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00:00:01
Entrepreneur & Equity Advocate - Stormy Simon (Welfare to $1 Billion)
202 Plays3 years ago
A great discussion with Stormy Simon!!
- We talk about her history at Overstock.com
- She spoke on the Cannabist Industry and all its benefits
- Her new company Mother Ruggers
- And being a Mom at a young age and scaling her life and career as a woman in a male dominated industry
Follow Stormy on instagram @Stormy.Simon and check her Luxury Rug company out https://motherruggers.com!
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:04
Speaker
Yes.
Introduction to Stormy
00:00:05
Speaker
Requesting Stormy now.
00:00:09
Speaker
Let's see.
00:00:10
Speaker
All right.
00:00:11
Speaker
Invite.
00:00:12
Speaker
Let's see.
00:00:12
Speaker
I guess you're here.
00:00:13
Speaker
There you go, Stormy.
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey!
00:00:15
Speaker
That's fine.
00:00:19
Speaker
There we go.
00:00:20
Speaker
We did it.
00:00:26
Speaker
Oh, okay.
00:00:26
Speaker
Here you go.
00:00:46
Speaker
Yeah, I can hear you now.
00:00:47
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah.
00:00:51
Speaker
We're here.
00:00:52
Speaker
Oh, my goodness.
00:00:53
Speaker
That was quite the journey.
00:00:57
Speaker
Hey, so look, you know, there's this thing that I want to say before we get started.
00:01:04
Speaker
Three things I tell people.
00:01:05
Speaker
You even in a storm.
00:01:06
Speaker
Having a hard time.
00:01:07
Speaker
Getting ready for a storm.
00:01:09
Speaker
Now I can hear you.
00:01:10
Speaker
Can you hear?
00:01:11
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:13
Speaker
Now I can hear you.
00:01:14
Speaker
Three things to know.
00:01:16
Speaker
You even in a storm getting ready for a storm.
00:01:20
Speaker
Are you about to get out of one?
00:01:22
Speaker
So you've now experienced all three.
00:01:29
Speaker
I'm going to get my phone set here.
00:01:32
Speaker
We got it.
00:01:33
Speaker
We got it.
Stormy's Journey of Fearlessness
00:01:37
Speaker
Well, Stormy, welcome.
00:01:39
Speaker
Welcome to Nigger Talks Podcast.
00:01:41
Speaker
Stormy is an incredible e-commerce pioneer, cannabis activist, and corporate renegade.
00:01:49
Speaker
She's the CEO and co-founder, I believe, of Mothers, Ruggers, right?
00:01:54
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:55
Speaker
Also, she ran High Rise Magazine.
00:01:59
Speaker
And last but not least, she was at Overstock.com for 15 years.
00:02:03
Speaker
Good.
00:02:07
Speaker
I think when you left as president, y'all did like, y'all was at like 2 billion in revenue, if I'm not mistaken.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah, so congratulations.
00:02:17
Speaker
Welcome to Bigger Talks.
00:02:18
Speaker
But before we get moving forward, I have a quote that you said that really stuck out to me.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I'm going to read it, and then we can start our conversation from that perspective.
00:02:30
Speaker
You said, I realized some of the best moments of my life.
00:02:37
Speaker
We are all experiencing this new world.
00:02:39
Speaker
Don't be afraid to dig in and find fearlessness.
00:02:44
Speaker
So how did you get to that thought and how did that come out?
00:02:47
Speaker
Where did that start?
00:02:49
Speaker
Where did that come from?
00:02:52
Speaker
The idea of being, you kind of broke up during the quote, so I'm not sure the middle of it, but I think that just like being able to find, like to dig deep and know that being fearless was the only thing that you have.
00:03:07
Speaker
You know, it's this, it's an interesting thing, life, this life thing, right?
00:03:12
Speaker
So now I'm in my 50s.
00:03:14
Speaker
I'm a la-la because the G word is four letters in my house.
00:03:19
Speaker
My son's daughter, right?
00:03:20
Speaker
Because I have a hard time saying grandmother.
00:03:24
Speaker
But you go through these moments, these chapters of life where you've evolved differently.
00:03:31
Speaker
And, you know, people always say, oh, that grumpy old man or she's just crotchety, whatever it is.
00:03:37
Speaker
And what I'm realizing is people, as you get older and go through the chapters and life just kicks your ass a little bit, you learn more and more to bet on yourself.
Family Roots and Values
00:03:49
Speaker
Yes.
00:03:50
Speaker
And that means, you know, you start, that means you have some boundaries, you know, because you're like, wait a minute, I can't get distracted.
00:03:58
Speaker
I'm realizing that no matter how much we collaborate, how much we're together at the end of the day, those steps are just you.
00:04:06
Speaker
And they're so scary to take.
00:04:08
Speaker
So even today, I dig deep on fearlessness because everything's scary, especially when you're betting on yourself.
00:04:18
Speaker
You know, that's a, it's a, you're coming from a different place each time, you know?
00:04:24
Speaker
Yeah, because you have to bet on yourself to really win in life.
00:04:29
Speaker
And it's scary.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah, everybody turn their back on you, everyone out you and think you just don't know what you're talking about.
00:04:37
Speaker
You're crazy.
00:04:37
Speaker
How are you going to do that?
00:04:38
Speaker
Then you look wow to them because they don't understand your purpose or how you think.
00:04:44
Speaker
So you have to really build up your internal being, internal confidence to know, you know what?
00:04:50
Speaker
I'm going to go to oversight as a temporary employee.
00:04:53
Speaker
Then I'm going to run the company.
00:04:55
Speaker
You know, like that was your life.
00:04:58
Speaker
You know, you was a struggling mother on welfare to the board.
00:05:02
Speaker
I'm like, how did it all start?
00:05:03
Speaker
Where did you get that faith and confidence to run an overstock and to get out of the position you were in as a mom at a young age?
00:05:11
Speaker
You know, I wouldn't say I was born in poverty for sure.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:17
Speaker
But I was born, you know, having been raised in Utah, I was born in a far more colorful zip code.
00:05:23
Speaker
You know, our ground roots are, you know, Hammond, Indiana, and that's 12 miles from Gary, Indiana.
00:05:29
Speaker
So it's like, you know, that's where we're from.
00:05:32
Speaker
That's where my parents are from.
00:05:35
Speaker
And that mattered when the way that they taught hard work, you know, so it was more about hard work.
00:05:43
Speaker
You know, my, his father was his first person in his family born in the United States.
00:05:50
Speaker
So my dad's second generation, he just believed you worked.
00:05:53
Speaker
And you worked to live.
00:05:55
Speaker
You worked so you could put food on the table.
00:05:57
Speaker
You didn't work for any other reason but to give yourself food and table.
00:06:02
Speaker
So you worked hard, performed well, proud every day.
00:06:05
Speaker
And that's what they taught me.
00:06:07
Speaker
So the, oops, my phone's ringing.
00:06:09
Speaker
That's what the, kind of what they talked about is you got to go work hard.
00:06:14
Speaker
You know, being an entrepreneur wasn't something that was even considered in our household.
00:06:20
Speaker
It was getting a job and working hard.
00:06:24
Speaker
But through that, my mom always said, you know, you can do whatever you want.
00:06:29
Speaker
We've always had these secret like, oh, okay, Stormy, you know, you're going to walk in, people are going to, like you said, we all feel beat up decades into life.
00:06:38
Speaker
It's like we've had our asses kicked, every one of us.
