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Stretched to Their Limits: Rock 'Em Socks · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The typical college student is stressed about what to major in,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: how they'll do on midterms, and whether they'll land that
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: competitive internship. But as a college junior, Rob Starkman was
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: facing a totally different animal. A Fortune five hundred company
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: was threatening to sue him.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: I just remember getting that lawsuit, my heart dropping, and
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: so that was a major shock to the system. There's
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of sleepless nights, Like I was terrified.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Rob believed that the company had sent the letter out
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to a few other small businesses and that many of
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: them had folded under the pressure. But he wasn't going
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: to back down so easily.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: I was not doing that. Like, I had way too
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: many chips in this, and I didn't want to give up.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: I'm like this twenty two year old kid, like going
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: up against one of the biggest companies in the world.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: Welcome to The Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Studio from My Heart Media. I'm Ben Walter, CEO of
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Chase for Business.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business own.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: On the Unshakables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: of how they got through it.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, Ben, listen, I think you're really going to like
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: this one. It really has it all. Lawsuits, attempted coups, explosions,
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and that's just the half of it.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Sounds dangerous and intriguing.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Let's hear it on today's episode Rockham Socks from Orlando, Florida.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Rob Starkman has always been a bit of a late bloomer.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: So I was six foot three leaving my freshman year
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: of college, and then I entered my sophomore year of
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: college six foot ten, so like literally over one summer,
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: like all of my clothes didn't fit, all my shoes
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: were out of style. It was very fast and furious.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: I guess I actually just started shaving like two years ago,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: so we're still growing here.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight, he was a sophomore at
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the University of Central Florida and not totally sure what
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: he wanted to do with his life. He tried out
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: several different majors, but nothing really stuck. What did stick
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was his love for basketball, not that he had much
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: of a choice.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: I would say, like my heartbeat is a basketball dribble,
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: because my whole family is involved in sports some way, somehow.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: My dad coach college basketball for twenty plus years. My
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: sister played in college.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: During his freshman year, he started working for the men's
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: basketball team as a student manager. He would film and
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: at a highlight reels, help out during practice, and manage
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: the team's equipment. But there was a problem with UCFS gear.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: They had recently changed suppliers and now only had generic jerseys, shorts,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and socks available for the players. So Rob took things
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: into his own hands.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I remember literally taking track jackets so like an embroidery
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: shop that was by a chicken coop in this little
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: podunk town right next to us, because we just needed
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: someone to put UCF on our merchandise.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: All the generic gear was in black and white, but
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: UCF's colors were black and gold. So Rob took matters
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: into his own hands.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: So I took it back to my mom's house and
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: in her kitchen sing dip dyed the black and white
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: sox to then come out and be black and gold.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: And so I'm like wearing socks that are accustomed to
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: our school. Nobody else has them. They don't sell them
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: on the market. That's where some of the players on
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: the team wanted to know where I got him. From there,
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: it kind of saw a little bit of an opportunity
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to fill a hole in the market. I guess.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: Soon Rob was dip dying black and gold socks in
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: his dorm room for all the players on the team,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and everyone who saw them wanted to buy their own pair.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: My entire dorman became this like incredibly intricate operation filled
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: with hot water and rit dip dye that I was
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: going to Michael's and Joe and Fabrics all around Orlando
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: to get.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Now, to meet the number of orders he was getting,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Rob had to buy blank socks in bulk. And by
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the time he hit his junior year, he was ready
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: to grow beyond campus. So he put a pair of
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: socks for sale online.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: I put a pair of socks up on eBay, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: I'm telling you, within five to fifteen minutes it sold,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: and it was you know, Australia, and then just from
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: there it started to take off. It was probably like
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: three to four weeks in where I was like, I'm
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: going all in on this. I'm going to ride this
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: until the wheels fall off.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: Soon he decided his business needed a proper name, so.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: I sat down in my dorm room and started writing
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: ideas down for what the brand name should be. And
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: it was like five or six names in before Rockham hit.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: The rock is a nickname for a basketball, to Rockham
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: means to wear something, and so Rockham Socks was just
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: like absolutely perfect, and I was like, that's it.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: By just two weeks in, Rockham Socks was selling one
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: hundred pairs a day, faster than he could even make them.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: In college became a bit of an afterthought.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: I stopped going to basically every single class that I had,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: and my second semester in junior year, I basically failed everything.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Anything that wasn't related to Rockham Socks was over for Rob.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: He spent all day and night dying and packaging socks
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: for the store.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: It was like sixteen to eighteen hours a day over
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: a stove making sure water's hot, pouring in the die.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: It was just NonStop, like steam everywhere, die stains all
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: over the counter, and I remember having gone so hard
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: on the stove that I actually blew up two of
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: them in my apartment complex.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: Tanya, I have to say it, Rob sounds like the
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: worst roommate ever, Like could you live with this guy.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: You mean, the guy who takes over the kitchen is
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: dying socks all over the place, blows up the place twice,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: that guy Ben I.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: Know, yeah, I think not.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: So.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Rob's doing hundreds of sales only a couple of weeks
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: into the business, and at this point he's just sewing
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: on eBay. I mean, how's he going to keep growing
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: this business?
