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Speaker 1: Hi, guys, it's your friend Kate Max and welcome back

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Speaker 1: to Post run High. Today's guest has one of the

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Speaker 1: most remarkable reinvention stories I have ever heard. Julie Wainray

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Speaker 1: is best known as the founder and former CEO of

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Speaker 1: The Real Reel, the company that completely changed how we

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Speaker 1: think about luxury fashion and sustainability, and the company that

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Speaker 1: I have bought quite a good bit of items from.

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Speaker 1: But her story starts way before The Real Reel. In

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Speaker 1: her forties, Julie went through one of the most publicly

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Speaker 1: difficult professional moments imaginable with the fall of pets dot Com,

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Speaker 1: and instead of letting it define her, she used it

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Speaker 1: as fuel to rebuild her life and career from the

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Speaker 1: ground up. At fifty three, she didn't just come back,

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Speaker 1: she came back by creating a billion dollar brand that

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Speaker 1: redefined an entire industry. In our conversation, Julie opens up

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Speaker 1: about resilience, failure, intuition, and what it really takes to

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Speaker 1: start over not once, not twice, but again and again

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Speaker 1: throughout life and Guys, this whole conversation really just had

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Speaker 1: me thinking about life is long, and we cannot be

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Speaker 1: afraid to continuously start over and reinvent ourselves. So, whether

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Speaker 1: you love a good founder story, are in a chapter

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Speaker 1: of change, or just need a reminder that reinvention is

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Speaker 1: always possible, this conversation is for you. Julie Wainwright, Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Post Run High.

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Speaker 2: Hello O kay, and thanks for letting me bring Poppy.

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Speaker 1: Julie and Poppy welcome to Post Run Him. I'm so

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Speaker 1: excited that you and Poppy are here. How are you

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Speaker 1: feeling today?

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Speaker 2: Well, I feel pretty good after that invigorating walk. That

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Speaker 2: was fun.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so Julie and I went for a quick walk

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Speaker 1: in Brooklyn before sitting down for the podcast today. Are

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Speaker 1: you a big walker? Do you like to get outside?

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Speaker 2: I love walking and hiking. It's a little hard in

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Speaker 2: Manhattan to hike, but I do love a good hike.

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Speaker 1: What else movement wise do you like?

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Speaker 2: You know, actually I like to move a lot, but

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Speaker 2: I would say mostly, you know, I always go to

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Speaker 2: I usually go to the gym. I have to get

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Speaker 2: a sweat up, all right, So but I'm more of

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Speaker 2: an inside runner walker, so the treadmill or the elliptical.

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Speaker 2: But then walking around Manhattan's fabulous. I mean, what other

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Speaker 2: city can you walk and see? So much diversity.

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Speaker 1: It's so true. It has a movement always been a

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Speaker 1: big part of your life.

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Speaker 2: Yes, And it was probably because my dad was, you know,

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Speaker 2: always wanted a jock as a kid, and then he

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Speaker 2: had me. Then he had and I wasn't. And my

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Speaker 2: sister Lisa was a great sprinter and was setting records

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Speaker 2: and she was really fast, and my brother was the ultimate.

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Speaker 2: When he got his son, he got a a guy

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Speaker 2: who loved football. But I would say our family was

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Speaker 2: more outdoors than probably suited me. I was sort of like,

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Speaker 2: can't I stay inside and read. They're like, nope, We're

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Speaker 2: going to do this'sp all going yay.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. It's one of those things when you grow up

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Speaker 1: in an active household. I feel like movement is like

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Speaker 1: ingrained in you, whether it's you know, playing sports when

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Speaker 1: you're younger, or literally just getting outside and moving your body.

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Speaker 1: So I like knowing that. And I feel like a

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Speaker 1: big misconception sometimes with founders and people that have had

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Speaker 1: really successful careers is that they don't make time for movement.

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Speaker 2: And I always did right every day. In fact, that

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Speaker 2: was my anti anxiety drug. It still is, and I'm

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Speaker 2: a morning workout person. So when you get up and

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Speaker 2: you're like, okay, I looked forward to it. I looked

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Speaker 2: forward to a good sweat. I mean weight I do

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Speaker 2: weight training too, but it really was getting my heart

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Speaker 2: beat up enf that I would sweat and it just

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Speaker 2: set the day. And if I didn't do it by

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Speaker 2: the end of the day, I was always grumpy and

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Speaker 2: I'm like, what is wrong, And I'm like, oh, it

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Speaker 2: didn't work out. It's just a good release, clears your head,

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Speaker 2: changes your energy. Yeah, I love it.

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Speaker 1: It's literally therapy.

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Speaker 2: It is therapy. That and walking in nature.

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Speaker 1: Yes, and walking, and I feel like that's such a

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Speaker 1: benefit of having a dog because it kind of forces

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Speaker 1: you to get outside even more. But it is so

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Speaker 1: true that living in New York were a natural walk.

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Speaker 1: We're walking everywhere. But we have to address it, Julie,

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Speaker 1: because you and I are wearing total opposite outfits right now,

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Speaker 1: and normally it's the other way around, like I'm an

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Speaker 1: active wear and somebody comes in the most glamorous outfit.

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Speaker 1: But for our listeners, Julie is currently in a very cute,

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Speaker 1: sporty chic fit leggings, long sleeve tops, sneakers, and I

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Speaker 1: am in jeans ballerina flats and a sweater, which is

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Speaker 1: very unlike me. We all know that.

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Speaker 2: So I thought this was the running show, you know,

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Speaker 2: and I thought, Okay, I know we're not going to run,

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Speaker 2: but I felt like I had to dress and I've

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Speaker 2: watched your videos and I wanted to match your style.

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Speaker 2: And it was sort of fun to not really worry,

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Speaker 2: you know, just put on stuff that I would wear

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Speaker 2: out for a workout. But then I get here and

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Speaker 2: you're all dressed up and you have cute earrings on,

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Speaker 2: you get a belt on, it's sort of yeah. It

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Speaker 2: was like, okay, oh, guys, and a trench coat and

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Speaker 2: it's a beautiful trench coat.

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Speaker 1: Thank you. You know. It's so funny because Julie's the

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Speaker 1: found is the founder of the Real Reel, and whenever

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Speaker 1: I've had fashion icons in here, I have gotten bullied

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Speaker 1: in the comments for not dressing appropriately. So when I

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Speaker 1: had Tim Gunn on the show, who was, you know,

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Speaker 1: in Project Runway, obviously fashion icon of New York City.

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Speaker 1: He came in like a proper pair of trousers, beautiful

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Speaker 1: sweater loafers, and I was sitting across from him in

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Speaker 1: Adida's tracksuit, and so when I was watching some of

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Speaker 1: the interviews that you've done this past week, I was like,

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Speaker 1: Julie always shows up in the cutest outfit. I saw

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Speaker 1: you did an interview and a Diane von Furstenberg rap dress,

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Speaker 1: you know, pretty recently. So I said to my team,

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Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, guys, can we all make a

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Speaker 1: prediction that she's gonna not wear active word today because

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Speaker 1: if that's the case, I can't wear active wear because

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Speaker 1: I know how it goes down in the comments.

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Speaker 2: There you go, all right, So we totally flipped the scrap.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I appreciate you doing your research.

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Speaker 2: I watched your videos. I'm like, I gotta up my game,

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Speaker 2: you know. And then I'm like, oh, do I have

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Speaker 2: time to up my game anyway? So I just wore

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Speaker 2: my normal things that I wear. But it was so

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Speaker 2: funny seeing you. I'm like, oh, come on. Having said that,

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Speaker 2: it's very freeing to go to an interview an active wear,

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Speaker 2: it is, isn't it. Yes, it's pretty amazing, it is.

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Speaker 1: I Mean, I feel like, as New Yorkers, we live

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Speaker 1: so much of our daily lives in comfortable clothes, and

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Speaker 1: then it's like, of course, sometimes at night if we're

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Speaker 1: going to an event, we're dressing up. But for the

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Speaker 1: most part, I like live in active wear or a

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Speaker 1: comfy pair of jeans and a T shirt. You know, so,

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Speaker 1: isn't that great? It is.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure Tim Gun wouldn't think it's great, but that's okay.

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Speaker 1: Tim definitely the house without a sudon No.

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Speaker 2: I remember him saying that, yes, and that's good. I

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Speaker 2: love that. I love that for him.

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Speaker 1: I do too. I do really appreciate somebody that walks

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Speaker 1: outside in a good outfit here.

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Speaker 2: I love it. I honestly, I think it's so much

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Speaker 2: fun when you actually see people really dressed. I'm going

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Speaker 2: to an event tonight and I'm looking forward for the

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's not a fashion event, but I'm always

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Speaker 2: cognizant of the fashion and how people dress, and it's

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Speaker 2: a very specific group. I'm like, oh, I wonder how

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Speaker 2: they're going to dress tonight. So that's what do you get? Well?

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Speaker 2: I bought a green velvet not too far off from

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Speaker 2: this color green velvet atro pants suit with just a

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Speaker 2: really pretty dulce top under and boblouse underneath. That's really

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Speaker 2: pretty because I'm not you know, it's just chic and

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Speaker 2: it will. It's sort of business attire but a little dressier.

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Speaker 2: So it's just it's just awesome. It felt. It feels

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Speaker 2: like coming into the holidays. It feels like fall. It's chic.

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Speaker 2: It'll be fine. And I'm not the star of the show.

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Speaker 2: So and I'm going with my friend who husband is

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Speaker 2: being honored and she's just like decked out, so I'm

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Speaker 2: just going to be there supporting her.

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Speaker 1: I love it. That's so fun. I'm obsessed with Metro

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Speaker 1: right now.

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Speaker 2: Well, I've I don't know if I should say, I

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Speaker 2: never have purchased Atro till this year, and a stylish

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Speaker 2: so we'll just try this suit on. I thought, really

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Speaker 2: it's and I thought, oh, it's fabulous. And the interior

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Speaker 2: is beautiful. It's beautiful Paisley, It's so gorgeous.

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Speaker 1: I've never seen Paisley done so well. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: went into the Metro store with my mom kind of

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Speaker 1: recently because I had seen some of the bags that

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Speaker 1: they recently put out with like the horse that has wings, right,

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Speaker 1: that's their logo, I guess. So I was like, Mom,

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Speaker 1: you have to come into this store like I again,

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Speaker 1: like I we talked about this a little bit on

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Speaker 1: the run. But I've never been a big fashionista. I

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Speaker 1: don't really know that much about fashion. But I feel

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Speaker 1: like as I've gotten older, and I have a lot

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Speaker 1: of friends in New York that are in the world

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Speaker 1: of fashion, whether it's they're in PR They're always going

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Speaker 1: to events and they have to look greater, like you know, influencers.

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Speaker 1: They're always dressing amazing two events. So I feel like

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Speaker 1: I'm around fashion a lot, but I don't fashion a lot.

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Speaker 1: But I don't know it that well. I mean, I've

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Speaker 1: always just been like a sporty girl that can put

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Speaker 1: on a cute outfit and look good. But it's not

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Speaker 1: you know, it's not it is my thing. I would say,

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Speaker 1: like I love it, and I love fashion design and

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Speaker 1: all of that, but knowing brands, and I didn't grow

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Speaker 1: up with a mom that was like decked out in brands.

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Speaker 2: You know.

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Speaker 1: My mom was always in a T shirt and a

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Speaker 1: good pair of jeans, and she always looked amazing because

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Speaker 1: she was very fit. Right Anyways, I walked into the

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Speaker 1: Metro store for the first time with my mom over

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Speaker 1: the summer, and I was just in awe. And now

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Speaker 1: whenever I see their stuff on, like Netta porte and

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Speaker 1: go through it. I mean, I just love the designs

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Speaker 1: and everything.

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Speaker 2: So normally the way I shop is sort of the

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Speaker 2: way the real role was constructed. I check the resell

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Speaker 2: value because I do flip things fast, and I didn't

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Speaker 2: check the resale value. So when I'm shopping, I'm very cognizant,

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Speaker 2: like if I want to sell this, what the price

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Speaker 2: would be. And with this one, I didn't look because

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Speaker 2: I don't know where intro is. For a long time

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Speaker 2: it wasn't great. But sometimes it's like, doesn't matter if

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Speaker 2: you love it, And I would say sometimes it does,

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Speaker 2: because you know, people get very disappointed they spent like

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Speaker 2: three thousand dollars something for something the resell values two

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Speaker 2: hundred dollars.

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Speaker 1: But you're a smart chopper.

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Speaker 2: I am always cognizant of the difference between the resell

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Speaker 2: value and the original price, and sometimes some cases I'll

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Speaker 2: spend more. If you know, I'll be like, Okay, I

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Speaker 2: can do it, because let's say I want to resell it,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to get ninety percent percent of what I

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Speaker 2: paid for it back.

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Speaker 1: Have you always been a smart shopper or would you

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Speaker 1: say that that really came into fruition when you started

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Speaker 1: the real real.

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Speaker 2: It really came with real real. But I have to

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Speaker 2: tell you something funny, because when you look back at life,

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Speaker 2: you're like, oh, maybe this is also a childhood thing.

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Speaker 2: First of all, my mother went to art school to

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Speaker 2: become a fashion illustrator, all right. So that's a little

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Speaker 2: random thought that popped in once I started the business,

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Speaker 2: which I never really gave that much thought because she

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Speaker 2: dropped out of colleague to marry my dad. But when

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Speaker 2: I go back and look at her drawings, they're all

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Speaker 2: fashion illustrations from the fifties, which is a fun period

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Speaker 2: to do that. And then she did period costumes too,

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Speaker 2: and studied period dressing, all right. So there's that in

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Speaker 2: the background. But then the other thing is my mother

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Speaker 2: would go to someone's house and she'd be like, I

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Speaker 2: love that rug. When you get tired of it, i'll

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Speaker 2: buy it from you, all right. So she was always

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Speaker 2: like scavenging other people's homes and people are like, well,

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Speaker 2: it's not for sale. She goes, well, well maybe it

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Speaker 2: will be at some point, and I really love it,

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Speaker 2: so just let me know. And then my dad would

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Speaker 2: go to that local dump and he would come home

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Speaker 2: with furniture and refinish it and built like would build

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Speaker 2: out like he built out his own pool room and

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Speaker 2: bar area with refurbished furniture or so clearly that idea

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Speaker 2: was already in my head on some level. But I

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Speaker 2: had never shopped resell to the start of the Real Rail,

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Speaker 2: and I'll tell you why. Online it was scary because

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Speaker 2: things weren't authenticated, and I didn't want to Back then,

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Speaker 2: it was more eBay and I didn't want to go

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Speaker 2: back and forth with some seller about a price. When

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Speaker 2: you walk into the stores. This is pre the real Reil.

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Speaker 2: I always thought they were interesting, but they just didn't

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Speaker 2: feel esthetically like a place I wanted to hang out

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Speaker 2: and usually had to dig. You know, everyone loves their

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Speaker 2: big fines, so I would say, I know for fact,

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Speaker 2: I never bought any resale to the Real Rail. And

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Speaker 2: then once the real Reil started, because remember, as a founder,

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Speaker 2: you do everything, So I would be opening the boxes

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, these are amazing.

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Speaker 1: So you start getting ingrained in it. You become a

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Speaker 1: part of that.

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Speaker 2: And then I knew early on what consigners I could.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you know, because I was opening boxes, I'm like,

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Speaker 2: I can wear everything that person sits here. We wouldn't

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Speaker 2: let anyone shop the site and for the first day

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Speaker 2: because we wanted consumers to show. No employees could shop

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Speaker 2: it for the first day when we got started. But

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Speaker 2: I remember thinking, every time we get this box it

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Speaker 2: was someone in Chicago, I'm like, this person is me.

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Speaker 2: She's like, clearly my body type, clearly she has my

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Speaker 2: style and I was so excited to get and she

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Speaker 2: was into more a little more brands like Marshalla at

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Speaker 2: the time of this was a while ago, you know,

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Speaker 2: which was it was sort of cutting edge but still cool.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about the Is it Mason Margella

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Speaker 1: that makes the she with the like cleavage?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not a fan. Not a fan. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I mean, I know, yeah, not a fan. The fashion

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Speaker 2: girls are screaming, I'm not a fan, and you know

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Speaker 2: you don't have I mean, there's at some point it

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Speaker 2: becomes costume of years the right thing.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So backing up before we get to the real reel,

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Speaker 1: I really want to dive into your early career and

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Speaker 1: kind of everything that led you to the real reel

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Speaker 1: because you started the real real, as you said on

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Speaker 1: Our Walk at fifty two years old, which is so

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Speaker 1: impressive and really just a testament. I feel like we

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Speaker 1: always see those memes online that's like so and so

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Speaker 1: started ex business at this age, right, So it's like

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Speaker 1: kind of this idea that it's never too late, you know.

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Speaker 1: But let's talk about everything that you did before the

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Speaker 1: real reel. So let's talk about the lead up.

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Speaker 2: I had a big career, so I shared my career

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Speaker 2: as we talked about at Clorox in brand management, moved

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Speaker 2: to tech, ended up being as CEO and a company

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Speaker 2: called Systems, which did the flying toasters and the game

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Speaker 2: you Don't Know Jack. But the only reason I got

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Speaker 2: promoted to CEO And by the way, and this time,

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Speaker 2: I'm in my thirties, so if you just go like

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Speaker 2: late thirties. But they promoted me because the company was

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Speaker 2: failing and I came up with a plan to turn

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Speaker 2: it around. And first they said, okay, you do it,

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Speaker 2: you're president. And then they're like, well, okay, now you

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Speaker 2: did that, you're now CEO. And the founder wanted to

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Speaker 2: take a different role, so I wasn't the founder of

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Speaker 2: the company. So then the founder did sell the company

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Speaker 2: over the weekend one weekend, and then I'm like, well,

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Speaker 2: it looks like I have to get another job, and

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Speaker 2: that's where I learned I should have asked for more stock.

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Speaker 2: By the way, until then my equity can come and go.

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Speaker 2: But anyway, the next job was the CEO of a

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Speaker 2: company called reel dot com our eel dot com. It

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Speaker 2: was the first site to sell movies. In that case,

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Speaker 2: it was another founder that sold to Hollywood Video, which

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Speaker 2: is something most people don't even know about. It was

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Speaker 2: that poor cousin to Blockbuster and right away, like for

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Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars. And so then I was offered

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Speaker 2: the job as CEO of pets dot com because some

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Speaker 2: young guy was actually owned the URL and was fulfilling

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Speaker 2: pet supplies out of his second room in his apartment

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Speaker 2: in LA and he's like, I'm not cut out for this.

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Speaker 2: So it was funded, and then I raised more money

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Speaker 2: and I was the CEO of pets dot com. And

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Speaker 2: then we had the dot com bust and the pets

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Speaker 2: dot Com became the poster child for that.

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Speaker 1: And what was for people that don't know what was

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Speaker 1: the dot com bust? Because I'm not familiar.

