April 24, 2025 • 31 mins
The woman who STARTED the low-fat movement... and the tragedy of what happened next.
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Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'm very excited.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's funny because I don't know how to say this
without sounding like into myself. But I've had some big
people on this podcast and that I've had other people
reach out to be on it, and truthfully, what's most
interesting to myself and listeners is just nonsense. So it's
rare that I'll say, wait, I want to have that
person on because it's just somebody that I'm interested in
(00:35):
speaking to and hearing from. This is sort of like
my garage band. I kind of do exactly what I
want and I talk to only who I want to
talk to.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
That well, other than what a compliment that is, that
means the most to me because I don't think it's
you being full of yourself at all. You are the
bipolar opposite of the story I'm telling now, because you
succeeded enormously from a platform I honor and respect to
hell lot of that. The interesting thing is that what
(01:03):
the story I'm telling now, I didn't do that. I
did not do that.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's funny because I didn't know you were doing something.
I have a friend who mentioned you to Manic Wait.
He thought he was pitching you to me, and I'm
like no, yeah, what happened to her? Because we're going
to explain to the audience what we're talking about, because
most of my audience, probably half my audience, has no
idea who you are, all right, So let's start from
the sort of beginning from my perspectives. So growing up, like,
(01:30):
there were certain people that you remember. You remember Suzanne
Summers in the fitness sort of health diet space. Diet
was a big word back in the day. Half a
cantalope tab a cigarette like that, you know, Dexa trim,
slim fast bars. That was sort of like my life
of coming up from diet Atkins diet. Later it was
(01:53):
a South Beach diet. Later later it was the Zone diet,
the Scarsdale diet. Hot dog on a Tuesday, all fruit
and meat on a Wednesday, like yeah, boo yon. Like,
so I remember, because I grew up in an eating
disorder household, I was always ripping out the magazine thing
that had all the diets, and so in our vernacular,
(02:14):
there was a period that was later called stop the insanity. Okay,
in the same way that you'll hear that's hot now
or hot mess and not know where that comes from.
Not remember that that that's hot as Paris Hilton or
hot mess came from Christian Siriano or you know certain,
or that I invented the skinny margarita, like a lot
(02:35):
of people just anecdotally order skinny margarita, thinking it came
with like Adam and Eve, you know, with the apple.
I invented that. So stop the insanity, which many people
may say now came from Susan Powder.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Absolutely okay.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So from my purview, there was a woman who was
tall and lean and thin and ironically slightly insane, like
unhinged and passionate, and she had almost shaved platinum blonde hair,
and it was like she was just talking about low fat.
(03:10):
So I was watching this woman who began the fat
free movement, which was as prevalent as the calorie deficit
or the low carb or the kytosis movement or any
of that or the whatever they call it, like the
carnivorre diet. There was a woman and this is her,
this is Susan Powder. She was massive. She was piling
(03:31):
up potatoes, piling up pasta and saying, you can have
all of this as long as you have no fat.
And people were going to restaurants ordering spaghetti and tomato
sauce as long as it had no oil, no fat,
and that was a precursor to the low carb act
in South Beach lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, so enter Susan powder.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, the interesting thing is that that was one component
to stop the insanity because what I was saying is
whole foods versus process I was saying low fat, not
processed low fat food. I was saying whole foods. That's
what people who read the books, who came to the seminars,
it did get massive. But the interesting thing about stop
the insanity was the fact that I had any chance
(04:14):
in hell. And that's why I understand and respect a
lot of what you have done, because I'm sure that
you have heard. Oh my god, she said so much energy.
She's so aggressive, she saw this, she talks so much,
she does this. Yet it was the energy that what
I did was stop the insanity. Was I told the
story of my ex husband. I flat baloney in the
air and said, this is a pig's butt.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It was disruptive before disruptive was a thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Like I said, stuff that had nothing to do, nothing
to do with it. Being a dietician, never I never
called myself a fitness guru. The press, which you know,
is far limited in the nineties compared to even now.
