Manufacturing socks in a small town in Vermont, especially in the 80s and 90s when most companies were sending this work offshore, is hardly your standard business plan. Still, as of 2016, Darn Tough Socks was a 40 million dollar business. The name “Darn Tough” is a brilliant pun. The socks, like the CEO, are resilient (carrying a lifetime guaranty,) and relentlessly and thoroughly vetted and improved to strengthen them further. When asked for business advice Ric’s was simple “never, ever, give up.” What he’s found is that the hard way turned out to be the best way. Lessons: 1.When things seem impossible, sometimes the answer is to double down on your strengths. 2.There is no such thing as negative feedback; it’s all valuable information that can steer you towards improvement. 3.Doing things the hard way can reap its own rewards. 4.Success is holistic - making the extra effort to support the community pays back in loyalty, quality and branding.
 Links: Darn Tough Socks https://darntough.com Darn Tough Story https://darntough.com/pages/made-in-usa Darn Tough Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DarnToughVermont/ Darn Tough Instagram https://www.instagram.com/darntoughvermont/   This episode is brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Join the mushroom coffee revolution and save 15% using promo code SPARTAN https://us.foursigmatic.com/?discount=spartan#   SUBSCRIBE: iTunes: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpShow YouTube: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpYT Google Play: http://bit.ly/SpartanUpPlay   FOLLOW SPARTAN UP: Spartan Up on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/spartanuppodcast/ Spartan Up on Twitter https://twitter.com/SpartanUpPod   CREDITS: Producer – Marion Abrams, Madmotion, llc. Hosts: Joe De Sena with Johnny Waite, Sefra Alexandra, and Col. Tim Nye. Synopsis – Matt Baatz © 2018 Spartan