly's Halloween Book   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order!   Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Lori, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Today we are talking to the man behind Marathon Investigation, a website that seeks to “out” the cheaters of the running world. Derek is himself a runner, has done 11 marathons. The podcast covers how Derek ensures that there are not issues with the data he is seeing/using from race timers/directors before he publishes a report on those who he believes have cheated. We also discuss why he believes people are engaging in this behavior and how social media has both increased the prevalence and made it easier to identify who might be doing so. This podcast also discusses the controversy behind transgender runners and the issues that surround their ability to participate in races. This podcast is a wide ranging discussion of some of the issues around the impact of cheating on racing and what each of us can learn from the cheaters being reported and how we can help be vigilant when we see infractions happening around us and reporting it to the race directors. Today’s Guest Derek Murphy, a financial analyst, father and runner, is the person behind the website Marathon Investigation. What you will learn about: Who is Derek, the man behind the website. The goal of the website is to bring out and identify those who cheat in races, originally to call out those who cheat to qualify for the Boston Marathon but has expanded to other race distances and types and to exposing those who cut a race to reach the podium. How cutting the course is only one way to cheat, others include trading or selling bibs. How Derek was surprised at how easy it was for him to look at race data and determine people were cheating. It spurred his interest in trying to identify those who were trying to profit from others or stealing from someone else. He tries to follow those he suspects to see if there is intent to defraud vs those who cut a course because they are fatigued or not well. How sometimes people themselves prove they cheated by posting their Strava data that clearly shows they didn’t run the entire race. Or clearly shows they have edited the data. Why Derek believes that despite it appearing it focuses on the negatives of the sport, those who benefit but actually then getting into a race like Boston makes it worthwhile. He also has begun to try to balance the negative by reporting on positive stories related to running like charities involved in running to helping people disqualified by mistake get their results corrected. Why Derek decided to cover the issue of transgender runners qualifying for Boston and how difficult it was to balance the discussion so that the issue received the attention it deserved with making sure the intention came across properly. How important language/terminology was to the discussion and how it caused the runners concern over their safety during the race itself. We cover the mass cheating that happened at the Mexico City Marathon/Half Marathon, over 3,000 runners out of roughly 28,000 were disqualified this year and Derek says the real number cheating was over 5,000 and the officials are under-reporting the totals. The impetus was the medal series and runners coveting the medals and being willing to cheat to get them. Inspirational Quotes: The part I hate the most is writing the articles but reporting things to the race directors was not effective at making the practice stop. At most I probably write about 10% of what I notice, the rest I do simply report it to the directors and move on. Resources: Last week's episode with Dean Karnazes Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Marathon Investigation on Instagram Marathon Investigation on Twitter Marathon Investigation on Facebook Amelia Gapin Podcast epiosde Marathon Investigation website   Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order! Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Derek, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

Don't know jack about loosening lug nuts and swapping in a spare? You're definitely not alone. But why don't more women know how to change a tire? And where did the boys-only rules about car care come from anyway? Today, C&C investigate with one handywoman who fixed a flat but broke her date and another whose racetrack dates led to pro racing's first all-female pit-crew. Hear exclusive bonus episodes of Unladylike on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter.  This episode is brought to you by the books She Wants It by Jill Soloway and A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi, Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE], Tommy John [tommyjohn.com/unladylike], and Ulta Beauty [ultabeauty.com]. 