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Speaker 2: With sure, I know that's a the whole generation forgot

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Speaker 2: about it. So think of the year two thousand, which

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Speaker 2: were you born. I was born in nineteen ninety seven, okay,

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Speaker 2: so you were three. But during that time, the Internet

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Speaker 2: was still really fresh, meaning people Amazon was probably I

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Speaker 2: think by then, probably four years old, but people were

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Speaker 2: just getting comfortable with shopping online. Medical information was just

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Speaker 2: showing up online. It was just the beginning of personal

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Speaker 2: use of the Internet. I think at that time there

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Speaker 2: was Netscape as your browser. Yahoo was hiring people to

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Speaker 2: hand curate things because that was the only way they

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Speaker 2: could do it. They would hand curate listings. It was

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Speaker 2: just the beginning of everything. Because Amazon shot up was

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Speaker 2: such a big success selling books at the time, and

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Speaker 2: then they added music next and video movies, actually selling movies,

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Speaker 2: but so they were slowly getting They went up to

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Speaker 2: like a billion dollars past they were also losing a

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Speaker 2: lot of money, but anyway, it was proof that consumers

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Speaker 2: would transact on the Internet. So it was really the

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Speaker 2: beginning of change of everything. And when there's that kind

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Speaker 2: of change, which we're in another one with AI, money

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Speaker 2: flows in to create opportunities one and a lot of

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Speaker 2: money was flowing in from the venture capital world to

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Speaker 2: actually take advantage of this new platform. That needed technology

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Speaker 2: and needed people that knew how to work in a

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Speaker 2: technology environment, but also you know, face the consumer. So

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Speaker 2: it was a good time for people who have consumer

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Speaker 2: experience and technology, and I was one of them. Pets

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Speaker 2: dot Com was one of ready for this. I think

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Speaker 2: eleven pet sites funded. This just shows you how that

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Speaker 2: limiting effect is sort of like, Okay, the pets category

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Speaker 2: at that time, I think it was fifty billion dollars

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Speaker 2: in the US. We're all going to win in the

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Speaker 2: pets category, and obviously eleven funded companies can't win.

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Speaker 1: It's a great url, pets dot Com.

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Speaker 2: It was. That's what the young the guy that started

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Speaker 2: its name was Greg and La. He had bought He

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Speaker 2: turned out to be a URL guy. He made his

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00:17:57,640 --> 00:18:02,000
Speaker 2: money because he jumped on a bunch of yours. So

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Speaker 2: pets dot Com sold pet supplies online. I got a

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Speaker 2: lot of hype because we had a little puppet, says

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Speaker 2: pets dot Com puppet, which I had one of the

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Speaker 2: original ones that was kind of adorable. We ran television

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Speaker 2: ads for the for the first time, and I took

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Speaker 2: the company public right around the time Amazon was announcing

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Speaker 2: their earnings and instead of killing it on the earnings.

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Speaker 2: They lost almost a billion dollars that year, and they

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Speaker 2: had a huge loss in the quarter and the money

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Speaker 2: started drying up. Everyone's like, well, if they can't make

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Speaker 2: it work at their scale, how is anyone going to

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Speaker 2: make it work. It's too early, and the money dried up.

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Speaker 2: And so that's what There was too much money rushing

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Speaker 2: toward opportunities and then it all pulled out. So I

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Speaker 2: had to shut down pets dot Com. I didn't have to.

378
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Speaker 2: I thought I wouldn't be able to get funding, and

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Speaker 2: I thought it would be better to return money to

380
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Speaker 2: shareholders rather than run it to bankruptcy. I think within

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Speaker 2: a six month period, about eleven hundred companies went out

382
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Speaker 2: of business, including ones. Look, pets dot Com was a

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Speaker 2: precursor to chewy dot Com. There isn't anything chewy dot

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Speaker 2: com doesn't does that pets dot Com didn't do earlier,

385
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Speaker 2: but things like door dash and Instacart. There was a

386
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Speaker 2: company called Webvan that actually burned through about a billion

387
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,360
Speaker 2: dollars a capital even then. Back then, but they were

388
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Speaker 2: doing grocery delivery. They were doing at home grocery delivery

389
00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,680
Speaker 2: and actually bypassing the groceries, they actually had their own

390
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,240
Speaker 2: warehouses full of food. So if you think about what

391
00:19:43,880 --> 00:19:45,840
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of these stories, but those are

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Speaker 2: the two that you know, pets and webban and come

393
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Speaker 2: to mind because we're experiencing it now. So the question

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Speaker 2: is were we too earlier? Was the money too timid?

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Speaker 2: And I would say clearly the.

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Speaker 1: Combination of books, it probably was both. Yes, it seems

397
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Speaker 1: like you know and you know, I think that's also

398
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,639
Speaker 1: funny where it's like everybody thinks some of these ideas

399
00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:06,680
Speaker 1: that happened for the last like five to ten years

400
00:20:06,680 --> 00:20:09,480
Speaker 1: are so new, but it's so cool knowing that in

401
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:12,159
Speaker 1: the early two thousands, you guys were thinking about all

402
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Speaker 1: these ideas at the beginning of kind of online e commerce.

403
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:18,359
Speaker 1: But the infrastructure just also seems like it wasn't there.

404
00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,280
Speaker 2: Well, if you go back and I've studied this and

405
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,159
Speaker 2: you look at like I think in two thousand and

406
00:20:24,160 --> 00:20:29,360
Speaker 2: there were maybe two hundred million people online, and they

407
00:20:29,359 --> 00:20:32,960
Speaker 2: were cautious about actually transacting online. We had to have

408
00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:35,560
Speaker 2: a little symbol. A lot of people wanted to call

409
00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:37,840
Speaker 2: and place the order or the phone like that was

410
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Speaker 2: more safe. So people were very cautious. Now I think,

411
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,520
Speaker 2: what there's four billion people online. So when you talk

412
00:20:46,720 --> 00:20:49,480
Speaker 2: the whole idea was it was a land grab back then.

413
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Speaker 2: If you get your if you're first, you're going to

414
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Speaker 2: have a really hard time being dislodged in five to

415
00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,240
Speaker 2: ten years. And where it worked out for who worked

416
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 2: out for was Netflix. So they were a company that

417
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,119
Speaker 2: started and I think the late nineties, it could have

418
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:10,679
Speaker 2: been ninety seven or ninety eight, and they made it

419
00:21:10,720 --> 00:21:13,560
Speaker 2: through the you know, the Valley of death there and

420
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:17,080
Speaker 2: they were just shipping DVDs. They were you know, it

421
00:21:17,119 --> 00:21:20,639
Speaker 2: was a rental company and they're shipping DVDs to people's homes,

422
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:22,120
Speaker 2: and they kept saying, no, we're going to be there

423
00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:26,040
Speaker 2: when streaming happened. Of course, streaming didn't happen for twenty years,

424
00:21:26,080 --> 00:21:28,800
Speaker 2: but they were they were able to raise enough capital

425
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Speaker 2: and move forward in a way that they're look, they're

426
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Speaker 2: a juggernaut. So they did start there and kept going.

427
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Speaker 2: I'm trying to think there's probably a few more, but

428
00:21:37,560 --> 00:21:40,239
Speaker 2: that one is probably one of the largest examples that

429
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:41,640
Speaker 2: weathered the dot com bust.

430
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Speaker 1: When you think about what happened during the dot com

431
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Speaker 1: bust and you think about now, you know, twenty five

432
00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,280
Speaker 1: plus years later, about what's about to happen with AI,

433
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:54,240
Speaker 1: and what's currently happening with AI? What synergies are you

434
00:21:54,280 --> 00:21:56,320
Speaker 1: seeing and how do you think companies can set themselves

435
00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 1: up for success.

436
00:21:57,720 --> 00:22:02,120
Speaker 2: Well, I'm actually speaking on this Monday. So when the

437
00:22:02,160 --> 00:22:05,120
Speaker 2: e commerce world sort of exploded or and people were

438
00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:08,160
Speaker 2: leveraging the Internet for that, a lot of companies would

439
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:09,960
Speaker 2: come to me and say should I get into it?

440
00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:12,719
Speaker 2: And they were all existing businesses, and I'd say, you

441
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,600
Speaker 2: can wait because we're working things out. And you had

442
00:22:15,600 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 2: to build all these pieces that you had to write

443
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:20,920
Speaker 2: code for everything. I said, no, no, no, you can wait.

444
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:24,879
Speaker 2: It's a huge investment. I would recommend you wait till

445
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:28,400
Speaker 2: the platforms get solidified because there was no platform. Then

446
00:22:28,520 --> 00:22:31,679
Speaker 2: everything was hand rolled and it was hard and it

447
00:22:31,760 --> 00:22:34,119
Speaker 2: was expensive, and you had to keep servers in a

448
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:36,840
Speaker 2: warehouse and they had to be climate controlled and you

449
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:39,399
Speaker 2: had to keep one warm in case your server went down.

450
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:42,399
Speaker 2: So it was just everything, the infrastructure. The cost of

451
00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:45,160
Speaker 2: getting started could be two to five million dollars before

452
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:48,240
Speaker 2: you open your door. So no, no wait, wait, your

453
00:22:48,280 --> 00:22:50,240
Speaker 2: time will come, you'll be you won't be left out

454
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 2: if you wait. That's not true with AI and let's

455
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:59,840
Speaker 2: just talk about you know, the markets are crazy, valuations

456
00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:03,800
Speaker 2: are high, et cetera, et cetera. But AI is going

457
00:23:03,840 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 2: to pose risks, but in terms of the same kind,

458
00:23:07,600 --> 00:23:09,720
Speaker 2: and there will be busts. We're definitely in a boom.

459
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:13,040
Speaker 2: There's going to be bust, but the majority of the

460
00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:18,719
Speaker 2: money is being actually spent by large tech companies. So

461
00:23:18,800 --> 00:23:24,120
Speaker 2: you've got established companies which huge amounts of profit building

462
00:23:24,200 --> 00:23:28,160
Speaker 2: this new future. So the risk factor is the lower

463
00:23:28,880 --> 00:23:32,160
Speaker 2: the but there will be it's still crazy, so there

464
00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:35,760
Speaker 2: will be companies that spent out and there'll be a

465
00:23:35,800 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 2: minor I would say a minor bust. What is probably

466
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:44,080
Speaker 2: going to happen and happened originally when the software When

467
00:23:44,320 --> 00:23:48,600
Speaker 2: when the software industry picked up, is corporate started first

468
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:51,600
Speaker 2: because that's where the money was, and then consumer we're

469
00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,640
Speaker 2: in terms of people being able to monetize came second.

470
00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:57,560
Speaker 2: So right now there's huge amount of money being spent

471
00:23:57,600 --> 00:24:02,400
Speaker 2: at corporation. What I think is going to be good.

472
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,560
Speaker 2: People are already taking costs out through AI and they're

473
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:10,520
Speaker 2: redefined their processes. That won't reinvent their business though, and

474
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:12,920
Speaker 2: it's going to be helpful. But I do think especially

475
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:17,480
Speaker 2: people that run business to consumer companies need to think

476
00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:21,680
Speaker 2: about how AI will reinvent what the consumer sees, how

477
00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 2: you interact with the consumer, not just your cost structure.

478
00:24:25,240 --> 00:24:27,800
Speaker 2: Because someone's going to figure it out in a competitive

479
00:24:27,840 --> 00:24:29,080
Speaker 2: category and they're going to win.

480
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,400
Speaker 1: How do you foresee a company like the Real Real

481
00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: integrating AI in a successful way.

482
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:45,560
Speaker 2: Well, I can't speak to what they're going to do. Now,

483
00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,280
Speaker 2: I can give some advice and solicited advice, but let

484
00:24:48,320 --> 00:24:50,200
Speaker 2: me tell you what we did a long time ago.

485
00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,720
Speaker 2: One of the key things that was a detriment to

486
00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:00,639
Speaker 2: the business was bad consigners who gave fake goods. Now

487
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:05,080
Speaker 2: the company is processing thousands of products every day, and

488
00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 2: guess what. Bad consigners tend to look like each other.

489
00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 2: They have the same attributes. So when things come into

490
00:25:12,440 --> 00:25:15,439
Speaker 2: the op center, if they can be flagged as a

491
00:25:15,480 --> 00:25:20,080
Speaker 2: potential high risk consigner, they go through a different swim

492
00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 2: lane than someone else who's been consigning regularly. That doesn't

493
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:28,600
Speaker 2: mean things are authenticate, aren't authenticated, it's just one gets

494
00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:33,120
Speaker 2: a lot more scrutiny. So that's number one. Number two.

495
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:36,800
Speaker 2: Most of the copy now, and when I was there,

496
00:25:36,840 --> 00:25:39,359
Speaker 2: most of the copy is written by going photo first.

497
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:44,160
Speaker 2: Now that still requires consumer oversight. Now giving an excit,

498
00:25:44,240 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 2: I just bought a skirt on the real rail and

499
00:25:48,760 --> 00:25:51,520
Speaker 2: I just wanted a very specific pencil skirt and a

500
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,439
Speaker 2: very specific material, and I found what I wanted and

501
00:25:55,520 --> 00:25:58,440
Speaker 2: I found my size, but it was leather and they

502
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:03,040
Speaker 2: called it wool. Those type of things still needs human oversight.

503
00:26:03,119 --> 00:26:07,040
Speaker 2: There needs to be quality control, But to have a

504
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:11,160
Speaker 2: machine write all the copy off a photo is phenomenal.

505
00:26:12,119 --> 00:26:15,800
Speaker 2: And then the other thing we were doing is, you know,

506
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:17,560
Speaker 2: think about you have a lot of authentic goods, you

507
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:22,280
Speaker 2: also have fake goods and running handbags through first pass

508
00:26:22,320 --> 00:26:26,720
Speaker 2: with machine learning and kicking off anything that looks treacherous

509
00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:29,399
Speaker 2: based on where counterfeiters kind of work. So it makes

510
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,960
Speaker 2: the job, It makes everyone's job smarter and more efficient.

511
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 2: So we start doing that in twenty nineteen. Oh wow,

512
00:26:37,240 --> 00:26:38,159
Speaker 2: it's a long time.

513
00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:40,359
Speaker 1: Ago now, right, So you guys were kind of early

514
00:26:40,400 --> 00:26:42,040
Speaker 1: adopters to it, and it makes so much sense because

515
00:26:42,040 --> 00:26:43,760
Speaker 1: a huge part of your business is you guys are

516
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:47,040
Speaker 1: managing a massive amount of massive inventory and you have

517
00:26:47,080 --> 00:26:49,560
Speaker 1: to go through it and make sure it's authenticated. And

518
00:26:49,560 --> 00:26:53,000
Speaker 1: also I love how the website will rank it good, excellent,

519
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:55,440
Speaker 1: whatever kind of condition. But yeah, when you think about it,

520
00:26:55,520 --> 00:26:58,560
Speaker 1: like it takes a while to sort through those products

521
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,359
Speaker 1: on by hand, right, So if you can have AI

522
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: step in and help, and obviously there's kinks at first,

523
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 1: but if that can become really efficient, then that, oh

524
00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:08,680
Speaker 1: it's really excer process.

525
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:13,640
Speaker 2: So think about a normal retailer, maybe a small let's

526
00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,840
Speaker 2: take a smaller retailer. Maybe they have twenty five thousand

527
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 2: skews in the store all year, and that's still a lot,

528
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 2: a lot to manage. So medium size someone like a

529
00:27:24,200 --> 00:27:27,440
Speaker 2: drug store, you may have one hundred thousand SKUs, maybe

530
00:27:27,440 --> 00:27:31,800
Speaker 2: one hundred and ten thousand. The real real when I

531
00:27:31,920 --> 00:27:35,280
Speaker 2: was there was getting in over ten thousand items a day.

532
00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 2: So this creates all kinds of technology challenges. So anything

533
00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,320
Speaker 2: you can do to streamline that process. Because the other

534
00:27:43,359 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 2: thing that's really frustrating as a consigner is, Okay, I

535
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:49,760
Speaker 2: sent it to you, you've told me it's arrived in

536
00:27:49,760 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 2: the warehouse. Why is it taking two weeks to get

537
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 2: it on the website. Anything you can do to make

538
00:27:55,680 --> 00:28:01,600
Speaker 2: the consigner happier and ensure the consumer has safety and guarantees.

539
00:28:02,280 --> 00:28:03,639
Speaker 2: I think those things are great.

540
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also make sure internally your business is moving

541
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:08,600
Speaker 1: as efficiently as possible, because you.

542
00:28:08,560 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 2: Know, right and economics actually work more favorably that way.

543
00:28:12,720 --> 00:28:15,240
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, when I think about the real real, like,

544
00:28:15,240 --> 00:28:18,560
Speaker 1: there are so many things that if you're manually doing

545
00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:20,080
Speaker 1: everything that needs to be done for the real real

546
00:28:20,119 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 1: it's like you get the product, you have to authenticate it.

547
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: That takes time. Then you have to go through take

548
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,080
Speaker 1: the photos, get them up on the website. Then you're

549
00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 1: tagging the product, right, you're putting the condition in, the material, the.

550
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,840
Speaker 2: Color, the disise, all of that's in. All of that's

551
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 2: in the database. But so the copywriters would do all

552
00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,400
Speaker 2: of that. So the database was sent up there. But

553
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,560
Speaker 2: at the beginning, oh, it took a long time. So

554
00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:43,880
Speaker 2: and then the other thing we used to do is

555
00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:46,680
Speaker 2: you'd have to color because we get so many products.

556
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 2: Even you know, even when you're doing five hundred million

557
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,760
Speaker 2: a year, which was about year four for us, it's

558
00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:55,880
Speaker 2: still so many products coming in and they all have

559
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:59,120
Speaker 2: to be light balanced. The photos because you're taking if

560
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,600
Speaker 2: you walked into the app center, it's just row and

561
00:29:01,680 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 2: row and row of photography stations. But so you get

562
00:29:06,120 --> 00:29:09,959
Speaker 2: white light pollution. You really can't escape it, and so

563
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:12,200
Speaker 2: everything had to be light balanced, which meant we were

564
00:29:12,240 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 2: sending them off in batches to India, to the Philippines

565
00:29:17,680 --> 00:29:20,680
Speaker 2: to light balance them because you want you don't want

566
00:29:20,720 --> 00:29:25,280
Speaker 2: all that uneven look on the website, which gave Sometimes

567
00:29:25,320 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 2: their internet would go down, you know, things would happen,

568
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:32,719
Speaker 2: you know, the transmission would drop a packet and then

569
00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:34,920
Speaker 2: you'd have to go through. And so that's all been

570
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,280
Speaker 2: taken care of. Now it doesn't have to be offshore.

571
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,440
Speaker 2: And that was three days and incremental expense. It wasn't

572
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 2: a lot of money, but it was also a time lag.

