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Blake and Heather’s love for animals

stretches far outside the office. It has become a global initiative.

“I want to raise awareness and have people relate to [the gorillas] and raise money. I want [the funds raised] to go to the park rangers who continue to risk their lives against the rebels. I want to preserve and save gorillas,” says Heather. She says she and Blake first encountered Silverback and Mountain Gorillas when they hiked through Rwanda. It was a tremendous stroke of luck. Their extremely knowledgeable guide was able to get the Mycoskies to the gorillas after only a two-hour hike.

“There were 25 gorillas;” says Blake, “a main male and all the rest were babies or females. They were within a foot of us.

“It was a very touching and intimate experience with these creatures,” adds Heather.

These very gorillas will be the first beneficiaries of the TOMS animal initiative. They are a high-risk, extremely endangered population. The rebels, Heather says, want the oil under the park, so they try to kill the rangers, kill the gorillas, and then seize the oil.

“The next four seasons will focus on endangered species then we will bring it into domestic animals and farm animals and see how well the program does,” says Blake. The program does not yet have any goals or benchmarks but he hopes the special shoes will sell well.

When not travelling, which actually takes up about half of his year, Blake launched another One for One program, TOMS Roasting Company. For every bag of coffee sold, TOMS supplies one week of clean water to a person in need, in countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Malawi, and Rwanda.

“The main resource to make coffee is water,” says Blake. “They take the cherries [the fruits that yield coffee beans] and wash them over and over and over. I felt it was ironic that [the people in these coffee-growing areas] needed clean water for health and had no access to it, as it was used for coffee.” He is working with the non-profit group Water for People to build wells, filtration systems, rain harvesters, and other sustainable regional clean water projects.

Blake is proof that to achieve business success, you need to connect deeply and be passionate about what you are doing. It’s really important, he says, for both business success and for happiness, because your business may occupy much of your life.

“TOMS was a small business the first few years. You never know how big a company can get,” he says, adding that his original goal was to provide shoes to just 250 kids. In March 2014, TOMS gave away its 15 millionth pair.

“It’s really important to build community,” he says. He even wrote a book, Start Something That

Matters, to demystify the entire entrepreneurial start-up process so new business owners could become more confident.

Outlook, he says, is vital and is one of the things he credits for his own success—he is a very positive person and asks a lot of questions. Heather adds that he is also energetic and determined.

So what’s ahead for this couple that have already contributed so much to people and animals in need? They are always talking about adding more animals. After all, says Heather, their three dogs have “have never destroyed any of our shoes.”