From Big Setbacks to Bigger Success! The Beekman Boys of Beekman 1802 with G.O.A.T. Wisdom for YOU!
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- That's a really interesting question, Jamie. No one has ever really explored that with us. You heard it here first, everybody, on The Jamie Show. - You went out into the garden and cried. - I literally was down on my knees crying. - Because the rug was completely pulled out from under us. The life that we had planned for, the life that we were accomplishing,

was gone. We're like, OK, what can we do with zero dollars? Then we Googled what can we make with goat milk? And the first thing that came up was soap. And so we started making that goat milk soap with our neighbors around our dining room table.

And that was the beginning of the change of our life. From one act of kindness, from one act of kindness taking that farmer in, and that's what set the course for us. Who would have thought that one act of kindness turns into now this global sensation, this massive company. Obviously, a million steps of hard work

and ups and downs along the way. I think so many times we don't know why someone comes into our life, but if we're open to it, success leaves clues, success leaves clues, right? They turn big setbacks in their lives into even bigger successes. And no matter how big or small your dreams might be, they're here today to show you how you can turn yours into reality too. It's the beloved Beekman boys.

Dr. Brent Bridge and Josh Kilmer Purcell, founders of the beauty company Beekman 1802. Get ready to ignite that fire inside of you and hear one of the most incredible stories of what's possible when you turn those lemons life throws at you into delicious lemonade, or in this case, goat milk.

Dr. Brent and Josh went from losing their corporate New York City jobs in 2008 in the recession to moving in with some goats on a farm they had initially bought as a weekend getaway to figuring out from scratch how to start and build what today is one of the most successful beauty companies on the planet, Beekman 1802.

In addition to becoming superstars on the home shopping channel QVC, you might have seen their hit TV show, The Fabulous Beekman Boys, or watched them triumphantly go from underdogs to winning the amazing race.

They know how to go from down and out to on top and unstoppable. And today they're sharing their secrets and their brand new book. It's called G-O-A-T Wisdom, GOAT Wisdom, greatest of all time wisdom, how to build a truly great business. They're sharing it with all of us. There's information everywhere.

But very little of that information gets converted into wisdom because we just keep scrolling onto the next thing. Figuring out how to get free Christmas decorations that changed everything. Because this is a skill set that...

I just when I hear that in our town 500 people there's not a lot of walk-by traffic right you know so we had to literally attract people to come to Sharon Springs our goal was to make a hallmark type town and what did it cost zero dollars can you talk about the letter you sent to Martha Stewart in prison the large x-ray envelope so that it stood out because

Those details, the way of thinking is everything. I'm sure she gets some, she got a million letters in prison. - Yes. So we have never lost or failed in anything because we find the win in every single situation. - Dr. Brent, is it true? Is this true that Josh is the first man you've ever shared a kiss with? - 100% correct. Yes, still to this day. - I was gonna say in the last. - We have been together

Ever since, in 25 years, we have been together since that moment. Yeah. Do you plan to have kids? You brought up a discussion that we haven't talked about in a long time. Yeah.

So now we'll have a very full car ride back. She just says to me, like, you know, you do know when you have your child, you're going to actually meet your favorite person that you've ever known in your life. She's like, you might think you love your husband. You might think you love your mom. You might think you love your friends. This is going to be your favorite person. And I was just like,

And she goes, "So the longer you wait, the more time you have without your favorite person." I love that story.

And whether today you're listening for yourself or because someone that you love shared this episode with you, I want to welcome you to the Jamie Kern Lima Show podcast family. Thank you so much for being here. And can you take two seconds and hit the subscribe or follow button on the app that you're listening or watching on? Thank you so much. It truly means the world to me. And you can also get inspiration from me for free right in your inbox. Just join my newsletter community at jamiekernlima.com.

Also, this incredible podcast episode today, it's not just for you and me. Please share it with every single person that you know who might need some inspiration today or perhaps a boost in their self-belief because what you're about to hear can truly impact mine, yours, and their life too. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima Show.

- Oprah, how have you defied the odds? - Her show is unlike any I've ever done. - A revelation. When you listen, it feels like a hug, but your brain and your spirit and your heart is like, "Wow." - Melinda French Gates.

When I look into Jamie's eyes, I feel like I am on some other cosmic level with her. I could see the light around her. She's infused with light. Imagine overcoming self-doubt, learning to believe in yourself and trust yourself and know you are enough. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima Show. Jamie Kern Lima is her name. Everybody needs Jamie Kern Lima in their life. Jamie Kern Lima.

Jamie, you're so inspiring. Jamie Kern Lima. Josh and Brett, so famously known as the Beekman boys. Welcome to the Jamie Kern Lima show. Hi, Jamie. Oh my gosh, the best introduction ever. I love it. Thank you. Thank you. It's always nice to hear about your accomplishment. It always makes you feel good. So thank you for that. Did that story sound familiar when you were reading it? Because it kind of sounds like the Jamie story. You know, I think it's

so beautiful. So many of us, when we see something's possible, right? Maybe like we have a setback or we've had all these failures or we're the underdog. We feel like it's never going to happen to us. Or someone listening right now may have just gotten laid off from their job, but they've always had like this idea or they don't even know what's going to happen next. And hearing, you know, your story, it's going to ignite so many lights today. I'm

So excited that you both are here. I'm so grateful. And you've already had so much success everywhere, but right off the top, just what

From this idea of going from setbacks to successes with everything that you guys have built, I mean, going from New York City corporate jobs and going to this farm, having to learn everything from scratch, building one of the biggest beauty companies in the world for maybe somebody who's not one of the countless millions already in love with you. Can you share a little bit about your story? Absolutely. Well, we met in New York City 25 years ago and

And we, like you said, we thought we were on top of the world. We had great careers. I was in advertising. I'd written a couple of best-selling books. Brent was a physician, the youngest ever head of a medical unit at Mount Sinai. And then Martha Stewart recruited him to start her health and wellness division. We thought we were on the perfect path to success. And we...

