When the Business Needs to Work for You with Dave Schneider

Written By Clay Stelzer

Being responsible for a 120-year-old American heritage brand comes with a weight that most C-suite executives will never experience. Dave Schneider carries it every day at Red Wing Shoe Company, and wouldn't have it any other way.

I've been wearing Red Wing boots for years. Every time I put them on it's like pulling on pajamas. Rugged, comfortable, built to last. 

Dave Schneider and I worked together at an agency years ago. Short overlap, maybe a year, but some people just stick with you. Dave was one of those people. So when I found out he'd been the CMO of Red Wing Shoe Company for over 12 years and expects to retire there, I knew I had to have him on the podcast. 

That's not something you hear from a C-suite executive very often. I wanted to know what that was all about.

Dave leads Red Wing's global marketing practice with responsibility for brand management, digital and traditional marketing, ecommerce, retail experience, and corporate communications across a portfolio of purpose-driven brands. Before Red Wing, he held senior roles at firms working with brands like MillerCoors, Dell, State Farm, Lowe's, McDonald's, and AT&T. He's been in a lot of rooms at a lot of companies. The fact that he's still at this one after 12 years says everything about the type of brand and business they are building.

In this episode, we talk about:

- Why culture is a two-way street and what it actually looks like to contribute to it

- The two moments Dave's leaders gave him "permission" to step away from work, and what that did to him as a leader

- How Red Wing balances 120 years of heritage with staying relevant in a fast-moving world

- What Dave means when he says "speed beats perfection" (+ when that rule doesn't apply)

- The leadership definition Dave has carried for 25 years and why it still holds

My Key Takeaways from this conversation with Dave Schneider:

1. Culture is a two-way street.

If your company culture is coming from a poster in the lunch room and there's never any type of behavior that's expected of it, then it's not real culture. True culture needs to be as much bottom-up as it is top-down - you have to give if you want to get. At Red Wing, their values, RICE (Respect, Integrity, Community, Excellence), show up in everything they do. 

2. Build brand drive demand. 

Dave has a tagline he's carried with him for years: build brand, drive demand. He feels a deep responsibility to build on the legacy that's been handed to him. But he also knows he doesn't carry that weight alone. A brand is so much bigger than just the marketing department. When the whole organization owns the brand, this is what makes it survive 120+ years.

3. The baton pass measures the true strength of a business. 

When Dave first started at Red Wings, he had overlap with his predecessor by several weeks. Similarly, his CEO had a three-month overlap with hers. That's not an accident. "We stand on the shoulders of those that come before us" isn't a line they put on a poster - it's how they actually operate. I've worked with a lot of companies that talk about legacy, but not many structure their business and transitions in a way that truly protects that.

4. Legacy brands are walking a tightrope between history and relevancy.

Dave's job isn't to protect the past 120+ years of Red Wing Shoe Company, nor is it to chase the future. There is value in showing your history because it shows that it's not your first rodeo, but if you can't turn the corner to tell people why they should care today, then it doesn't make any real difference to the brand. It's a careful dance between making sure that you're grounded in the past and, at the same time relevant today.

5. Leadership is constituting a future others can see themselves successful within.

Dave has carried this definition of leadership for 20+ years. When you can create an environment where other people are able to see themselves as contributing to the organization, to the brand, to the business, etc. - that is what being a leader is all about.

Listen to the full conversation with Dave Schneider here: 

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Resources Mentioned:

If you have a topic or guest you'd love to see on Fearful Giants, reach out to me at clay@15sixty.com

Clay

Clay Stelzer
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