Transcript of How She Built a $30M Empire

Welcome to the I am Charles Schwartz show. Today, we're diving into the extraordinary journey of Lee Rhodes, a female founder who defied every odd to build a $30,000,000 empire while battling cancer and raising 3 young children. In this episode, Lee tears down the walls of traditional business thinking, revealing how she transformed a moment of clarity in a chemotherapy room into glassy baby, a company that's revolutionizing the way business approaches charitable giving. She exposes the raw truth about being a woman in business, from banks refusing loans to investors waiting for her husband to show up and how she turned these obstacles into opportunities. Get ready to discover how Lee built a company that's donated $15,000,000 to charity by rejecting conventional wisdom and making giving a core part of every sale, not just an end of year afterthought.

If you're ready to learn how 1 woman proved that profit and purpose can coexist, creating a business model that both sustains artisan jobs in America and supports those battling cancer, this episode is your blueprint. Lee shows us how a single insight about $4 parking fees for cancer patients grew into a movement that's changing lives 1 hand blown glass at a time. The show starts now. Welcome to the I am Charles Schwartz show, where we don't just discuss success, we show you how to create it. On every episode, we uncover the strategies and tactics that turn everyday entrepreneurs into unstoppable powerhouses in their businesses and their lives.

Whether your goal is to transform your life or hit that elusive 7, 8, or 9 figure mark, we've got the blueprint to get you there. The show starts now.

All right, guys. Welcome back to this podcast. I'm excited about because this individual Lee has broken all the rules. She's had a ton of stuff against her, be it health, be it gender, being all that. So we're gonna get into it.

And she's still built a 30 $1,000,000 empire. Welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here.

Thank you for having me. Really appreciate it.

Absolutely. So let's tell the audience a little bit about you. Some people, which I don't know why they don't know about you, but tell the audience a little bit about you and what you've done.

My name is Lee Rhodes. I was in Seattle, Washington. I got diagnosed with lung cancer with 3 very young children under 4, and, someone blew a tiny little vessel for me, hand blown glass, which is huge in Seattle. It's in Murano, Italy, and it's in Seattle, Washington. And it was sitting on my kitchen island.

I dropped a tea light in it, and the color of the glass lit up, and it made me feel something. I felt calm. I felt like I could handle everything that was happening and coming at me. And, that's the beginning of Glassie Baby. We sell we hand blow about 1700 colors of 1 thing that we use generally for call for Vodafs, and we put candles, tea lights in them, but people can use them for whatever they want.

They each have a name, and they each have a story, and they mean something to people. Once you have color and flame and dancing light, you feel better no matter who you are and no matter where you are. And these are really just beacons of hope and healing, and they work. And I think that's the most important thing about what I do every day is that we sell a product that makes the world a better place even though it's a tiny little motive and a tiny little piece of the economy.

I love that you you started this, and from the very beginning, you had odds against you. So, you know, you started it. You were diagnosed with what you had going on. And then from there, you also had other things that were against you. You know, we live in a society that is coded very specifically, that rewards 1 gender more than the other gender and makes things easier.

You know, before we started recording, you talked about levers that you have and levers you don't have. Could you talk about a little bit more about that?

Yeah. I think every entrepreneur, as they start their plan, they can write it down all they want on a piece of paper. They can get as organized as they want. But just innately, every every business and everything you do in life has levers, and some of the levers, are helpful, and some of the levels levers aren't as helpful. And for me, I didn't have many of those levers.

I had a business where I was a woman, so I couldn't get a loan anywhere. Even to this day, getting a loan for me means I need to, you know, put up something, whereas any other man, is out there getting a bank to, you know, be their partner. I think that in retail specifically, levers are important. You need to be able to have a sale. You need to be able to, have a discount, you know, or or, you know, January sale or something like that.

We don't have any of those because of the nature of our business being handmade. Everything is still is valuable, and there's no we're not perishable, so we just hold on to them. But I think I do think you're right that the most when I have to put a 1 to 10 of the levers that you that you have when you start your business, The number 1 thing that's been the most difficult is being a woman. The caveat to that is I have a man's name. My name is Lee Rhodes, and so I have sat in banks.

I have sat in insurance offices where people were saying, oh, we're just waiting for your husband. And I'm like, oh, no. I am Lee Rhodes. So I've lived the experience so much, and I think that the the the answer of, as a woman, getting the answer no for me has meant, okay. How do I make this work, and how do I make this happen for myself?

And I think that's what women specifically need to figure out. For men, I haven't been 1, so I don't know. But

So as a guy, we get lots of things, but nowhere near as much as you get. And what are some of the ways that, you know, as a woman that you've done this and you've built this empire and you've done it with, you know, raising young ones and you've done it with battling the disease and, you know, coming out on the other side. As you've done this, what are some of the things that you found out that, god, I wish I would've known this earlier? I wish that when I first started, what are some of the things that could help out other women as they're starting on their journey?