573
00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:48,200
Speaker 2: So all of that was covered by the AI and

574
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 2: I just in the early days, so I have to

575
00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 2: tell you like, is it back from Thailand. Yeah, they're like, no,

576
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:54,520
Speaker 2: we have to get a new vendor there. Who was

577
00:29:54,560 --> 00:29:56,840
Speaker 2: that one of them had way too many holidays, I

578
00:29:56,880 --> 00:29:59,400
Speaker 2: think where they were like, oh, we have to balance

579
00:29:59,400 --> 00:30:02,480
Speaker 2: our holidays, you know, because people would all around the

580
00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,240
Speaker 2: world take different holidays. They'd be gone for three days,

581
00:30:05,240 --> 00:30:06,719
Speaker 2: so like we need our photos.

582
00:30:06,760 --> 00:30:08,800
Speaker 1: Anytime there's more cooks in the kitchen, it's just going

583
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:10,880
Speaker 1: to take more time. So yeah, it's kind of one

584
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:12,520
Speaker 1: of those things. And it's awesome that you're able to

585
00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: automize that. Now, you know, this kind of came up

586
00:30:14,720 --> 00:30:17,880
Speaker 1: when you were talking about your work history. You pretty

587
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:19,320
Speaker 1: quickly became a CEO.

588
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 2: Well it didn't feel like it, but you know, all right,

589
00:30:22,760 --> 00:30:25,600
Speaker 2: So here's the funny story. I wasn't jacking for it.

590
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:28,400
Speaker 2: I didn't want the company to fail. So I came

591
00:30:28,480 --> 00:30:31,920
Speaker 2: up with a plan and they promoted me to run

592
00:30:31,960 --> 00:30:34,479
Speaker 2: the company. It wasn't that big. It was about forty million,

593
00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:37,360
Speaker 2: so it wasn't that small either, but it wasn't that big.

594
00:30:37,720 --> 00:30:41,400
Speaker 2: And I remember the board member and when Bled called

595
00:30:41,440 --> 00:30:43,360
Speaker 2: me to her office and said, look, you know, we

596
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 2: the founder of Grades. We really want you to be

597
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:47,360
Speaker 2: the CEO. We think you can do it. Done a

598
00:30:47,400 --> 00:30:52,560
Speaker 2: great job as president, and she says, I'm really excited

599
00:30:52,560 --> 00:30:57,200
Speaker 2: about this. I was sort of I mean, I wasn't

600
00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,400
Speaker 2: going to say no, but I was sort of shocked.

601
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:04,600
Speaker 2: I and when I was driving home, the company Berkeley Systems,

602
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:09,479
Speaker 2: no surprise, was in Berkeley. I lived in Moren County

603
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:13,160
Speaker 2: across the bridge. I just I almost drove to Sacramento.

604
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:15,960
Speaker 2: And this is before sell cell phone. So I'm just

605
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,280
Speaker 2: like and I'm married, I'm not coming home, and I'm like,

606
00:31:18,400 --> 00:31:19,880
Speaker 2: because you know, in my head, I'm like, okay, now

607
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,280
Speaker 2: I'm CEO. What does that mean? What am I going

608
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:22,400
Speaker 2: to do? How am I going to do this? What

609
00:31:22,440 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 2: about this? What did this? And I had I was

610
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 2: playing out all the scenarios, probably working through a little

611
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,480
Speaker 2: bit of fear and anxiety, and I just kept going up.

612
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 1: North every at home, so late right, just on a

613
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:36,280
Speaker 1: long car ride collecting your thoughts.

614
00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:38,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was, which is you know, it's a great

615
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:39,560
Speaker 2: thing to do.

616
00:31:40,040 --> 00:31:42,560
Speaker 1: Some people love long car rides like that for that exactly.

617
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,280
Speaker 2: Well, I was so in my thoughts, I missed my

618
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,920
Speaker 2: exits and I'm like and I finally had to stop

619
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,560
Speaker 2: and at a pay phone and come and say sorry,

620
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,080
Speaker 2: I'm almost in Sacramento. But I got promoted.

621
00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 1: Yeah that's I mean, what kind of skills did you, like,

622
00:31:56,960 --> 00:31:59,360
Speaker 1: as a young employee kind of have that you think

623
00:31:59,400 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 1: set you up for success to be considered to be

624
00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,040
Speaker 1: promoted into a position like that, because coming in for

625
00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,480
Speaker 1: a founder led business and being you know, nominated as

626
00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,520
Speaker 1: a CEO, that's a big deal and it requires a

627
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:11,560
Speaker 1: lot of trust from that founder in you. So, like,

628
00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:13,200
Speaker 1: what were some of the qualities you think you had.

629
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,920
Speaker 2: So one of the beauties of going into package goods

630
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:19,120
Speaker 2: marketing is you run p and ls, so you work.

631
00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 2: You really have to understand the financial underpinning of the

632
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,960
Speaker 2: brand incredibly strongly. You have to understand the positioning of

633
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,800
Speaker 2: the brand. You have to understand how to market the brand,

634
00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 2: you have to understand what packaging works. It really is

635
00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:36,280
Speaker 2: one of the best experiences for creating an entrepreneur when

636
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,640
Speaker 2: you're truly a brand manager, or in my case, I didn't.

637
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:41,920
Speaker 2: I left before I hit brand, but I was a brand.

638
00:32:42,760 --> 00:32:44,920
Speaker 2: Now they bring people in as brand managers, but when

639
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,520
Speaker 2: I started, it was assistant brand manager. When you learned

640
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,560
Speaker 2: all about promotions and you did tons of analysis, and

641
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,560
Speaker 2: then the assistant brand manager you learned all about advertising

642
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:56,400
Speaker 2: and media and they sent you out in the field

643
00:32:56,480 --> 00:32:58,800
Speaker 2: to sell all right, so you.

644
00:32:58,800 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 1: Kind of understood all the piece of the pie.

645
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,000
Speaker 2: When all the pieces the pie. So when I moved

646
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,280
Speaker 2: into tech, I also spent a lot of time I

647
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:09,000
Speaker 2: was in product management. I spent a lot of time

648
00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:11,640
Speaker 2: with the salesforce because I wanted to know how are

649
00:33:11,680 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 2: they And this is when you had to sell. You

650
00:33:13,360 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 2: bought software in a store. How would they position it,

651
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:18,040
Speaker 2: where were they putting it, what did it look like

652
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,000
Speaker 2: on the shelf, what were they saying to the consumers.

653
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 2: Because we also had a business division, how were they

654
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:28,040
Speaker 2: positioning the products? Who's making the decisions? So you didn't

655
00:33:28,080 --> 00:33:31,440
Speaker 2: stop at your job. You made sure that sale was

656
00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 2: completed and how and really learning all the time. So

657
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 2: then when I did international for software publishing, I had

658
00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:40,600
Speaker 2: to run a little business. I had set up partnerships

659
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:43,400
Speaker 2: and figure out what products to localize and what countries

660
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:47,360
Speaker 2: to focus on. So you just keep honing your skill set.

661
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:52,720
Speaker 2: But I would say understanding finance, understanding marketing, and understanding selling,

662
00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,480
Speaker 2: which is really a part of marketing in any case,

663
00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:00,240
Speaker 2: those three things are probably my strengths and they serve

664
00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,360
Speaker 2: you well in life. So I would say the more

665
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,880
Speaker 2: if you get, you know, giving advice to someone starting

666
00:34:05,920 --> 00:34:10,080
Speaker 2: their career, learn other people's jobs, see what they do,

667
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 2: understand because no one works in isolation. Not really. You

668
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:17,920
Speaker 2: may think you are, but if you want in advance,

669
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:20,880
Speaker 2: learn what other people do and how that impacts the

670
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,680
Speaker 2: overall success of the company, and then and then work

671
00:34:24,719 --> 00:34:28,160
Speaker 2: with them. Figure out how your job interacts with them

672
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,200
Speaker 2: and how you can collectively make a better success with

673
00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:32,320
Speaker 2: the company and yourself.

674
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:34,320
Speaker 1: But it is so true. You really have to holistically

675
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,840
Speaker 1: kind of understand everything in order to get to a

676
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:38,920
Speaker 1: position like a CEO.

677
00:34:39,239 --> 00:34:41,839
Speaker 2: Oh, I think so, it's and I actually I think so.

678
00:34:42,360 --> 00:34:44,400
Speaker 2: My dad loved his own business, you know, he had

679
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,640
Speaker 2: his own art and design business. He loved what he

680
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:50,520
Speaker 2: did and it was fun. And I think by just

681
00:34:50,640 --> 00:34:54,200
Speaker 2: having that environment in your household, whenever I did any job,

682
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:58,360
Speaker 2: I'm like, okay, this is interesting. In college, which I

683
00:34:58,360 --> 00:35:01,400
Speaker 2: write about in my book, I dropped out of college

684
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:03,120
Speaker 2: for a semester because I was going to get married

685
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:08,440
Speaker 2: very young. I didn't, but I was going to. And

686
00:35:08,480 --> 00:35:10,640
Speaker 2: the man I was marrying, his father was a general

687
00:35:10,719 --> 00:35:14,440
Speaker 2: manager at a delco Remi plant, which is a general

688
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:18,560
Speaker 2: motors plant. I actually was a riveter on the line

689
00:35:18,880 --> 00:35:24,240
Speaker 2: in in Anderson, Indiana for six months, riveting Bonnie Carlo

690
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:25,759
Speaker 2: rear bumpers.

691
00:35:26,040 --> 00:35:27,399
Speaker 1: And what is riveting mean?

692
00:35:27,520 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 2: Like you were literally putting rivets in bumpers. Oh, building,

693
00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 2: we were making well with a gun, okay, with a gun.

694
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:38,280
Speaker 2: So I was literally on the assembly line making car bumpers.

695
00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:41,200
Speaker 2: But it was a new but it was a new

696
00:35:41,280 --> 00:35:45,240
Speaker 2: technique it was using the first time a soft bumper arrived.

697
00:35:45,239 --> 00:35:47,040
Speaker 2: They were one of the first to introduce. It was

698
00:35:47,080 --> 00:35:49,800
Speaker 2: the first time in the painting thing it was automatic painting,

699
00:35:49,840 --> 00:35:52,560
Speaker 2: not humans saying they're painting the bumpers. It was the

700
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 2: first time they had automated a factory, so the parts

701
00:35:55,160 --> 00:35:57,279
Speaker 2: came to you, so you weren't pushing and pulling and

702
00:35:57,320 --> 00:36:02,000
Speaker 2: walking all over. And since the man I was dating's

703
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:05,160
Speaker 2: father was the GM things were going wrong and so

704
00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:08,120
Speaker 2: I would work the line. Then we'd have discussions about

705
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:12,680
Speaker 2: what was working, what wasn't. And it was fascinating. It

706
00:36:12,719 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 2: was I know, it doesn't sound like a glamorous job,

707
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 2: how things worked now it was really a fascinating job

708
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:24,080
Speaker 2: and understanding how people progress, even as an employee there,

709
00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 2: because you know, working the line riveting bumpers wasn't exactly

710
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:33,320
Speaker 2: enhancing your brain, but it was when you ask questions,

711
00:36:33,360 --> 00:36:35,000
Speaker 2: it's like, why did we do this, why did you

712
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 2: switch this? Why are we having problems here? What are

713
00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:39,279
Speaker 2: you going to do with it? And he was just

714
00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 2: so open. He was like I was getting a masterclass

715
00:36:42,440 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 2: and operations and they and every new thing they were

716
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:51,400
Speaker 2: trying had never been done before, so that was also

717
00:36:51,560 --> 00:36:55,000
Speaker 2: exciting to see new technologies employed and see that it

718
00:36:55,080 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 2: doesn't go right. You know, it went mostly right because

719
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,239
Speaker 2: the cars didn't have bruise at the end of the year,

720
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,680
Speaker 2: but it took a lot of effort to get it right.

721
00:37:04,760 --> 00:37:06,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, and stuff happens, and you got to be able

722
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,880
Speaker 1: to think on the fly and figure it out during that.

723
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:10,279
Speaker 1: We kind of talked about this on the run, but

724
00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:12,319
Speaker 1: I really want to dig into resilience a little bit

725
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,800
Speaker 1: more before we get to starting the reeal reel, because

726
00:37:14,800 --> 00:37:17,320
Speaker 1: after what happened with pets dot Com, I read online

727
00:37:17,320 --> 00:37:18,879
Speaker 1: a little bit about it, and I heard you talk

728
00:37:18,880 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 1: about it in interviews, and I know you talk about

729
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:23,200
Speaker 1: it in your book. But that was a hard time

730
00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 1: for you, right when pets dot Com failed.

731
00:37:25,239 --> 00:37:27,400
Speaker 2: It was hard on so many levels because you know,

732
00:37:27,440 --> 00:37:30,640
Speaker 2: I was in my forties and early forties and forty

733
00:37:30,680 --> 00:37:33,680
Speaker 2: one forty two, and I got a divorce, which is

734
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:38,520
Speaker 2: a hard time to get a divorce, and then as

735
00:37:38,560 --> 00:37:42,440
Speaker 2: a woman, you have to also figure out about kids.

736
00:37:42,560 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 2: And it felt like, oh, I missed that one and

737
00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 2: figure out did I want to be a single mom?

738
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 2: And then I don't think I put it in the book.

739
00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:52,640
Speaker 2: But during that time, my mother also died, which actually,

740
00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:55,680
Speaker 2: on mini levels was a blessing because she had multiple

741
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:59,439
Speaker 2: sclerosis and she was not in good shape. Oddly enough,

742
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,880
Speaker 2: even when someone's really ill, and she was mentally she

743
00:38:03,920 --> 00:38:06,719
Speaker 2: had sort of lost her mind also, so she had

744
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,160
Speaker 2: advanced dementia and her body was a mess. And she

745
00:38:10,239 --> 00:38:12,760
Speaker 2: was only sixty two. She was only twenty years older

746
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,440
Speaker 2: than me. So when she died, it sort of like

747
00:38:16,560 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 2: hope died, but there was no hope, you know, But

748
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:22,560
Speaker 2: it was still this I don't know her mom well,

749
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:25,280
Speaker 2: but I mean, she wasn't my mom. That was another

750
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:29,040
Speaker 2: being there that was at one point my mom. But

751
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:34,080
Speaker 2: that happened, which also calls out how short life is

752
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,160
Speaker 2: and how lucky you are to have your health. So

753
00:38:37,440 --> 00:38:40,480
Speaker 2: you know, you're like, okay. What I didn't know was

754
00:38:40,520 --> 00:38:43,480
Speaker 2: that pets dot Com would be sitting like looming large

755
00:38:43,520 --> 00:38:46,360
Speaker 2: behind my back for the next X amount of years.

756
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:50,120
Speaker 2: And then I explained that to us, Well, it cast

757
00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 2: a big shadow because it was such a popular brand,

758
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:55,920
Speaker 2: and when it failed, the media was all over me.

759
00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,319
Speaker 2: And honestly, recently I was thinking, I'm so glad it

760
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:01,919
Speaker 2: didn't happen. Well, it might have been easier now because

761
00:39:01,960 --> 00:39:06,080
Speaker 2: there's some new disaster every fifteen seconds, I think, and

762
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:09,240
Speaker 2: maybe it would have floated away, But then it pressed

763
00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:12,360
Speaker 2: all over the world focused on it. And it's partly

764
00:39:12,440 --> 00:39:16,200
Speaker 2: because it was a new industry. So when things went well,

765
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:19,319
Speaker 2: they would talk about it, and then when things blew up,

766
00:39:19,440 --> 00:39:22,200
Speaker 2: it was like, you know, it was a field day

767
00:39:22,280 --> 00:39:24,600
Speaker 2: for them, and it was everywhere all over the world.

768
00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,359
Speaker 2: So it was a huge stigma and a negative one,

769
00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:31,880
Speaker 2: and it was negative socially, it was negative professionally, like

770
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:33,759
Speaker 2: I'd go out and I didn't want to talk about it,

771
00:39:33,800 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 2: and people would say, aren't you And then someone would

772
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 2: say something really horrific to me on a regular basis.

773
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:42,120
Speaker 1: Like what's the most terrific things?

774
00:39:42,400 --> 00:39:45,440
Speaker 2: Oh my god, this person just she said, oh, you

775
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,040
Speaker 2: are a joke, and she just laughed in my face.

776
00:39:48,080 --> 00:39:51,279
Speaker 2: I thought, yeah, this is someone who, by the way,

777
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:53,320
Speaker 2: never did anything and never took a risk.

778
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: You know what he really came to mind. It's so funny.

779
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: I was interviewing Gabby Thomas, who's an Olympic runner gold

780
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:00,640
Speaker 1: medalist right she and I interviewed her right after she

781
00:40:00,680 --> 00:40:03,480
Speaker 1: had one gold in Paris, and she said to me

782
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:06,560
Speaker 1: I'm currently in a Twitter war with someone, and it's

783
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 1: with somebody kind of mocking her for X, Y and

784
00:40:09,239 --> 00:40:11,640
Speaker 1: Z reason and I'm thinking to her and I said

785
00:40:11,640 --> 00:40:14,480
Speaker 1: to her, I'm like, you know, it's so crazy that somebody,

786
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: random person, anonymous user name on Twitter is in a

787
00:40:17,480 --> 00:40:20,520
Speaker 1: fight with you and you're having to defend yourself. Gabby Thomas,

788
00:40:20,600 --> 00:40:24,120
Speaker 1: an Olympic gold medalist. This person's never going to achieve

789
00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:27,040
Speaker 1: anything close to what you've achieved and put your body through.

790
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,120
Speaker 2: And they have no idea, they have no idea. Well

791
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:33,520
Speaker 2: that's sort of where the random mud slinging time right now.

792
00:40:33,600 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 2: I mean I just look at it. It's like, what stop,

793
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:38,399
Speaker 2: And it's you know what, So where does this come from?

794
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:43,279
Speaker 2: It has to come from inadequacy, and and you know,

795
00:40:43,320 --> 00:40:47,279
Speaker 2: it's pretty easy to punch down, you know, if you're

796
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,200
Speaker 2: not feeling good about yourself, it's pretty easy to punch down.

797
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:54,040
Speaker 2: So you know, these people, I don't know. Anyway, it

798
00:40:54,080 --> 00:40:57,600
Speaker 2: was bad. So that was bad. And I had to

799
00:40:57,760 --> 00:41:00,319
Speaker 2: get back to things that really brought me joy, which

800
00:41:00,480 --> 00:41:05,640
Speaker 2: tended to be being around creative people. So that was helpful.

801
00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 2: Hiking I did a lot of outdoor hiking. I did

802
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 2: take some different jobs that weren't great. In fact, they

803
00:41:13,880 --> 00:41:15,520
Speaker 2: weren't great, but I had to pay the bills because

804
00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:17,319
Speaker 2: when you're the divorce, if you have money, you get

805
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,000
Speaker 2: usually half the money then, So that wasn't great. And

806
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:25,160
Speaker 2: I had to deep really understand what I want to

807
00:41:25,200 --> 00:41:26,800
Speaker 2: do with my life and if I was going to

808
00:41:26,880 --> 00:41:28,600
Speaker 2: drive it or if I was going to let people's

809
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:32,400
Speaker 2: opinion of me drive it. And that's what switched it.

810
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:34,839
Speaker 2: I said in the book, I let it really bother

811
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 2: me until I didn't, And it really was. Once once

812
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,399
Speaker 2: it all came together, I'm like, I'm done with this.

813
00:41:42,320 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 2: I am not going to spend time worrying about what

814
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:46,920
Speaker 2: other people think. I'm going to I know what I'm

815
00:41:46,960 --> 00:41:48,520
Speaker 2: made of and I know what I can do, and

816
00:41:48,600 --> 00:41:51,680
Speaker 2: I'll figure it out. But it really was it was

817
00:41:51,719 --> 00:41:54,680
Speaker 2: sort of like beat myself up. I got tired of

818
00:41:54,719 --> 00:41:59,160
Speaker 2: beating myself up, to be honest, and reading negative things

819
00:41:59,239 --> 00:42:01,719
Speaker 2: about what happened that weren't true, and not being able

820
00:42:01,800 --> 00:42:04,440
Speaker 2: to defend myself. I mean, even people were writing books

821
00:42:04,440 --> 00:42:06,239
Speaker 2: about it, and I'm like, oh my god, it's not

822
00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:15,920
Speaker 2: even true.

823
00:42:16,640 --> 00:42:18,839
Speaker 1: There's a lot that you can read on a line, right,

824
00:42:18,880 --> 00:42:21,399
Speaker 1: there's comments, there's articles, there's books, but it's a whole

825
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:23,920
Speaker 1: another level when people are coming up to you in

826
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:26,279
Speaker 1: person and saying things to your face. So how did

827
00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 1: you deal with that?

828
00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,720
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure I just walked away, and I wanted

829
00:42:29,719 --> 00:42:32,239
Speaker 2: to say something, but she was a really good friend

830
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:36,080
Speaker 2: of a really good friend, and what I ended up

831
00:42:36,080 --> 00:42:38,720
Speaker 2: doing is just it was her, it was my friend's party.

832
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,319
Speaker 2: I just went home. I even had reporters showing up

833
00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:46,239
Speaker 2: at my door, my home door, and I was divorced

834
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:47,719
Speaker 2: and I still was living in the same house, so

835
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:49,840
Speaker 2: I had a male friend of my move in just

836
00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:53,160
Speaker 2: to answer the door, you know, because the other thing

837
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 2: is and I ended up changing the door. I had

838
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:57,120
Speaker 2: one of those stories. I had some glass panels in it,

839
00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,799
Speaker 2: so so I ended up getting the door with like

840
00:42:59,840 --> 00:43:02,439
Speaker 2: no windows except like a little bit at the top,

841
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,239
Speaker 2: because I'm like, I don't need these randoms showing up

842
00:43:05,280 --> 00:43:06,000
Speaker 2: at my house.

843
00:43:06,320 --> 00:43:08,919
Speaker 1: It's scary also being alone in your house and having

844
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 1: people show up.

845
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:12,359
Speaker 2: I mean it is scary. I got scary, right. I

846
00:43:12,360 --> 00:43:13,719
Speaker 2: don't want to go back to the book. But it

847
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 2: happened with like one of the counterfeiters sent thugs to

848
00:43:16,680 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 2: my door because I wouldn't return the Real Real wouldn't

849
00:43:19,960 --> 00:43:23,719
Speaker 2: return the goods. He literally to deliver me a lawsuit.

850
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:26,960
Speaker 2: But I mean, we have lawyers for any lawsuit that

851
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:32,920
Speaker 2: every single counterfeitter the Real Real dealt with had some

852
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 2: lawyer brother in Florida that delivered that actually would sue

853
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:39,960
Speaker 2: the company. And then those you know, those lawsuits di

854
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:42,040
Speaker 2: centegrate because guess what their counterfeiters.

855
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:46,000
Speaker 1: But okay, truly, what do you do when you have

856
00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:48,320
Speaker 1: thugs showing up to your door.

857
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:50,480
Speaker 2: I called the police.

858
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,160
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'd be having a panic attack.

859
00:43:53,239 --> 00:43:55,960
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, plus, at that time, I had three dogs.

860
00:43:56,000 --> 00:43:59,400
Speaker 2: The dogs are going nuts and they're like beating on

861
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:01,640
Speaker 2: the door. It's like ten thirty at night.

862
00:44:01,680 --> 00:44:02,600
Speaker 1: Like straight out of a movie.

863
00:44:02,680 --> 00:44:04,840
Speaker 2: It was so scary. It was scary, and that was

864
00:44:04,880 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 2: the intent, right, like to send these big guys and

865
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:10,360
Speaker 2: I could see them, which meant probably they could see me.

866
00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,160
Speaker 1: You're like, here, I am running this multimillion dollar business.

867
00:44:13,160 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: It's so successful. We resell luxury goods, and I have

868
00:44:16,080 --> 00:44:17,719
Speaker 1: thugs showing up at my door.

869
00:44:18,480 --> 00:44:20,600
Speaker 2: So I called the police. By the time the police

870
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,960
Speaker 2: got there, all that was less was the lawsuit shoved

871
00:44:24,040 --> 00:44:26,239
Speaker 2: under my door. They go, we think they want to

872
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:28,399
Speaker 2: deliver this. I go, that's what my lawyers are from.

873
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:32,880
Speaker 2: There was something else going on there, so that was unnerving.

874
00:44:33,800 --> 00:44:37,920
Speaker 2: But I mean I got death threats too, so you know,

875
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:41,080
Speaker 2: it's a weird thing. But when people physically come towards you,

876
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,200
Speaker 2: it is different, and then you have a choice. First

877
00:44:44,200 --> 00:44:47,600
Speaker 2: of all, I was still beating myself up. Secondly, I

878
00:44:47,640 --> 00:44:51,480
Speaker 2: couldn't believe someone that who knows that we have mutual

879
00:44:51,520 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 2: friends would be that vicious. And then I was very kind.

880
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,040
Speaker 2: I didn't want to upset my friend, but I I

881
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:02,160
Speaker 2: do think about a year later, I said, you know,

882
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:07,400
Speaker 2: her name was Susie. Susie is do you know Susie?

883
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:09,760
Speaker 2: She goes, oh, she would never say that. I'm like, yeah,

884
00:45:09,840 --> 00:45:10,279
Speaker 2: she did.

885
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:13,000
Speaker 1: So you know you kind of kept it tears.

886
00:45:13,160 --> 00:45:17,080
Speaker 2: I did because it just felt like, why why make

887
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:19,880
Speaker 2: it worse? But you know, you just for me. It

888
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:21,880
Speaker 2: made me pull in more, which, to be honest, I

889
00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:23,919
Speaker 2: don't mind being an introvert, but it was a sad.

890
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,840
Speaker 2: It was a sad I had to go in to

891
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 2: come out again.

892
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:29,120
Speaker 1: I guess anyway, did the haters put a chip on

893
00:45:29,160 --> 00:45:32,160
Speaker 1: your shoulder and make you want to be successful even more.

894
00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:36,600
Speaker 2: No, But I well a couple of things. One is

895
00:45:36,719 --> 00:45:40,040
Speaker 2: I think being a woman in tech you had to

896
00:45:40,040 --> 00:45:43,480
Speaker 2: be a fighter anyway. So I remember someone say you

897
00:45:43,480 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 2: have a chip on your shoulder, and I'm like, no,

898
00:45:45,239 --> 00:45:47,160
Speaker 2: I'm just not going to take I'm not going to

899
00:45:47,200 --> 00:45:49,680
Speaker 2: be second when I can be first. You know, I

900
00:45:49,800 --> 00:45:51,520
Speaker 2: just wasn't going to do it. So I had that

901
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:54,880
Speaker 2: fight and spirit in me anyway. But I'll tell you

902
00:45:54,920 --> 00:45:59,560
Speaker 2: what did, which is when I got the first year

903
00:45:59,640 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 2: or the rare, we got it to ten million dollars

904
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 2: and I was out. Then I was out to raise

905
00:46:04,239 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 2: venture capital and I met with a well known venture

906
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:11,040
Speaker 2: capitalist in San Francisco. I found that women understood the

907
00:46:11,080 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 2: product men didn't female investor and she was really interested

908
00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:19,759
Speaker 2: in the business. Asked for the financials we were, you know,

909
00:46:19,960 --> 00:46:23,080
Speaker 2: like I said, we had ten million in sales, went

910
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:25,279
Speaker 2: through all the data, spent a lot of time with her,

911
00:46:26,080 --> 00:46:30,600
Speaker 2: and then probably when I sent her the latest deck

912
00:46:30,719 --> 00:46:34,000
Speaker 2: two days later, she announced an investment in a company

913
00:46:34,640 --> 00:46:38,160
Speaker 2: called Threadflip that was pretty much doing what the real

914
00:46:38,239 --> 00:46:44,640
Speaker 2: real was doing, but not offering complete consigner support and

915
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:48,440
Speaker 2: would only authenticate goods upon request, so they weren't. They

916
00:46:48,480 --> 00:46:52,000
Speaker 2: were sort of a hybrid, so she really was planning.

917
00:46:52,080 --> 00:46:55,239
Speaker 2: She was just using my business to invest to get

918
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:57,759
Speaker 2: data for another company that she clearly was going to

919
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:03,160
Speaker 2: invest in, which isn't illegal. It's it's smarmy, it's pretty

920
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:09,239
Speaker 2: it's pretty bad behavior, but it's not illegal. So then

921
00:47:09,280 --> 00:47:12,480
Speaker 2: you fast forward and I'm presenting at a fashion tech

922
00:47:12,520 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 2: event in New York and I figured I'm going to

923
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,000
Speaker 2: be out raising my and by the way, and I

924
00:47:16,040 --> 00:47:20,920
Speaker 2: got my round, didn't close with Canaan, with with Maha

925
00:47:21,040 --> 00:47:24,560
Speaker 2: Ibram and Dana Settle of gray Croft, and we had

926
00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:28,040
Speaker 2: one European Matias Shilling, who was great, so we got

927
00:47:28,080 --> 00:47:32,560
Speaker 2: a nice round. It was great and Matia Shedding Shilling

928
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:35,000
Speaker 2: of headline, so all right, we got the round. But

929
00:47:35,040 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 2: I figured I'm going to I got to start promoting

930
00:47:36,719 --> 00:47:39,160
Speaker 2: the brand. So I'm in this fashion tech event in

931
00:47:39,200 --> 00:47:42,880
Speaker 2: New York City and it's Arena Styuth of seating and

932
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:47,680
Speaker 2: they have judges and god, who's the who's the damon

933
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 2: with the earring? Is that the guy with the earring?

934
00:47:50,080 --> 00:47:53,120
Speaker 2: The guy that was on Shark tann exactly?

935
00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:53,680
Speaker 1: Is it?

936
00:47:53,880 --> 00:47:57,200
Speaker 2: Anyway? So he was the EMC so had a little

937
00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,080
Speaker 2: razzle dazzle going. So I walk out and I haven't

938
00:48:01,239 --> 00:48:04,600
Speaker 2: talked to anyone in a large public arena since PETS,

939
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:08,439
Speaker 2: so I was already on. I didn't realize how much

940
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,399
Speaker 2: PTSD I still had. My body. I was getting ready.

941
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:13,560
Speaker 2: I was starting to have a panic attack. Actually I

942
00:48:13,600 --> 00:48:16,640
Speaker 2: stopped myself from going out because I started hyperventilating.

943
00:48:16,680 --> 00:48:18,080
Speaker 1: This is where we need a beta blocker, because your

944
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:19,520
Speaker 1: body goes into fighting, fighter, fight.

945
00:48:19,520 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 2: But I'd never experienced that before and I didn't really

946
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 2: know what was happening. So I sat down. I said,

947
00:48:26,040 --> 00:48:27,920
Speaker 2: breathe them with that. I'm gonna faint. And then I'm like, no,

948
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,680
Speaker 2: I got to go out there because they're like waiting

949
00:48:30,719 --> 00:48:34,440
Speaker 2: for me. And I see that person who, in my opinion,

950
00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:37,840
Speaker 2: did a slimy thing as one of the judges. I

951
00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:40,760
Speaker 2: didn't know who the judges were, and I was so mad.

952
00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:44,080
Speaker 2: It cleared my head and cleared my panic and I

953
00:48:44,200 --> 00:48:50,400
Speaker 2: killed it. So that's where that whole anger really did work.

954
00:48:50,480 --> 00:48:54,759
Speaker 2: And I thought, and you know, I don't. You don't

955
00:48:54,760 --> 00:48:56,239
Speaker 2: forget people that betray you.

956
00:48:56,320 --> 00:48:58,040
Speaker 1: Nope, you don't. And you use it as fuel, and

957
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:00,759
Speaker 1: you use it as fuel if you're a pro, you

958
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:02,320
Speaker 1: can use it as right or you can let it

959
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:04,480
Speaker 1: get to you and it can affect your business.

960
00:49:04,560 --> 00:49:07,440
Speaker 2: And I don't believe in well, I might believe in

961
00:49:07,520 --> 00:49:09,959
Speaker 2: retribution at some point, but I wouldn't for that because

962
00:49:09,960 --> 00:49:11,640
Speaker 2: it's not worth the energy. It's like, you know what.

963
00:49:12,200 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 2: And by the way that company shut down, I'm like, no,

964
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,799
Speaker 2: that's the wrong model. You picked the wrong horse, and

965
00:49:17,840 --> 00:49:21,919
Speaker 2: you'll find out. Yeah, anyway, So that's what I did.

966
00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:29,520
Speaker 2: But I would say anyone who creates a business automatically

967
00:49:29,760 --> 00:49:32,160
Speaker 2: has to have a little chip on their shoulder because

968
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:34,960
Speaker 2: you have so many people telling you what can't be

969
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:39,080
Speaker 2: done and everyone telling you why it won't work. As

970
00:49:39,080 --> 00:49:42,359
Speaker 2: opposed to figuring out you're figuring out how to make

971
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:45,719
Speaker 2: it work. So if you don't have that energy, you

972
00:49:45,760 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 2: aren't a good entrepreneur.

973
00:49:47,480 --> 00:49:49,320
Speaker 1: You know, especially as a woman.

974
00:49:49,719 --> 00:49:52,960
Speaker 2: Oh it's harder as a woman because there's a couple

975
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,279
Speaker 2: of things that people don't like. Women don't like it

976
00:49:55,320 --> 00:49:58,319
Speaker 2: and men don't like it. When women get mad, they're like,

977
00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 2: oh they're mad. It's like yeah, you know, So it's

978
00:50:01,960 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 2: a weird We have a weird dynamic always and it's

979
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:07,799
Speaker 2: always it's going to be there. I mean I was

980
00:50:07,840 --> 00:50:11,160
Speaker 2: hoping it would die before I died, but it won't.

981
00:50:11,200 --> 00:50:15,239
Speaker 2: It's just there. It's unfortunate, but you can't let other

982
00:50:15,280 --> 00:50:19,120
Speaker 2: people stop you and their opinions. So they may think that,

983
00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 2: but then what do you think of people like that? Well,

984
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,920
Speaker 2: I think they actually aren't very evolved, So let them

985
00:50:23,960 --> 00:50:25,279
Speaker 2: do what they're going to do, and I'm going to

986
00:50:25,360 --> 00:50:27,399
Speaker 2: do what I'm going to do. But it's still hard

987
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 2: every time, you know, especially when you think you know

988
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 2: someone and then they drop a bomb on you and

989
00:50:31,640 --> 00:50:35,680
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, well, you know, sometimes you see what

990
00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:36,839
Speaker 2: you want to see.

991
00:50:36,600 --> 00:50:38,080
Speaker 1: But like, what do you think is the learning there?

992
00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:39,680
Speaker 1: It's kind of like you need to have a close

993
00:50:39,719 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 1: inner circle, especially when you get to the point that.

994
00:50:41,760 --> 00:50:43,640
Speaker 2: Well, you do, but then you don't want to cut

995
00:50:43,640 --> 00:50:47,040
Speaker 2: yourself off. So I think the learning is you're stronger

996
00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:51,000
Speaker 2: than a person's negative thoughts and feelings, and that people

997
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:55,040
Speaker 2: reveal themselves over time. And then on the more generous

998
00:50:55,040 --> 00:50:57,719
Speaker 2: thing is we're all human trying to figure it out,

999
00:50:58,480 --> 00:51:02,640
Speaker 2: and you know, something obviously went wrong in their childhood

1000
00:51:02,680 --> 00:51:04,439
Speaker 2: or went wrong, and they're trying to figure it out,

1001
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:06,640
Speaker 2: and you're not in the same wavelength, and so you

1002
00:51:06,760 --> 00:51:09,960
Speaker 2: just give them compassion. So that's like once you move

1003
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:13,200
Speaker 2: past the ego thing and you can move into compassion.

1004
00:51:13,280 --> 00:51:17,640
Speaker 2: Because I mean, there are some pretty scary people out

1005
00:51:17,680 --> 00:51:20,759
Speaker 2: there that have medical conditions. I think narcissm is one

1006
00:51:20,800 --> 00:51:25,440
Speaker 2: of them that's really scary, But most people don't aren't narcissists,

1007
00:51:25,560 --> 00:51:28,279
Speaker 2: and most people aren't trying to hurt someone else. They're

1008
00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:31,200
Speaker 2: just hurt and they haven't got the skills yet.

1009
00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, and a lot of people are out for themselves,

1010
00:51:33,680 --> 00:51:35,440
Speaker 1: especially when they're young and in their career.

1011
00:51:35,560 --> 00:51:39,480
Speaker 2: And well, I understand that because, look, you have energy,

1012
00:51:40,080 --> 00:51:44,560
Speaker 2: you have optimism. Hopefully you come out thinking I can

1013
00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:47,399
Speaker 2: do this or I'm going to figure it out. And

1014
00:51:47,680 --> 00:51:50,120
Speaker 2: also you just have when you're young, you have like

1015
00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 2: racing hormones too, so you've got a lot to think about.

1016
00:51:55,160 --> 00:52:01,280
Speaker 2: That's all good fuel, you know. And I think people

1017
00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:04,719
Speaker 2: that really want to build a business and want to

1018
00:52:04,719 --> 00:52:07,200
Speaker 2: figure it out when they're young it's the best time.

1019
00:52:07,360 --> 00:52:09,960
Speaker 2: It's also great when you're older, but it's great because

1020
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:13,120
Speaker 2: the cost. Even when I left Clorax, the guy says,

1021
00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:15,200
Speaker 2: you'll never work with anyone as smart as you have

1022
00:52:15,480 --> 00:52:18,080
Speaker 2: the people at Clorax, which turned out not to be true,

1023
00:52:18,160 --> 00:52:21,080
Speaker 2: although the people at Clarax were smart and you know,

1024
00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 2: you know this company may fail. It's like, and I

1025
00:52:23,480 --> 00:52:26,040
Speaker 2: said to him, I'm young, and you know, I even

1026
00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:28,279
Speaker 2: told him I took half my salary. And I'm like,

1027
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:31,880
Speaker 2: I'm too young to be like worried about those things.

