This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Jason Kelly on Bloomberg Radio. You know, every week I feel like Carol, we have a few conversations we're like, oh, I'm really looking forward to this, and you know, this is one of them, because this is a time where we can sort of catch our breath a little bit, think about what's going on, and look to people who we know are smart, and really look at the world in a holistic way. Nobody fits that better than Blake
my Cowsky. He is founder and chief shoe giver of Tom's, co founder of Made for Joining us on the phone from Baja, Mexico, Blake, great to have you with us. Yeah, and nice agree with you guys today too. Alright cool, Um, so tell us what you're First of all, I gotta ask you, like, how are you surviving through all of this? And you know, I trust your well and sort of feeling healthy in your family. Yeah. So I was actually down in Baja on a seven days silent the Pasina
Meditation retreat when the current outbreak happens. So literally I went into silence with the world being quite normal. Uh, and then eight days later came out in the world. It totally changed and rather than fly back home to Jackson hold I live, I actually uh called my ex wife and and got her and my kids to fly down to Box and we decided to hunker down here for the unforseeable future, until until it's safe to come home. So it's it's good for the kids that can be
outside of a lot. We can stay you know, very practice social distancing and um and you know, being in the sun and it's kind of nice. So we feel very blessed to be down here, but doing a lot of work down here every day, helping those in our different communities that we live and work in, uh and staying connected. So what was that moment, like take us back to that moment where you know, obviously things were brewing a little bit, but you had no idea, no
sense of like the depth of depth of it. What was your first thought, Well, it's crazy because I had been in the York the week before because we launched this new company made for that I know we're going to talk about that I've been working on for the past couple of years. We launched it by in New York on I think the launch date was on March fourth, so I was in New York. I was on the on the floor the stock has change on the fifth
and six, doing some interviews. Um. And then I left and then went to the meditation retreat on March six. So you know, there was some there was some turbulence stuff going on in the in the stock market. The Disney stock was going down, and cruise ships something like that, but nothing about you know, a pandemic and uh. And so I left. When I came back, I went to the Laredo Airport, was a tiny little airport, and BA to fly to l A and then l A to go back home, and people were wearing masks, and I
was like WHOA. And I hadn't even checked my phone or email and anything in eight days, and so immediately got online and saw just this barrage of text messages and emails asking if I was okay and where I was and what I was doing. And I was like wow. And then I started reading the news and and it was just it was a very surreal experience to think how different, uh, just in a week, and how much I missed in a week, frankly from a news perspective and from a you know, from the spread of the virus.
So well, that's giving a lot of perspectives. Well, that's so true. This virus, you know, Blake is something that moved so quickly, right, and the numbers just went from Okay, this isn't something that we're dealing with to all of a sudden yep, we are dealing with it. Um, really quickly, tell us about though, your employees and everyone you know who are working around the world on various projects. UM,
what's what's been the direct impact on them and your team? Well, it's north perspective everyone, Um, you know kind of the same way. I mean, you know, everyone is pretty much sheltered and staying at home. Um, you know, whether they're one of our aid workers and you know world Ethiopia on the Tom's Shoes front. Um, all of our employees were made for based in l a UM and so they've been sheltered and staying at home. Luckily are distribution center where we send out the wellness kit each month
or members. Um. They they are still operating. So we are still operating getting people signed up were made for and uh, and we're finding that people are really valuing having some structure and some stuff that they can control and their well being during the time when so much is out of their control. So we're actually seeing the business of Made for you know, growing, you know, quite rapidly since we launched it just six weeks ago. So
let's talk about Yeah, so let's talk about that. Let's because listen, I think the world is changing all around us. I mean, we were speaking with someone earlier, a psychologist from Johns Hopkins who was who was essentially saying, she was saying, the thing that maybe we're not thinking enough about is self care and self care as a way to help those around us. That seems to be at the core of what you're doing here, tell us more
about it. Yeah. So, so I spent two years working with scientists from uh University Labs of Stanford, Harvard, and other top universities around the country, really trying to understand how do we teach people the habits and practices will have the greatest impact on their life that they can
sustain and increase their well being. I've gone through a slight ballots of mild depression myself a couple of years ago and really started to ask myself, what are the things that I'm not doing the others who are thriving and fourishing are doing and how can I make those changes? And I found that, you know, the information was quite simple, but actually learning and sustaining these habits that I'm most highly affective people are doing every day it is quite hard.
And so myself and my partner, Pat Doss, who is a Navy seal for nine years serving in the military, and we got together and we started working with the different scientists on really teaching people these practices. And what's so interesting is we worked on this for two years and we developed this ten month per ram where every month we teach you one new habit and practice and it's completely analog and it's always done in your home alone.
And so what's fascinating is that the whole program was built around you're getting this box once a month, and in the box there's a tool that we designed to help you learn the new habit and practice. There's all the science consolidated to a very simple twenty minute read, and there's the monthly challenge. And so what's interesting is that we got that had that plan obviously not knowing that we'd all be in this state. Our guest at
this hour is Blake, my Cowsky. He's founder and chief shoegiver of Tom's co founder of Made for He's joining us on the phone from Baja Mexico, and we were talking about Made for months and UM, this whole idea that every month you get one thing to focus on. I have to say, someone who's done yoga for more than twenty years, this whole idea that some of the things you'll focus on, whether it's gratitude or breathing or clarity,
UM totally resonates with me. Tell me a little bit about how you how you came to what you would focus on and how it would work. And I love the idea of picking one thing because I feel like, you know, we all create this huge list and then it's like we get nothing done, and we get nothing. I don't know, it's not helpful to us. Well, that's exactly what we set out actually originally to find twelve things that science could prove would have a meaningful effect
on your well being. And after a year's worth of research with working with scientists from Stanford and Harvard, we actually found that there are only ten things that science could really back up. UM, And so that's why we decided to focus on ten things, and why we chose
one a month is exactly what you just said. There's all this information on how we can really take control of our personal well being has been out there forever, but the reason why so few people actually do it is they're bombarded with all that what you know, you hear it in a podcast or you hear it by reading a book, and you don't ever take the time actually learned the new practice or habits um and so
that's why we focus on one thing a month. And also the other thing that's really unique about Made for is its completely analog. There's no digital app because there's no device usage. We found that that the science was showing us is that in this time of great digital distraction, it's really hard to learn a new practice or habit. And so everything that you need for our program comes to your house once a month and you engage with
it in a completely analog fashion. And that's why I think we've seen, you know, thousands of people now such huge impacts on transforming themselves to the program because they're learning these things and it's actually sticking, maybe for the first time in their life. So Blake, I gotta ask you shifting gears just a little bit, because we'd be remiss if we didn't. Um. You know, you think about Tom's, you think about the one for one. I mean that
is something that has has caught on broadly. I literally, full disclosure, just bought um some masks from a shoe company based on in Brooklyn called Atoms that are making masks and they're employing that exact same thing. I mean,
people are really into this. I do wonder as you think about where we are right now, where we may be going, giving your experience with Tom's, given your experience for Made for we want to ask you a question We've been asking a lot of big thinkers, big CEOs and and uh investors, which is, how do you think will be different on the other side of this. What are we maybe underestimating that the world will change in the way we live our lives and the way we
do business. Well, I think one thing is some of the biggest thing I'm seeing is that I think we're not going to go back to the necessity of as many face to face meetings and travel. I mean, for me, for instance, like I don't think I'm jumping on a plan to come to New York for my next questure. I think I'm doing it over Zoom, you know, because hey, it's it's money, it's it's it's it's better for the planet,
less carbon emissions, but happening on plane. I think that people will, you know, once what is safe to engage back in social contact. I think we will go back to a to a to a much more uh contact that we have today. But I don't think the necessity to always do things in person, especially in the business world, will be the same as it has been in the past.
I think that we've proven that we can have great connection through uh, you know, a platform like Zoom or using face time or any video conferencing service, UM, and you can really connect to people and you can get a lot done and you can be a lot more efficient. And I think part of you know what you know we're helping in one of the months that people do with that's made for is really have more clarity, uh and in terms of, you know, what is the clutter
in their life? UM. You know, Marie kind of wrote that great book about, you know, how to declutter your home and how when you get rid of things that aren't truly providing you joy, how it creates less stress. But we take that to every aspect of your life with for and that goes for meetings, that goes for social engagement. Really helped to kind of stop using the word should, because so much of our lives to run, but that that content I should do that, that should
do that Momo right, fear no fear of missing out? Really, you know, and I agree that having been forced to stay, you know, at home, it creates some clarity about what really matters and do I need to be doing all this extra stuff? Um, Blake, this was so cool. Thank
you so much. Be well, stay healthy, and hopefully on the other side of this we can come back to you and talk a little bit more of Blake mccowsky, founder in chief, shoe giver of Tom's, co founder of Made for I need to check that out, Jason Kelly, totally right up here. All shout out to my friend Wendy Nougle, who met Blake on that press tour. She's a number two editor people and she's like, you gotta meet this guy. Totally