And on that path, we were like on a vacation one weekend in fall 2006. And we found this farm in upstate New York. We fell in love with it. We thought we're doing well. We can get a weekend place, right? So we cashed in everything we own to get this weekend place. That was 2006. And took out a million dollar mortgage. Yeah, because the future was bright. Yeah. And right after we bought it, we got a letter in our mailbox from a neighbor. His name was Farmer John.

And he was losing his farm and he had 100 goats and he had nowhere to bring them. And he said, "You have an empty barn, a little cottage. If I bring my goats, I help you mow the lawn. Can I please bring my goats? Otherwise, I have to send them to auction." We said, "Absolutely, come aboard." And we had no idea then how that would change our lives. That was just a kind act for our neighbor, right?

Two years later, less than two years later, we both lost our jobs in the recession within 30 days of each other. Martha Stewart closed the division that he was heading up. Then my agency lost all of its billings.

We had no money coming in. All we had was this million dollar mortgage, Farmer John, and these hundred goats. And we were... I remember you. I've never seen you depressed in your life except for that. I'm not a crier. I'm not a crier. You went out into the garden and cried. I did. And I never told him for years later that I had been out in the garden. And I literally was down on my knees crying. Yeah, because...

The rug was completely pulled out from under us. The life that we had planned for, the life that we were accomplishing was gone. But we did what we normally do. We took stock of what we have. We Googled, what can you make with goat milk? That didn't happen immediately. We were depressed for two or three months. Then we did this. Then we Googled, what can we make with goat milk? And the first thing that came up was soap.

And so we started making that goat milk soap with our neighbors around our dining room table. And that was the beginning of the change of our life. From one act of kindness, from one act of kindness, taking that farmer in, and that's what set the course for us. That's so wild. Do you, two things, you know, it's really, I know we'll dive into business tips. There's going to be so many people right now

that have Googled something. They have an idea, right? They have this, they Google like, okay, how do I sew a swimsuit or whatever it might be? Or this, does this idea exist? I remember one day my husband, Paulo was like,

a spork. It's a spoon and a fork. And I'm like, I think that exists. I googled it. I'm like, that exists. But they're probably googling that. And you googled it. And then you actually took steps to go, okay, how do we make goat milk soap bars? And

What made you do it? Was it desperation? Like, oh, we've got a million dollar mortgage. We've lost our jobs. Correct. And this was the time period where people were just walking away from their homes, right? They had taken out huge mortgages just like we did and they were walking away. And we decided, no, that's not going to be us. So we started learning with a neighbor how to make the goat milk soap. Started selling it first on our website, which Josh learned how to code so that he could do the website. This was 20 years ago now, almost 20 years ago. Yeah.

And so started selling the bars originally on our website. And then back then we're like, this is not going to pay off the mortgage because no one was making a fortune selling stuff from their website back then. And so we said, where would you not normally see goat milk soap? And we said, in the luxury department stores in New York City. And so I took a big box of the soaps and one day just started cold calling on every store

department store on Fifth Avenue, literally knocking on the door saying, is your beauty buyer here?

And the first, everybody said no, except for one, the buyer, Henry Bindle, which was this beautiful department store on Fifth Avenue, sadly no longer there. And she said, I will give you a three by three table on our main floor for the next six weeks. And if you come in and sell your product and the customer responds to it, we will bring it in. And so that's what I did. So every morning I would wake up on the farm like at 3 a.m.,

drive into the city with my boxes of soap, set up on the floor of Henry Bindle, stay there until close, get back in the truck, drive the three and a half hours back to the farm. I did that every day for six weeks. And it was so valuable because I watched, you know, I'm a physician. I didn't know how to sell anything, you know. So I watched the other women on the floor, this very competitive sales environment in Henry Bindle. Yes.

And they taught me by observation. I learned how are they doing this? How are they connecting with their customer? Yes. And then by virtue, making their customer happy. And that's business, right? Making your customer happy. And to your point about desperation, we always say when people say, you know, what's the best thing for an entrepreneur and how we say desperation? It's the best motivation. It is. But if you're somebody, like you said, who's Googled, you have an idea and

and you haven't lost your job, your life isn't hitting rock bottom, that doesn't mean that you don't have that drive. You can make yourself desperate to succeed even if you're comfortable,

by thinking what is my life going to be if I don't do this thing that I've always wanted to do? What is my life going to be if I don't follow through on this thing? Think 10 years ahead, if you don't do your dream, that will make you just as desperate as losing your job. The pain of regret. Yeah. I want to tap into two things that both you just said that are so good.

for anybody listening right now, because success leaves clues, success leaves clues, right? And two things. So I know Josh, saying Josh learned how to code and build a website. I remember my husband went and bought the big yellow book called HTML for Dummies. Yes.

figured out how to do a website because we couldn't afford to hire anybody. And I want to call this out because in this Instagram world, people think like, oh, I'm just going to start it and it's just going to make all this money and be flashy. And it's like, no, actually you have got to be so scrappy, so resourceful. One of the things I love so much about your book is

amongst a million, by the way. I am gifting goat wisdom to every single person I know who is starting a business, has an idea, trying to go, why is my business not getting traction? Or, you know, is my...

you know, situation that's not succeeding yet. Does it mean it's never going to work or because you guys get so real and raw and gritty and you talk about so many of the unglamorous things. And I just, it was like page after page could connect to so much of it and learning how to just do all the things versus going, do I take out a bigger mortgage? Um,

Do I take out a bigger mortgage and hire someone else to do it? It's like, well, if you can figure out how to do it. And I think one of the great things is that in the day and age we're in, thank goodness you can YouTube and Google a lot. And also, I love what you said, Brent, about success.

standing in Henry Bendel's and going, "Okay, I've never done this before, but I'm on a department store floor with women and men that are paid by commission to sell stuff for their brand. They're the best of the best or they can't survive. So let me watch what they're doing and take that in."

And I think both of those things are free. They take our time, but I think that's so, it's so beautiful. And you guys talk a lot and I love this idea so much. And I want to share this because I know so many people are going to connect to this. One of the biggest reasons they don't take the jump or they don't go for the thing is they're like, I got no money. I've got bills. I've got this, I've got that. And one of the things I was just

almost yelling out loud when I was reading your book that's out now, everyone can go grab their copy, is you talk about how do you do it for free? How do you do it with no budget? And you've kind of woven this

resourcefulness into the DNA of your company, of how employees think. Because I'm just going to tell you, don't let me go off, but I can find people all day long that say, well, what's the budget? And then you throw money at them and then it works or doesn't. They never really have to eat what they cook sometimes. It's just a whole thing. But you guys are like, okay, well, how can we do this on no budget, even

Even this morning before we came here, we were on a call with our team. We're like, okay, what can we do with $0? And yes, you're not always going to accomplish something with $0, but what it does is it makes you really, really creative. If your brainstorming session is what can I do with $0?

You're going to come up with this whole list of creative ideas and on that list is going to be one thing that if you put a little bit of money behind, it's going to be super successful. But if you start by thinking, "I have all this money to spend," you'll waste it. If you start by thinking, "I've got $1,000," your ideas are going to be, "Well, if I only had $2,000, if I only had $3,000," your ideas will be bigger than your budget. So if your budget is zero, you have better

And that's actually one of the reasons we wanted to write this book now at this point in time was because we felt that over the past decade, entrepreneurs have been given a skewed perspective of what it takes to launch a business. And I know you have been on Shark Tank and we do love all the sharks and you get great advice from there. But I think what happened over the past decade is that people...

didn't get the message of here's the hard work that it takes to grow a business. The message was, I need to find financing to grow my business. Yes. And for most entrepreneurs, that's not the case. You got to dig in deep and start it yourself. If you start your business by raising money, you've started a money-raising business. You haven't started the business you thought. Hmm.

Yeah. And also I think another big thing is you think, oh, if a shark invests or if someone invests or if I just hire that person, then everything will be fine. That's the money fallacy. Yeah. Yeah. Not realizing like, actually, what am I capable of for free? With zero dollars, what am I capable of? And then not also realizing everyone who's coming on Shark Tank, how much work they've done to get there, to get to the point where they can ask for money. Yes. Yeah. Would you guys ever do Shark Tank?

No. Well, let's see how desperate we get again. Not with your brand. I mean a Sharks. Oh, a Sharks. Yeah, I mean a Sharks. Oh, maybe. You guys are doing nine figures a year in sales. You do not need to go on Sharks. I'm talking about a Sharks.

Well, you know how it is when you're an entrepreneur. You're like, is that enough? Is that enough? Are sales good? We would probably never agree with each other on this. It would be interesting for us to go on together as a couple and say, okay, we're investing as a couple. We both have to agree. That would be interesting. I think they should have you on. One of you can be in the bath with all the foam of the Beekman soaps. We'll do it if you're on the same episode. Oh.

Okay. It'll be so good. Throwing it out there. And Barbara. Yes. And Barbara. That'll be a good one. I love Barbara. Can I tell you? She was, and I love Mark and oh my gosh. Oh, they're great. Barbara was the kindest. I can tell. That comes through. She was the kindest. And for me, you know, I know you guys probably know this too. It's like you see people on television, you don't always know how they really are. And I'll never forget. She was the kindest. Yeah.

And sometimes women are not to other women. And she was the kindest. And I will never forget that. And I felt welcomed and loved. Oh, that's great. Yeah, yeah. She was great. You guys would be phenomenal on it because you both also know how to make great television. And the other thing is, and this might come as a surprise to people listening or not, but I feel like when you go on QVC, you learn real quickly if something you're doing is connecting with people at home. Isn't that great?

Or if it's not and you guys have so many reps under your belt the way I do, where you just kind of like, just, I don't know, for me, I almost can only think of the person at home. And we do that all the time. Exactly. And that's one of the things I think

I know we actually say it in the book is it's not what you want to say. It's what your customer wants to hear. So you can talk about your product. You can talk about the value. You can talk about anything as much as you want. But if the person watching or buying doesn't need that, it never ever connects. So always starting with what does my customer want to hear?

Yeah. And what do they need and how do they feel? And I want to go back to one thing about Farmer John. He's still on the farm, by the way. Still on the farm. Okay. Just to recap, especially if you're just tuning in this spot or what have you, when Brent and Josh had this farm that you guys are doing your corporate jobs, you initially thought this farm is a weekend getaway and you got a handwritten letter

note, right? From your neighbor, Farmer John. And he says, I have it written. Tell me this is right. He says, my name is John Hall. I grew up in the area on a dairy farm. I now have a herd of 80 goats. I'm losing the place where I'm farming. Can I please bring my goats to your property to graze? Otherwise, I'll have to sell them.

And, you know, you shared this earlier that you bringing this neighbor in who's literally desperate and losing his farm and saying, yes, you can live here and bring your goats, like

would have thought that one act of kindness turns into now this global sensation, this massive company, obviously a million steps of hard work and ups and downs along the way. And now the DNA of your brand is about kindness and the fact that it just started and really great products and really great results and all that. But it started with one act of kindness. And can you just share for everyone listening? Because I

I think so many times we don't know why someone comes into our life, but if we're open to it and how did you guys feel like, oh, we're going to just let some person move into our

vacation home. We need to pause for a super brief break. And while we do, take a moment to share this episode with every single person that you know who this could inspire. Because this conversation can truly be the words and inspiration they need to hear today to keep going, to remember that they matter, and to feel less alone and more enough, more connected and more worthy.

I am so excited for this book. You know why? Because it's going to save so many people. It's going to save people. Worthy, your new beautiful book Worthy. Get this book. This book? I'm telling you. It's a book that can change anybody's life who picks it up. Anybody who's ever felt that they were not good enough, didn't measure up, something's missing in your life. I have to tell you. It's powerful.

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Imagine what would you do if you fully believed in you? I went from struggling waitress facing nonstop rejection to founder of IT Cosmetics, a billion dollar company, by learning how to overcome self-doubt and believe I'm worthy of my hopes and dreams. And I'm sharing how you can too in my new book, Worthy, how to believe you are enough and transform your life.

If you're ready to truly trust yourself and break through that barrier of self-doubt and know that where you come from or even where you are right now doesn't determine where you're going, then Worthy is for you. It's time to go from doubting you're enough to knowing you're enough. It's time to step into all of who you are and into the person you were born to be.

and it's time to believe that you are worthy of it. Because in life, we don't become what we want. We become what we believe we're worthy of.

Join the Worthy movement today by grabbing your copy of Worthy anywhere books are sold and head to worthybook.com now for free gifts, including my five-part course on becoming unstoppable and my 95-page Worthy Workbook Action Plan that teaches you how to implement the tools from the book into your real life right now. Worthy is groundbreaking. Yo, Worthy, you are great.

This book is going to change lives. This book literally will teach you how to actually feel worthy so that you can have the strength, you can have the confidence. The lessons in this book and the strategies will change your life. You will never be the same again after you read this book.

Jamie's Bookworthy is a must read. It is going to inspire you, empower you, give you the hope that you need and the kick in the rear end that you deserve. Jamie's Bookworthy is incredible. The gifts are going away, but they're all free right now on worthybook.com. Now more of this incredible conversation together. Can you just share for everyone listening? Because I

I think so many times we don't know why someone comes into our life, but if we're open to it. And how did you guys feel like, oh, we're going to just let some person move into our vacation home? Well, honestly, our initial thought was, this is amazing. We'll have a petting zoo. You know, we'll come up on the weekends and we'll have goats there and it'll be fun. So that's really how we thought about it. I mean, we tend to be people who...

we never meet someone we don't like. Like we're always like, what am I going to learn from this person? Like we truly do love everybody. When you come to one of our events, a book signing or something, as you know, Jamie, we're huggers. You know, we just love that interaction with people. And so we saw that with him too. We're like, oh, this is curious. We'd love to learn about his life and what he's going through. You know, the kindness for us, and you know, one of our big tenants is love thy neighbor, right? And we call all of our customers neighbors. Yes. And that's

That's a really specific word. John was a neighbor. The people who came to help us wrap the soap were neighbors. It's a really specific word. And if you look in any religion throughout history, there's an equivalent to love thy neighbor. And it always uses the word neighbor or a translation. It's not love all mankind or love the universe or love anything. It's love thy neighbor. And it's really because of John and our experience with our neighbors that we understood what that meant.

And you can't love everybody all the time. You can't love the entire world.

You can love the person next to you. You can love the person that comes into your life. You can love the people close to you. And then if they love the people close to them, it eventually changes the world. And because neighbor by neighbor by neighbor, as we say, you can take care of the world. You can't take care of the world if you're trying to take care of them all at once. And it was really that one act of taking care of John that then helped take care of that. That's what built our entire company was helping our neighbor. So that's why that word is really important to us.

Well, and I love, you know, just to dive in, it's such an inspiring story. It's easy for people maybe, I have a lot of people that ask me like, oh, how'd you go from waitressing tables to, you know, building this type of a business? Did you get lucky? Or like, was it just like, it's like a fairy tale? Like, did you, you know, kind of a thing? Overnight success. Overnight. And your story, of course, oh my gosh, you guys.

We're going to talk about some of the high-level things in the book. It is priceless. It's invaluable what you get in your book. People are going to save themselves so much time, so much money, so many nights crying themselves to sleep, so much self-doubt, thinking they don't have what it takes.

You have it. Everybody has it already. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and I also love, though, that you drop real tools, like real takeaways that people can apply to their life right now. Yes. And that was so critical. We've often been asked, like, what do you hope the book accomplishes? And, you know, in this world, we are bombarded with so much information and it just continues to get worse. Right. There's information everywhere. Yes.

But very little of that information gets converted into wisdom because we just keep scrolling on to the next thing. And that's really what we wanted to do with the book is say, hey, this is tried and true proverbs, maxims that are going to help you lay the foundation for your business or your life. And we're going to show you very easy ways that you can then convert this information into wisdom and make it instantaneously applicable to the problem you're trying to solve. And hopefully by the time people finish the book,

they'll do that in every aspect of their life. Whenever they hear something great on your show or see something great online, they're like, "Okay, how will I convert that into wisdom and make it instantaneously applicable to the problems I'm trying to solve?" And there's so much noise out there. If you're trying to start a business or delving into any sort of self-help field, there's so much noise. The one thing you're not doing, the magic trick that you don't know about that if you just do this one thing,

But the truth is, the wisdom has been there all along. There are these maxims and proverbs that have been around forever. We only chose 12 in the book, but these maxims that our grandmothers knew, that our moms knew,

We've forgotten how to apply them to our lives today. And so that's what we do with the Maxims we chose. How did we apply them to our business? How did we apply them to our life? It's not a big secret that they just discovered yesterday that's going to be your overnight success. It's the same things that have been true from the beginning of time. For everyone listening, I almost want them to absorb this

through what they're hearing or through the screen if they're watching us right now, because absorbing these type of ways of thinking can literally change everything, not just in your business, but a lot of people going after different types of dreams. Maybe they're putting their art out in the world or they're auditioning or whatever it might be. There's so many different things people are going through. And I want to ask you about

figuring out how to get free Christmas decorations that changed everything. Because this is a skill set that I just, when I read that story, I just thought about so many times at Cosmetics where if we hadn't done it this way,

we would have lost a product or gone out of business. So can you talk about the figuring out how to get free Christmas decorations and why it changed everything? Yes. So people who don't know our story, our company is based in this tiny little village in upstate New York, Sharon Springs, New York. The population is just over 500 people.

And we always, when we were growing our business, we always said our business will only be successful if we can make our entire community successful at the same time. The other artisans, the other businesses in town. And so we got to the point where we were like, how can we turn our entire little quaint village into Christmas town, like a Hallmark village where everybody can come and celebrate Christmas and all the business will be successful.

Well, it's a very poor community. And so a lot of the businesses don't have a huge budget or any budget at all to decorate for Christmas. And we happened to be doing something in Boston and just having a conversation with the people that they were working with. And we never met a stranger. So I'm always asking very personal questions. Maybe it's the doctor in me. And I was asking the woman, what does your husband do? And she said, oh, well, he decorates big office buildings for Christmas.

