How KeySocks Got on QVC, GMA, and Today Without PR Firms

0:00 · How cutting a sock in 2009 created KeySocks

Nathan Smith:0:21
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Why Marketing Sucks podcast. Today I'm sitting down with Shelby McKee, Christy Perry from Key Socks, the sister founded brand that invented the No Show knee high socks. Shelby and Christy, how are you doing today?

Shelby and Christy:0:34
Good. Thank you.

Nathan Smith:0:36
Of course. Well, it's great to have you. just to get started here for anybody who doesn't know who you are and what KeySocks is, just a little bit of background there of what the brand is, who you serve, and what your product is.

Shelby and Christy:0:49
Alright, so Christy and I are sisters, and in 2009, I was going to a Bengals football game, and I wanted to wear my cute flats with my jeans, and it was a little chilly that day. So, you know, those little footy socks always fall off your feet. So you always end up pulling them out of your shoe or throwing them away. They just don't work. They don't provide warmth, nothing. So that day I was like, okay, I want to wear my flats. What am I gonna do? So I grabbed out of my ex-husband's knee high or his sock drawer a knee high sock and I put it on it looked terrible so I was like this doesn't look good so I cut a hole out of it and I wore it to the game and it it worked. It was amazing. I was like my God somebody has certainly thought of this. So my last name is McKee and my friend at the game, my crazy friend Campbell invited me to the game that day she's like telling everybody look at her sock look at her sock. So she called it a McKeever sock like McGyver sock. So then it was a joke. It was an ongoing joke. And I was like, my God, I think we're onto something. So then we had the neighbors start sewing socks. And we were like, every key has a hole, key socks. Risty's like, no one's gonna know what it yeah. I'm gonna know what McKeever, MacGyver. Like it's just gotta be key socks. Let's, you know, drop it to key socks. Yeah, so that's how the idea was was thought of.

Nathan Smith:2:14
That's awesome. So it all started with a football game.

Shelby and Christy:2:16
Yep, Bengals football game. Bengals Steelers two thousand and nine caught my first sock. And I think we lost that day. I don't know.

Nathan Smith:2:22
Did the I was just gonna ask, did your team win that day?

Shelby and Christy:2:28
We definitely lost.

Nathan Smith:2:29
Well you gotta win out of it, that's for sure.

Shelby and Christy:2:31
Well that's true. We gotta win, yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Smith:2:34
Well, so you have it behind you if you want to show everybody what like exactly this is.

Shelby and Christy:2:40
This is the very first no-show knee high sock. So everybody's what's a no-show knee high? So basically, the length provides warmth. You won't get blisters. We have a key on every pair of our socks. We have always have an inspirational saying. This one says stand tall. We actually had a teacher that orders, I swear she orders 50 pairs at a time. And I texted her one day and I said, We're ordering more socks. I said, Can you give me a quote for the bottom sock?

You just said, well, I tell my students to stand tall every day. So every pair of socks has a fun

Nathan Smith:3:14
Awesome.

Shelby and Christy:3:15
saying on the bottom, and I we truly believe in energy. And our fabrics are incredible, but they don't move, they stay up, no one knows you have a sock on, and it's truly the solution to the no-show problem. Yeah. They're amazing. Yeah.

Nathan Smith:3:31
So when women like see this for the first time, what is the reaction?

3:36 · Testing prototypes and proving product demand

Shelby and Christy:3:36
Genius. So our dad was in I feel like I'm talking a lot. Our dad was in sales. He was the youngest of ten kids. He literally is was the ultimate salesman and so I had approached my dad with this because he sold non-food products to grocery to grow grocery stores. He had his own business. And I took this prototype to my dad and I mean I think we Tested it for like six months, everyone's like, This is so genius. So my dad and I went into the embroidery shop and we got the key put on the back, and four of the ladies in there were like, This is the most genius thing I've ever seen. I can't even believe this. How's no one ever thought of this? So that was the day that my dad would always tell the story. That's the day that I knew we were really onto something amazing.

Nathan Smith:4:24
is so interesting. I love a good story in terms of like you just thought about it one day and then you're like, how has nobody else done this? Right. That's usually when a really successful business starts.

Shelby and Christy:4:38
Yeah, it's it was shy. I was like, how did no one I mean, still to this day. I mean it's like no one ever came up with this idea. It's it's really

Nathan Smith:4:45
I've been looking at your social media, I've been looking at your website, I've been looking at everything. And it it literally hit me like every time of like, how has nobody else done this? I was even Googling it to see like if there's other brands like I like literally ranking for like no high or no show high knee sock and like all the ads and everything, like none of them are like high. It's all just like no show socks, and you're literally the only one, right?

Shelby and Christy:5:08
Yeah, we have we're the only one. And that truly the key of it is to have a knee high. But then all of our customers through the years kept asking, we want a low sock, we want a low sock. But when it's so we did come up with a new key sock low-key, but we picked this lacy fabric because this really does keep it up. But these are more like women wear these with skirts and like for a fun style, and they're perfect for boots. I mean, they're these say, these say on the bottom, wow.

My dad goes, turn it the other way, and then it says, Mom. So cute. So cute. Yeah. So and then we came out with our baby. Now we have baby socks. So baby socks always fall off their feet.

Nathan Smith:5:49
Mm.

Shelby and Christy:5:50
And so this is the very first no-show baby. They're called baby keys. And Christy, Christy and I literally designed these. I mean, we went to every baby store, bought every baby sock, measured out all the sizes. So we have them in all sizes.

So yeah.

Nathan Smith:6:08
That's not on your website yet. That's a brand new product.

Shelby and Christy:6:11
It is. No, they're on that site.

Yeah.

Nathan Smith:6:13
They are? Okay.

Shelby and Christy:6:13
Yeah. Yeah. And then the second one that we came out with, everybody's okay, we want to wear them with sneakers and tennis shoes and boots, which Christy and I still wear the original sock with boots and tennis shoes and flats and heels. But then we came out with one that's higher cut for your tennis shoes and your boots. Do you see that? Like loafers.

And these are the ones that men actually wear. And this will be the cut when we go into our men's line. Instead of making it rounded, we'll make it more square. And I mean, a lot of men wear them. These are cute. These say, what do these say? Weekend vibes. and the key, the best part is is our fabrics are incredible. These are 32% charcoal coffee fabric, and they're soft and they whip moisture. They're amazing. Yeah.

Nathan Smith:6:59
I know when we've initially spoke, I was at my parents house sitting for them and all of that. So I actually showed them your product and they quite literally said the same thing. My mom was like, Why have I never had this? And like, why has nobody ever told me this existed? And so I I'm sure you hear that pretty much daily over the last what like 15 years.

Shelby and Christy:7:20
Yeah.

Yeah. And it took us two and a half years because I cut the sock in two thousand and nine. My dad is is all about connections. It's not what you know, it's who you know. So we partnered with his friend Mike Karate, who was in the textile business. So we partnered with him and we didn't launch till 2012 because it took us that many years just to get the right opening. I mean, we must have had 50 to 100 different prototypes. Just keep trying, because they would make this the hole too small, too big, they wouldn't make the length.

Right, we didn't find have the right material. We started off with one material, two different colors, and just one size and one size because no one's ever come up with it, and they're all hand cut, so it's just it's it's incredible, really. And we've used the same factory for all these years. Well, and the best

Nathan Smith:8:10
Actually

Shelby and Christy:8:10
part is is they're sized, so the foot they fit women's shoes five to twelve, and then we finally decided to do a plus-size calf.

So they come in standard N plus. So for like, you know, more athletic calf or so two sizes. And men wear too, even though we don't have the men's cut yet.

Nathan Smith:8:33
What is your play in for for the men's line?

Shelby and Christy:8:37
So well we have two different exciting launches we're gonna be working on is well for the men's line we definitely want to make it more square cut. Our uncle, my mom's, so we come from quite the entrepreneurial background. Our mom's family is sixth generation bell inventors. Do we have one of the bells to ring? Wait, hold on, I'll be right back.

So if you Google the Burden Verd and Bell Company, V-E-R-D-I-N Verd and Bell Company, that's my mom's family, and her brother every day wore Gucci loafers and his khakis to work. And he would say, Shelby, when are you coming up with the with the men's line? So I always say the first men's line I want to do is like a Gucci cut where it would be like more square. And then I want to do the Gucci colors like red and green and do like

Nathan Smith:9:32
Yeah, awesome.

Shelby and Christy:9:33
a really cool different key. So we want to work on that. and then we did come out with the very first no show compression. We sold out of those on Good Morning America a couple years ago and we're perfecting the actual line and that is going to be a huge hit. for us 'cause there's only a sleeve or an actual full compression top. So there's never been, you know, compression with, you know, the little footy with the footy attached. So we've been working on that. And yeah.

Nathan Smith:10:06
What kind of interest have you had from men for this sock?

Shelby and Christy:10:10
You need to go. I need to turn my phone off.

Sorry, go ahead.

Nathan Smith:10:20
I was just curious, like what kind of interests outside of family like have you had in the men's side?

Shelby and Christy:10:27
Eater. Yeah. So we have basically he's like a brother. And he loves him but he keeps saying, I'm not gonna wear black, I want navy. So navy is definitely the first color. And I actually have a friend that Had a size 16 shoe. He loved these with his vans. They fit it. The plus size fit him. I mean, he's like

Nathan Smith:10:44
Wow. Okay.

Shelby and Christy:10:49
6'7. So our materials are at. I mean, the materials are there's no other sock out there like it. I mean, all winter long I wear them with my Uggs and my boots, but they're like, you can see how I mean nobody's ever come up with this fabric. It's incredible. It's charky chop, coffee charcoal fabric.

It's really it's unbelievable. Yeah. They fit all sizes.

Nathan Smith:11:13
It does look it looks breathable, but also warm and comfy at the same time.

Shelby and Christy:11:17
Yeah, yeah.

But you know, so many people would say, I don't wear socks, I don't wear knee, especially a knee high. But once you slip it on, you have no idea it's even on your foot. Yeah. And then I call it the convertible sock because you can take it on and off and like tuck it up into your pants. Like, for example, we're in

Nathan Smith:11:32
yeah.

Shelby and Christy:11:33
hot Florida, right? You go into the cold freezing offices, the real estate agents, the nurses, the doctors. I mean, you want the no-show look, it's freezing. And then say you go and you put your flip-flops on, you just flip your sock up, put your flip flops on, go back. into the office put it in. Put your sock back on. So

Nathan Smith:11:52
That's awesome.

Shelby and Christy:11:52
I mean it's really is it really solves the problem.

Nathan Smith:11:56
It really does.

Well, cool. So for the business today, is it just you two running it or do you have a team?

12:05 · Pitching TV hosts directly without expensive PR agencies

Shelby and Christy:12:05
Just us. It's just us. So yeah, so from the beginning, if you wanted to tell you that real quick. So we launched in 2012 and Christy and I, our dad has always been our sole investor.

Our parents both passed three years ago, three months apart, so sad. and he was our biggest supporter. And but we really I'm a full-blown manifester. I mean, I truly believe in what you put out there is what you get back, and I would say 99.9% of the time that we've ever gotten and airing on QVC. We've gotten Good Morning America. The Today Show is just me being pushy and getting out there and sending DMs and being authentic. Anytime we've really hired a PR team, it's honestly we've never gotten anything from it. It's just I'm really not I don't want to say pushy, but like I go out there, I find the people, stock them down in a good way. And then I kind of bring I bring the fish in and I say and I hand it to Christy. She fillets it. She does all the work behind the scenes. and we've had some and such incredible exposure in PR. I mean, we've partnered with a lot of different here, I'll show you. We've been on Christy and I were live on We were live on with so I won the shark with Damon John. We were we've been on the Today Show. We met Jamie Lee Curtis actually on at the airport, or no, at in Vegas at a coffee shop. We met Rob,

Nathan Smith:13:40
well.

Shelby and Christy:13:40
we were at we were on Good Morning America with Tori Johnson and Robin Roberts. And Deals and Steals has been a huge important part of our business because We've been on deals and steals so many times. So that's been really amazing.

Nathan Smith:13:58
So getting on these platforms like Good Morning America, that was all you just doing the outreach and pretty much just kind of bugging people until they answered you.

Shelby and Christy:14:06
I emailed the woman at Deals and Steels for probably Over a year saying, Hey, this is the lady with the holy socks. We got the holes in the socks. Come on, it's the very first no-show. No, no, no, no. Then we finally came up with the no-show compression, and we got on there and we just blew them out of the water. I think we had over 7,000 orders in 24 hours. It was insane. Yeah, yeah. And then, like eight years ago, nine years ago, I got an opportunity to go. I had five. seconds to sell my idea in Times Square with Damon John and I won that.

And that was just a publicity thing. And then a month later I got on QVC. that was 2016, I think. 2016. And then we had a situation that we had somebody that we were working with that kind of it was a weird situation with the buyer there. So that so I manifested to get back on there for eight years. For eight years to get back on QVC live on the air. And when we first started in 2016, like I said, we had Three different colors, one different size, one different fabric. And I visualized getting back on that show. My our our dad had died, and he was our biggest supporter. I swear to God, he did this for us. And we after opening, knocking on that door 1,000 trillion times, we finally got an opportunity to get back on.

And I'm telling you, it was the same host as eight years earlier. Driving into QVC eight years later, I'm like, my God, you can't take no for an answer. It happened. And it was like when you finally let go, you're like, you know what? This is gonna happen. And it and it did. So we've been on three different times now, and they're popping out ads for us. And it's been really amazing.

14:10 · Scaling on Deals and Steals with 7000 orders in 24 hours

Nathan Smith:16:04
That's awesome. I mean, the consistency, the just like pure passion that you have for it is obviously the reason why you've been successful. And I do very similar things. Like I don't take no for an answer in any aspect of my life. So very much relate to that. And kudos to you for sticking to it and just like really never taking no for an answer. Most people stop after like a week, maybe a month, maybe a day.

Shelby and Christy:16:33
Right? We're like we're not star. We're not. We're not.

Nathan Smith:16:36
No, I

Shelby and Christy:16:37
No. And we're sisters and she is the business mind behind it. I'm the face personality. She we are so funny. Like I push her, I get real pushy with her. And we Yeah.

Nathan Smith:16:48
So I wanted to ask you about that actually. What is it like starting a business with your sister and what is it like working with your sister every day?

Shelby and Christy:16:56
Let her answer, that's all. Be

Nathan Smith:16:58
Ha ha.

Shelby and Christy:16:59
funny. Well, I mean Let's see. Thank God I know how to use the computer. She's been told she's a genius a million times, but you know. I had a major learning disability. I couldn't. As we get through high school. No, well you know what? We're like the yin and the yang, you know, because

Nathan Smith:17:21
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:17:21
we're s we you know, similar in some ways, but so different. And we're just not stopping now, you know.

So, and I mean we've had so many yeses, so many no's, and you know, we're going on what year 10? And it's like 10, honey, I think it's a hell of a lot long. 2014. I'm like, ten. But you know what? We have so much more to do, and we're just getting there and the compression's gonna be huge. So and we've been knocked down a lot. We've when you ask about how we're doing today.

Today, to be honest with you, is the first day in five months I lost my twenty-two-year-old son five months ago. And today's I would say the first day that I get motivated back again just to get it up and going. And he wouldn't want me to give up. My dad wouldn't want me to give up. So nothing's gonna take these socks down. And we just have been grieving really hard. And It's just being authentic and real and being an entrepreneur is not easy. You get a lot of wins, but you get a lot of no's. So I thank her every day for keeping me motivated because this is too good to to give up. I mean, we've worked so hard on it. Really hard. And it's seriously our baby. And we're not giving up. So We're just thankful for all the people. But you but in marketing, like you you we were talked about earlier, you have to weed it out because there's so many people that tell you they can take you to the moon and back. And we have been burned so many times, but we've learned so many lessons. But at the end of the day, we can only really rely on ourselves. And at this point, we would love to find an investor. We would love to make this bigger than it is now. And it has the you know, the capabilities of doing that. And we were partnered with Damon John.

We were ready to get into all the grocery stores with the other Shark Tank products. And we had ordered a hundred thousand pair of socks. And we went to Vegas at the show with Damon John and his team. And it was gonna be asking on Shark Tank products. And and I told Christy, because I'm an empath, and I said, We have worked on this deal for so long. We ordered so many pairs of socks. Our dad said, How can you order a hundred thousand pairs of socks, Shall we, without a purchase order for life?

So no, this is a done deal. Like we're not gonna get screwed on anything. And we didn't, we did not. COVID hit the next week. I said, Chrissy, this is not, it's not gonna go through. And she said, Why? I said, I don't know. The whole world shut down seven days later. So then after that, we had to be like, my gosh. And you know what? Our dad's favorite saying was, socks don't expire, Shelby. And so we just picked ourselves back up.

And then we care give for our parents. And then, you know, it's just been a whole family business. And for today, we're we're ready to go. And I appreciate you for inviting us on your podcast because it's motivating me. Yeah. And us. It's been hard.