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Okay? So what he does is he actually moves his
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: business from eBay to his own website, and then he
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: started making socks in every imaginable like color combination. But
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: yet he's still the only employee.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: I'm like doing customer service, I'm doing shipping, I'm doing production,
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: I'm doing procurement. And it was just like NonStop. You know,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to build this as if it's a much
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: bigger brand than it actually is.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Even though Rob was all in on Rockham Socks, there
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: was one thing he didn't give up. He was still
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: working for the men's basketball team. In the weeks leading
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: up to Black Friday, he was hardcore focused on his
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: business and prepping for a rush of sales, but he
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: still maintained his obligations to the team. He even worked
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: at a basketball tournament in the Bahamas with the team
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: We had made a ton of socks beforehand. We had
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: gotten all of our socials ready and like we had
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: just blown out of sales. That Black Friday night.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Rockham Socks had sold a thousand pairs in just one night.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: I knew that this was a fork in the road moment.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: It was like first year. I'm like, I'm twenty one.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: I'm like, jeez, we did like a quarter of a
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: million dollars in business. I was loving just the eighteen
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: hour days of hustling and building a brand, and I
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: knew that that was the last time I were stepped
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: foot in a classroom.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Rob knew that he wanted to drop out of school
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: to pursue Rock Them full time. So we made a
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: plan for how to tell his mom.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: Going to take my mom out for breakfast and I'm
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: going to take her to an outside restaurant so that
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: she won't cry in front of everybody. And I just
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: told her. I was like, hey, ma, got this opportunity,
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: I'm going to see it through. And she goes, You're
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: dropping out of school and I was like I am, Yeah,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I am, And She's just like I'm so disappointed in you.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Rob's parents didn't talk to him for the next four months.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: But by this point he had other problems. Copycat brands
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: had started popping up and selling the same product. He
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: knew he'd have to differentiate Rock them to survive, and
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: he knew just how he'd do it.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I found out about how you can customize like T shirts,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: and so there's a process by which you can print
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: out an image and then transfer it via heat onto
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: a T shirt. And I was like, nobody's ever done
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: this with socks before, so let's like try it out
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: with socks.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Rob bought the image transfer machine and was now able
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: to design all types of socks.
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: From there, we were able to expand beyond just dip
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: dye colors now into actual designs onto socks. So we'd
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: be able to go from instead of black and red,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: we might be able to put camouflage black and red
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: with a logo on it.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Rockham Socks had another stroke of good fortune in twenty twelve.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: It was sneaker Mania. Streetwear had crossed over into the mainstream,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: helped along why celebrities with shoe lines like Lebron James
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: and Kobe Bryant. Rockham started making socks to match each
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: highly anticipated sneaker release, and.
