Welcome to the Good Stuff.
I'm Jacob Shick and I'm joined by my co host and wife, Ashley Shick.
Welcome everyone. We're so glad to have you here. Jake and I are proud Texans who love to travel. We love to spend time with our family. We have two beautiful boys, and spend our days working with veterans, first responders, law enforcement officers, frontline healthcare workers and their families and doing rewarding work with that. So we consider ourselves blessed.
You know, we truly believe that everybody's got a story. We're telling not only about the peaks, but more importantly about the valleys and what's got them.
To where they are today.
Our guests today, Lylah and Jeremy Seyarr, are the very reason that I get to once again.
We're flip flops and it's awesome.
It is awesome, especially because we live in Texas and it's hot as peck most of the year.
That's one way to say it. Yeah.
They are the founders of Hari Mary. We've known them for quite a few years now. They've become very dear friends of ours. You don't just get to wear flip flops, you get to wear awesome flip flops.
Yeah, and awesome shorts and shirts and other stuff, all thanks to my cousin Luke.
Yeah. Which is a great story about how we met this incredible couple. But one of the things that drew us to them, not only are they a married couple that run a business together, they've been married for thirteen years and have their two beautiful children, but we fell in love with their hearts because of it go Yeah, their desire to give back and found out that they actually give one percent of sales to families and children battling pediatric cancer.
They're an incredible, incredible power couple. They epitomize right things, right reasons, and the rest will take care of itself. Work ethic is second to none. Nothing was given to them, you know. They essentially bet the farm on making sure this would be successful and not only survive, but thrive.
And they are now, by the grace of God.
Thriving absolutely like a couple. Goals for us business goal for us Eagles Lylan and Jeremy, and it's their story. I remember we went over to their warehouse and then they opened up their brick and mortar shop in Dallas and we went over there, had a nice little gathering and the whole family was out.
And I remember that because we had just gotten off a plane.
Yeah, we went straight over there and we.
Were scrubbing pretty hard.
Yeah, but we had our flip flops on.
But you remember how dressed up people were. Yeah, and we walked in and he looked at me and you gave me this look like how dare you let me do this?
And I was like, I didn't know.
No, we just thought it was like a barbecue. And we show up and everyone is in their Dallas best, which I always joke about because I'm from Austin, and Austin perfectly acceptable to wear a T shirt and flip flops to everything, but Dallas not so much.
Well, we're not going to sit here and get started about it just between Dallas and Austin.
But it was a flip flop company, so we felt comfortable wearing our flip flops. But it's so incredible what they've been able to build. And I remember when we went to their warehouse and we sat down with them and they started telling us, oh yeah, because we thought they have this beautiful, sleek brand and these great flip flops.
And then they sit down and tell us their story and we were like, whoa, we can't believe you not only went through all that, but then you continued and made this dream of reality.
And not only that, they're very very talented people collectors right, They're able to put an unbelievable trap around them to really help push the brand and promote the brand, and of course which has a significant impact on the bottom line. And that just goes to show you that they lead with their heart.
And it's because of all of these things that we just had to have them on the good stuff. We wanted them to come tell their story.
Super stoked, super stoked to have them on and get some Hari Mari soul food.
Thank you so much for having us.
Happy to be with you too. It's so good to see y'all in person. I know, yes, absolutely so. Our story with you actually started because prior to Jake getting injured in Iraq, he wore boots and flip flops all the time, that's all he wore. And once he had a prosthetic leg, he couldn't find a flip flop to fit on that prosthetic and his cousin Luke actually reached out to y'all and said, you know, hey, this is the story of my cousin Jake. You know, can you
do anything about it? Because he was already a huge fan of your brand. And not only did y'all say yes, we can do something about it, you created a flip flop that fits and stays on his prosthetic leg, but then you rolled it into an actual item that you give called freedom Flops, that you give out to veterans, first responders, law enforcement officers who have lost a limb and due to your combat. It's just an incredible story.
Yeah, I'm not an ambassador right life.
Whether you like it or not, you're in.
A fishal You're listed high on the website.
Just check it.
He wants to know where his badget.
Just like the wings that kids get, like something, you know, flop, Yeah.
Got, you've got flu fops on your feet. So a pair and then this and then this one hundred degree plus temperatures in Texas. It's it's no, they're great flops. They're great.
And here's the thing. Luke didn't even tell me.
He just did it.
Yeah. Yeah, he was like, Jake, Hey, when you got some time, I want you to go with me. To the store Harry Maury and you know, just check it out. He was trying to surprise me, right and you know, nailing down my calendar, you know, easy that is. And it was like, okay, bro, where where are they located? And he told me and I was like, oh, that's like that a lot, like an hour and a half to two hours for this evolution and I don't know them and able to do that. And finally he just
gave them to me. He was like, dude, this is why I went. And I was like, well, if you would have told me that, I would have gone. But the fact that you guys, you know, took it amongst your souls. I mean, it just is an example of your heart and your character.
Just straight up.
And and that's when I was like, well, you didn't tell me they were a rat.
I mean, I'll make time for that.
It was something that was truly a liberating experience because it was first time, literally I had flops on my feet since two thousand and four. The last time I wore him was on the base at Ala Sade to the shower trailer. Last time I wore flip flops, and I remember how frustrating it was you know, and so.
What you was at twenty eighteen when we made him twenty seventeen.
Seventeen eighteen, somewhere in there, and then the whole Freedom Flows program was created in birth and you guys have become your family to us and it's like, you know, it's it's awesome to see.
It's like God knows what he's doing.
I still have those flops then I still wear I probably shouldn't's probably not safe.
They probably should have the little little.
He'sive flower, right, But to do that, and I think, you know, Ley, you mentioned that you're you're super big time military supporters.
You get it.