00:06:41
Speaker
But, you know, we would always have the side conversation about like, oh, they think that you're cute, you know, you can
00:06:49
Speaker
You know, but always be smart, stay smart.
00:06:52
Speaker
But like, you're not going to overcome that with certain people.
00:06:56
Speaker
You know, they're not worth the effort of what you have to teach them and prove to them that you're smart.
00:07:01
Speaker
You don't have to prove it to them.
00:07:04
Speaker
You prove it to yourself every day and you acknowledge like, dang it, they really just think I'm cute.
00:07:10
Speaker
Like there were certain stereotypes or whatever that you simply cannot overcome around certain people.
00:07:17
Speaker
And so the side conversation was, it's not worth the time.
00:07:20
Speaker
You move forward, you move forward.
00:07:22
Speaker
And the truth was, you know, my climate overstock from temp to president was moving forward and past them at times,
Overcoming Professional Stereotypes
00:07:30
Speaker
right on past them.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:32
Speaker
You said a lot of powerful things in that message.
00:07:34
Speaker
And I want to kind of take it back because I know there is a lot of women out there that are very attractive and very powerful, but they're perceived from how they look and not from who they are.
00:07:46
Speaker
But then people were dealing with them from their point of view.
00:07:51
Speaker
Many women are very intelligent.
00:07:53
Speaker
They know a lot.
00:07:54
Speaker
They've been through a lot outside of them looking gorgeous or beautiful or attractive.
00:08:00
Speaker
I remember when I was young, I wanted people to like me, right?
00:08:05
Speaker
I was a people pleaser.
00:08:07
Speaker
But the thing is, I didn't want people to like me for my look.
00:08:10
Speaker
I wanted people to like me for who I was and who I am.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so I had a prophet at church one time say, stop that young man.
00:08:18
Speaker
People going off what they see, their first impression is who you are, what they see.
00:08:23
Speaker
So you can't change that, like you just said.
00:08:26
Speaker
But every day,
00:08:28
Speaker
It was a battle with myself and others because I wanted people like me for something maybe they did know I had or I didn't.
00:08:36
Speaker
I say all that to say because you grew up in Utah, you was an attractive woman in a very entrepreneurial business space.
00:08:45
Speaker
There were challenges, right?
00:08:47
Speaker
Because when people have a look or have attention, there's different challenges that people don't know about.
00:08:53
Speaker
Like having a public profile, being on TV, all these, being a president of a company, there's a lot of pressures that we face and have that people don't get to see.
00:09:03
Speaker
I went back and did research and watched your TED talk.
00:09:07
Speaker
And I think you mentioned your mom said, Stormy, I don't care what you do, do something, even if it's wrong.
00:09:14
Speaker
That's right.
00:09:15
Speaker
And you talked about, I don't know if it was like 17 or 19, you fell in love, you got married, you had a kid.
00:09:20
Speaker
But you thought that was right.
00:09:24
Speaker
You kind of like elaborate on that and talk about how that, you know, incorporated in your life and your vision of who you are today.
Taking Action Against Fear
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:33
Speaker
The, the point of this, you know, going through work and those overcoming those challenges, my point was of the fearlessness.
00:09:41
Speaker
You can't get distracted by them.
00:09:43
Speaker
Those are obstacles and distractions.
00:09:45
Speaker
Like you're worrying about what somebody's thinking and you're trying to prove it to them when really,
00:09:52
Speaker
at the end of that decade, it will be you and those people are going to be nowhere around you.
00:09:58
Speaker
With my mom, that idea of doing something, even if it's wrong, the fear of standing still, like she really get up, do something, wipe a counter for five, 10 minutes and call that a win.
00:10:18
Speaker
That is a huge accomplishment on some days.
00:10:22
Speaker
Some days it's a struggle for people to get out of bed.
00:10:26
Speaker
You know what I mean?
00:10:26
Speaker
And I see that now.
00:10:28
Speaker
So when she was saying, get up, get dressed, you know, I'm sad.
00:10:33
Speaker
Whatever your teenage drama is, right?
00:10:36
Speaker
Just get up, get dressed and sit on the porch for five minutes.
00:10:39
Speaker
And then you've done something.
00:10:40
Speaker
You know, it's not a big something, but you've done some thing.
00:10:45
Speaker
You showed up.
00:10:46
Speaker
You showed up for something.
00:10:48
Speaker
So that I think also made that,
00:10:52
Speaker
You know, a fearlessness in the steps was, you know, you have to do one thing.
00:10:57
Speaker
It doesn't have to be good.
00:10:58
Speaker
It doesn't have to be great.
00:10:59
Speaker
It doesn't have to be for anybody, but just the matter of doing it.
00:11:03
Speaker
And showing up is so important.
00:11:06
Speaker
Just to piggyback off of showing up, today I didn't feel like going to the gym.
00:11:10
Speaker
I was fighting it.
00:11:12
Speaker
Once I got in that gym and I worked out, I was, yes, let's go, you know.
00:11:19
Speaker
Motion changes emotion.
00:11:21
Speaker
But because I was willing, despite how I was feeling to show up, the universe showed up for me and gave me a push.
00:11:27
Speaker
So I think it's important for people to know that Stormy Simon didn't just get here by just complaining and getting distracted by the distractions.
00:11:36
Speaker
She showed up no matter what she had going on in her world.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:42
Speaker
And I think
00:11:44
Speaker
You know, we talked about, we just talked about the way we are viewed as people and how you overcome that first impression.
00:11:52
Speaker
One thing I really learned through the Overstock experience was I couldn't change how people viewed me.
00:11:58
Speaker
Like, I don't know what their first impression was.
00:12:00
Speaker
I had to really learn to not think about it.
00:12:03
Speaker
But I could change how I viewed them because I might have been just as guilty of looking at people, giving them the first impression and
00:12:13
Speaker
categorizing and that's the change we can do is to change how we look at people you know I have friends that say oh I can't date that person it's too short he's too short it's like you that is a weird thing to me right my whole family's little but it's like you know when you hear that and we talk about shaming of all sorts in the world but it's like
00:12:40
Speaker
You know, we have, we, those who feel abused by that have to change how we do it.
00:12:46
Speaker
We have to change how we look at people too.
00:12:50
Speaker
And I didn't want to forget that point actually.
00:12:52
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:53
Speaker
So basically you got to be responsible and accountable as much as you want them to be because you're just as guilty.
00:13:00
Speaker
You know, I think someone can say something, but what are you saying about someone else that's not them?
00:13:07
Speaker
Exactly.
00:13:08
Speaker
No one's better.
00:13:09
Speaker
No one's different.
00:13:09
Speaker
We're all the same.
00:13:10
Speaker
It's all relative.
00:13:12
Speaker
But I really want to dive in deep to the overstock experience.
Rise at Overstock
00:13:15
Speaker
So you was hired as a temp.
00:13:18
Speaker
What was the process like getting to become the president?
00:13:21
Speaker
And what was the turning point in that employment, in that phase where you realized you could really take the company over and make it a billion dollars?
00:13:31
Speaker
Like, what was that like for you?
00:13:33
Speaker
You know, there was never a moment that it happened.
00:13:36
Speaker
where it was like, oh, you know what, I want to be president.
00:13:38
Speaker
There was never a moment that I fought for that position, you know, but it was the process.
00:13:45
Speaker
It was showing up every day and going to work hard, you know, but I liked it.
00:13:50
Speaker
Like nobody had the answer.
00:13:52
Speaker
So it was super entertaining.
00:13:55
Speaker
You know, every day was so much fun.
00:13:57
Speaker
The wins were so good.
00:13:59
Speaker
And, you know, the high fives were amazing.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then the fails and the things we would mess up on were also just as good because we would learn so much about something we didn't know about.
00:14:11
Speaker
But it was a day.
00:14:11
Speaker
So there wasn't like this moment that I jumped over a big bridge.
00:14:16
Speaker
It was, you know, building the bridge and then taking small steps over the course of 12 years, you know, from every position you can think of, right?
00:14:28
Speaker
And the billion dollar moment came
00:14:31
Speaker
when I was CMO and we did a trailing 12 months of a billion dollars and we went profitable.
00:14:39
Speaker
We were profitable.
00:14:40
Speaker
So there were these great moments where I thought, wow, we, we did it.
00:14:45
Speaker
We tweaked all the dials just enough to get something flowing just right for a little bit, you know?
00:14:54
Speaker
So it was never a large leap when I took on a new job or promotion.
00:14:58
Speaker
It was always,
00:14:59
Speaker
to me a smaller step and I felt ready for it at the time, but two years before that time I probably wasn't ready for it.
00:15:07
Speaker
Yeah, and I always look at things as
00:15:13
Speaker
It's easy to look at Nike, Overstock, Apple, and say, man, these are incredible companies, but you don't really know the person behind it.
00:15:21
Speaker
So I want to ask you, what do you feel like in business is your greatest strength?
00:15:27
Speaker
And that strength helped you scale Overstock and all the other companies and businesses you founded and now you work in to today.
00:15:37
Speaker
What a great question.
00:15:38
Speaker
Like, what's your superpower?
00:15:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:15:42
Speaker
Mine, I really believe, is a strategy vision.
00:15:47
Speaker
And first, I believe that we can do it.
00:15:51
Speaker
So I always believe.
00:15:53
Speaker
Like, I'm the one that's like, oh, of course.
00:16:01
Speaker
I take that, just the strategy and the pieces, and coming from the experience at Overstock where we had a whiteboard.
00:16:11
Speaker
Like, what was e-commerce?
00:16:14
Speaker
Nobody knew until we did it.
00:16:17
Speaker
So you literally had to figure it out, knowing that there's hard work to make it happen, and then believing that I know the way and the steps and the hard work, and knowing that we can always figure it out.
00:16:32
Speaker
Ooh, there's never, yes, there's just never anything because we kept going and overstuck.
00:16:38
Speaker
There was nothing, we didn't like go, oh shoot, okay, we can drive around that.
00:16:43
Speaker
We'll parkour over a couple benches.
00:16:45
Speaker
We'll put some gum to stick it together now and then we'll go back and come back with something brilliant.
00:16:51
Speaker
You know, but we always did.
00:16:52
Speaker
If it took one year, two years, five years, 10 years, eventually we got there.
00:16:58
Speaker
And I think that ability,
00:17:01
Speaker
is probably now my superpower, but I didn't start with it.
00:17:05
Speaker
I think I have some sort of like mindset.
00:17:07
Speaker
I'm autodidact.
00:17:09
Speaker
I learn about everything I do myself through reading.
00:17:13
Speaker
I don't really take anybody's word for it.
00:17:15
Speaker
I study every night on whatever I'm doing.
00:17:18
Speaker
And I've done that for years and years.
00:17:21
Speaker
Yeah, and just the intentions, the intention and the perspective that you believe, right?
00:17:27
Speaker
You say you believe.
00:17:29
Speaker
And you said you guys were in it to win it.
00:17:34
Speaker
You love the wins as much as the losses, but you always was willing to figure it out.
00:17:41
Speaker
That alone, that perspective is how you're able to scale whatever you put your energy to.
00:17:47
Speaker
And your energy, your paradigm, your frequency is in the business, on the business, and in the vortex of the development of the business.
00:17:56
Speaker
And I think it's those little things that I want people listening and watching to really understand.
00:18:02
Speaker
Belief, you can't buy it.
00:18:04
Speaker
Being willing to figure it out, you can't buy that.
00:18:07
Speaker
You either have to know it or you have to have it.
00:18:10
Speaker
You have to do it.
00:18:11
Speaker
You have to do it.
00:18:13
Speaker
Do it.
00:18:14
Speaker
That is on you to do.
00:18:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:17
Speaker
You know, and that's where the hard work, whatever the hard work is, you know, it can be wherever you are and whatever you're doing, but you eventually learn that's only with your hands.
00:18:30
Speaker
Your abilities come from that.
Mother Ruggers Co-founding
00:18:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:18:33
Speaker
You know, just now with Mother Ruggers starting from zero, right?
00:18:37
Speaker
We're just starting from
00:18:38
Speaker
Nothing.
00:18:39
Speaker
Now, I've never done that.
00:18:40
Speaker
How long have you been in business with Mother Ruggers?
00:18:43
Speaker
For how long?
00:18:43
Speaker
We founded a year ago.
00:18:46
Speaker
We came together.
00:18:48
Speaker
I need a rug, right?
00:18:50
Speaker
I can't really.
00:18:52
Speaker
I just met a client an hour ago, and I told them about your company, and they need a rug for their patio.
00:18:57
Speaker
Because I was on your website last night.
00:18:59
Speaker
Thank you.
00:19:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:01
Speaker
I'm so excited.
00:19:02
Speaker
Yeah, me too.
00:19:03
Speaker
I'm like, oh, these drugs are nice.
00:19:06
Speaker
They're so good.
00:19:07
Speaker
You can't even tell from the website.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like, it's not doing it justice.
00:19:10
Speaker
We're going back and doing all the pictures again and stuff.
00:19:14
Speaker
But again, that's hard work.
00:19:15
Speaker
We have to, it takes time.
00:19:17
Speaker
And where did that vision come from?
00:19:18
Speaker
Like, how did you get started in the road?
00:19:22
Speaker
Right.
00:19:23
Speaker
That's a great question.
00:19:24
Speaker
But I ask myself that every day.
00:19:26
Speaker
And the good news is passion.
00:19:29
Speaker
Because
00:19:30
Speaker
I thought around for a leftover stock saying retail.
00:19:35
Speaker
It's hard.
00:19:36
Speaker
I'm not doing this again.
00:19:37
Speaker
Like that is hard.
00:19:38
Speaker
You want to give up every Christmas, every holiday.
00:19:41
Speaker
It's tough business, you know, and everybody's like, you sold a million products.
00:19:45
Speaker
Why do you have to sell a million and a half this year?
00:19:48
Speaker
You know, the, there's never a moment that it's enough in any retail business, but July of 2021, I have,
00:19:59
Speaker
Wood floors throughout my whole house run, you know, and I buy these rugs that I call disposable rugs because I can machine wash them.
00:20:06
Speaker
So I go online on a super mission.
00:20:08
Speaker
I'm going to find the perfect drug.
00:20:10
Speaker
I get ruggables.
00:20:11
Speaker
I get all the rugs you guys.
00:20:13
Speaker
They're all online washable rugs.
00:20:15
Speaker
They're super low prices.
00:20:18
Speaker
And they are washable.
00:20:19
Speaker
Well,
00:20:21
Speaker
I had one of every rug and I wasn't over the moon about any of them.
00:20:25
Speaker
And then no lie.
00:20:27
Speaker
This is how the universe works.
00:20:28
Speaker
My son, Dylan calls me because me and my boys, my sons Austin and Dylan, we're both, we're all e-commerce people.