Don't know jack about loosening lug nuts and swapping in a spare? You're definitely not alone. But why don't more women know how to change a tire? And where did the boys-only rules about car care come from anyway? Today, C&C investigate with one handywoman who fixed a flat but broke her date and another whose racetrack dates led to pro racing's first all-female pit-crew. Hear exclusive bonus episodes of Unladylike on Stitcher Premium! Use promo code "UNLADYLIKE" at stitcher.com/premium for a free month trial. Unladylike: A Field Guide to Smashing the Patriarchy and Claiming Your Space is available now, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Follow Unladylike on social @unladylikemedia. Subscribe to our newsletter at unladylike.co/newsletter.  This episode is brought to you by the books She Wants It by Jill Soloway and A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi, Bombas Socks [bombas.com/unladylike with code UNLADYLIKE], Tommy John [tommyjohn.com/unladylike], and Ulta Beauty [ultabeauty.com].  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This internationally renowned athlete known for pushing the limits of his endurance shares real running moments he never has before. Dean, at age 14 ran a marathon to raise money for charity. He started running home when he was in kindergarten and has always had a love for moving. He is known for his amazing endurance achievements, continuing to push what his body is capable of achieving. Dean most recently ran 50 marathons, in all 50 US states, in 50 consecutive days, finishing with the NYC Marathon, which he ran in three hours flat. Dean has also run for 24 hours straight on a treadmill in Times Square. He has run in many many incredible places around the world, on all the continents, across the Gobi desert. He is truly an amazing athlete, and is here to talk about his latest adventure; running the spartathlon, and completing the final 75 miles without any food or fuel other than water. For those who are still running in your later years, Dean is especially inspiring as he is now 55 years old and still going strong. If you want to hear questions and a discussion with Dean unlike any other podcast, this is the episode for you. Today’s Guest Dean Karnazes is an internationally renowned athlete known for pushing the limits of his endurance. Dean has run 350 continuous miles, foregoing sleep for three nights. He's run across Death Valley in 120 degree temperatures, across the Gobi desert, and a marathon to the South Pole in negative 40 degrees. On ten different occasions, he's run a 200-mile relay race solo, racing alongside teams of twelve. What you will learn about: What makes Dean’s calves the way many recognize him. How Dean had what most would consider an ideal life but was not happy with his non-running life, because things were just too easy and routine. How Dean keeps all the fan letters he gets in special folders in his trophy room. Dean discusses his recently released book The Road to Sparta and how he tried to recreate to the best he possibly could, the run Pheidippides did that inspired the marathon as a race distance. He discusses how as runners we get so caught up in the moment and our stubborn pride can prevent us from doing what we know we should do. Dean discusses how difficult it is to deal with all the crowds of people that come out to see him during his endurance events and being torn between needing to rest and wanting to acknowledge the effort they made to come out to see him. How he ended up choosing to forgo his own self care. When we are struggling during a half or full marathon it is a unique sensation to us as runners. Most people don’t have any way to relate to our experience other than perhaps a woman giving birth. We don’t have those intense moments on a day to day basis. There are moments of extreme doubt and suffering that you don’t normally experience in day to day life. How when you run overnight, you are overriding all your normal processes but your body takes over and your body finds a way to compensate and you are sleep running. Dean describes the anguish and struggle that every runner goes through during an endurance race. Shared experiences bring us together and builds bonds and how it doesn’t matter if you are an elite marathoner or first time 5k runner, you share the same experience. Dean runs every race that he attends because he feels it is important to share the experience with others. Dean talks about his participation with Marathon Wines, which is targeted to runners. Greece is the home for fine wines and there are stories of the early Greek runners drinking wine along their runs. The vines in Santorini make unique wines, high in electrolytes and by participating he is helping Greece. Inspirational Quotes: I wanted the pain and the struggle of doing something physical again. I am humbled and awed when I go into my trophy room that one man could accomplish all these things. Taking a few minutes in what might be a 30 hr race to correct something is far better than continuing on, but we get caught up in the passion of what we are doing at the moment. It is the fear of pain that holds people back, so shifting the paradigm to embracing the pain and responding, then your relationship to pain will change. Resources: Last week's episode with Emelia Gorecka Tina4Real Podcast  Running for Real Superstars Community Support Tina through her Patreon Page Buy a Running for Real T-shirt, Tank, or Hat Dean on Instagram Dean on Twitter Dean on Facebook Dean's website Road to Sparta book Marathon Wine website Thank you to Bombas and Bodyhealth for sponsoring this episode of Running for Real. I absolutely LOVE these Bombas Socks, and I think it is SO COOL that they donate a pair to a homeless shelter for every pair you purchase (socks are the number one requested item from homeless shelters, but they cannot accept used pairs). Use code running4real at Bombas.com/running4real and you can get 20% off your first order! Now I am back to training, guess what was the first thing I did to start making sure I recover quicker (as coming back to fitness really beats your body up!), yep, you guessed it, BodyHealth Perfect Amino! Get 10% off at Bodyhealth.com using coupon code TINA10   Thanks for Listening! I hope you enjoyed today's episode. To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Join the Running for Real Facebook Group and share your thoughts on the episode (or future guests you would like to hear from) Share this show on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews will really help me climb up the iTunes rankings and I promise, I read every single one. Subscribe on iTunes or your favorite podcast player. Not sure how to leave a review or subscribe, you can find out here. Thank you to Dean, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the show.

