November 25, 2019 • 34 mins
FYI!!! Carla Marie is no longer the host of a morning show in Seattle but she is still supporting small businesses in every way possible. She’s even started her own small business with her radio cohost and best friend, Anthony. All of the links below will help you stay up to date!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Side Hustlers. I'm your host, Carla Maurie from
my Heart Radio. The whole point of this podcast is
to talk to people who are following a passion outside
of their day job. People who thought it would be
a great idea to work extra for something that they
really loved. And sometimes we talked to people who have
left the corporate world and have taken that side hustle
and turns it into a full time job. Now you
(00:21):
can follow me at the Carla Murie on Instagram. You
can listen to My Day Job, which is my morning
show on I Heart Radio, the Carla Maurie and Anthony
Show on one or six point one Kiss FM in Seattle.
You can hear all of that also on I Heart Radio.
So yeah, this podcast is my side Hustle. But this
week's guest is Rami. Rami is based here in Seattle, Washington,
(00:42):
and he started his own sock company and it's because
he was out hiking and hated the way his socks
felt and he literally started an entire company because of that.
And it's incredible and everything he's doing is amazing and
he gives back and all that great stuff. But I
want you to hear Ramy's story for a lot of people,
you know, why are you? What? Do you know? What
(01:03):
you want to do? And this is something you want
to do and do it. I'm a hustle, hustle, do it.
I'm a hustle, do it. I'm a hustle. Come on,
ask about me, yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast
we call The Root. So in studio with me today,
(01:23):
I have Rammy from From the ground Up Socks. Hello,
Ramy Carlo Marine. How you doing. I'm great, How are
you good? Okay, So, before we get into your story
and how this was your ultimate side hustle and all
of that stuff, tell me what From the ground Up
Socks is sure. From the ground Up is a We're
just a team of outdoor loving Pacific Northwest people who
created hiking socks that feature local mountain ranges on them,
(01:46):
like Matt right near the Cascade Range. And the biggest
thing that we focus on is creating a high performance,
functional and stylish sock that inspires adventure and protects the environment. Well,
I'm holding a pair right now and I can tell
you they are great quality docks. Like they're not. They're
not that cheap feel if that's the best way. But no,
they really are incredible. But how do you give back
(02:08):
to the environment. Yeah, so we built a partnership with
Washington Trails Association, their local nonprofit here in Washington that
protects and maintains our trails in public lands. So for
every sale of our socks, we donate five pc of
that purchase to help protect and preserve those trails. And
you can go to ft gu socks dot com. That's
from the ground Up socks. So who knows what I'm saying.
(02:30):
So this was a side hustle for you, very much,
a side hustle. Talk about what it was like when
you had a full time job and then why you
decided to just start making socks. So I used to
work as account manager and partnerships for the women's professional
soccer team here in Seattle, and at the same time
I had launched this hiking sock brand called from the
ground Up, and things that work were pretty busy. You know.
(02:50):
I'd spent like forty plus hours a week, including weekends
for game days, just working for the team, and you know,
any and up all of my week nights working on
the business. But like, why socks? So I grew up
forty five minutes north the Seattle in a town called
Lake Stevens. And I was a huge hiker and a skier.
And I went on a hiking triple with my friends
one day and we're the wrong socks, the worst, the worst,
(03:14):
and skiing like I've done on skiing, I'm like, my
whole I've got two days that are ruined because my
feet hurt so absolutely you don't realize how how sensitive
your tootsies are. But I ended up getting a hole
in my socks and just ravaged my feet with blisters.
When I got back, I did some research. I was
looking up for some good hiking socks. Found that marino
wool was a really good material that's used for it.
(03:36):
But every sock that I found was either too itchy
or too hot or like just plain ugly. Yeah and there, Yeah,
there are a lot of ugly ones when you find
a good parent and normally is that they're ugly. But yeah,
the ischy thing, why, I have no idea. I think
it has something to do with the wool, maybe the manufacturing.
But yeah, So after after searching and being disappointed with
my findings, um, I decided to just kind of create
(03:57):
my own. How old were you when you just out
at that? I was twenty three years old. So you're
you have a full time job at a pretty awesome
company totally, and you're like, I'm gonna start making socks. Ye,
this thing that you have used probably every day for
your entire life. There are plenty of them in the world,
but you knew that you had a fix to the
problem when it came to hiking, skiing, whatever it may be.
(04:19):
So what was your first step? Nice pun by the way, Oh,
I didn't even look at me. Improv is paying off
and I don't even know it. Figure out a lot
of feet jokes when you're in the sock. Sure. So
the first step was just doing some research online trying
to find manufacturers here in the US to manufacturer sock
for US. I finally found one in North Carolina. They're
an awesome, small family business over there, and they create
(04:42):
these high performance Marino wool and poly Pro socks. And
poly Pro for people who don't know, that, is a
synthetic fabric that's incredibly eco friendly. It's much better than
the other material out there like polyester, nylon, rayon, and additionally,
it doesn't leach any toxic chemicals during production. It replicates
the effects of marino wool. So it's moisture waking, it's breathable,
(05:06):
it's durable, it's odor resistant, antimicrobial, antibacterial. I could go
on and on, but I don't know more people thank you.
So I ended up getting a sample from them and
just testing them out, testing them out with some of
the top outdoor sock brands out there, and found that
they held up just great. Yeah, and then you decided,
(05:26):
all right, I'm gonna do this, but I want to
put my own spin on it, my own designs that
whole thing. Did you know how to design? Like, how
did you even do that? Yeah? I'm not a big
designer myself. I I graduate from you dub I was
a can major with an entrepreneurship miner. But being an entrepreneur,
I learned that for any of the weaknesses that I have,
find those people to fill those gaps in very So.
I have a friend of mine, he's a designer, top
(05:49):
of his class from University of Georgia, and he basically
creates all of our designs for our socks, for any
of our merchandise we're creating. So I basically just chatted
with him and I was like, Hey, I'm thinking about
making these socks. Can you create some mountains on them?
And he's like, sure, no idea about socks, why I'm
interested in it or anything. So he made those designs
(06:11):
for me, sent them out to our supplier down in
North Carolina, and yeah, the rest was history. Do you
still have your first sample that they made? Do you
have to better me? Got to frame him. I'm going
to frame him for sure, or it's still wear them,
I mean, whatever, whatever you want. Does he still do
a lot of the designs for you? He does? Yeah,
so he is like part of the from the ground
(06:32):
up team. Definitely. That's amazing. So how long were you
working your full time job while launching your own company.
I worked my full time job for about a year
while I was running this business on the side. Here.
I ended up doing full time into the business in
January of this year and haven't looked back since. That's incredible,
But there was definitely chaos to get to that point.
(06:54):
Oh absolutely, So why did you leave your original full
time job? So? I was working my full time job,
happy as a clam and partnerships, but things kind of
just went belly up. We didn't make as much money
as we hope to. And let that be a lesson
to all of you. Go to the women's soccer games.
They're amazing, they're so great. Seattle Sound is just one.
(07:16):
The MLS Cup, the women's national team as one, back
to back world championships, So what are you guys waiting for?
By the way, fully support all of that. So I'm
a pent behind that, But you're right. I mean a
lot of people will think like, oh, well, it's just
it's an organization, or women aren't being paid enough because
the teams aren't spending the money or whatever it is,
and no, it's because people aren't going to the games.
(07:37):
And we get on this rant all the time on
our morning show and I'm not going to go into
it on the podcast, but you from someone from the
back end of it, you're also saying the same thing. Absolutely,
it went belly up. It went belly up. They didn't
have enough money to keep me on, so they let
me go. It's kind of crazy to me. I've never
been fired from a job before four at that point,
twenty four at that point, yeah, I kind of like
(07:57):
hit a low point in my life. I just kind
of like starry questioning myself worth. I was like, what
am I good at? I don't know anything? So isn't
that all of the normal stuff that you go through
and that happens totally, Yeah, just the process, the greeting process.
But in that low moment, I realized that all the
work that I had put in, all that passion and
that energy that I had put into working for the
soccer team, I could just apply to my own business.