Nathan Smith:20:44
Absolutely. Well, thank you one for coming and taking the courage to kind of step out and do this with me today. it's a lot of inspiration, not only for myself, but I'm sure everybody watching as well. and based off of everything you've told me, your son, your father, they wouldn't want to want you to stop. They wouldn't want you to say no to absolutely anything. So keep pushing forward, keep doing absolutely everything that you have been doing. and yeah, I mean, I'm sitting here like just trying to wrap my head around what that actually takes for you to do and it's it's beautiful. But

Shelby and Christy:21:24
Huh. Well, I can

Nathan Smith:21:23
Well ga now you're kinda getting me emotional like that.

Shelby and Christy:21:28
tell you this. This is my mission, and this has been my mission since day one. I want to get key socks in every woman's software, not only because they need them.

But I also want to get back to mental health because my son struggled. And I always knew that we had a mission behind this. And that will be our mission is to get back to that. And Christy's wonderful fiancee is starting a men's group, has started a men's group to talk about mental health. And you know, it crushes me to see what, you know, Cindy Crawford's going through losing her child and that.

I always knew there was a mission behind this. I just didn't know it would be this kind of mission. But you have to do it and you gotta keep going because we have children and we got socks to sell and we're ready to do it.

Nathan Smith:22:20
Are you doing anything with those organizations where like if you purchase a sock, you donate a sock or or anything like that?

Shelby and Christy:22:27
We're we're gonna start doing that and today at 3.30 is I joined the Tidewell Grief Center here in Sarasota. And today we're going to our first suicide awareness program today, 3.30. So I really didn't want to go, but I have to and I want to now. I'm ready to talk about it. So that will be our mission.

What's the key now?

Nathan Smith:23:02
That is. I mean, there's even more stories for you to tell now and even more kind of direction for you to go in and more reason for you to not stop. So just take that and use that kind of fire and use it as fuel. because we all have something that drives us. So I think you have plenty there to keep going. And you do have an amazing product. You do have an amazing sister, from what I could tell. And an amazing family.

Shelby and Christy:23:29
Yeah.

Nathan Smith:23:31
so you have absolutely everything that you could need to keep pushing forward, from what I can tell. but I do want to ask you real quick, actually, based off of just so you hunt you ordered 100,000 socks, then COVID hit. And then I think the deal with Damon ended up not going through. But a lot of e-commerce brands that I've talked to over the last several weeks, COVID was actually kind of exploded their business. So we're did that actually play. into your benefit even though the deal didn't go through?

Shelby and Christy:24:03
Well, it wasn't necessarily it was a deal. We were working with Damon's Shark Group Company. So

Nathan Smith:24:07
Yeah, yeah.

Shelby and Christy:24:08
it was really just COVID that that made all of the buyers because it was for the grocery stores and the drugstores. So everybody was silent for a couple years because of COVID and the drug stores and the grocery stores. So that's really where that turned out. But really our key component to this is Is that we have all the footage, you know, with Damon, all the pictures and all the PR and all that, but we also have you know our QVC.com, Amazon, Keysocks.com. It's really a product that has to be explained, right? So if it's sitting on a shelf, people are gonna say, Okay, tell explain to me what that is, right? So we haven't really got we have not gotten into retail yet after all these years, because It has to be explained. That's why we were so excited about getting QVC back. So with that being said, yes, now, because everybody's buying online. Nobody's really retail shopping, right? Amazon's huge. So so now yes. Would you agree? Yeah, I think so. And you know what we want to get I can't believe we haven't done it yet, but the TikTok shop live. Yeah. But you know, we just moved to Sarasota. So Shelby had just moved in March and then this all happened. And I moved. And so now we're all based here and we have a great space in my garage. And I'm like, let's we just it'll it's like QVC, but we're like, we can do it ourselves. Yeah. So next week we're gonna start we're gonna start that, which is gonna be great. Yeah. Yeah.

24:30 · Why retail distribution requires strong video explanation

Nathan Smith:25:44
That's also I'm surprised you haven't tried that on TikTok, but there is plenty of opportunity there. And have you what actually works the best for you right now? The website, Amazon, QVC?

Shelby and Christy:25:57
Well, we have a video that went viral after all these years. Okay. So

Nathan Smith:26:02
I wanted to ask you about that too.

26:04 · Generating 13.8 million organic views from one Nordstrom video

Shelby and Christy:26:04
imagine all of of the we've been on Good Morning America what? Like twenty times? I don't know. We can't get our numbers right. But Chr Christy was we were at Nordstrom and we were on Nordstrom dot com a while ago and then COVID hit and that got weird. Yeah. We're not on there anymore. But Christy was just trying on the Adidas Sambas and I just grabbed They were like the new ballet ones. And she had on Yeah,

Nathan Smith:26:30
Okay, yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Shelby and Christy:26:31
and she had on her Lululinen leggings, which we wear every day, or A L L or whatever.

Or Viore, we could just drop some names. But anyway, so she had on her leggings, and then she was trying on all these different Adidas ones at Strapover. And so she had on her black classic light key sock. And I got to the sales lady standing there and I said, Hey Christy, show her your socks. So Christy lifted her. It was just random. She's like recording. Yeah. And it was just like your t like when you showed your parents. Like when you show somebody, you're like, my god, that is so genius. It's amazing. So her reaction was so good. The sales lady at Nordstrom, we had 13.8 million. million views on that video. All organic track. All organic is crazy. So then now after everything that had happened, we put everything on hold a little bit.

And so then we really want to start pushing the ads again and and go in that direction. But it's been just the two of us. So we're ready. We've just had a hard time. I mean, doing the meta ads. It's like trying to find somebody to run the ads, and then you know, it takes time to get that up and going in Google Ads. And honestly, the ad spend, it's too much of an ad spend to get the ROI back. So, you know, we're just trying to, you know.

Utilize that video and and the QVC and you know.

Nathan Smith:27:50
Well, it sounds like you know how to create good content. I think even like the shoe that you just mentioned, I think was was it Puma or Vans? Adidas. Well,

Shelby and Christy:27:57
No, it did us.

Nathan Smith:27:59
I think Vans has something similar too, where it's like open foot now. I think there are a lot of brands are doing that. It's like you create

Shelby and Christy:28:03
Yeah. Yeah.

Nathan Smith:28:06
videos around that of like all the new stuff that's coming out, and then put your product in there and show that like it's the most perfect, and then just keep doing it until one of them like eventually is like, you know what? We should probably just

Shelby and Christy:28:16
Right.

Nathan Smith:28:17
partner together and sell these things together.

But all of the

Shelby and Christy:28:19
Zah.

Nathan Smith:28:20
different people like looking to purchase these products don't understand that they act literally you have a product that goes perfectly with them. So I would just take that and run with it and just create as much content with it. Go after people that create, you know, videos around new product shoe products or whatever it is, give them the sock, allow them to create videos for it too. I mean, influencer marketing is definitely still thriving. It's just a little bit different than it used to be. Like you don't just send out like, you know, 10,000 socks to people and hope that they're gonna do well. it can happen.

But a lot of people that I'm talking to, it doesn't really do that well anymore. more more so give them an affiliate link, have them purchase your products, and then they s kind of sell for you and then they get a kickback. So they're a little bit more incentivized. But it it really is just different for everybody. have you actually tried?

Shelby and Christy:29:12
yes, we have, but we haven't really stuck with it. The influencers. I we're The affiliate marketing. So we just started just actually like two days ago. I don't know if you've heard of Shop Me, but they do it all through

Nathan Smith:29:25
I believe so.

Shelby and Christy:29:26
Impact and I mean I'm just learning it all right now. So

Nathan Smith:29:29
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:29:31
that's kind of an avenue that we're gonna do. And I think the TikTok shop live is really and it's really and at the end of the day, we all know what it is. It's action. Action.

You know, motivating each other and being consistent and you know, constantly getting content. I mean, we have fourteen years of or twelve years or however many of content. It's amazing. And her fiance is helping us do our videos and cutting them up because we've been doing it literally all ourselves. so that's it's a good motivator. So yeah, so that's exciting. And then you know, the new Ug flats, like that's the in thing or the flats again. So that's exact we know

Nathan Smith:30:09
Yep. So that's perfect for you.

Shelby and Christy:30:11
what we need to do, and that's exactly what we need to do. And this is motivating us. It is. And you know what, for the past six months it's been a little rough. Exactly. So we're getting back. Today's a good day. Today's a great day. One day at a time. Yeah. It's all we have.

Nathan Smith:30:26
Absolutely.

You just need to create that little spark to kind of get you out of bed in the morning and keep you on that mission. so I mean, even me doing this was kind of I've been doing the same thing for years, running with my marketing agency, building my team, clients, doing marketing for them. And like now that I've sat back and kind of been doing it for myself and being able to talk to people like you and learn about these different stories and learn about different brands and like what's working, what's not working.

It's literally like that new spark for me of like getting up in the morning and like knowing I'm gonna be doing these videos and these episodes with people. And it's just creating that spark that gets you up. It's different for everybody,

Shelby and Christy:31:02
Yeah.

Nathan Smith:31:03
but at some point you need something that drives you a little bit differently than before. And it's really just finding what that is.

Shelby and Christy:31:11
Yeah. Well and it's exciting. So October 5th, you know, now that we're new in Sarasota. So my fiance Chris is also a personal trainer at a local gym here called Jefferson Fit in Sarasota. And we were invited to be on the Suncoast local news channel for their morning show. On the fifth.

Nathan Smith:31:30
Really?

Shelby and Christy:31:31
Yeah. You know, you

Nathan Smith:31:34
yeah.

Shelby and Christy:31:34
just keep attracting, you know, you get out and you get excited about it. but here's

Nathan Smith:31:39
How did that happen?

Cause I feel like I've never met some a an individual, let alone sisters, that just like are constantly being opportun like given the opportunity to like be on shows or whatever it is. Like, how does this stuff keep happening to you?

Shelby and Christy:31:54
I think it's just timing and you know Chris, you know, works with this guy and he came out, but it's just energy and not your do you wanna see how many crystals and candles and tarot cards I have over there? Yeah.

Nathan Smith:32:08
No, I think it really is just like your energy, your personality, like you two together. Like it's just it's like a perfect match. It's just like a perfect kind of it really

Shelby and Christy:32:15
that's nice.

Nathan Smith:32:17
is.

Shelby and Christy:32:18
Thank you. Thank you. Well, here's one thing I have to tell you. This was the coolest story I heard the other day. Robert Havaback from Chartank. He so I try to watch shows that I turn my thinking cap off, obviously, because I've been so sad. So I was watching his he was it was like a home show where he was showing his house in Canada. And so he started they were interviewing them, he and his wife. They were on Dancing with the Stars. I thought this was the coolest story. His they said what was the biggest regret you had on Shark Type, what company did you Turned down that you regret the most. And so he went into the story. I never knew this. He went, which is so exciting because you love to hear stories, so do I. It's amazing. And he said, and don't quote me on this, but it's something similar to like this guy came in and he had a camera for the front door, and I think it was called like the ding-dong. Do you know what I'm talking about? It it

Nathan Smith:33:14
I think so.

Shelby and Christy:33:15
so they like laughed him off stage. He was, I guess, like.