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: That became so popular in the sneaker industry that we
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: were on top of that world for two to three years.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: We'd go to all the conventions, people would be wearing
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: our socks with their sneakers, and so all these kind
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: of trends are converging at the exact perfect time that
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: we're building this brand.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: But it was at that moment that Rob's luck ran out.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: That's where we get the big old letter saying that
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: we're doing trademark infringement, and so that was a major
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: shock to the system.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Rob had been using blank white sox made by a
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: popular athletic brand from the start, but now this company
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: was threatening to sue rock them if they didn't stop
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: selling them. The company claimed that Rockham was selling their
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: socks as if they were designed and officially licensed by
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the big brand.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: At that time, there was a ton of like little
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: copycat brands, and I would have to assume that they
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: all got the same letter, because as soon as we
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: got that, the competition stopped posting, they cut their websites out,
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: they took their ball and went home. I was not
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: doing that. I had way too many chips in this,
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: and I didn't want to give up.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Rob found a lawyer to represent the company and respond
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: to the letter. He was bleeding cash. It cost him
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars in fees just to retain the lawyer.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: I'm like, this twenty two year old kid, like going
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: up against one of the biggest companies in the world.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: His lawyer put together an argument asserting that customization is
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: not illegal. Fortunately for Rockham, there was already a case
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: precedent involving a well known brand that had sued a
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: customer for the same thing, and that big brand had
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: lost the case.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: We use that case study, and I believe they prevailed
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: in saying the customization of an existing product that they
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: bought at retail is not illegal. You can resell that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: as a service. And that is literally the thing that
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: saved us. And I just remember the sigh of relief
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: after like two months of not having received any other letters,
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: that I felt like we were finally in the clear.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: There was such a David Versus Goliath moment that it
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: doesn't even feel real.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: At this point, Rob could now direct all of his
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: attention back to building Rockham socks. But in early twenty thirteen,
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Rob realized that something about the blank socks he was
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: using had changed. The DIPDI didn't develop the same way,
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and the designs and collars wouldn't transfer properly. It exposed
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: a real vulnerability in his business.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: I remember coming to this realization that like I'm building
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: my house on someone else's land. To this day, like
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: it's so vivid that I remember having this phone call
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: of like making the decision that we're going to stop
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: utilizing someone else's product and develop our own, or else
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: we're eventually going to die.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: So Rob and a small team worked with a sourcing
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: company in New York to come up with the perfect
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: prototype for a sock. Four months later, they'd perfected it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: It was a better product with much better margins. Rockham
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: socks continued to grow their reputation, especially in basketball. By
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: Christmas of twenty fifteen, they had licenses with six colleges
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and could use their names, logos, and callers on Rockham socks.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: That just became very, very popular, Like we put a
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: mascot on a sock, just logos and crazy colors, and
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: it was a different type of product that fans had
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: never seen before that really opened up our aperture of
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: what you can do as a business, and from there
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: it was a dogfight to go and get every single
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: other school.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Rob began to travel around the country meeting with schools.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: After landing licensing deals across the NCAA, Rob decided it
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: was time for Rockham Socks to break into entertainment, and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: he knew just where to start. The WWE. Rob had
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: landed a meeting with their licensing director. A longtime WWE fan,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: he had been to a WWE match in middle school
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: and happened to be filmed during it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: I had purchased the WWE streaming network and paused it
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: when I knew that. The cameraman went to me with
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: a big old sign and I was like, this is
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: me and I am a wrestling fan. You will never
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: work with someone who is as passionate as I am
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: about wrestling.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: Robin his colleagues had a simple strategy for picking out
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: licenses to pursue. Stick to what you know.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I think it's all about authenticity. We are huge fans
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: of these licenses that we work with. It's so natural
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: for us to say, like, hey, we know the fan,
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: we know product that doesn't exist out there and we
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: can expand your market, and we are going to treat
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: it like the absolute biggest thing in our own lives.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: By the end of twenty nineteen, Rockham Sox had licensing
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: deals with MLS, WWE and Nickelodeon. They were growing and
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: growing fast. He decided to hire a friend with the
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: background and operations who could help scale the company.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: He was very instrumental in trying to scale the business,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: like hiring a lot of people at the same time.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: There's like a two factions of the business happening and
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: splitting off the original people that I started in my
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: house with and like was with from the beginning, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: then like all these new people that this guy brought
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: on and hired and led by him, and I just
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: felt the business getting out of my hands and getting
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: away from me.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: It was soon clear that Rob had hired the wrong
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: person for the job.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: It was always such a challenge to manage this man.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: He was very petulant, he was very emotional, and he
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: would storm out of the office when any sort of
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: argument would happen.
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: The employee's behavior quickly took a toll on Rob and
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: his colleagues.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: I was ready to give up the business. I was
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: ready to like just completely give up. It was like
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: a week before Christmas time that year, and I called
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: my mom and I'm like, I don't want to do
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: this anymore.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Around this time, Rob got a call from the vice
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: president of Rockham Socks, his longtime friend Steve.