There was no Internet, so the press said fitness guru.
I never said that. What I said was from the beginning,
and I say it now, I'm sixty seven years old.
(05:00):
I'm just a housewife who figured it out. That's what
I said. So the big industries that came in later, Bethany,
and I don't think many people would understand this more
than you. Never once believed. I had no chance in hell.
It was a complete fluke.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Normal Ray.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
It's the movie Norma Ray when Norma Ray, when Sally
Field steps on the thing and brings the mills to
a grinding halt. The American women said, I don't care
what she's saying, like there's something real.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
They it was the way you're saying.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
It's disruptive.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was disruptive, it was polarizing, it was shocking. But
by the same token, in the way that like a
Hule Cogan is disruptive too, like you barely it's not
about what he's doing or fighting's just who he is.
You're just like, wait, what. So it was disruptive, but
by the same token. You did not have the Internet
to clarify anything.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I didn't need to because millions of women came to events,
bought books. Seven of them bought platinum videos.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So my message.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But I didn't have the direct to consumer like I
have now. But unabashed is the word and hull Cogan,
I mean whatever a woman being unabashed. In nineteen ninety three,
single mother, ex stripper, unapologetic, beyond belief. I was a
stripper in Dallas, Texas, and I started teaching exercise and
(06:14):
the women gathered and I would talk a million mas
a minute, a million like I still do now, a
million maza minute. Stop the insanity started. It started in
the grocery aisles of Piggly Wiggly, that was the name
of the grocery store. I heard everyone in Texas two
babies in a thing a year apart. You have a daughter,
(06:34):
you have a child. I was single mother, two babies
a year apart. He walked out when I had a
six week old and a one year old.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What is like an evangelist and people were just like
clung to you.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I just told the truth of my and storytelling was
not in the fitness world.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
When I stepped into fitness. I never. I never got
a degree. I never.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I made fun of having to be certified because I
sent in the money when I finally had it, like
a thousand dollars to be certified, and I said, you
never met me, you don't know anything about me. I've
got my certificate. It was unabashed. It was insane. But
it was me talking to women, not directly.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
By the way.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
But that's that's interesting because well, first of all, that
was when there was a movie called Perfect with Jamie
Lee Curtis. Fitness was the most fitness has ever been.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Like.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It was the it was the the headband, it was
the neon leggings.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Did you see the redoing of the skit that she
just did it on Saturday Night Live a couple of
months back.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
It's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Now you have to say, no, no, she did it
as a And do you know that Jamie Lee is
the executive producer of the movie.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Okay, there's so much we have to talk about. No, No,
that's why you bring her up.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I would be because that's my generation and I remember
all the videos and the Jane fond of this is
when like fitness started to be like, wait, I could
be fit at home and do calisthenics and all this
stuff and diet.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It was down hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
What you're saying.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Effectively, I always say that people did not buy the
skinny margarita.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
They bought me.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, stop the insanity.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The infomercial, which was part of what came Simon It's
us two books, We got all that. They shot that infomercial,
I said, get women live, audience five camera shoot.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
They didn't believe it was going to be anything.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Believe me when I tell you the reason it was
a success was because of conversion rate. People were calling
up to order the product. They saw the informer and
they were just like, I want it. Yeah, And they
hadn't seen that in the industry. Because the infomercial Injucy
comes up with you if you order in the next
five minutes, and you get, and you get and you get.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
The most important thing. I've had brands reach out to
me and say to me that I've moved so much
product and other people who have millions of followers haven't
sold a single And that means that I have a
high engagement and conversion rate and you have that too,
And for you. You were in the world of QVC, et cetera.
And if you're bringing in new customers, if people are
(08:58):
sitting there for a minute, and maybe by other things,
those ares metrics people think about. So you were like
an influencer. Before there really were influencers.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, they didn't even exist.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And the other thing that compounds this is that people
don't understand because it was so big, because it went
into a lot of different industry. I mean, I did
all the work. Nobody wrote my books, nobody did a thing.
