Entertainment Industry to Entrepreneur with Shelby Mason, Bootights

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Entrepreneur Exchange on the MESH podcast network. A monthly conversation about startups and small business with ideas, tools and advice to operate your business more effectively. On today's show, starting a new business is a huge challenge. And pivoting and restarting a business isn't even bigger challenge.

[00:00:25] On today's episode we'll talk with inventor and founder of BootTights. Shelby Mason about her company and the roller coaster rise that she's taken as an entrepreneur. We'll also have our small business at the month feature, we'll recommend some interesting businesses for you to be checking out.

[00:00:41] My name is Jeff Nouvell. I'm your co-host. I'm director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in Connover, North Carolina. I'm joined by my co-host Gary Muller, who is Executive Dean of Economic Development and Corporate Education at the Tobbe Valley Community College in Hickory, North Carolina. How's it going Gary?

[00:00:58] Jeff, it's going great. Good. The semester is going well from a continuing education as well as curriculum. So we're off to a nice start and we're almost halfway through so that's a good thing. Well, we're here in early March.

[00:01:11] It's sort of almost feels like spring here in Beautiful, North Carolina. We hope that it's going well wherever you are and we're having a good time. Thank you for your hospitality. When you're a team yesterday, why I was teaching my class over there?

[00:01:28] It's a beautiful facility as well as the new building getting ready to open up in just a little bit. Time. Well, we're very excited about that and speaking about our facility, we're going to introduce our guest Shelby Mason. Shelby, how are you doing today? I'm doing great.

[00:01:46] I'm doing great on this beautiful Friday morning, I guess. Friday morning and I, and I, I transitioned there because when the manufacturing solution center in kind of a new with your line of open, they're current building, Shelby was actually the keynote speaker at that event several years ago.

[00:02:07] I don't want to give this all but she was there talking about her product and her brand boot tights, which combines both socks and tights. And Shelby, you have a pretty interesting background in that before you got into the apparel type business,

[00:02:25] you were marketing salesperson with Disney, with Warner Brothers and then you made the leap. Yeah, I, I think of myself as kind of an accidental entrepreneur. Really, I was working at Disney and I was selling TV shows for them and traveling a lot.

[00:02:46] So I was a road warrior and I would be getting on and off planes all week.

[00:02:50] And I, I basically found that I was part of my uniform when I was traveling was wearing my, you know, my suit and my tights and my boots and mostly when I was traveling was in colder locations. I always wear my boots and my tights.

[00:03:06] But I always found I needed to layer a separate sock over my tights when I wore my boots and because my feet would slip inside because tights are super thin, you know, and I know your guys and you probably don't fully, you know,

[00:03:19] understand what it's like to sacrifice comfort for style. But because you do look very stylish today, I will say. Well, thank you very much. I'm sure, and we don't get that often. I didn't even have an answer at first. We always glad this is an audio only podcast.

[00:03:36] Yeah, we go ahead. So, but yeah, so it was just an, and in order to kind of a situation I would always deal with.

[00:03:44] So I would always have to steal my dad's old socks when I went to home to visit because my socks I had to layer over my tights for like running socks. So they were ankle socks.

[00:03:56] I would hide under my boots, climb under the heel of my boot and it would be super annoying. And so I need those taller, crusac, whatever that my dad had, the white one, you know, you guys all know.

[00:04:06] And anyway, I was always doing that and it was always kind of a make-do solution and kind of a pain in the butt because I'd forget my socks. And it was just, you know, having for bed, I go through the airport and I'll go through TSA.

[00:04:21] And this is actually what was the inspiration to the idea. I was actually, it was in O'Hare going to Fargo, North Dakota. So it was a very cool, I remember exactly where I was going at the time.

[00:04:35] And I was standing in line at TSA and there was a really good looking guy that was standing beside me and we started to chat. And I thought I look good, had my suit on and ready to go.

[00:04:47] With the little metal detector took off the boots and I had the white man socks on. And it was just wasn't that good luck. It really just wasn't a good luck. So I think my confidence kind of went down to the drain at that point.

[00:05:03] Some people find out a conversation point, yes. You know, but nice combination. I thought something about him, you know, maybe he didn't have a sense of humor. But so maybe it worked out to my benefit at the end of the day.