(08:17):
That's incredible. So I decided to do that and the
rest was history. It's so funny when you think about that, Like,
we put so much energy into our corporate into our
day jobs, but if you took that energy and put
it into something you're truly passionate about it. If you're
not passionate about your day job and you put that
energy there, what can you do in that world? And
you're clearly you have proven it. You've got a full
(08:40):
blown company at this point, You've got people who work
for you, and I want to get into that in
a second. But you didn't go right into working from
the ground up full time. You did a part time job.
I did. Yeah, So I was very fortunate where my
family's business I could kind of fall back on that
and work part time with them. Uh. So my family
were a bunch of data traffic data collector is uh
(09:00):
still if you've ever seen those black road tube stretched
across the street when you're driving, Yeah, we're in the
business of setting those up. So what is that actually collecting? What?
Just volume? Speed classification of vehicles. I can't get caught
for speeding, Okay, good to know, Yeah, good to know. Okay,
So what did you do then? Yeah, so my job
(09:21):
was a field technician, So I basically my job was
to go out plan our route, set those road tubes
up on the street, and yeah, just like pick them
up when they had to be picked up, managed the
team of other field text and that's just kind of
what I did. But fortunately for me, it granted me
a lot of flexibility in my schedule and it played
pretty decently. So I was pretty content doing that and
(09:41):
just putting my effort into building my business. That's incredible
that you were able to find a way to make
both things you know, work and then really eventually make
that jump to earlier this gent this year January into
being a full time business owner with from the ground
up Socks when did you make at connection with Washington
(10:01):
Trails Association. I made that connection with them of August
of last year. Okay, so that was pretty early on. Yeah,
it's pretty pretty recent. They're awesome. I shot them an email.
I was like, Hey, I'm creating this stock company. I
want to give you guys money. And usually when people
say you want to give us money, yeah, we'll work
with you. Yeah sure, So yeah, no, w t A.
They're great. The work that the day was amazing, so
we wanted to support them anyway that we could. So
(10:23):
your partnership with them started around augusten. What is it
the same thing now? Has it grown? Do you guys
work together in different things? Have you done events? What
is it like now? When we first became partners with them,
we sponsored this event they host called Hykathon, where it's
a month of August. Everybody who is participating in it
just tracks their miles hiking miles. That's awesome. Yeah, and
(10:45):
it's great. It raises funds for w t A. We're
huge sponsors of it. We absolutely love it. We love
the work that people put into it, and so at
the end of every year we donate what we've earned
in the year to them that's filed. Yeah, and it's
cool that you've been able to do something obviously that
you love, but also give back and it's environmentally friendly
and you are giving back to an amazing organization and
(11:05):
you've only been doing this for two years. About two years. Yeah,
like that's incredible to see what else you're gonna do?
Are you in stores yet? Yeah? So we do have
some retail partners carrying us. I'm just gonna give him
a shameless plug. Right. You can go to the stock Monster.
It's an awesome stock shop in Wallingford. That story. They're awesome.
(11:26):
They're an amazing company. The owner Kelly, she's great. Definitely
recommend going there. Another story you can pick us up
at is Super Jock and Jill and Green Lake awesome
shoe store, Greg's Cycle. All three of their locations over
in Green Lake, Lynnwood and Bellevue. You can go to
the Joe Chocolate Cafe and Pike Place. My really good
friends started that company, so we kind of had an
(11:46):
end with them. Yeah. And then there's this really awesome
shop in Ballard called Turntables and Trails. How do I
not know this place? They're pretty small, but they're awesome.
The guy who owns it, Spencer, He's a great guy. Um.
They still lightly used making gear and turntables, so it's
a pretty awesome spot to go for those two things.
That's incredible. The fun fact about super Jock and Jill
(12:08):
my friends. Grandma created the store, but years and years
ago she was a runner, and I believe her son
was an Olympic runner, and she was just knew that
there were no really good sneaker stores around here, and
she launched it. And she's like, she's badass. Her name
is Laurel and she hangs out at the Wallingford Starbucks
every morning. She is the coolest, she's the best. I know,
(12:33):
she'll be your best friend. How did you get an in?
Obviously your friend is that Joe's Chocolate, But how did
you start making these connections to get your products sold
into stores? Literally just walk into the store. It's not
people are like get out of here. Mr. Usually walk
in and I'm like, Hi, who does you're buying? Yeah?
I know, so yeah, walk into the store. People are
usually receptive to that. It's really great. They are always
(12:55):
looking for a new product that you know, aligns with
the values of their store. As well, so do you
show up with like a briefcase and like open it
up my jacket? I got the socks lined in there. Yeah. Well,
I'm sure business owners appreciate the face to face and
not just someone firing off an email. Absolutely, I've sent off.
I couldn't tell you how many emails have sent off
and never heard response. But the amount of turnover that
(13:16):
I get from just sending emails out is like just
so not worth doing. I'd rather just walk into the
store and just say hi, I introduce myself right, and
I can understand if it's somewhere you can drive too.
If you're reaching out to people from all over the country,
you're not gonna show up to all of those, but
if you can, why not? Absolutely? So from the ground up.
Where is your office? So we actually don't have an office.
(13:37):
I like to keep it that way. I live here
in Seattle. I live in Green Lake, so I operate
everything out of my apartment. And because we sell to
retail stores and we do all of our sales online,
it's pretty easy for us to just kind of take
care of everything through that. Do you ship on your
own or do you have so you're physically it's you
packaging and shipping the socks, so when people buy that,
the personal touch from the founder. Okay, that is incredible.
(14:00):
Thank you. You have people working for you? Now how
many total? So we have about five people working with us. Yeah,
and they're they're partners of mine. So you know, we
have a content collection team for our Instagram or social media.
They do all of our storytelling for the brand is
a whole another job. It's incredibly important. Yeah, I mean,
(14:20):
they're they're Fortunately, there were two friends of mine. They
had their own companies called Imagine Night and they basically
just do all this like media collection. The work they
do is incredible. They're totally aligned with my values as
being like Pacific Northwest lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, hikers, skiers, all that.
So the content we get is really good. Oh, I know,
your Instagram does look great, so now I know why
(14:41):
you've got to shout us behind it. So you've got
them working on that. You have your friend from University
of Georgia who designs it. Who else we got on
the team? Have my other partner, her name is Demi
Xenos and she helps me out with the operations of
the company. So she and I graduated from the you
dub together worked together at that soccer team as well,
and so she's kind of been with me at the
(15:02):
start of this, you know, help keep my nose clean.
She's very very like meticulous, detail oriented things, very strategically,
so she's definitely a good person to have in my corner.
So she's the one that's like, no, Rommy, we can't
do that, or we can't do it like that. Oh yeah,
she tells me all the time, and I'm like, come on,
She's like, no, you need someone like that otherwise God
(15:23):
only knows what you would have done at this point. Yes,
your packaging is awesome. Thank you. So I love this.
You've got right up front. How much you get back
to Washington Trails Association, You've got to thank you in there.
There's a message from you, which is incredible. I'm assuming
that first pair of socks she sould didn't come in
this kind of packaging. No, definitely not yea. So how
do you even like where do you even starting? Like, Okay,
(15:45):
I need this packaging for my socks, Like, how do
you do that? Just go to the other stores and
see what those other hiking socks are doing for their packaging. Yeah,
I can tell you right now, like the amount of time, sweat, equity, tears,
arguments went into that design of that packaging countless. I mean,
my hairline probably receved like six inches. But I'm glad
we did it. It really, it just pops off the shelf.
(16:07):
That was the whole idea, with that bright green. Having
all that information on the packaging. That took so much thoughts,
so much attention. Even the way we word things right,
just just like the wording on the packaging took so
much time. It has to though. You have you have
to care about that kind of stuff. And I always
say this as and as a business owner. You have
to care about it because no one else will. Yes,
(16:29):
I mean the customers want I mean no, it's yours.
It's just your baby. You have to care about it.
I couldn't tell you how many people have shown this
packaging and been like, yeah, I look at all this
amazing work it is, and they're like cool, cool, tossing sad. Okay, okay,
just so thank you for asking about the package. No,
I'm happy that I did that. I love that it's
also made from recycled craft paper. It is I'm a
(16:51):
fan of that. Thank you. Also in the US also
love that your family, your parents, your friends, all that.
Has everyone been super supportive from the beginning or they're
like Robbie Socks. Really dude, they've all been incredible. I mean,
such a support system. It's and that's that's honestly like
something I needed going through this, because yeah, it's a
(17:12):
sock company. I'm not changing the world. I'm not. I'm
not like I mean, you might change the Waton Trolls
Association fingers crossed, but I'm not. And you know, I'm
not out here like caring cancer or anything. Yes, but
I mean people need socks. People need good socks, especially
when they're getting out in the world and doing amazing
things and being active. And if you're not going to
(17:33):
care about this, then who is I say that all
time about the radio. I'm like, why am I stressed
about this? I'm not doing brain surgery, but it's a
job and someone's got to do it, and I love
doing it. I'm helping someone in some way, and I
think it's important to be passionate and care about whatever
you're doing that much as much as a brain surgeon would,
(17:53):
but as much. And that's absolutely right, Like, I had
such a passion for what I do, and and it
doesn't matter what the product is. Like obviously, when I
make the product that's going to be top of its class,
it's going to have to be the best product out there.
But the passion that I put into it, the the
alignment in my views that this product, this brand has,
I mean, that's that's what drives me every day to
(18:13):
do what I do. Yeah, if you like came in
here and like, oh, here's my socks and like threw
them down like I'm not gonna care, but you obviously
present it well. So you can't show up to everyone
and be like, hey, here's my socks, this is my comming,
this is awesome. But you've shown that with the packaging,
you've put your passion into the little things and even
Instagram things like that. It's those things that people will
(18:36):
judge you on right away. And if it's done well
and done right and shows who you are and shows
your brand, it's going to help you in the end.
And I think a plus and all that for you.
So put up there. You told me when we were
first emailing that you have high goals for your brand
and your company what are some of those goals. Well,
I think the big thing that we want to do
is become Washington's sock. When people think of other big
(19:00):
brands like Darn Tough, they think Vermont. When they think
Smart Will, they think Colorado. When people think from the
ground up, they're gonna think Washington like that. They're going
to get that pride to get to that point. Obviously,
being on podcasts like this definitely helps. But also we're
aiming for a deal with ari I. I was gonna
say yes, so we're gonna make this happen. Let's do it.
I want to help tweet ARII. Yeah. If anybody out
(19:24):
there knows anybody working at ARII Corporate, I would love
to get an introduction. I might know somebody. Okay, might
be able to make this happen. Cool, let's do it, hopefully,
because I just said it on the podcast. You said it,
so it's it's it's happening, and I do. I want
people to follow you on Instagram it's f T g
U Socks and then your website is ft g U
(19:45):
socks dot com. You can spart, you can wear these
socks even if you're not in Washington. We have people
all over the U s wearing our socks like it's
so crazy because I've had the biggest struggle with ski
socks over the last nine years of my ski career,
and I am so excited to wear these now. Oh
these will be great for you. I can't wait. Yeah,
I gotta go right now. I seriously thank you. You
(20:08):
mentioned earlier that you minored in entrepreneurship, So what it
was that you dubbed? How much is that actual schoolwork
helped you now as a business owner. I have to
say that the entrepreneurship program at that you dub is
one of the best in the world. And the reason
I say that is because it doesn't go into book learning.
It puts you into real life experiences. So there was
this one class that I took. It was called Creating
(20:29):
a Company, and it's taught by a serial entrepreneur. I'm
not a professor, not someone who just got thrown into
a program. It's somebody who's done this, has started companies.
He started five very successful multimillion dollar companies. And he
sits there and he coaches you, and he's there for
you for any sort of questions you have. The course
works like a two quarter system. The first quarter, you
(20:50):
come up with an idea for a business, You form teams,
you put together a pitch deck, and you actually pitch
your product to a board of investors. At the end
of the quarter, you ask for real capital and if
they like your product, that they actually give you real
money to start your business. Is your products in the class,
So I was making these study aid necklaces called study Sense. Yeah.
(21:13):
They basically admit like a cent that you can smell
while you're studying, and it's supposed to help with memory recall.
So this class was kind of like Shark Tank. Totally
like Shark Tank. I want to go take this. It's great,
it's smart. I think for anyone, even if you know
what career you want, like, no matter what, this is
your end goal. But you never know, you like, look
(21:33):
at your situation. You never know ten years your life
could be different, twenty years, thirty years. Hey we're working
for a lot of years at this point. Now, you
never know when you're gonna want your own business. And
that is like everyone should binder in that I did.
It's a life skill. It's not something that you can
just be like, oh whatever, I just took this and
I'm good. It's something that you are going to take
with you for the rest of your life, and it
just builds a nice foundation for you going forward. The
(21:54):
clearly thing is a lot of really successful companies have
actually come out of this class. For instance, Joe Chocolate.
The guy who started Joe Chocolate, My buddy Sam was
in the class with me when he started the business,
and now they carried nationwide in r E I s
in Nords from e Bars and they have an awesome
cafe down in the heart of Pike Place Market, the
(22:15):
place in Seattle. The guy is twenty six, he's my age,
and he has his own like a million dollar company.
So then, obviously this podcast is not about Joe Chocolate.
But my question is what then in that class that
was so what was so great to investors and why
was a chocolate company like why did it rise to
the top? I think that it was not only the
product of it being artisanal chocolate with espresso beans in them,
(22:39):
so it's caffeine eated dark chocolate. It's like an amazing
trail snack. It gets you like two cups of coffee
in a bag. But I think it was also the
entrepreneur behind it, Sam was. He's an incredible person. He
had like just a really good head on his shoulders
in that class, and I remember like meeting him and
I was like, you know what, I should probably become
friends with this guy. So I think that a lot
of investors really do buy hints the entrepreneur person, like
(23:01):
the passion behind the product. Right, the product is what
it is, like, it's going to be a great product.
But if you're a passionate entrepreneur, that's what people are
going to invest in because you know how to take
it to that next level. Yeah, passion has been a
huge theme for this podcast. But I remember, going back
when I was in college, my professor in journalism telling
me or our whole class, you're never going to get
(23:22):
anywhere in this career if you're not passionate about what
you're doing, because you're not going to do it for
the money. You have to do it for the passion
behind journalism and media overall. And it's true, I mean
in anything really, but if you're passionate behind whatever your side, hustle,
main hustle, whatever it is, it will be successful or
successful enough for you to grow or move on to
something else. And passion is huge. I'm really glad that
(23:44):
you did say that, because there's so many people who
message me and it's like, I want to start a
side hustle, but I don't know what, And I'm like, well,
I can't give you a random company to start and be.
It's got to be something you care about. Find that
thing that you truly love that you will work day
and night or or maybe just night while you have
your day job, and then throw all of your energy
(24:05):
into that and sometimes money, which I'm assuming you had
to invest money in your company at first. A lot
of people don't want to do that. I'm terrified every
day because my actual money is tied into the business,
but it's also what drives me to continue to do it.
That's what drives the passion to you know. It's like,
my actual cash is tied into this. It's kind of
a big deal, it is. It is, So I definitely
(24:27):
agree with you. I think passion is a huge thing.
I think you said another thing earlier about how you
shouldn't get into it for the money. You're not going
to make money for a long time. You know, you
want to put that money right back into growing your business.
People who really succeed. Entrepreneurs who really succeed are the
ones who do it for the passion and for the
ability to have that freedom, the freedom to do things
your way. The money is gonna come, don't worry about it, right,
(24:50):
focus on that freedom. That's what drives a passion behind
an entrepreneur. Yeah, and a lot of times you can't
buy that freedom at all, like just making your own
decisions and just running within and having this company and
caring about it. It's just you can't. You can't get
that in the corporate world, and it's worth not making
money for a little bit. Absolutely. So I got a
(25:11):
message from someone who realized there was a question I've
never asked anyone who's ever been on this podcast, and
they were inquiring for their own life and what they
were about to do. What as a side hustler who
doesn't have a full time job in a corporate world,
how do you have health insurance? That is a great question,
adult questions. So I actually have been thinking a lot
(25:32):
about this lately. So I'm twenty five, My birthday is
in a month, basically means at the end of December
I have no health insurance. Happy New Year's So I've
been doing a lot of research into this, and I
found that Washington actually has a state funded healthcare system
called apple Care, which I love. It's great, isn't It's
It's the same idea though as as our product, apple
(25:55):
Care totally. Yeah, take care of yourself, take care, take
care of yourself. If you make under a certain salary
every year that I think you qualify for, it's definitely
worth looking into. It gets you that basic coverage that
you need. And then you know, if you're still not
really paying yourself a ton from your business, go pick
up a job as a server. Go pick a like
a random part time job, up something that doesn't require
(26:15):
much mental energy, but just like something that's gonna be
able to cover your bills well. And the cool thing
about being a server, which I remember this when I
was interning, the people talk to you always and it's like, oh,
what will they see that you're young or whatever, like
what are you doing. I'm like, well, I'm interning at
a radio station in New York City because that's what
I want to do. And you start having this rapport
with people and a it's just good human communication. But
(26:37):
if you have a side hustle you can slowly pitch
it to people and be like, oh, I have this
stock company. Do you hike a lot? Most likely yes,
because you live in Washington, you should. You know. I
do this on the side and it's great. It's it's
just free marketing. There's people in and out all day,
all day, and you never know who that person might
be to make you get your next break. I think
the biggest thing I remember, hometown boy Chris Pratt was
(26:59):
working at a restaurant in Hawaii when he met the
I think it was like the manager. His manager basically
got him into an acting role. So I mean, like,
go work at a restaurant job. You never know who
you're gonna meet. It's the number one networking tool and
it makes you cash on the side. It's a great win.
I have a friend Tatum, who she was my first
guest on this podcast. She started her own magazine called
(27:20):
this is Magazine. She has the hardest time kind of
the terrible word but bragging about what she does. She
it's often her husband that's like, oh my wife started
her own magazine. She She's like, it's the last thing
she will talk about, and I'm trying to get her
to be better at it. Do you have that issue
(27:41):
or you just like, hey, check out my sock. Uh.
I have been like toying around with it a while.
Like when I first started, I was like, yeah, I
have a sock company. It's so cool. And then I
realized people are like okay, dope. I'm like okay, cool.
So I kind of refined how I talk about what
I do. Some people ask what I do, I just
tell him I'm like, oh, I'm self employed, Like oh,
(28:02):
what do you do. I'm like, well, I have my
own hiking stock company. Like oh, that's cool, and then
they kind of ask more questions about it, and that's
when you kind of open up about it. But yeah,
I wouldn't start knocking on doors. Yeah no, no, Yeah,
They're like all right, sweet, thanks for letting me know
about your sock business. You have to be proud of
what you do, absolutely, and I think like tell as
many people as you possibly can about what you're doing,
because again, you never know who you're gonna meet, you
(28:24):
never know who's going to help you out, you never
know where where your brand could go from there. So
so speaking of telling people everywhere, you've got a lot
of um I guess would this be promo material? Yes.
So you've got two completely different pamphlets that explain well,
so this one looks like one that you mail, yes,
(28:44):
and then this one is where do you put this?
Other one that explains what the company is. We give
this to all of our retail partners. It's a marketing
car basically tells a quick story about the brand and
why you should pick our brand up and how do
you support small business by doing so? So okay, so
marketing partners, and you're not like leaving this out places
for random people to find it, like, oh what is this?
Oh no, no, I don't want to be a literary
(29:05):
good come because then would be completely opposite of everything
that you're doing that those are reserved for our retail partners.
So you and I connected through someone else who has
been on this podcast, and I love talking about connections,
and you've clearly you've made that very clear that that's
also important to you and talking with people. So David,
who was on this podcast earlier this year, he is
(29:26):
the creator of Rainier Watch, a local company that it
started as an Instagram account, which I love, and it
was just sharing pictures of Mountain Rainier and he ended
up starting to sell merch which is incredible. How did
the two of you connect? We got connected on Instagram?
Why does this keep happening? Because it's the best networking tool,
isn't it? It's wild And that's how I found David.
(29:47):
Also because I accidentally tagged Rainier Watch instead of Mount
Rainier National Park and that's how we met. And then
you you two, I feel like are very aligned in
what you're doing because he's also giving back and your
local to Washington and outdoors and people who care about
the environment. What did you two do to connect right away?
So we actually did a joint giveaway on social media
(30:07):
At the time, I think his Instagram account was that
like seven thousand followers. Mine was that an abysmal one.
So yeah, he kind of put us on and it
really got us. Uh got us on the market with
like his his followers. It got us some sales online,
which is awesome. Um, yeah, we did to give away.
I give away a pair of our Cascade Range socks.
(30:29):
He promoted us the entire week and it was amazing.
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's cool to connect with
people who are like minded. It's cool to connect with
people who maybe are on a completely different realm that
you are in as a business at all. But it
makes sense that you guys are aligned, and I wanted
to see more of that because I love that the
two of you are together because it really is perfect.
And I am a fan of all the designs, but
(30:50):
I really the mountaineer socks might be my faith. And
you've got is this the coordinates amount Rainier on them,
So each pair has different coordinates for all the different places.
Do you ever plan on doing socks for other states
or you're just gonna stick with Washington? Yeah, I know,
We're definitely planning on other state socks as well. Like
I said, with that big are ideal that we're trying
(31:10):
the land, you know, if they carry us regionally with
a hyper target each store and create different mountain designs
for those specific spots. So there's people from all over
who listen to this podcast. So if you get a
lot of people from one specific state, I feel like
you have to make that one first. Absolutely. Okay, So
go everybody buy socks f dot com. Go go go. Okay.
(31:32):
So one one quick thing I'd actually want to say is, um,
we did sponsor we have sponsored um PCT hikers the
Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail over on the East
Coast because we did want to test out the sock
durability first. Yeah, because that's quite the hike. Yeah. So
we got reached out to initially by this girl. Her
name is Julia Sheehan. She started hiking the Appalachian Trail
(31:53):
mile stretch of trail, really rugged terrain. She just loved
our brand and she wanted to pick up a pair
of our socks for her high She wore our Cascades socks.
I think she had like three or four pairs the
entire way, and they held up amazingly, like no blisters,
they didn't wear down, they totally held up and and
they lasted the entire length of the trail. Same thing
with our pc T hikers. That's when I realized we
(32:14):
had a pretty good product. Yeah. So I was like,
all right, like, thank you for that. So there might
be some PCT socks coming on the way, but I
say that that's good to know. Ye Okay, So one
last pitch on why people need to support from the
ground up and why do they need to shop from
the ground up? Like I said, we're a small business.
We're based right here in Seattle, Washington. We are creating
(32:37):
these high performance and stylish socks that feature your local
mountains on them. We give back to the trails that
we hike on because we do believe that protecting the
trails that we hike is at the forefront of what
we do. These are great socks for you, for friends,
for family. They're cozy, they're thermoregulating, and so you can
wear them in the summer. You can wear them in
the winter. Your foot won't sweat, it won't get blisters,
(32:59):
and it won't be cold. Awesome. So yeah, pick a
pair from the ground up socks. You can use a
discount code first for your first order. It gets ten
percent off your socks. That's that's my spiel. I'm a
fan of that. Thank you. And I don't know when
people are gonna listen to this podcast because it's podcasting,
so you never know. But the holidays are coming up.
These are actually cool socks to give and get for
(33:19):
the holidays. It's not likely the ones that your aunt
used to get you, like, yeah, well not y'all. I
don't know what your aunt used to get you. Better whatever,
These are cool socks to give anyone in your life
because they are about us. So Rommy, thank you for
being here. Appreciate it very much. Thank you so much, Carlin,
I really appreciate it. So you can support Rommy. It's
f T g U Socks dot com, get it for
(33:40):
from the ground up, and it's f T g U
Socks on Instagram, so support him, show them your love.
Get someone cool socks for Christmas, don't get some ugly
socks for Christmas. You can always rate and review this
podcast wherever you listen to it. You can also subscribe
to it, whether it's iTunes, on our I Heart Radio
up wherever you listen, you can subscribe so you'll get updates.
(34:00):
Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Until next
week to keep Austin H.
This is Side Hustlers. I'm your host, Carla Maurie from
my Heart Radio. The whole point of this podcast is
to talk to people who are following a passion outside
of their day job. People who thought it would be
a great idea to work extra for something that they
really loved. And sometimes we talked to people who have
left the corporate world and have taken that side hustle
and turns it into a full time job. Now you
(00:21):
can follow me at the Carla Murie on Instagram. You
can listen to My Day Job, which is my morning
show on I Heart Radio, the Carla Maurie and Anthony
Show on one or six point one Kiss FM in Seattle.
You can hear all of that also on I Heart Radio.
So yeah, this podcast is my side Hustle. But this
week's guest is Rami. Rami is based here in Seattle, Washington,
(00:42):
and he started his own sock company and it's because
he was out hiking and hated the way his socks
felt and he literally started an entire company because of that.
And it's incredible and everything he's doing is amazing and
he gives back and all that great stuff. But I
want you to hear Ramy's story for a lot of people,
you know, why are you? What? Do you know? What
(01:03):
you want to do? And this is something you want
to do and do it. I'm a hustle, hustle, do it.
I'm a hustle, do it. I'm a hustle. Come on,
ask about me, yo yo. It's the side Hustless podcast
we call The Root. So in studio with me today,
(01:23):
I have Rammy from From the ground Up Socks. Hello,
Ramy Carlo Marine. How you doing. I'm great, How are
you good? Okay, So, before we get into your story
and how this was your ultimate side hustle and all
of that stuff, tell me what From the ground Up
Socks is sure. From the ground Up is a We're
just a team of outdoor loving Pacific Northwest people who
created hiking socks that feature local mountain ranges on them,
(01:46):
like Matt right near the Cascade Range. And the biggest
thing that we focus on is creating a high performance,
functional and stylish sock that inspires adventure and protects the environment. Well,
I'm holding a pair right now and I can tell
you they are great quality docks. Like they're not. They're
not that cheap feel if that's the best way. But no,
they really are incredible. But how do you give back
(02:08):
to the environment. Yeah, so we built a partnership with
Washington Trails Association, their local nonprofit here in Washington that
protects and maintains our trails in public lands. So for
every sale of our socks, we donate five pc of
that purchase to help protect and preserve those trails. And
you can go to ft gu socks dot com. That's
from the ground Up socks. So who knows what I'm saying.
(02:30):
So this was a side hustle for you, very much,
a side hustle. Talk about what it was like when
you had a full time job and then why you
decided to just start making socks. So I used to
work as account manager and partnerships for the women's professional
soccer team here in Seattle, and at the same time
I had launched this hiking sock brand called from the
ground Up, and things that work were pretty busy. You know.
(02:50):
I'd spent like forty plus hours a week, including weekends
for game days, just working for the team, and you know,
any and up all of my week nights working on
the business. But like, why socks? So I grew up
forty five minutes north the Seattle in a town called
Lake Stevens. And I was a huge hiker and a skier.
And I went on a hiking triple with my friends
one day and we're the wrong socks, the worst, the worst,
(03:14):
and skiing like I've done on skiing, I'm like, my
whole I've got two days that are ruined because my
feet hurt so absolutely you don't realize how how sensitive
your tootsies are. But I ended up getting a hole
in my socks and just ravaged my feet with blisters.
When I got back, I did some research. I was
looking up for some good hiking socks. Found that marino
wool was a really good material that's used for it.
(03:36):
But every sock that I found was either too itchy
or too hot or like just plain ugly. Yeah and there, Yeah,
there are a lot of ugly ones when you find
a good parent and normally is that they're ugly. But yeah,
the ischy thing, why, I have no idea. I think
it has something to do with the wool, maybe the manufacturing.
But yeah, So after after searching and being disappointed with
my findings, um, I decided to just kind of create
(03:57):
my own. How old were you when you just out
at that? I was twenty three years old. So you're
you have a full time job at a pretty awesome
company totally, and you're like, I'm gonna start making socks. Ye,
this thing that you have used probably every day for
your entire life. There are plenty of them in the world,
but you knew that you had a fix to the
problem when it came to hiking, skiing, whatever it may be.
(04:19):
So what was your first step? Nice pun by the way, Oh,
I didn't even look at me. Improv is paying off
and I don't even know it. Figure out a lot
of feet jokes when you're in the sock. Sure. So
the first step was just doing some research online trying
to find manufacturers here in the US to manufacturer sock
for US. I finally found one in North Carolina. They're
an awesome, small family business over there, and they create
(04:42):
these high performance Marino wool and poly Pro socks. And
poly Pro for people who don't know, that, is a
synthetic fabric that's incredibly eco friendly. It's much better than
the other material out there like polyester, nylon, rayon, and additionally,
it doesn't leach any toxic chemicals during production. It replicates
the effects of marino wool. So it's moisture waking, it's breathable,
(05:06):
it's durable, it's odor resistant, antimicrobial, antibacterial. I could go
on and on, but I don't know more people thank you.
So I ended up getting a sample from them and
just testing them out, testing them out with some of
the top outdoor sock brands out there, and found that
they held up just great. Yeah, and then you decided,
(05:26):
all right, I'm gonna do this, but I want to
put my own spin on it, my own designs that
whole thing. Did you know how to design? Like, how
did you even do that? Yeah? I'm not a big
designer myself. I I graduate from you dub I was
a can major with an entrepreneurship miner. But being an entrepreneur,
I learned that for any of the weaknesses that I have,
find those people to fill those gaps in very So.
I have a friend of mine, he's a designer, top
(05:49):
of his class from University of Georgia, and he basically
creates all of our designs for our socks, for any
of our merchandise we're creating. So I basically just chatted
with him and I was like, Hey, I'm thinking about
making these socks. Can you create some mountains on them?
And he's like, sure, no idea about socks, why I'm
interested in it or anything. So he made those designs
(06:11):
for me, sent them out to our supplier down in
North Carolina, and yeah, the rest was history. Do you
still have your first sample that they made? Do you
have to better me? Got to frame him. I'm going
to frame him for sure, or it's still wear them,
I mean, whatever, whatever you want. Does he still do
a lot of the designs for you? He does? Yeah,
so he is like part of the from the ground
(06:32):
up team. Definitely. That's amazing. So how long were you
working your full time job while launching your own company.
I worked my full time job for about a year
while I was running this business on the side. Here.
I ended up doing full time into the business in
January of this year and haven't looked back since. That's incredible,
But there was definitely chaos to get to that point.
(06:54):
Oh absolutely, So why did you leave your original full
time job? So? I was working my full time job,
happy as a clam and partnerships, but things kind of
just went belly up. We didn't make as much money
as we hope to. And let that be a lesson
to all of you. Go to the women's soccer games.
They're amazing, they're so great. Seattle Sound is just one.
(07:16):
The MLS Cup, the women's national team as one, back
to back world championships, So what are you guys waiting for?
By the way, fully support all of that. So I'm
a pent behind that, But you're right. I mean a
lot of people will think like, oh, well, it's just
it's an organization, or women aren't being paid enough because
the teams aren't spending the money or whatever it is,
and no, it's because people aren't going to the games.
(07:37):
And we get on this rant all the time on
our morning show and I'm not going to go into
it on the podcast, but you from someone from the
back end of it, you're also saying the same thing. Absolutely,
it went belly up. It went belly up. They didn't
have enough money to keep me on, so they let
me go. It's kind of crazy to me. I've never
been fired from a job before four at that point,
twenty four at that point, yeah, I kind of like
(07:57):
hit a low point in my life. I just kind
of like starry questioning myself worth. I was like, what
am I good at? I don't know anything? So isn't
that all of the normal stuff that you go through
and that happens totally, Yeah, just the process, the greeting process.
But in that low moment, I realized that all the
work that I had put in, all that passion and
that energy that I had put into working for the
soccer team, I could just apply to my own business.