I guess I say this all the time, and I think it's just the most important thing is you with as a woman, you know, we get up every morning, and we are multitasking all day long. It is not a skill set of mine. I've had to force myself to multitask. Women, if you're a mom and you're a wife, generally, you're a multitasker, especially if you're working, and that's just what we do. And I think that the most important thing for women, especially if you're an entrepreneur, is to take that minute between noon and 1, and don't fill it with anything.

Take that hour, and don't fill it with anything, and just give yourself a break. I said, I think that the most important thing we don't do for ourselves and the way to get ahead and really stay focused on your business or on your passion or on, you know, your Pilates classes, whatever it is you're doing. The way to make that, really have impact in your life and be fulfilling and and and continue to make you passionate is to give yourself a break, and you just gotta take the time to do that and breathe through that because even though we're multitaskers, we cannot do it all all at once. We can do it all. We just can't do it all at once.

And that's the biggest thing I tell women all the time because it's something that it took me forever to learn. My kids are in their thirties, so, you know, it took I don't take care of them anymore, and I'm still learning that that skill, which is a, I think, you know, a lot of really successful women will say to you, just take a break, center, reorganize.

Mhmm.

And I think men are much better at that than we are. They're better at asking for help.

Sometimes. So not all men. Having to work with them, not all men are gonna do. So the the 1 benefit I will say is as being a guy is and I'm not picking on my side of general. We're pretty stupid.

We're pretty we can just lock in on this 1 thing where they're, okay. This is what we do. We're just locked into it. So, you know, it's it's the joy of as as an entrepreneur when you're going in things. You don't know how how difficult the road ahead is.

So you're just like, okay. And that naivety works. And especially as a guy, that ability just to do 1 thing means that we kinda luckily block out all the other things that are coming at us. We're like, it'll be okay. We'll just walk into the wall until it falls over.

So that's that's 1 benefit of being a guy. You've walked through a bunch of different walls and done it very differently than almost anyone I know. You know, you built this empire, and, you know, you would think, hey. I've got these products. I need to outsource them, or I need to have them made in China, or I need to have it because the yields are better.

They're all of this. And you said, uh-uh. Tell if you could, tell the audience how differently you've done that. Where are your products made?

Well, so my products are made in Montana recently and in c and in Seattle, Washington. But I did go I was told by a very, very smart, retailer many, many years ago. He said, you're never gonna make it work. First of all, you can't make something in America handmade. You can't make that.

That'll never work. You can't make something handmade in America and sell it at a at a at the price you'll need to sell it at. That'll never work. You can't do either of those things and, be successful and give money away at the cash register, which is what we do. And they everyone said to me, you absolutely cannot do it.

It's it it will not work. You'll go under. There's no way this business model has legs.

Mhmm.

And it was so interesting to me because 1 of the gentlemen who I believe in so much said, you need to make these in China. And I thought to myself, okay. Well, I'm making them in America. I don't know what making them in China, but I really respected him, and I really wanted to do right by him and have him kind of believe in me. So I went to China.

We made Glassy Baby there. We imported them. They sat in boxes in my warehouse for years, for probably 3 years total. I could never incorporate the story of we made these in China with my we pay a living wage to hand blown glass artists in Seattle, Washington with 401 k's, with incredible benefits, with a living wage, and we we we sell these healing lights in these beacons of hope and and and these deep breaths that we help people take. And we're not willing to make them here in America.

We're gonna make them in another country to save a dollar. None of it fit with me, so they just sat. And I eventually I opened 1 box, and, eventually, they just went I think they got donated to somewhere. But we could never incorporate that that that very smart man, that very smart line item gentleman who said to me, you gotta make this in China, you'll never make it. And the what I didn't re what I didn't realize and what I hope people don't have to make that mistake that I made is you can listen to people and you can learn from what they say if you listen to yourself as well.

That's the lesson I learned. Yes. I hear you. I want to do what you say. I want to be successful.

I wanna have all of my, I wanna be financially secure. I wanna make a lot of money. I wanna give a lot of money away. I want all that to work. But instead of then testing and not believing in myself and feeling like I had to prove he was wrong before I could be right, just skip that step.

Skip that step. Just believe in yourself and believe you're right, and and it'll save you a lot of headache.

I think there's there's this conversation where you're where we especially, we're talking about male versus female here, where we're so constantly as men in our heads, and we don't connect the mind heart balance, and we don't do that. And it's 1 of the things that glassy baby does really well, where you talk about where you give back and how you treat your employees is exceptionally different. You how you treat the people who do everything. You mentioned earlier that you give away cash at the vendor, at the at the cash register, and you do that. It's something that I don't think I've ever met any entrepreneur that's done it at your success level.

Could you talk a little bit more about what does that mean?

So our giving our giving at Glassie Baby was the inspiration, and it's been there since the inception. That's what we do. I sat in chemo rooms with people who had were less fortunate than than I by miles. They didn't have healthy food. They didn't have friends to drive them.

They couldn't afford to pay to park. They missed chemotherapy because they couldn't get the bus fare together. I mean, we're talking about chemotherapies are like battlefields. They're the they're the ultimate equalizer. You doesn't matter how much money you are.

It doesn't matter how pretty you are. It doesn't matter who your dad is. In a Kemah room, you're just as equal as the guy next door who owns the gas station you go to. It's the same. And being involved being a part of a family that was part of the great equalizer was was a life changing experience for me.

And all of a sudden, I thought I should be able to do something to help some of them have bus fare. I should be able to do something to help some of them be able to pay to park. And so when we started, when I got this little candle and it was it created such passion in me to do something better and more with my life. So the the the beginning of glassy baby was about giving money back, and that's how it was. So we don't give money back at the end of the year.

We don't give we give it at the actual payment process because it's part of our business model. It's not part of our marketing.

Right.

It's actually exactly what we do exactly it's part it's a line item in our in our our cogs or and so, unlike most businesses where people give at the end of the year when they see their p and l, and they're like, oh, I can give a $100,000 our way or something. We do it at every single, every single time you buy a glassy baby.

Yeah. And what I loved about it, and you were talking about it earlier, as you're going through this, this you had all the odds, again, against you. You were going through chemo, which anybody who's gone through chemo doesn't understand how intense that is. You know, we talked about it as a great equalizer. I spent 8 years in a hospice watching people struggle through these things, and they were at the point where they weren't coming back.

There was about 1% or 2% that ever did get out of that environment. But people don't understand that death and cancer and chemo and these diseases do not care. They don't care how much money you have in the bank. They don't care what you look like. They don't care about what awards you did.

It's the ultimate equalizer. The fact that you came into that as a woman, as someone who had those things going on and still built the empire, I think a lot of it speaks to the fact that you did it from a place of purpose in your heart. And those 2 things combined helped out. I know people are gonna ask me about this, and I don't wanna focus this because you are more than what you've gone through, but there are people going that are going through this. What are some of the things that as you're going through this and you're building the empire where everyone's gonna be back, okay.

How did I make the money? How did I make the money? There's gonna be people listening going, okay. What is the food that you use to help you get through these things and the struggles? What are some of the things you went through that can kinda speak to that?

Because people are gonna start asking me, hey. How did you survive? What'd you do? What are the tips? What do what do you have going on?

Yeah. You were gonna ask me about that.

I think there's there from my personal experience, there are 2 things. First of all, glassy baby work. Yeah. When you take the time to sit down with and it doesn't have to be a glassy baby. It could be anything.

A little tea light in something that's colorful Mhmm. Brings you to a place of calm. We are all animals. You know? We're all on this earth, and we're all connected.

And we're connected through things like flame and color and dancing movement and anything that makes you have kind of a visceral reaction, that's what we all are, and that's that's what everyone needs in their life. No matter whether it's got the baby or whatever you it's sunset or sunrise. It's all the same thing. It's that same feeling of well, you can't even control that breath you're taking. It's it's it's because your body is is in control.

And I think that, you know, eating well was was always part of our lives. You know, we're we're in a cold cereal family. We had eggs and break eggs and toast in the morning or oatmeal and sandwich for lunch, solid dinners. You know, I do love a glass of wine too, so there's that. But, you know, I think the most important thing for me with eating and really caretaking was making sure I was never alone eating.

It was a time for around those meals with my children or with friends or with my husband or it's that time. It's the really the time to let yourself absorb other people's energy. Yes. Good food, but the energy and the conversation. And even if you're bickering, even if you're whatever.

It's it's a model it's it's it's being friendly and having a community no matter what your community is. That's so important. Your community can just be your husband. You know, there's always things about you need 50 friends.

No. They can just be your partner.

There are no rules Right. Except doing it.

So you were talking about how you fed yourself. When you go in and you can't get loans because the banks won't even talk to you, how do you feed the money that organizations need? You know, you talk about how being an entrepreneur is not for the weary. You know, you you this didn't happen by accident. There was a way to feed this.

There was a way to grow this, and, you know, we were talking off camera how entrepreneurship is hard, and it's supposed to be hard. But this is not an easy venture. It's very sexy now. I'd be like, oh, I'm an entrepreneur, but 30 years ago, 20 years ago, it was not very sexy. People are like, what are you doing?

Go get a real job. You know, I got that from my own family. I would sit there. I was like, I'm starting an IT company, and I literally, my my father was like, when are you gonna go to a real job? And it wasn't until I took my 10 99, and I put it down in front of him.

I was like, I don't know what to do with all this fake money. What do I do now? That's what got him to actually shut up because people didn't believe it. You had all of that plus more. How do you begin to feed the empire, especially as a woman, as you're starting out?

It's such a good question. So, I mean, I lived in the world of no, but I had a product that I believed in and worked for me. So it was every single day was different. Every single day I woke up feeling, you know, like I could take over the world, and then the next day, I woke up and felt like I was shoveling out of a, you know, 10 foot hole. So, I think that the the the answer no always for me meant, okay.

So how do I make this work for myself? And so when I didn't have funding, I would put together you know, I I I've used my own money, which was tough. I had 3 small kids, so I used my own money, And I figured out ways we did, you know, we did a little hand to mouth situations. We would order you know, you know, people would say, you know, you've gotta order 10,000 of those boxes in order to get you, you know, the right deal so you can afford your business, and I would end up having to just do a 100 a time until I could do 300 at a time. And, you know, it got the the beginning was okay because it was, you know, $20,000, $50,000.

So it was a little bit more doable. Once we started to grow and we were a, you know, $1,000,000 business, all those expenses became more difficult. And, I had a couple people come to me and say, we're really inspired by what you're doing. We love what you do, and we'd like to invest in your company. And that was probably the turning point on allowing me to go from $1,000,000 to $5,000,000 company because then I had cash that I could actually and, not everyone's gonna have that happen to them.

I understand that. But I do think that was 20 years ago, and and now that the world has changed, you know, there are there are venture people. There are there's a different there's a different set of

Different culture. Yeah.

Of helping, things set up for entrepreneurs than they were when I started.

100%. Yeah. The the between the annual investors and VCs now, if you have a good story and you have a good purpose it's a totally different ballgame. And I think that's 1 of the reasons that Glassie Baby is so successful is you started it with the mind with the match of mind and heart. And you said, hey.

We have a purpose here. We're trying to do this. It comes from a good place. People don't buy products or services. They buy stories, identities, and ways out of pain.

And you had 2 of those things. You had the story, and you had the identity. And you wanted to get people out of pain as well. You're like, hey. This is what's going on.

We're trying to help, and people wanna do it, invest in that. What do you think for you as you're going through this? You know, you've we're talking about all the successes here, and and that's great. What are some of the mistakes that you're just like, oh, gosh. I wish that didn't have that was a that was a tough 1 to get through and you had to struggle through?

Yeah. I mean, so many. I think hiring is a big mistake. I think I like to hire the way I like to have friends. Like, I want people that I wanna be around and hang out with.

Mhmm. It's not

a great way to hire. You know? It's tricky. So true. Okay.

Okay. And so, the hiring is a big, big, big like, if you can get someone who's really good at it or someone to help you or even just get a consultant, like, some anyone to hire, I find, is a huge lift for me. Mhmm. I've also just made you know, I I've banked on things happening. You know, you you you have a lot of glassy baby.

You have a lot of customers who wanted your glassy baby, and then 1 of them decides, oh, actually, I'm gonna go right. I'm gonna do the gift basket from Harry and David instead, and you're sitting with 50,000 units. That happens all the time.

Mhmm.

And I think that as an entrepreneur, you just have to be ready. You have to you have to just absorb it, put your palms up, and say, thank you. I know there's another plan for me and those 50,000 units because the minute you go down that spiral and that swirl into that bathtub, everyone follows you. Remember, everyone you're working with is following your passion and your determination every single day. Every single day.

So when you falter and when you you know, people say, oh, you can't get mad or you can't do all these things. Those are all natural. Of course, you're gonna get mad at people. Of course, there are gonna be things that frustrate you. But the core values that are gonna get you through are always being exhibiting your determination and your passion and your compassion for everyone around you and why you're doing what you're doing.

And but, I mean, I've endless there have been endless times when I've thought to myself, this can't work. This can't work.

And I think that's a normal thing that no 1 talks about it. It's the sexy that no 1 talks about how this

Oh, 0, it's every

day. Devastate. Yeah. And when you're sitting there and you're like, hey. Those sales, we have those 58,000 units that are sitting there.

How the hell am I gonna make payroll? And see what I'm saying. As the owner, you're always the last 1 to get paid.

Exactly. The

last 1. And there's times, and you have to be prepared for this as an entrepreneur. As you're going through this, like, you're gonna be months you're not gonna get paid. Not weeks, not days, months that you're not gonna get paid, and your employees don't care. They want their paycheck.

They wanna be able to buy their stuff to feed their kids and and all those other stuff.

And they're still looking to you

Yes.

