In this episode, Charles dives deep into the world of purpose-driven entrepreneurship with Lee Rhodes, a trailblazing female founder who transformed her personal battle with cancer into a $30 million empire that's revolutionizing business philanthropy. Lee unveils her groundbreaking approach to integrating charitable giving into every sale, demonstrating how companies can maintain profitability while making a meaningful impact in people's lives. From her early days receiving a small hand-blown glass vessel during chemotherapy to building Glassybaby into a beacon of hope and healing, Lee's journey is a testament to the power of authentic mission-driven business. She dissects her evolution from a mother of three battling cancer to a CEO who's donated $15 million to charity, all while maintaining a commitment to American craftsmanship and living wages. Charles and Lee engage in a candid conversation, exploring the unique challenges faced by female entrepreneurs and the revolutionary approach of making charitable giving a core business function rather than an afterthought. They unpack the counterintuitive decision to maintain American production despite pressure to outsource, the transformative power of point-of-sale giving, and why understanding the human impact of small gestures can create massive business success. Lee's insights crackle with practical wisdom as she breaks down her unique business model, from turning bank loan rejections into opportunities to maintaining authenticity in hiring and growth decisions. She challenges conventional business wisdom, advocating for a radical shift from end-of-year giving to integrated philanthropy that resonates with businesses ready to make a difference in the world. KEY TAKEAWAYS: • Master the art of integrating charitable giving into your business model from day one • Learn why giving at point-of-sale is more powerful than end-of-year donations • Discover how to overcome gender-based obstacles in business financing and growth • Understand the power of authentic mission-driven leadership in building customer loyalty • Explore strategies for maintaining core values while scaling your business impact Head over to podcast.iamcharlesschwartz.com to download your exclusive companion guide, designed to guide you step-by-step in implementing the strategies revealed in this episode. KEY POINTS: 2:04 Cancer Catalyst: Lee reveals how a cancer diagnosis with three young children sparked the creation of a $30 million empire. 4:11 Gender Barriers: Exposes the reality of women entrepreneurs facing systematic loan rejections and credibility challenges. 15:03 Survival Strategy: Details practical insights for managing chemotherapy while building a business empire. 19:31 Investment Journey: Chronicles the path from bank rejection to finding investors who believed in her mission-driven approach. 25:17 Purpose-Driven: Explores how maintaining unwavering purpose guides critical business decisions, including rejecting Chinese manufacturing. 35:50 Team Empowerment: Shares the delicate balance of leading with vision while letting your team take ownership of decisions. 38:18 Revolutionary Giving: Unveils Glassybaby's unique model of integrating charitable donations at the point of sale rather than year-end.
Welcome to the I Am Charles Schwartz Show. Today, we're diving into the extraordinary journey of Leigh Rhodes, a female founder who defied every odd to build a $30 million empire while battling cancer and raising three young children.
In this episode, Leigh 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 million 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 one 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 one 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 seven, eight, or nine figure mark, we've got the blueprint to get you there. The show starts now. All right, guys, welcome back. This podcast I'm excited about because this individual, Leigh, has broken all the rules. She's had a ton of stuff against her, be it health, be it gender, be it all that.
We're going to get into it, and she's still built a $30 million empire. Welcome to the show. I'm so happy you're here.
Thank you for having me. I 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 three very young children under four. And someone blew a tiny little vessel for me, hand-blown glass, which is huge in Seattle. It's in Marano, 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 Glassy Baby. We sell, we hand blow about 1,700 colors of one thing that we use generally for products. for votives 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 started this and from the very beginning, you had odds against you. So 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. We live in a society that is coded very specifically that rewards one gender more than the other gender and makes things easier.
Before we started recording, you talked about levers that you have and levers you don't have. Could you talk 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 business and everything you do in life has levers. And some of the levers are helpful and some of the 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, uh, is out there getting a bank to, you know, be their partner. Um, I think that in retail specifically, um, 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 as valuable and there's no, we're not perishable. So we just hold onto them.
But I think, I do think you're right that the most, when I have to put a one to 10 of the levers that you, that you have when you start your business, the number one 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, OK, 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 one, so I don't know.
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 have 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?
Yeah. I guess I say this all the time, and I think it's just the most important thing, is as a woman, 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 one 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 continue to make you passionate is to give yourself a break.
And you just got to 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 30s. So, you know, I don't take care of them anymore.
And I'm still learning that skill, which is, I think, you know, a lot of really successful women will say to you, just take a break, center, reorganize. And I think men are much better at that than we are. They're better at asking for help.
