Hey guys, if you haven't heard about anchor it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain it's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or your computer. Anchor will distribute your podcast for you so that it can be heard on Spotify Apple podcast and many more you can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot. F m-- to get started. I'm an anchor and I can't say enough about it. So get started down. Hi everyone, you're listening to Superwoman. Today's guest is Kerry Cooper the president and CEO of Roth. He's an incredible hugely successful brand of Footwear and they're just getting started. Take a listen. I'm sitting here with Gary Cooper the president and CEO of Rossi's and if you haven't heard about Roth he's shoes. Well, you live under a rock because their story their rise to shoe kingdom nastas is everywhere. And so I'm really happy. Be that you're joining me today. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So tell me a little bit of your story. You said you know before we started recording that there was two Tech Bros that you said come join you and you are nervous. They're not Tech pros at all. That was what I was worried. They were Ram so yet so I joined Mathewson late 2017. We were 20 people maybe and when I joined Roth had built one of the largest art galleries on the west coast and Stephen was an investment banker so very different skills, but they're also just It's amazing human beings. And so when I first joined I joined as a consultant of like I'll help you with half my time while I think about what I really want to do and I just fell in love with the company and like I think two months in and Consulting and I've been helping him structure and higher the team. I was like hiring people I wanted to work with and it's like what am I doing? I should take this job. Like this should be a job I want so I joined officially in February 2018. And what did the company look like that? Well first of all, sorry, let me let me go back. What is Roth? He's so we make beautiful stylish incredibly comfortable shoes for Sustainably so primarily out of plastic water recycle plastic water bottles. But everything we do can have head to toe is sustainable. Wow, that's not easy. No, so what did the boys am I allowed to call them boys? They're not boys are so there ya whether these talented men who founded on four doors. What did they see in you for this role when you started? Well, I think neither of them where they were both really honest of we've never built a company, right? So an investment banker, it's not a company and an art You know Roth is super entrepreneurial. He had done like three different kind of things that he built on his own. But neither of them had ever scaled anything and my background was sort of the other side, which is it's been six years at Levis and supply chain and then running stores and then I'd spent three years at ModCloth building it from early days to Peak as a Walmart for three years. So Fortune one, you kind of a different view of what he Converses. And so I think you know, I know how to structure and build teams. That's what I love to do. And I think that's certainly what makes for a great partnership when Founders that have what doing what they love to do coupled with, you know other people around you that do something that you don't do well so one thing that I struggle with constantly is finding people that can build teams is a very special skill set. That is so valuable. What are some of the key learnings that you have either learned or applied that allows you to build and scale teams because we struggle with it at our company and it's just a very, you know, you're business is your people and then if you mess that up, then it shows on the outside. Hmm. I'm far from perfect. I mean, I think that the good news is I've done it for a long enough that I've made mistakes and figured out how to fire people the right way and not the right way. I figure it out how to hire the right and the wrong people I've made lots of lots of oh gosh. That wasn't right. They looked good in the interview and they're not so good. I think now more than anything in culture. You have to make sure you're being consistent with what it is you're hiring for and what you're looking for and Life's too short to work with people who have sharp elbows. Or hiring people. I really want to work with I think all of us love our jobs like it helps to be part of a company that's doing something with a good purpose. You know, I feel like every shoe we're making is like more its benefit to the world instead of like another ModCloth. I think a lot of the fast fashion is not so healthy, right? I'm so selling another dress doesn't feel so great where this place I think we're all excited about what we can do with this technology and what we can do to build it. So it helps to have a place where people really want to be and then you have to really focus on my hiring the right people do I think About what I love to do and what straining to me and what's energizing to me. And how do I balance that with other people? Like, you know, I'm one of the things I think about we put sap in which is kind of mind-numbing for me, but we have this amazing woman Gretchen who loves sap so like finding someone like the Gretchen's the world who think that that job is a great job because she loves the major every, you know, I is dotted and T's crossed and that all of the schedules are lining up the right way is perfect. I need that. It's not what I love to do. And I think that's probably some of the balance I think when we Early on it's you doing every job and it's thinking about like what are the jobs you don't love to do and for your team to like what are the things they don't love to do and do you need to hire? Like how do you promote from within as much as you can and then where do you need to bring someone in where you're not training them on the job how to do something but they come in knowing how to do it and there's always a balance there, right? And so how into the weeds do you get these days? Well, I think I like to know what everyone on the team is doing it. I don't like to you know, I want to understand. We're at a hundred. Wow. Yeah. Okay. It feels really bad. Do you say how? How big the company is what we said last year. We did a hundred forty million in Revenue. Wow, that is incredible. I'll direct to Consumer direct. Wow, we have recycled 38 million water bottles, which is probably what I'm more proud of than yeah, the revenue falls behind that but and there's so much more that's to come. I think one of the Roth special things is he's just this Relentless like thinking three years from now, where can we be in so he's out looking at new materials all the time and knew, you know product and they part of my job is also like how do we manage this? In the right way because we started with two shoes and one website. We now have one store. It's not far from your store in San Francisco. But we're opening six. We're opening globally. So do sort of like how do you manage like this proliferation of growth? Because everyone that you do there keeps making it bigger and bigger and scarier so prior to being a trough he's what were some of the highs and lows of your career. I started working when I was eight. I'm I grew up in a poor family and I love to work. So I think I've every job I've had I've liked for its own reasons. I think if you look back and regret what you've done then you're sort of in a bad spot. Like if I had any regret maybe I would have been a pediatrician instead of an engineer out of college, but you know, whatever like those those are decisions that you just that's where I am. Now I had kids in the middle. I got promoted at Levis to BP when I was seven months pregnant. I had two young kids not a little younger than yours are now even it's hard. It's hard to find that balance. I think I don't you can TB test like what what would have happened if I'd been I'm more or less like a travel a lot with all of my jobs that when I was at Walmart, I went to Bentonville 30 times in three years. Wow. I know Bentonville. Well, I'm like I've made looking to Gold, you know, you've hit the middle of the country when you've hit a gold. Yeah. It's a it's a badge of honor for sure. So I don't know what have you missed their so highs and lows like I think I have, you know a great relationship with my kids in there. You know, what maybe the assuaging of working mom guilt is they're super independent and you know, if they forget their clarinet then they'll get it. Tomorrow because they're not going to get it today, right? So I don't think that's a regret anyway, but I just don't know right like I've had jobs I've been on the road a lot and that's it makes for of like my most important thing to me is being a great mom and wife and you find that balance. It's always a challenge. Yeah, we talked a lot about balance on this show just because everyone has a different version of balance, right? Everyone has different levels of what's right or wrong or feels too much or too little I'm currently airing on I'm not not being the most present mother right now and I keep saying oh in It'll be over. What is sometimes what I've minutes at a time, sometimes it's not like I got to go sit there for four hours and sometimes it can just be that you know, yeah, my daughter just wrote her college application essays and it made me cry but one of them was me reading to them when they were little and like the choices of books that I had and why I chose them which so, you know as you think about those things like it feels good totally. So your kids are how old now 17 and 15. Okay, and when you got promoted to VP at Levis Libby was 15 months and Henry, I was seven months pregnant. So my kids are 18 months apart. So I'm curious to hear your perspective because I've heard some people say like always be excited like Mommy gets to go to work and then never be ashamed like, oh I have to go to work and I'm like, but I also want to be real with my kids and I want I don't want them to think it's always Rosy and that I don't want to leave did you did you experience that? Like, what do I tell them as I'm going off every day and sometimes working late or traveling I think probably depends on age and then they're really little like you I'd probably was Rosier of like I get to go to work. One is this and not making it like mommy's crying on the way out because she's leaving them like they don't need to see that bright as my kids are now older. I think I think they appreciate like I love my job and I love what I'm doing and they like the you can't hide from the ups and downs like when things are bad at work my last company. I had a term sheet. I worked on to sell the company for seven months and it fell apart and they see that they know like because the other thing is, you know, when you're working on an MMA, you can't tell your team, right? So you're like just compartmentalizing everything right? I'm in a meeting. A merger original position that's when like a company's gonna buy you. Hmm. I had it all it was it was like the greatest thing planned and then we fell apart and you know that stuff happens and they see that and I think I don't know I think being vulnerable with your kids is actually helpful for them to because they know you're not Superwoman totally. That's what I don't want them to have this false idea of what women should be right? Like we're perfect all the time. We always have our shit together. My husband has a big job to yeah, so it's actually good. Like I think one of the things you probably see too is, you know an elementary school like There's a little bit of guilt of like, okay. Well, I'm the only Mom that's not staying behind cuz I'm working and sometimes they're you know the moms working but the dad is at home like at Walmart that was the case where most of the officers that were women had husbands who stayed at home and I'm really proud of the fact I didn't I you know, I married a husband who wanted me to be me and I want him to be him and I think there's a balance there, but that's really hard. Yeah. So who else is in your support system? Oh my God, I go we've had series of nannies. Oh pairs at me. They've all come to Olivia's volleyball games and like one of the stay-at-home moms on the tips like how many volts My babysitter see we had him like a lot it takes a village totally. So what are you working on right now that excites you 2020 is like the land of growth for us of we're going to open some stores globally and that is fun. We're opening stores. We have three year three on the that'll open this year and three little open early next year to a New York one Boston one DC to an LA and we've got a ton of new product coming so next week. We're launching wool, which is our first product we've ever - with that's not obvious cycle plastic. It's 75 wall 25 recycle plastic, which is just like a sweater, right? You know, you take a sweater that you know, but it gives the structure that helps the wool stay stronger and the way that it is knit and sheep have to be shorn. So it's our first non vegan shoe as well. But sheep have to be shorn and that we've picked these, you know, amazing Tasmanian sheep that need to get their hair cut and you get their hair cut the overheat so you're not harming them know so but it's very good. But this wool is so fun. It's a it's an interesting to try a new product and You know sort of first of many I think that we can do they have how do you think about what sustainable materials are the aren't only recycled plastic and recycled rubber, right? And what do women do with issues afterwards? Do they recycle them? They can we just surveyed actually like we come like the O G's like the original X1 rotten Stephen did this they had like this whole first set of people that the fit wasn't rights and they had to restart over but they're still lasting the beauty of this shoe is really as durable. So we have there, you know, there may be things for like I fell off a curb and it unraveled so Have sent me it's not to say that the shoes completely indestructible, but it's pretty indestructible. Good to know. Mmm. So let me ask you this because we struggle with this as we grew is we grew in the early years so fast and so quickly that we sort of forgot about our internal culture and it was just like everyone hold on, you know, we're going on the white water rapids and then you look back and the team is either scarred or they're in shock right some leave because they can't handle that type of propulsion. With your impressive growth what have been some of the key things you've done to really make your team feel stabilized or not or culture-wise feel great or not. It's so hard and then San Francisco real estate is so expensive. So the other problem you have is like, how much do I lease? And like, how do I get the team big enough and we are in Jackson Square which we love the neighborhood and don't want to leave and there are not very many big places. So we're in three different offices, which is hard because you end up with one team here in one team there and it keeps That cross-functionally working as hard we do weekly All Hands every Wednesday. In fact, I'm missing it right now. But you know, I think I believe in bring your whole self to work. Right? So I'll share you know, here's like I just got back from a two weeks Around the World trip and shared pictures of here's how the factories working here is what the knitting looks like, you know, here's what we did Milan and then you know, I would guess half the team is less than a year tenure maybe more. Wow, and so, you know sort of reminding you yeah, reminding people who other people are what are they doing? Why are we here? How does it fit together? What's going on? With business. I'm pretty open on numbers because I think it's you know, maybe at some point we'll have to rein it in but I'd rather have people know and know what's coming then feel like there's something being held from soda. And you know, I think there's always more we could be doing better. Right and so learning from that to you know, we launched a breast cancer shoe yesterday that we messed up. So we kind of do mess up. The intention is that you buy a shoe from a collection you can gift one to a Survivor and we did it last year and we're donating to pcrf to but it went live for about Five minutes that you can buy it and so people we have addicted customers who are like and they came in and they bought them and they were meant to be all gifted. They weren't meant to ever be purchased. And and this is like, yeah, we make mistakes like that. You know, it's like that one. We just shot herself in the foot. Like we shouldn't you know, that was a mistake. I don't want to cancel the orders the people who bought them. So it wasn't necessarily their fault. I mean, but it's frustrating do you then message to your customers? When you do the like do you take onus on your mess ups we do. Yeah. We have such a social customer. Way they're calling us out on it. Anyway, you know, we hear a lot the you hear the good the bad the ugly. I know you hear it. Our DC has had a shut a slow down the last three weeks and we're slow and shipping product and our customers are irate. They know I need this for this trip. I need to know their right to be irate. It's not fair to wait two weeks for a shoe. I mean, it's just that's not acceptable but it makes us look bad and it's really that's like, you know, it's like everybody you know, it is our brand it is who we are we've messed it up. So he emailed out, you know, $20 off to like try and make it Better write it still doesn't work. I mean the you can do the best you can just wish people from being really angry, but they're right to be angry and it's really frustrating. So I agree with you and I disagree with you because I've been through similar challenges where the customer is irate and angry and then I'm like, oh my God be angry about like climate change this issue to be angry about the political crisis in our country, right? This is just a bag that's arriving three days late like sometimes I do like I I get it but like I get stuff laid all the time and I don't know why it doesn't bother bother me. But yeah, I think I'm I'm with you and I think we've all had bad days where you just get really frustrated. I think when you sit in your shoes in my shoes, you look at the well, maybe a little differently to really cash. They're having a hard time, you know other companies like there's no shouldn't Fred from other companies messing up you see any like, hey that you know, we're all human totally. I think that's what's forgotten is what I'm trying to say is like some people forget that there's humans making all this happen and humans inevitably will fuck up. Yeah and just be a little nicer. Yeah. It's sometimes that you know, if you had this shoe that had to be the right thing for this exact type that you wanted and we screwed it up because you know, and it was your 11th shoe that you bought from us and you can't believe that we messed it up. Like I'm sorry. Yeah customers always right you listening. She's sorry everybody. So sorry. So outside of your work. What do you do to de-stress or just refocus I read voraciously, I love to read and exercise every day. I think what kind of exercise I walk the dogs every morning up two dogs. I'm so I walk them every morning. And I love to be outside like it's good to just get a little fresh air and I have a Peloton at home that I adore everybody around me knows that I love my Peloton. So it feel a little bougie talking about it in some ways. You're like, okay. Well, I'm the one but it's so nice to have something in my garage that I don't have to commute to a gym workout. Come home. I could just saves me time. That's how I make time totally, but if I don't get up and exercise, I'm not happy. There was a great Michelle Obama quote of like a happy mom is a happy house like start there. So it's easy to let that go but Yeah, it's not good. Yeah, I was just reading that like a lots of moms. They're so worried about taking care of everybody else and then they forget about themselves, but they're so focused on I failed my children. I failed my husband. I failed at work that even their they're failing themselves so much. They're not even aware of that. But I haven't even hit bottom. Why? Yes, I was talking about like my job is managing disappointment because I'm disappointing someone somewhere like I can manage with such an unhealthy way to look at the world say I'm doing the best I can tell. Really what Pearls of Wisdom would you give to listeners who either want to start a company or want to you know, help build a company? I think a lot of us that with ideas in our head of like hey, what would this look like and how could I do this? One of the things I in between jobs that was looking at things I was you know, sort of you know, I'm always tinkering on what could be next. It's good to spend time thinking about like, okay if you're going to start something, what would it look like who your competitors and maybe like in the source of that resourcing is that research you you find a company? Doing what you want to do and you can you know, go figure out how you could be helpful. I consulted for a long time with different companies to try and figure out what I wanted to do. And I love Consulting like it's a nice way to see an industry and see like is this a team I like is this a you know a culture that's good. I love entrepreneurship. I've been a graduate from HBS forever ago, and I've been an entrepreneur in Residence there for the last four years is that mean I have office hours in on campus and I get it's for the whole schools, but mostly I probably like two thirds HBS students and a third from the college. And whether it's like the medical school or the Kennedy School and they come with a hair. So I wanted to do and like all I can say is like go try it because there's nothing that's going to harm. You know, there's like no time in your life that's better than to go start something and even if you have to Pivot it 10 times to get where you finally end up. Yeah, it's there's nothing that this the first step that's hard stuff like go do it. Yeah, and I always think like go do it at that age right at when you're young and you like are not to saddled with debt, right? You can live on rice and beans you're happy to live in a small apartment with a couple of Roommates table. I have K they're not trying to figure out all this stuff. You could just go like head down and work it out. And if it totally fails then you're going to learn from that too. And you'll figure out where that goes next and that's part of why I think people get in their head. Like, I don't know. I think we celebrate entrepreneurs in a really good way. They deserve it. But in other ways we gloss over all the hard part and the 27 turns it took to make that business where it is now. Yeah, you know, rothen Steven they started in China looking at how shoes were made then they thought they could do it on Shore same bought a factory in Maine and tried to make Them in Maine and they just couldn't get it to work. Like there was a you know, sort of everything that could go wrong did can I back up? They bought a factory before they knew that they could figure it out. They thought they had the technology figured out. They couldn't get the supply chain to work the right way. They couldn't get the NIT structure to work the right way. They just nothing was working. Okay, and then Roth basically picked up and moved back to China again data for kids, you know, just there's something to perseverance of like I'm just going to go figure this out. Like I think four years of no salary and traveling back and forth is A little bit of a luxury like it's hard to do that when you're 20-something also, but there's something to be said from just the grid of I'm going to figure this out. Right and I'm going to go I'm going to keep working and like if I pivot 10 ways then that'll be okay too. Totally. I asked my guests to things on the podcast. What would we be surprised to know about you personal professional? It's fun and you're going to ask that and I still can't come up with a good answer. You can see this. I'm six feet tall. I have a dad who's 6 6 so my whole life my mom would point. It out tall him and his slouch. I'm like, hey, you guys stand up straight because look how awful it looks to be so tall and slouchy. I have the biggest foot by far in the office and people look at my feet all the time and like I know but imagine not in a giant shoe size how cute this shoe would be a graffiti. I wear 10 and a half. Okay. I mean you're going to say Levin but 10 have doesn't lie because I'm a 10. Yeah, but you know, it's just our so look bigger and bigger, you know, good news is I'm 6 feet so I would be really bad if I for and write this that was exactly but yes, I have a daughter is six one and a son who's still growing six-four six-five. And now shortest in my you make very few very tall jeans and your family dad. My grandma grandpa genes. Apparently they passed right through so are your kids taller than your husband my daughter? She's six one and my husband's 6 to so she's a little shorter and my son is taller than all of us. Wow. Okay, and then I know you did give lots of good advice, but what would be like if you had to say, I hate it when people ask this question, like what's one piece of advice? But what is something that just anyone whether they're an entrepreneur or A company or whatever can take with them. You know one thing when in 2007 when doctors.com was just a marketing site. I read this book why women don't get the corner office and it was because we don't ask and I went in and talked to my boss and next day and I was like, hey, I went around that as e-commerce and he said okay, so I think don't don't be afraid to ask. I think I don't know for me personally. I don't want to over generalize all women but I think a lot of us are like, you know, here's the rules and let's follow the rules and doesn't hurt to ask. Yes worst thing that happens to say. It's a no And you have to be comfortable that no might happen to write is like the thick skin to say like, okay. Well, I tried yeah because maybe but you never know what just don't be afraid to ask totally. Awesome. Is there anything you wanted to cover that I didn't cover I love what you're doing. I think what you have done in many ways. I think your stores are beautiful and what you've been doing with technology is amazing. But I love more than anything what you're doing to try and help women Founders. So thanks for continuing to push that I think we all have to help each other up totally and like life is too short to not have a Girls Club to help each other. So I like I said help each other up. That's good. What we should be doing right now. I'd like it. It's better than help each other out. Yeah, you know when I was 21 and it Mackenzie, you know women were blue suits and just try to be like the men right and that's so not aspirational and so I think for all of us like, how do you just be open and honest if here's who I am and what I want to be and you know, I'm messing things up and we can help each other like those things are just didn't necessarily went with the way. I was raised in like I think you can change that and I think what you're doing is amazing. So thank you. Yeah. Thanks for being. That was Gary Cooper. I hope you enjoyed all her tips about entrepreneurship and building a strong culture for more about what she's up to. You can follow at Ruthie's.
When Kerry Cooper was hired as a consultant for sustainable footwear company, Rothy's, she didn’t think she’d be sticking around. After working for multiple successful companies, Kerry enjoyed the flexibility that consulting gave her. It wasn’t long, however, before the company culture won her over. Built upon a strong foundation of eco-minded operations, Kerry enjoyed the work the company was doing as much as the people doing it. Rothy’s loved her too. In her second year there sales soared to $140 million in direct to consumer sales. Even more impressive, however, is the fact that that those shoes were made from 38 million plastic water bottles saved from a long, slow demise in a landfill. They’re proving you can drink your water and wear it too. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Big Ideas   How to scale and build a team that is complementary to each others’ skill sets. [03:04]  The importance of standing up for yourself and asking for what you want or need. [21:03]   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 