To to exhibit determination and passion and commitment Yes. And compassion and empathy, all those things that you have to come to the door with every single day. You can't falter on any of those because once you falter a little bit, you're no longer, you know, standing upright, and you don't have to oh, by the way, it doesn't have to be your employee's definition of all those things. It has to be yours. You define your determination.

You define your compassion. You define your passion.

Yes.

Your employees don't because you're gonna have people who just don't like you. They don't wanna work with you. A 100%. You know, it's kinda like Glassdoor.

Do you

know what I mean? Like, you let people go for a reason. All of a sudden, there's this article on you on Glassdoor that says you're all these things. You're like, yeah. But I let you go.

Like, you I think the most important thing entrepreneurs need to do every day is remember that they're the ones in charge defining themselves

Yes.

Not their employees and not the world. And and if if you stick to that, you'll be fine.

I I I try to tell people this all the time. Like, someone's gonna hate you because you have 2 eyes and a nose. Just accept it. Someone's gonna hate you that you have 2 hands. It's just so there are gonna be people who do not like you, and this is not about that.

That's not what this is about. It's not a popularity contest in any way, shape, or form. But there is that as a founder, as an owner, you've gotta stand in front of the storm. Like, it's not raining. No.

We're good. We got this. Even though inside, your internal storm is like, oh my god. I'm gonna shut down the business in 27 seconds. And you guys

are gonna in my pants.

Yeah. Exactly. Happens all the time. All the time. And it it's the expression is act as he has faith, and faith shall be rewarded.

In other words, fake it till you make it. That's just how it works. And you gotta do that sometimes, and especially as entrepreneurs more than more than anyone else, in my opinion. You just gotta fake. It's it's I think it's the equivalent, and I'm I'm I don't have children.

I think it's kind of standing in front of the kids as well. It's like, oh, everything's everything's great. I'm I'm great. I'm still having a fun day at school. And as soon as they go into school, you just break out in your credit, like, oh my god.

I can't do this anymore.

Oh, so I I've tried the wheel so many times. And I and I think that, you know, people entrepreneurs are always looking for solutions for things. Like, tell me how that what happened and then what did you do? Yes. Okay.

There are so many answers of in stories like that in every entrepreneur's history, especially someone that's got a company as big. But the most important thing I will say to you is you have to define you. And every single day, you have to live that. And hold true to that because no 1 can tell you you're any of those things if you're defining yourself. They might not like it, and they can move you know, there's a there's a lot of options out there.

Jobs. Have fun. Yeah. Go to LinkedIn. Have fun.

I wish you the best. No worries. K. If you were if you were going through and, starting this from the beginning now, if someone is like, listen. You know, I'm I'm at 6 figures.

I'm gonna head out to 7 figures. What are the things that you're like, hey. You know? It's the running joke. Jesus didn't walk on water.

He knew where the rocks were. What are some of the rocks that you're like, hey. Step here. Step there. Step here.

Because you're gonna run into this going from $1,000,000 to 5 to 10 to 30, which is we are now. What are some of the insights that you could sit down and say, hey. You're gonna run into this no matter where you're if you have internal plumbing or external plumbing, doesn't matter what gender you are, you're gonna run into this no matter what. What are some of the things you've run into at this level of success?

Yeah. I'm gonna return to the hiring part.

Mhmm.

I'm gonna return to, I think understanding the difference between for me, it was I'm really understanding the difference between marketing and the business model because everyone kept saying, you can't do that much giving. You can't do that much giving, and because it's your marketing. It's whatever. And I bought into that, and you're gonna buy into different story lines that are given to you, and you're gonna they're gonna be fed to you over and over again by really smart people you love, and you're gonna buy into them. And you need to try to make sure you're listening to your own language, because, actually, the giving has nothing to do.

I was totally right on this because there's nothing to do with marketing. It's what we do. It's it's how we do what we do. Right. And, yes, I know a ton of customers don't care, and I know whatever.

But for me, if it it is the motivator and it is the it is the value add that makes sure people understand glassy baby work. Why do they work? Because we get we we do so well. We give $15,000,000 away. And so I think it's sticking to whatever it is that gets you up in the morning.

And, you know, it's not really the paycheck for me. So but I know it is for a lot of entrepreneurs, and that's fantastic. Like, let that be your guide then.

Right.

What does that mean you have to do? If it's your paycheck, if you wanna be a billionaire, if that's your dream, what do you have to do to get there? And remember, when you map stuff out, maps are meant to be washed and re reworked. Right? I mean, look at look we were just talking about Asheville this morning.

I mean, that's gonna need an entirely new map. Yes. So they're made to be ruined. So just believe that whatever map you have that you wake up with every day, the most important thing is to be able to have it change and continue to, you know, follow it and have it be your guide.