00:20:35
Speaker
Like we get logistics.
00:20:36
Speaker
They both worked at overstock.
00:20:37
Speaker
They understand all the tech.
00:20:38
Speaker
So jack of all trades.
00:20:41
Speaker
And he calls me, it's like, Hey, I just got, someone wants us to run a warehouse for them.
00:20:47
Speaker
you know, and we can invest in these rugs and this and that, the machine washable.
00:20:51
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, let's, you know, tell them to send me the rugs.
00:20:56
Speaker
I feel the rugs.
00:20:57
Speaker
And I'm telling you, Eric, at that moment, I go, I'm in like for sure.
00:21:03
Speaker
All I did was touch those rugs and I go in and they, we, I met the woman that manufactured them.
00:21:10
Speaker
Her name's Aisha.
00:21:11
Speaker
She's in Turkey.
00:21:12
Speaker
We met on a zoom call and I was like, yeah, I'm in.
00:21:15
Speaker
She comes out for a show in October.
00:21:17
Speaker
last October and I, I go, I don't need to go.
00:21:21
Speaker
I'm in this business.
00:21:22
Speaker
Like I'm going to get these words here, everything.
00:21:25
Speaker
Then I go anyway and we meet and we are like sisters on different continents, just the same men, you know, she's got this background, a master and, um, she has the manufacturing firm as hers.
00:21:41
Speaker
She's a master textile expert.
00:21:43
Speaker
Um,
00:21:44
Speaker
She's gone to school for finance and design.
00:21:47
Speaker
I'm everything else.
00:21:48
Speaker
So the two of us together, just like a fusion, we're very similar and it's fun.
00:21:54
Speaker
Then we said, wait a minute, maybe we should do something bigger than what we were.
00:21:58
Speaker
She was thinking, you know, the people she was working with.
00:22:00
Speaker
And that's when we joined forces is after we met, had a few conversations and just said, let's do this.
00:22:08
Speaker
Came up with the brand name probably three months later.
00:22:12
Speaker
developed the, you know, the product was all developed.
00:22:15
Speaker
It was really the marketing and getting everything put together and figuring out how to tell the story of, you know, rugs.
00:22:22
Speaker
But the rugs got me out of bed and back into retail.
00:22:25
Speaker
And that's the passion.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:27
Speaker
You know, it is, you know, I firmly believe I couldn't sit here and tell you otherwise that these rugs are the most amazing rugs I've ever had.
00:22:36
Speaker
No, I've seen them online.
00:22:37
Speaker
They look amazing.
00:22:39
Speaker
You wait till you feel them and the warranty on them and
00:22:42
Speaker
You know, we make them beginning to end so I can stand behind them and I can stand up and say, you know, they're tough as a mother rugger.
00:22:48
Speaker
And, you know, we're right here.
00:22:51
Speaker
You can call us if they're not.
00:22:52
Speaker
We'll fix it.
00:22:54
Speaker
We stand behind everything.
00:22:56
Speaker
It's her and me, thread to consumer, which is absolutely insane and a dream in a logistical world because it'll help us with pricing.
00:23:05
Speaker
Yeah, the thing is, your whole energy changed when you talk about it.
00:23:08
Speaker
So that's why you're so passionate.
00:23:10
Speaker
Like, you're so happy.
00:23:11
Speaker
You're, like, lit up.
00:23:12
Speaker
I'm like, wow.
00:23:13
Speaker
Isn't it crazy?
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, like, your whole body language is just, it's amazing.
00:23:18
Speaker
I want to go back to when you said you touched the rug and you knew you were in.
00:23:22
Speaker
What was that?
00:23:24
Speaker
Was that your intuition?
00:23:25
Speaker
Was that your gut?
00:23:26
Speaker
What about that channeled that decision that I'm in no matter what?
00:23:31
Speaker
What was that?
00:23:32
Speaker
I, I,
00:23:34
Speaker
I had, and I'm not exaggerating.
00:23:37
Speaker
I moved out of Utah this summer, but the house was 6,000 square feet and it was all hardwood.
00:23:44
Speaker
So when I say I bought all the rugs and I have dogs and dogs rule my life, so everything had to be covered.
00:23:52
Speaker
I had every washable rug on the market.
00:23:56
Speaker
Over the course of a year, I had been trying them out, but in July 2021, I bought them.
00:24:03
Speaker
I bought a bunch back to back and in August, 2021, I felt these rubs.
00:24:09
Speaker
So you had rubs prior to meeting, going to this warehouse.
00:24:13
Speaker
I was looking for machine washable rubs.
00:24:17
Speaker
You already had rapport with rubs.
00:24:19
Speaker
You already had energy with rubs.
00:24:21
Speaker
You can feel it, can touch you.
00:24:23
Speaker
Well, and at Overstock, we were a master rug dealer.
00:24:26
Speaker
I have my product on Wayfair, but at Overstock, we were rugging, um,
00:24:32
Speaker
Rug Retailer of the Year in 2001, early, early econ days.
00:24:37
Speaker
So my experience with rugs and knowledge of rugs and what people look for in all of those things is just in my brain because of my experience, right?
00:24:46
Speaker
It's in my DNA.
00:24:47
Speaker
I already know.
00:24:48
Speaker
Is it your IP?
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, you entered it.
00:24:51
Speaker
When I saw the rugs on your site, I was like, hold on.
00:24:56
Speaker
The way they look, I mean, it sounds odd.
00:25:01
Speaker
I can feel the texture of the rugs because I can tell the detail, the energy and the intentions behind you and your business partner, how you guys picked it.
00:25:11
Speaker
I was like, hmm.
00:25:13
Speaker
And I actually need a rug.
00:25:15
Speaker
Well, she hand draws every rug.
00:25:18
Speaker
So Aisha's experience of
00:25:21
Speaker
creating, there's no rugs on the market like this because she MacGyvered her machines.
00:25:27
Speaker
So she, what does that mean?
00:25:29
Speaker
Remember that show MacGyver?
00:25:30
Speaker
Are you that young?
00:25:33
Speaker
Okay.
00:25:34
Speaker
So that doesn't make sense then.
00:25:36
Speaker
Um, she goes in and hacks it.
00:25:38
Speaker
Like she adjusted them.
00:25:40
Speaker
She re-engineered certain pieces of very traditional machinery to do what she wanted it to do.
00:25:47
Speaker
Then she hand draws every single design, even if it looks plain.
00:25:53
Speaker
So we know that they're balanced and they look artistic when they lay on your floor.
00:25:59
Speaker
So they're also not only they're beautiful and totally different than anything else, they have this artistic touch where we create the art.
00:26:08
Speaker
So we aren't really interested in selling 10,000 rugs of one design.
00:26:13
Speaker
We have a bunch of designs and Aisha's an artist.
00:26:16
Speaker
We can spit these out all day.
00:26:19
Speaker
And so they're all unique in a certain sense.
00:26:22
Speaker
And when they become too many of the same, we'll just replace it with a new design.
00:26:27
Speaker
So do you have a rug house?
00:26:29
Speaker
It's like Mother's Ruggers have like a space where I can go feel and touch rugs or is it just e-commerce for now in a warehouse?
00:26:36
Speaker
Yeah, no, we have a showroom in Vegas.
00:26:39
Speaker
Okay.
00:26:39
Speaker
You can come and touch the rugs.
00:26:41
Speaker
Anybody that ever wants to come look at our rugs in Vegas,
00:26:43
Speaker
can't call me.
00:26:45
Speaker
And then we have our warehouse is in Utah.
00:26:50
Speaker
And that's where we're out of.
00:26:52
Speaker
We have a showroom in North Carolina too.
00:26:53
Speaker
It's a little harder to get to, but we have showrooms 365 and the biggest one is manned that much.
00:27:01
Speaker
Yeah.
00:27:02
Speaker
So you got it going on.
00:27:03
Speaker
I want to tap into the business side of you and maybe the astrology side of you.
Family Influence and Early Life
00:27:11
Speaker
So I have two questions because I want to talk about the cannabis industry that you, I don't know if you still invested in or you're still a part of, but before we ask that question, was anybody, your mom or dad, business savvy or business focused growing up?
00:27:27
Speaker
No.
00:27:28
Speaker
I mean, my mom works like a civil, I don't know, civil servant is that the word they would do, but she worked for the government as a civil person.
00:27:37
Speaker
Tech writer for machinery and tanks and
00:27:40
Speaker
stuff like that.
00:27:42
Speaker
My dad worked as a millwright in a magnesium plant.
00:27:45
Speaker
So he's a very blue collar worker.
00:27:48
Speaker
No, my brother's the first in my family to graduate college, you know?
00:27:54
Speaker
So they, they didn't, but they were always common sense.
00:27:58
Speaker
Like it didn't make them not smart.
00:27:59
Speaker
They just weren't doing business.
00:28:01
Speaker
They were living life, the commonsensical.
00:28:04
Speaker
So, you know, business, it is just common sense, like do the right thing.
00:28:10
Speaker
You know, and you can step through anything, anybody, your dog, you know, if you're dog grooming, you're, and they, this is what my parents would say to me, dog grooming, landscaping, do your best, do it your way.
00:28:24
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:25
Speaker
7 billion people in the world, 7 billion people do that job differently.
00:28:29
Speaker
And that is awesome because it makes your job just as important as theirs, just as good as ready to compete with 7 billion people.
00:28:36
Speaker
And they really enforced, it doesn't matter.
00:28:39
Speaker
If you go work at the 7-Eleven as a manager, make sure it's clean.
00:28:44
Speaker
Make sure everybody comes in there and is like, this is the best 7-Eleven.
00:28:50
Speaker
Win awards for that.
00:28:53
Speaker
Do your best.
00:28:55
Speaker
Because no matter where you are, you're never just someone working at McDonald's.
00:29:01
Speaker
You are never just someone at the 7-Eleven.
00:29:04
Speaker
You are never just a landscaper.
00:29:07
Speaker
You are a
00:29:08
Speaker
integral piece to making the world work.
00:29:11
Speaker
Without those pieces, this world does not work.
00:29:13
Speaker
And we learned it in COVID.
00:29:15
Speaker
Every one of us, you think Elon Musk has a bigger place in this world than you?
00:29:20
Speaker
Because the answer is no.
00:29:21
Speaker
No.
00:29:23
Speaker
He's doing different things, but we're all making it tick.
00:29:26
Speaker
So my parents never taught.
00:29:29
Speaker
There was never anything that was wrong to do.
00:29:33
Speaker
You could literally go be whatever you wanted, even if.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:38
Speaker
You know, it was whatever, the landscaper that your expectations didn't have to be the president of a company.
00:29:47
Speaker
But hey, yours was hard work.
00:29:49
Speaker
I just got there.
00:29:50
Speaker
Yeah.
00:29:51
Speaker
Hard work.
00:29:53
Speaker
You believe in, you show up with it and it's important.
00:29:57
Speaker
So when you left Overstock, what was your mindset and mentality?
00:30:00
Speaker
Was it to go to another company, invest?
00:30:03
Speaker
Like what was the transition from Overstock to the next phase?
Leaving Overstock Intuitively
00:30:08
Speaker
You know, it's so interesting because I never had the five-year plan or like, you never know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I kind of just left.
00:30:18
Speaker
And that was what I was doing now.
00:30:20
Speaker
I was looking at the cannabis industry.
00:30:22
Speaker
I had already started talking to people in it.
00:30:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
But I kind of just jumped because I knew that both couldn't exist.
00:30:33
Speaker
And I knew that it was time for me to leave like,
00:30:36
Speaker
15 and a half years is a really long time to do one thing, even though it was many different things.
00:30:42
Speaker
So it was time.
00:30:46
Speaker
And, you know, the hardest part of leaving that is what I thought the world was going to think or what the narrative was going to be.
00:30:53
Speaker
And, you know, the regret that I have there is not controlling it from the beginning and allowing people to kind of think what they wanted.
00:31:02
Speaker
And what I've learned from there with fearlessness is you control your narrative.
00:31:06
Speaker
No matter what.
00:31:07
Speaker
You can walk away from any job.
00:31:08
Speaker
You can do whatever you want, but you should, you know, you should do it fearlessly, like own your life.
00:31:13
Speaker
And I can say that and I still do a really shitty job of it.
00:31:19
Speaker
But.
00:31:20
Speaker
So are you still in the cannabis space?
00:31:22
Speaker
Are you still in that space?
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:24
Speaker
Yes and no.
00:31:25
Speaker
Like, I'm really like the advocacy portion of it now.
00:31:29
Speaker
So there's a group called American for Safe Access that's run by a woman named Steph Cher.
00:31:34
Speaker
She has been doing amazing work in this industry for over 20 years, like suing the California Highway Patrol back in the day, like in the 90s, for arresting medical patients in the state of California.
00:31:46
Speaker
We forget about those efforts in this really big boom, like, please, let's all celebrate.
00:31:52
Speaker
We can walk in and have the right to choose our medicine.
00:31:56
Speaker
But we should remember it's also medicine.
00:31:58
Speaker
Like, even if you get high as released,
00:32:01
Speaker
That's your medicine.
00:32:02
Speaker
You know, you can, you can say that and have that.
00:32:05
Speaker
Don't be shamed.
00:32:07
Speaker
But people like Steph share moms out there still fighting for medicinal research and stuff for their children's sicknesses.
00:32:16
Speaker
Yes, we can recreationally get it for adult use, but there's, and my Weldon Angelos who runs mission greens Weldon was arrested in 2003 federally for one ounce, maybe a marijuana first time nonviolent crime.
00:32:32
Speaker
sentenced to 55 years.
00:32:34
Speaker
What?
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah, 55 years.
00:32:36
Speaker
2003.
00:32:38
Speaker
He served 13.
00:32:39
Speaker
He got out in 2016, thanks to Trump.
00:32:43
Speaker
There was some there.
00:32:44
Speaker
It was Obama and Trump.
00:32:45
Speaker
And then Trump pardoned Weldon.
00:32:47
Speaker
But this man has dedicated his free life now to really doing the work, not talking about doing the work, making the phone calls, writing the letters that he knows gets it done.
00:33:00
Speaker
It's not, yes, you have to hopefully raise money, but even the money.
00:33:03
Speaker
You have to get paperwork done to get people free.
00:33:08
Speaker
That's what you have to do.
Cannabis Advocacy
00:33:09
Speaker
That's what Weldon does.
00:33:09
Speaker
He gets people freed.
00:33:11
Speaker
Hard, hard work.
00:33:13
Speaker
Those are the people in the cannabis industry, the older, you know, the traditional folks that have made it in.
00:33:19
Speaker
There are some wonderful brands out there like Beard Brothers, Jungle Boys, one of the old school, but they really fought hard to take and participate in a business environment.