And the fact that you guys dug in that had to be a moment for you guys where you think about the connections of the drive to get something like this done. I'm just curious as to what went through your mind, like, because I don't think freedom Flops was I think at that point it was like, let's.
See if we can get these flops for this dude with the fake lect.
We had no idea. I mean literally the idea was born because of you, and we had no idea of the size of the community. Right, You're the one that said, hey, I know a lot of people, a lot of people who miss wearing flip flops, and Lylon Aard like what like really yeah and that. So it was really your idea that became the impetus behind freedom Flops, and so you said, hey, look, could you all do one hundred more pairs?
You know, I'm sure we met you. I was like, Okay, not only do I want to be friends with this guy, but whatever, however many flip flops you need for this program, sign me up. I don't know if we would have done that for anybody. I think it has a special connection to you that we had and felt immediately, and also because we do want to support the military, but put out together, it was really you. Yeah, you inspired us to want to do it and continue doing it.
Do you remember the first time we met? I started crying?
Do you remember cry? The first time?
I don't even know if you saw I was because I was trying to hide it.
Yeah you're not, don't, I don't.
I don't tell you as.
A public crier.
I was so overwhelmed. Jeremy told me about Luke and everything about bringing the flops over, and both my grandfathers were in the military, and we are die hard military supporters. And when Jeremy told me that he was doing this freedom flop steal, I was like, Lord, it's one thing just talking about it, but it's a whole other thing when you see somebody wearing them. And when you walked in our office that day and you were wearing them and you just wanted to come by and say thank you,
I was bawling crying. I was like, oh my god, Lila, keep it together, like you don't know this man. Keep her cool. But I literally was like wiping away tears and looking away to be sure that you didn't see me.
But I think that's beautiful because it's again goes back to when you birth the idea of the company and wanting to give back and to contribute because you've got those hearts and you're that kind of people. To be able to see something that you created, helping someone who loves to wear foipflops that couldn't for years. Those are the paychecks, That's what Jake and I called him. Those are the real paychecks. Getting to see that and having gratitude for something that you helped create.
I just think it's an awesome thing because it speaks volumes of your character. I mean, it was this shot in the dark about this guy with this fake leg that wanted flip flops.
Well, I just love that. You know, Jeremy's so busy, right, and I remember him tell him and he didn't tell me he was doing this because I remember seeing the initial email from Luke. But Jeremy being Jeremy and like so humble and like the silent ninja, I had no idea that's.
A code for bad communicator.
Your husband, wife, there's the prime example of your humility on display.
Right.
I thought it was so sweet. And I remember Jeremy came home and with everything going on with production, he made the time to sit down and talk with the factory and be sure that they did it, and carry the pairs home with him and then follow through with it just on his own. And I just thought that was so cool. And then we hit the jackpot because they were for you.
Well, the Freedom Plous program is I mean clearly near and dear to my heart, and not just because you know, I got wounded combat and I have a prossyc like like I know what I did, right, I know, And I don't need accletes for that.
I mean, I volunteered. Nobody lose me anything but.
The fact that my cousin on his own accord, yeah, who spent time with me when I was in the hospital and went out of his way to try and be big, fun, gregarious luke And that was not fun to be around for a long time.
And it just it again, it's the little things.
I don't know it's cliche saying, but it is just the little things, Like the good stuff is made up in all of these small things that are seemingly so minute, but they're not.
They're huge.
And that's what's beautiful about this freedom Flops and the birth of it.
Why had you decided to start this company?
I feel like the way we tell it is different from one another just because it speaks to our personalities,
but it comes to the same thing obviously. So Jeremy and I had a really cool opportunity back in two thousand and seven to move to Jakarta, Indonesia, born and raised in Dallas and had to google where it was not gonna lie and it was a job offer for Jeremy, and it was too cool of an opportunity to say no, So we sold our cars and put what we owned in storage and took off and we were there for three years, from two thousand and seven to twenty ten. And there's no short way of telling the story, but
I promise I'll bring it full circle. So Jeremy was there working on a presidential campaign. I wasn't able to get a work visa, which was a struggle because I'd always worked, but ended up being a blessing because I was able to volunteer for the first time in my adult life, and I ended up getting on the board for the American Women's Association and spent my time helping
kids and orphanages in and around Jakarta. But living in a place like Indonesia where families live on less than a dollar a day and there's no access to healthcare, there's really no formal trash or sewage system. It's pretty third world. It's life changing for me, both of us, but it was pretty wild. And so Jeremy was working on quite a few projects as part of the presidential campaign. And I'll have him tell the story that he the
way he likes to tell in the sect too. But one of the things that they worked on was producing a documentary film about malnutrition specifically how it affects kids. So we just had this like crazy, wild, crazy, rewarding, sad, like all the things experience living there for three years. For me, especially moving back in twenty ten, jumping back into my old job I loved prior to moving, just wasn't of interest, Like I was changed, Like I wanted
to do something filmthropic. I wanted to do something that was ours. We're just different people after having that kind of experience. So that's the why behind Hari so Harry in the Indonesian language means of the sun Mari and Latin means of the sea, kind of a fun play on words pertaining to flip flops, allowing us to kind of bring it full circle. But the idea to start the business was Jeremy. So I'll let you take it from there.
I just like flip flops. I'm with you.
Yeah, And you know when you're telling that, I was thinking, you see all this this third world it is.
It's a culture shock.
I remember the first time I experienced it and I was like, oh, I.
Am so ungrateful.
Yeah, I'm so like I discussed me. I was a teenager too. Would you say a lot of suffering over there.
Absolutely that was probably borderline depressed while we were living there, just seeing that kind of poverty day in and day out.
But my tea I think was almost was different because I think that even in like abject poverty, we're like a lot of say eighty percent of their population lives on less than a dollar a day, there was still a ton.