Sometimes. Not all men. Having worked with them, not all men. The one benefit I will say as being a guy is, and I'm not picking on my side of the gender, we're pretty stupid. We can just lock in on just one thing. We're just like, okay, this is what we do. We just lock into it. So it's the joy of as an entrepreneur when you're going into things, you don't know 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 one thing means that we kind of luckily block out all the other things that are coming at us. We're like, okay, we'll just walk into the wall until it falls over. So that's one 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've built this empire and 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, all of this. And you said, uh-uh. 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 Seattle, Washington. But I did go, I was told by a very, very smart retailer many, many years ago. He said, you're never going to 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 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 everyone said to me, you absolutely cannot do it. It will not work. You'll go under. There's no way this business model has legs. And it was so interesting to me because one 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 three years total.
I could never incorporate the story of we made these in China with my, we pay a living wage to hand produce. blown glass artists in Seattle, Washington, with 401ks, with incredible benefits, with a living wage. And we sell these healing lights and these beacons of hope and these deep breaths that we help people take. And we're not willing to make them here in America.
We're going to make them in another country to save a dollar. None of it fit with me. So they just sat. And I eventually I opened one 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 person. line item gentleman who said to me, you got to make this in China, you'll never make it.
And what I didn't, 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 want to be financially secure. I want to make a lot of money.
I want to 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 it'll save you a lot of headache.
I think there's this conversation where we, especially if 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 one 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.
How you treat the people, the employee thing. You mentioned earlier that you give away cash at the vendor. 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 at Glassy 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 were less fortunate 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 ultimate equalizer. It 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 chemo 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 positive.
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. It's a line item in our cogs.
And so unlike most businesses where people give at the end of the year when they see their P&L and they're like, oh, I can give $100,000 their way or something, we do it at every single time you buy a glassy baby.
And what I loved about it, and you were talking about it earlier, as you're going through 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. We talked about it as a great equalizer.
I spent eight 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 two things combined helped out.
I know people are going to ask me about this and I don't want to focus this because you are more than what you've gone through, but there are people 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 going to be like, okay, how did I make the money? How did I make the money?
There's going to 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 things you went through that can kind of speak to that? Because people are going to start asking me, hey, how did you survive? What'd you do? What are the tips? What do you have going on? People are going to ask me about that.
I think there's, there are, From my personal experience, there are two things. First of all, glassy baby work. When you take the time to sit down with, and it doesn't have to be a glassy baby. It can be anything. A little tea light in something that's colorful. 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 a baby or whatever you, it's sunset or sunrise. It's all the same thing.
It's that same feeling of You can't even control that breath you're taking. It's because your body is in control. And I think that, you know, eating well was always part of our lives. You know, we were in a cold cereal family. We had 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, yeah.
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. It's that time. It's really the time to... Let yourself absorb other people's energy, 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 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 all these things about you need 50 friends.
You can just be your partner.
There are no rules 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 talk about how being an entrepreneur is not for the weary. This didn't happen by accident. There was a way to feed this. There was a way to grow this. And we were talking off camera how entrepreneurship is hard.
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 were like, what are you doing? Go get a real job. I got that from my own family. I would sit there and I was like, I'm starting an IT company. Literally, my father was like, when are you going to go to a real job?
It wasn't until I took my 1099 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?
That'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'd 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,
Um, 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've used my own money, which was tough. Um, I had three small kids, so I used my own money. Um, And I figured out ways we did, you know, we did a little hand to mouth situations.
We would order, you know, people would say, you know, you've got to 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 do a hundred a time until I could do 300 at a time. And, um, The beginning was okay because it was $20,000, $50,000, so it was a little bit more doable.
Once we started to grow and we were a million-dollar 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 a million dollars to a $5 million company because then I had cash that I could actually... And not everyone's going to have that happen to them. I understand that. But I do think that was 20 years ago and now the world has changed. You know, there are... There are venture people.
There's a different set of helping things set up for entrepreneurs than there were when I started. 100%.
Between the angel 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 one of the reasons that Glassy Baby is so successful is you started it 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 two 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 want to 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 that's great. What are some of the mistakes that you're just like, Oh gosh, I wish that didn't happen. That was a, that was a tough one 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 want to be around and hang out with. It's not a great way to hire, you know, so true. Okay. Okay.
And so, uh, 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 great.
is a huge lift for me um 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 want your glassy baby and then one of them decides oh actually i'm going to go right and i'm going to do the gift basket from harry and dave instead and you're sitting with 50 000 units that happens all the time
And I think that as an entrepreneur, you just have to be ready. 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 going to get mad at people.
Of course, there are many things that frustrate you, but the core values that are going to 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've 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 one talks about it. It's the sexy that no one talks about how it's every day.