00:33:30
Speaker
that cuts the cultural baggage that cannabis brings, which, you know, is what I love about it.
00:33:38
Speaker
I love that there were people fighting to get the medicine across the United States for years, despite, you know, they're not the cartel, they're farmers.
00:33:47
Speaker
They're trying to participate in the industry.
00:33:50
Speaker
And that's the take, I view it that way now is don't forget what we,
00:33:55
Speaker
You know, this is about plant medicine.
00:33:57
Speaker
There's a lot of legalities and federal government stuff that comes out of the decisions we make today.
00:34:01
Speaker
And we just all have to stay focused.
00:34:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's very vital that people know that from that perspective, because the way you explained it, I feel like you should have a book around cannabis and how to look at it, right?
00:34:14
Speaker
Point of view, because you say recreational, then you say medicine.
00:34:19
Speaker
Mothers and dads, they need it for their kids.
00:34:21
Speaker
People have type of illnesses that they need to, you know, deal with.
00:34:26
Speaker
And the medicine, the plant, the cannabis helps.
00:34:29
Speaker
And I think there should be some type of, maybe it is, some one-on-one or
00:34:34
Speaker
the how it provides benefits for a person's body and mind and cellular system and I think yeah I just see you in office one day soon just how you articulate how you think they hate me in office
00:34:50
Speaker
Yeah, maybe, maybe not.
00:34:52
Speaker
But I just feel like how you articulate what you believe and what you know comes off so authentic and understanding that it's like, you know what?
00:35:00
Speaker
I like that.
00:35:01
Speaker
Tell me more.
00:35:02
Speaker
By the way, what sign are you?
00:35:05
Speaker
Are you, are you, do you know what the- I'm Leo.
00:35:09
Speaker
Leo, I would say fire.
00:35:10
Speaker
You got that fire.
00:35:12
Speaker
Let's get it done.
00:35:14
Speaker
What are we doing?
00:35:15
Speaker
Let's go.
00:35:18
Speaker
So, you know, we talked about the cannabis, we talked about your time at Overstock, talked about the quote, dig deep and find your feelings.
00:35:27
Speaker
Let's talk a little bit about motherhood and what's that been like for you and how that evolved you as a mom and as an individual.
00:35:35
Speaker
What was that like?
00:35:36
Speaker
Okay.
00:35:37
Speaker
Well, I, I was a mother before I was like old enough to be arrested.
00:35:43
Speaker
Right.
00:35:43
Speaker
It was right before I turned 18.
00:35:46
Speaker
So even like saying it now, I kind of like, oh my gosh, that was so young.
00:35:51
Speaker
I can't believe that was me because I felt so like, oh, this is.
00:35:55
Speaker
So I went through adulthood.
00:35:58
Speaker
My entry into adulthood was with motherhood.
00:36:02
Speaker
And there was goods and bads about that one.
00:36:04
Speaker
You know, the reason people say don't have a kid when you're young is because like mentally you're young.
00:36:08
Speaker
You know, so we grew up together.
00:36:12
Speaker
You know, me and my son, us, we were like, hey, there was a lot of.
00:36:16
Speaker
fun and less yeah i corporate renegade i love outside the box if i see the path ahead of me and there's all these footprints on it and then there's this jungle this way that you need a machete i'm gonna go take the jungle nobody's been there like what's in there so we were always outside of the box and um motherhood for me was just part of the deal you know i
00:36:44
Speaker
I, it just is, right?
Young Motherhood Challenges
00:36:46
Speaker
It's like, oh, come on.
00:36:46
Speaker
Everybody was like, you're never going to, you know, if you're having this baby young and all these things are going to be, you know, you're hurting your life, you're ruining your life.
00:36:54
Speaker
I didn't experience any of that, but I don't recommend having babies at 17, you know, wait to get older, whatever your age is.
00:37:02
Speaker
But for me, I had so much fun with them.
00:37:05
Speaker
Like my friends were fun with them.
00:37:08
Speaker
We, they were never, you know, I tried not to exclude them.
00:37:11
Speaker
Of course, when I turned 21, I went to the bars.
00:37:13
Speaker
It's
00:37:15
Speaker
You know, I tried not to exclude them, but they were just kind of like part of the pack.
00:37:21
Speaker
Part of the pack.
00:37:23
Speaker
Yeah, it was like, there'd be times it sucked and I'd want to smack them.
00:37:28
Speaker
And then times that, you know, if anybody even looks at them cross-eyed, I'd smack the person.
00:37:32
Speaker
So motherhood's the greatest, you know, and we all get to do it our own way.
00:37:37
Speaker
Like I look back now and I think of all the things I did wrong.
00:37:40
Speaker
So much guilt.
00:37:41
Speaker
And I tell my boys, I'm like, I'm so sorry.
00:37:43
Speaker
Like, I never really cooked dinners.
00:37:44
Speaker
I wasn't good at stuff like that.
00:37:47
Speaker
They didn't see it that way.
00:37:49
Speaker
They saw themselves as loved and they think I'm crazy over the things I have guilt on.
00:37:54
Speaker
So you can do it your way.
00:37:56
Speaker
Like, it's okay if you're a working mom and you like to work more than you like to stay home and take care of kids.
00:38:01
Speaker
I did.
00:38:02
Speaker
I worked.
00:38:03
Speaker
I worked more.
00:38:04
Speaker
That was my jam.
00:38:05
Speaker
I was good at working.
00:38:06
Speaker
I wasn't good at domestic stuff.
00:38:09
Speaker
Still not.
00:38:11
Speaker
Okay.
00:38:13
Speaker
You own what you're good at.
00:38:14
Speaker
And I think, you know, that should be a slogan, you know, you can do it your way.
00:38:20
Speaker
Like literally in every aspect of every profession and career and genre, you can do it your way.
00:38:26
Speaker
And I think our way to people who are in positions that they look up to, but that's their way of living and being, do it your way.
00:38:35
Speaker
That's where the dig deep comes.
00:38:37
Speaker
Because when it's your way,
00:38:41
Speaker
you know, you can learn from other people's stuff for sure.
00:38:44
Speaker
Don't just be like, I know better.
00:38:45
Speaker
You probably know.
00:38:46
Speaker
But, you know, when it comes to it, yeah, there's when you're doing it, there's only one way.
00:38:54
Speaker
It's only one way.
00:38:56
Speaker
Do you have a book out?
00:38:57
Speaker
I feel like a book is coming out.
00:38:59
Speaker
You got a book?
00:39:00
Speaker
We got to tell Melanie, Melanie.
00:39:02
Speaker
Hey, you just got a girl to get a book.
00:39:05
Speaker
Read the book.
00:39:06
Speaker
Read the book.
00:39:07
Speaker
Come on.
00:39:07
Speaker
So much wisdom and inspiration and insight.
00:39:12
Speaker
joy and power more women need to know about you need to know about your efforts and your business and how you show up as a mom for yourself how you show up in business your intentions of working hard it's like that's amazing you need to get an award for that thanks i'd like to get an award yeah because we as people have to
00:39:38
Speaker
The small wins is I showed up every day for my kids no matter what it was.
00:39:42
Speaker
I did what I could and we're happy.
00:39:47
Speaker
It's not about what went on, how it happened.
00:39:49
Speaker
It happened.
00:39:50
Speaker
And you did it.
00:39:51
Speaker
And you're doing it.
00:39:52
Speaker
And you're living it.
00:39:53
Speaker
Now you can talk about it.