I suspect you’ve been cheated or lied to at some point in your life and thought to yourself, “How in the world did I fall for that?” There is actually a good reason why it happened to you and to every other human on the planet. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cutting-edge-leadership/201109/the-5-reasons-we-get-suckered-and-rippedWhile there is no shortage of advice for people in relationships – I think I have someone who will make you think differently about love and how it really works in the long-term. Dr. Thomas Habib is a clinical psychologist and author of the book If These Walls Could Talk https://amzn.to/2BgCM4w. He will have you thinking differently about love – and he also explains why guys hate chick flicks! Whatever fragrance you wear, you owe it all – or at least in part to Coco Chanel. I’ll explain why and tell you why the most popular fragrance in the world – Chanel No. 5 – has such an unusual name. (Sleeping with The Enemy by Hal Vaughan) https://amzn.to/2MPrfurImagine a discussion about depression that is actually uplifting! With depression affecting so many people (including people in your life, most likely) I think you will enjoy listening to psychiatrist Dr. Kelly Brogran author of the book A Mind of Your Own. She takes a fascinating look at the research around depression and what causes it and what helps it. https://amzn.to/2MvyJ8QThis Week's SponsorsHoka One One. Get free expedited shipping on your first pair of shoes by going to www.hokaoneone.com/SYSKand use the promo code SYSKDaily Harvest. Go to www.Daily-Harvest.com and enter promo code SOMETHING to get three cups FREE in your first box!Hotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking.Bombas Socks.Get 20% off your first order by going towww.Bombas.com/something and use the promo code SOMETHINGLinkedIn Marketing Solutions. To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to www.LinkedIn.com/SOMETHING

Have you ever watched someone blow out the candles on a birthday cake and wondered, “Do I really want to eat cake after someone blew and spit all over it?” I have. So I start this episode with a look at the risks of eating that cake once the candles are out. http://foodnetwork.wikia.com/wiki/Food_DetectivesA lot has been written about peak performance. There are books, articles, podcasts, seminars, speeches and many gurus all claiming to know the magical steps to achieving high performance in your career. So, who’s right? What are you supposed to believe? Marc Effron, author of the book 8 Steps to High Performance https://amzn.to/2OsZqso has taken a look at a lot of the material and separated the fluff from the science. Listen as he explains what really works if you want to really excel in your career. Ever wondered whether or not you should buy a new car if your old car works just fine? Since cars last much longer than a generation or two ago, a lot of drivers struggle with the decision to buy a new car. If you are one of them, you should listen as I discuss this topic. http://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/the-average-american-car-is-a-record-115-years-old/ar-AAdGzIGWhen you think about it, you write a lot. You likely write emails, text messages, memos, reports and more. So HOW you write really matters if you want people to understand what you are trying to say. Josh Bernoff author of the book, Writing Without BS is on a mission to help people improve communication through better writing. Listen to what he has to say and you will instantly become a better writer. https://amzn.to/2KP08xFThis Week's SponsorsHoka One One. Get free expedited shipping on your first pair of shoes by going to www.hokaoneone.com/SYSK and use the promo code SYSKDaily Harvest. Go to www.Daily-Harvest.com and enter promo code SOMETHING to get three cups FREE in your first box!Hotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking.Bombas Socks.Get 20% off your first order by going towww.Bombas.com/something and use the promo code SOMETHINGLinkedIn Marketing Solutions. To redeem a free $100 LinkedIn ad credit and launch your first campaign, go to www.LinkedIn.com/SOMETHING

