Success But Suicidal Dark Spiral
Blake reveals darkest feelings after selling TOMS
Jun 2, 2026 · 26 min · 6 segments
Hey, Heal Squad! Today, Maria sits down with Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS Shoes…ya know… the company that helped change social entrepreneurship forever! Blake built TOMS into a global…
And I guess for anyone who maybe was under a rock and doesn't know the TOMS story, maybe we start with the version you would tell a friend.
Uh, I was doing some volunteer work, and I noticed that all these children didn't have shoes and, uh, that they needed shoes to go to school, and that was important.
And at the same time, I saw this shoe that all, like, the polo players and the people at the farms were wearing.
I said, "What if we sell these shoes," uh, to my friends back in Venice, California, where I was living, "and every time we sell a pair, we'll give a pair to one of these kids that really needs shoes? And, um, this could be a fun project." And it wasn't even meant to be a business.
Uh, we called it TOMS because the idea was if you sell a pair of shoes today, we'll give away a pair tomorrow, and we call them Tomorrow Shoes, and then we shortened Tomorrows to TOMS.
And then, uh, it really grew, and we ended up in, like, nine years becoming the fastest-growing shoe company in the world.
So what does doing this for fun look like, and at what point does it turn into a business?
I, I mean, really it turned into a business pretty quick because, um-You know, we had this, this, um, amazing writer in the LA Times, Booth Moore, wrote a story about it 'cause she got a pair at one of the stores in LA, and then Anna Wintour read that article and then invited me to New York, and then Vogue did a big piece.
And so it went from a fun project to all of a sudden, you know, we were getting orders from all the biggest department stores and places in the world and having to grow manufacturing and, yeah.
And I guess for anyone who maybe was under a rock and doesn't know the TOMS story, maybe we start with the version you would tell a friend.
Uh, I was doing some volunteer work, and I noticed that all these children didn't have shoes and, uh, that they needed shoes to go to school, and that was important.
And at the same time, I saw this shoe that all, like, the polo players and the people at the farms were wearing.
I said, "What if we sell these shoes," uh, to my friends back in Venice, California, where I was living, "and every time we sell a pair, we'll give a pair to one of these kids that really needs shoes? And, um, this could be a fun project." And it wasn't even meant to be a business.
Uh, we called it TOMS because the idea was if you sell a pair of shoes today, we'll give away a pair tomorrow, and we call them Tomorrow Shoes, and then we shortened Tomorrows to TOMS.
And then, uh, it really grew, and we ended up in, like, nine years becoming the fastest-growing shoe company in the world.
So what does doing this for fun look like, and at what point does it turn into a business?
I, I mean, really it turned into a business pretty quick because, um-You know, we had this, this, um, amazing writer in the LA Times, Booth Moore, wrote a story about it 'cause she got a pair at one of the stores in LA, and then Anna Wintour read that article and then invited me to New York, and then Vogue did a big piece.
And so it went from a fun project to all of a sudden, you know, we were getting orders from all the biggest department stores and places in the world and having to grow manufacturing and, yeah.
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3 of 5
Success But Suicidal Dark Spiral
Blake reveals darkest feelings after selling TOMS
Breakthrough: 'I've Always Been Enough'
The moment Blake's mantra finally clicks inside
Connecting Versus Performing Litmus Test
He shares simple energy check for authenticity
+2 more clips · 3 min 32 sec of audio in all
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