00:39:55
Speaker
And you don't have time to look back and go, man.
00:39:59
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:59
Speaker
And every day I wake up, you know, I think Dean Martin said, I can't remember, but it was one of those old rap hat guys, I think, and they said,
00:40:06
Speaker
Are you ever suicidal?
00:40:07
Speaker
And he said, every time I wake up, right.
00:40:09
Speaker
Cause you wait, um, man, whatever's got your head.
00:40:14
Speaker
Right.
00:40:15
Speaker
And it's a funny thing to think about because that's what we have to overcome.
00:40:21
Speaker
That thought you wake up and you go, man, I wish that thing.
00:40:28
Speaker
It doesn't matter.
00:40:29
Speaker
I say it so much.
00:40:30
Speaker
It doesn't matter.
00:40:32
Speaker
It doesn't matter.
00:40:33
Speaker
Whatever that was 10 years ago, even if you were wrong, even if you were in jail, even if you, even if today, that does not matter.
00:40:45
Speaker
It takes up this.
00:40:46
Speaker
And it's a hard fight, you know, to push out things of emotion and importance and things that you want, that you carry because they're valuable.
00:40:55
Speaker
Yes, so important.
00:40:57
Speaker
But you got to push out some of those things where my guilt's on my motherhood.
00:41:03
Speaker
You know, anytime I go there in the morning, because that's when you're like, oh, man, you can beat yourself up every morning.
00:41:09
Speaker
I don't know if it's the whole world, but it's me and Dean Martin.
00:41:12
Speaker
And, you know, just to say, like, hey, you know what?
00:41:16
Speaker
I forgive myself for that.
00:41:17
Speaker
I'll call my son if I think I'm going to go get the small validation I need to get that off of me.
00:41:23
Speaker
Like, what, I got to carry that for 40 years?
00:41:26
Speaker
No, thank you.
00:41:27
Speaker
Hey, get it out.
00:41:28
Speaker
Get it out.
00:41:29
Speaker
Get it out the way so you can be in your way.
00:41:32
Speaker
And you can start and be the way you need to be and do it your way.
00:41:35
Speaker
So before we get off here, I want to know what is Stormy Simons?
Global Collaboration Mission
00:41:42
Speaker
What's her mission in life?
00:41:44
Speaker
What is your mission moving forward?
00:41:52
Speaker
Honestly, I hope, you know, we, we all have a legacy.
00:42:00
Speaker
no matter the size of what it is.
00:42:01
Speaker
You know, you all, we all contribute.
00:42:04
Speaker
You know, there's this piece of me, like working with Aisha on a different continent.
00:42:08
Speaker
It's so crazy, and I've never told anyone but Melody this.
00:42:12
Speaker
Like days before, I was working with this women's community group in cannabis, and I wrote this manifest.
00:42:19
Speaker
I don't know why, but it like came to me of this work in, it was in August before I met Aisha, of working together with women on continents.
00:42:28
Speaker
like bridging the world, like how this, because it's bigger than our United States, bigger, you know, we have to, for me.
00:42:40
Speaker
So ironically, the universe plopped this other continent, this woman that I loved immediately.
00:42:47
Speaker
She has some, I have some in front of me to actually try to do this and, you know, bring her in, you know, she's a partner in the United States as a manufacturer.
00:42:58
Speaker
It's the right thing to do with building a business together, but both of us have to be selfless in it, right?
00:43:04
Speaker
In order for this to make it work and share a vision of like, what if we just build one bridge?
00:43:10
Speaker
What if that's enough building, you know, trying to look at the world with acceptance and hopefully making some sort of difference on those that I can affect.
00:43:21
Speaker
You know, I don't know that, you know, my, I are wrong.
00:43:26
Speaker
I just,
00:43:29
Speaker
For me to feel good at night, I have to have certain things in place.
00:43:33
Speaker
And I can be the biggest bitch in the world.
00:43:35
Speaker
Like nobody's harder at business than me.
00:43:38
Speaker
The positivity equally turns into protectivity, you know, fine lines, border speaking really clear about things and people have a hard time with that.
00:43:46
Speaker
So I can be the flip side too, which is important.
00:43:50
Speaker
But the mission is don't sell out me.
00:43:56
Speaker
I've sold out before.
00:43:58
Speaker
And those are the things I wake up with in my head.
00:44:00
Speaker
Like, oh.
00:44:02
Speaker
When you say sell out, in what regard, in what context, so the viewers can kind of get some pretense to what that is?
00:44:12
Speaker
I can give you an exact example, but I don't want it to sound across like I'm whining, but I feel like I need to do this because I talk about the voice and stuff.
00:44:19
Speaker
So this, I joined High Times as CEO.
00:44:22
Speaker
It's what I wanted to do things.
00:44:24
Speaker
When I joined,
00:44:27
Speaker
I didn't feel like it was legitimate in how they were raising money and going public.
00:44:34
Speaker
And I felt like they were taking people's money kind of not in my alignment of business.
00:44:39
Speaker
Now, whether it's legal or not, doesn't matter because it's my sellout.
00:44:43
Speaker
So legality, all those things I'm not speaking up from my point of view, I didn't like that situation.
00:44:50
Speaker
I stayed there.
00:44:52
Speaker
I did it anyway for the title.
00:44:55
Speaker
And I love that title.
00:44:56
Speaker
I wanted that title since I was 15 years old.
00:44:58
Speaker
Like, history's written, folks.
00:45:00
Speaker
I was the CEO of my time.
00:45:01
Speaker
Ain't nobody going to change it.
00:45:03
Speaker
And I love it.
00:45:03
Speaker
And it is an accomplishment.
00:45:05
Speaker
I did try to be that.
00:45:07
Speaker
And I did it.
00:45:08
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:09
Speaker
Amazing.
00:45:10
Speaker
I still love it.
00:45:11
Speaker
However, you know, I sat there for about 120 days.
00:45:16
Speaker
I'm listed on the list of the shortest stints of CEOs.
00:45:22
Speaker
The list of 12.
00:45:23
Speaker
I'm one of them.
00:45:24
Speaker
But I had to go for that reason.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah.
00:45:28
Speaker
In, you know, in the in-between time, it doesn't even matter, the press said other things, but that is one that I have let the narration be taken.
00:45:38
Speaker
But it really is a moment that no, it doesn't matter what I want or what might look best for me on paper.
00:45:46
Speaker
I can't do that.
00:45:47
Speaker
I don't want to sell that to me, not anything.
00:45:51
Speaker
to do with high times or anybody else not about them it's about me yeah that felt that way to me and i know people can relate to being in a job and feeling like you know you it's on your peripheral you know something but you're like is that me making it up that's not really something for me to look at but it didn't feel right with you it can be the smallest thing the biggest thing somebody took somebody else's cup of coffee doesn't matter what it was doesn't sit right right
00:46:21
Speaker
I no longer do that, even if it benefits me on my social media.
00:46:27
Speaker
I can't believe I just said that out loud.
00:46:28
Speaker
Like what I just said was a whole cleansing, I guess.
00:46:31
Speaker
But that's a big deal.
00:46:32
Speaker
Miracle season.
00:46:34
Speaker
We healing here on Bigger Talks.
00:46:36
Speaker
I want to just, the thing I love about you, Bobby, just knowing you is that you show up your most authentic self.
00:46:46
Speaker
So you have said things in this interview that are very small but really big in life, right?
00:46:52
Speaker
There's people that sell out every day in their relationships, in their job, in their friendships, in their communities.