Maybe with he was with his business partner or sister, I can't remember. And he was like, I have a ding-dong, I have an idea. You put this ding-dong thing in your front door and you know, everybody sees that you're coming in and blah, blah, blah. And all of them laughed him off the stage. I haven't looked at the episode yet. And he was like, So then the guy leaves. He's discouraged. He's like, You know what? I'm gonna have to go back to my nine to nine to five. Screw this, I can't be an entrepreneur. I put all my money into this. So he gets on the airplane to fly home, and the guy sitting next to him is like What's wrong? Like what you know what happened? And and the guy with the ding-dong camera, I don't even know if it's called that, but it sounds cute. And maybe that's but anyway, so the guy sitting next to him, he told his his idea, and the guy was like, Well, that's a genius idea. He's like, Well, all the sharks didn't think so. So then He goes, I have a friend to introduce you to. And the guy's like, okay, here we go again. Like, you know what I mean? Like, all right. And so he goes, His name is Richard Branson. Do you know him? So he goes and meets Richard Branson. He builds his brand and he sells it to Amazon for $1.2 billion. Ring. Ring camera. Something like that. So it's like,

Nathan Smith:34:28
Yeah. I figure that's where yeah. That's crazy.

Shelby and Christy:34:32
think about KeySocks. I mean, No one's ever thought about this. It's not in the skins line. It's not in the Spanx line. I mean Sarah Blakely saw it. None of the Bombus socks. Like it's it's just keep going. That's it.

Nathan Smith:34:51
So I wanted to ask you actually, I wanna ask you this. Based off everything you said, I think it'd be a good time for it. If you could only have one more quote on your products at the bottom of the sock, what would it be?

Shelby and Christy:35:09
boy, that's a good question. a good one man it would be what my son used to always say to me it's not that big of a deal mom it's not that big of

Nathan Smith:35:22
I love that.

Shelby and Christy:35:22
a deal it's not that big of a deal because in the whole scheme of things it's not that big of a deal so that would be my quote

Nathan Smith:35:33
I love that. Now did he say that because

Shelby and Christy:35:33
What would your

Nathan Smith:35:36
he was similar similar to me at a young age of like I was just telling my mom that because I I I was getting in trouble and was like, Mom, it's really wasn't that big of a deal.

Shelby and Christy:35:45
Exactly. And because I call him eight times a day, Tanner, are you okay? Tanner mom, it's not that big of a deal. Everything's fine. I was on his ass all the time, Are you okay, honey? You okay, honey? It's not that big of a deal. So I was actually gonna get the tattoo. It's not that big of a deal. Because in the big picture, is it really that big of a deal? It's not. Yeah.

Nathan Smith:36:12
What would yours be?

Shelby and Christy:36:14
I think I'd say never stop believing. You know, don't stop believing because you know, I think there's been times where we want to give up, you know, and it's like we're not gonna give up until we get them in every woman software. So I would say after everything we've been through and it's been so hard, but We could see some light coming through. And

Nathan Smith:36:41
Like that.

Shelby and Christy:36:42
we'll pay we'll play that song. Don't stop. Believe.

Nathan Smith:36:46
Ha ha ha.

Shelby and Christy:36:49
Did we just play? I think we just played that song in the car. We played it. Exactly. Don't stop. Believe them.

Nathan Smith:37:00
Th I think you're like this when my stepdad has always said it to me. but it's he always said the you take the the hard right over the easy wrong is how he's always put it. And I like hear

Shelby and Christy:37:15
Wow.

Nathan Smith:37:16
that in the back of my head, like over the last ten, fifteen years, whatever it is that I've known him.

Shelby and Christy:37:20
I love

Nathan Smith:37:21
And it really just kind of puts it in perspective of like you have two decisions to make. And it's always like the you know, the easy one and then the right one.

But based off everything you said, that that's what came to mind for me.

Shelby and Christy:37:34
Sure is the truth. Yeah, and our mom used to always say, do the right thing when no one's watching. Not that we do that all the time.

Nathan Smith:37:40
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:37:43
I said we could have a movie between the two of us, you know, right? Be a little wild.

Nathan Smith:37:46
It's okay. So I wanted to ask you another question.

The whole story that you've had could be literally could be a movie. With the Shark Tank, Damon John, QBC, getting on Good Morning America, everything. But what's the one scene that wouldn't make the trailer?

Shelby and Christy:38:04
That wouldn't make the trailer?

Nathan Smith:38:05
Wouldn't

Shelby and Christy:38:05
one thing that wouldn't make the trailer. Pray all the shows out in Vegas. Because we used to

Nathan Smith:38:13
What do you mean?

Shelby and Christy:38:13
go to FM laugh. Yeah, that, yeah, all the shows out. You know, we'd make a party, you know, and then we'd be like, god, yeah. We're gonna work the whole shop now. But I don't know. There's a lot. I don't know.

Nathan Smith:38:25
I you you said the you said movie and I was like I I thought about that earlier. It's like all right, it'd be good time to ask.

Shelby and Christy:38:31
I said, no, we always laugh and we always say, if you watch the movie Joy, you know, the lady who invented the mob, I said her movie's G rated, ours would be maybe R to X rated

Nathan Smith:38:41
Ha ha

Shelby and Christy:38:46
My palms are sweating.

Nathan Smith:38:47
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:38:50
We've had some fun, that's for sure.

Nathan Smith:38:52
I can tell. In a good way.

Shelby and Christy:38:54
In all innocent ways. All innocent ways. All good ways.

Nathan Smith:38:58
In a good way. I mean, I'm I'm about to be thirty in November. And

Shelby and Christy:39:02
wow.

Nathan Smith:39:03
so I I keep like, now that I'm about to be thirty, I like just sit there and think about all the dumb and fun shit that I used to do. And I'm like, you know, was a fun life, but now I'm like I'm looking forward to all of the other things that you do as an adult. So actually, real quick, what has that been like for you? Cause you we all look back at all the fun stuff that we've done in the past and like we all have somewhat of those crazy stories, but like What what does life look like as you get older? Like how does that change?

Shelby and Christy:39:33
Well I'll I'll talk on that one. So we all we have another sister too. So we all were married. I have three daughters. And Shelby has Tanner and Barrett and Shell, our oldest sister has two sons. And so anyway, we've all been divorced for you know 14 years. And you know, to be honest, I've never found anyone, you know, that I was ever really happy with since I've been divorced. And she's in a literally I've never met more of an amazing man in my entire life. So life for me looks like pure love right now and

Nathan Smith:40:12
yeah.