[00:05:19] But yeah, that was really, it was more humiliation and embarrassment. And was the impetus to the idea why don't they have a product out there that combines the comfort and the questioning and the warmth of a sock.

[00:05:32] To, you know, a tight where women can wear them which, you know, either stylist or their either stylist or their just the utility. And you want to cover your legs for warmth. Why don't they put them together?

[00:05:43] And I found out why because it's kind of a pain, but. But it makes a pretty darn product.

[00:05:51] So so so you came, you came up with this idea and yeah, now I'm at the manufacturing solution center and talk to us a little bit about how you went about developing this idea.

[00:06:05] Because I imagine you, you talked to people in a lot. There was a lot of head scratching and teeth gnashing and and I just just for my experience in various industries. I suspect people look that you like your crazy. Oh yeah.

[00:06:18] So it didn't help that I didn't know the link though. So I kept saying woven and it's knit and you know, that's like a hoes and re 101 thing. You should pretty much know how the product is created.

[00:06:32] So I was talking, I just called up a bunch of mills. I didn't know what I was doing. I knew nothing about manufacturing. Nothing about a parallel retail.

[00:06:40] I never even worked at the gap. So I mean, I really knew nothing. And so I just started calling people and I got there, you know, I got them to take my call. But once I started to explain it, you know, I didn't really get anywhere.

[00:06:54] So I started to Google and this is where I found the home manufacturing solution center. I googled Hoseri terminology because I was turning people off by what I was saying.

[00:07:06] And there sure sure enough, there is a glossary of Hoseri terms in there and it was the Hoseri that's very fat strange solution center at the time. It was always a re-tex center. And that's where I found for more information, contact. So I did.

[00:07:23] And on the team there was wonderful. They thought my idea was actually not crazy. And they gave me the time of day and helped me with a prototype and then helped me put it into the right direction to where what mill would be the most,

[00:07:38] yeah, would make the most sense for my needs. And we were rocking roll and after that. So now you were saying that your background, you know, you're working for these entertainment companies, your sales, your marketing. You're probably when it comes to manufacturing. It's like a black hole.

[00:07:57] But, you know, what strengths did you bring into the business from a marketing and how is it, how did that help you as you're getting up and going?

[00:08:07] Actually, I helped me a lot at the time. I just felt like I was at a disadvantage because I was in waters that I knew nothing about so I was kind of.

[00:08:17] But what I realized is what I didn't know was a benefit because I didn't know that I shouldn't go straight to the top to ask for asked buyers to for a meeting.

[00:08:32] I didn't know what I couldn't do. And so I just kept being persistent and like for example, you know, and working for Disney, you're kind of at a, you know, the marketing of Disney, the branding of Disney,

[00:08:47] I learned all about that, how to pitch us an idea. How to pitch program, how to pitch a story. I know how to do that. I know how to get in front of, you know, see executives, see sweet executives.

[00:09:00] I wasn't afraid to call, you know, the head of the mill or the head of the buying team or whatever. So that was good.

[00:09:08] But yeah, that helped me a lot. But I can say like for example, my first retailer was dealers and I didn't know, I didn't even know what dealers was.

[00:09:18] I was like, I'm at West Coast Gow. I didn't know, you know, and so I ended up going straight to the top and got a meeting and got in order that same day. And I thought, oh, that's how it's supposed to work.

[00:09:30] And I realized that, you know, usually you sell it, trade show, you know, you do trade shows and you sell boutiques first. And I just did it really big.

[00:09:40] And it was a good and a bad thing. I was good because hey, you know, I'm off and rolling. It was bad because I didn't, I wasn't prepared.

[00:09:49] So I wasn't prepared with my manufacturing. I didn't have an infrastructure, you know, and then we started to get a lot of press and that's where my background helped. And then I really wasn't prepared when it went on Oprah. So, so I, it's a big deal.

[00:10:09] But, you know, you learn. Well, so in terms of, in terms of lessons learned there, I mean, yeah, I guess building a team is important. I mean, it sounds like for a while.

[00:10:23] You're the team. You're probably wearing lots of hats and that's always the challenge of distribution. I mean, when you, you know, sometimes you sound a little bit like the dog that chased the car, you got the car. What do you do?

[00:10:39] That's exactly what happened. And so, you know, in the beginning, I was still working at Disney when this whole thing kind of exploded.