00:47:00
Speaker
Not that sell out is bad, right?
00:47:03
Speaker
I'm more in tune with why is it that everyone is choosing to sell out?
00:47:07
Speaker
What is it that we fear, right?
00:47:10
Speaker
It's the system.
00:47:12
Speaker
I mean, we have overcome so much since COVID, George, what so much as a society in the past two years, like it broke.
00:47:21
Speaker
I get chills because we did something big in our lifetime.
00:47:24
Speaker
This, what happened in the past two years, as hard as it's been, all the things, even since the Trump administration and what that caused us to pit against each other.
00:47:33
Speaker
All of those things mattered and they were worth it.
00:47:36
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:36
Speaker
Getting on the other side.
00:47:37
Speaker
So we all, here's the thing you think going from 10 to president means you don't have to sell out every, you're going to walk through moments.
00:47:45
Speaker
You will, but buy in for me, how I felt, I can't sell out my soul, but can I buy in it?
00:47:54
Speaker
Can I walk past something until I can get to a position?
00:47:57
Speaker
I can do it.
00:47:58
Speaker
Yeah.
00:47:58
Speaker
We all need money and jobs and,
00:48:01
Speaker
The system is the system and you don't have to be system for system.
00:48:10
Speaker
It just is there and we're in it.
00:48:13
Speaker
So don't sell out.
00:48:16
Speaker
That's the quote.
00:48:17
Speaker
Where's the book?
00:48:18
Speaker
Buy in, don't sell out.
00:48:20
Speaker
Buy in, don't sell out.
00:48:21
Speaker
Y'all hear her.
00:48:22
Speaker
Figure it out.
00:48:23
Speaker
Work hard.
00:48:25
Speaker
Yeah, get there.
00:48:26
Speaker
Get
Conclusion & Reflection
00:48:27
Speaker
there.
00:48:27
Speaker
Don't give it up when you know there's a sunrise coming.
00:48:31
Speaker
Like, oh, yeah, that's a big one.
00:48:32
Speaker
But dang it, I already know.
00:48:33
Speaker
If I keep focused, I'm going to get past them.
00:48:36
Speaker
I'm going to keep pedaling the bike, you know?
00:48:40
Speaker
I love it.
00:48:41
Speaker
So I want to leave you with this.
00:48:44
Speaker
I just want to say thank you for showing up.
00:48:48
Speaker
for being your most authentic self, for being transparent in this interview, and being a powerful, strong, independent woman who shows up for her community, her family, herself, her businesses, and everything you got going on.
00:49:05
Speaker
By the way, I got to get me a rug.
00:49:07
Speaker
So we will connect offline.
00:49:09
Speaker
I want to connect you with my client potentially.
00:49:12
Speaker
And how do we stay in contact with you outside of your social media?
00:49:18
Speaker
Where can people find you?
00:49:19
Speaker
Do you have anything coming up, any events, maybe a book?
00:49:26
Speaker
bunch of women or people in business I don't know I would love you to share anything you got going on so the listeners can know about Stormy Simon everywhere and then you know motherruggers motherruggers.com all of our inventories there I promise it's worth it and I'm gonna hustle as hard as the next guy when it comes to selling my goods so you know never be afraid to hustle we're never too good to sell what we're behind so motherruggers go there for
00:49:55
Speaker
call me directly.
00:49:56
Speaker
Like you can get ahold of me online.
00:49:59
Speaker
I'm always like, I'm always there.
00:50:01
Speaker
You want to buy some wholesale, whatever.
00:50:03
Speaker
I am going to talk at unity.
00:50:05
Speaker
I believe is the name of the conference in December.
00:50:07
Speaker
It's in Washington DC and it's put on by Americans for safe access.
00:50:12
Speaker
She's having their 20th, I believe it's 20th anniversary.
00:50:15
Speaker
And just going to speak to the true medical patients, like in the cannabis industry, all of us are doing this, but there are a group,
00:50:23
Speaker
You know, the federal government used to allow some cannabis patients.
00:50:26
Speaker
These guys have been fighting at the level that matters for our federal government to get it done.
00:50:32
Speaker
They've been doing it 20 years.
00:50:34
Speaker
They're putting forth legislation that hopefully will answer a lot of questions and get it done.
00:50:39
Speaker
Super important mission.
00:50:41
Speaker
Speaking there, I can't remember what else is going on, but I will be at MJBiz, the big cannabis conference here.
00:50:49
Speaker
See some old guys.
00:50:51
Speaker
Are you in Vegas?
00:50:52
Speaker
I'm in Vegas now.
00:50:53
Speaker
I left Utah, and this is a controversial thing, but I left Utah when they flipped and triggered the abortion bill, banned abortion the very day the federal government took the rights to women.
00:51:06
Speaker
So four days later, I moved.
00:51:08
Speaker
I haven't been back.
00:51:09
Speaker
I cleaned out my house, and it's up for sale.
00:51:11
Speaker
And that's my moment of not selling out.
00:51:13
Speaker
I had enough.
00:51:15
Speaker
That's enough.
00:51:16
Speaker
It is enough.
00:51:17
Speaker
No more.
00:51:18
Speaker
Yeah, we bought in, but we ain't selling out.
00:51:20
Speaker
I'm not going to live in a state that takes away human rights.
00:51:24
Speaker
You know, we, and just...
00:51:26
Speaker
My soapbox.
00:51:27
Speaker
Well, good for you.
00:51:28
Speaker
Thank you for being you.
00:51:29
Speaker
And I just love to share this space with you again in the future.
00:51:35
Speaker
But this was an incredible interview.
00:51:37
Speaker
Thank you for everything you shared.
00:51:39
Speaker
And people follow her.
00:51:40
Speaker
So many signs everywhere.
00:51:43
Speaker
And get you a rug.
00:51:45
Speaker
Mother's rugger.
00:51:47
Speaker
I can't wait.
00:51:49
Speaker
Thank you so much.
00:51:51
Speaker
Have a good one.
00:51:52
Speaker
Have a beautiful day.
00:51:53
Speaker
Be safe.
00:51:53
Speaker
Thank you.
00:51:54
Speaker
Everyone.
00:51:54
Speaker
Thank you.
00:51:57
Speaker
Yeah, guys, so Stormy Simon is incredible.
00:52:03
Speaker
Mother's ruggers.
00:52:04
Speaker
She's a powerful woman, CEO, mom, philanthropist.
00:52:11
Speaker
E-commerce pioneer.
00:52:12
Speaker
Follow her.
00:52:13
Speaker
Melody Carter, I want to say thank you for making this interview happen.
00:52:16
Speaker
I know we got on a little late, but we made it happen and we kept going.
00:52:20
Speaker
We showed up even though we was having a little, you know, technical difficulties.
00:52:26
Speaker
But people, have a beautiful day.
00:52:28
Speaker
Be safe.
00:52:29
Speaker
Count your blessings.
00:52:30
Speaker
Show up.
00:52:30
Speaker
Work hard.
00:52:32
Speaker
Believe in yourself and find your passion.
00:52:34
Speaker
It's a miracle season.
00:52:36
Speaker
Make sure you download and subscribe to Bigger Talks Podcast.
00:52:41
Speaker
This will go up sooner than later.
00:52:44
Speaker
I'm out.
00:52:44
Speaker
You guys stay on.
00:52:46
Speaker
You can buy in.
00:52:47
Speaker
But like Stormy said, don't sell out.
00:52:50
Speaker
I'm out.
00:52:51
Speaker
Peace.