Shelby and Christy:40:12
forever. And She looks twenty five and she's how old are you? I'll be fifty three on fifty five. So when I moved Shelby and her daughter down here in March, I met Chris that night that we had pulled into Sarasota.

And I am gonna tell you that could be a movie in and of itself. Magic. Like true magic. Because it's like you feel discouraged. Like you go th life is like waves. You go through different chapters of your life that are good, bad, and different or whatever. And we had a lot of bad chapters. And but you it's how it's like you say, it's how you get out of bed in the morning and how you how do you talk to yourself and how do you say, and then you attract that. But she's attracted the most amazing man that is literally like. part of our soul family. He's he's it's it's exciting. But we had horrible divorces during

Nathan Smith:41:04
That's awesome. Well congratulations.

Shelby and Christy:41:06
the business. So that was hard. That was hard. And that that could be a movie in and of itself. I mean

Nathan Smith:41:12
yeah.

Shelby and Christy:41:14
when we met it's Chris, Christy, I was born on Christmas Day. He put his arm around me. He's like, well I'm Chris because I was born on Christmas Eve. And anyway,

Nathan Smith:41:22
Really?

Shelby and Christy:41:23
you know, we met and he's big into the mental health awareness and then Six days later I flew back to where we were living in Cincinnati and cu I lived in Covington and happened with Tanner and Chris was my first phone call. And we've been together ever since and you know we're helping with the business. He's a he loves the socks. I mean, he's promoting and helping us cut videos and He's unbelievable. Yeah, it's you just don't

Nathan Smith:41:51
That's awesome.

Shelby and Christy:41:51
know when somebody's some bright light's gonna come into your life and help you. But at the end of the day, you can only help yourself, right? And then you attract

Nathan Smith:41:59
Absolutely.

Shelby and Christy:42:00
other people into your life. And I don't answer to these emails, but I did to you. It was a feeling I had when you your podcast

Nathan Smith:42:07
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:42:08
and you emailed me. I was like, tell them I don't even answer any calls, no email, nothing. And you know what? We have a guy that is now helping us with our Amazon, and she randomly answered the phone in the coffee shop.

Never answered a month and a half ago. Never answered. It was the perfect fit for our business.

Nathan Smith:42:23
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:42:24
Because we have been, let me tell you, we have spent a lot of money on the wrong things. A lot. We've learned a lot. As you hear that from every brand. It's crazy.

Nathan Smith:42:36
Well, let's get into that. Because everybody has a learning lesson on that. I've blown through fucking money myself. I've had a shit

Shelby and Christy:42:44
Okay.

Nathan Smith:42:45
ton of clients that spend six figures, seven figures a month on ads or whatever it is. So we all have learning lessons and we've all been there and done that. What do you think? let's just start there. Like, what's one of the biggest learning learning lessons that you've had over the years from starting the brand that you would tell somebody that's starting an e-commerce brand? themselves of like basically what do you know now that you wouldn't repeat bef when you first start?

43:12 · Why relying on marketing agencies burn e-commerce capital

Shelby and Christy:43:12
Man, that's lot of I'd say not trusting who you think. We've always been so trustworthy, you know, like we're friendly, we're you know talk to anybody, you know, and you think

Nathan Smith:43:24
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:43:24
you can trust somebody and then all of a sudden you're like they don't follow through with what they say they're gonna do. You fork out the money, you pay the money, you pay the money, the money, the money, the money, nothing. Nothing. I'm telling you every single And it's not a s this is a fact. Every single PR we've had is from me stopping them down on DMs and on Instagram. People want real, especially now. You know, it was different then. And I'm that's not to say that you know we love everything branding. They're a great company for PR, but we already have all this that we don't need to pay for that right now, you know, or we don't need to pay for it. But I think authenticity and just pushing it, you just gotta be pushing and just do it yourself because.

No one and everything's changing so fast now, right? With the AI. And you know, it's I truly believe it's my dad, our dad, young Christie's the youngest of sixty-four cousins. My dad was the youngest of ten. He had seven sisters. I mean, he had to hustle to make his money. I mean, they had nothing. And his whole thing was it's not what you know, it's who you know. You've got to trust the people. If you don't know them, you're not gonna do business with them. I mean, it's you gotta have a track record on a background.

Because otherwise, and if it feels wrong, it's freaking wrong. And we have been screwed over many, many times.

Nathan Smith:44:48
So have you been screwed over like with market agencies kind of promising you the world of like what does that look like? Like you know my background, you know I have one, so I've always liked to ask people this.

Shelby and Christy:44:57
Yeah, yeah.

I would say, well, here's the thing. I think for us it's a little different. The answer would be different because it's a no-show me high, right? It's not like you're advertising a flashlight. It's not like you're advertising, you know, lipstick or underwear or bra. It's something that no one's ever seen. So it's like we started the vision and when we put the torch in somebody else's hand, they didn't have our same vision and passion. So I don't know if it's necessary necessarily the fact that That it was somebody else not following through, or is it just because we were so picky on how to get this out on the market? You know what I mean? I think it was both.

I mean, 'cause I would say, when do we hire that company out in LA? And it's like, come out to LA to go to the Michael Jackson estate. You know, we went for a Halloween event and it's like ultimately that wasn't really growing our brand. It doesn't bring sales. You know, it doesn't bring sales. So it's like we did a lot of those things and like we went to the show in Vegas probably three separate times to FN platform. You know, we were in the shoe section. Yeah. And it's like we should have been in the gifting or You what I mean? It's making decisions like that. But it's like But then at the end of the day, I think that we don't regret any of those because we have all these years of brand awareness and everybody knows if they say what's a no-show knee high, it's the key socks. Yeah, it's key socks. So like we have all that proof, we have all the evidence, we have all the years of hard work and putting this together and doing different fabrics and different cuts and sizes. So at the end of the day, we don't regret it, but just don't trust, don't hand out money and think that they're gonna go do it for you. Because they're not. Well, and I think the other thing is is that I think sometimes your social media and all that stuff can look, you know, so great. And then, you know, it just say your social media can look great but it doesn't that's not gonna bring in sales you have I think at the end of the day you have to have I don't know we can cut this no we can cut this because I do have a good point I just totally lost social media no it's not gonna have a I know what I was gonna say so you know we got on the Today show right away we got on you know Real speed, real simple. You know, Good Morning America, Damon John, you know, all of that. And it's like nobody realizes that.