Mhmm. And I I think having that that purpose internally that drives you through the days where you're crying at the wheel and doing that is is really important. Understanding why you're doing it and how it fills you up. And, you know, there's there's a lot of people talk about legacy, and, you know, they get to an age. They're like, hey.

What is my legacy gonna be after they built the $1,000,000,000 empire? I'm like, what are you gonna do with it when you're not around? What are you gonna do? Who's gonna run it? What's next?

And people don't realize that till they're faced with certain things. And a lot of people don't face that until they're in their sixties or their seventies. And they're like, oh god. What is my legacy now? Doing that from the beginning, incorporating that for Glassy Baby in the very beginning is, I think, something that's just unbelievable was such a gift, and it came from your a pure heart.

I would say day to day legacy is is so much more you talk about the word sexy, but it is the sexiest part of my day, is knowing that there are people out there sitting in a Kimiya room somewhere who are gonna get

Yep.

Their parking paid for, and they don't even know it. And that's something that the glassy baby did. That's something that the customers, not me. That's the people buying glassy baby, lighting glassy baby, believing in glassy baby, believing in flame, believing in, the way flame touches you, the way color touches you, the way stories there each has a name and a story, the way all of that can be just as important as, you know, as as making a $1,000,000 and giving a $100,000 away.

Right.

That $4 of parking is just so yeah. Day to day matters as much as as much as the end of your life. And and I that's 1 thing you learn too when you're when you're sick with cancer and you're or you're working in hospice.

Absolutely. I think and I love that you did it not from a place of significance. You weren't like, okay. I'm gonna sell this. They need to know who I am.

A lot of the people that have been just blessed by what Blasty Baby's done have no idea who you are. They have no idea who the artist is. They they they don't know. But at the end of the day, you know that when you're struggle bussing and you're pulling those 18 to 20 hour days, which is called normal as an entrepreneur, that's that's a normal day. Just accept it.

You're gonna put in those hours. Having that going, you know what? This 1 thing sold, and it means that that 1 person can get this. This gets it a little bit better. This makes it a little bit easier, finding that whatever fills your cup.

It doesn't have to be you know, you and I are very similar. We're driven by service to others. That's just it's just how we are as human beings. You don't have to be driven by service to others if that's who not your truth. Honoring whatever your truth is that's gonna get you through those struggles is important because, you know, to your point, you've had really, really struggling and and challenging times because you had the odds against you.

You just it is what it is. You've talked about hiring a bunch of times and how important it is. What are some of the things that you realize you're like, okay. How do how do you hire more effectively as an entrepreneur so you can get to the goals you're gonna get? Because as you just mentioned, you don't hire the people you wanna hang out with.

How do you hire the people? Like, you know what? Okay. I can't hang out with I I can't hire Susie because I like Susie. Dang it.

I need to hire Jane or whatever it is. How do you make that differentiator?

I'm still, you know, I'm still not great at it. I have a great team now, which I'm really excited about. So, I mean, I really do, and I'm thankful every day. But I have made so many mistakes, but they're not mistakes because they're bad or I'm bad even though, again, Glassdoor. It's that it's that, you know, people need to match people need to find interesting what you're doing and how you're doing it.

Right. You know? No 1 works harder than me. No 1 knows the business better than me. No one's and I'm not a great CEO.

I just happen to know what I do very, very well. Like, no 1 knows the insides and outs better. No 1 cares about it more. No 1 probably finds the joy of a new glassy baby and the name and the story being out in the world as much as I do. And so you kind of have to drink the Kool Aid a little to work for glassy baby, and that's a hard to that's hard because I don't know who's gonna drink it.

And I don't think all businesses are like that. I think, you know, I think some restaurants are. Like, there's some places where there's also passion involved, and you gotta, like, buy in. Right. And that's what I would say to people.

I would I would have people identify whether they're a drink the Kool Aid business or not. Because if you are, then you need to hire differently than you do for just a rote, like, getting your books done. Right. People that do our books have to be figure out, okay. They have need to love the fact that we're giving huge checks every month to writing them to giving partners.

That's not easy when you're running finance. Like, there's a lot of things that happen in the small business that I think kind of being part of the team really at your core. And you can't ask someone. You can't pay someone enough to do that. You can't ask someone to be that.

And that's where hiring becomes a problem for me because I don't know whoever it's whoever it's gonna be. And I never you know, when I lose people, I'm not mad at them. I'm not mad at myself. I hear them when they say, you're these 5 things that are awful. I said, thank you.

Yes. I'll try to work harder on those. Mhmm. But then the next person, you know, you'll have to say

Yeah. And I I think, you know, when you built a team, you know, you talked about how powerful your team is that, you know, everyone thinks, okay. I'm gonna do this by brute force. You're not gonna hit $30,000,000 a year by brute force. You you just can't.

