03 Aug Why The Founder Of TOMS Shoes Wants You To Learn Ten New Habits
The story of Blake Mycoskie starting TOMS Shoes is well known in entrepreneurial circles. While many would be content after building a half billion-dollar business, Blake is not one of them. After experiencing his own burnout after TOMS, Blake was inspired to start Madefor, a 10-month program where people learn a new habit or practice each month. We sat down to talk about the inspiration for Madefor and why this focus on well-being is more important than ever.
Dave Knox: With Madefor, you are in the middle of building your second business. What is the biggest lesson you took away from building TOMS that you are applying to Madefor?
Blake Mycoskie: I think the biggest thing that I took away is really when you’re focused on building a business that has a big mission and specifically one that can serve so many people, it’s really easy to build incredible culture in your company and attract amazing talent as a result. At first, when I was trying to put together this kind of dream team of scientists on human behavior, I thought it was going to be really challenging to do because they are very busy and get a lot of requests for their time and attention. But when we told them that our mission was to eliminate some of the suffering that comes from modern living, and use the science that they have studied in their lab to help people sleep better, and eat better, and feel better, and be more connected and more grateful, every single one of them just signed on immediately. So many of these scientists dedicated their lives to something very specific. How do you optimize the perfect night’s sleep. How do you really declutter your life, both in your work life and in your personal life, in a way that frees your mind up to be more creative? Giving them the opportunity to get that science out of their labs and into the hands of people in a way that they can not only learn these habits, but more importantly, sustain them, everyone jumped on. I think I learned that because that was the same case with TOMS, when we said,” We’re going to sell shoes so that we can give shoes to children in need,” we had some of the top talent in the country join the company. I think having a big mission and especially one that hits home is an incredible way to build the necessary talent for a new startup.
Knox: Building a company is a roller coaster. What was the impetus that had you want to jump back on and build a second venture?
Mycoskie: After spending over a decade building TOMS to a half a billion- dollar business and giving 96 million children’s shoes, I felt pretty dang content with the entrepreneur business aspect of my life. I wasn’t really thinking that I was going to jump back into a startup or a business, at least until my kids went to college. But what happened was is I had a deeply profound, personal experience that radically changed my life, and my mental health, and my wellbeing, and my physical health, and so much so that my only response out of the gratitude from my experience was to share this with as many people as possible. In doing that, I developed this Madefor program, which is a 10- month program where people learn a new habit and practice, one a month for 10 months. And they are the exact habits and practices I learned from some of the top scientists in the world. I just felt like I had to share it, and that turned into a new business.
Knox: How did you go about finding those experts and the habits that inspired Madefor in the first place?
Mycoskie: I was on this journey to really learn from the best minds in science, around how people would really live their best life, who’s really flourishing and why, and most particularly why I wasn’t feeling that way. I had all the kind of markers of success, an incredible business, helped millions of kids around the world, a great family and friends. But in 2017, I found myself quite burned out and actually diagnosed with mild depression. As I looked deep into it, what I recognized was there were a lot of these basic things from a physical and mental and even purposeful level that I kind of put on the back burner when I was charging and working so hard in building TOMS. And at that same time, I met a gentleman who ultimately became my business partner, named Pat Dossett, and he was a Navy Seal for nine years and had a very specific focus on after his time on the teams of really human potential and flourishing. When I talked to him about some of my own struggles, he and I together, agreed to reach out to the scientific community. The first person we reached out to was a neuroscientist at Stanford named Andrew Huberman who really opened our eyes to this idea of a fixed mindset versus growth mindset, and how the neuroplasticity in your brain can allow you to learn and sustain new habits that will make a huge difference in your life, no matter how old you are. The other thing that Andrew really helped us do is identify the other top scientists studying really critical habits like human connection, gratitude, breath work, sleep, all around the country. We just went on this one-year-long research and experimentation phase where we not only tested these practices on ourselves, but really learned from these scientists. Ultimately, after doing extensive research for over a year, we found that there weren’t 12 things, there were only 10. So the Madefor program is only 10 months. And with those 10 things, we spend a lot of time testing on ourselves and with beta groups to really understand what is the proper order. And the order is really set to coincide with neuroplasticity and how you can not only learn but sustain these habits. Some people would say they sequentially get harder. I actually think that you are just priming your brain so that you can take on different ones in the order that they go. But ultimately, they end with helping all of our members answer this question that I believe all of us answer or want to answer at some point in our life, and that is what am I made for? And that’s where the name Madefor comes from.