I did the work. That's great, but it was a
very short amount of time. It was four and a
half something years. It went from nothing to stratify.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Everything to nothing. It happens.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I was just reading somebody talking about this girl who's
a podcaster who literally I saw only every second of
the day during the pandemic, and it was only she
probably had six months, but was astronomical And now we
don't see her anymore because so, you know, it is
fool's gold. You had a four year moment. Social media
now is so insanely relentless. You could be the biggest
(09:51):
thing in the world for three months and be over
like it's really insane. Because there's so much volume. When
you were big, there was really no volume. Like I
can literally name ten people. I could say Suzanne Summer's,
Richard Simmons. You this is pre Oprah, Jane Fonda. You know,
Redisphilben was a big deal back then, but not selling
anything like I could name the people.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It was not.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You know, it was a different time, so you were
a big deal. How much money did you make?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Okay, I was a dancer in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I opened it making nothing. You had no money?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
No, I made really good money as a stripper. No, no,
really it was a stripper.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
What we let's slow this down because people have to
follow as a stripper, you had your babies as a stripper.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You had your babies after being a stripper?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
No, no, no, I had two children a year apart.
The original book of Stop the Insanity is I was married,
had two babies a year apart, two ten pound babies,
woke up a year later, husband gone, and you know
two hundred and sixty like shop like a lot of
millions of women nursing babies, running a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I had to change the way I looked and felt
because I hated it what I was scared about, and
I was genuinely scared about it is. I looked up
to twenty four months goes by, you know, to fifty,
and I remember thinking, you know what's next?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Three? Three?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I didn't hold on you weigh two hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Or sixty pounds before and after picture and stop dance ending.
I didn't have a babysitter, I didn't have any money.
So here's the answer to your question.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And you want to be there for your kids? Which
is the number? It was never my phone.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I didn't even think of it.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, no, no, that wasn't my primary thing. I was.
I wanted to get myself back.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, he walks out, he's got a you know,
ten year old girlfriend whatever, girlfriend like you don't even know.
I told the story in the original book about when
he finally did show up for visitation. You deal with it,
I know, divorce. Everybody understands. I was hugely fat.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
My kids.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Finally, it had been two months since I had had
a weekend off, and I was crouching down trying to
look at his girlfriend, and I got stuck between the
chair and the wind.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I got stuck.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And it's a story this is fat.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
That's what that launched the I mean I it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Was anecdotal, atidotal come up.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
With I'm a fitness expert. I never said that. I said,
this is how I live. It's still how I lived.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, there's a woman who created Stacy's Pita Chips, and
the business was about the sandwiches. She had a sandwich cart,
and the only thing that you couldn't ever run out
of with a sandwich car because you had a bunch
of ingredients in the freezing cold in Chicago, was the bread.
So she never had she never ran out of peda.
She was at extra peda. So what did she do
with the extra peda not to waste? Was the maid
of the peda chips. The pita chips was what popped off.
(12:27):
But that's not what her business was. That's what she
sold for two hundred and fifty million dollars. So I'm
saying your what you're saying is what became The thing
that they wanted was not the main thing you were
talking about. It was you just saving your life. And
everybody ended up clinging on to the weight loss one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But that was the peta chips that immediately was massive corporations.
I mean it was literally, can you write a book?
I was like, yeah, well I'll write a book whatever.
I wrote my own.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
What were you making as a stripper a year?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know, on a good night eight hundred on a
de can break on twenty five. I didn't pay it.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You can make a quarter million dollars a year.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
You could well in Dallas, the biggest clubs ever.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I mean that's you know, okay, I just want to
get okay, So what did you personally make in the
four years on?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Stop the insanity, just broad strokes? What did you make?
What did you met?
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Well, they're in lives the story.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I don't know what I made because I got we
got a phone call that said, you know, so and
so wants to invest in you to do two things,
to build franchise, studios and a clothing line. I was like, yeah,
let's do a clothing line and franchise. That's great, get it,
take full responsibility. But no, it wasn't that deep. And
then they built another studio, and then all of a
(13:40):
sudden it blew the hell up. They they did not
expect it. So when I went into that meeting a
year and a half in and said, I just want
to do things. You know, you make your money back.