1028
00:52:32,600 --> 00:52:35,399
Speaker 2: And I think youth, that's the beauty of youth. You've

1029
00:52:35,400 --> 00:52:39,400
Speaker 2: got latitude and time to figure out everything. At some

1030
00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:43,200
Speaker 2: point you don't, so your point, you don't.

1031
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 1: But what I like, really respect about you is I

1032
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:48,000
Speaker 1: think like as people get over, they get older, right,

1033
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 1: they always say like they take less risk. But you

1034
00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:53,919
Speaker 1: weren't somebody that was afraid to take risk and get scrappy, right,

1035
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:56,520
Speaker 1: And at fifty two you start the.

1036
00:52:56,520 --> 00:52:59,520
Speaker 2: Real real Let's be real here. Tell me I lost

1037
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:02,440
Speaker 2: half my money and my my ex husband was a

1038
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,680
Speaker 2: social worker, so I think it's fair to say that

1039
00:53:04,719 --> 00:53:07,480
Speaker 2: I made the money all right, So I lost half

1040
00:53:07,560 --> 00:53:11,440
Speaker 2: the money in the divorce. I'm no one in tech

1041
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,680
Speaker 2: likes a failure, even though they say, oh we're we're

1042
00:53:14,719 --> 00:53:17,680
Speaker 2: you know, we embrace failure. They don't embrace failure. And

1043
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:20,400
Speaker 2: when being a woman is really hard in tech anyway,

1044
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:24,279
Speaker 2: And so I had to figure something out because I

1045
00:53:24,400 --> 00:53:27,520
Speaker 2: was running out of money. So yes, of course I

1046
00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:29,520
Speaker 2: got scrappy. What is that? What are we going to do?

1047
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:32,040
Speaker 2: Sit there and cry for another ten years and then

1048
00:53:32,080 --> 00:53:33,480
Speaker 2: collect so so security.

1049
00:53:34,080 --> 00:53:35,839
Speaker 1: I mean it to hit rock bottom and you had

1050
00:53:35,880 --> 00:53:36,839
Speaker 1: to lift yourself out of it.

1051
00:53:37,200 --> 00:53:39,800
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was it was rock bottom

1052
00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:42,240
Speaker 2: for me. I mean when you hear other people's stories

1053
00:53:42,280 --> 00:53:46,080
Speaker 2: that they really hit rock bottom, an unimaginable rock bottom.

1054
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:48,400
Speaker 2: I mean, I didn't drown myself in alcohol and drugs,

1055
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:52,520
Speaker 2: but I did drown myself in letting other people's opinion

1056
00:53:52,560 --> 00:53:57,160
Speaker 2: affect me. And I'm so glad, the real real I'm

1057
00:53:57,160 --> 00:53:59,160
Speaker 2: so thankful it worked out. I knew it was going

1058
00:53:59,239 --> 00:54:02,120
Speaker 2: to work out, and you had to get scrappy. No

1059
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:04,359
Speaker 2: one else was going to clean the toilets, take out

1060
00:54:04,360 --> 00:54:08,640
Speaker 2: the trash, you the product, negotiate with ups, you know,

1061
00:54:08,680 --> 00:54:11,799
Speaker 2: find a photographer that didn't mind stepping into a bathroom,

1062
00:54:11,920 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 2: you know, to take a photo. When we first got started,

1063
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:16,600
Speaker 2: though most of them didn't want to do that, by

1064
00:54:16,600 --> 00:54:18,000
Speaker 2: the way, right, that was so hard.

1065
00:54:18,719 --> 00:54:21,759
Speaker 1: And when you guys first got started, consignment wasn't as

1066
00:54:21,800 --> 00:54:23,399
Speaker 1: big of a thing, right, And then I noticed there

1067
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:25,120
Speaker 1: were vintage stores on the Upper East Side that for

1068
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:28,200
Speaker 1: years women were going to, right and they would I remember,

1069
00:54:28,600 --> 00:54:31,879
Speaker 1: like my Jeremy's mom, my, my husband's mom always talks

1070
00:54:31,880 --> 00:54:34,920
Speaker 1: about the consignment stores that she would go into uptown

1071
00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 1: and she'd be able to find good pieces. Right. So

1072
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:38,600
Speaker 1: there was that element of like vintage shopping.

1073
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:41,600
Speaker 2: But no one had brought the internet and harnessed the

1074
00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,160
Speaker 2: power of the internet, and no one had provided the

1075
00:54:44,239 --> 00:54:46,640
Speaker 2: service on a national level that we did, and no

1076
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:48,200
Speaker 2: one had authenticated the goods.

1077
00:54:48,239 --> 00:54:50,319
Speaker 1: So when did the idea spark for you? Oh?

1078
00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:53,279
Speaker 2: When I was shopping with my girlfriend and that's where

1079
00:54:53,320 --> 00:54:55,880
Speaker 2: she spent her money. And we used to shop together

1080
00:54:55,920 --> 00:54:59,520
Speaker 2: all the time, because you know women, we used to

1081
00:54:59,520 --> 00:55:02,000
Speaker 2: buy suit all the time. You buy the they weren't

1082
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:04,040
Speaker 2: sold as separates, like you'd have to buy the suit.

1083
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:06,480
Speaker 2: And I was like a four on the top and

1084
00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 2: a two on the bottom. She was a two on

1085
00:55:08,560 --> 00:55:10,080
Speaker 2: the top and a four in the bottom. So we'd

1086
00:55:10,080 --> 00:55:12,640
Speaker 2: go shopping and switch outfits. We'd like, here, we're buyings.

1087
00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:16,400
Speaker 2: I love that, so you have like a complete suit

1088
00:55:16,480 --> 00:55:19,319
Speaker 2: that fit you as opposed to getting altered. But I mean,

1089
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:22,400
Speaker 2: she's a lot of this is an so she's a

1090
00:55:22,440 --> 00:55:25,759
Speaker 2: lot of fun and we love shopping together. I had

1091
00:55:25,840 --> 00:55:28,200
Speaker 2: never seen her walk into a consignment store, so it

1092
00:55:28,239 --> 00:55:34,360
Speaker 2: was an apparent behavior. But I had already said moving

1093
00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:38,680
Speaker 2: into luxury is something Amazon will never do. And I

1094
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:40,560
Speaker 2: knew I wasn't going to start a luxury bring but

1095
00:55:40,600 --> 00:55:44,040
Speaker 2: I had that nugget rating, you know, just resting somewhere

1096
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:47,880
Speaker 2: in my head. And then I saw luxury opportunity in

1097
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:50,879
Speaker 2: a place that had never been done research. I didn't

1098
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:55,040
Speaker 2: even realize how large the luxury market was. Researched, what

1099
00:55:55,200 --> 00:55:58,879
Speaker 2: I could understand in terms of, you know how much

1100
00:55:58,920 --> 00:56:01,920
Speaker 2: builds up over time, you know how much closet, how

1101
00:56:02,000 --> 00:56:04,480
Speaker 2: much comes out. What's the average time for the product

1102
00:56:04,520 --> 00:56:07,640
Speaker 2: to stay in someone's closet. How do people get through

1103
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:10,400
Speaker 2: the PI bridge? Well, now I think it's about two years,

1104
00:56:10,440 --> 00:56:13,560
Speaker 2: two to three years, but people hold onto a bag

1105
00:56:14,320 --> 00:56:17,160
Speaker 2: bags a little longer, and it depends on the bags,

1106
00:56:17,200 --> 00:56:19,280
Speaker 2: but I would say two to three years. On the clothes,

1107
00:56:19,640 --> 00:56:22,719
Speaker 2: bags can be five to seven. But some people, you know,

1108
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:24,360
Speaker 2: flip fast if it's trendy.

1109
00:56:25,160 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 1: Well, there's a lot of people too that like to

1110
00:56:27,200 --> 00:56:29,920
Speaker 1: justify buying something new, They'll have to get they have

1111
00:56:30,120 --> 00:56:31,759
Speaker 1: like a theory, but they get rid of, you know,

1112
00:56:31,800 --> 00:56:34,000
Speaker 1: certain things, right, And I try to do that sometimes.

1113
00:56:34,120 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 2: Well that's what's the real real enable right now. I

1114
00:56:36,640 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 2: do that all the time. I'm like, okay, I'm going

1115
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:40,520
Speaker 2: to sell this and then I'm going to buy.

1116
00:56:40,360 --> 00:56:43,480
Speaker 1: This, right, especially in New York when we have limited clausets, right,

1117
00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:45,840
Speaker 1: like we have to be sappy with our clothes and

1118
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:49,520
Speaker 1: how we keep ourselves organized and almost slightly minimalized, but

1119
00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:50,719
Speaker 1: not really right right now.

1120
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:53,759
Speaker 2: I mean, honestly, I'm always rotating things, and the real

1121
00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:56,239
Speaker 2: world allows me to do it. But half, I would say,

1122
00:56:56,239 --> 00:56:58,640
Speaker 2: I just had to pick up this week, and half

1123
00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:02,400
Speaker 2: of it was things I can signed, which is also

1124
00:57:02,440 --> 00:57:03,680
Speaker 2: an amazing value.

1125
00:57:03,719 --> 00:57:05,520
Speaker 1: Then, okay, so I want to ask you about the

1126
00:57:05,560 --> 00:57:07,920
Speaker 1: fact because you came from the tech world, right right,

1127
00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:10,000
Speaker 1: But were you always fashionable?

1128
00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:13,240
Speaker 2: Sadly? Yes, I always like fashion?

1129
00:57:13,320 --> 00:57:15,240
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so you always liked brands?

1130
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:19,040
Speaker 2: I did, And I've always spent two much twenty in clothes,

1131
00:57:19,160 --> 00:57:23,280
Speaker 2: which doesn't mean I understand merchandising, and it certainly meant

1132
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:25,960
Speaker 2: I mean I certainly wasn't cool, so it wasn't cool,

1133
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:30,240
Speaker 2: but I understood. I mean look I loved Look, this

1134
00:57:30,320 --> 00:57:32,440
Speaker 2: comes back, I'm sure for my mother being wanting to

1135
00:57:32,440 --> 00:57:36,560
Speaker 2: be a fashion illustrator, and she loved good designed. She

1136
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:39,040
Speaker 2: loved good fabrics. Like I said, if she saw something

1137
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:41,280
Speaker 2: in somebody's house like the rug, she would say, when

1138
00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:43,080
Speaker 2: you're ready to sell it? Because she thought it was

1139
00:57:43,160 --> 00:57:47,240
Speaker 2: beautiful and beautifully made. So I think all of those

1140
00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:52,000
Speaker 2: things built into it. My mother was pretty fashionable in

1141
00:57:52,040 --> 00:57:54,760
Speaker 2: the sixties. I mean, she had the whole thing going.

1142
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:59,280
Speaker 2: So I do love it. I've always loved it. I've

1143
00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:03,960
Speaker 2: always honored I always thought they were artists, and I

1144
00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:06,760
Speaker 2: always spent way too much money on clothes, so this

1145
00:58:06,880 --> 00:58:10,800
Speaker 2: helped to offset my need. But that wasn't that. It

1146
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:13,000
Speaker 2: was also a good business. I wouldn't have done it

1147
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:15,560
Speaker 2: just done that. Like I said, I never bought resale

1148
00:58:15,720 --> 00:58:17,600
Speaker 2: till I started the real rail and now I shop

1149
00:58:17,680 --> 00:58:18,560
Speaker 2: reseale regularly.

1150
00:58:19,200 --> 00:58:22,120
Speaker 1: And it took time, I'm sure to get people, the

1151
00:58:22,160 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 1: consumer to adapt to consignment and trust it. Right.

1152
00:58:26,240 --> 00:58:28,160
Speaker 2: I just think we did such a good job. I

1153
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:30,480
Speaker 2: mean there were always some there's always people that are

1154
00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:33,480
Speaker 2: like you know that didn't trust us, or it was

1155
00:58:33,520 --> 00:58:38,280
Speaker 2: weirded out by it or something. But we made such

1156
00:58:38,320 --> 00:58:41,440
Speaker 2: an effort to make it look hip and modern. Our

1157
00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:44,760
Speaker 2: challenge in the company's challenge is still probably this was

1158
00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:51,080
Speaker 2: getting product in, not selling it. And most people were

1159
00:58:51,200 --> 00:58:55,720
Speaker 2: so comfortable with giving us letting us try using the

1160
00:58:55,760 --> 00:58:58,120
Speaker 2: internet to help sell their goods because it was just

1161
00:58:58,200 --> 00:59:00,560
Speaker 2: sitting there. And then once people got there for check,

1162
00:59:01,080 --> 00:59:03,520
Speaker 2: they're like, oh, I'm going to do this again. So

1163
00:59:03,640 --> 00:59:08,439
Speaker 2: the repeat rate from the very beginning was very, very high,

1164
00:59:08,640 --> 00:59:12,680
Speaker 2: and any issues, I mean, let's just put it this way,

1165
00:59:12,720 --> 00:59:14,360
Speaker 2: and this is sort of the way the world works.

1166
00:59:14,360 --> 00:59:17,440
Speaker 2: When things happen that are new, the coast tend to

1167
00:59:17,560 --> 00:59:22,080
Speaker 2: adopt faster, and specifically New York is a fast adopter,

1168
00:59:22,360 --> 00:59:27,800
Speaker 2: fast trier. San Francisco fits technology. Obviously, is LA a

1169
00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:30,760
Speaker 2: little later but not much later, but anyone up and

1170
00:59:30,840 --> 00:59:35,440
Speaker 2: down the coast, Florida medium, but New York, LA, San

1171
00:59:35,480 --> 00:59:39,200
Speaker 2: Francisco early adopters. Well, just with those cities alone, you've

1172
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:41,840
Speaker 2: got almost twenty million people. Not quite, but if you

1173
00:59:41,880 --> 00:59:44,400
Speaker 2: do the broader Bay area, you've got twenty million people

1174
00:59:44,800 --> 00:59:47,800
Speaker 2: to run some good tests on and then when you

1175
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:51,800
Speaker 2: start moving in it was a key city plan. Chicago's

1176
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:54,600
Speaker 2: a little later, but not much later. Like two years later,

1177
00:59:55,320 --> 00:59:58,320
Speaker 2: and Texas was like, for you, we had someone in

1178
00:59:58,360 --> 01:00:01,720
Speaker 2: Texas right away, but it was so slow. So Texas, Texas.

1179
01:00:01,720 --> 01:00:04,120
Speaker 2: People like what they like and you have to convince

1180
01:00:04,200 --> 01:00:06,760
Speaker 2: them to move off what they like, and it takes.

1181
01:00:06,760 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 2: It's hard, it's hard to do it. It's worth it,

1182
01:00:09,360 --> 01:00:12,000
Speaker 2: but it's hard to do it. So I would say

1183
01:00:12,040 --> 01:00:16,040
Speaker 2: that we won in the Bay Area and New York

1184
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:20,920
Speaker 2: faster than I thought, and the other markets came as

1185
01:00:21,000 --> 01:00:24,280
Speaker 2: they came. But if we didn't win in New York

1186
01:00:24,520 --> 01:00:26,720
Speaker 2: and we didn't win in the Bay Area, it wouldn't

1187
01:00:26,720 --> 01:00:27,120
Speaker 2: have worked.

1188
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:28,800
Speaker 1: It definitely makes sense. Also, New York is like the

1189
01:00:28,800 --> 01:00:31,640
Speaker 1: mecca of like fashion is I mean, the people here,

1190
01:00:31,800 --> 01:00:34,400
Speaker 1: it's it's crazy. Like I was rewatching Sex in the

1191
01:00:34,440 --> 01:00:35,160
Speaker 1: city this year.

1192
01:00:35,240 --> 01:00:38,320
Speaker 2: It's so good for the original right Regal alone, Oh my.

1193
01:00:38,280 --> 01:00:40,280
Speaker 1: Gosh, and just to see the bags and everything that

1194
01:00:40,280 --> 01:00:43,280
Speaker 1: they were wearing. It's just it's really cool. How did

1195
01:00:43,280 --> 01:00:45,680
Speaker 1: you get people to adapt? Like when you guys did

1196
01:00:45,680 --> 01:00:48,480
Speaker 1: your first couple of drops, right, like, who were you

1197
01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:49,400
Speaker 1: sourcing from?

1198
01:00:49,560 --> 01:00:51,920
Speaker 2: Who was Oh, you know what we did and from

1199
01:00:51,960 --> 01:00:53,520
Speaker 2: the beginning we said we're going to come pick it

1200
01:00:53,600 --> 01:00:56,680
Speaker 2: up and we were giving people seventy percent off, so

1201
01:00:56,760 --> 01:00:58,520
Speaker 2: if they dropped off from a brick and mortar store,

1202
01:00:58,560 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 2: they'd get fifty five maybe percent. Had no visibility in

1203
01:01:01,880 --> 01:01:04,680
Speaker 2: the sales. It's like, now we'll give you. At the beginning,

1204
01:01:04,760 --> 01:01:08,680
Speaker 2: everything was seventy percent to the consigner because we had

1205
01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:10,840
Speaker 2: to have a way in. And then over time we

1206
01:01:11,000 --> 01:01:13,320
Speaker 2: changed that and did it. You know, some products you

1207
01:01:13,360 --> 01:01:16,560
Speaker 2: can still get eighty five points on, but we had

1208
01:01:16,560 --> 01:01:21,080
Speaker 2: to change it based on the product and sell ability

1209
01:01:21,080 --> 01:01:24,760
Speaker 2: of the product. The other thing was we always had

1210
01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:27,680
Speaker 2: to price it to move, so we weren't looking for

1211
01:01:27,720 --> 01:01:33,280
Speaker 2: the best price. My fear was I'd be warehousing product

1212
01:01:33,320 --> 01:01:35,240
Speaker 2: and nothing would sell. So what I was looking for

1213
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:38,959
Speaker 2: was the optimal price within a ninety day window, which

1214
01:01:39,040 --> 01:01:42,120
Speaker 2: meant that this was all made up, But it was

1215
01:01:42,160 --> 01:01:45,840
Speaker 2: based on good knowledge of just mechanics of not wanting

1216
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:48,800
Speaker 2: to get a bigger warehouse and understanding how people think.

1217
01:01:49,120 --> 01:01:51,120
Speaker 2: I want a ninety percent of all product to sell

1218
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,280
Speaker 2: in ninety days, which meant that if it didn't sell

1219
01:01:54,320 --> 01:01:56,920
Speaker 2: in the first couple weeks, that the price had to

1220
01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:59,080
Speaker 2: come down. We were wrong in the price. Now quite

1221
01:01:59,120 --> 01:02:02,520
Speaker 2: a bit of that spent automated to some degree, but

1222
01:02:02,640 --> 01:02:05,160
Speaker 2: it really is finding that sweet spot and price point

1223
01:02:05,240 --> 01:02:07,320
Speaker 2: because if you're if you give us your goods and

1224
01:02:07,360 --> 01:02:09,680
Speaker 2: you don't know where they are, you don't see them anymore,

1225
01:02:09,720 --> 01:02:13,240
Speaker 2: which did freak out some early consigners. They're just disappeared

1226
01:02:13,920 --> 01:02:15,640
Speaker 2: and then you see it on the website but they're

1227
01:02:15,680 --> 01:02:19,840
Speaker 2: not selling. Then you're like, okay, well what am I do?