Of happiness and still would you say, in your experience watching what you consider tremendous suffering, if they were a happier people than people here for sure?
Yeah, And I think that's the reflection point, right, We were like, if they're happy and yeah, or living on literally nothing day, what do I have to what do I have to complain about?
Do you think it'd be safe to say that that experience and those Indonesian people played a hand in the success of harrymar because you refuse to quit.
Yeah, I think unquestionably. I think that the the idea of helping others too, I think was born out of that same experience.
Right.
Not only was it a point of being able to look at what we had and knowing that really these like little material things that we all kind of collected like trinkets, it doesn't meaning thing right. It was us. It's us that they kind of came through out of that experience and mattered the most and are being together
and you know, our love for each other. But it was also the ability to kind of take that and hopefully make a positive out of it, because, like Love said, I mean, a lot of what she was working almost related helping kids, and I think one of the things we saw that really affected us in a similar way is that when she had donations come in, whether it be like beds for kids, like beds for kids in an orphanage, right, I mean, pretty basic stuff.
Part of this group that I was in was called the American Women's Association, and it was all women that were there for the most part because their husbands are in the gas and oil industry, right, which is pretty right over there in that part of the world, And so we would hit up all of their husbands companies for donations. Then we would go fill up these buses or trucks whatever we could get, and go make deliveries and drop offs to the orphanages. And it was like
the coolest days of my life. It was just so incredible, And we would go back a few weeks later to see those same kids like for site visits, and all of it would be gone because the owners or the people running the orphanages would sell it and the country just rotated the managers of the orphanages to keep basically the corruption alive essentially. And it was awful. It was terrible.
So when we started this, we said, look, let's try to do something that where we know we're having a direct effect. We know that none of the middle people could siphon that all off and that could help. And that's where this charitable idea came into play. Let's do something beyond slang and flip flops, right. We wanted to do something that made a difference, and that's where our initial idea for flops fighting cancer is born and really
hopefully giving back in some capacity. We knew we want to help kids, right, we're starting a family kind of all duptailed really nicely. We didn't know where that would be, and Leila and I started doing some research and we're pretty stunned to learn that pediatric cancer is the most fatal disease among kids, and it's actually it's more fatal than all the other child of diseases combined. And so we said a good look. If we can, if we can start a company. At that time, we didn't even
know it's gonna be flip flops. If we can start a company, and if in some way we could help supplement families and kids medical bills that are going through cancer treatment, let's do that. Like that would be meaningful
and that would give buffs purpose. So kind of to answer your question a very roundabout way, yeah, because all the abject poverty, all the siphoning off of help trying to solve that poverty issue was pretty frustrating for see on a day to day basis, and now wanting to try to solve it in like our own little way. That's I think what really became an impetus behind Harry Mary, at least for one of them.
I think that speaks so much to who you both are. You both have hearts the size of Texas, and it is it's such a beautiful thing. One of the reasons we wanted to have you on the Good Stuff is because of the perseverance that we know that it took to actually launch the stream that you had. I know, you guys went through research and development phase for two or three years and then when you were finally ready
to actually start selling the flip flops. The first few weeks of business were a complete disaster.
Yeah, they were beyond a disaster. I mean you imagine building up the anticipation for two years or both of us was a new career, right, I mean we have both had separate careers before this. We wanted to do something together and really kind of make something our own.
And so we'd also said goodbye to paychecks and previous careers and like all in on this, all in Yeah, with a new mortgage and a baby.
Yeah, we made the really smart decision of starting a family and a company at the exact same time. Yeah, So we were literally two weeks away from launching. I'd visited China bunch week Frankenstein together our favorite flip flop, and gone to visit twenty different factories and found one factory, and I grabbed Bleille's brother, who's like twenty or nineteen
at the time. It because I need like a travel companion to go to China with me, and we went and sat on this factory line like literally like Laverne and Shirley that for you know, a week in the factory, like looking all the pairs go by, because we had everything of our savings invested in this, so it had to be perfect. We work on a scamp and we weren't going to take an eye off the ball. So
we watch every pair go by. We take out, you know, all the pairs off that were decued and disqualified and not up for selling, and we put in a pile next to us, and guy would come along every hour and it take the box away of the bad pairs and go throw them the trash. And so fast forward to now the flip Flops are on the boat and they're coming into the US, and we're two weeks away from launching. This was February. We were launching in March
of twenty twelve, and so much anticipation. Lyylet had been running press, some media, and we had all this great launch planned and lo and behold, we get a call from Customs and very simple, very matter of fact, your product does not pass Muster in terms of its markings. Markings mean just the stickers that are on it right made in China stickers specifically, we said, well, what do we need to put on there? And I said, well,
there's not good enough. So immediately we ran out to all the stores, started taking pictures of all the markings of all the other brands and compare them to ours, like look, ours is actually you know ours are bigger.
Or taking pictures like with the ruler to send to the guy to be like no, look, I promise like we did this right.
Well it turns out like we got this guy in his first week on the job, the inspector and something more we came to find out later, right, uh, super yeah. So there was I think there was a need to make an impression that day, and we became the example. The choices we were presented to us pretty cleanly. It was either one you get your friends and family to come and do it yourself, or two you pay the bonded warehouse in Dallas, South Dallas where we had our
products sitting. You pay the workers there to stick are all twenty five thousand pairs that were coming on the first shipment. That was a choice.
Way to make It was a total gut punch because obviously we couldn't afford to hire anybody to do anything. At that point. It was just Jeremy and I and my brother was helping, and we had called friends and family and were like, hey, we'll give you flip flops for life. I mean, will you please come help us? Aiden was five months old at this point. We put her in a pack and play and parents, Jeremy's dad friends.