[00:10:46] It was going to be on on Oprah and when she was still in syndication her last year back in 2011. So I used that and leveraged it with a bunch of the buyers and make department stores.

[00:10:59] And I was saying, hey, this is going to, this is the next big thing. This is going to be on Oprah. You need it on your floor. And so I did that again not knowing.

[00:11:08] I mean, I, I mean, the packaging, I was designing myself. I didn't know how to have me graphic design. I had no team in place. So everything I did was it looked like, it looked cheap.

[00:11:22] I mean, my packaging wasn't really professional. I didn't have a full understanding of what, you know, what I didn't even know what a skew was. So, you know, but, you know, that being said, I it was a lot of bumps. You know, my website crashed within two seconds of being on Oprah.

[00:11:43] And I, you know, what we did get a, you know, the fact is the products really unique and really good. And the people people who discovered it want to tell their friends. And they want to share it because there's nothing else out there on the market.

[00:11:55] And it's just a very niche, very specific solution to a problem. So my business continued, you know, despite the ups and downs. And I'm basically now in 2023. I'm kind of relaunching the brand and moving away from my old distribution strategy, which was

[00:12:12] was department stores and wholesale and doing all the trade shows and try to make sure that I'm making everybody happy with all my styles and having a new collection every season.

[00:12:23] And now I'm really focused on my, my website and online direct to consumer via digital and and those have different challenges, but, but that's really, I mean, the biodeb had her has changed so dramatically, especially after COVID

[00:12:39] that for me, you know, pivoting in this direction on made the most sense for the brand. And for financially, for me because it's personally funded by me.

[00:12:50] You know, it's a little bit less expensive to do it this way and you know, if you're going to get a smaller percentage of buyers, but it's still a large, it's still a large chunk of your customers are still available.

[00:13:06] And that's really the way to go for me right now.

[00:13:10] Well, I, you know, we talked a little bit and, and it sounds like you've gone through situations where you've had to pivot, you know, COVID is one thing and I guess maybe changes in the way people dress and, you know, just not being in the office and that sort of thing, but,

[00:13:27] also just in terms of styles and whatnot, at one point you sort of took a step back and got into just doing some of the boot sock type things. So, you know, how how did you sort of recognize when the time was right to pivot and execute on that?

[00:13:43] Yeah, I mean, that's a thing I guess about, you know, entrepreneurship and small business ownership is that you kind of have to roll with the punches, not everything you can control.

[00:13:56] I mean, we want to control everything and you know, but when you when it comes down to it, you can't control what people are buying and what people are wearing.

[00:14:06] And so what I found in this was, oh, I don't know, 2013 is, you know, women were starting to wear less dresses they were starting to wear, and when they were wearing dresses they weren't wearing hosary and tights they were going bare leg.

[00:14:23] So, so there was as much hosary wearing and before hosary was more of a fashion piece that you know, there was a lot of patterns and colors and so, and it just kind of stopped that people would still wear tights but they would wear them basically as a utility and wear plain black.

[00:14:42] So it was just kind of a different type of market and so less people were wearing tights, more people were wearing jeans and but there are still a lot of people wearing boots and the the market that was consistently loving their boots.

[00:14:55] And by new boots each year and spending a lot of money on their boots and very loyal were the the gals in the western market.

[00:15:03] And so we're in those western boots and what I found in my product though was that not only didn't make a really incredible hosary, you know, tight candy hose whatever you have ever do you want to say it.

[00:15:15] But it also made a really great blue sock because we took that same concept of the bottom portion being knit on a soft machine with arch support, christening, moisture wicking, ventilation all that stuff.

[00:15:28] And then the leg portions still knit on a hosary machine so that's super sleek has more has fan decks. It doesn't slide down it hugs your leg and so it also doesn't add bulk to your boots and so it ended up to make an incredible blue sock.

[00:15:45] So then we're like okay let's put lace on this let's have fun with this and let's put a little bling and let's do some patterns and we found that there is nothing like it in the market and they embraced us with like just.

[00:15:58] Open open armed and we ended up in blue barn and cavernors and a bunch of others and doing more of those western trade trade shows and.

[00:16:10] And so it was great it was it was we basically took what we do best and we pivoted into a market that was not as fashion trend you know specific. And we kind of rode that for a while.

[00:16:24] Yeah, you mentioned trade shows a couple of times and it sounds like that's probably not in your marketing mix now as much as it might have been back several years ago but I'm just curious.

[00:16:37] Just because I got to go to some trade shows you have any you have any hints for having a successful trade show what he would. Yeah, any anything you can share with people. I've done so many oh my god.

[00:16:52] I'm going to have uncomfortable shoes I think that's one of the number. I was just number one is where comfortable shoes number what comfortable shoes and great socks. But yeah, for us it was the prep work beforehand that really helped us be successful.

[00:17:11] You know, and also if you're if you go to the same one over and over again people start to know where to find you and so that consistency at the trade shows are really.

[00:17:22] Very I think there's a big benefit to that but I said out so many blasts e blasts I got the list from you know various wherever I got my list.

[00:17:32] And would would send out those blasts and people would they be so annoyed by them and they would come up there like oh my god you keep sending me even I know well your narrative.

[00:17:44] Work for yeah it was a lot of prep but we yeah we then you know the trade shows throughout the years less and less.

[00:17:56] And it's a very important topic when I occur these trade shows so we also found and you know it's different now this is post COVID in a different you know industry and everything but.

[00:18:08] But yeah we started to realize that the expense of these trade shows and you know have to fly out there hotels the whole thing. At one point just wasn't worth it we weren't getting enough back so.

[00:18:21] And so the reason why it makes more sense for me to really focus on e commerce and put all my money and marketing into social ads and influencers and just getting our word out there in that capacity as opposed to going to the trade shows but yes.

[00:18:36] Prep and consistency at the trade show comfortable shoes and. Got you. You've you know what one of the one of the things that you've gone through in your entrepreneurship life is trying to find the right partner and sometimes finding the wrong partner I mean.

[00:18:58] What what advice can you share is as from your experience it is when you're trying to partner with somebody what should people be looking for and what might be some red flags that should put them in another direction.

[00:19:12] Yeah that I think overall that's been the hardest part for me is when I first started with boot types I had a lot of options a lot of.

[00:19:22] A lot of people coming knocking on my door saying they wanted to partner and that would that for me was a red flag because I was so new and I was just afraid and I didn't want people to still my day and I didn't want to partner too soon.

[00:19:34] And then before I could grow it as much as I could myself and and get as much value out of it myself.

[00:19:41] So I you know in the very beginning, I had opportunities looking back that probably would have been really great and I didn't choose for whatever reason and I honestly I think it's because this is the path I'm supposed to be I'm supposed to learn throughout this process and.

[00:19:57] The biggest thing is follow your gut. I mean I had an opportunity to partner with another hosry company and at the same time I had an opportunity to.

[00:20:09] To partner with someone out of New York who was very successful in their business and they were in they have parallel business and I have these you know checklist of pros and cons.

[00:20:19] I went through the whole thing. I mean you know I didn't just jump on and I went through it all and my gut told me to go one direction. I went in the other direction for, you know, other reasons and I made a mistake.

[00:20:34] It wasn't a good partnership they had different goals. They did business very differently. They didn't understand how to grow a brand as opposed to just licensing brands and doing volume.

[00:20:45] You know that's what they did. They did volume and it wasn't about growing brands and it takes time to grow brands, especially a lifestyle brand that's based off of that's something unique.

[00:20:56] So yeah, it is really really really hard and the other thing is just to look for someone who maybe brings something to the table that you don't have.

[00:21:05] I was great at marketing in sales and I was, you know, I guess you can say on a little bit on the creative side or I had to be. I developed that.

[00:21:14] I needed, I wanted somebody that had the infrastructure that had the distribution that you know had the ability to kind of just take it to scale and get it go.

[00:21:23] I have to worry about EVI and you know, all that stuff. I want someone else to do with that but yeah it's that's that was really hard for me and I ended up picking the wrong for the wrong company to partner with

[00:21:39] within the year. Boot Heights basically was done. Just a lot of bad decisions just, you know, and then not me not being able to control that part of it.

[00:21:53] I just felt really helpless. So once we basically ended that partnership and it all like I said, only last year.

[00:22:03] It was very devastating for me because that was my baby, you know, I took a lot. I put a lot of money into it. I sacrificed a lot sacrifice to career that I built really, you know, I spent a lot, you know, the first part of my life building and in less than a year it was gone.

[00:22:22] So, you know, and that's kind of where you're right then you start to wonder what your identity like I was always the Boot Heights gal. And I can now what do I do.

[00:22:33] You know, and then you know, and the long story short ended up fighting a legal battle in settling and getting the brand back in my name and of course that happened right when COVID hit so I couldn't access any of my inventory for a while and had to figure out how is going to do this.

[00:22:51] And, you know, honestly, you know, COVID there was a little bit of a blessing there because it gave me the time to just chill and think about it and plan it out. And so now we're back up and and we're having I'm having a great time.

[00:23:09] So so you talk about the planning that you were able to do and and I guess one thing you know in and Gary and I've talked about so I'm as always trying to find the right balance between

[00:23:20] not over planning and you can probably spend all your time planning it's never going to be perfect.

[00:23:26] And when it's time to pull the trigger, you know, and it sounds like you had initial success selling into department stores maybe you weren't totally prepared but you you at some point you made that leap I mean any you have any advice for people in terms of

[00:23:41] When when is this time to stop planning and start doing or Or that's probably there's not a easy answer to that but I guess just your perspective on it. Yeah, um, I honestly I never had that problem so I. You're a doer.

[00:24:02] I did it I just did it. But I but at some point you just I think what's important is to make sure that what your product or services is something unique, you know, I mean you want to make sure that you have some sort of a differentiation

[00:24:19] To your customer and a lot of people want to go into business of further self or want to be an entrepreneur because it has become almost a buzz word but.

[00:24:30] If you don't have something to offer that's unique for your customer then, um, you know, then I would I would start planning figuring that out. Um, so I think that's really important is just you know it's it's not easy being an entrepreneur.

[00:24:45] I would love to work for someone who paid me and who gave me benefits and told me what to do each day and I had goals and I knew what to do and I made money and then I was off and then I could go home and have a cocktail and not worry about anything.

[00:24:59] So that is what I would love to play. I don't see it happening. So I'm just saying that, um, yeah there's a point where you.

[00:25:09] I for me, a market research was really important because after I got the market research back and realized that I wasn't the only one with this issue and that other there's other women out there other people in general who have this problem and would buy the product then I'm like let's get it.

[00:25:23] Let's go. So it's now or never. Um, of course now is what? Twenty two thousand nine so you know.

[00:25:33] Well, well, yeah, I think that, you know just doing that research to me is part of the planning and that you know too often you know you we probably run into people who make that assumption.

[00:25:44] Oh, I came up with a unique product and haven't spent the time to say hey is it really unique? Or are there people out there that really share this problem and it sounds like you at least were able to figure that part of it out.

[00:25:56] Yeah, I think that's yeah. I want to go into this without. This was a lot of work.

[00:26:03] I mean, I had a great job on the money, you know, and I looked in LA and it was just it was a good time and so I just I didn't want to put my money into it.

[00:26:13] I mean, maybe it's just because I, you know, I don't want to dump a bunch of money into something that nobody wants to buy and I didn't want to disrupt my career.

[00:26:23] Um, for but yeah, and the other thing is when you ask people or you do a focus group make sure it's not your friends and family only because they're going to tell you go for it. They don't want to squash your dreams.

[00:26:34] So make sure that you're able to get a big enough focus group of people who don't know you personally and and that's what we did. That was kind of where I figured okay, you know what, let's do this.

[00:26:47] Well, you're your current pivot you said is into is really into the e-commerce and going direct to consumers so that I guess presents new challenges. I mean, what's any any advice you have for folks that are that are focused on the e-commerce platform forms.

[00:27:06] It's probably, you know, get make sure that you have a website platform that's easy to use. I'm using just my personal what I use is Shopify and they make it really easy for business owners to be able to.

[00:27:23] You know, to put the product up and you know that kind of thing. Just you need to you need to put content out there and it doesn't have to be perfect and be authentic and be real until your story.

[00:27:38] Don't be afraid to tell your story and that's what people connect with and so I think, you know, I need to get more video out there. I need to yeah, so I'm so good at doing the video side of it.

[00:27:52] But, so we had some technical difficulties today, but. But yeah, those are things that that need to happen and then the great thing about e-commerce or about social media is that you can really target your market. You can really really hone in and target.

[00:28:05] But you got to be consistent, you've got to build, you know, a story and it doesn't happen overnight like Oprah did, you know, like Macy's did. You have to, it takes time to grow. So I do other things beyond that.

[00:28:20] I go out and do I plant seeds as what I call it.

[00:28:24] I do like women entrepreneurship lunchons and pop up shops and other things to get my brand out there to, you know, to get out in the world and also to see what other people are still wearing or wearing and figure out, you know, I don't want to be stuck in my office and my, you know, with my dog.

[00:28:43] You know, with my dog at my, my desk, you know, all day long and not realize what's going on out there. So, um, but yeah, it's the technology is is an incredible thing.

[00:28:54] I, you know, I love it and he did the same time, but it allows you to reach your customer base relatively easily, but you do have to have a marketing plan. It's not going to just come to you because you have a website up.

[00:29:07] Fair enough, well any as we sort of wind down a little bit and any other advice that you would offer out there to people that are starting their own business or small business owners.

[00:29:21] Uh, yeah, I mean, I would kind of go back to that one point is just make sure that you're doing it for the right reasons do it because you feel like you have a product in the service that somebody really needs.

[00:29:34] Don't, don't do it because you don't want to work, you know, for a big corp or you don't want, you know, the product or the service that's the hero that's the key.

[00:29:46] And then I would also try to surround yourself with good people that can compliment you where you need, you might need help. I think that's a great advice for an adventure. Well, well, can you hang out for a minute and play our lighting round? Yeah, sure.

[00:30:07] All right, we're going to also this this month were sponsored by Global Jim if you need to lose some weight and get in shape. You got to a different gem, but if you're ready to look good go to Global Jim, you should check it out on the internet.

[00:30:20] Why do you keep looking at me? I don't look good, you're right. All right, so we have some quick questions for you, Shelby, some quick answers. Don't overthink it. Okay. First one, what is your biggest pet pee?

[00:30:33] When people are in the fast lane driving slow, oh, I can't handle it. I'm with you and if they don't use blinkers, I got your taste me too. That or you know, I'm with you on that one. Yep. What toppings do you put on your pizza?

[00:30:47] And more importantly, what is your position on pineapple on pizza? I'm a little interesting. I'm not a pineapple fan. I appreciate those who are, but I like onions, peppers, sausage. Good answer. Yeah, there's avoid the pineapple people come on. Yeah, I don't do it.

[00:31:09] They don't fair with pizza. What's your favorite vacation spot? Licked Geneva was constant. That's interesting. That's our first round before. Yeah. It's a place that I go, I have a place in Chicago and it's a fun little voting community and it's a lot of fun.

[00:31:36] Sounds more like a summer vacation, not the winter vacation. Yeah, exactly. Do you have an adult beverage recommendation? What's your preference? For beer, I like Aligash White. Love it. The Belgian White. Good choice. For wine, I'm a seven-year-old young punk New Zealand girl. Okay. Very specific. Yes. Yes.

[00:32:01] And otherwise, I'm going to like a Jack and Diet girl too. Well, it sounds like your versatile. Yeah, you're not there. You need to please there. Last question, if you had one superpower, what would it be? Oh. Ooh, okay.

[00:32:22] Probably, I was going to say, read minds, but I don't think I want that. I don't want to know. Be careful with your ass for a moment. Yeah, exactly. I didn't think about that a little bit too. Yeah, no. I guess flying, you know, I think flying nowadays.

[00:32:39] Yeah. I would rather just get there and maybe you know, if you could do it yourself and not get on the plane, that would be wonderful. Yeah. I think that's probably where I'm at right now. I was flying this weekend. I would concur with that. Yeah.

[00:32:52] Not a pleasant experience. So, well, you did great. You'll be if people want to find you and they want to find boot types. Where should they be looking? Yeah. So, flying boot types at boottypes.com and it's spelled B-O-O-T-I-G-H-T-S.com. So, 1T in the mail.

[00:33:12] And we have a full website full of all sorts of not just types, but socks and all sorts of fun stuff. And on Instagram, it's boottypes USA, in a Facebook, it's boottypes. Very good. All right. Well, people should be checking that out.

[00:33:29] And we always like to end up our podcast by throwing out some other small businesses that people should be checking out. She'll be you have anything you want to share with our listeners. I do.

[00:33:40] I have a favorite small business and she's a friend of mine, so I'm going to mention it's also in the sock business. It's called Are You Kidding Socks. And she started this with her kids. So, the kids actually create the sock designs.

[00:33:57] And so she, they're also a line with various charities. So, a percentage of it goes to charity and then they'll also design socks or charities. And then they do a sock hop at different schools in the area and raise money for a school, different school districts and different.

[00:34:15] So, it's a really cool company and they're doing great things. Well, cool. That sounds that's a great one. Thank you very much for that one. Gary, do you have a small business to share this month? Actually, I have three.

[00:34:29] The we've talked about and it happens to be because we're having the real life entrepreneurship form coming up and that you actually started some years ago and that we're continuing and they're going to be talking to our students about entrepreneurship and the good things like we were today.

[00:34:48] Chase Collins, who is also part of our EVF every day entrepreneurship venture fund. So, these are all entrepreneurship heroes in our local community, young man, Hickory's helper and he's doing a lot of great things. He was also on our skills USA.

[00:35:04] Now you see all the reasons why I'm talking about him. Between entrepreneurship and skills USA. So, he's going to be one of our speakers, Marky James, who came out our advertising graphic design program and started a barxide pet grooming.

[00:35:18] And it looks like a long switch from advertising graphic design to pet grooming that she's put them both to good use and she's doing very well. Also part of our skills USA and then in person, you know well, David Williams, one of our former

[00:35:33] city councilman and Clutch cuts his barboring and hair styling business. We are doing well all three tied closely to CVCC and so we're very proud. And the reason I brought him up is because they're going to be speaking at our campus on March 14th.

[00:35:51] All right, so if you're in Hickory, in order to come see a three-on-torn or speaking on March 14th, check that out at the top of our community college. Great, so thank you. And I'm going to give out a shout out to company I came across.

[00:36:06] It's called Life Giving Warms. Now Gary, you and I are known outdoorsmen. Yes, absolutely. We've been outdoors sometimes. I have usually camping, fishing, hunting or golf. What did you kill this season? My golf clubs. You golf clubs?

[00:36:23] Well, I know you've had a bad back but you're a hearty guy and you know, blankets are great. If you're going outdoors, you're going to the game, you're going camping but electric blankets are better but you don't usually have a place to plug that in.

[00:36:37] So the company Life Giving Warms makes a battery operated heating blanket and they make different versions of it. They've got one called the cozy that's more for your going to your going to the ball games

[00:36:49] and they've got one that's called the, let's say, the Cody Ac, which is more for the camping. And we'll have here and whatnot. And they've got one that's called recover that actually make for EMS organizations to help people in that situation.

[00:37:04] So it's a like a real cool idea, real cool company is called Life Giving Warms. If you go to Life Giving Warms.com, you can see what they've got going on there. So it's pretty cool. That sounds cool.

[00:37:15] And you know my definition of camping is going to hotel and not having a remote. I know how they end. So anyway. Exactly. Well, I know we shall be really appreciate you joining us this month. It's been a lot of fun. Well, thank you for having me.

[00:37:30] It was a lot of this fantastic. We hope you find reason to visit the Hozier, the the manufacturing solution center if when you make it back into Earth Carolina.

[00:37:39] And you'd be very proud to know that your advertising promotions are in the classroom that I was teaching in yesterday. Oh, really. I might need to update that. Oh, it was great though. That's it. Boot time stop comp still works. Exactly. That's where people can find you.

[00:37:59] But it was great. And I'm saying we're going to do this tomorrow. I said it was really cool for me. No. Well, thank you all. Thank you so much. And honestly, I wouldn't be here without the manufacturing solution center and all the support down in North Carolina.

[00:38:13] My manufacturers are down there and, you know, it's like a home away from home and some day I hope to make it permanent. So then you might see me more often than you. Like. No. Yeah. Our doors are open so we welcome you back.

[00:38:30] So that you we appreciate you joining us today. As always, we appreciate the the mesh podcast network for hosting us. And if you go to the mesh.tv. You'll see a whole bunch of cool podcasts going on out there and write it up.

[00:38:44] So you check them out at the mesh.tv. And we will look forward to talking with you again next month. Take care. Take care.