Transcript

How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes

From The Proven Podcast · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 42 min · 9,064 words · 96 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes", an episode of The Proven Podcast published August 15, 2025 (42 min, about 9,064 words). It mentions 28 people, works and ideas, including Glassy Baby, Cancer, Seattle Washington, hospice, Basic Needs.

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Cancer, Glassy Baby, Gender Discrimination, Handblown Glass
  2. – 10:00: Seattle Washington, Living Wage, Montana
  3. – 15:00: Glassy Baby, Cancer, hospice, Tealight
  4. – 20:00: angel investor, Glassy Baby
  5. – 25:00: Glassy Baby
  6. – 30:00: Glassy Baby, Asheville, Cancer, hospice
  7. – 35:00: Glassy Baby
  8. – 40:00: Basic Needs, Cancer, Elephants, Angel Flight
  9. – 42:16: B Positive, Glassy Baby, Cancer

Notable quotes from "How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes"

  • Battling cancer and facing gender discrimination from banks, but she built Glassy Baby into a $30 million handmade business, paying living wages with full benefits and giving…
    about Glassy Baby · at
  • In Seattle, Washington. And it was sitting on my kitchen island. I dropped a tealight in it, and the color of the glass lit up, and it made me feel something. I felt calm. I…
    about Tealight · at
  • Think it's just the most important thing is you with as a woman, we get up every morning and we're multitasking all day long. It is not a skill set of mine. I've had to force…
    about multitasking · at
  • 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…
    about Montana · at
  • 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 401ks with incredible benefits with a living wage. And we sell these healing.
    about Living Wage · at
  • Intense that is. You know you talked about as a great equalizer. I spent eight years in a hospice watching people struggle through these things and they were at the point where…
    about hospice · at
  • We give to we've never really said no to anything doing basic needs which are my passion. That's what I saw in KA room. people. You can't get well if your basic needs aren't met. if you're not having anything to eat and.
    about Basic Needs · at
  • Great partnership, we grow our partnerships. I'm very passionate about elephants.
    about Elephants · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

Companies & orgs

  • Glassy Baby — Company · 16 mentions · first at
  • Proven Podcast — Company · 1 mention · first at
    Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Lee Rhodess has been battling cancer and facing gender discrimination from banks, but she built.
  • Angel Flight — Company · 1 mention · first at
    We give to Angel Flight that flies patients around who live in rural areas.
  • B Positive Foundation — Company · 1 mention
  • Glassybaby Foundation — Company · 1 mention
  • Harry & David — Company · 1 mention

Products & tech

Concepts & topics

  • Cancer — Concept · 7 mentions · first at
    Does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Lee Rhodess has been battling cancer and facing gender discrimination from banks, but she built Glassy Baby into a $30…
  • hospice — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
  • Basic Needs — Concept · 3 mentions · first at
  • Elephants — Concept · 2 mentions · first at
  • Gender Discrimination — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Lee Rhodess has been battling cancer and facing gender discrimination from banks, but she built Glassy Baby into a $30…
  • Handblown Glass — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Handblown glass, which is huge in Seattle. It's in Morano, Italy, and it's in Seattle, Washington. And it was sitting on my kitchen island. I dropped a tealight in it, and the color of the.
  • multitasking — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • Living Wage — Concept · 1 mention · first at
  • angel investor — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Yeah. The between the angel investors and VCs now, if you have a good story and you have a good purpose, absolutely.
  • Universal Parking — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    Like that for us. That's my sweet spot. 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…
  • Whales — Concept · 1 mention · first at
    And nothing, whales and pretty much whales and elements. So those are kind of my passions. Cancer, whales.
  • Chemo — Concept · 1 mention

Places & events

  • Seattle Washington — Place · 3 mentions · first at
    My name is Lee Rhodess. 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.
  • Montana — Place · 1 mention · first at
  • Asheville — Place · 1 mention · first at
    Are meant to be washed and re reworked, right? look at look, we were just talking about Asheville this morning. that's going to need an entirely new map. So, they're made to be…
  • China — Place · 1 mention
  • Murano, Italy — Place · 1 mention

Sponsors

  • B Positive — Sponsor · 2 mentions · first at
    Service, we do some big splashy things. Right now we're we have a huge partnership with B Positive, which is a an incredible children's cancer organization where the founders lost their son when he was I.

Full transcript with timestamps

Welcome to the Proven Podcast, where it does not matter what you think, only what you can prove. Lee Rhodess has been battling cancer and facing gender discrimination from banks, but she built Glassy Baby into a $30 million handmade business, paying living wages with full benefits and giving away millions at the cash register. The show starts now. All right, guys. Welcome back. 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, be all that. We're going to get into it. And she 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.