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: Steve calls me and he's like, this guy started another
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: business and it's a sock business. My heart dropped. And
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: not only was it one guy the founder of it,
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: but as the co founder was our head artist.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: From there, things only got worse.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: We have the business name, they like started a Facebook page,
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: and we see the people that are following it. It's
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: like eight of our employees. We like basically devised this
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: plan to like completely purge everybody the day we got
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: back from the office, and so we let go of
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: eighty percent of our staff.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Rob later found out that the head of operations had
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: been spreading lies to the team so that he could
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: poach employees from the company over to his own.
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: I just turned twenty seven, and at the time that
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: was like the worst thing that ever happened in my
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: life life, like backstabbed by close people that I thought
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: I was giving opportunities to. Thought we were working on
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: great things with I felt disrespected, My trust was violated,
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: and from there I was looking around every corner and
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: there was like months of me just lacking complete and
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: utter confidence.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Rob was gutted, but over time he started to take
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: responsibility for what had happened.
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: Now, looking back, I could clearly say that without that,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: the business would not be where it is today, because
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: I look back on that moment and I'm like, I
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: was so immature, twenty six years old trying to oversee
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: twenty people. I was so immature in coming across as
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: putting myself first before the business and before a team,
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: or not taking things as seriously as I should have,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: and like leadership wasn't even in my wheelhouse. And so
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: after that, like having to look back and stomach the
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: fact that you are absolutely the reason why this happened
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: to you, that was tough. There was like a complete
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: shot across the bout for an ego, and it completely
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: brought me down to earth. And from there on, one
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: hundred percent of my focus was put into being the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: best leader that I could be.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: Having to take stock also forced Rob to grow and
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: to change for the better. He got himself in the
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: company back on its feet, and thanks to a new
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: proprietary software, Rockham was now able to make products quickly
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: and on demand. At the same time.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Disney Plus launches Star Wars the Mandalorian and Grogu becomes
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: like a thing around the world and like it instantly
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: catches fire.
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Disneynew Grogu would be a hit, and they were right.
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: As soon as it launches, people are like clamoring for
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: this product.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Most manufacturers needed significant lead time, not weeks but months
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to make their products, but thanks to their new software,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Rockem could produce large quantities quickly.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: And I remember going to the airport with nothing but
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: five hundred pairs of Grogu socks in a Duffel bag.
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: Get to the partner's facility in Anaheim, which is right
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: around the block from Disneyland. I'm getting in his car
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: and we get my Duffel bag out of the sky's
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: car and I'm wheeling it into the back of a
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: store and I'm like a child, you know, I'm like
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: pointing people out wearing them. I'm following them around taking
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: photos of them. I bought pairs off the shelf, so
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: I have a receipt. It's an unmatched feeling that I
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: have never had before and just such a high for me.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: After that, Rockham continued to make two to three thousand
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: pairs of Grogu socks a day. It also opened doors
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: to other licensing collaborations. Today, Rockham Socks makes twenty thousand
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: pairs of socks a day. They have licensing deals with
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: partners like the NCAA, the NBA, the NFL, Star Wars, Marvel,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Warner Brothers, and Yes, Disney. And that's just naming a few.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: They employ thirty full time employees and have even expanded
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: their product line beyond socks.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: You know, we're a scrappy upstart company. We have zero
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: investors and the sky as the limit for us and
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: our team. The demand keeps on rising, the products keep
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: on getting better, and we keep on finding ways to
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: deliver value across the entire chain that we're work in.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: Tanya, What a cool business. What a great story?
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, awesome story.
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: You know, if you start right at the beginning, that
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: is the ultimate bootstrap story if I've ever heard one.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: I mean, he started with nothing, He built with virtually nothing.
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: Now he had a business that didn't require a lot
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: of capital, but he just kept putting money in putting
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: the proceeds of what little he had back in and
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: not taking any outside money and building a business of
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: that size. That's quite a feat.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: It's a tremendous feat. It's such a young age for
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: him to know to continue just to reinvest in the
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: business and the sacrifices that he made in doing so.