An overnight success, like Damon says, is ten years plus. Yeah. You know? Yeah. It's just you there is no overnight success. Yeah. Yeah. And the and it took us it took us all these years to get one viral video. And you think all the we're on TV with all these famous people, it doesn't go viral. The one in Nordstrom with the sales lady goes viral. Yeah. So it's like it's just yeah.

Nathan Smith:47:53
That's something I have been told over and over and over again. Is like what used to work with like doing the whole celebrity endorsement or like trying to get the like well-known people out there to like hold your product or show like doesn't work anymore. Nobody cares. It's literally like the real

Shelby and Christy:48:06
It doesn't. Nobody cares. No one cares.

Nathan Smith:48:08
people that like might have 500 followers. They're the ones that go viral because it's a real, I mean,

Shelby and Christy:48:12
That's right.

Nathan Smith:48:13
exactly as you guys describe of who you are, your brand, and like how you stay true to yourself, is the same thing that works now with marketing.

Which I know for a fact you guys are gonna keep doing and it's gonna work for you. But even like the other people that are gonna like showcase your products on social media and whether you collaborate them or whatever it is, it's that like real personal, like actual, like real human touch to it. Where it's not just like a celebrity holding your product and like nobody cares anymore. Nobody trusts that anymore because we all know they're

Shelby and Christy:48:40
Nobody cares.

Nathan Smith:48:42
just getting paid to say it.

Shelby and Christy:48:44
Exactly, exactly. And and look at the Kardashians. They're doing amazing. They Kim goes on and shows all of her products herself. She's sitting there talking about them. It's so real, it's so authentic, and I love that it's turned into that. It's just for us, it's just us taking action to do it. And now we're doing it. And now we're ready to get I mean it's been also it's been so many years, you know, and there have been dips like this where we're like, okay, seriously, like How many more times? You know, like can we keep trying, but we're not gonna quit. No. Just with you know, caretaking for our parents and then what we've been through right now. But it's like we're not stopping. Yeah. But people want to see our faces. Yeah. You know, it's like we need to be the ones doing this. Yeah. And that's what we're doing. And we have the yeah, well, yeah. But it's just being consistent and you know, we just move the business and it's it takes time.

Nathan Smith:49:36
That's I mean, that's one of the hardest things. Especially like if if you're hiring out, you have to find somebody that actually cares about it and sees the vision as much as you do, which is like the hardest thing to do. Especially if you like hire like a large marketing agency or whatever it is. Like you're just a number, like one out of one hundred. and then you pretty much just get passed along. We're finding like a neat like a very small agency that somebody like actually sees your vision and actually will take the time to care as much as you would. that's what I would suggest to do if you Do look for anything like that because I've seen people, exactly as you said, get burned on that front. I know we don't have too much time, so I have one more question for you. so over the next 12 months, what's the one thing you're really trying to accomplish with KeySocks?

50:21 · The next 12 months for KeySocks and TikTok Shop Live

Shelby and Christy:50:21
I mean, I think just consistency. Yeah. Consistency. I agree. Consistency. We're we have everything we need. We just consistency with motivation and keep creating content ourselves. Yeah. and staying positive and, you know, staying on the vision that they need to be an everywoman software. It's not too much to ask.

Nathan Smith:50:46
It's not.

Shelby and Christy:50:46
I don't know how many sock drawers there are in the world, but we could count maybe. I think it's a lot. But I mean, we

Nathan Smith:50:50
Yeah.

Shelby and Christy:50:50
need them all in Europe. Everyone in France, in Italy, and London and Paris. Everybody's walking the streets

Nathan Smith:50:57
Right.

Shelby and Christy:50:57
in their jeans and their flats. Like, let's go. We're ready. So yeah, I think that's yeah. That's for me, it's just not being sad and just trying to be happy and just saying that it's not that big of a deal. Exactly.

Nathan Smith:51:13
There you go. Well, I was gonna ask you one more follow-up question, but I'm gonna answer it for you. I was gonna ask you what has to change for you to actually get there. But absolutely nothing because everything that you're doing is you're on the right path. You have that spark back in you. I could see it. You have everybody behind you that you need to, you have an amazing product, you have all the stuff in the past you could use for content, you have the family, the friends, and everything like that to help you push forward and do everything you want to. So I'm not even gonna ask it. I'm gonna answer it because I know you're gonna be successful and I know you're gonna keep doing it and you're gonna wake up in the morning and be happy to get back at it. So thank you very much for joining me today. I do appreciate your

Shelby and Christy:51:48
That's so smooth. Thank you. I love that.

Nathan Smith:51:51
time. Before we do end here, where can anybody find you that would want to get in touch with you or look at the products that you have?

Shelby and Christy:52:00
So Keysocks.com, Amazon, QVC, TikTok, TikTok Shop. We've got an Amazon not Amazon, Instagram store, storefront. So yeah, and they can email us directly. And wholesale we're on fair. So any wholesale stores want to order, we sell wholesale. Yep.

Nathan Smith:52:22
Awesome. Well Shelby and Christy, thank you for joining us, for everybody listening. thank you for joining the Wide Marketing Sucks podcast. And we'll see you on the next one.

Shelby and Christy:52:31
Thank you so much.