You will burn out. And I think once you get towards that and and I've worked with so many people. Once you start getting to that 8 figure mark, you could kinda do it at the beginning 7 figures. When you're between 1 to 5,000,000, you can kinda do it for brute force. But all of a sudden, when you get around 12, $14,000,000, you better have a deep bench because you just can't handle it.

When you're building that team, when do you know to let go of certain things? Because, again, this is in in a way, this is your this is your 4th child. You talk about having 3 kids. This is kinda your 4th 1. You know, going into that, how do you sit there and say, okay.

I'm gonna let go of certain things and and empower a team. Talk about that process. What is that like to do?

Yeah. Letting go. I'm pretty good at letting go. I'm pretty but I guess I'm also because I'm a mom and I'm all those things, you know, I know how to you you see something. If something goes wrong, you fix it, you move on.

You fix it, you move on. That's a that's a learned trait, and I I you know, you were most people you work with don't don't know that yet that you know? Like, we just had something fall apart completely. And my executive team was like, okay. Well, I've got a photoshoot.

I've got a meeting. I've got like, they all had things to do that day, and I was like, oh, hi, everyone. No. Regroup. Yes.

Concentrate. Fix this? Like, it's like you're going down a river and there's a big boulder in the river. Okay. You're still floating down the river, but you can dig around the boulder.

Like, you can't do anything about that. It's the same thing. You need to get that issue taken care of, put that fire out, and then move it aside, and don't concentrate it on it anymore. A lot of people, you know, on my team, you know, we we have fires, and we, god, we gotta put the fire out. We gotta put the fire out.

We gotta put whatever, and then they they go ahead and do their thing while the fire is burning. And I think it's learned that you need to get rid of the fire, move it aside no matter how it it you know, it may come back to you, and it may rear itself ahead again. And you may lose the opportunity. That might just be what happens with it. But don't let it sit there.

And I think with hiring people and training people, it takes time to give people the confidence and and build up their confidence enough to have them be the 1 saying to me, no, Lee. We're not doing that right now. We're fixing this problem. That's what I really wanna see in people. I wanna see people taking if they've taken the bull by the horns and hasn't worked and the bull's still loose, figure out how to get the catch that bull and then move forward.

I don't wanna see the bull running around, and that's a hard lesson to learn.

Yeah. And I think it's also for people who are coming into organizations and working with entrepreneurs and trying to do this. Being able to step in and say, hey. Yes. I'm the founder.

I'm the CEO, but I need you to get in my face. I need you to I am not perfect. I need you to tell me to shut up. I need you to tell me where I'm wrong. I need you to point out, hey.

There's a boulder. I know you got this photoshoot. That's really cute. I love that, but shut up. We've got a boulder.

You know, we talk about this all the time where, you know, there's times where you argue about what's on the radio and in your car, and you're like, oh, no. I wanna listen to the song. Listen to the song. And you're like, dude, the car is on fire. Shut up.

No 1 cares about what's on the radio right now. We gotta fix this. And I think being able to unify and saying our first goal isn't and a lot of team leaders do this. And, you know, wherever we are, if it's a CTO or CFO or CMO or whatever it is, they get so focused that that their division is the most important thing. Their division is not the most important thing.

The org is the most important thing. We serve that, then we serve the people down command. And part of serving that org is is getting in the face of the founder, of the CEO, of that person. And, you know, I've worked with all the CEOs that I work with. I'm like, you're not a CEO anymore.

You're you're a strategic adviser. That's all you are. You're not a CEO. Get out of the way. Hire people that are smarter than you, empower them, and shut down.

And and I think if you're gonna get to that scaling and you're gonna get to that point where you're gonna rock and roll, you just have to have that. Yeah. When it comes you know, you talk about donating a lot. I would love to learn kinda more about that process. And, you know, you're giving away tons of money tons of money every year.

Where does that go? And how does that actually directly you know, how does that process? Because that that excites me. I'd never meet entrepreneurs that do what you do. And it was 1 of the reasons I wanted you on the show.

I was like, okay. Time out. You're doing what? And it just it tugs on the hard strings and it connects. I was like, this is yeah, I mean, I'm I don't have a glassy baby, but I don't care.

You're changing people's lives. I was like, time out. How are you doing this? Because, you know, again, having having been in hospice, there are those times where someone just needs that 1 thing to give them that little hope to get through that next 2, 3 minutes. And people don't understand it's done on that level, especially during chemo routines, and you're you're having that treatment.

It is not fun. It is not eating ice cream. It does not feel good. So talking about I would love to hear more about, you know, where you guys donate and what you guys do. And I know that's it's probably not gonna be that exciting for other people, but it's everything to me.