1228
01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:22,840
Speaker 2: I want my goods back? You know what's happening. They're

1229
01:02:22,840 --> 01:02:25,400
Speaker 2: not selling, so you needed to hit the right price

1230
01:02:25,960 --> 01:02:28,120
Speaker 2: that made the consumer happy. But at the end of

1231
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:32,000
Speaker 2: the day, it's a marketplace, so if people weren't biting

1232
01:02:32,280 --> 01:02:35,360
Speaker 2: at that price point, then your price was too high.

1233
01:02:35,440 --> 01:02:37,120
Speaker 2: It had to come down, and then you try to

1234
01:02:37,120 --> 01:02:39,880
Speaker 2: go five percent ten percent down. And the thing is,

1235
01:02:39,920 --> 01:02:42,400
Speaker 2: the Real Rold never made a flat fee, so they

1236
01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:45,240
Speaker 2: owe it. We made more money if the consigner made money,

1237
01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:47,640
Speaker 2: so it always made sense because we took a percent

1238
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:51,040
Speaker 2: of the sale to get the highest price, but not

1239
01:02:51,240 --> 01:02:53,560
Speaker 2: have product building up in the warehouse that wasn't going

1240
01:02:53,600 --> 01:02:57,280
Speaker 2: to sell. Hence focusing on only key products. The Real

1241
01:02:57,360 --> 01:03:01,440
Speaker 2: Rold didn't never took all products, select group of products

1242
01:03:01,480 --> 01:03:06,560
Speaker 2: that we knew had high consumer traction and sell throughability.

1243
01:03:06,160 --> 01:03:08,600
Speaker 1: Right, Like, what were the brands that you guys prioritized

1244
01:03:08,600 --> 01:03:09,240
Speaker 1: in the early.

1245
01:03:09,080 --> 01:03:12,680
Speaker 2: Days of the top ones which are still there like Chanel,

1246
01:03:12,800 --> 01:03:21,280
Speaker 2: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci, Armez Rolex. Those are really a

1247
01:03:21,280 --> 01:03:25,000
Speaker 2: cartier all right, some of the best brands, and then

1248
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:26,960
Speaker 2: ones that we didn't believe it or not. We did

1249
01:03:27,040 --> 01:03:31,200
Speaker 2: not take in Diando on Furstenberg dress that's at the

1250
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:33,440
Speaker 2: beginning because we said it's not luxury. We added them

1251
01:03:33,480 --> 01:03:36,640
Speaker 2: later and they sell so fast they do so we

1252
01:03:36,840 --> 01:03:40,439
Speaker 2: as we built the brand, we started expanding into mid

1253
01:03:40,480 --> 01:03:41,480
Speaker 2: tier luxury.

1254
01:03:41,720 --> 01:03:44,400
Speaker 1: Iro Yes, and Iro is one of the first jackets

1255
01:03:44,440 --> 01:03:45,680
Speaker 1: I bought for myself on the reil.

1256
01:03:45,640 --> 01:03:48,720
Speaker 2: Which was probably great because we got some amazing their

1257
01:03:48,840 --> 01:03:50,920
Speaker 2: leather jackets. Did you buy a leather I.

1258
01:03:50,920 --> 01:03:53,760
Speaker 1: Bought a Oh gosh, what are they called. It's not leather,

1259
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:57,680
Speaker 1: it's cheerlying. Oh, that's fabulous, And it was like I remember,

1260
01:03:57,720 --> 01:03:59,560
Speaker 1: I bought and it was like the most expensive jacket

1261
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:03,040
Speaker 1: I'd ever for myself, and I just loved it. And

1262
01:04:03,080 --> 01:04:06,320
Speaker 1: then my mom left it in one of our closets

1263
01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:08,880
Speaker 1: that had too much light in the summer. I got

1264
01:04:09,520 --> 01:04:13,520
Speaker 1: the house and it just got I don't like sunburnt. Honestly,

1265
01:04:13,560 --> 01:04:15,000
Speaker 1: I don't even know how to explain it, but you know,

1266
01:04:15,000 --> 01:04:19,000
Speaker 1: when you it literally bleached it. But I got so

1267
01:04:19,080 --> 01:04:20,400
Speaker 1: much good wear out of that jacket.

1268
01:04:20,680 --> 01:04:23,160
Speaker 2: Now I love that. Yeah. So we did expand brands,

1269
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:27,920
Speaker 2: expanded categories, and I then went down to mid tier luxury,

1270
01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:30,120
Speaker 2: which I think is where the innovation is. It's so

1271
01:04:30,240 --> 01:04:33,200
Speaker 2: much fun mid tier, especially now, I think it's fun.

1272
01:04:42,320 --> 01:04:44,200
Speaker 1: When you first started out. Obviously, it's like you kind

1273
01:04:44,240 --> 01:04:47,480
Speaker 1: of know the mainstream brands, right the Gucci, theremaz the

1274
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:49,720
Speaker 1: brands that you just listed, But there still is like

1275
01:04:49,760 --> 01:04:51,960
Speaker 1: a lot to learn about that luxury category. So, like,

1276
01:04:52,000 --> 01:04:53,560
Speaker 1: what were some of the things that you even though

1277
01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:55,840
Speaker 1: you were somebody that loved brands and loved fashion and

1278
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:57,840
Speaker 1: grew up around it with a mom that loved it, Like,

1279
01:04:58,320 --> 01:04:59,600
Speaker 1: what were some of the things that you had to

1280
01:04:59,680 --> 01:05:02,240
Speaker 1: learn quickly that you maybe didn't know going into the

1281
01:05:02,280 --> 01:05:03,000
Speaker 1: fashion space.

1282
01:05:03,360 --> 01:05:05,800
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you what our process was. Because

1283
01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:08,600
Speaker 2: every problem has a solution, So I don't think we

1284
01:05:08,680 --> 01:05:10,880
Speaker 2: didn't know it, It's just we had to figure out things.

1285
01:05:10,920 --> 01:05:14,880
Speaker 2: So here's what we did. We copied, We crawled all

1286
01:05:14,920 --> 01:05:18,200
Speaker 2: of Nieman Marcus's sacks. At that time, there was a

1287
01:05:18,240 --> 01:05:22,560
Speaker 2: Barney's Norse from site filtered it for the highest priced items,

1288
01:05:22,600 --> 01:05:26,240
Speaker 2: all right, So we knew exactly what their boys were,

1289
01:05:26,800 --> 01:05:29,880
Speaker 2: all right, and we would watch and watch the prices

1290
01:05:29,920 --> 01:05:35,959
Speaker 2: over time. So our first pickup was a super set

1291
01:05:36,080 --> 01:05:39,320
Speaker 2: of all the brands combined that those stores carried, all right.

1292
01:05:39,400 --> 01:05:43,160
Speaker 2: So that's number one number. So that was important because

1293
01:05:43,200 --> 01:05:45,240
Speaker 2: we knew because I always say, they know where the

1294
01:05:45,240 --> 01:05:47,440
Speaker 2: bodies are they buried, you know, they know where the

1295
01:05:47,520 --> 01:05:50,479
Speaker 2: goods are because they were the prime sellers at the time.

1296
01:05:50,520 --> 01:05:53,080
Speaker 2: The boutiques weren't as successful as they are now and

1297
01:05:53,120 --> 01:05:56,959
Speaker 2: weren't as widespread, so they know where the bodies are.

1298
01:05:56,520 --> 01:05:59,840
Speaker 2: So that was really important to understand that we wanted

1299
01:05:59,840 --> 01:06:02,880
Speaker 2: to covered the brands that they cover because they also

1300
01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:07,600
Speaker 2: have the highest value in the highest credibility. And then

1301
01:06:07,600 --> 01:06:09,320
Speaker 2: we had to figure out where we're going to put people.

1302
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:14,440
Speaker 2: And again we didn't just look at population size. We

1303
01:06:14,520 --> 01:06:17,760
Speaker 2: also looked at where do these retailers have a bigger

1304
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:20,800
Speaker 2: store and what was their square because they're not going

1305
01:06:20,840 --> 01:06:23,840
Speaker 2: to put a bigger store in a low value area.

1306
01:06:24,480 --> 01:06:26,720
Speaker 2: So we sort of mapped our plan and where we're

1307
01:06:26,720 --> 01:06:29,200
Speaker 2: going to put people outside of New York based on

1308
01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:31,600
Speaker 2: the square footage of where they So all you did

1309
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:34,800
Speaker 2: we look for precedents that showed us that we're strategic

1310
01:06:34,880 --> 01:06:39,120
Speaker 2: precedents because the data wasn't available. And then after that

1311
01:06:39,760 --> 01:06:43,960
Speaker 2: everything we did around I would say we've always been

1312
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:48,880
Speaker 2: data driven, but by year five we had phenomenal tools

1313
01:06:48,880 --> 01:06:51,200
Speaker 2: on our own business and it just kept getting better.

1314
01:06:51,560 --> 01:06:55,080
Speaker 2: We had a phenomenal dashboard every group did to understand

1315
01:06:55,080 --> 01:06:57,280
Speaker 2: where the business was at all times, and it's gotten

1316
01:06:57,320 --> 01:06:59,880
Speaker 2: better since I've left. They can now tell you what

1317
01:07:00,040 --> 01:07:03,440
Speaker 2: the value that's come into the warehouse when it ships,

1318
01:07:03,480 --> 01:07:05,600
Speaker 2: which is not something that you could do before.

1319
01:07:06,200 --> 01:07:07,680
Speaker 1: I know that you read about this in your book

1320
01:07:07,680 --> 01:07:09,360
Speaker 1: because on our walk you kind of referenced some of

1321
01:07:09,400 --> 01:07:11,280
Speaker 1: the mistakes that you guys made along the way during

1322
01:07:11,280 --> 01:07:13,360
Speaker 1: the business in some of the hiccups. What were some

1323
01:07:13,440 --> 01:07:16,520
Speaker 1: of those big hiccups that became like pivotal turning points

1324
01:07:16,520 --> 01:07:17,400
Speaker 1: for the real Really.

1325
01:07:17,280 --> 01:07:18,920
Speaker 2: We didn't have turning points, but I'll tell you what

1326
01:07:19,000 --> 01:07:21,080
Speaker 2: we learned a lot. So the first time we the

1327
01:07:21,240 --> 01:07:24,480
Speaker 2: very first sale, we had cart hoarders and we're like,

1328
01:07:24,800 --> 01:07:28,720
Speaker 2: no one's buying everything. People just like one person put everything,

1329
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,680
Speaker 2: everything in their cart and then we're like, we need

1330
01:07:31,760 --> 01:07:34,840
Speaker 2: a cart timer. Yeah, otherwise this business is going to die.

1331
01:07:34,880 --> 01:07:38,200
Speaker 2: So that hence the cart timer. When we opened our

1332
01:07:38,320 --> 01:07:41,520
Speaker 2: first pop up, well, first store was a pop up

1333
01:07:41,560 --> 01:07:44,000
Speaker 2: in Soho. When I say this, you're going to be like,

1334
01:07:44,040 --> 01:07:46,120
Speaker 2: you didn't think of this, So it's so obvious, but

1335
01:07:46,160 --> 01:07:49,160
Speaker 2: we didn't think of it. We had no idea people

1336
01:07:49,200 --> 01:07:51,600
Speaker 2: were going to come in with consignment and want to

1337
01:07:51,600 --> 01:07:56,480
Speaker 2: consign the spot. We're like, oh, I guess yeah, we're

1338
01:07:56,520 --> 01:07:59,600
Speaker 2: a consignment store. That's what people do in a consignment store.

1339
01:07:59,720 --> 01:08:03,160
Speaker 2: We had no idea. We had no space for them

1340
01:08:03,160 --> 01:08:05,520
Speaker 2: to work. We had in our little pop up eight

1341
01:08:05,560 --> 01:08:09,280
Speaker 2: weeks we generated so much consignment.

1342
01:08:08,840 --> 01:08:10,880
Speaker 1: Like they would come and bring them bring their things.

1343
01:08:10,920 --> 01:08:13,520
Speaker 2: But that's what people do right before the real rail

1344
01:08:13,720 --> 01:08:16,439
Speaker 2: right never occurred to us because we weren't brick and

1345
01:08:16,479 --> 01:08:18,720
Speaker 2: mortar people that that's what people would do.

1346
01:08:19,240 --> 01:08:20,720
Speaker 1: So how did you adopt quickly to that?

1347
01:08:20,920 --> 01:08:24,560
Speaker 2: When we launched the store, we made consignment offices and

1348
01:08:24,680 --> 01:08:27,920
Speaker 2: made that whole area downstairs and we're like, well, we

1349
01:08:28,000 --> 01:08:29,639
Speaker 2: got to We've got to make we had this has

1350
01:08:29,680 --> 01:08:31,400
Speaker 2: to be comfortable. You can't just do it on the

1351
01:08:31,439 --> 01:08:34,360
Speaker 2: floor and go through things. So we had to switch

1352
01:08:34,439 --> 01:08:38,000
Speaker 2: our thinking. Just to give you an idea, that Soho store,

1353
01:08:38,760 --> 01:08:41,519
Speaker 2: which is still there on Wooster, was our first store

1354
01:08:41,680 --> 01:08:45,439
Speaker 2: ever in the US, and all the learning from the

1355
01:08:45,439 --> 01:08:49,960
Speaker 2: pop up we applied. But when this is before COVID hit,

1356
01:08:50,560 --> 01:08:54,479
Speaker 2: that store was doing eighty million dollars a year, of

1357
01:08:54,600 --> 01:08:58,160
Speaker 2: which half of it was consignment coming in. So we

1358
01:08:58,200 --> 01:09:01,080
Speaker 2: looked at total GMV value you of that store, so

1359
01:09:01,240 --> 01:09:06,640
Speaker 2: forty million in sales and forty million of incremental consignment

1360
01:09:06,720 --> 01:09:08,519
Speaker 2: coming in. I mean, it was always so hard to

1361
01:09:08,520 --> 01:09:13,080
Speaker 2: prove incremental versus pickup, but some of it was clearly incremental.

1362
01:09:13,280 --> 01:09:15,040
Speaker 2: But that's one of those things like when you sit

1363
01:09:15,120 --> 01:09:17,760
Speaker 2: back and you're like, of course people wanted to do that.

1364
01:09:18,400 --> 01:09:23,200
Speaker 2: So it's things I would say, it's more about taking

1365
01:09:23,200 --> 01:09:25,960
Speaker 2: a trial and thinking, oh, we were really smart, and

1366
01:09:25,960 --> 01:09:27,719
Speaker 2: then you feel like you're not that smart. You missed

1367
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:29,720
Speaker 2: the basic thing to do.

1368
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:31,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're just learning things along the way. And I

1369
01:09:31,680 --> 01:09:35,000
Speaker 1: think something about like dropping off consignment at a consignment store, Like,

1370
01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:37,599
Speaker 1: you're right, that is a thing that at thrift stores,

1371
01:09:37,640 --> 01:09:39,960
Speaker 1: even in New York invinted shops, like in any city.

1372
01:09:40,160 --> 01:09:41,559
Speaker 1: That's the big thing is you go and you drop

1373
01:09:41,560 --> 01:09:43,280
Speaker 1: off your bags of clothes and they take it and

1374
01:09:43,280 --> 01:09:45,080
Speaker 1: they give you a you know, a price for it whatever.

1375
01:09:45,720 --> 01:09:48,040
Speaker 1: So it's kind of fun that it turned into that

1376
01:09:48,120 --> 01:09:49,120
Speaker 1: being a part of your business.

1377
01:09:49,200 --> 01:09:50,120
Speaker 2: Well it had to be.

1378
01:09:50,280 --> 01:09:50,479
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1379
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:53,559
Speaker 2: So the other thing, which I thought was really funny,

1380
01:09:53,640 --> 01:09:56,400
Speaker 2: we weren't prepared in the pop up to take cash.

1381
01:09:56,920 --> 01:10:02,240
Speaker 2: I'm like cash, because you're a online business, like people

1382
01:10:02,560 --> 01:10:04,120
Speaker 2: buy things on cash.

1383
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,439
Speaker 1: I know that sounds funny, not even then, like you

1384
01:10:06,439 --> 01:10:07,479
Speaker 1: guys didn't think about.

1385
01:10:07,360 --> 01:10:09,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, we didn't think about cash. Then all of

1386
01:10:09,200 --> 01:10:11,120
Speaker 2: a sudden we had to like get a secure cash

1387
01:10:11,200 --> 01:10:14,280
Speaker 2: register bring cash in, Like and of course we're going

1388
01:10:14,360 --> 01:10:17,320
Speaker 2: to say yes. But I remember taking this person one

1389
01:10:17,400 --> 01:10:19,599
Speaker 2: to pay cash for an expensive handbag and I needed

1390
01:10:19,640 --> 01:10:23,400
Speaker 2: like one hundred dollars back or something. And I remember

1391
01:10:23,479 --> 01:10:25,880
Speaker 2: going and asking employees, like, do you have any money

1392
01:10:25,960 --> 01:10:27,760
Speaker 2: so we can give this? Because we weren't set up

1393
01:10:27,760 --> 01:10:30,360
Speaker 2: for that. We weren't going to miss the sale, so

1394
01:10:30,400 --> 01:10:32,599
Speaker 2: we yeah, we just like cleaned out our own wallets

1395
01:10:32,640 --> 01:10:35,160
Speaker 2: to make sure this guy got his return on his Like,

1396
01:10:35,760 --> 01:10:40,400
Speaker 2: isn't that funny? It's so stupid. It's like we weren't retailers.

1397
01:10:40,439 --> 01:10:44,559
Speaker 2: We were online retailers, but we weren't brick and mortar

1398
01:10:44,600 --> 01:10:49,080
Speaker 2: retailers at that time. And those two things I'll never forget.

1399
01:10:49,120 --> 01:10:51,639
Speaker 2: Because the cash thing, it's like, of course people paying cash.

1400
01:10:51,720 --> 01:10:54,240
Speaker 2: I pay in cash, right, not so much anymore, but

1401
01:10:54,320 --> 01:10:54,639
Speaker 2: I did.

1402
01:10:54,680 --> 01:10:56,640
Speaker 1: Then. What was the first product that you bought from

1403
01:10:56,640 --> 01:10:57,080
Speaker 1: the real reall?

1404
01:10:57,280 --> 01:11:01,559
Speaker 2: Remember, yes I do. I even know the consigner's name.

1405
01:11:02,280 --> 01:11:05,200
Speaker 2: It was a Marshalli sweater and it was so cool

1406
01:11:05,400 --> 01:11:09,240
Speaker 2: and it had like this cute it really was, no,

1407
01:11:09,640 --> 01:11:13,559
Speaker 2: this is crazy. It was a gray cashmere sweater and

1408
01:11:13,640 --> 01:11:16,759
Speaker 2: it had arms, no sweater, but it also had arms

1409
01:11:16,800 --> 01:11:19,800
Speaker 2: that came around like you've tied another sweater around it

1410
01:11:19,880 --> 01:11:21,920
Speaker 2: and you just tie it around. And it was just

1411
01:11:21,960 --> 01:11:25,200
Speaker 2: so chic and so, you know, silly on some level,

1412
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:29,240
Speaker 2: so playful that and I loved it. So that was first.

1413
01:11:29,360 --> 01:11:32,760
Speaker 2: My favorite things have always been the jewelry. The fine

1414
01:11:32,840 --> 01:11:35,639
Speaker 2: jewelry is really nice. I don't have any on today

1415
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:39,599
Speaker 2: because I thought we were doing a workout, but you know,

1416
01:11:39,760 --> 01:11:43,559
Speaker 2: Cartier is really fabulous. I've bought different watches and sold

1417
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:47,639
Speaker 2: different watches there. Rolex is still one of my favorite

1418
01:11:47,720 --> 01:11:52,880
Speaker 2: watch brands because the introductory price points high, but it's

1419
01:11:53,120 --> 01:11:54,920
Speaker 2: still you can get one for like five K, and

1420
01:11:54,960 --> 01:11:57,840
Speaker 2: the resell values always strong with the brand because they're

1421
01:11:57,880 --> 01:12:02,280
Speaker 2: so well made. So I would say the jewelry something

1422
01:12:02,320 --> 01:12:05,519
Speaker 2: I've kept. But I do remember the first purchase, and

1423
01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:08,400
Speaker 2: that was that consigner that I said when I opened

1424
01:12:08,400 --> 01:12:11,120
Speaker 2: a box the for you do everything and I'm like,

1425
01:12:11,200 --> 01:12:13,479
Speaker 2: this person is my style, and then you're like, oh,

1426
01:12:13,760 --> 01:12:17,040
Speaker 2: this person's my size. Right. She was remarkable. And then

1427
01:12:17,040 --> 01:12:18,880
Speaker 2: one of us lost their gain weight. I don't know,

1428
01:12:18,920 --> 01:12:22,800
Speaker 2: we fell out of rhythm, but but then I was like, oh,

1429
01:12:22,840 --> 01:12:28,120
Speaker 2: I can't wear things anymore. So that was disappointing, but

1430
01:12:28,320 --> 01:12:30,320
Speaker 2: we had a good run together. She didn't even know.

1431
01:12:30,479 --> 01:12:32,559
Speaker 2: I was like, because like I said, we had a

1432
01:12:32,560 --> 01:12:36,080
Speaker 2: delay before week, employees could shop at the site and

1433
01:12:36,160 --> 01:12:38,320
Speaker 2: every time I'm like, I'm going to get that right.

1434
01:12:38,479 --> 01:12:38,960
Speaker 2: It would fit.

1435
01:12:39,120 --> 01:12:40,760
Speaker 1: There was a funny story that you told on a

1436
01:12:40,800 --> 01:12:42,800
Speaker 1: recent interview, and I'm curious if it's in the book

1437
01:12:42,800 --> 01:12:45,360
Speaker 1: to the story, but the woman was it in with

1438
01:12:45,479 --> 01:12:47,679
Speaker 1: the woman in California that was having her.

1439
01:12:47,960 --> 01:12:52,080
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh channel. Yes, So she had a seamstress

1440
01:12:52,120 --> 01:12:55,080
Speaker 2: and she was making fake chanel outfits and she was

1441
01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:59,000
Speaker 2: she's quite she was quite the socialite, and she was

1442
01:12:59,000 --> 01:13:04,280
Speaker 2: always photographed in these products and they were good replicas.

1443
01:13:04,280 --> 01:13:07,599
Speaker 2: But they were replicas. The resell value would have been

1444
01:13:07,640 --> 01:13:11,040
Speaker 2: way over one hundred thousand dollars. She wasn't doing handbags,

1445
01:13:11,080 --> 01:13:15,800
Speaker 2: just clothing and right off the runway clothing. And we

1446
01:13:15,800 --> 01:13:18,880
Speaker 2: we did not put her in jail, which we should have,

1447
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:21,720
Speaker 2: but we did blacklister and keep the items and said

1448
01:13:21,720 --> 01:13:26,200
Speaker 2: we know these are fakes, but we said, if you

1449
01:13:26,720 --> 01:13:30,400
Speaker 2: do this again, we will actually take legal action against you.

1450
01:13:31,120 --> 01:13:33,760
Speaker 2: And sure enough she came back with you know, her

1451
01:13:33,840 --> 01:13:36,439
Speaker 2: husband's like, oh, she doesn't do that anymore, Like, no,

1452
01:13:36,520 --> 01:13:39,599
Speaker 2: we're done with you. I'm sorry. But in most cases

1453
01:13:39,680 --> 01:13:42,880
Speaker 2: we would, especially with companies that made up well, she

1454
01:13:42,960 --> 01:13:45,080
Speaker 2: was trying to make a business out of it, but

1455
01:13:45,160 --> 01:13:48,599
Speaker 2: there are low level counterfeitters everywhere in the US.

1456
01:13:48,640 --> 01:13:50,920
Speaker 1: And isn't that crazy somebody that's like a socialite that

1457
01:13:51,000 --> 01:13:53,360
Speaker 1: has money. That's the funniest part about it.

1458
01:13:53,320 --> 01:13:55,840
Speaker 2: The whole thing, the luxury. And then they were going

1459
01:13:55,880 --> 01:13:57,760
Speaker 2: to fool us, and they're going to fool us. That

1460
01:13:57,840 --> 01:13:59,320
Speaker 2: was the other thing. They're like, oh, they don't know

1461
01:13:59,320 --> 01:14:01,560
Speaker 2: what they're doing, Like these aren't real.

1462
01:14:01,560 --> 01:14:04,320
Speaker 1: So for context this this woman had a seamstress that

1463
01:14:04,400 --> 01:14:07,000
Speaker 1: was really good at making Chanell counterfeit products, and she

1464
01:14:07,040 --> 01:14:11,040
Speaker 1: would buy the Chanel, bring it to her and return

1465
01:14:11,080 --> 01:14:14,280
Speaker 1: it right. Her Chanelle sales rep was probably like, what

1466
01:14:14,400 --> 01:14:14,920
Speaker 1: is going on?

1467
01:14:15,120 --> 01:14:17,840
Speaker 2: Well, at some point, I'm sure they're cut it off, right. Yeah,

1468
01:14:17,880 --> 01:14:21,640
Speaker 2: So it was Yeah, people are wild. I mean that

1469
01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:23,639
Speaker 2: we had people are wild.

1470
01:14:23,760 --> 01:14:24,759
Speaker 1: It's a crazy industry.

1471
01:14:25,080 --> 01:14:29,880
Speaker 2: Well, resale is because yes, there's always something, there's always

1472
01:14:29,880 --> 01:14:32,760
Speaker 2: some drama around it. So can I tell one more story?

1473
01:14:32,800 --> 01:14:34,840
Speaker 2: I know we've talked a long time, but you know,

1474
01:14:34,920 --> 01:14:37,439
Speaker 2: you hire people and they have skill sets and then

1475
01:14:37,439 --> 01:14:40,479
Speaker 2: there's some skill sets that don't map to someone being

1476
01:14:40,479 --> 01:14:42,880
Speaker 2: that when you're in a startup, you're a generalist, so

1477
01:14:42,880 --> 01:14:44,040
Speaker 2: you have to do a little bit of this. You

1478
01:14:44,080 --> 01:14:47,200
Speaker 2: have to do everything otherwise you can't make the company work.

1479
01:14:47,880 --> 01:14:50,439
Speaker 2: And we hired a banker I'm not going to give

1480
01:14:50,479 --> 01:14:55,320
Speaker 2: your name, and she was doing strategic partnerships looking out

1481
01:14:55,400 --> 01:14:58,599
Speaker 2: because like I said before, we always needed you always

1482
01:14:58,640 --> 01:15:01,639
Speaker 2: needed more watches, like were there partners? Are there any

1483
01:15:01,640 --> 01:15:04,240
Speaker 2: partners we can work with? So she was always on

1484
01:15:04,280 --> 01:15:08,320
Speaker 2: the lookout for that. One day she answered the customer

1485
01:15:08,400 --> 01:15:11,720
Speaker 2: service line, and this person and our employee I'm just

1486
01:15:11,760 --> 01:15:14,760
Speaker 2: going to call her Samantha, but that wasn't her name.

1487
01:15:14,840 --> 01:15:18,559
Speaker 2: Samantha was very logical, right, and she was all about

1488
01:15:18,640 --> 01:15:22,200
Speaker 2: doing deals. She answers the customer service line, and the

1489
01:15:22,240 --> 01:15:25,720
Speaker 2: person is really upset that her shoes sold at a

1490
01:15:25,760 --> 01:15:29,200
Speaker 2: certain price that she had paid I don't know, probably

1491
01:15:29,200 --> 01:15:32,599
Speaker 2: twelve hundred dollars for a pair of shoes and we

1492
01:15:32,640 --> 01:15:35,320
Speaker 2: had sold them for four hundred. She was and then

1493
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:37,640
Speaker 2: she got seventy percent of that. So she was I

1494
01:15:37,760 --> 01:15:40,160
Speaker 2: couldn't believe it that that was all she got for

1495
01:15:40,240 --> 01:15:45,600
Speaker 2: the shoes, and was like almost hysterical, and Samantha is

1496
01:15:45,680 --> 01:15:49,960
Speaker 2: like saying, you do know you're talking about you shoes right,

1497
01:15:50,439 --> 01:15:54,040
Speaker 2: that you're all this and I'm like, oh no, I

1498
01:15:54,040 --> 01:15:56,680
Speaker 2: mean she was trying to logic her out of it,

1499
01:15:56,800 --> 01:16:00,240
Speaker 2: and she had this woman had an emotional response. And

1500
01:16:00,280 --> 01:16:03,320
Speaker 2: so I ended up taking a piece of white paper

1501
01:16:03,320 --> 01:16:08,000
Speaker 2: with marker and wrote queue cards, no, apologize now and

1502
01:16:08,120 --> 01:16:10,920
Speaker 2: say I'm really sorry, and then I'd write I understand,

1503
01:16:10,960 --> 01:16:13,439
Speaker 2: And so she ended up I was like writing real

1504
01:16:13,479 --> 01:16:17,120
Speaker 2: time cue cards for her to get this walk this

1505
01:16:17,200 --> 01:16:18,640
Speaker 2: person off the cliff.

1506
01:16:18,320 --> 01:16:20,120
Speaker 1: And how do you walk somebody off the cliff in

1507
01:16:20,120 --> 01:16:22,760
Speaker 1: that situation, because I would respond like Samantha, and I

1508
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:24,760
Speaker 1: would be logical because you would think that's the thing

1509
01:16:24,800 --> 01:16:26,720
Speaker 1: to do, right, But I understand that that was one

1510
01:16:26,760 --> 01:16:28,439
Speaker 1: of the big things that you guys had to deal without.

1511
01:16:28,439 --> 01:16:32,040
Speaker 2: The real rule all the time, constant, constant, And also, yes,

1512
01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:35,800
Speaker 2: I think you're empathetic. You try to do something, you

1513
01:16:35,840 --> 01:16:39,000
Speaker 2: try to explain, you try to make your policies really transparent,

1514
01:16:39,200 --> 01:16:41,719
Speaker 2: so you know, but people are busy, so they miss things.

1515
01:16:41,720 --> 01:16:43,880
Speaker 2: To give them the benefit of doubt, you may take

1516
01:16:43,920 --> 01:16:47,479
Speaker 2: care of them once, but then if they do it again,

1517
01:16:48,280 --> 01:16:51,519
Speaker 2: then you get a problem, and then you have a problem.

1518
01:16:51,840 --> 01:16:54,880
Speaker 2: All right, But I think the key is more transparency

1519
01:16:55,000 --> 01:16:58,240
Speaker 2: with the consumer the consigner before they consigned, so they

1520
01:16:58,280 --> 01:17:01,080
Speaker 2: know what they're doing, they know the percent, so there

1521
01:17:01,120 --> 01:17:05,000
Speaker 2: shouldn't be any surprises. But then we're assuming they read

1522
01:17:05,040 --> 01:17:08,000
Speaker 2: what we give them, or we're assuming that the luxury

1523
01:17:08,080 --> 01:17:10,160
Speaker 2: manager that comes to your house tells them what we

1524
01:17:10,280 --> 01:17:13,479
Speaker 2: expect them to tell them. So then you put surveys

1525
01:17:13,479 --> 01:17:15,920
Speaker 2: in place and monitor and iterates, especially when you get

1526
01:17:15,960 --> 01:17:19,560
Speaker 2: to big scale, it has to be information and monitoring

1527
01:17:19,560 --> 01:17:24,080
Speaker 2: through surveys, and then also checking customer service stats and

1528
01:17:24,120 --> 01:17:26,640
Speaker 2: what's going on their c STAT. So there's lots of

1529
01:17:26,720 --> 01:17:28,920
Speaker 2: tools to know on a macro level, but when you

1530
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:32,000
Speaker 2: have a really upset customer on the phone, you don't

1531
01:17:32,040 --> 01:17:35,040
Speaker 2: logic with them. I mean because they're upset and maybe

1532
01:17:35,200 --> 01:17:38,880
Speaker 2: something terrible happened in their house, maybe that you don't

1533
01:17:38,920 --> 01:17:41,559
Speaker 2: even know about. You know, they could be like the

1534
01:17:41,600 --> 01:17:44,960
Speaker 2: shoes are a metaphor for something. Yeah, so true, and

1535
01:17:45,000 --> 01:17:47,599
Speaker 2: so there's some drama going on there. Maybe they really

1536
01:17:47,600 --> 01:17:50,040
Speaker 2: need them, I mean really needed the money. So you

1537
01:17:50,160 --> 01:17:51,920
Speaker 2: just have to like give them the benefit of the

1538
01:17:52,000 --> 01:17:55,960
Speaker 2: doubt and then look for repeat offenders, which is what

1539
01:17:56,000 --> 01:17:58,680
Speaker 2: the algorithm can do, right, Yeah, and you can find them.

1540
01:17:58,760 --> 01:18:03,559
Speaker 1: Yeah. When The Real Real iPod in twenty nineteen, right, Yes,

1541
01:18:03,760 --> 01:18:05,600
Speaker 1: what was that feeling like for you?

1542
01:18:05,880 --> 01:18:10,280
Speaker 2: It was exhilarating. So I was only the twenty third

1543
01:18:10,320 --> 01:18:13,160
Speaker 2: woman to take a company public, which is shocking because

1544
01:18:13,160 --> 01:18:16,479
Speaker 2: I think over nine thousand companies have gone public. So

1545
01:18:16,600 --> 01:18:21,320
Speaker 2: that was a milestone. Was a sad one. But when

1546
01:18:21,400 --> 01:18:22,920
Speaker 2: you take money and you have to figure out a

1547
01:18:22,920 --> 01:18:25,400
Speaker 2: way to get money out. I knew The Real was

1548
01:18:25,400 --> 01:18:27,680
Speaker 2: a public company. It wasn't going to be sold it's

1549
01:18:27,720 --> 01:18:30,880
Speaker 2: too weird of a company to be sold, and at

1550
01:18:30,960 --> 01:18:34,160
Speaker 2: least at the time it was, and to know that

1551
01:18:35,720 --> 01:18:38,760
Speaker 2: any employee and their family that had been there five

1552
01:18:38,840 --> 01:18:42,280
Speaker 2: years or more was invited put up in a hotel room,

1553
01:18:42,800 --> 01:18:45,960
Speaker 2: invited to the party, invited to the event, and you

1554
01:18:46,040 --> 01:18:48,240
Speaker 2: look around the room and you're like, there are multiple

1555
01:18:48,320 --> 01:18:51,960
Speaker 2: millionaires in this room at today's stock price. Now that changed,

1556
01:18:53,360 --> 01:18:55,600
Speaker 2: and most of them were women, by the way, not

1557
01:18:55,760 --> 01:18:59,800
Speaker 2: that that's important, but it sort of is important. And

1558
01:19:00,960 --> 01:19:05,040
Speaker 2: it felt great. It was really a high. It was wonderful,

1559
01:19:06,320 --> 01:19:12,040
Speaker 2: and then all kinds of craziness erupted. So after that,

1560
01:19:12,120 --> 01:19:17,400
Speaker 2: before first quarterly meeting, quarterly results were reported, but that

1561
01:19:17,479 --> 01:19:20,880
Speaker 2: one day, at that moment, people were saying, this is

1562
01:19:20,920 --> 01:19:23,479
Speaker 2: the best day of my life besides having kids. And

1563
01:19:23,800 --> 01:19:25,400
Speaker 2: I'm like, what about when you got married. They're like,

1564
01:19:26,040 --> 01:19:28,840
Speaker 2: it's tired maybe, you know, so, I mean, people were

1565
01:19:28,920 --> 01:19:34,840
Speaker 2: coming up just exhilarating. It was a great party. It

1566
01:19:34,920 --> 01:19:38,719
Speaker 2: was Gay Pride week, so we had the village people

1567
01:19:38,880 --> 01:19:41,000
Speaker 2: who didn't do a great job, to be honest, they

1568
01:19:41,040 --> 01:19:43,799
Speaker 2: sort of dialed it in. But we did have Sister

1569
01:19:43,920 --> 01:19:49,160
Speaker 2: Sledge who really brought it and so we had thrown.

1570
01:19:49,200 --> 01:19:52,559
Speaker 2: It was sort of a throatback because I'm old. But

1571
01:19:52,680 --> 01:19:54,920
Speaker 2: it was fun. It was fun, it was camp, the

1572
01:19:54,960 --> 01:19:57,599
Speaker 2: party was great. The stock shop way up. At one

1573
01:19:57,640 --> 01:20:01,760
Speaker 2: time the market cap was over two billion, and I'm like, yeah,

1574
01:20:01,800 --> 01:20:03,200
Speaker 2: this is what we worked hard for.

1575
01:20:03,320 --> 01:20:05,479
Speaker 1: It's just like, after all that work and kind of

1576
01:20:05,479 --> 01:20:07,960
Speaker 1: the redemption arc, it's just to have that moment. It's

1577
01:20:08,000 --> 01:20:10,280
Speaker 1: just surreal. What has it been like? When did you

1578
01:20:10,320 --> 01:20:11,439
Speaker 1: step away from the company?

1579
01:20:11,600 --> 01:20:12,799
Speaker 2: Oh? I didn't step away?

