Rodney: Well, I think the number one is respect. Respect for our employees, our suppliers, our reps, and our customers, and that kind of dovetails into always leaving something on the table. So with suppliers, its easy to understand the concept of 'we've never tried to have everything for ourselves'. We never tried to maximize profits. We tried to develop relationships, and that means not thinking about yourself, but putting yourself in the position of the other party. So I think that has been the foundation, and it includes loyalty and integrity, but the result is that you have long term sustainable relationships.

Jeremy: I see sort of an inverted pyramid. Traditionally, you get the shareholders on top, and I think we've inverted it completely. We put our customers at the very top, and the second in line, at the time, were our sales reps who served the customers, and then our employees who served the sales reps, and then suppliers because without product, you're nothing! So then we figured out that if we did all those things right, then success would flow back. But it really is about inverting the priorities of your business and putting your customers first.

Jon Braude: I mean, there was so many and it was always so fun! In the early, early days we had the woodshop that was our playground. As a kid, all the tools and the wood and the giant pieces of sawdust, it was good fun but I always loved coming by and helping out with anything I could get my hands on. One funny job I had as a kid, there was a shipment of these enameled steel teapots, and they arrived all stained and damaged in some form. My dad said "we're not going to send these out like this, you have to polish them", so, I sat in the warehouse and polished what felt like mountains of these pots, and back then we probably used the worst chemicals known to man, but all that mattered was that they were polished to perfection and put back in their box.

Gary Benson: Some of my oldest memories of being around includes coming in on the weekend and our job was to go into a little room with garbage bags and garbage bags of scrap paper, essentially used paper that we would have to shred them, take them to the warehouse, and use those as the paper to pack in the orders. The highlight of it was always that my sister and I got to pick where we went for lunch, and always, we picked McDonalds. Another one was that we used to do their mailings, we used to print off 10 or 20 different single page sell sheets, layout the piles on the dining room table, and walk around the table manually collating them, folding them, and putting them in envelops, for hours.

Jon: Those envelopes would then come to us, and we had to put address stickers on them, and if they weren't straight Jeremy would get so mad!

Gary: It was also interesting watching from very early on, starting a business essentially. They used to work in my parents' basement, Jeremy would come over and they'd go down and work from 7am to 7pm, come upstairs for dinner, and that was the work day! And so you know, I think that was one of the biggest things that was instilled in me, work ethic, from my dad.

Gary: I do, actually. I have one in particular, and it just came to light probably about a year or two ago. A friend of mine was going through his late grandma's basement. She had recently passed away and he found an original 1982 cheese cutter that they made in their factory and still in its box and everything, it’s never been used. Also, since the day I started and maybe even some years before me, I also have every catalogue the company’s ever produced. And when Margaret retired, she gave me all her Swatch books that they used to train reps before catalogues came out. 

Oh, so there's another thing that I found. So, when we sold our last office building, I found the very first seal. As in, when you get a shipping container, there is a metal seal at the back that locks it, and I found the very first seal for the shipment that came in with, probably, our wine racks or something, first shipment they ever received. And I got it framed and put a little plaque on and gave it to my dad.

Jon: I have a painting from our first catalogue kicking around somewhere, that was in Rodney’s office when he was here. They had a friend who was an artist, a painter, and we commissioned her to do the cover of our very first catalogue. It's very special.

Sushil: I had a conversation with Rodney and Jeremy before they retired in 2015, and I remember telling them about my journey driving to the office for the first time. I pulled up to this run down, broken building, and I came from a company that had leather and mahogany in every corner, and its pouring rain, I'm stepping in puddles, and trying to tippy toe up the stairs and I remember getting to the front door and thinking “What am I doing here?” We had a laugh about it. At the end of the day it was the two of them, Rod and Jeremy. You know when you feel a great connection, and it’s mutual, it feels really good. It’s funny for me, I had a joke that if those two had a love child, I would be it. And so, in some way Jon, Gary and I are all weirdly related. But overall, it was great, you stay because of the people, and I think that’s why we all stay. Danica was the smallest company I had ever worked for, and so when I came here, you felt like you were somebody and your voice mattered and you realize that that environment fits better than some other companies and I think everyone has to find that out for themselves. But to me, that’s the most important part, I get up everyday and strive for ‘how do you keep that?’ and it became part of the vision for the company.

Jon: I think that's something true about the industry in general, its kind of a labor of love. There is definitely easier ways of making money, so you have to love it for sure. The one thing that I find whether it’s retailers, other vendors, reps, everyone in the business genuinely has a love for this stuff we make and sell, and our lives revolve around it. I think it’s what keeps most people in.

Gary: I love the fact that running a company, you think about how you’re responsible for so many employees and their families. It extends past that too, to reps, customers, and suppliers, just about everybody involved in the supply chain and the value we're adding to their lifelong journey. That responsibility, I think it's engaging and powerful to understand, I enjoy it and its of great value.