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 going to make payroll? And as the owner, you're always the last one to get paid. Exactly. And there's times, and you have to be prepared for this as an entrepreneur, as you're going through this, like you're going to be months.
You're not going to get paid, not weeks, not days, months that you're not going to get paid. And your employees don't care. They want their paycheck. They want to be able to buy their stuff to feed their kids and all those other stuff.
And they're still looking to you.
Yes.
To exhibit determination and passion and commitment 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 employees definition of all those things. It has to be yours.
You define your determination. You define your compassion. You defined your passion. Your employees don't because you're going to have people who just don't like you. They don't want to work with you. It's kind of like Glassdoor. Do you know what I mean? 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. I think the most important thing entrepreneurs need to do every day is remember that they're the ones in charge defining themselves, not their employees and not the world. And if you stick to that, you'll be fine.
I try to tell people this all the time. Like someone's going to hate you because you have two eyes and a nose. Just accept it. Someone's going to hate you that you have two hands. There are going to 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 got to 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 going to shut down the business in 27 seconds.
Yeah, exactly.
Happens all the time, all the time. And 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've got to do that sometimes. And especially as entrepreneurs, more than, more than anyone else, in my opinion, you just got to fake it. 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 great. I'm just having a fun day at school. And as soon as they go into school, you just break out and you're great.
Like, Oh my God, I can't do this anymore. 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 one can tell you any of those things if you're defining yourself. They might not like it and they can move on. There's a lot of options out there.
A lot of other jobs. Have fun. Yeah. Go to LinkedIn. Have fun. I wish you the best. Always. if you were going through and starting this from the beginning, now, if someone is like, listen, you know, I'm at six figures, I'm going to head out to seven 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. Cause you're going to run into this going from a million dollars to five to 10 to 30, which is where we are now. What are some of the insights that you could sit down and say, Hey,
You're going to 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 going to run into this no matter what. What are some of the things you've run into at this level of success?
Yeah, I'm going to return to the hiring part. I'm going to return to I think understanding the difference between – For me, it was really understanding the difference between marketing and a business model because everyone kept saying, you can't do that much giving, you can't do that much giving because it's your marketing, it's whatever. And I bought into that.
And you're going to buy into different storylines That are given to you and they're going to be fed to you over and over again by really smart people you love. And you're going to 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 it has nothing to do with marketing.
It's what we do. It's how we do what we do. 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 million 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 I, but I know it is for a lot of entrepreneurs and that's fantastic. Like let that be your guide then. What does that mean you have to do? If it's your paycheck, if you want to 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 reworked, right?
I mean, look, we were just talking about Asheville this morning. I mean, that's going to need an entirely new map. 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 follow it and have it be your guide.
And I think having that purpose internally that drives you through the days where you're crying at the wheel and doing that is really important. Understanding what you're doing and how it fills you up. And, you know, there's a lot of people talk about legacy and, you know, they get to an age like, hey, what is my legacy going to be after they built a billion dollar empire?
I'm like, what are you going to do with it when you're not around? What are you going to do? Who's going to 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 60s or their 70s. 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. It was such a gift. And it came from such 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 chemo room somewhere who are going to get They're parking paid for and they don't even know it. And that's something that 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, each has a name and a story, the way all of that can be just as important as, you know, as making a million dollars and giving $100,000 away.
That $4 of parking is just so... Yeah. Day-to-day matters as much as the end of your life. And that's one thing you learn, too, when you're sick with cancer or you're working in hospice.
Absolutely. And I love that you did it not from a place of significance. You weren't like, okay, I'm going to sell this. They need to know who I am. A lot of the people that have been just blessed by what Glassy Baby's done have no idea who you are. They have no idea who the artist is. They don't know.
But at the end of the day, you know that when you're struggle busing and you're pulling those 18 to 20 hour days, which is called normal as an entrepreneur, that's a normal day. Just accept it. You're going to put in those hours. Having that going, you know what? This one thing sold. And it means that that one 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 going to get you through those struggles is important because, you know, to your point, you've had really, really struggling and challenging times because you have the odds against you. 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 are like, okay, How do you hire more effectively as an entrepreneur so you can get to the goals you're going to get? Because as you just mentioned, you don't hire the people you want to hang out with. How do you hire the people? Like, you know what? Okay. I can't hang out with, 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, you know, people need to match. People need to find interesting what you're doing and how you're doing it.
You know, no one works harder than me. No one 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 one knows the insides and outs better. No one cares about it more. No one 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 going to 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 got to like buy in. Right. And, um, That's what I would say to people.
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 road like getting your books done. People that do our books have to figure out, okay, they need to love the fact that we're giving huge checks every month, writing them to giving partners. That's not easy when you're running finance.
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, whoever it's going to be. And I never, you know, I lose people. I'm not mad at them.
I'm not mad at myself. I hear them when they say you're these five things that are awful. I said, thank you. Yes. I'll try to work harder on those. But then the next person, you know, You'll have the same...
And I think, you know, when you built a team, you know, you're talking about how powerful your team is that, you know, everyone thinks, okay, I'm going to do this by brute force. You're not going to hit $30 million a year by brute force. You just can't, you will burn out.
And I think once you get towards that, and I've worked with so many people, once you start getting to that eight figure mark, you could kind of do it at the beginning seven figures when you're between one to 5 million, you can kind of do it for brute force. But all of a sudden when you get around 12, $14 million, 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 a way, this is your fourth child. You talked about having three kids. This is kind of your fourth one. You know, going into that, how do you sit there and say, okay, I'm going to let go of certain things 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 see something goes wrong, you fix it, you move on. You fix it, you move on. That's a learned trait. And I, you know, most people you work with 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 photo shoot. 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 get 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 on my team, we have fires and we, God, we got to put the fire out, we got to put the fire out, we got to put the fire out, and then 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 may come back to you and it may rear its head 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 to And build up their confidence enough to have them be the ones saying to me, no, Lee, we're not doing that right now. We're fixing this problem. That's what I really want to see in people.
I want to see people taking, if they've taken the bull by the horns and it 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 want to see the bull running around. And that's a hard lesson to learn.
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 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've got this photo shoot. That's really cute. I love that. But shut up. We've got a boulder. We talk about this all the time where there's times where you argue about what's on the radio. And in your car and you're like, Oh no, I want to listen to this song, listen to this song. And you're like, dude, the car's on fire. Shut up. No one cares about what's on the radio right now.
We got to 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 getting in the face of the founder, of the CEO, of that person. And I've worked with all the CEOs that I work with. I'm like, you're not a CEO anymore. You're a strategic advisor. 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 I think if you're going to get to that scaling and you're going to get to that point where you're going to rock and roll, you just have to have that. Um, when it comes, you know, you talk about donating a lot. I would love to learn kind of 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? Cause that, that excites me. I'd never meet entrepreneurs that do what you do. And it was one 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 heartstrings and it connects. And I was like, this is, yeah, I mean, I'm, I don't have a glassy baby, but
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 been in hospice, there are those times where someone just needs that one thing to give them that little hope to get through that next two, three minutes. And people don't understand it's done on that level, especially during chemo routines.
And 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 going to be that exciting for other people, but it's everything to me.
Yeah. Thank you. It is, it's the most important reason why we all come to work. I know that for a fact, all of us at Classic 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've never really said no to anything doing basic needs, which are my passion. That's what I saw in the cable room. People, you can't get well if your basic needs aren't met.
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'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 1997.
No one was alive back then.
No one. And I'm still here. I graduated high school in 95. Trust me. People are like, you're from the 1900s? I'm like, never say that again. I will stab you with something, maybe an abacus. But it drives me nuts.
I haven't heard that. That's hilarious. Yeah. I mean, but some people don't have $16. If your cash card is empty and you don't have $20 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 this stress. Because I do feel like
Boy, is the world stressful right now? It's crazy stressful and getting more so. So anything 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 it's a great partnership. We grow our partnerships. I'm very passionate about elephants. Very passionate about elephants. They cry and they –
And they hold it for a long time. And people don't know this about elephants, but when one of their pack, one of their tribe, one 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 connects with them. And people, we are one planet. We are one energy.
We are one planet. And nothing, you know, whales and pretty much whales and elephants. So those are kind of my passions, cancer, whales and elephants. And I try to service, you know, we do some big splashy things.
Right now we have a huge partnership with Be Positive, which is an incredible children's cancer organization where the founders lost their son when he was, I think, 11 or a middle-aged middle schooler. And they've just started this cancer facility where they pay families mortgage, rent, car payment, while families have children going through cancer. And it's called Be 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 glassy baby because that also does a really lot of good work.
You know, the glassy 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 glassy baby? 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 L-E-E at glassybaby.com. And there's also customer service or, you know, We're pretty low key. 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 was so much fun. I had so much fun. Thank you so much for having me. 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 million empire that's changing lives.
Her transformation from a mother of three 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.imcharlesschwartz.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 one. Remember, sometimes the smallest light can illuminate the darkest room. From donating at the point of sale to maintaining living wages for artisans, Glassy Baby shows us that doing good and doing well can go hand in hand. Now go out there and build something that matters.