How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes
episodePreviously titled “How She Built a $30M Empire” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 4, 2026
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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.
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