This episode begins with a look at some fascinating science of everyday life. For example, how the calorie count for food is determined, what does it take to actually crush a Lego brick, why water of the same temperature feels colder than air of the same temperature – and more. http://mentalfloss.com/article/66086/11-scientific-explanations-everyday-lifeDo you swear? If so, why? Are there any benefits to swearing? And how has swearing changed over the years? These are a couple of the questions tackled by Emma Byrne author of the book Swearing is Good For You. https://amzn.to/2vq8R3P. Listen to Emma and you may just come away with a whole new view of the power and usefulness of bad words. You’ve heard the phrase – “Sex sells.” Right? Well actually sex doesn't sell. Violence doesn’t sell either. You’ll hear about some fascinating research that shows that in terms of advertising effectiveness, sex and violence really get in the way. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3169550/Sex-DOESN-T-sell-Consumers-distracted-raunchy-violent-ads-forget-product-study-reveals.html#ixzz3gdzJRKweIf you watch the news or look at social media a lot, you might think the world is becoming a harsh and terrible place. But could it just be perception? Could it really be that the world and the people in it are getting better and have been for a long time? That is the contention of Gregg Easterbrook author of It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear. https://amzn.to/2MddPYH . Gregg explains that when you objectively measure the things that determine how our lives are trending – there are a lot of reasons to celebrate.This Week’s SponsorsHoka One One. Get free expedited shipping on your first pair of shoes by going to www.hokaoneone.com/SYSKand use the promo code SYSKHotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking.Bombas Socks.Get 20% off your first order by going towww.Bombas.com/something and use the promo code SOMETHINGMadison Reed. Get 10% off your first hair color kit plus free shipping by going to www.madison-reed.com and use the promo code SOMETHINGInterContinental Hotel Group. Listen to the podcast called “Stories of the InterContinental Life” at Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Negotiating your own salary can be stressful and difficult. This episode begins with some proven ways to help you maneuver through the negotiation process effectively so you get the best deal and the most money possible. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-negotiate-a-higher-salaryJust about everyone enjoys music. But it is more than mere entertainment. Researcher and writer Dan Levitin author of the book, This is Your Brain on Music discusses how people have used music throughout history and how we use it today to help wake us up, make us think, enhance our mood and help us sleep. https://amzn.to/2zRC39iHouseplants can make any home look better but houseplants also have real health benefits. I’ll reveal why it is worth the fuss and effort for you and your family to fill your home with houseplants. http://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/5-benefits-of-houseplantsSo many of us struggle with clutter – whether it’s our workspace, a room or our entire home. It’s not just getting rid of clutter that’s hard, it’s making sure more clutter doesn’t come in and take its place. Decluttering expert Dana White of www.ASlobComesClean.com is author of the book Declutter at the Speed of Life. She joins me to share some very simple, practical strategies for getting rid of clutter and also talks about the amazing benefits that come when the clutter is gone. https://amzn.to/2uKoHpyThis Week’s SponsorsHoka One One. Get free expedited shipping on your first pair of shoes by going to www.hokaoneone.com/SYSKand use the promo code SYSKHotel Tonight. Download the app Hotel Tonight to your phone and get $25 off your first eligible booking.Bombas Socks.Get 20% off your first order by going towww.Bombas.com/something and use the promo code SOMETHINGMadison Reed. Get 10% off your first hair color kit plus free shipping by going to www.madison-reed.com and use the promo code SOMETHINGInterContinental Hotel Group. Listen to the podcast called “Stories of the InterContinental Life” at Apple Podcasts, GooglePlay or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Do you blush? Most people who do blush wish they didn’t because it is embarrassing and – as blushers know – it is impossible to stop doing it. But blushing has a purpose and I begin this episode by discussing who blushes, why they blush and what it means to others when you do. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-we-blush-social-embarrassmentI’m sure you know that feeling of delight when someone surprises you on your birthday or anniversary or surprised you for no particular reason at all. When you understand how you can create that feeling of delight in others, those people will go out of their way to help you in all sorts of ways. Andy Nulman author of the book Pow! Right between the Eyes! Profiting from the Element of Surprise (https://amzn.to/2J5IwN5) joins me to discuss the power of surprise. Finding true love isn’t always easy – especially the second or third time around. One of the tricks is knowing where to look. So I will tell you the top 3 ways people find the next love of their life. Not just where people meet to find someone to date – but where they find real love. https://amzn.to/2uenFBWEveryone worries about their breath sometimes. Bad breath is sometimes hard to get rid of – and that is partly because people don’t understand where it comes. Dr. Harold Katz, DDS, is the founder of the California Breath Clinics and author of the book The Bad Breath Bible https://www.therabreath.com/ebook/ and he joins me to clear up some myths about bad breath and how to conquer it once and for all. Advertisers in this episode:Bombas Socks. Get 20% off your first sock order from Bombas! Go to www.bombas.com/something and enter the word – something – in the promo code space.Hims. If you are concerned about hair loss get a trial month of prescription treatment for just $5. Go to www.ForHims.com/something.

Summary: In this episode, Dave interviews David Heath, CEO and Founder of Bombas, a company that sells premium leisure athletic socks that do more than make your feet feel good—the make your feet have an impact. For every pair of socks sold, Bombas donates a pair to homeless shelters. Listen as David shares his thoughts on helping out the homeless, how Bombas actually got started, and why you should take little steps to make BIG leaps. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:35 – Introducing David 02:01 – There are 22 employees in David’s company right now 02:20 – Hitting $12M revenue this 2016 03:05 – Bombas’ 3000 sq ft office is based in Manhattan 04:34 – Dave lives 3 blocks from his office 04:53 – They pay about $43/square foot in monthly rent 05:48 – Order fulfillment is done by a third party 07:00 – Dave’s expectations for the business 08:18 – When you’re in fast-growth mode, it’s hard to say where you’ll be in 12, 18 or 24 months 08:32 – Dave on Tech vs Textile companies 10:58 – How Dave started donating to homeless shelters 11:46 – Dave didn’t start Bombas to create wealth for himself 12:28 – Build a business to create impact 13:35 – The multiples in a textile business 15:10 – Gross margin at 60% 16:01 – Operating margin at 30% 16:35 – Dave and his partner, Randy’s exit strategy 19:08 – It’s not about the $ figure, it’s more about where the potential business can go 20:09 – 90% of people leave jobs not because of money 21:07 – Dave raised $140K at Indiegogo 3 years ago to start Bombas 22:17 – The product, story, and the brand just resonated 24:17 – How Shark Tank found Dave 25:51 – Details on the Shark Tank feature 27:47 – “We had every intention of making a deal with any ‘shark’ we could” 28:14 – Damon from Shark Tank as an advisor to Bombas 30:08 – Dave, Randy, and Damon’s equity agreement 31:10 – Negotiating and the diligence process 32:18 – Starting the due diligence process 33:44 – Dave did product development for 2 years 34:35 – “It’s not easy but it’s not that difficult either” 36:09 – All great things are achieved through little steps 38:37 – Check out Dave’s website 38:47 – Use code: EOVL25 to get 25% OFF of any 4 pairs on your first order 3 Key Points: Good business is about more than wealth accumulation–it’s about helping others. Exiting a business is all about deciding if you’re ready—it’s not a numbers thing. Little steps—across a long enough roads—will carry you a great distance. Resources Mentioned: Entrepreneur's Organization – The EO Network Bombas – Dave’s company Indiegogo – Where Dave started fundraising for Bombas Shark Tank – A TV show where Bombas was featured Credits: Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

This week on a special Halloween episode of One Bad Mother: aaaaaahhhh!!!! Something is hitting you...and it's coming from within the house! Biz and Theresa talk about our toddlers hitting, how much it sucks and what, if anything, we can do about it. Plus Biz embraces her inner witch and there are no babies in Theresa's house! Happy Halloween! Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of MaximumFun.org. Our sponsors this week are ThirdLove and Bombas Socks. OBM listeners can try a ThirdLove bra for free for 30 days. Just pay $2.99 upfront for shipping - if it’s not your new favorite bra, returns and exchanges are always free. Visit www.thirdlove.com/badmother to start your free trial today. OBM listeners can visit bombas.com for 20% off four or more pairs of socks. Share your genius and fail moments! Call 206-350-9485* *Be sure to tell us at the top of your message whether you're leaving a genius moment, a fail, or a rant! Thanks!! Share a personal or commercial message on the show! Subscribe to One Bad Mother in iTunes Join our mailing list!

Biz and Theresa revisit potty training and delve into what really makes this a difficult milestone… us! Plus, Biz paints herself in a new light, Theresa has a kindergarten update, and we call the very funny and very real Jamie Glowacki. She's the author of Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know to Do It Once and Do It Right, and she joins us to help with some tough love.  The book: Oh Crap! Potty Training: Everything Modern Parents Need to Know To Do It Once and Do It Right YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCb_bJzjos0eh-mfNDZ7ow0A Twitter: @OhCrapWithJamie Blog: http://www.jamieglowacki.com Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of MaximumFun.org. Our sponsor this week is Bombas Socks. OBM listeners can visit bombas.com for 20% off four or more pairs of socks. Share your genius and fail moments! Call 206-350-9485* *Be sure to tell us at the top of your message whether you're leaving a genius moment, a fail, or a rant! Thanks!! Share a personal or commercial message on the show! Subscribe to One Bad Mother in iTunes Join our mailing list!