Knox: One of the most fascinating parts of the program is the fact that while everything in the world is going digital, you guys chose to go analog. What drove that choice?
Mycoskie: The answer is science. My business partner, Pat Dossett, is the most non- bullshit guy you’ll ever meat. He is just allergic to anything that feels like a fad, or a trend, or anything like that. While there are huge trends in using digital devices to tell us our heart rates and our sleep and all of these things, what the science showed was it is extremely difficult to learn and sustain a new habit if you’re constantly digitally distracted. We decided to make our program completely analog by sending you a kit once a month. And in that kit, you are going to learn one basic thing. Now, these are not crazy, bio-hacking, out-there stuff. This is stuff like, how can you absolutely know that you’re doing everything possible, in a very simple way, to optimize and get the perfect amount of sleep? The right amount of deep sleep and the right amount REM sleep where you are looking at how do you wake up feeling more refreshed than you’ve ever felt in your life? And why, scientifically is that so important for your longevity and your mental clarity, and your mood? The thing is, is we decided that it was going to be more expensive, and it was going to take more time, but ultimately we’re all about effectiveness. And the most effective way to help someone learn a new habit or practice and sustain it is to eliminate the digital distraction from the program. Once you sign up, there’s very little digital interaction beyond that, and everything that you need comes in the box each month. In that box, we have the curated science. We take literally decades of science and curate it to about a 25 minute read that has been written by an incredible writer, who really can distill complex science into a very easy to understand concepts. The second thing is either one or two tools that Madefor has designed specifically for helping you adopt and learn that habit. And then the third thing in the box is your challenge card and your accountability measures so that you can really stay on-track during the month, as you learn that new habit and practice.
Knox: As you launched the business, what do you find is the spark for somebody signing up for Madefor?
Mycoskie: I think at some point, just like my own journey, is you need some form of a pain point. I don’t think it necessarily needs to be a huge pain point like I was experiencing, mild depression and burnout, but it kind of is one of those things where you wake up one day and you’re like,” You know what? I really just don’t sleep as well as I did when I was in my twenties, and it’s getting worse as I get older. I don’t really know what to do about it.” Or,” I always am dependent on that double espresso shot in the afternoon to give me energy and something innately just doesn’t feel right on that. I feel like I’m running my adrenals and that’s going to catch up with me.” Or,” I’ve been working so hard as an entrepreneur, or a CEO, or an executive that I’ve really lost touch with some of my closest friends. I really want to understand how that human connection and what are some very simple but effective ways that don’t take a lot of time, but maybe will help me feel more connected, and that might help me feel better in my life?” It’s all these little things that lead. It’s usually not a big thing. We’re trying to get to people early. The thing is, if we can help people develop these strong baselines that will really make them feel great and help them mentally and physically, and connect them more, and help them sleep better, and help their bodies move better, and get rid of those aches and pains, if we can do that, then they’re less likely to go down this path of having what I would call a real mental health crisis.
Knox: With TOMS and now Madefor, your focus is on sparking positive change. What advice do you give to people on their companies authentically making a difference and not having it come off like a marketing play?
Mycoskie: I think so many companies and CEOs get this totally wrong, to be honest. You already kind of answered the question by using the word authentic. That word gets thrown around a lot, so I am sometimes hesitant to use it, but truly I haven’t found a better word that better describes how a company can integrate a cause or a mission into their business. It has to be authentic. Usually, the way it is most authentic is if it comes from a personal experience that the CEO or the founder had. So obviously TOMS, I saw many children who were suffering from not having shoes in South America, and that personal story is what led to the initial growth of TOMS, and so many people connecting to the brand and the one- for- one movement. Now, my experience with having some burnout and dealing with the challenges of modern living and looking to science to help me feel better, is how we can authentically share that our mission is taken from a personal experience that wants to be shared with the world. And so that’s the exact same type of situation. I really think that it’s so critical that there’s that personal story, that personal connection, from the leader of the organization, if you’re going to integrate a cause or a mission into your business.
*This article first appeared in Forbes on August 3, 2020
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