(08:17):
That's incredible. So I decided to do that and the
rest was history. It's so funny when you think about that, Like,
we put so much energy into our corporate into our
day jobs, but if you took that energy and put
it into something you're truly passionate about it. If you're
not passionate about your day job and you put that
energy there, what can you do in that world? And
you're clearly you have proven it. You've got a full
(08:40):
blown company at this point, You've got people who work
for you, and I want to get into that in
a second. But you didn't go right into working from
the ground up full time. You did a part time job.
I did. Yeah, So I was very fortunate where my
family's business I could kind of fall back on that
and work part time with them. Uh. So my family
were a bunch of data traffic data collector is uh
(09:00):
still if you've ever seen those black road tube stretched
across the street when you're driving, Yeah, we're in the
business of setting those up. So what is that actually collecting? What?
Just volume? Speed classification of vehicles. I can't get caught
for speeding, Okay, good to know, Yeah, good to know. Okay,
So what did you do then? Yeah, so my job
(09:21):
was a field technician, So I basically my job was
to go out plan our route, set those road tubes
up on the street, and yeah, just like pick them
up when they had to be picked up, managed the
team of other field text and that's just kind of
what I did. But fortunately for me, it granted me
a lot of flexibility in my schedule and it played
pretty decently. So I was pretty content doing that and
(09:41):
just putting my effort into building my business. That's incredible
that you were able to find a way to make
both things you know, work and then really eventually make
that jump to earlier this gent this year January into
being a full time business owner with from the ground
up Socks when did you make at connection with Washington
(10:01):
Trails Association. I made that connection with them of August
of last year. Okay, so that was pretty early on. Yeah,
it's pretty pretty recent. They're awesome. I shot them an email.
I was like, Hey, I'm creating this stock company. I
want to give you guys money. And usually when people
say you want to give us money, yeah, we'll work
with you. Yeah sure, So yeah, no, w t A.
They're great. The work that the day was amazing, so
we wanted to support them anyway that we could. So
(10:23):
your partnership with them started around augusten. What is it
the same thing now? Has it grown? Do you guys
work together in different things? Have you done events? What
is it like now? When we first became partners with them,
we sponsored this event they host called Hykathon, where it's
a month of August. Everybody who is participating in it
just tracks their miles hiking miles. That's awesome. Yeah, and
(10:45):
it's great. It raises funds for w t A. We're
huge sponsors of it. We absolutely love it. We love
the work that people put into it, and so at
the end of every year we donate what we've earned
in the year to them that's filed. Yeah, and it's
cool that you've been able to do something obviously that
you love, but also give back and it's environmentally friendly
and you are giving back to an amazing organization and
(11:05):
you've only been doing this for two years. About two years. Yeah,
like that's incredible to see what else you're gonna do?
Are you in stores yet? Yeah? So we do have
some retail partners carrying us. I'm just gonna give him
a shameless plug. Right. You can go to the stock Monster.
It's an awesome stock shop in Wallingford. That story. They're awesome.
(11:26):
They're an amazing company. The owner Kelly, she's great. Definitely
recommend going there. Another story you can pick us up
at is Super Jock and Jill and Green Lake awesome
shoe store, Greg's Cycle. All three of their locations over
in Green Lake, Lynnwood and Bellevue. You can go to
the Joe Chocolate Cafe and Pike Place. My really good
friends started that company, so we kind of had an
(11:46):
end with them. Yeah. And then there's this really awesome
shop in Ballard called Turntables and Trails. How do I
not know this place? They're pretty small, but they're awesome.
The guy who owns it, Spencer, He's a great guy. Um.
They still lightly used making gear and turntables, so it's
a pretty awesome spot to go for those two things.
That's incredible. The fun fact about super Jock and Jill
(12:08):
my friends. Grandma created the store, but years and years
ago she was a runner, and I believe her son
was an Olympic runner, and she was just knew that
there were no really good sneaker stores around here, and
she launched it. And she's like, she's badass. Her name
is Laurel and she hangs out at the Wallingford Starbucks
every morning. She is the coolest, she's the best. I know,
(12:33):
she'll be your best friend. How did you get an in?
Obviously your friend is that Joe's Chocolate, But how did
you start making these connections to get your products sold
into stores? Literally just walk into the store. It's not
people are like get out of here. Mr. Usually walk
in and I'm like, Hi, who does you're buying? Yeah?
I know, so yeah, walk into the store. People are
usually receptive to that. It's really great. They are always
(12:55):
looking for a new product that you know, aligns with
the values of their store. As well, so do you
show up with like a briefcase and like open it
up my jacket? I got the socks lined in there. Yeah. Well,
I'm sure business owners appreciate the face to face and
not just someone firing off an email. Absolutely, I've sent off.
I couldn't tell you how many emails have sent off
and never heard response. But the amount of turnover that
(13:16):
I get from just sending emails out is like just
so not worth doing. I'd rather just walk into the
store and just say hi, I introduce myself right, and
I can understand if it's somewhere you can drive too.
If you're reaching out to people from all over the country,
you're not gonna show up to all of those, but
if you can, why not? Absolutely? So from the ground up.
Where is your office? So we actually don't have an office.
(13:37):
I like to keep it that way. I live here
in Seattle. I live in Green Lake, so I operate
everything out of my apartment. And because we sell to
retail stores and we do all of our sales online,
it's pretty easy for us to just kind of take
care of everything through that. Do you ship on your
own or do you have so you're physically it's you
packaging and shipping the socks, so when people buy that,
the personal touch from the founder. Okay, that is incredible.
(14:00):
Thank you. You have people working for you? Now how
many total? So we have about five people working with us. Yeah,
and they're they're partners of mine. So you know, we
have a content collection team for our Instagram or social media.
They do all of our storytelling for the brand is
a whole another job. It's incredibly important. Yeah, I mean,
(14:20):
they're they're Fortunately, there were two friends of mine. They
had their own companies called Imagine Night and they basically
just do all this like media collection. The work they
do is incredible. They're totally aligned with my values as
being like Pacific Northwest lovers, outdoor enthusiasts, hikers, skiers, all that.
So the content we get is really good. Oh, I know,
your Instagram does look great, so now I know why
(14:41):
you've got to shout us behind it. So you've got
them working on that. You have your friend from University
of Georgia who designs it. Who else we got on
the team? Have my other partner, her name is Demi
Xenos and she helps me out with the operations of
the company. So she and I graduated from the you
dub together worked together at that soccer team as well,
and so she's kind of been with me at the
(15:02):
start of this, you know, help keep my nose clean.
She's very very like meticulous, detail oriented things, very strategically,
so she's definitely a good person to have in my corner.
So she's the one that's like, no, Rommy, we can't
do that, or we can't do it like that. Oh yeah,
she tells me all the time, and I'm like, come on,
She's like, no, you need someone like that otherwise God
(15:23):
only knows what you would have done at this point. Yes,
your packaging is awesome. Thank you. So I love this.
You've got right up front. How much you get back
to Washington Trails Association, You've got to thank you in there.
There's a message from you, which is incredible. I'm assuming
that first pair of socks she sould didn't come in
this kind of packaging. No, definitely not yea. So how
do you even like where do you even starting? Like, Okay,
(15:45):
I need this packaging for my socks, Like, how do
you do that? Just go to the other stores and
see what those other hiking socks are doing for their packaging. Yeah,
I can tell you right now, like the amount of time, sweat, equity, tears,
arguments went into that design of that packaging countless. I mean,
my hairline probably receved like six inches. But I'm glad
we did it. It really, it just pops off the shelf.
(16:07):
That was the whole idea, with that bright green. Having
all that information on the packaging. That took so much thoughts,
so much attention. Even the way we word things right,
just just like the wording on the packaging took so
much time. It has to though. You have you have
to care about that kind of stuff. And I always
say this as and as a business owner. You have
to care about it because no one else will. Yes,
(16:29):
I mean the customers want I mean no, it's yours.
It's just your baby. You have to care about it.
I couldn't tell you how many people have shown this
packaging and been like, yeah, I look at all this
amazing work it is, and they're like cool, cool, tossing sad. Okay, okay,
just so thank you for asking about the package. No,
I'm happy that I did that. I love that it's
also made from recycled craft paper. It is I'm a
(16:51):
fan of that. Thank you. Also in the US also
love that your family, your parents, your friends, all that.