And I'm like, oh, I've always... You know, in the lobbies, like the giant trees and the huge reeds. And I said, you know what? I have always wondered, having spent time in luxury department stores, I always wondered, do all these amazing decorations just go to the landfill? Like, what happens to them? Weren't you having a tough season? Oh, yes. Like, stuff wasn't moving this Christmas season. You're like, what are we going to do in our store? Yes, we have to bump it up. Not enough people were coming to town. Yes. I mean, in our town, 500 people. There's not a lot of walk-by customers.

traffic. Right. So we had to literally attract people to come to Sharon Springs. Our goal was to make a Hallmark type town. Like, how can we make this Christmas town? Yes. And so I asked... She tells you. Okay. Yeah. And she said, "You know what? It's just this big warehouse where they put all the stuff. And in fact, they're getting ready to move warehouses." And so they were going to just trash all of the stuff they didn't need anymore. And I said, "Okay, hold on a second. So you're going to trash all this stuff.

If we can hire like a big box truck, 18-wheeler box truck, to show up at your warehouse, instead of going into a landfill, could you just put it in this box truck? And she said, yeah, well, I'll have my husband do that. And so that's what they did. And then that box truck rolled into town probably like in September. And we told all the townspeople, show up at the town park. You're going to get the decorations, decorate your store. It was piles of giant wreaths and garland and lights and trees. I think...

It was. Our village sparkled. And I think that there's probably still glitter in our town park to

10 years later from when we did that because there was so much glitter. And what did it cost? $0. And then once you decorated the town, didn't that like word spread? Oh, yes. People started coming. So everybody said like, how did... Sharon Springs looks like a Christmas village. It looks like a Hallmark movie. And so people from all over started coming. And we were competing with the malls in Albany, which is the nearest city. So

So competing with malls, even competing with New York City, people traveling in there. And yet people were coming to Sharon Springs to see this perfect little Christmas village. And the reason it was successful is because we were not thinking about ourselves first. We were thinking about the village first. We could have decorated our store and done fine. By that point, we had a good online business. I think we were even on TV by that point.

It was what can we do for the other businesses in our town? And that's really how we have always thought about everything. Like we at this point, we have had the success that we personally need. How can we make other people successful? And that's that's how we've that's how we approach life. And in that note, that through line, which I think is so beautiful, two things. So just for the person listening, who's like, how do I sell my product?

so often people forget to think about how can this make the customer's life better? Or it's to be like, I want a mentor. Okay. Well, what do they need? How can that mentor's life be better? Because so many people, you know, uh, I, I love mentoring people and I love, and I have so many great mentors in my life. Um, but the biggest pitch I get every day is, can I pick your brain? Can, can I take 15 minutes of your time? Everything's about take, right? And, and, and,

But the person that reaches out and is like, you know, I don't know, like, I promise I'm going to pass this on to other people. And it's going to bring other people wisdom, other people joy. I'm like, oh, that fills my soul. Yes, let's go have coffee. You know, like the person who can think what's in it for other people. And I think even if you're selfish and you don't care about

You still need to think that way if you want anything to sell. In any negotiation. In any negotiation. Okay, I've got to tell a story, Jamie. I don't think this was in the book, but you're going to love it because it kind of is in the same thread.

We were big fans of a TV show called Schitt's Creek. I don't know if you've ever seen it. Of course, yeah. Loved it because it was so much of our own story. You know, these outsiders coming to this small town and the small town embraces them. There was the Rose Apothecary store. And we were big fans of the show. At the time, it was on this tiny little network called Pop TV. And nobody was watching. It had been out for like two seasons. No, four seasons. And they announced that they were going to have their last season.

And I said, oh, I'm going to reach out to the producers and say, you know what? We want so many people to see this last season of the show because it has meant so much to us. Yeah.

And I said, we would love to create like some sort of product collaboration just to get you a little extra buzz. Like thinking that we were helping Schitt's Creek at that point because they were so tiny. And at the time we were. Okay. So then what happened? We, you know, we struck this deal. We're going to do this collection called the Rose Apothecary Collection and the pandemic hit. And that show Schitt's Creek, which most almost no one knew about.

went over to netflix and during the pandemic that show was discovered by people around the globe right at the moment that our collaboration was launching and still we thought how can we take some of this momentum and right bring all of sharon springs up and so we re-skinned our entire store in sharon springs to look like an exact replica of the rose apothecary

And people came from all over the world to this little village that was as close to Schitt's Creek as you could possibly be. And it lifted in the midst of the pandemic. It lifted and helped all of the little businesses on our main street survive. And again, not because we wanted to leverage Schitt's Creek.

We had reached out to them thinking, "How can we help Schitt's Creek?" Because it's something that we love. We love that show. And that's a piece of wisdom that people don't understand. We all know the phrase, "A rising tide lifts all boats," right?

Most people think like, well, if I'm successful, then I'm helping all of you all. That's how they look at that saying, as opposed to saying, wait, if I help everybody's boat lift, then mine's going to go up at the same time. So it's a piece of wisdom that we all know, but we might be applying in the wrong way. You know, I love this idea.

because it can be obviously both generous and also just really great for a business. And when we talk about resourcefulness, can you share the story of how you're like, okay, and this is when you're small. Like you guys are wrapping bars of soap at your dining room table and you get your first big order from Anthropologie and you go from selling a few at Henry Bendel's, which is great,

to 52,000, I believe, units, which is when my jaw hit the floor. Because I remember our first order of like 6,000 units, and I didn't even know how the heck we were going to afford it and do it and all of it. 52,000 units. I remember days, one time early on, our brow pencil got featured on a big website. We sold out. We had to pack. It was like 1,000 orders, 2,000 orders, something like that from our living room.

I thought I was going to pass out because we're all wearing hairnets. We're all packing. I got all my friends to come over. We're trying to figure it out. And I mean, it took days. And so when I read 52,000 units, bars of soap, and I want to share, I want you to share the story of how you thought about, um,

getting neighbors and friends to volunteer, but you thought like, oh, if we ship these out of our local post office, that can actually help preserve the success of the post office. Some people working there want to help out. And you're just, you're thinking of what's in it for other people that feels true and authentic and, and,

How do we weave that in? Absolutely. So we had this giant order, the 52,000 bars of soap. Now, keep in mind, when we made this deal with Anthropologie, we were not looking at our margins. We were like, we just need to be in a nationwide store. Right. So we were making nickel per unit. I mean, nothing. We were probably losing a nickel per bar, but we still needed to get out. So we couldn't afford to hire labor. So my thought was, I can hand wrap all the bars of soap. I'll just do it. And Brent is a magical thinker. So if he thinks he can do something, he can do it.

