SUCCESS STORIES IN THEIR OWN WORDS

And you know, when you have a cause, you want to do what you do well to support that cause. And so what I do is t-shirts. And so these causes that I believe in, I want to do what I do best on this planet and that’s make t-shirts. And so I want to do it for causes I care about. And that’s been very important to me. It’s been, you know, maybe sometimes even to my detriment, and it’s been more important to me than making money. I have to say, no, not that you can’t make money doing it, but that’s not the driving force from there. I have to say, I’d rather see the cause succeed. You know, if you don’t make money, you’re not here next year to help anybody. So you have to make money, but that’s not my motivation, I would say. Marshall Atkinson And so for you to really get behind something, you really have to believe in whatever that topic is, correct? Rick Roth Yeah, I would say so it’s certainly a bigger driving force. So, a great example is Farm Aid. So I’ve worked for Farm Aid for 25 years. And it’s really a cause near and dear to me. My grandmother, grandfather, uncle’s, dairy farm went out of business and was sold at auction, you know, and that hurt me greatly. And, you know, farmers, particularly family farmers, really have a hard time. And so that’s the cause for Farm Aid. And so I’ve really put my heart and soul into it and you know, you can care, right? It doesn’t mean you’re going to succeed. So I think a lot of other things went into it, but, you know, we recently sold $19 a head at the most recent Farm Aid that was held in person. A good take at a concert is $6 a head. So, you know, not only did we make a lot of money for Farm Aid, we promoted the cause. People will wear those shirts and that really meant a lot to me, more than even the money that I made on the particular job. Marshall Atkinson So when they have an event like that, do you go? Rick Roth I go, I supervise the venue staff that sells it. Or sometimes they have an independent staff that does it. And so, you know, I mean, we’re working already on, you know, a concert that might be in October and we’re selecting the garments. We’re selecting the artwork. You know, previously we ran an analysis on the size scale that we need, so we don’t have any waste and we make more money for them. We put a lot into it, and every year we reviewwhat we did. And that’s, I think, a key to success in anything in this world. If you can honestly look at what you’ve done and say what went well and what didn’t and improve it every year, it gets better and better. And in this case, you know, there’s high motivation because it’s not only a good customer, but it’s a good cause. Yeah, I do actually go and usually drive a truck full of shirts. I’m there for the concert. I often have missed my favorite band that’s playing because I have to work. But in the end, the cause is a good one. And you know, I’ve actually also attracted a fair amount of very good

354

Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs