About this episode

Sarah Calhoun is the founder of Red Ants Pants, a women’s workwear company based in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. A former outdoor instructor and trail-crew leader, she launched the business in 2006 after years of working in pants that didn’t fit. She also founded the Red Ants Pants Music Festival and leads the Red Ants Pants Foundation, which supports women’s leadership and rural communities.

In this conversation, Sarah traces the path from sewing backpacks to touring the country with an Airstream for pants parties and launching a music festival in a cow pasture. We talk about choosing small-town Montana, learning the business as she went, and why handing over the company’s day-to-day leadership felt like a relief. She also explains the less glamorous side of festival production: buying up toilet paper across three counties. I also learned that a lonely male llama may start pooping in a perfect circle.

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Show links

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Chapters

  • 00:00 Rapid Fire: Books, Music, and Liam Neeson
  • 02:53 A Farm Childhood and a Few Facts About Llamas
  • 06:03 From Trail Crews to Women’s Workwear
  • 08:20 Learning to Build a Business From Scratch
  • 12:01 An Old Saddle Shop in White Sulphur Springs
  • 15:27 Loans, Manufacturing, and Mentors
  • 19:48 Tour de Pants: Taking the Business on the Road
  • 22:13 A Music Festival in a Cow Pasture
  • 27:14 Making It Better, Not Bigger
  • 28:20 Hiring a CEO and Bringing In Investors
  • 32:57 Work Skills, Girls’ Leadership, and the Foundation
  • 35:35 Life Behind the Shop