Would you guys say that Harri Maury would be where it is today without friends and family?
No?
Absolutely not.
Okay, I'm just curious.
No way.
But how did that call go? Because everybody knows you've sunk your entire savings into starting this big dream. You're anticipating the launch and then.
Well, my parents already thought we were crazy for starting a flip flop company in the first place. That's fair, and most people did like, what are you doing? You have a baby, you've said goodbye to lucrative careers, and not only are you starting a flip flop company, but you're not going to do it out of California. Everyone was worried.
This kind of like started to prove their theory that we were insane.
See, and my parents also knew that we had sunk in on all of our savings everything. So my mom wasn't like I told you so, she was like when and where.
Do I need to be awesome?
And that's how it was with the majority of our family and a lot of our friends.
Yeah. So this is February in a bonded warehouse in South Dallast no air conditioning here. It was cold, it was it was hot, it was cold, it.
Was freezing, blocked it out of my.
We had like fifty blankets around our newborn.
When the customs agent called, obviously you gathered the troops and said, come on, let's go. We've got to go do this. It was do or die. You'd put everything into this, and then you've got this one guy who's clearly brand new on the job, ego, whatever it is. He's got to make his stand. What what was that like? You know, you get this call from this guy and then you're having to deal with him. You're sending him pictures of stickers with a ruler next to it.
It was a one sided conversation. It was you can argue all you want, little Harry Mary, whatever that is, but either going to restick or these or they're gonna sit. Oh and by the way, every day they sit, we're charging you for storage fees. So it was a falling knife syndrome. We had to do it in some capacity, had to find a way to do it, and that in terms of Harry Mary became the very first time we're like, okay, you know, roper sleeves, Like who else are going to do it?
You never had the thought maybe we shouldn't have done this, or maybe we should just stop now.
No, no, so legit okay.
But then follow up to that, do you think that's them from desperosity or it's them from conviction sheer determination, Yeah that's it.
Yeah, no question. I mean we had told everybody we're going to do this, So part of this was like, all right, we really have to go do this. Clearly, there was a part of it. Two we'd invested and we knew that we had to get it done. Part of the two is like, let's go do it. Watch this know, I mean that was the beginning. So we get in there and our friends and family start opening up the boxes, you know, taking pair by pair out and each pair had to have two stickers. I remember
this very clearly. Two stickers applied to two different places, right. I think somebody was like your your brother or one of our friends said like, are they supposed to look like this? The flip flops, Like yeah, what do you mean? And like went over to look at one of the pairs that he pulled out of the box, and it was completely deformed, something you would never see on a stuff like the rubber was like, you know, melted off the back of it. It was terrible.
But we still had to resticker them. So like imagine, I don't know how many boxes, but we had to reopen every box, open every bag, remove the hangars, remove the stickers, resticker, reseal, I mean everything twenty five thousand times, literally like bloody fingers at the end of it.
And what we found by opening more is that the deeper we got into it, the more that one pair that they found at the very beginning, just one, was not just one. It was not anomaly. It was it was like part of the course. So and we came to find about half of our total order that had
come in was complete defective. And so when we were at the factory backing up a few months, all those pairs that we had taken off the line, and we're so proud of ourselves that we know, thank God we came and did this trip because all those pairs would have come to Dallas, well they all did come to Dallas, they just got put back in at the very end
after we left to our order. So that's where we were, and that was that was how our hopes, our dreams are, you know, with these high positive aspirations for what you think about the launch of your brand after two years and then just this complete gut punch going into it.
And that was just the beginning day one, right.
The next part was the worst. When we literally got through stickering all these these pairs twenty five thousand pairs over seven which you can't sell, half of which we can't sell, we said, okay, look now our launch is a week away. I remember this very clearly. I called my account and I'm like, you won't believe this. We have half of our payers we can't sell. Like, what can we do from an accounting perspective? Can we get like a right off? He's like, let me, let me
explain what a write off is to you. He's like, no, you can't get it right off. He's like, I would just trash them all right there, And Lyla and I looked at each other like, nah, we're not going to trash these. We got to do something with them. We've got to make a positive out of this negative experience, and so Lyla started doing some research.
And so we got married in Guatemala, and so it obviously has a special place in our heart. And we'd met this guy that lived in our neighborhood and he was the CEO of a nonprofit. The nonprofit sole purpose was no pun intended was to get shoes from companies like ours and get them to second thirdmal countries, so get them out of distribution, but also do some good with it. So he's who we called just.
Days before we were about to launch, and truck backs up to our warehouse. We loaded so twenty five thousand pairs. We loaded about twelve thousand pairs onto the truck.
And these are the defunct one.
These are the ones we could not sell. These are ones that are all defected.
And keep in mind we had we had already paid for those, so it's not like and restick with them. Yes, this is a painful day. It was really painful.
So we waved goodbye. We're feeling good about ourselves for trying to make.
Something, you know, because he told us, he was like, well, these are going to get to Guatemala. You guys are gonna do some good with these. So we were thankful for that piece right to make the best out of a really crappy situation.
So two days before launch, I mean we had we're having dinner and no, no, no, that's later, No it's not and you started looking through your phone and you started seeing these things pop up right before we're about to launch, these like sales notices, timeline.
I've blocked it all out.
It was so traumatic, to be fair.
I mean, you asked Jeremy how long we're married.
Yes, this was ten years ago. So I'm on Instagram and at that point in time, no one had Harry Mary's yet, like they weren't out.
We started having dinner and Lila started searching the hashtag Harry Mary because we had started posting stuff about flip flops are coming, the launch is coming, you know, trying to see it up, trying to tee it up, tease the launch, and we had to press outlets involved in the launch, and so a lot of started running through the hashtag Harry Maury and she's like, oh my god, you won't believe this.
