“Fear really was a motivator and has been in many different chapters in TOMS. Not because I was afraid of failing as a business, but failing other humans is a much heavier burden to wear.”
— Blake Mycoskie
Welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show, where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers to tease out the routines, habits, et cetera that you can apply to your own life.
You’ll get plenty of that in this special episode, which features my interview with Blake Mycoskie from my 2017 TV Show Fear{less}. The “less” is in parentheses because the objective is to teach you to fear less, not to be fearless.
Fear{less} features in-depth, long-form conversations with top performers, focusing on how they’ve overcome fears and made hard decisions, embracing discomfort and thinking big.
It was produced by Wild West Productions, and I worked with them to make both the video and audio available to you for free, my dear listeners. You can find the video of this episode on YouTube.com/TimFerriss, and eventually you’ll be able to see all episodes for free at YouTube.com/TimFerriss.
Spearheaded by actor/producer and past podcast guest Vince Vaughn, Wild West Productions has produced a string of hit movies including The Internship, Couples Retreat, Four Christmases, and The Break-Up.
In 2020, Wild West produced the comedy The Opening Act, starring Jimmy O. Yang and Cedric The Entertainer. In addition to Fear{less}, their television credits include Undeniable with Joe Buck, ESPN’s 30 for 30 episode about the ’85 Bears, and the Netflix animated show F is for Family.
Please enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. You can watch the interview on YouTube here.
The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
This episode is brought to you by 5-Bullet Friday, my very own email newsletter that every Friday features five bullet points highlighting cool things I’ve found that week, including apps, books, documentaries, gadgets, albums, articles, TV shows, new hacks or tricks, and—of course—all sorts of weird stuff I’ve dug up from around the world.
It’s free, it’s always going to be free, and you can subscribe now at tim.blog/friday.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
Want to hear another episode with Blake Mycoskie? Listen to our 2020 conversation in which we discussed the Hoffman Process, Blake’s experiences with plant medicine, conscious uncoupling, Madefor—his new business that helps people learn and sustain positive habits and practices that have the greatest impact on their lives, and much more.
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Blake Mycoskie:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
- Blake Mycoskie — TOMS, The Hoffman Process, Conscious Uncoupling, and Psychedelics | The Tim Ferriss Show #446
- Start Something That Matters by Blake Mycoskie | Amazon
- TOMS Shoes
- Training You to Thrive | Madefor
- Butter Busters by Pam Mycoskie | Amazon
- World Changers Shaped Here | SMU
- Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark | Prime Video
- Stoicism Resources and Recommendations | Tim Ferriss
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius | Amazon
- What My Morning Journal Looks Like | Tim Ferriss
- One for One | SMU Daily Campus
- Yellow Pages | Wikipedia
- Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard’s Almanack by Benjamin Franklin | Amazon
- Blake & Paige | The Amazing Race Wiki
- Former ‘The Amazing Race’ Contestant Blake Mycoskie Announces All-Reality “Reality Central” Televsion Network | Reality TV World
- Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson | Amazon
- Driver’s Ed Direct
- An Ode to the Shirtless Abercrombie & Fitch Models | Elle
- How I Did It: The TOMS Story by Blake Mycoskie | Entrepreneur
- Slumdog Millionaire | Prime Video
- American Rag Cie
- TOMS Shoes’ Model Is Sell a Pair, Give a Pair Away | Los Angeles Times
- The Lowly Alpargata Steps Forward | The New York Times
- Co-Founder Alejo Nitti Talks About the Beginnings of TOMS | YouTube
- The Hilarious Story of How TOMS Shoes Got Into Nordstrom | Inc.
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
- Thích Nhất Hạnh – Wikipedia
- The Art of Power by Thich Nhat Hanh | Amazon
- Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz | Amazon
- Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schultz and Joanne Gordon | Amazon
- Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life by Thich Nhat Hanh | Amazon
- Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman — Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual by Yvon Chouinard | Amazon
SHOW NOTES
- What is Butter Busters, and how did it help inspire Blake’s entrepreneurial vision at an early age? [07:52]
- What backup career was Blake’s time at SMU preparing him for if his professional tennis aspirations didn’t work out? [11:05]
- Blake’s favorite philosophers and their works. [13:12]
- Blake details his journaling habit and how it started. [14:10]
- The origin story of Blake’s first business on the SMU campus, and the sneaky ruse he borrowed from Ben Franklin to drum up customers. [16:43]
- It turns out running a full-time business while trying to go to school full-time is hard. So what happened next? [21:05]
- How did reality TV change Blake’s life and teach him a valuable, but costly lesson about business? [22:05]
- What did Blake do to cope with the depression he experienced after this first big business failure, and how did this roll him into his next venture? [26:00]
- The TOMS origin story: how it came about when Blake was trying to take a vacation from business. [29:00]
- How did TOMS get its first burst of real publicity, and in what way did this quickly turn into a good news/bad news situation? [35:48]
- Shoebags vs. shoeboxes from a retail standpoint. [42:49]
- What is Blake’s greatest fear in business? What does failure look like to him? [47:08]
- Books Blake can’t live without. [49:45]
- If Blake lost everything today, what would he be most thankful for? [53:14]
- Why the calendar is king in the Mycoskie household. [54:06]
- What Blake’s billboard would say and parting thoughts. [57:35]
MORE GUEST QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“Fear really was a motivator and has been in many different chapters in TOMS. Not because I was afraid of failing as a business, but failing other humans is a much heavier burden to wear.”
— Blake Mycoskie
“The calendar is king.”
— Blake Mycoskie
“Carpe diem. That is the mantra that has served me so well. … If I do that, then I’m giving the most I can to what I’ve been given.“
— Blake Mycoskie
“A fortune can be made out of literally your kitchen and a typewriter.”
— Blake Mycoskie
“If there’s one thing that can help get your life on a more positive path, journaling is it.”
— Blake Mycoskie
“I think Indiana Jones is the best job.”
— Blake Mycoskie
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Pam Mycoskie
- Mike Mycoskie
- Indiana Jones
- René Descartes
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Marcus Aurelius
- Benjamin Franklin
- Bill Gates
- Michael Dell
- Paige Mycoskie
- Sir Richard Branson
- Courtney Rotolo
- Booth Moore
- Alejo Nitti
- Thich Nhat Hanh
- Howard Schultz
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Yvon Chouinard
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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Hi, I’m a new listener to your podcasts, just subscribed to your newsletter and VERY impressed by the breadth of topics you cover. Would you be interested in having a guest interview with Gautam Jain (teacher of Vedanta philosophy, based in NJ) who shows how to apply ancient Indian spiritual wisdom in modern life, particularly to improve productivity? He is an awesome speaker who has addressed elite organizations and institutions around the world, such as Goldman Sachs, YPO-WPO (the world’s largest CEO group), IBM, AT&T, Columbia, Princeton, and MIT. He has also been featured on ABC and PBS.