Uh, my name is Lee Rhodess. I was in Seattle, Washington. I got diagnosed with lung cancer with three very young children under four. And, um, someone blew a tiny little vessel for me. handblown glass, which is huge in Seattle. It's in Morano, Italy, and it's in Seattle, Washington. And it was sitting on my kitchen island. I dropped a tealight 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 um that's the beginning of Glassy Baby.

sell. We hand blow about 1,700 colors of one thing that we use generally for call for votus and we put candles, tea lightss in them, but people can use them for whatever they want. Um, 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 boat in 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 were 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 one 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 um 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 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, 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 on to 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 Roads. And so I have sat in banks. I have sat in um insurance offices where people were saying, "Oh, we're just waiting for your husband." And I'm like, "Oh, no. I I am Lee Roads." 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 one, so I don't know. But,

so, as a guy, uh, 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?

Um, 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're 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, uh, 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 uh really have impact in your life and be

fulfilling and and and continue to write 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, it took that 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,

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 worked with them, not all men. The the one benefit I will say as being a guy is and I'm not picking on my side of gender. We're pretty stupid. We're pretty we can just lock in on just one thing. We're like, okay, this is what we do. We just lock into it. So, you know, it's the joy of as as an entrepreneur when you're going into things. You don't know how how difficult the roado ahead is. So, you're just like, okay. And that naivity 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, just walk into the wall until it falls over. So that's 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 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. All this and you said, uh-uh. Tell how 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 um 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 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 um 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 a it will not work. You'll go under. Um 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 Glossy Baby there. We imported them. They sat in boxes in my warehouse for years or 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 blown glass artists in Seattle, Washington with 401ks with incredible benefits with a living wage. And we we we sell these healing lights and 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 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 line item gentleman who said to me, "You got to 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 want to have all of my 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 and it'll save you a lot of headache. I think there's there's this conversation where 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 you how you treat the people thing you mentioned earlier that you give away cash at the vendor at 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 What does that mean?

So, our giving, our giving at Glassy Baby was the in inspiration and it 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. Um, 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 fair 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 ka 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 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 fair. 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.

It's actually exactly what we're do. Exactly. It's part it's a line item in our in our our cog. And so um 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 away or something." We do it at every single um every single time you buy a glass of 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 you talked about 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 one or two% 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 how 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 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 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 of the 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 did you do? What are the tips? What what do you have going on?"

People were going to ask me about that. I think there's there from my personal experience, there are two 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 tealight 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 glass baby or whatever you at 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 um you know eating well was was always part of our lives. Um you know we were 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 or two. So there's that. But um 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, good food, but the energy and the conversation. And even if you're bickering, even if you're whatever, it's it's a mono. 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 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 know, you talk about how being an entrepreneur is not for the weary. You know, 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. 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." You know, I got that from my own family. I was sitting there. I was like, "I'm starting an IT company." And I literally my my father was like, "When are you going to go to a real job?" And 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?" And 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 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, 10ft 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 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, 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 just do a hundred at a time until I could do 300 at a time. And um, 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 um doable. Once we started to grow and we were a, you know, a million-dollar business, all those expenses became more difficult. And um, 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 $5 million company because then I had cash that I could actually and um, not everyone's going to 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

culture. Yeah. Of helping uh things set up for entrepreneurs than there were when I started.

100%. Yeah. The between the angel investors and VCs now, if you have a good story and you have a good purpose,

absolutely. Totally different ballgame. And I think that's one of the reasons that Glassy Baby is so successful is you started it with the mind, the match of mind and heart. And you sense say, "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 give people out of pain as well. Like, hey, this is what's going on. We're trying to help.

And people wanted to 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 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, there 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. 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 all 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 David 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 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 going to be 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 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 one talks about it. It's the sexy that no one talks about how just every day

devastating. 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 people as the owner, you're always the last one to get paid.

Exactly. You're always the last one. And there's times, and you have to be prepared for this as an entrepreneur, as you're going through this, like there 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 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 employees 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 going to have people who just don't like you. They don't want to work with you. You know, it's kind of like glass door. 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 glass door 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.

Yeah. I I I try to tell people this all the time. Like, someone's gonna hate you because you have two eyes and a nose. Just accept it. Someone's gonna hate you that you have two hands. It's so 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."

And you got to be in my pants. 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 got to do that sometimes. And especially as entrepreneurs more than more than anyone else in my opinion. You just got to f 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 everything's everything's great. I'm great. I'm have a fun day at school. And as soon as they go into school, you just break out and you're like, "Oh my god, I can't do this anymore."