Has everyone been super supportive from the beginning or they're
like Robbie Socks. Really dude, they've all been incredible. I mean,
such a support system. It's and that's that's honestly like
something I needed going through this, because yeah, it's a
(17:12):
sock company. I'm not changing the world. I'm not. I'm
not like I mean, you might change the Waton Trolls
Association fingers crossed, but I'm not. And you know, I'm
not out here like caring cancer or anything. Yes, but
I mean people need socks. People need good socks, especially
when they're getting out in the world and doing amazing
things and being active. And if you're not going to
(17:33):
care about this, then who is I say that all
time about the radio. I'm like, why am I stressed
about this? I'm not doing brain surgery, but it's a
job and someone's got to do it, and I love
doing it. I'm helping someone in some way, and I
think it's important to be passionate and care about whatever
you're doing that much as much as a brain surgeon would,
(17:53):
but as much. And that's absolutely right, Like, I had
such a passion for what I do, and and it
doesn't matter what the product is. Like obviously, when I
make the product that's going to be top of its class,
it's going to have to be the best product out there.
But the passion that I put into it, the the
alignment in my views that this product, this brand has,
I mean, that's that's what drives me every day to
(18:13):
do what I do. Yeah, if you like came in
here and like, oh, here's my socks and like threw
them down like I'm not gonna care, but you obviously
present it well. So you can't show up to everyone
and be like, hey, here's my socks, this is my comming,
this is awesome. But you've shown that with the packaging,
you've put your passion into the little things and even
Instagram things like that. It's those things that people will
(18:36):
judge you on right away. And if it's done well
and done right and shows who you are and shows
your brand, it's going to help you in the end.
And I think a plus and all that for you.
So put up there. You told me when we were
first emailing that you have high goals for your brand
and your company what are some of those goals. Well,
I think the big thing that we want to do
is become Washington's sock. When people think of other big
(19:00):
brands like Darn Tough, they think Vermont. When they think
Smart Will, they think Colorado. When people think from the
ground up, they're gonna think Washington like that. They're going
to get that pride to get to that point. Obviously,
being on podcasts like this definitely helps. But also we're
aiming for a deal with ari I. I was gonna
say yes, so we're gonna make this happen. Let's do it.
I want to help tweet ARII. Yeah. If anybody out
(19:24):
there knows anybody working at ARII Corporate, I would love
to get an introduction. I might know somebody. Okay, might
be able to make this happen. Cool, let's do it, hopefully,
because I just said it on the podcast. You said it,
so it's it's it's happening, and I do. I want
people to follow you on Instagram it's f T g
U Socks and then your website is ft g U
(19:45):
socks dot com. You can spart, you can wear these
socks even if you're not in Washington. We have people
all over the U s wearing our socks like it's
so crazy because I've had the biggest struggle with ski
socks over the last nine years of my ski career,
and I am so excited to wear these now. Oh
these will be great for you. I can't wait. Yeah,
I gotta go right now. I seriously thank you. You
(20:08):
mentioned earlier that you minored in entrepreneurship, So what it
was that you dubbed? How much is that actual schoolwork
helped you now as a business owner. I have to
say that the entrepreneurship program at that you dub is
one of the best in the world. And the reason
I say that is because it doesn't go into book learning.
It puts you into real life experiences. So there was
this one class that I took. It was called Creating
(20:29):
a Company, and it's taught by a serial entrepreneur. I'm
not a professor, not someone who just got thrown into
a program. It's somebody who's done this, has started companies.
He started five very successful multimillion dollar companies. And he
sits there and he coaches you, and he's there for
you for any sort of questions you have. The course
works like a two quarter system. The first quarter, you
(20:50):
come up with an idea for a business, You form teams,
you put together a pitch deck, and you actually pitch
your product to a board of investors. At the end
of the quarter, you ask for real capital and if
they like your product, that they actually give you real
money to start your business. Is your products in the class,
So I was making these study aid necklaces called study Sense. Yeah.
(21:13):
They basically admit like a cent that you can smell
while you're studying, and it's supposed to help with memory recall.
So this class was kind of like Shark Tank. Totally
like Shark Tank. I want to go take this. It's great,
it's smart. I think for anyone, even if you know
what career you want, like, no matter what, this is
your end goal. But you never know, you like, look
(21:33):
at your situation. You never know ten years your life
could be different, twenty years, thirty years. Hey we're working
for a lot of years at this point. Now, you
never know when you're gonna want your own business. And
that is like everyone should binder in that I did.
It's a life skill. It's not something that you can
just be like, oh whatever, I just took this and
I'm good. It's something that you are going to take
with you for the rest of your life, and it
just builds a nice foundation for you going forward. The
(21:54):
clearly thing is a lot of really successful companies have
actually come out of this class. For instance, Joe Chocolate.
The guy who started Joe Chocolate, My buddy Sam was
in the class with me when he started the business,
and now they carried nationwide in r E I s
in Nords from e Bars and they have an awesome
cafe down in the heart of Pike Place Market, the
(22:15):
place in Seattle. The guy is twenty six, he's my age,
and he has his own like a million dollar company.
So then, obviously this podcast is not about Joe Chocolate.
But my question is what then in that class that
was so what was so great to investors and why
was a chocolate company like why did it rise to
the top? I think that it was not only the
product of it being artisanal chocolate with espresso beans in them,
(22:39):
so it's caffeine eated dark chocolate. It's like an amazing
trail snack. It gets you like two cups of coffee
in a bag. But I think it was also the
entrepreneur behind it, Sam was. He's an incredible person. He
had like just a really good head on his shoulders
in that class, and I remember like meeting him and
I was like, you know what, I should probably become
friends with this guy. So I think that a lot
of investors really do buy hints the entrepreneur person, like
(23:01):
the passion behind the product. Right, the product is what
it is, like, it's going to be a great product.
But if you're a passionate entrepreneur, that's what people are
going to invest in because you know how to take
it to that next level. Yeah, passion has been a
huge theme for this podcast. But I remember, going back
when I was in college, my professor in journalism telling
me or our whole class, you're never going to get
(23:22):
anywhere in this career if you're not passionate about what
you're doing, because you're not going to do it for
the money. You have to do it for the passion
behind journalism and media overall. And it's true, I mean
in anything really, but if you're passionate behind whatever your side, hustle,
main hustle, whatever it is, it will be successful or
successful enough for you to grow or move on to
something else. And passion is huge. I'm really glad that
(23:44):
you did say that, because there's so many people who
message me and it's like, I want to start a
side hustle, but I don't know what, And I'm like, well,
I can't give you a random company to start and be.
It's got to be something you care about. Find that
thing that you truly love that you will work day
and night or or maybe just night while you have
your day job, and then throw all of your energy
(24:05):
into that and sometimes money, which I'm assuming you had
to invest money in your company at first. A lot
of people don't want to do that. I'm terrified every
day because my actual money is tied into the business,
but it's also what drives me to continue to do it.
That's what drives the passion to you know. It's like,
my actual cash is tied into this. It's kind of
a big deal, it is. It is, So I definitely
(24:27):
agree with you. I think passion is a huge thing.
I think you said another thing earlier about how you
shouldn't get into it for the money. You're not going
to make money for a long time. You know, you
want to put that money right back into growing your business.