He just thinks it's going to be done. I'm an optimist. And I actually sat there and timed him one day, wrapping soap, and pointed out to him that if he wrapped 24 hours a day to the deadline, he still would not get it all done to ship out. And you guys were like, stop timing it, right? I'm timing him without telling him. Timing him to figure out exactly what we needed. And so we knew we needed help. We knew we didn't have money to pay help.

Sharon Springs, as we said, was a tiny little town and it was slated to have the post office closed. The post office does an audit every once in a while and then places that don't have enough volume, they close those offices.

They were going to close Sharon Springs. But I had made such good friends with the postal clerk because I was always taking our dot-com orders there to ship out. And I went in with my bag, my priority mail bag with all of our boxes in it, dropping it off on the counter. Maria, the postal clerk there, said, oh, how are things going? I'm like, Maria, we got this big order and I'm trying just to get the bars of soap wrapped. And I said, Maria, what?

you know everybody in this little town because everybody uses the post office. I said, do you know anyone who's like retired or they're sitting at home and they are just looking for something to do?

Do you think you could ask them if they want to come over and help wrap bars of soap? We can't pay them, but we will have food from the garden and, you know, they can pet goats and stuff. And she said, yeah, I'm going to start a phone tree. And she did. And before we know it, there were 20 people sitting at our dining room table, 24 hours a day, wrapping bars of soap. And they did it for the community. Yeah, that was the thing. You assume that people need monetary benefits.

of value to do something. And what people wanted was community. They sat around our table and wrapped soap and they had community connection because their other option was to sit at home by themselves. And so it really, it was, those were really lovely days.

Yep. And it did save our post office. It saved our post office. Wow. It saved the post office. As our company grew. Wow. That's so powerful. And what you just said is so good. It's so good because so many people think like, okay, how do I have enough money to bring someone on or hire someone? It's like, okay, what if I think about it differently? What if there's somebody retired who's looking for a new purpose in their lives? They would love to come and help you with your business. Yes. It's

It's not all about money. Yes, that's so, so, so good. Okay.

This is like way out there. This question is wild in terms of it's not sequential, but I want to bring it in because I think it speaks to a through line of thoughtfulness then throughout your entire journey as your journey continues to unfold. But can you talk about the letter you sent to

Brent to Martha Stewart in prison and in particular in the large x-ray envelope so that it stood out because it's

Those details, the way of thinking is everything. I'm sure she got a million letters in prison. Yeah, I love this story. Martha is still a great friend. I have so much tremendous respect for her. Yeah, so I was a physician. This was way before Beekman. Way before Beekman. I was a physician at Mount Sinai. My passion has always been healthy aging and how can I help people get the most out of their lives.

And at Mount Sinai, we were the thought leaders when it came to healthy aging. And there'd always been this goal to create a new center for the study and care of older people.

but we had just never had a great benefactor. And so I got tasked with this idea of, or this job of trying to create this new center. And so I said, okay, the first thing I have to do is find a great design for it because anyone, you can find lots of people in New York City who want their name on a building at Mount Sinai, but let's have a great design. So first I wrote a letter to I.M. Pei, who's this, was a star architect. He's sadly passed away now.

And he and his son worked on creating the beautiful design for the center. And then I said, okay, now who do I want to approach? And it was very important to me that in every aspect of creating the center that we demonstrated that you can get older and still be so productive. And I said, okay, the top person on my list for that is Martha Stewart because she is, still is to this day. And she had just gone to prison, you know, and I said, well, you know,

I need Martha and maybe coming out of prison, she needs a great philanthropy too. And so I said, let me write a business proposal to her saying, you know, Martha, you rose to prominence when the baby boomers needed the, we're thinking about their nesting phases and creating the perfect home for their family. And as the baby boomers mature, they're going to start thinking more and more about how can I get the most of my life as I get older?

And so I put this whole business plan together and I said, "Okay, Martha must be getting hundreds if not thousands of letters at Alderson. How can I make my letter stand out?" And so I went down to the radiology department at Mount Sinai and got one of the biggest x-ray envelopes I could find. And I put my business proposal in the x-ray envelope.

I got the address to Alderson and Martha's prisoner number from an article that New York Magazine had written about Martha going to prison, wrote it on there thinking, okay, well, it might get to her, it may not. And it got to her. And a few weeks later, her assistant wrote and said, Martha read your proposal and she wants to do this.

Because she saw the benefit of saying, I can help people age better. I can be a role model as people age better. And I love that for Martha. And I approached it that way. How can I help Martha be this role model? How can I help Mount Sinai? Because if Mount Sinai continues all of their great work, it's going to help

thousands and thousands of people age better. Do you think she would have seen it had it not been a giant x-ray envelope? No, she would have never opened it. Amazing. Because thousands of letters coming in. Yeah, yeah. I mean, if I got a big x-ray envelope from a hospital, that would be the first thing I open. You're like, what is this? That's so funny. I just think it's so smart. And I remember very early on, I'd seen the head of L'Oreal, uh,

Lux for North America, Carol Hamilton. Love Carol. I love Carol. So she had done this whole presentation for an event at WWD and I'm in the back with IT Cosmetics. No one's heard of us. And she does her whole top 10 list. If you remember, David Letterman would do top 10 list. She has her whole top 10 favorite beauty products of all time. And I,

And I later wrote her this letter, did this big thing and wrote her this letter, this big gift basket, had a hand delivered to her that said, "I really loved your talk. I loved your top 10. The only problem with it was that IT Cosmetics wasn't on there. And I know if you actually try it, you're going to love it so much. It's going to be a..." Because I think all 10 products were L'Oreal products and I didn't hear from her. And then it was years later, she showed me, she kept that card.

and it like planted a seed, you know? And I think it's just thinking these things. But that's so smart to do the giant x-ray. Do you know who gave a blurb for the book? Tell me. Carol Hamilton. Oh, she did. Yes. Yes. Look at the blurs on the inside. You'll see a blurb from Carol. Yeah. Yeah. I wanted to move to New York City desperately when I was in advertising. I started in Atlanta, and I interviewed at an agency in New York. And

I really wanted it. And they loved my book. They loved everything about me. Your book, meaning your book of work. My portfolio, yeah. For weeks, they kept writing back and they'd say, well, we love everything, but we're just trying to find a place where you fit in here. We're trying to find a place where you fit in the agency. And so I did a life-size cutout of myself and sent it to them and said, here, you can move me around the office and see where I fit in. And then I got an offer the next week. Yeah. Genius. Wow. And you got hired the next week. Yeah.