Biz and Theresa discuss how major schedule changes, like dropping naps, later bedtimes, and new morning routines, are natural and unavoidable...not to mention mildly traumatic for us. Is it strange that our kids can roll with these changes better than we can? Nope. They don’t rely on a set schedule to organize their lives like we do! Plus, Biz feels all alone, Theresa is still pregnant, and we talk to Janet Stickmon about her essay series To Black Parents Visiting Earth: A Love Letter-Life Guide to Raising Black Children in the 21st Century. Twitter: @Blackapina1 Essays on Mutha Magazine: http://muthamagazine.com/2016/07/to-black-parents-visiting-earth-letter-1-by-janet-stickmon Broken Shackle: https://brokenshackle.wordpress.com Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of MaximumFun.org. Our sponsors this week are MVMT Watches and Bombas Socks. OBM listeners can get 15% off plus free shipping and free returns from MVMTwatches.com/mother. You can visit bombas.com for 20% off four or more pairs of socks.   Share your genius and fail moments! Call 206-350-9485* *Be sure to tell us at the top of your message whether you're leaving a genius moment, a fail, or a rant! Thanks!! Share a personal or commercial message on the show! Subscribe to One Bad Mother in iTunes Join our mailing list!

### Summary: In Episode #227 Ari and Nick welcome Dave Heath from [Bombas Socks](http://www.bombas.com/) onto the Less Doing Podcast. Growing up, Dave was always irritated by the toe seam in his socks. As he got older and became more interested in fashion, he discovered there was no _affordable_, high-quality sock in the marketplace, so he filled the niche with [Bombas Socks](http://www.bombas.com/). Listen to learn how Dave made the most of a small window of opportunity, and how the lessons from his experience can be extracted for universal benefit. ### Time Stamped Show Notes: - 15:15 – Introduction of Dave Heath - 15:45 – “An engineering marvel” - 16:05 – How Dave got the idea - 16:45 – The sock marketplace - 17:15 – Premium socks were marketed to specific athletic categories - 17:50 – But they did have a real difference in quality - 18:10 – He took the good qualities and made something with a lower price point - 18:30 – Multi-purpose socks - 19:30 – [Bombas Socks](http://www.bombas.com/) are geared to a mass market - 20:20 – “We're trying to do for socks what Starbucks did for coffee.” - 21:00 – The technology of the sock - 21:20 – Dave grew up as a kid with ADHD - 22:10 – The toe seam - 22:40 – Arch support - 23:00 – Preventing blisters - 23:20 – Compression - 23:40 – High-grade cotton - 24:10 – The line seam - 24:30 – The history of “tube socks” - 25:50 – “It really makes a huge difference.” - 26:15 – Gross-market costs are doubled - 26:30 – They donate one pair for every pair sold - 27:03 – The grey and black socks that they started with - 27:40 – The donation sock changed - 28:40 – The donation sock is only 10% cheaper to produce than the regular socks - 29:25 – What donation companies need to consider - 30:15 – Talking margins - 30:50 – Their donation model has helped drive much of Bombas success - 32:15 – The company was first launched on [Indiegogo](https://www.indiegogo.com/#/picks_for_you) - 32:45 – Copycats on crowdfunding sites - 33:15 – “We were one of the first to launch our sock brand on [Indiegogo](https://www.indiegogo.com/#/picks_for_you)” - 33:30 – The benefits of using the digital medium - 35:10 _– Top 3 Tips to be More Effective:_ - Be really good at one thing. - Do 15 to 20 minutes of meditation each day. - [com](http://www.bombas.com/) - 37:25 – Dave's favorite sock is their black quarter-length. ### 3 Key Points: - Don't be afraid to mess with something that has been the same for thirty years. - Keep your niche very specific until you have proven your success. - Be careful with donation companies. Look closely at their margins and what quality of product they donate. ### Resources Mentioned: - [Indiegogo](https://www.indiegogo.com/#/picks_for_you): The crowdfunding site that got Bombas Socks started. - New Podcast: Email your ideas for the podcast's name to [va@lessdoing.com](mailto:va@lessdoing.com) - [Blinkist](https://app.blinkist.com/lessdoing_offer?aff_id=2406&offer_id=2&transaction_id=10229ea1123c71a3c647e10d84fbab): An online resource that provides book summaries - [Calbert](http://www.makecalbertgreatagain.com/instructions): A Chrome extension that takes an event from your email and adds it to your calendar. - [Rthm](https://getrthm.com/?ref=producthunt): Takes your DNA and gives you feedback for aspects of your life. - [Slaask](http://get.slaask.com): Connects through Slack with customers and clients - [“How to Be Productive”](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2016/07/how-to-be-productive/): An article that teaches you how to utilize your time - Text DOLESS to 33733 to sign up for the Less Doing Newsletter ### Credits - [Original Music provided by Felix Bird](http://2014.felixbird.com/) - [Audio Production by Chris Mottram](https://www.linkedin.com/pub/christopher-mottram/96/b12/708) - [Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives](http://www.mallardcreatives.com/Testimonials) ------- [Get the FREE Optimize, Au --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/lessdoing/message