People who really succeed. Entrepreneurs who really succeed are the
ones who do it for the passion and for the
ability to have that freedom, the freedom to do things
your way. The money is gonna come, don't worry about it, right,
(24:50):
focus on that freedom. That's what drives a passion behind
an entrepreneur. Yeah, and a lot of times you can't
buy that freedom at all, like just making your own
decisions and just running within and having this company and
caring about it. It's just you can't. You can't get
that in the corporate world, and it's worth not making
money for a little bit. Absolutely. So I got a
(25:11):
message from someone who realized there was a question I've
never asked anyone who's ever been on this podcast, and
they were inquiring for their own life and what they
were about to do. What as a side hustler who
doesn't have a full time job in a corporate world,
how do you have health insurance? That is a great question,
adult questions. So I actually have been thinking a lot
(25:32):
about this lately. So I'm twenty five, My birthday is
in a month, basically means at the end of December
I have no health insurance. Happy New Year's So I've
been doing a lot of research into this, and I
found that Washington actually has a state funded healthcare system
called apple Care, which I love. It's great, isn't It's
It's the same idea though as as our product, apple
(25:55):
Care totally. Yeah, take care of yourself, take care, take
care of yourself. If you make under a certain salary
every year that I think you qualify for, it's definitely
worth looking into. It gets you that basic coverage that
you need. And then you know, if you're still not
really paying yourself a ton from your business, go pick
up a job as a server. Go pick a like
a random part time job, up something that doesn't require
(26:15):
much mental energy, but just like something that's gonna be
able to cover your bills well. And the cool thing
about being a server, which I remember this when I
was interning, the people talk to you always and it's like, oh,
what will they see that you're young or whatever, like
what are you doing. I'm like, well, I'm interning at
a radio station in New York City because that's what
I want to do. And you start having this rapport
with people and a it's just good human communication. But
(26:37):
if you have a side hustle you can slowly pitch
it to people and be like, oh, I have this
stock company. Do you hike a lot? Most likely yes,
because you live in Washington, you should. You know. I
do this on the side and it's great. It's it's
just free marketing. There's people in and out all day,
all day, and you never know who that person might
be to make you get your next break. I think
the biggest thing I remember, hometown boy Chris Pratt was
(26:59):
working at a restaurant in Hawaii when he met the
I think it was like the manager. His manager basically
got him into an acting role. So I mean, like,
go work at a restaurant job. You never know who
you're gonna meet. It's the number one networking tool and
it makes you cash on the side. It's a great win.
I have a friend Tatum, who she was my first
guest on this podcast. She started her own magazine called
(27:20):
this is Magazine. She has the hardest time kind of
the terrible word but bragging about what she does. She
it's often her husband that's like, oh my wife started
her own magazine. She She's like, it's the last thing
she will talk about, and I'm trying to get her
to be better at it. Do you have that issue
(27:41):
or you just like, hey, check out my sock. Uh.
I have been like toying around with it a while.
Like when I first started, I was like, yeah, I
have a sock company. It's so cool. And then I
realized people are like okay, dope. I'm like okay, cool.
So I kind of refined how I talk about what
I do. Some people ask what I do, I just
tell him I'm like, oh, I'm self employed, Like oh,
(28:02):
what do you do. I'm like, well, I have my
own hiking stock company. Like oh, that's cool, and then
they kind of ask more questions about it, and that's
when you kind of open up about it. But yeah,
I wouldn't start knocking on doors. Yeah no, no, Yeah,
They're like all right, sweet, thanks for letting me know
about your sock business. You have to be proud of
what you do, absolutely, and I think like tell as
many people as you possibly can about what you're doing,
because again, you never know who you're gonna meet, you
(28:24):
never know who's going to help you out, you never
know where where your brand could go from there. So
so speaking of telling people everywhere, you've got a lot
of um I guess would this be promo material? Yes.
So you've got two completely different pamphlets that explain well,
so this one looks like one that you mail, yes,
(28:44):
and then this one is where do you put this?
Other one that explains what the company is. We give
this to all of our retail partners. It's a marketing
car basically tells a quick story about the brand and
why you should pick our brand up and how do
you support small business by doing so? So okay, so
marketing partners, and you're not like leaving this out places
for random people to find it, like, oh what is this?
Oh no, no, I don't want to be a literary
(29:05):
good come because then would be completely opposite of everything
that you're doing that those are reserved for our retail partners.
So you and I connected through someone else who has
been on this podcast, and I love talking about connections,
and you've clearly you've made that very clear that that's
also important to you and talking with people. So David,
who was on this podcast earlier this year, he is
(29:26):
the creator of Rainier Watch, a local company that it
started as an Instagram account, which I love, and it
was just sharing pictures of Mountain Rainier and he ended
up starting to sell merch which is incredible. How did
the two of you connect? We got connected on Instagram?
Why does this keep happening? Because it's the best networking tool,
isn't it? It's wild And that's how I found David.
(29:47):
Also because I accidentally tagged Rainier Watch instead of Mount
Rainier National Park and that's how we met. And then
you you two, I feel like are very aligned in
what you're doing because he's also giving back and your
local to Washington and outdoors and people who care about
the environment. What did you two do to connect right away?
So we actually did a joint giveaway on social media
(30:07):
At the time, I think his Instagram account was that
like seven thousand followers. Mine was that an abysmal one.
So yeah, he kind of put us on and it
really got us. Uh got us on the market with
like his his followers. It got us some sales online,
which is awesome. Um, yeah, we did to give away.
I give away a pair of our Cascade Range socks.
(30:29):
He promoted us the entire week and it was amazing.
That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's cool to connect with
people who are like minded. It's cool to connect with
people who maybe are on a completely different realm that
you are in as a business at all. But it
makes sense that you guys are aligned, and I wanted
to see more of that because I love that the
two of you are together because it really is perfect.
And I am a fan of all the designs, but
(30:50):
I really the mountaineer socks might be my faith. And
you've got is this the coordinates amount Rainier on them,
So each pair has different coordinates for all the different places.
Do you ever plan on doing socks for other states
or you're just gonna stick with Washington? Yeah, I know,
We're definitely planning on other state socks as well. Like
I said, with that big are ideal that we're trying
(31:10):
the land, you know, if they carry us regionally with
a hyper target each store and create different mountain designs
for those specific spots. So there's people from all over
who listen to this podcast. So if you get a
lot of people from one specific state, I feel like
you have to make that one first. Absolutely. Okay, So
go everybody buy socks f dot com. Go go go. Okay.
(31:32):
So one one quick thing I'd actually want to say is, um,
we did sponsor we have sponsored um PCT hikers the
Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail over on the East
Coast because we did want to test out the sock
durability first. Yeah, because that's quite the hike. Yeah. So
we got reached out to initially by this girl. Her
name is Julia Sheehan. She started hiking the Appalachian Trail
(31:53):
mile stretch of trail, really rugged terrain. She just loved
our brand and she wanted to pick up a pair
of our socks for her high She wore our Cascades socks.
I think she had like three or four pairs the
entire way, and they held up amazingly, like no blisters,
they didn't wear down, they totally held up and and
they lasted the entire length of the trail. Same thing
with our pc T hikers. That's when I realized we
(32:14):
had a pretty good product. Yeah. So I was like,
all right, like, thank you for that. So there might
be some PCT socks coming on the way, but I
say that that's good to know. Ye Okay, So one
last pitch on why people need to support from the
ground up and why do they need to shop from
the ground up? Like I said, we're a small business.
We're based right here in Seattle, Washington. We are creating
(32:37):
these high performance and stylish socks that feature your local
mountains on them. We give back to the trails that
we hike on because we do believe that protecting the
trails that we hike is at the forefront of what
we do. These are great socks for you, for friends,
for family. They're cozy, they're thermoregulating, and so you can
wear them in the summer. You can wear them in
the winter. Your foot won't sweat, it won't get blisters,
(32:59):
and it won't be cold. Awesome. So yeah, pick a
pair from the ground up socks. You can use a
discount code first for your first order. It gets ten
percent off your socks. That's that's my spiel. I'm a
fan of that. Thank you. And I don't know when
people are gonna listen to this podcast because it's podcasting,
so you never know. But the holidays are coming up.
These are actually cool socks to give and get for
(33:19):
the holidays. It's not likely the ones that your aunt
used to get you, like, yeah, well not y'all. I
don't know what your aunt used to get you. Better whatever,
These are cool socks to give anyone in your life
because they are about us. So Rommy, thank you for
being here. Appreciate it very much. Thank you so much, Carlin,
I really appreciate it. So you can support Rommy. It's
f T g U Socks dot com, get it for
(33:40):
from the ground up, and it's f T g U
Socks on Instagram, so support him, show them your love.
Get someone cool socks for Christmas, don't get some ugly
socks for Christmas. You can always rate and review this
podcast wherever you listen to it. You can also subscribe
to it, whether it's iTunes, on our I Heart Radio
up wherever you listen, you can subscribe so you'll get updates.
(34:00):
Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. Until next
week to keep Austin H.
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