Okay. I know I say this all the time, success leaves clues. But what I love so much about so many of the stories you're sharing, all of the ways you've made it happen or gotten through or broke through when no one else did or did some, solved a problem, they're almost always for free. Yeah. Right? Absolutely. Just through thinking differently or thinking out of the box or going, how can I stand out? Sending, okay, there's going to be someone listening right now that's like,

oh, they're going to send a life-size cutout of themselves tomorrow to someone and be like, this is how I fit in in your company. You can move me around and see how it feels. Jamie, you're getting a lot of cutouts. This is how I look in your chair, Jamie, if I'm talking to you on your podcast. That's smart.

We get hundreds of pictures a day to be on the show. That's really smart. Jamie, like here's you in the chair, which by the way, I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that you're here, that anyone would like to come on the show and have great conversation. So, but that's genius. I love this so much. The way that, that, that,

I'm jumping out of my chair over these ideas and stories is how I felt reading the book. So I'm just excited for everyone to get it home, you know? Good. Thank you. And it's so important to us to actually give information that people can use. Because like we said, there's so much noise out there about that.

isn't really practical to use in your day-to-day life. And that's how I resonate is like, tell me what to do and I will do it. And also, I just want to add, not every creative idea works out. Of course. But you can't take it as a failure. Just take it as another opportunity to create another creative idea. Yes. And I want to point out one thing, Josh, on what you just said. It's so noisy out there. There's millions of experts, millions of people dishing out business advice or life advice. And I think what's

so important for anyone taking advice from someone else is try to do it from someone who's actually done the thing that they're talking about. Because so much of the world is filled with people that are just really good at talking about it, but they've never actually done it yet. And I love that you guys have done it.

And in so many scenarios with no money, just with resourcefulness, with figuring out brand vision, brand DNA, a lot of people I hear from, they've had one rejection or five rejections, or they've tried things for two years straight and it hasn't worked. And they seem to get in this place where like, maybe I should just give up. And so how do you guys handle mistakes,

What you would call failures, rejections. Can you share a few of them and how did you handle that? And what would you say to the person who needs to hear these words today? We need to pause for a super brief break. And while we do, take a moment to share this episode with every single person that you know who this could inspire.

Because this conversation can truly be the words and inspiration they need to hear today to keep going, to remember that they matter, and to feel less alone and more enough, more connected and more worthy. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious and so is self-belief.

And I'd love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox each and every Tuesday morning from me.

If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to jamiekernlima.com to make sure you're on the list and you'll get your one-on-one with Jamie weekly newsletter and get ready to believe in you.

If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration, some tips, tools, joy, and love hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at jamiekernlima.com or in the link in the show notes. Do you struggle with negative self-talk?

Living with a constant mental narrative that you're not good enough is exhausting. I know because I spent most of my life in that habit. The words you say to yourself about yourself are so powerful. And when you learn to take control over your self-talk, it's life-changing. And I wanted to give you a free resource that I created for you if this is something that could benefit your life.

It's called Five Ways to Overcome Negative Self-Talk and Build Self-Love. And it's a free how-to guide to overcome that negative self-talk, to build confidence and develop unshakable self-love so that you can dream big and keep going in the pursuit of your goals.

Don't let self-sabotaging thoughts hinder your progress any longer. It's time to rewrite the script of your life when filled with self-love, resilience, and unwavering belief.

If you're ready to take charge of your narrative, build unwavering confidence and empower yourself to persevere on the path to your dreams, you can grab your free guide to stop overthinking and learn to trust yourself at jamiekernlima.com slash resources or click the link in the show notes below. And now more of this incredible conversation together. How do you guys handle mistakes,

what you would call failures, rejections. Can you share a few of them and how did you handle that? And what would you say to the person who needs to hear these words today? - Well, I wanna go. - I'm gonna go first. I handle them poorly.

And he handles them really well. Okay. And that in between us, that is how we proceed forward. Well, and I will say, and people will find this maybe unsettling, we have never had a quote unquote failure in the 16 years that we have run this company.

We have had things that you might call failure or the listeners might call failure, but to us they weren't failures. Because here's what we do. Anytime something doesn't work out the way we imagined it, the way we envisioned it, the way maybe someone else might have thought it was going to be a success,

we just say, "Oh, but what was the win in this situation?" So we have never lost or failed in anything because we find the win in every single situation. And just because it didn't go all the way to where you thought it was going to go, there was still a win in there.

And what did you learn from that? And so that's how we approach everything. And we don't take it emotionally. We're just like, okay, that was a win. Let's move on to the next win. Well, I take it emotionally. And then he makes me feel better about it.

no but mindset is everything right yes so look at every failure not for the failure that it didn't meet your objective but what was the win inside of that failure and then how do you use that to get the next step and that's that's actually a a key part to our partnership um is like i said brent is a is an eternal optimist and i am a

I don't want to say pessimist, but I'm a very... I've lived my life with depression and anxiety, so I'm often looking at the darker side of things.

The value that I've seen in that by being around Brent is that he has magical thinking that he thinks anything is possible. I contribute the fact that not everything is possible and here's why this is impossible. But between us, we actually strengthen each other's arguments. Like he listens to what can go wrong, which he would never have thought of. And I listen to the hope, which I never hear. Wow. Wow. And for the two of you, Dr. Brent...

Is it true? Is this true that Josh is the first man you've ever shared a kiss with? 100% correct. Yes, still to this day. I was going to say, in the last... Still to this day. And I know you told New York Times...