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: That's great entrepreneurship there.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: You know, you have to decide what you're going to
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: lead with, and he led with great product. He knew
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: what he wanted to make. He made them well. He
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: found something that there was demand for and he made
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: a great product that people wanted.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was also a passion focused product, right,
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: it was in his background.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: The other thing that struck me was he had to
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: be pretty fearless to drop out of school. Obviously his
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: parents weren't too happy about that. To get a lawsuit
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: from a major brand that everyone's heard of, and to
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: just keep going, Yeah, that guy's got grit.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: And the strength to stand up and be able to say,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: you know, we aren't doing anything wrong. We're just going
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: to find a different way to do this. But we're
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: not going to be bullied out of business because of
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: who we're facing. I think that's huge. That took a
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: lot of guts right there.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And he characterized it, particularly at the end, about
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: making hard decisions, and I think that is a story
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: in entrepreneurship that is too often underplayed. Ultimately, when you're
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: the boss and every buck stops with you, you have
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: to make really hard decisions. He talked about hiring and
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: firing friends. He talked about, you know, having to give
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: really devastating news to his parents about his decision about
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: at school. You have to make some really tough calls
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: that are tough, emotionally tough from a business standpoint, and
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: they're not obvious decisions. They're difficult. You just can't underplay
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: what that means in terms of the resilience that a
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: business owner has to show.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the theme of courage is woven well
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: throughout his story, and he even had to make some
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: tough relational decisions even from the beginning. He had to
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: make some what I would say are some courageous choices
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: that I mean they ended up paying off, of course,
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: but he had to do that all throughout.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: The Other thing that inspired me listening to him is
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: how much he has become a self aware learner through
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: his mistakes. If you think about particularly what happened with
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: his employees and what happened with him sort of in
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: many ways, almost losing his business to one employee and
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: a subset of employees. He didn't just do the hard thing,
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: but he's thought really hard about how to make sure
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: that never happens again, how to build in a culture.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: My view is he acknowledged that he had some things
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: wrong that allowed that to have and he's not about
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: to let that happen again.
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: He was great at staying the course, and he was
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: also great at taking responsibility. You noticed that throughout his
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: story he said, you know it was on me, I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: take responsibility for this that happened, or I take responsibility
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: for bellowing people to come in and infiltrate the way
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: that they did, and then used each of these challenges
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: to just further elevate the company and where it was going.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: I think that's tremendous.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: What he learned is, you know, there was that book
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: what got you here Won't get you there? And I
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: think what made him really good in the early days,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: which was being great at identifying a product, being great
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: at getting that product out at amplifying the marketing around
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: that product wasn't going to be what was going to
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: make him successful as he started to scale the business.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: And I think he was self aware of that, and
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: I mean he learned it in a tough way, but
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: he learned it.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's important for small business owners to look
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: at how their organization is and the communication lines there
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and ensure that those are open somehow.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: I agree. I mean that's not just for small business owners.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: That's fair, that's what that's quality relationships and quality organizations
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: are based on trust, and ultimately trust is the foundation
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: of all of that. And if there isn't trust, then
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: the rest of it is just commentary, to be honest. Yeah,
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: if you've had to make that many hard decisions and
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: you can come out of it on the other side
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: feeling like you've learned and you've grown and you're ready
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: for the next step, that's a real lesson and resilience. Yeah.
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I think he did such a great job with that,
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: And to be so young in making these tough decisions
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: and taking responsibility for his decisions, all these just kind
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: of an amazing foundation for what's to come with this company.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: But it's a great lesson for other people to see
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: as well.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: Tanya, I want to go to the advice that Rob
• 22:38
  Speaker 3: shared with us because it had to do with his
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: core values and one in particular that I think is
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: relevant for every small business owner.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: One of the ones that I was thinking about today
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: is how disciplined do you have to be as a leader,
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: So being one hundred percent disciplined across the board, making
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: sure that things are done correctly to your standard, but
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: working with your team to get them to a point
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: where they're doing that kind of work satisfactory. And so
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: starting with that mindset that people around you are willing
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: to work hard and willing to do the right thing
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: as long as you can teach them. It's all those
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: things that you have to come to work every single
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: day one hundred percent ready to lead your squad.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakables. If you
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: like this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: our sho'll find more listeners. I'm Tanya Nebo and this
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: is The Unshakables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia. On the next episode of The Unshakables, makeup
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: artist and influencer Desi Perkins never set out to start
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: a sunglasses company, but after a brand partnership turns sour,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: she decided to severtize and start a company of her own.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: The Unshakables is a production of Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia