This is a special podcast as it is episode 200! And, we always like to have a special guest and message to share on important milestone podcasts. Today’s episode was recorded about 4 months ago and we have been saving it for today. So the question we are opening today with is how are you using your business to give back and make an impact?
In today’s episode, we interview John & Mark Cronin, who are a father-son team that are making a difference with advocating for people with differing abilities one pair of socks at a time.
TODAY’S WIN-WIN:
John’s quote at the end of podcast: “Follow your heart, follow your dreams, work hard, show what you can do.”
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- You can visit our guest’s website at: https://johnscrazysocks.com/
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- If you are ready to franchise your business or take it to the next level: CLICK HERE.
- Get a copy of our guest’s book on Amazon:
- Connect with our guest on social:
- LinkedIn Profile Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mxcronin/
- LinkedIn Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/11171456/admin/
- Instagram Company: https://www.instagram.com/johnscrazysocks/
- Facebook Company: https://www.facebook.com/johnscrazysocks
- Twitter Company: https://twitter.com/JohnsCrazySocks
- Mark Twitter: https://twitter.com/mxcronin
- Company YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Johnscrazysocks/
- Company TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@johnscrazysocks
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
John and Mark X. Cronin are the father-son team that created John’s Crazy Socks, a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness. They bootstrapped their business into the world’s largest sock store with multi-million dollar revenues. They have been named EY’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.
John is not only a business owner, but he has Down syndrome. John and Mark show what people with differing abilities can do – more than half of their colleagues have differing abilities. They are fierce advocates for inclusion, having testified twice before the U.S. Congress and spoken at the United Nations. They are sought after keynote speakers, have recorded two TEDx Talks and are frequent guests on network television.
They create unique customer experiences and develop a workplace culture that leads to an engaged workforce. And they show their gratitude through their Giving Back program that has raised over $7000,000 for their charity partners.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/ or by calling Big Sky Franchise Team at: 855-824-4759.
If you are interested in being a guest on our podcast, please complete this request form or email podcast@bigskyfranchise.com and a team member will be in touch.
TRANSCRIPTION:
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast, where each week we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I’m your host, Tom DuFore, CEO of Big Sky Franchise team, and this episode today is a very special podcast because it’s episode number 200. Can you believe that? It’s already been 200 episodes.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (00:24):
And just a huge thank you to our listener for being with us for this long. And I always like to have a special guest, a message, to share on important milestones like today. So, today’s episode was recorded about four months ago, and I’ve been saving it just for this episode. And the question I’m opening with today is, how are you using your business to give back and make an impact? What are you doing with it? In today’s episode, we interviewed John and Mark Cronin, who are a father-son team that are making a difference with advocating for people with differing abilities, one pair of socks at a time.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:04):
Now John and Mark are the father-son team that created John’s Crazy Socks, a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness. They bootstrapped the business into the world’s largest sock store with multi-million dollar revenues. They’ve been named Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurs of the Year. That’s quite an accomplishment. That’s a huge, huge award and recognition.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (01:28):
Now, John is not only a business owner, but he has Down Syndrome. John and Mark show what people with differing abilities can do. More than half of their colleagues have differing abilities. They’re fierce advocates for inclusion, have testified twice before the US Congress and spoken at the United Nations. They are sought after keynote speakers, have recorded two different TEDx talks and are frequent guests on network television. They create unique customer experiences and develop a workplace culture that leads to an engaged workforce. And they show their gratitude through giving back program that has raised over $700,000 for their charity partners. You’re going to love this interview with John and Mark. So let’s go ahead and jump right into it.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:15):
My name is John, this is my partner, my dad, Mark, and our company is John’s Crazy Socks. And our [inaudible 00:02:25] John’s Crazy Socks mission is spread happiness.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:29):
John’s Crazy Socks.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:31):
John’s Crazy Socks, and we are spreading happiness, right buddy?
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:34):
Yes, dad.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:34):
And we’re just getting started.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:34):
Just getting started.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (02:37):
I love your mission and I love what you’re doing and one of the things about saying you’re just getting started. Well, I’d love to talk to you about how you got started. It’s always interesting. I love father-son duos in general and just family duos. But I’d love for you to talk about how you got started or what led to it.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (02:55):
Well, your origin stories give us our DNA, right? You could be 50 years out from that origin story and it’s still influencing you. So for us, we’re telling the full story?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:07):
I’m going to tell the full story.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:07):
Full story.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:09):
You got to go back to the fall of 2016 and our story starts in a small log cabin in the woods.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:19):
No.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:20):
No, it starts on suburban Long Island, outside New York City. And where were you?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:27):
I was at [inaudible 00:03:29] high school. I [inaudible 00:03:31] be in my last year of school.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:32):
So John, among other things, John has Down Syndrome.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:35):
Yes, I am.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:36):
And if you have a disability anywhere in the US, you can stay in the public school system until you turn 21. But then they say get out. So, John was trying to figure out like everybody else, “What do I do next? What comes next?” And what were you looking at?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (03:53):
I looked at job, program and school. I can’t find a credit I don’t like.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:00):
He couldn’t find anything he liked. And this unfortunately is a reality for too many people. There just aren’t enough opportunities for people with different abilities. Only one in five people with a disability is employed in this country. But now, I’m speaking to you in the audience.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:19):
Oh, yes.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:19):
John is like you. John is a natural entrepreneur.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:21):
Yes, I am. I am a entrepreneur.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:23):
Right. You didn’t see a job you wanted. What’d you say?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:26):
I said, “I want to create one. I want to make one.” I told my dad, “I want to go business with him,” and nice father and son being together.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:37):
So, I’m a lucky man.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:39):
Yes, you are.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:39):
I’ve got three sons and this is one I can work with.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:42):
Yeah, I am.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:44):
So, there we were. We’re going to go into business together, right? We’re going to start a business. We have to figure out what exactly are we going to do? And John had a lot of ideas.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:56):
[inaudible 00:04:56] I’ve got smoke in my ears.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (04:57):
Not all of them were good ideas, right? What was one of them?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:01):
One them is food trucks. I caught the idea from the movie called Chef and Jon Favreau. It’s a neat movie about a father and son buying a food truck.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:17):
So, a food truck. That sounded like a fun idea, everybody, you’ve eaten at a food truck and we are thinking what could we make? Where could we put it?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:25):
I love hot dogs, dad.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:28):
Yes, but we ran into a problem.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:29):
We can’t cook.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:30):
Yeah, we can’t cook. So it wasn’t going to be a food truck. But then right before the US Thanksgiving, back in 2016, John had-
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:41):
I have plenty ideas.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:41):
… eureka moments.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:44):
Yes, I did. I wanted to sell crazy socks. Why socks? It’s fun, it’s colorful, it’s creative. It always let me be me. I’ve worn crazy socks my whole life.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (05:57):
So now we had the idea. We eschewed preparing the traditional business plan and we said, “You know, let’s get something up and running. Let’s test the idea.” So we went the Lean Startup rep. You already had the name.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (06:13):
I got a name, I call a website. I got an idea.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (06:16):
So we built a website, you’ll be familiar with Shopify. We built it on their platform, got a little bit of inventory. The only marketing we did was to set up a Facebook page and I would take out my cell phone and we made videos. And Tom, who do you think was in those videos?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (06:34):
I am. I talked about socks, socks, socks, and more socks.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (06:42):
So, we opened on Friday, December 9th, 2016. We just celebrated our seventh anniversary and we didn’t know what to expect. But that first day we got 42 orders, which felt like a flood of orders. Most of them were local, which made sense. We lived in the town of Huntington. He’s in a high school. We had temporary office space there. So how would we deliver those first orders?
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:08):
We got red boxes, put the socks in the box, said it needs something else. Put in a thank you note from John. We put in candy, loaded up the car, drove around and you knocked on doors delivering socks.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:22):
You did it. I did last night.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:24):
And how’d the customers respond?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:28):
Our customer response, they love the socks. I take a picture with me and the customer and our socks and share it on social media. And boy, did that spread.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:39):
So by the end of that month, really two weeks, we had shipped 452 orders and we knew we had something. We didn’t know how big it would grow. We didn’t know how fast it would grow, but we knew we could make this business work. Jump ahead seven years. How many different socks do we have?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (07:57):
We have 4,000 different kind of socks and resources.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:03):
Which means John owns the world’s largest socks store.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:06):
That’s right.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:07):
We’re not outselling Walmart and Target, at least not yet, but we have more choice than anybody else. We’ve shipped over 440,000 packages to 88 different countries. We’ve been able to create 34 jobs. 22 of those are held by people with different abilities. We’ve raised over $700,000 for our charity partners. And as you like to say …
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:32):
I should say just getting started.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:35):
Just getting started
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (08:37):
What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing the origin story and the history and how you’ve grown the business. And as you mentioned just recently celebrating the anniversary of the business. As you’re leading this organization, I’d love for you to talk about some of the benefits you see in leading a purpose-driven business.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (08:56):
Well, we think that is the way to go, and I’ll put it in some historical context. Back in the 1960s, the economist Milton Friedman declared that businesses or corporations had one obligation and that was to their shareholders. I would suggest that’s when things started going wrong because an organization has an obligation to all of its stakeholders. Yes, we have an obligation to our shareholders, to our owners, to us, but we have an obligation to our employees, our colleagues, to our customers, to the community, to the environment.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (09:36):
Increasingly employees are asking, “What am I doing? If I’m going to work 40 hours a week, what’s it all about, Alfie? What’s it add up to?” And customers are increasingly asking, “Before I give you my money, who are you? What do you do?” And if you have a purpose-driven business, you can answer those questions. It differentiates in a marketplace.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (10:06):
So think about us. I told you we didn’t … When we started, we didn’t do that business plan. Well, we’ve gone out, we’ve done that research now. We have counted … do you know how many sock companies there are? There’s exactly one gazillion sock companies. And if all we’re doing is selling socks, we’re done. What do you say? Ours are better than yours.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (10:31):
And that’s better like yours.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (10:33):
Do you want to compete to be the cheapest product? But because we have a purpose and a mission, because we’re driving on that, that differentiates us in a marketplace. It helps us stand out and in its own way, even though yes, we are the world’s largest socks, at the end of the day, we’re not really a socks. The socks become the physical manifestation for the mission and the story.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (11:01):
I love the work that you’re doing and just being an example of what you can do, for having a purpose and staying true to that. And I think you’re right, Milton Friedman was brilliant economist, but I think he really missed the mark, that an organization does not just exist solely for the benefit of its shareholders, it’s for the stakeholders at large.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (11:22):
Well, here’s an example, practical example of why you need to know what your purpose is, why you need to know what your values are. Because when things go bad, and they will go bad, it’s not a question of when, it’s just if, they will go bad. Your purpose will keep you going in the right direction. It’ll be your North Star.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (11:49):
So consider this, right? We roll into March of 2020 and we all get hit with a pandemic. Who expected a pandemic? And be careful, that was about lives. But for our business, it was awful. In that spring, we lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. What do you do? How do you survive? Well, we knew what our purpose was and that kept us going. First, we had to take care of our colleagues, we had to make sure everybody was safe. And that was risky in our business because we hired people with different abilities. Many of them were particularly vulnerable.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (12:32):
And then you ask, how can we adapt? So we host tours, we moved those online. We do a lot of speaking engagements, we moved those online, it opened the world up for us. We make socks, what could we do? We made healthcare superhero socks to thank the frontline workers and those raised over $50,000 for the American Nurses Foundation.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (12:57):
And then you say, “Well, how can we look for new opportunities?” We made masks with our themes on it. And what’s our mission?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (13:08):
Spread happiness.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (13:10):
How do you spread happiness if everybody is locked down? Well, here’s one way, what do you do every Tuesday afternoon?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (13:17):
Every Tuesday I host our online dance party every Tuesday, three p.m. Eastern Time.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (13:23):
We started an online dance party. What’s better than that? Bring people together online to just have some fun. And we started a Facebook Live show, the Spreading Happiness Show, just to connect with people. That helped us survive, that built our community. But you only do that … if all we were doing was selling socks, we’d be sunk.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (13:46):
That’s a great point to stick to your purpose, your mission and what you’re looking to do there. I think it’s inspiring with how you figured out a way of bringing in and hiring staff with differing abilities, as you described that there. And so, I’d like for you just to talk about for our audience, the folks who are going to listen into this, they’re entrepreneurs, they’re business leaders, they’re building franchise companies and growing existing businesses. And so certainly, they are in a position where they can make and implement maybe some changes in their own company. So I’d love for you to talk about what that’s been like and maybe just how you’ve gone about implementing that into your own business.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (14:26):
Well, let’s start here. Hiring people with differing abilities, and mainly in our case, we’re talking about people with intellectual development disabilities. That’s not altruism, it’s good business. If you got to know us, you’d find out that John here is a very nice guy. I am not. If you’re going to work in our business, you got to produce. So, I’m talking to you as an employer.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (14:53):
One of the things you want to do is hire the very best people for the salary you can afford to pay. If you artificially exclude a population, you cannot do that. So, if you won’t hire anybody with a disability, you cannot get the best possible people. I used to think we had to create more jobs for people with disabilities. I no longer think that way. We just have to recognize we have jobs they can already do. So here’s an example. Much of what we do, we do our own fulfillment. We run our own pick and pack warehouse. What do we call our pickers?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (15:29):
Sock wranglers.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (15:31):
So over our seven years, we have hired from three different populations, three different labor pools, people with different abilities. Moms, because we hire in four-hour shifts. So you could put your kid on the bus in the morning, come into work and then be home in time to pick your kid up. We get some dads in there, but it’s a lot of moms.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (15:53):
And then general laborers, who want to start it at a $15, $16 an hour job. By far the best labor pool are people with different abilities. They want to be there, they’re enthusiastic, they show up, they care about what they do and they do a great job.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (16:11):
So, here’s some of the proof. We do same-day shipping. We do better shipping than Amazon and Jeff Bezos over on Amazon, he’s not putting a thank you note in candy in those packages. Our error rate is less than 0.2 of 1%. And that’s because of the people we hire. And how do we do it? Well, we work in the local community. We work with schools, social service agencies. I mentioned we have tours. We’ve had more than 2000 people come through on tours. We have work groups that come in from schools, social service agencies, so people get to know us.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (16:48):
When we go to hire, we don’t use Indeed or ZipRecruiter, we let our community know. But you have to earn the job. We don’t give jobs to anybody. So, for our sock wrangler, sure, we’ll train you. But to get the job, you have to pass the sock wrangler test. You got to pick six orders, 20 minutes or less. Show us you can do the job. And that’s part of the dignity.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (17:13):
Everybody who works with us knows they earned that job. They deserve to be there and they’re contributing to the mission. So, we succeed because of the people we are. And in the end, we have a growing labor shortage in this country. I’m sure many of you out in that audience who saying to yourself, “I have trouble finding workers.” We have no trouble filling our jobs. It helps us fill those jobs.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (17:46):
We’re in an age of the big quit. Four million Americans quitting their jobs each month. Nobody leaves our place. People are happy. Morale is up, productivity is up, retention is up. That’s why you do it. You do it because it’s good business.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (18:04):
One thing I always like to ask family businesses is how you make it work as a family business. You have father, son, and we’ve had other folks on where there’ve been spouses or similar situation, father, son, mother, daughter. So, I’d love for you to just talk about making that work together, because you’re running a business, but you’re also dad and son.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (18:28):
Well, it doesn’t always connect that way. John and I, we work pretty well together, right?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (18:33):
Yeah, dad.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (18:34):
I think for us, it’s because we’re both committed to a mission that’s larger than ourselves. And when you commit to something larger than yourself, the petty stuff falls away. And we both know we need each other, but it’s not always that way. My middle son, your older brother, worked with us for a while. Jamie, I love him dearly. We get along very well. We talk all the time. But he left our employ, which was a good thing because if we kept working together, you were going to find us both in a pool of blood on the floor with axes in our heads. And when you mention spouses, my bride, your mom works with us.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:16):
Of course.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (19:17):
And that can be wonderful. But there are times we’ll be out and think about this, you’re out in that audience. You’re the owner, your mind’s always going. And she’ll look at me and just say, “Can we stop? Can we leave it in the office?” Or I’ll be sitting with her, we’ll be having dinner and I’ll say, “Sweetheart, can I just tell you about something at work? I just want to vent for a moment. There’s this one woman at work, you’re not going to believe what she did today and she’s driving me nuts. Only it’s you.”
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (19:52):
Thank you for sharing. And I was reviewing and checking out your inventory and looking at all the great selections and I’ve just got to know for each of you, what’s your favorite pair of socks?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:03):
My favorite pair of socks is a Down syndrome superhero sock [inaudible 00:20:10].
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:09):
And that’s because you designed it?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:11):
My design and my pics on it.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:13):
And your face is on it.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:17):
I think my favorite pair now are-
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:20):
… banned book socks. Sometimes it’s the Sherlock Holmes socks. But John is the sock aficionado. I’m along for the pie.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:28):
Yes, thank you.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (20:30):
Love it. Well, thank you guys. This is a great time, we make a transition in our show. We ask every guest the same four questions and the first question we like to ask is, have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (20:45):
I missed Olympics. I am a Special Olympics athlete and sometime I can win, sometime I fall. I’ll always pick up again and keep going. And I’ll never quit and I keep going and it doesn’t matter, win or lose [inaudible 00:21:01]-
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:01):
Got to get up and keep going, huh?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:04):
… keep going.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:13):
Yeah. You want to know about misses, I’m 65 years old.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:16):
Yes, [inaudible 00:21:17].
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:17):
Bring that camera closer, you can see the scars, right? I can tell you about New Gutenberg software, the software company I started in 1994. We put out baseball for Windows ’94 got rave reviews. Lost every penny we had. People were not having me on their shows to interview me about New Gutenberg software. But if I didn’t do that, we wouldn’t be doing this.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (21:46):
And there are countless examples I could give of things that you learn. We learn from failure. Well, we have the opportunity to learn. And that failure, you’re never done. It’s just yet what’s coming next. And it becomes the tuition we pay to keep learning.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (22:07):
I’ll give you another simpler, early example. My senior year of college. I started something, I went to a place called Holy Cross and I started something called the Lunchbox Theater.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (22:18):
So during the lunch hour, we would put on plays, poetry, readings, concerts, and I ran around for that year lining people up, getting people to do it, convincing them to put on shows. It was great fun. I convinced a junior to take over for me, which he did the next year. And then it died out. I never created an organization. Jump ahead, I go to graduate school a few years later, a two-year program, and we started a summer intern fund, a fund that would give out stipends to people who had low-paying or non-paying summer jobs between the two years. That one I worked with the administration, I worked with the Alumni Association, I worked with other students. We put something in place. So, that was at the Kennedy School of Government. I got out of there in 1986. They’re still running that summer intern fund because we put the right foundation in.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (23:17):
Great examples. Thank you for sharing. And let’s talk about a mate or two. Going through your backgrounds and resumes and accomplishments, you have a lot.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (23:27):
John was attending a summer program in our local school district, and I ran into the principal in the village and she looks at me and she says, “Mark, John’s doing such a great job with the talent show he’s organized.” Okay, I know nothing about this.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (23:46):
It turned out John decided that the school should have a talent show. And he put together a proposal, brought it in on his iPad, pitched it to the principal who then said, “Okay, you can go and organize this.” And that’s exactly what he went and did. And put on this great talent show.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (23:46):
I did.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (24:03):
I spent much of my career in the healthcare field. In the late ’80s, I ran the Medicaid Health program in New York City and Medicaid was a high-cost program that delivered care, but not always in the best setting. So, we had to find a way to change that. And we had a blue ribbon panel that came out with recommendations.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (24:28):
I got sent to Albany with this proposal for a major Medicaid reform. And I remember the first time I gave a presentation was late December, and there was a state senator who came over to me and said, “Young man, that was a fine presentation, but you have a turkey in your pocket and that turkey will never fly.” Well, I spent my spring in Albany building coalitions, working … obviously I had the backing of the city, so there were lots of folks in the city, building coalitions. And on the last day of the session of the legislature, they passed this Medicaid reform legislation, which gave coverage for thousands of more people and helped change, improve access to primary care. And I don’t have many physical possessions I like or values, but then Governor Cuomo gave me a pen. When they do the formal signing, they take a pen and they put it on the first piece of legislation. And so, that was pretty cool. I’ve been fortunate to be able to do things like that.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (25:39):
Incredible stories. Well, the next question we ask is have you had a multiplier that you’ve used to maybe grow your business or yourself personally or professionally?
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (25:49):
There is things we do, that both help our business but also help grow others. So we do a lot of show, don’t tell. We want to share what we do. So, we mentioned the tours and the work groups. John and I do a lot of speaking engagements. We travel the country as keynote speakers. We also do a lot of advocacy work.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (26:14):
People will listen to us because of the business, and that creates an opportunity, but also an obligation on our part to speak up. So, we’ve testified twice before Congress. I have to add nowadays that we were not subpoenaed. We’ve spoken twice at the United Nations. We meet with a lot of other businesses. So this is good for our business. But one of the things that has been most rewarding is to hear back from other businesses led by people with different abilities that have contacted us and said, “We started this because we saw what you were doing.” Or the feedback we get from some companies that have said, “You know what? We’re now starting a program to hire people with different abilities.” So, that’s pretty cool.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (27:07):
The business itself is that multiplier, as you described, having that opportunity to open doors, create those opportunities and speaking if people want to hear, “Wow, how’d you do it?” Or what did you do? And it’s interesting. It definitely sparks conversation. Well, John and Mark, the final question we ask every guest is, what does success mean to you?
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (27:28):
I think we go back to our mission, right? What’s our mission.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (27:32):
Spread happiness.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (27:33):
And what do you say are the keys?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (27:35):
It’s gratitude and do it for others.
Mark Cronin, Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (27:37):
Gratitude and do it for others. Success for us is seeing what enables us to do with other people. There is nothing better than to be in our warehouse this time of year. We’re busy, the place is full of activity. It is pure joy. And so many of our colleagues, this is their first job. So one of the things we do, we hold these rituals. Every organization has their rituals.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (28:07):
We have a little ceremony for everybody when they get their first check to present it to them because it’s something special. And success, it’s seeing the impact. I mean, if we have time, let me, if I can, I’ll tell the story about one of our colleagues, Thomas. Talk about Thomas.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (28:26):
He’s got a great name. I like him already.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (28:29):
So, Thomas’s mom first called us in October of 2017 and said, “I hear you hire people like my son. I want you to give my son a job.” And our colleague who spoke to her said, “Well, we don’t have any openings, but we’ll post them when we do.” She called every day because she’s a mom. And I spoke to her and I said, “Tell me about Thomas.”
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (28:54):
She said, “Well, Thomas is a young man with autism, early 20s, and he’s in a bad way. He’s very depressed. We can’t get him to join any programs. We have trouble just getting him to come out of his room. He doesn’t want to shower or shave. And he hasn’t spoken to his father in over six months.” Said, “Oh, well, sounds like a wonderful employee.” And when we had an opening, Thomas came out and he passed that sock wrangler test, as if he was put on this earth to be a sock wrangler.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (29:25):
Today, Thomas has showered and shaved at 6:30 in the morning waiting for his father to drive him to work. And the young man who wouldn’t look at you or talk to you, goes around the whole building, wishing everybody a good morning. And two months ago, he stood up at his brother’s wedding and gave the best man toast. His life has been transformed because of a job.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (29:53):
And I want to be really clear, we did nothing. We have no special programs, no special training, no government support. All we did was give Thomas the opportunity to earn a job. And then we got to witness that. How awesome is that?
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (30:11):
Wow, what an incredible, incredible story. As we bring this to a close, I’d love for you to talk about how people can get involved in some of the things that you’re doing, either as a customer, helping support some of the causes that you’re involved with.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (30:27):
You can find out at johnscrazysocks.com.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (30:32):
johnscrazysocks.com. Hey, the best thing, buy some socks.
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (30:37):
Yeah, buy socks.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (30:38):
You’re going to get great socks. We have over 30,005 star reviews, but also you’re going to help us employ people with different abilities. You’re going to help us give more hours to Thomas. You’re going to help us raise money for our charity partners. Most of all, you’re going to help us spread happiness.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (30:55):
And so, you come to our website, you can buy socks directly for yourself. We do make custom socks for businesses. So we’ve made them for 5,000 people, 5,000 pairs of socks for Microsoft, but we also have made them for weddings and the local lawyer. And now you can carry us in your retail store. We’re selling into the wholesale channel. So yes, we’re in 854 Kohl’s stores, but mom and pop shops are carrying us. If you’ve got a store out there, you may want to carry our socks, they’ll help bring customers in, we’ll help co-promote. So there are lots of ways to help.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (31:33):
And if you want to get a hold of us, we’re on all the social media platforms. Follow John on TikTok or Instagram. You’re going to put a smile on your face. If you want to get a hold of us, you can get a hold of us through the website or through LinkedIn. I’m the only Mark X thrown in on LinkedIn, right?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (31:53):
Yeah, dad.
Mark Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (31:54):
You got advice from folks, we got a lot of people out here. They’re ready to grow their business, they’re ready to really explode. You’ve got some advice?
John Cronin, John’s Crazy Socks (32:05):
You’re doing good, dad. Thank you, dad. Follow your heart, follow your dreams. Work hard, show you can do.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (32:13):
John and Mark, thank you so much for a fantastic interview and let’s go ahead and jump into today’s three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is focused on their mission. It’s simple and I love it and powerful. It’s just to spread happiness. What a great simple way to keep you on point and on mission.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (32:34):
Takeaway number two is when they talked about the benefits of leading a purpose-driven business, and Mark specifically referenced Milton Friedman made a huge change in the business world when he said that the primary focus of any organization is to maximize shareholder profit. And he actually said that it’s more than that. It’s about all stakeholders and considering all stakeholders and I have a firm belief in that as well. In fact, my doctoral research and my doctoral thesis all centered on something very similar to this, in how you measure an organization’s virtuousness, that it’s far more than just profit, so I love this. And they said that by doing this, you’re able to keep your company and your organization’s North Star at the center.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (33:23):
And takeaway number three is from the multiplier that they shared, which is how John and Mark talked about that the business, by having the business and having a successful business, it has allowed them to create a platform, to create and promote advocacy for people with differing abilities and to inspire other companies to hire people with differing abilities. I thought that was a great little takeaway there. And something for you as a leader to consider in your own organization, are there duties, or tasks, or jobs that might be available for someone with differing abilities, that maybe you hadn’t considered?
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (34:02):
And in fact, recently was just at a restaurant where they had someone working with differing abilities in a great position for them. So, it was just something that’s top of mind here. So, how might you be able to do this in your own business?
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (34:16):
And now it’s time for today’s win-win. So, today’s win-win comes from the very end of the episode, when John gave just a really meaningful quote and he said, “Follow your heart, follow your dreams, work hard and show what you can do.” And I thought that was just brilliant. I thought that was very well-spoken, very succinct. And it’s a great win-win because if you are following your heart, following your dreams, you’re working hard, showing what you can do, everything else, the rest is going to follow. It’s just brilliant, very well-spoken.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (34:53):
And so, I’d just like to thank John and Mark for being a guest on our podcast and giving their time and being here because I know how in-demand your time is. So just want to thank you and thank you for inspiring us and motivating us to look at things in a different way and see possibilities where maybe we hadn’t before. So, thank you for that.
Dr. Tom DuFore, Big Sky Franchise Team (35:14):
And that’s the episode today, folks. Please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review. And remember, if you or anyone might be ready to franchise their business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at bigskyfranchiseteam.com. Thanks for tuning in, and we look forward to having you back next week.