You said, "He completes me because he's allowed me to accept myself as a gay man." That is true. That is true because I grew up in North Carolina, evangelical, and so I'd never had an experience with a gay man before. Moved to New York City to do my medical training at Columbia, which is where we met, outside of a subway stop. And we have been together

Ever since then, 25 years, we have been together since that moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's so beautiful. And for both of you, do you plan to have kids? No, we did at one point, and then life overtook us, and all of our energy and business went into the business. But I think we look at our team differently.

that we've grown, we look at that as our family and what we've grown, the family that we've grown to contribute to the world is the business we built and the people involved in it. So that feeds us. Yeah. Do you think you ever might in the future? Maybe. I don't know. We haven't really talked about it in a long time.

We have our fur baby, of course. And lots of people have their fur babies and real kids. You know, that's a very interesting question, Jamie. No one has ever really explored that with us. When we had the original discussion when we were much younger about children and family issues,

Because I had lived my life up to that point trying to be so perfect, you know, the perfect student so that I could get into medical school and then the perfect doctor. He never missed a day of school, never got anything less than a 4.0.

from kindergarten through med school through business school wow never missed a single day because perfection is what i thought you had to achieve so he was always aware i i wanted children when we first met but and so i analyzed the situation i'm like will i be able to accept the imperfections and the chaos that comes from having children yeah and i thought well yes i could

accept it, but will that somehow influence the way I'm parenting? Because I don't want to put the same pressures on a child that I put on myself. And at the time when I was younger and in that mode of thinking, I thought, I don't know if I can. And so I certainly didn't want to have a child that

that had all that pressure on them that I was putting on them for my own purposes. But now you know you can love an imperfect person. You have proven it. You have proven it. Wow. So this is like a... You heard it here first, everybody, on the Jamie show. I just got this weird feeling like, is this why you're here? Oh, did we just plant a seed? Oh my gosh. Our mothers would be thrilled for sure. Yeah.

Maybe we're just going to adopt another dog. Yeah. Maybe that's it, Jamie. Jamie wants us to. Jamie's manifesting right now. I don't know. I feel something and I'm like, what's happening? You brought up a discussion that we haven't talked about in a long time. In a long time. So now we'll have a very full car ride back.

The next book will be goat wisdom for parents. You know, I tried for over a decade, actually, I was building at cosmetics and kept having miscarriages. Nobody knew. And we just went on this long fertility journey and, um, and yeah, I'm adopted. And so I always like, okay, one day, and before I even knew that I always knew I was going to adopt or, you know, and then we pursued adoption and surrogacy and surrogacy just went way faster. Um, but, uh, I have so many friends all

ages. We just had Hoda Kotb on the show. And she had her daughters in her 50s and she's now in her 60s. She's finding joy. And so, yeah, yeah. And you know what did it for me?

After years of infertility, I sat down. You guys would appreciate this. She was the editor of Elle magazine at the time. We'd never been in there. Anyways, sitting down for coffee. She just says to me, you do know when you have your child, you're going to actually meet your favorite person that you've ever known in your life. She's like, you might think you love your husband. You might think you love your mom. You might think you love your friends.

this is going to be your favorite person and i was just like and she goes so the longer you wait the more time you have without your favorite person um i love that story i love that thank you we're so we're grateful that you shared that with us i'm grateful you shared

your guys' past conversations. That's also very personal and I'm kind of excited. I'm kind of excited. - Now we have a conversation, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. If you choose to, you have to tell me and be like,

We'll let you host the reveal party on the show. And it's perfect. It'll be like everything yellow, nursery yellow, onesies yellow, everything. It won't matter the gender. It's yellow. Everything's yellow. It's yellow. All the kids will want to come over all the time to do parties there with the baby goats. Of course. It's going to be, I can see it all. I can see it all.

This conversation with the Beekman boys is so incredible. We made it into more than one part. So if you are ready to turn your setbacks into successes, overcome your self-doubt and learn a set of simple yet powerful tools to help you pursue your dreams and discover your purpose.

You are not going to want to miss the incredible part two of our conversation with the Beekman boys coming up in the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima show. Remember this episode's not just for you and me. Please share this with every single person that you know, because it can impact and change their life too. And if you've loved today's episode, please click the subscribe or follow button on the show on the app that you're listening to or watching it

on. And if it added value to your life, if you could please give it a rating or five-star review, I'd be so grateful. And again, please share it with everyone you believe in. Share it with another person who maybe is in your life who could benefit from it or someone you know who might be making a change in their career, who needs a little goat wisdom in their life.

Thank you so much for joining me today. And before you go, I wanted to share some words with you that couldn't be more true.

You, right now, exactly as you are, are enough and fully worthy. You're worthy of your greatest hopes, your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional love in the world. And it is an honor to welcome you to each and every episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show. Here, I hope you'll come as you are, heal where you need.

Blossom what you choose. Journey toward your calling and stay as long as you'd like because you belong here. You are worthy. You are loved. You are love. And I love you. And I cannot wait to join you on the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima Show. In life, you don't soar to the level of your hopes and dreams. You stay stuck at the level of your self-worth.

When you build your self-worth, you change your entire life. And that's exactly why I wrote my new book, Worthy, how to believe you are enough and transform your life for you. If you have some self-doubt to destroy and a destiny to fulfill, Worthy is for you.

In Worthy, you'll learn proven tools and simple steps that bring life-changing results, like how to get unstuck from the things holding you back, build unshakable self-love, unlearn the lies that lead to self-doubt, and embrace the truths that wake up worthiness.

Overcome limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome. Achieve your hopes and dreams by believing you are worthy of them and so much more. Are you ready to unleash your greatness and step into the person you were born to be? Imagine a life with zero self-doubt and unshakable self-worth.

Get your copy of Worthy, plus some amazing thank you bonus gifts for you at worthybook.com or the link in the show notes below. Imagine what you'd do if you fully believed in you. It's time to find out with Worthy. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious and so is self-belief.

And I'd love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox from me.

If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to jamiekernlima.com to make sure you're on the list and you'll get your one-on-one with Jamie weekly newsletter and get ready to believe in you.

If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration, some tips, tools, joy, and love hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at jamiekernlima.com or in the link in the show notes.

And please note, I'm not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.