Someone is advertising for there's Harry Maury hashtag Harry Maury flash sale and someone's advertising for three dollars pairs of Harry Mary's. Keep in mind, we sell them for at that point for sixty I mean panic, like total panic. I'm like freaked out.
This is one week before you go hot, this is a few days.
Yeah, oh, freaked out. So I immediately call the guy, the CEO of this nonprofit and he ghosts me. Of course, so I called him repeatedly, emailed him repeatedly, didn't never responded. So I called the office and I got some guy on the phone of the nonprofit for the nonprofit, and they just were completely and totally dismissive of me.
And we knew it was then because we hadn't sold a single pairent. Yeah, there's the only pairs that had been outside of our own inventory control.
So I did some cyberstocking and found out the name, home address, and cell phone number of the dude that owned the flash sale site, and so I called him and told him who I was, And at first he was being a total prick.
Yep right, And.
I was like, I have your home address, so if you don't want to play ball and tell me where you got him, all be on your doorstep in an hour. Totally bluffing, but like I was fuming at that point, right, you.
Know I could, and.
I wouldn't have been scared to I'll put it that way anyway. So he told me that he bought them at a flea market in La So I go online and start doing some research and this nonprofit that had several class action lawsuits against them but from other brands for donating product to them, and they ended up reselling it awful.
Yeah, I can't do.
That, Lesson learned the hard way. So we were painings. We're like, oh my god, we haven't even started this thing, and the market could be totally tainted because we don't know how many people have seen it. I mean, we're twelve thousand plus pairs like that could ruin us before we even started.
So we're so excited weeks heading into this very difficult period and are branding with confidence. And here we go, finally after all this time, and brand new baby. Yeah, brandy, baby, you know the sales are gonna start rolling in as soon as we launch.
Take me back to March twenty twelve, the day the website launches, like it's finally time to go. All this stuff has happened in the weeks leading up to it.
So Jeremy's alarm goes off like four am or three thirty. I'm like, look over' like, what are you doing. We had thrill lists set to feature us the day that we were turning on the website. He's like, we're gonna have so many web orders, Like I got to get up there. We're gonna have orders to fill orders pack. I'm like, okay, well, I'll see up there, like at a normal hour, like at May thirty or something. And we were hoping to get hundreds of orders on our
first day. I think we got eleven, like seven of which or maybe eight, maybe all of them were from our family. That's okay, pretty fun.
You got to start somewhere. Well were you thinking at that time?
It's disappointment. Its total disappointment.
Yeah.
In fact, the first two weeks, three weeks of you know, everything around the launch was problematic, right, like, man, this is the beginning, Like it is supposed to be the best time. This was the easiest time. It's only supposed to get harder from here. But it was a test. I mean it was a test for sure, like dude, do you really want to do this? Do you all really want to do this? Okay, you know you're getting yourselves into like either you do or don't.
So it was a test and a series of tests. Yeah, and here here it's game day. You've done all this research, you've done all the media, all the leading up to it, and then yeah, disappointment. So what are you thinking day two?
We always laugh because mantra has been just like, get punched the nose and come back for more the next day. And because inherently entrepreneurs are problem solved, so they liked to problem solve. It's kind of like it's an addiction, right, and we have that addiction. We have a problem solving addiction. Right, Let's figure this thing out together. But I think doing
it together was what really made this possible. And you all know it's like all these challenges, all these hurdles, and if we hadn't been doing this together, I guarantee you we wouldn't have gotten out of the first month of business lettone ten years later. Because we have each other, and because we're able to bounce things off each other and share the same experiences and know when things are going poorly, no one things are going well, you know, But doing it together has been an incredible.
Experience and he's trying to earn some bonus points today, y'all.
Yeah, absolutely, I think it's great. No, And again, you know, Jake and I work together in multiple capacities, and so we get it. And getting to work alongside your best friend, getting to work alongside your life partner, but someone who knows you and you can almost anticipate. I mean, you two are a great couple that balance each other out so well, it's not surprising that you've been so successful in this.
That's the other fun piece about working with somebody you're so close with your spouse, because you are made acutely aware of your weaknesses, right, and that can come through, you know, a knock down, drag out fight, or can just become through self reflection. And I think that a lot of the ways we have grown over the years have been because we work together and we're able just to call each other out and say the things you would normally never say to somebody you work with professionally.
And I think when we first started, the way we said them was probably a bit harsh, at least from my end, well am I kidding? Yeah, from your end too, But we've become way better about communicating in ways that you know aren't as harsh or direct, but still are honest with each other. And so I know, for example, that Lila is an incredible salesperson. Right, she could get on the phone, she could sell anybody our flip flops.
And I don't have that same skill set. Right, she could get on the road for a month at a time and go all the retailers, all the trade shows. I don't have that ability. I'm tethered, you know, to home. And I think she would probably say there are things
I do that she can't do. But we've learned them, and we've learned them so well now that we rarely ever cross into each other's lanes, and because we respect each other so much more now that I think when we first did no idea what we were doing, right, But I think we have a little bit better understanding of each other now. That is has made our marriage stronger, It's made our friendship stronger. And we always joke we're serious that yeah, we're a married couple and we started
this business together. Somehow we're still married, and somehow even further, we still like each other.
Day two is we're like, okay, we got to pivot a little bit here. Originally we were thinking about just being an e comm business only. So we were talking and I think we had to shift strategies a little bit and decide that we need to open this up to wholesale. We've got a little over fifteen thousand pairs we need to sell, and it's clearly not going to happen on Harymuri dot com anytime soon.
Yeah, it just occured us at that point, we'd like you to start selling like then the Kurd to us, the three months previous place in order. Yeah, four months previous way place to order. Maybe we should go start selling this to stores.
So I threw our twelve skews in my car and drove all over Texas for the next month, came back, took a break, and then my car had a total jelope at the time, so that barred my grandmother's Cadillac, and then literally drove like all over to the East Coast, hitting up as many stars as I could, and then back and it was hilarious.
I could see Lila and her patties sitting and flops across the East Coast.
I'm a car guy, I yelled both on that do you remember what type of caddy.
I'm just curious.
I really don't. I wish i'd taken pictures of documented.
Definitely a Fleetwood. I remember that. It was like a bright haad one of those like handtops on her, like a color top of it.
So straight up grandparent cat.
Oh yeah yeah.
And I think on top of that, it was like our first intern, Lila, somehow co opted to go with her, says girl like straight out of college, just graduated. She jumped in the car Lila and went east coast. I think the girl.
Like, like, what am I doing in a Cadillac, you know, cruising through Florida Panhandle with this crazy nuts of woman who's you know, going about flip flops?
So you know, the funny thing about working together too is I'm sure you guys experiences like when you first start, like you don't know what your lanes are. You're just you're swerving all over the place, just trying to find you know, something.
Or boundaries or limits another anything. There is a yes, dear Yeah there, yeah, right, there is. But that's the thing. Yeah, if it was a yes dear thing, it wouldn't work exactly, Yeah, it wouldn't work.
I have to be challenged, so does she.
And I think that that's what's in the chemistry with you guys. It was evident on the first day that and I didn't meet you together the first time. I remember that too. But it's palpable, you know. It's the good energy. It's the good stuff, hearing more of a story and hearing things that you know, we've never heard, even like it explains it. It explained so much of not only your unbelievable grace, but your grit, because you
can't have one without the other. Firm believer. The fact that you guys struggled the way you did, and you saw struggle and suffering, but you saw it well.
How much sweeter is the sixth us now knowing where you started?
Super or weird, Like, we don't consider ourselves successful by any stretch of the imagination. We don't. There'll be times we'll stop down, maybe you know, once a year, and we'll pat ourselves on the back, and then it's like eyes forward and keep going.
You know, I just feel like we have a long way to go, a long way to.
Go, and and so it's easier today. So you don't you refuse the subtle Yeah, yeah, and we're not just you all the same personality types. Like the achievements they're not meaningful enough or they don't come frequently enough. I think maybe compared to some other folks to really stop down and take the time to mark them. We probably
should more. And we always say that, you know, we should, you know, mark the milestones more, but we just don't because it's always just like, hey, this day, okay, great? What about this though, you know, like, yeah, here's the
success okay, great, okay, what about our challenges? And we always go back to the challenges every single day, so there's no rear view and you know, there's always like straightforward looking at and maybe that goes back to kind of that masachists entrepreneurial spirit like And that's not to say there's no joy, like we love doing this, we love doing with one another. It's just there's so much that we're just never satisfied with and just want to
keep going, keep going, keep going. So there's just so.
Much more we want to do with it. I feel like we've just scratched the surface with Harry Mari in terms of product and company size and philanthropy and freedom flops and kick ass ambassadors and here's truly yep.
I think that that's what that's what's beautiful about it. People tell me a lot like Jake and he wrote a book, and I'm like, uh, I mean eah, I feel like I'll.
Know when it's time. It's not time. I'm not done yet.
I actually did a podcast and the guy asked me what was your home run?
And I thought about it for.
A minute because I usually give genuine answers and I very rarely shoot from the hip without intention.
I said, you know, DBD to be determined. I'm not dead yet. Yeah, you know you guys are a lot like that.
What would you say is if you could name one the biggest lesson you've learned through this whole story that you shared with us, the launching of your American dream that could help others.
I think we're gonna have widely different answers again, but I love it.
I think I just love it. I love it. So whoever I just wanted to go for, because they're both invaluable, I'll go.
I mean, I know mine easily. Mine's just mine's faith. I don't think I've ever told you all the story, but I didn't grow up going to church. I was not in a religious family by any name or mention, but it's been a long time since I prayed. But you want to like starting a business like it, you're just you're going through It's like the gauntlet every day, right, You're just getting your asking it to you every single day.
And you know, whether it's trying to meet payroll or pay the bills, or making sure that the customer's happy, getting inventory in or dealing with defection, you know, whatever it is. It's like there's a multitude things, right, And I remember three or four years into Harry Maury, one morning I just woke up in we were financially just like the gas tank was empty, right, and we have this It was just kind of one of the bottom points.
I remember this. I just walked home back, I say, this is three to four years, four years.
In yet at this point, I'm talking about leaving to get a full time job so we have an income, like that's where we are, which I was devastating, cause I'm like, oh my god, I love Harry Maury. I don't want to do anything else, but like we literally couldn't afford.
Yeah, we still I think at this point we still weren't taking a salary, and literally our savings had gone from investing everything in Harry Mary having a little bit left over to having really nothing leftover. Right, So like, okay, what are we doing? I woke up at three or four in the morning and I just prayed for the first time in probably like twenty years. Honestly, I was like, I don't know what's going to come of this, and
I don't I don't need a sign one. I just want to know that you're with me, right, You're with us, You're with what we're trying to do. And so I got up, couldn't go back to bed. I got up, went to the officer early. I'm sitting in the office it's like nine o'clock and our warehouse manager comes in. He walks the door. He said, Hey, are you expecting somebody here? And I'm like, no, what what do you mean.