Yeah. Thank you. It is it's just the most important reason why we all come to work. I know that for a fact, all of us at Classy Baby, because it's hard work. We have a foundation, and we give we give $5,000 baby grants over every month, and we give to and then we give big donations.

We give to the environment. We give mostly to cancer. We give to Angel Flight that flies, patients around who live in rural areas. We give to we we've never really said no to anything doing basic needs, which are my passion. That's what I saw in the Cameroon.

People, you can't get well if your basic needs aren't met. You know? If you're not having anything to eat and you have chemo all day and then you go home and you have the $1 burger at McDonald's, that's not a McDonald's. It's just simply your body needs more. It needs more nutrients.

It needs better food. And so we like to cover all of those get into those basic needs. So we do a lot of small organizations that are just doing the really hard work. I mean, they're running around their cars and delivering handmade food that they made. People like that for us, that that's my sweet spot.

Like, who's really touching people every single day? I do love universal parking. It's kind of a passion for me because I did see when I would go to the chemo room, it was $16 every single day when I had chemo. That's $8 an hour parking. That was back in that was back in, you know, 1997.

No 1 was alive back then. No 1.

I'm still here.

I I graduated high school in 95. Trust me. People like, dear, you're from the 1900? I'm like, never say that again. I will stab you with something, maybe an abacus, but I it drives me nuts.

I haven't heard that. That's alert. Yeah. I mean I mean but some people don't have $16. If your cash card is empty and you don't have $20 in your in your in your pocket and your credit card's maxed out, you don't have $16, and now it's $40.

So that's a sweet spot for me. Anything that's really just doing anything for those basic needs so that we alleviate some of the stress. Because I do feel like boy. Is the world stressful right now? It's crazy stressful and getting more so.

So Absolutely. Anything that we can do to and we always look for opportunities. Anytime anyone has an opportunity, I'd love to hear about it. We have $5,000, to start, and if we're it's a great partnership. You know, we grow our partnerships.

I'm very passionate about elephants.

Mhmm.

Very passionate about elephants. You know, they cry, and they Yep. It

just like for a long time. And they people don't know this about elephants, but when 1 of their 1 of their pack, 1 of their tribe, 1 of their group dies, they will stay in that area. And every time they pass by, they will stop in that area years later because they hold it. They have it, and it and it connects with them. And people we are 1 planet.

We are 1 energy. We are

1 planet.

You know, people don't

have it. And and nothing you know, whales and pretty much whales and, and elephants. So those are kind of my passions, cancer, whales.

Yeah.

And and and elephants. And I try to service you know, we do some big splashy things. Right now, we're we have huge partnership with B Positive, which is a an incredible children's cancer, organization where the the founders lost their son when he was, I think, 11 or no. A middle aged middle schooler. And, and they've just started this this cancer facility where they pay they pay families mortgage, rent, car payment while families have children going through cancer.

And it's it's called B Positive, and it's just the most amazing organization. So we're giving them $300,000 this year, which is huge for us. Huge. But, I really feel like they're touching a lot of lives and doing a lot of good work. And so anything like that where I feel like we're actually sitting outside now, I do also, you know, I do also encourage people to light a glass of baby because, that also does a really lot of good work.

You know, the glass of baby do a lot of heavy lifting. You you'd be surprised what it what it means to have 30 seconds of something that's just for you, that's just candle in a in a colored glass.

So how do people track you down? How do they find you? How do they find more out about glassybaby? How do how do people become part of this?

Well, we're just glassybaby.com, silliest name ever. G l a s s y b a b y. Sorry. And I'm just lee@glassybaby.com. And, there's also customer service or, you know, anything.

We're pretty low key. We we we'd never we answer every email we get, and, we're just we're just trying right now to, you know, put our palms up and absorb what's happening around us as everyone is, and it helps to be able to light a glassy baby, I think.

I love it. Thank you so very much for being part of this and sharing this stuff.

So much fun. I had so much fun. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. And sorry about some of the twists and answers.

No. It's great. They were

great. Okay.

And that's a wrap on our masterclass in purpose driven entrepreneurship with Lee Rhodes. We hope you're as inspired by the possibilities of combining profit with purpose as we are. A massive thank you to Lee for pulling back the curtain on her remarkable journey from a cancer diagnosis to building a $30,000,000 empire that's changing lives. Her transformation from a mother of 3 battling cancer to the founder of glassy baby is a testament to the power of letting your mission, not just your margin, drive your business decisions. Want to implement Lee's strategies for building a purpose driven business?

Head over to podcast.imcharleswartz.com to download our free companion guide. Inside, you'll find Lee's complete framework for integrating charitable giving into your business model from day 1. Remember, sometimes the smallest light can illuminate the darkest room. From donating at the point of sale to maintaining living wages for artisans, glassybaby shows us that doing good and doing well can go hand in hand. Now go out there and build something that matters.