Oh. So 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 you're any of those things if you're defining yourself. they might not like it and they can move on. You know, there's a there's a lot of options jobs.

Have fun. Yeah. Go on LinkedIn. Have fun. I wish you the best. Always. If you were if you were going through and um 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." here cuz you're going to run into this going from a million dollars 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 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. Mhm. I'm going to return to um 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 and 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 you're going to 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 try to make sure you're listening to your own language. Um because actually the giving is nothing to do I was totally right on this because it's nothing to do with marketing. It's what we do.

It's 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 ad that makes sure people understand glassy baby work. Why do they work? Because we get we we do so well. 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, 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 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 re reworked, right? I mean, look at 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, you know, follow it and have it be your guide. Mhm. And I think having that 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 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 like okay what is my legacy going to be after they built the 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 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 unbeliev was such a gift and it came from such a pure

I would say I would say day-to-day legacy is is so much more you talk about the word sexy but 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 y

their parking paid for and they don't even know it and that's something that the glass of 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 uh 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 million dollars and giving $100,000 away. that $4 of parking is just so Yeah, it a dayto-day matters as much as as much as the end of your life and and I that's one thing you learn too when you're when you're sick with cancer and 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 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 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 20our days, which is called normal as an entrepreneur, that's 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 and challenging times because you had the odds against 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 are like okay how do 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 you're 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?

Uh, 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, glass door. 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 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 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.

Um 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 a 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. Um and that's where hiring becomes a problem for me. Um because I don't know whoever whoever it's going to 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 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. 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 going to do this by brute force. You're not going to hit $30 million a year by brute force. You you just can't you will burn out. 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 1 to 5 million you can kind of do it for brute force but all of a sudden when you get around 124 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 in a way this is your 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 you sit there, okay, I'm going to 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 uh because I'm a mom and I'm all those things, you know. I know how to you you see 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 and you know you work 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 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 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 got to put the fire out. We got to put the fire out. We got to put the fire 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 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 and 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 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, um, 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 photo shoot. That's really cute and 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 want to listen to the song. Listen to this song." And you're like, "Dude, the car is 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 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 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 talked 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 what 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 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. I was like, "This is Yeah. I mean, I'm I 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 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 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. Um it is it's the most important. It's the reason why we all come to work. I know that for a fact all of us at Classy Baby because it's hard work. Um, 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 um 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 KA room. 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, it's not McDonald's. It's just simply your body needs more. It needs more nutrients. It needs better food. And um 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 is $16 every single day when I had chemo. That's $8 an hour in parking. That was back in that was back in, you know, 1997.

No one was alive back then. No one. And I'm still here. Um, I I graduated high school in 95. Trust me, people like, "You're you're from the 1900s." 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 hilarious. 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. Um, 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 um to start and if it's a great partnership, you know, we grow our partnerships. I'm very passionate about elephants.

Very passionate about elephants. You know, they cry and they and they hold it for a long time. And they people don't know this about elephants, but when one of their 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 that 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 uh elements. 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 a huge partnership with B Positive, which is a an incredible children's cancer uh uh organization where the the founders lost their son when he was I think 11 or a middle-aged middle schooler. and um 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, um 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 setting outside. Now I do also, you know, I do also encourage people to light a glass of baby because um 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 ss yb y. Sorry. Um and I'm just l eg glassybaby.com. And um 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 um 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 twisted answers. No, it's great. They were great. Okay.

Results don't come from perfect conditions. They come from moving forward despite imperfect ones. Every entrepreneur faces obstacles, but winners don't wait for the path to clear. They create their own path through determination, daily action, and relentless focus on what truly matters.

Questions about this episode

What is discussed in "How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes"?

In order: 0:00 Cancer, Glassy Baby, Gender Discrimination, Handblown Glass; 5:00 Seattle Washington, Living Wage, Montana; 10:00 Glassy Baby, Cancer, hospice, Tealight; 15:00 angel investor, Glassy Baby; 20:00 Glassy Baby; 25:00 Glassy Baby, Asheville, Cancer, hospice; 30:00 Glassy Baby; 35:00 Basic Needs, Cancer, Elephants, Angel Flight; 40:00 B Positive, Glassy Baby, Cancer.

What is mentioned in this The Proven Podcast episode?

28 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Glassy Baby, Cancer, Seattle Washington, hospice, Basic Needs, Tealight. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "How She Built a $30M Empire - Lee Rhodes"?

The episode runs 42 min; the transcript is about 9,064 words in 96 timestamped sections.

More from The Proven Podcast

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated November 19, 2025.