In this episode we talk with law professors and practicing attorneys (Colin Miller, David Moran, and Rachel Kamins) about the appeals process and the difference between an appeal and a "post conviction" (I didn't know they were different things either - mind blowing stuff here). Contact: Website: www.actualinpod.com Twitter: @actualinpod Email: actualinnocencepod@gmail.com Sponsors for this episode are: Bombas Socks: www.bombas.com Discount Code: Actual Bombas Kid of the Week Entries: www.actualinpod.com/Bombas TJ21 Media Group: http://www.tj21.com/ (mention this show) For Advertising Inquiries Contact Executive Producer: Dennis Robinson dennis.e.robinson@gmail.com Music: Theme: “Through The Lens” by Andy G. Cohen t Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License https://andyg.co/hen/songs/le Background: "Sunset" by Kai Engel Released under a Creative Commons Attribution International License http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/Idea/Kai_Engel_-_Idea_-_09_Sunset

Cameron Ellis has something hidden in the basement, and a letter addressed to Karl van Sant leads to a mysterious John Doe in the Pacific Northwest. SUPPORT TANIS ON PATREON FOR A WHOLE BUNCH OF EXCLUSIVE BONUS AUDIO AND VISUAL STUFF! http://patreon.com/tanispodcast For more information, including supporting materials for each episode visit: http://tanispodcast.com http://twitter.com/tanispodcast Check out RABBITS! http://rabbitspodcast.com Thank you so much for listening, and please visit out our sponsors: http://squarespace.com OFFER CODE: TANIS For fans of mystery, true crime, suspense, science, narrative, drama, npr, serial, science fiction, horror, scary, mysterious, creepy, gimlet, this american life, the black tapes, alex reagan, nic silver, pnws, terry miles, paul bae, podcasts, podcast, wnyc, kcrw, itunes, eld fen! THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Squarespace, Stamps.com, Bombas Socks!

From a conjoint analysis, to the deal Bombas made with Daymond John of Shark Tank, Co-Founder David Heath, walks us through how Bombas Socks is blowing up a stodgy sock industry!  Lots to learn from this episode!

This week, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary by recording a live podcast in front of 800 people! If you're looking for substance, this isn't the week to tune in, but the event captured all of the non-sequitur silliness that has defined the podcast over the last decade. As far as birthday parties go, this one was a blast. The show is sponsored by Bombas Socks and Squarespace. EPISODE SPONSOR

This week, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary by recording a live podcast in front of 800 people! If you’re looking for substance, this isn’t the week to tune in, but the event captured all of the non-sequitur silliness that has defined the podcast over the last decade. As far as birthday parties go, this one was a blast. The show is sponsored by Bombas Socks and Squarespace. EPISODE SPONSOR

This week on the show, we have Planetshakers in the studio playing some songs from their new album, and we talk with Jennie Allen about the re-release of her book ‘Anything'. Also, we get to use the bleep button a few times. Mostly on Jesse. This week's episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks.--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/relevant-podcast/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/relevant-podcast/support See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week on the show, we have Planetshakers in the studio playing some songs from their new album, and we talk with Jennie Allen about the re-release of her book ‘Anything’. Also, we get to use the bleep button a few times. Mostly on Jesse. This week’s episode is sponsored by Bombas Socks.