1580
01:20:12,720 --> 01:20:13,040
Speaker 1: He did that?

1581
01:20:13,200 --> 01:20:13,559
Speaker 2: Fired?

1582
01:20:13,800 --> 01:20:14,200
Speaker 1: You did?

1583
01:20:14,760 --> 01:20:16,360
Speaker 2: Yes? No, this is why I want you to read

1584
01:20:16,360 --> 01:20:17,720
Speaker 2: the book. You have to read the book. I don't

1585
01:20:17,760 --> 01:20:19,680
Speaker 2: want to hold on about it. No, I had a

1586
01:20:19,760 --> 01:20:22,040
Speaker 2: major following. All right, So let me give you the

1587
01:20:22,080 --> 01:20:26,240
Speaker 2: premise because I don't really know what happened, But here's

1588
01:20:26,280 --> 01:20:29,639
Speaker 2: what I think happened. I'm pretty sure there was one

1589
01:20:29,640 --> 01:20:32,960
Speaker 2: guy the last money and a pe guy who wasn't

1590
01:20:33,320 --> 01:20:39,440
Speaker 2: really anyway. When the stock really fell during COVID, he lost.

1591
01:20:39,439 --> 01:20:42,879
Speaker 2: He never sold. Every other board member that the original

1592
01:20:42,880 --> 01:20:46,120
Speaker 2: investors tend to be board members, and they got off

1593
01:20:46,120 --> 01:20:48,559
Speaker 2: the board to sell stock. That so you weren't restricted

1594
01:20:48,560 --> 01:20:53,280
Speaker 2: by SEC rules because they're smart. This guy never sold

1595
01:20:53,280 --> 01:20:58,000
Speaker 2: a stock. He probably had tremendous pressure. I had new

1596
01:20:58,040 --> 01:21:01,840
Speaker 2: board members who I would question a lot of things

1597
01:21:01,880 --> 01:21:05,479
Speaker 2: about them in retrospect, Like I said, values and integrity matter,

1598
01:21:05,600 --> 01:21:09,120
Speaker 2: and honesty matters. And he was working against me while

1599
01:21:09,120 --> 01:21:10,960
Speaker 2: I was trying to pull the company out of COVID,

1600
01:21:11,800 --> 01:21:16,160
Speaker 2: and I don't I mean they basically he was who

1601
01:21:16,200 --> 01:21:18,559
Speaker 2: knows what stories he told him. But then I didn't

1602
01:21:18,560 --> 01:21:20,240
Speaker 2: help myself. I told him to fuck off in a

1603
01:21:20,240 --> 01:21:24,559
Speaker 2: board meeting, and then the women jumped down my throat.

1604
01:21:24,600 --> 01:21:26,720
Speaker 2: You can't talk to a man like that, And I mean,

1605
01:21:26,720 --> 01:21:28,679
Speaker 2: you can't talk to a board member. I'm like, he's lying,

1606
01:21:29,680 --> 01:21:31,840
Speaker 2: you know. So he was out to get me. Didn't

1607
01:21:31,840 --> 01:21:37,360
Speaker 2: help myself. It got worse after that. And yeah, and

1608
01:21:37,400 --> 01:21:40,240
Speaker 2: then they brought in a man to replace me who

1609
01:21:40,400 --> 01:21:43,040
Speaker 2: had was unemployed at the time, had never been a

1610
01:21:43,160 --> 01:21:46,320
Speaker 2: CEO before, had never obviously run a public company as

1611
01:21:46,360 --> 01:21:48,680
Speaker 2: a CEO because he hadn't been one knew one of

1612
01:21:48,680 --> 01:21:53,599
Speaker 2: the board members. And he was fired about fifteen months later.

1613
01:21:54,120 --> 01:22:02,280
Speaker 2: And then for interesting reasons. And then Rotti Levec, who's

1614
01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:05,400
Speaker 2: runding the company now, was the first employee and she

1615
01:22:05,479 --> 01:22:08,920
Speaker 2: got promoted to CEO. But the board's still the same

1616
01:22:08,960 --> 01:22:10,960
Speaker 2: I think there's one new board member, so she still

1617
01:22:11,000 --> 01:22:15,320
Speaker 2: has the same challenges I have. The difference is I'm

1618
01:22:15,360 --> 01:22:17,680
Speaker 2: not good around people lying in my face, and I'm

1619
01:22:17,680 --> 01:22:20,040
Speaker 2: not good when people go behind my back, and there's

1620
01:22:20,360 --> 01:22:22,719
Speaker 2: very few things that make me And I'm really mad

1621
01:22:22,760 --> 01:22:26,640
Speaker 2: that I gave away my power to that person. I

1622
01:22:26,720 --> 01:22:30,360
Speaker 2: was also really tired after COVID and everything we went through.

1623
01:22:30,960 --> 01:22:35,519
Speaker 2: But like I said, somebody put it. Somebody was out

1624
01:22:35,560 --> 01:22:38,479
Speaker 2: to get me, and I walked and I gave them

1625
01:22:38,720 --> 01:22:40,400
Speaker 2: reason and walked into the trap.

1626
01:22:41,360 --> 01:22:42,559
Speaker 1: What was it like leaving your path?

1627
01:22:42,640 --> 01:22:45,000
Speaker 2: It was horrible. So we don't want to end on this,

1628
01:22:45,120 --> 01:22:47,960
Speaker 2: but it was horrible. It was really horrible. But let's

1629
01:22:48,040 --> 01:22:48,639
Speaker 2: just say.

1630
01:22:48,640 --> 01:22:51,200
Speaker 1: I'm happy that that chapter is kind of closing.

1631
01:22:51,360 --> 01:22:53,400
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's such a good chapter. I mean,

1632
01:22:53,439 --> 01:22:55,920
Speaker 2: I've got other things I'm doing now. It's true, way

1633
01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:59,400
Speaker 2: back when the tabloids used to have pictures when I

1634
01:22:59,479 --> 01:23:03,640
Speaker 2: was a kid, people that spontaneously combusted. They were just

1635
01:23:03,680 --> 01:23:05,519
Speaker 2: walking and then they just blew up and all you

1636
01:23:05,600 --> 01:23:09,920
Speaker 2: saw were they're smoldering shoes and their ankles that were charred,

1637
01:23:09,960 --> 01:23:12,320
Speaker 2: but they were gone. So I used to think of

1638
01:23:12,360 --> 01:23:15,840
Speaker 2: all the board members just spontaneously combusting, and it gave

1639
01:23:15,880 --> 01:23:19,840
Speaker 2: me great joy. I would be like, there they are,

1640
01:23:19,920 --> 01:23:23,240
Speaker 2: their little chart feed or are still there, but nothing

1641
01:23:23,240 --> 01:23:24,280
Speaker 2: else is left to them.

1642
01:23:25,000 --> 01:23:27,479
Speaker 1: Well, you know, at Glass half fle it's amazing to build.

1643
01:23:27,560 --> 01:23:31,519
Speaker 1: To have built something with your idea that became bigger

1644
01:23:31,560 --> 01:23:32,200
Speaker 1: than yourself.

1645
01:23:32,360 --> 01:23:35,240
Speaker 2: Oh my god, it's great. I mean honestly, it's great

1646
01:23:35,280 --> 01:23:37,760
Speaker 2: and a changed fashion and it got We didn't even

1647
01:23:38,000 --> 01:23:42,120
Speaker 2: talk about the importance of recirculating goods and how it

1648
01:23:42,320 --> 01:23:44,559
Speaker 2: actually was the first The Real World was the first

1649
01:23:44,560 --> 01:23:48,720
Speaker 2: company to talk about sustainability and the importance of recirculating

1650
01:23:48,720 --> 01:23:52,120
Speaker 2: goods versus buying new. All of these things are fabulous.

1651
01:23:53,360 --> 01:23:56,839
Speaker 2: People are greedy, people lie when it comes to money.

1652
01:23:57,040 --> 01:24:00,960
Speaker 2: People will do whatever. And I'm not one to play politics,

1653
01:24:00,960 --> 01:24:05,120
Speaker 2: so let's just say it happened. I wish it didn't happen.

1654
01:24:05,720 --> 01:24:08,719
Speaker 2: I consult with a lot of entrepreneurs now I'm speaking.

1655
01:24:10,320 --> 01:24:13,479
Speaker 2: I started a nutrition company called Ohira, which is either

1656
01:24:13,479 --> 01:24:15,840
Speaker 2: going to be shut down or sold this month. So

1657
01:24:16,800 --> 01:24:18,120
Speaker 2: I don't know. I feel good.

1658
01:24:18,840 --> 01:24:21,599
Speaker 1: I feel good the entrepreneur you lives on it does.

1659
01:24:21,680 --> 01:24:24,240
Speaker 2: But I have to tell you this is so when

1660
01:24:24,280 --> 01:24:29,000
Speaker 2: I look at my mother's life and by the time

1661
01:24:29,120 --> 01:24:31,080
Speaker 2: she was when she was twenty eight, she had her

1662
01:24:31,120 --> 01:24:34,680
Speaker 2: first episode of multiple scrosis. She had four kids by

1663
01:24:34,720 --> 01:24:38,360
Speaker 2: she had She had MS when but it was misdiagnosed.

1664
01:24:38,439 --> 01:24:41,799
Speaker 2: By the time she was thirty six, it was properly

1665
01:24:41,920 --> 01:24:44,600
Speaker 2: diagnosed and her whole and she went on started on

1666
01:24:44,640 --> 01:24:48,120
Speaker 2: a rapid decline and by the time she and then

1667
01:24:48,400 --> 01:24:51,559
Speaker 2: she sort of knew her life was over. Drugs are different.

1668
01:24:51,600 --> 01:24:53,839
Speaker 2: This is a long time only friend that has it. Yeah,

1669
01:24:53,880 --> 01:24:56,559
Speaker 2: it's still a hard disease, but the drugs are better now.

1670
01:24:56,560 --> 01:25:00,240
Speaker 2: But there were no drugs then. There were experiments. It's

1671
01:25:00,280 --> 01:25:04,479
Speaker 2: like being an oxygen container, you know, have your feeling

1672
01:25:04,560 --> 01:25:07,519
Speaker 2: to remove because mercury's poisoning your anyway, a lot of

1673
01:25:07,640 --> 01:25:11,240
Speaker 2: crazy stuff was tried, but she knew her life was

1674
01:25:11,280 --> 01:25:14,799
Speaker 2: sort of over. And by her forties she was mentally

1675
01:25:15,400 --> 01:25:20,040
Speaker 2: incapacitated and couldn't feed her so, you know, in a wheelchair.

1676
01:25:20,080 --> 01:25:23,160
Speaker 2: So and then I look at my life and I'm like,

1677
01:25:23,360 --> 01:25:26,720
Speaker 2: come on, you know, it's not what I thought it

1678
01:25:26,720 --> 01:25:30,519
Speaker 2: would be. In many ways, it's better and it's had

1679
01:25:30,560 --> 01:25:32,080
Speaker 2: some interesting turns.

1680
01:25:32,439 --> 01:25:33,559
Speaker 1: Life is a roller coaster.

1681
01:25:33,800 --> 01:25:37,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're just riding those highs and lows and it's

1682
01:25:37,120 --> 01:25:40,520
Speaker 2: always interesting, you know, it's always interesting.

1683
01:25:40,760 --> 01:25:42,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, Julie. That's the thing that I really

1684
01:25:42,560 --> 01:25:44,760
Speaker 1: appreciate you after getting to know you today, is you

1685
01:25:44,840 --> 01:25:48,880
Speaker 1: have lived such an interesting life. Like seriously, you're curious,

1686
01:25:49,000 --> 01:25:52,439
Speaker 1: you're smart, you're so creative, you're so capable. It's just

1687
01:25:52,479 --> 01:25:55,240
Speaker 1: so like inspiring to sit across from a woman like you.

1688
01:25:55,400 --> 01:25:58,240
Speaker 2: Oh, thank you. Yeah, And you know what, it's been hard,

1689
01:25:58,240 --> 01:26:00,200
Speaker 2: but it's been worth it. I mean it's and I

1690
01:26:00,280 --> 01:26:02,479
Speaker 2: look at it, it's like, it is hard. It's hard

1691
01:26:02,479 --> 01:26:05,519
Speaker 2: when you're not following a norm, but then what else

1692
01:26:05,560 --> 01:26:07,240
Speaker 2: are you going to do if you can't?

1693
01:26:08,200 --> 01:26:10,559
Speaker 1: You know? It's Yeah. I saw this quote the other

1694
01:26:10,640 --> 01:26:13,320
Speaker 1: day that somebody said, and it's that the universe favors

1695
01:26:13,320 --> 01:26:13,759
Speaker 1: the bold.

1696
01:26:14,280 --> 01:26:15,320
Speaker 2: Oh don't you love that?

1697
01:26:15,520 --> 01:26:15,680
Speaker 1: I do?

1698
01:26:15,880 --> 01:26:18,439
Speaker 2: Don't you wish it were always true? I don't think

1699
01:26:18,479 --> 01:26:20,800
Speaker 2: it's so it's true. I always love those axioms. And

1700
01:26:20,840 --> 01:26:23,160
Speaker 2: you're like, just like someone's like, you know, karma, it's

1701
01:26:23,160 --> 01:26:25,280
Speaker 2: how karma? I'm like, really is it? Because in my

1702
01:26:25,320 --> 01:26:29,280
Speaker 2: lifetime sometimes it seems like karmen. Sometimes it seems like

1703
01:26:29,360 --> 01:26:31,880
Speaker 2: karma doesn't exist. But I don't think it hurts to

1704
01:26:31,920 --> 01:26:34,200
Speaker 2: think it exists. And I don't hurt. I don't think

1705
01:26:34,200 --> 01:26:37,200
Speaker 2: it's hard to think that that's true, but I do.

1706
01:26:37,280 --> 01:26:40,080
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what I do know. If you don't

1707
01:26:40,120 --> 01:26:42,679
Speaker 2: take a risk, you're never going to know anything about

1708
01:26:42,680 --> 01:26:46,800
Speaker 2: yourself or about life. And every single day is whether

1709
01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:49,559
Speaker 2: you're in a relationship that's a risk, whether you take

1710
01:26:49,560 --> 01:26:52,320
Speaker 2: a job that's a risk. Every you know, when you

1711
01:26:52,360 --> 01:26:54,840
Speaker 2: step out of your comfort zone is where you grow.

1712
01:26:55,400 --> 01:26:57,360
Speaker 2: And to me, that's what life's all about, and it

1713
01:26:57,400 --> 01:26:59,320
Speaker 2: makes it really challenging and fun.

1714
01:26:59,560 --> 01:27:02,120
Speaker 1: All right, Well, your new book, Time to Get Real

1715
01:27:02,280 --> 01:27:05,559
Speaker 1: is currently sitting behind me, guys, So if you loved

1716
01:27:05,640 --> 01:27:08,400
Speaker 1: Julie's story today, you can read all about it in

1717
01:27:08,439 --> 01:27:10,160
Speaker 1: her new book. And I'm just so happy again I've

1718
01:27:10,160 --> 01:27:11,760
Speaker 1: said this a couple times, but I'm so happy that

1719
01:27:11,800 --> 01:27:13,559
Speaker 1: you put your story down on paper. You know, it's

1720
01:27:13,560 --> 01:27:14,840
Speaker 1: a hard thing to do. I know it took you

1721
01:27:14,880 --> 01:27:17,719
Speaker 1: a lot of time to do it, but it's nice

1722
01:27:17,720 --> 01:27:20,600
Speaker 1: to know that it's finally all in there. You know,

1723
01:27:20,720 --> 01:27:21,960
Speaker 1: a lot of it is, at least a.

1724
01:27:21,920 --> 01:27:23,360
Speaker 2: Lot of it. There's some good stories.

1725
01:27:23,439 --> 01:27:25,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're in a new chapter now, but maybe I'll

1726
01:27:25,560 --> 01:27:26,880
Speaker 1: read another book about it. Some day.

1727
01:27:27,200 --> 01:27:29,240
Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do,

1728
01:27:29,360 --> 01:27:30,960
Speaker 2: but that's fun. This is the first time in my

1729
01:27:31,000 --> 01:27:33,040
Speaker 2: life I don't know what I'm going to do, but

1730
01:27:33,120 --> 01:27:34,639
Speaker 2: whatever it is, it's going to be fun.

1731
01:27:34,960 --> 01:27:37,040
Speaker 1: If you could go back and give your younger self

1732
01:27:37,080 --> 01:27:38,760
Speaker 1: one piece of advice, what would it be?

1733
01:27:39,000 --> 01:27:41,040
Speaker 2: Do you know? I think you just need to learn

1734
01:27:41,080 --> 01:27:45,160
Speaker 2: to love yourself more fast sooner. That's where it all.

1735
01:27:45,360 --> 01:27:48,559
Speaker 2: That's where everything starts. And once you master that, everything

1736
01:27:48,560 --> 01:27:51,200
Speaker 2: else gets easier because then you're more accepting of other

1737
01:27:51,200 --> 01:27:55,719
Speaker 2: people's issues. But if you don't love yourself, everything falls apart.

1738
01:27:56,040 --> 01:27:58,160
Speaker 2: And that means accepting when you're good and bad and

1739
01:27:58,240 --> 01:28:00,360
Speaker 2: fail and succeeds it.

1740
01:28:01,040 --> 01:28:02,679
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much. Jolie.

1741
01:28:02,880 --> 01:28:05,280
Speaker 2: Wait wait what as a woman, if you're pretty and

1742
01:28:05,320 --> 01:28:08,200
Speaker 2: I just love yourself, that's it. That's all you got, babe,

1743
01:28:08,320 --> 01:28:11,520
Speaker 2: Like you know, no matter how you look, what you do,

1744
01:28:11,560 --> 01:28:14,320
Speaker 2: just you have to accept yourself.

1745
01:28:14,439 --> 01:28:17,960
Speaker 1: It's so true, literally, and you have to accept yourself

1746
01:28:18,080 --> 01:28:22,000
Speaker 1: through the darkest of moments and just everything in between.

1747
01:28:22,240 --> 01:28:25,120
Speaker 1: It's just it's so true. Well, this has been so fun.

1748
01:28:25,280 --> 01:28:27,559
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Thank you guys so much for

1749
01:28:27,640 --> 01:28:31,040
Speaker 1: listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation with Julie,

1750
01:28:31,240 --> 01:28:35,120
Speaker 1: please be sure to follow our show. Your support helps

1751
01:28:35,240 --> 01:28:39,280
Speaker 1: us continue bringing you inspiring conversations. And if you enjoyed

1752
01:28:39,280 --> 01:28:42,280
Speaker 1: our conversation, do not be shy share the episode with

1753
01:28:42,320 --> 01:28:45,439
Speaker 1: a friend that you also think can gain something from it.

1754
01:28:45,680 --> 01:28:47,800
Speaker 1: I will see you guys next week on post run

1755
01:28:47,880 --> 01:28:54,760
Speaker 1: High