He's like, well, got a group here that says they're they're looking for something, Like I don't know what a group would be doing here in our office. He said, well, okay, I'll go deal with them. So he goes back out and he comes back five minutes later. He said, I really think you should come out here. He's like, I don't understand. He's like, they're looking for a church, and I'm like what. So, like I walk out and there's this group of five people. They were in town basically
with a thousand other people. They're all going out to different businesses and churches and praying with those churches. And they had a map sco. And apparently our old office used to be a church. So they walked in and they said what can I help you with? And they're like, well, we're here looking for this church. And I'm like, well, this is a flip flop company. And they show me the like, you know, the old print out for the maps go you know, we always to use those, and they had
the name of a church on it. I said, okay, can you just tell us about your business? Like we're not If you have time, we'd love to visit with you. Like great, So I walked them through the business. We spent like an hour talking. Two of the people had actually they were like twenty years old and they had been living in the which was this crazy coincidence, and we started speaking in Indonesia, which is like okay, this is odd and find yeah, right exactly. But my faithless
brain didn't know any better at the time, right. And so you know, we have an open floor plan in our office. You've all seen it, right. Everyone can see everyone, everyone can hear everything. There's no privacye whatsoever. Zero zero. And this this woman turned to me and she said, well, we're gonna go here in a bit, but if you don't mind, we'd really like to pray with you. I said, like here, right.
Here, came in in front of everyone.
Yeah, in front of everyone, And that was God's way of saying, it's your time to either step up and be a person of faith, be a man of faith, step into the role that you were asking for, or don't you know, shy away, coward away. And so we formed a circle right there in front of all of our employees and like for me, that was a pretty big deal, and prayed there and they prayed for our business.
From that point on, I just have had an incredible investment in faith, in just digging into the Bible, which I'd never read before in my life, just being a little closer in that walk and than I ever was.
And I'll tell you all that there have been so many times I feel like my eyes were probably just not open at this point, but there have been so many things that somebody called them recently godwinks and which I think is a great term where things just happened, and things happen at the right time or a moment that you could never anticipate and there is no explanation for it, and the fact that God is with you on this stay in faith. It's incredibly hard, incredibly challenging.
There are never times where we ever want to quit, but there are times when we are pulling our hair out and have just felt like we can't go another day. And there will always be something faith wise that we experience or see or even with each other or with our kids, or it's like, you know, suck it up, like, suck it up and keep going because this is why you're here, this is what you're meant to be doing, and if you have faith, you'll continue to do it.
Follow that lie up.
Well, I know that's really hard to do, but I'm going to add to that because that was a pretty low period for us in terms of like what do we do, how can we afford this? Like how can we make this happen?
And this is the same time this was.
Within a week of each other. Yeah, so literally around this time, Jeremy and are both praying, asking the universe for a sign, like what do we do? Because he was going to continue on Harry Mari, but it was like, what do I do? Do I go get a bring in a paycheck essentially, and I was begging the universe first sign. And a girlfriend of mine had given me Joanna Gaines's book to read, like, you've got to read this book. There's so much reliability husband and wife teams
starting a business while they're starting a family. You should read it. And at that point in time, I didn't know who they were. I'd never seen fix her Upper and I was like, okay, well there's a reason why someone I'll read it. Started reading it and I couldn't put it down. She's just really honest and raw and I love I love that. At the end of the book, I walk into the living room and I'd been telling Jeremy how much I was enjoying the book and why
So it's a Saturday morning. I just finished it and it was so great for me. I was like pissed it was done like one of those books, you know, And I literally walked into the living room and Jeremy shushes me. He's like, like what, and the TV is on and it's the first time we've ever watched fix her Upper in our home ever. Joanna Gaines is on the screen at that exact moment, wearing a pair of
Harry Marris. Literally within days that incident happens with Jeremy, and then you know how like women go online and they'll google who was, what is so and so wearing or what shoes? So next thing, I know, literally right after that, People magazine in Style, like all these magazines published, these are the flip flops that Joanna gainswears, and sales skyrocketed on Harimari dot com and Norsham dot com and
Zappos dot com. And I was like, well, I got my sign ye and ever since that day his for that reason, which is a little more meaningful in mine, because that was my sign. Literally, I've never I've never questioned what we're doing and that we should give up or stop or sell or whatever. It's it's our story.
You know, I need more slag.
I know.
All right, three final questions we ask everyone. Okay, so we're gonna ask y'all if you want to both answer them. We're individually either way. And I know this list, just like Jake's, could be very, very long. But if you could think of one organization or person or maybe group of people, and you've already mentioned one that have truly made an impact on who.
You are, my mind instantly goes to both of my grandmothers. They were so incredibly different, but they were both so fiercely independent and characters in their own right. And I think having two grandmothers like that, who were very very prominent in my life in a big part of my life, that basically taught me, hey, let your freak flag fly,
whatever that looks like, just do it. So because of that, I never felt like, oh, is this okay to be in business and to be running my own business, or getting on the road and driving six months in my grandmother's Cadillac across country to go sell in heart whatever that was. Having that type of strong female figure, two of them, it was like so beneficial and just incredible
for me. That's where I go to initially. And I could answer that question in a million different ways, but those are the first two things that come to mind.
That's beautiful. I dig that, Yeah, we had the same meme and Mamma, yeah, I mean huge influencers on our life and our personalities and our drive and you.
Know, and you say and that made me think about of course, you know, I thought about me right away. I never understood the strong man or whatever. It was always very foreign to me because I was like, what do you what does that mean? Because my grandmother is the strongest human being?
I know.
It never made sense to me, and I'm grateful for that because it's everybody has got the ability to exude strength.
It's a choice you make. Yeah, that's.
God Rest your soul, Jeremy.
No, I mean I think it's very similar. I think it's just I think it's just family in general. I mean, like we told you guys, I mehan, we first told our families and we just moved back like okay, what are you doing now? And we both got our jobs. We're jobless when we're starting a flip flop company, of course, and they're like, okay, no, really, what are you doing? And and you know, after that initial conversation, they kind
of realized we're serious. Yeah, And they've been so stinking supportive and it just goes to show, like whatever our kids want to do. It doesn't matter. It's like, just be good at it, you know, just invest in it and be good at it, be happy doing it. Yeah, like that's what matters. And so I I just hope like we can, I know, we will pass that Ford pay that for dark kids and to anybody, you know,
anybody else's go do what you want to do. And parents not only supported us with a little bit of money and investment here and there, but really with their time, which I mean they're taking our kids while we're traveling to trade shows, which was first couple of years of our business, or while you know, you're out selling or I'm visiting the factory, or being present at all of our Harry Mari functions. I mean they're at every single one. You know, my dad will walk around Norse and like,
you know that's brand. I've heard of it before. It's called Harry Mari. You may want to check it out. You know. They're like, are you like the dad of somebody, Like okay, I gotta go.
You know, like.
That's the type of stuff that families that do.
You know that was a secret.
Anymore?
What do you do to unwind to take care of yourself? And selves because clearly you take care of each other as much as you do your kids, or is like we like to call it, you know, what's your what's your healthy selfish.
Look like travel, wine and working out.
I think you spend time with kids because it allows me to be a kid and forget everything else and just put it, put the phone down, be with them, be present. And I try this thing where I come home for work and have been for the last five or six years, come home from work, phones off for or for not off, down for two three hours, put the kids down. Phones comes right back on, but at least that two or three hour window. It's just like
being present and trying to it's so vital. Try to get out of you know, business, blah blah blah, whatever the heck you're doing. You don't be with them.
It's beautiful. I mean on both sides. It's like, you know, simple answer, right, but it goes way deeper. It goes way deeper than that, Jeremy. I mean, trust me, I spent I spent a lot of time not being the dad I needed to be. And I take a lot of pride in the fact that I'm the that I am now and I bet you both of them would be like, it's sometimes it's too much and I do
not care. I do not care because it was It's one of those things where it's like, I'm You're only going to be who you are right now at this age, just like you are today. Tomorrow it's going to be completely different, and I'm going to drink that in. Yeah, and especially with having more than one thumb more with a grim reaper. Yeah, you know, like I, I truly do value each breath and I bitch a lot about a lot of stuff I have to go do, but it's, uh, I'm so family focus because of that. I think it's
you know, I've evolved into that. It's a beautiful thing. I think it's so rewarding, like unbelievable pains in the ass and but the biggest blessing you could possibly think of ever, you can say more perfectly.
Yeah, last question, what feeds your soul?
People?
Yeah?
Good people?
You all know it. You know when people are good and people aren't. That's what we left hanging out with you guys, because like, when you're a net positive contributor to this world, that's meaningful. We could sting around and tear things down and bitch all day and deconstruct, but people are building something in their lives and hopefully providing aspiration of their families, to their kids, their children, to their listeners to do something similar. I think that's that's meaningful.
That's that's fun. It's fun having conversations with you guys, like I really enjoy. It's like sitting down, like even shooting the bowl. You know, it's fun just to talk, you know, because I learned something talking from you guys every time, And when you learn something from somebody, like that's.
Fun even better. Right, Yeah, even though you just went through the most traumatic week you had of your your business history, like, it's still it beats your soul because of everything that you've gained. Lila Jeremy Stewart, founders of Harry Maury, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for opening up and sharing that story, sharing part of yourself.
Just your presence makes me want to be bigger, better, stronger, faster. Likewise, and just love you both, Love you too, man. Just wow, right, Lila and Jeremy Stewart of Harry Maury.
Just wow, Yeah, what an incredible story. I mean, I can't say that I wouldn't have given up. At some point. You throw everything into this business and then you get taken or you got got and.
Then thousands and thousands of orders redo them and they're flawed. Right, they're not even sellable.
The epitome of just tenacity of going forward and saying no, we're going to accomplish this no matter what.
Yeah, I mean, they're proof positive that everybody's rock bottom is different, just like I learned in the Marine Corps that your mind will give up long before your body.
And with all of this adversity and all these different things.
Thrown at them, with a newborn baby, no less right, and they call in their family to go into this freezing warehouse, which is an oxymoron because it was in Dallas, I know, to redo all these boxes and all these stickers and all these everything, just to redo all of it. It's inspiring to know because they knew we can't quit. They're just they're not quitters. They're not going to quit at anything. And that's why they've been able to do so much good, which.
Is the whole purpose of starting this company. The whole reason they wanted to start Ari Mari was to go do good and be able to contribute and give back, and it just goes to show you and prove everyone has a story. See that sleek brand, you see those nice high end whatever, there's a story behind that. And we were just so thrilled to be able to tell this.
One, And especially for the entrepreneurs out there, you know, it's not a nine to five. You don't get time off, you don't get to kick back and relax.
That's earned.
Even when you're not working, you're thinking about it, right, And it's something that we've all experienced that been able to help build on a brand and just you pour your everything into it, all while being a spouse or all while being a father or mother and having to be whatever you are to the community. It's a lot, but living well and being a leader and living a life force writing about is.
A lot, absolutely, And we hope y'all are as inspired as Jake and I are by the Harry Murray story and definitely check out this company because they're doing incredible things. If there's someone you know or you can think of that might need a little inspiration today, be sure to share this episode with them and connect with us, because we'd love to hear. Whatever story you've got and or have heard along the way, We'd love to share him here on the good.
Stuff, and remember to lean in, love hard, and live well. And you can't do the last one without fully doing the first two. We love you all, go be great.
Thanks for listening to the good Stuff.
The Good Stuff is executive produced by Ashley Shick, Jacob Schick, Leah Pictures and.
Q Code Media. Hosted by Ashley Shick and Jacob Shick.
Produced by Nick Cassilini and Ryan Countzhouse post production Supervisor Will Tindi. Music editing by Will Haywood Smith, edited by Mike Robinson,