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Chapter 1: How did Smithe start her pillow business?
So how do you create a multi-million dollar business starting with only $10,000 without having much of a plan, without doing a lot of research, without even knowing how to use Shopify or basically you had to learn the internet from scratch? Well, we have talked about this a little bit on this podcast, but I finally wanted to do an episode with a very special person. my mother-in-law.
So about five years ago, my mother-in-law sat me down. She goes, Sam, I have this idea for a business. I want to start this pillow company.
Chapter 2: What strategies helped Smithe gain her first 100 customers?
Can you teach me how to do it? I gave the most generic advice ever on how to do it, not expecting her to do anything. Turns out she listened and she Googled and found actually significantly better advice. And she built a company that is now making millions a year in revenue. She started it in her early 50s and it's killing it.
And after years of just kind of quietly chugging along and building this epic business, I asked my mother-in-law, Smithy Sodine, to come on the pod and give her story.
Chapter 3: What mindset is crucial for achieving your first $1 in business?
If you are in your 30s, 40s, or 50s, and you are thinking about starting a business and you're sort of overthinking, you're not sure what to do, or even if you're in your 20s and you want to figure out how to change your life, this is probably the most relatable and I think inspirational episodes that we have ever done. So it's a very special episode for me for obvious reasons.
I love her to death, but I think you guys are going to like it.
Chapter 4: Why is having 'nothing to lose' beneficial for entrepreneurs?
Check it out.
So let me set the stage here, Smithy.
Okay.
Smithy, do you even listen to the podcast?
Chapter 5: What was Smithe's experience when she first met Sam?
I do. I do listen to some episodes.
All right. So the story is this. Basically, you came over in your early teens as an immigrant. You had some kids and you're a stay-at-home mom. And then the kids grew up and you were like, well, I'm not really sure what to do next. And so you were trying a bunch of different stuff.
I think at one point, you got your real estate license and you did something a lot of people want or they think about. They think like, I want to start something. I want to do something. And you thought about it for a
Chapter 6: How did Smithe adapt to the challenges of e-commerce?
couple years, I think. And then all of a sudden, we had a conversation. And you basically told me what you were going to do. And I wasn't sure if I even believed that you were going to do it. But basically, you were like, I'm going to start a pillow business. You had done zero research, you didn't do any market research. And then all of a sudden, two weeks later, you have this online store.
And before I know it, you had a bunch of sales. And now after doing this for six years, you've made multiple millions in revenue. I don't know if you want to say what it is, or you know, you could say the numbers, but you built like a seven-figure business without any internet experience or any research. We talked about you on the podcast, and that was pretty cool. And a lot of people have asked.
Chapter 7: What role does customer service play in Smithe's business?
And so we have Smithy here, who's actually my mother-in-law.
Well, okay. I'll just change a few little bits of information in that summary. So I came to the U.S. with my family when I was 16 years old. So it was in 1983. We lived in Miami for a couple of years, and then I wound up going to school in New York City. I wanted to be in the fashion industry. Sewing has always been a passion of mine. So I've My grandparents sewed and my mom did.
So I learned from them and then I wind up just liking it. It was just a way to express myself, my creativity. I made clothes for myself, and then I wanted to go to Fashion Institute of Technology to study fashion. So I wound up being majoring in pattern making. I also had to work full-time while I was going to school part-time. So I never graduated from FIT.
I didn't know you went to FIT. That's pretty cool.
Yes, I went to FIT for about a couple of years, maybe two, three years part-time. I was really close to graduation. Then I got married, had a child, your wife, and decided that I wanted to move out of New York City. So, and we moved to the suburbs and there was no fashion industry in the suburbs. And I really didn't want to travel back and forth to work in the city. Then I stayed at home.
I became a stay-at-home mom for about three or four years. Then I realized, oh, wow, I'm raising a child, but I don't have enough information to raise her. What am I going to do? Like, when she needs knowledge, how am I going to help her and so on? I'm like, okay, fine. I'll go to school to become a teacher. So I went to school, did a dual major, English, Lit, and Education.
I actually went to school for 10 years while I was raising my kids and actually wound up with a master's degree in linguistics. Then it really helped having children. But I always sewed or did alterations for my neighbors. And there were vests were in style in the 1990s. So I made vests and sewed them on the side. So I was always sewing, doing something in that field. So when...
I started teaching. I thought for a while, my husband and I own a business. I helped out. And then when the business was winding down, I was like, oh, I really needed to work to keep working. I was just too young to retire. So I really brainstormed. And then pillows just kept coming back to me because my friends always asked me to make them for them. I made them for my sisters.
I made them for everybody. So I'm like, okay, pillows, you know. It was funny because everyone kept discouraging me. They're saying, why would you want to sell pillows? How many pillows can you sell? This is ridiculous. Nobody buys pillows. But I bought a ton of them and made a ton of them. So I know women like them and people in general like them.
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Chapter 8: How does Smithe envision the future of her pillow business?
Like, I think people, it's pretty cool because I think a lot of people listen to this. They're like, oh, I'm going to go like find something online and just resell it. You have five or six people in there with sewing machines and you're sewing them. Like you guys are actually, and so like a lot of people brag about Made in America, which I love. I love Made in America stuff.
But you're like making all this in New Jersey. This is just like, it's just a crazy how, straightforward. You made this process and it has worked really, really well.
It's very simple. We don't stock pillow covers. We don't stock them. We stock fabric. So I have about 400 different rolls of fabrics in my workroom. Someone places an order, and we make the pillow that day or that week. We ship within three to five days from the time you order to making it, packing, and ship. It's pretty simple. I have people who help me with the sewing, but I do all the buying.
All the creative side is all me, and we also make the answer, the actual, what you were thinking about, the pillows, the stuffing. We also make them there, and... pack them and ship. It was so simple to start this business in terms of financial investment. I started it with $10,000 and I've never invested another penny in it.
All right. So a lot of people watch and listen to the show because they want to hear us just tell them exactly what to do when it comes to starting or growing a business. Now, a lot of people message Sean and I and they say, all right, I want to start something on the side. Is this a good idea? Is that a good idea? And again, what they're really just saying is just give me the ideas.
Well, my friends... you're in luck. So my old company, The Hustle, they put together 100 different side hustle ideas. And they have appropriately called it the side hustle idea database. It's a list of 100 pretty good ideas. Frankly, I went through them. They're awesome. And it gives you how to start them, how to grow them, things like that gives you a little bit of inspiration. So check it out.
It's called the side hustle idea database. It's in the description below. You'll see the link. Click it. Check it out. Let me know in the comments what you think. Can I retell the story of how I remember it? And I've probably exaggerated it so many times that I don't know what is the truth or what's an exaggeration. And you could tell me what is true and what's not.
So basically, if I remember correctly, five or six years ago, you drove me to the airport. Sarah and I were still living, I think, in San Francisco or... Austin, I don't remember. And I was there by myself on a work trip, and you drove me. And I was like, why do you want to drive me? And you're like, I want to talk to you about something. And I was like, what do you want to talk about?
And you're like, I want to start this pillow thing, a pillow business. Can you just tell me anything you think I should know? And I was like, oh, wow, okay. And in my head, I was thinking, this is just another conversation that I've had tens of thousands of times where someone tells me something they're going to do, and they're never going to do it. But I was like, okay, well, I'll just...
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