That's fine. He put his finger in my face and said,
I own you for These are the exact words for batim.
This is in lawsuits.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So the cautionary tale for the audience, which has happened
in many cases, and this is why I've been successful,
is in the beginning, when you're creative and you have
a good idea or you're succeeding, you're like yeah, yeah, yeah,
and you'll listen to so many different people. And the
truth is that's when the things that seem like it
don't matter because you're playing checkers, but you have to
play chess at the same time. You have to think
(14:19):
of the little thing, the little kernel that could become
something massive, because that's really the key to success. And
you were so successful and then you ended up being
an uber eats driver. That's quite a swing because you
were folks. And this happens, by the way, many chefs,
successful chefs, very successful famous chefs. They are not focused
(14:41):
on the business because they're focused on the passion and
the creativity, and they lose their name, they lose their ip,
they lose their business. Like you could not even have
your own name.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I had the owner of this ex owner of the
season Battle Corporation bought a racehorse in my name that
AI didn't know existed and was winning races with it,
and I didn't know that existed. And absolutely what you're saying, Yes,
but it's I think there's a dimension to that that
you have to add. The nineties not as an excuse,
as an absolute reality.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
No people, no one had a brand, No one was
an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I couldn't go to Time Warner and say I want
to see the book. Sorry, it didn't work that way, right,
you know, I got it. I literally was sitting in
a business meeting. I mean, this has happened to me
all the time. I knit a lot, and I get
bored in business meetings. And I was knitting and there
was a huge meeting and there was an agent in there,
and everybody was nervous and I was just knitting. And
this guy came by and you remember that used to
(15:35):
wear the Madison Avenue white collars, you know, on the
white cuffs and the stripe ties. And he walked by
and said, you don't look like a woman who knits.
And I said, you look like a fucking barber pole
with a head on it, and he said, Hi, I'm
the president of blah blah blah, and we got the job, Bethany,
we got the job. I am who I am, but
they produced me out of me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
No, that is very common too.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
TV came along, Multimedia, net Star comes a lot, you know,
the infomercial came along. Simon it Ch used to in
time Wonner. I was up I mean, you may as
well crucify me. I was up against and that is
not an excuse, but I did not.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Know that makes sense. And the nineties people were smoking
cigarettes and drinking alcohol while having babies, like anything really
went and that could work. And that's why it's so
ironic that back then there were so many archaic rules
because in some other ways people were so fast and loose.
It's like there's a combination of people being more pearl
clutching but then also being completely rogue. So it was
(16:34):
an interesting time. It makes perfect sense what you're saying.
It makes perfect sense. Not until shows like Shark Tank
did anyone talk forget women, But did anyone talk.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
About brands ip lawyer?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
You just sort of you know, this is why Roger
Ayles was fondling people that worked at Fox like it
was a digretch and Carls this is it will go
a bit beyond fondling. Yeah, exactly. No, it was a
different time. That's why the cast and couch. It was
a different time, you know, and you just accepted it.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
And also it is we didn't have any way. I mean,
I wrote it in my book that I just wrote
I went before e commerce was e commerce. I said,
I want to do products that are authentic. I mean
I loved my audience always everywhere I went all over
the world, but I couldn't get directly to any of them,
to any of them.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
This has shanged now.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
There was no direct to consumer and you could be
yourself right now and you could connect and if there
was somebody that did something wrong, you could have a
platform for it, you could talk about. It's a different
world and this the world of streaming.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It makes so much sense that you are.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
In a new I think it's a new documentary like
this with Jamie Lee Curtis. This makes perfect sense, Like
it's so circular, and it really also shows people that
like you just never know.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Ironically, the Fat Lady hasn't some pardon the pun, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You never know when something's going to come around and
you're gonna be able to have a voice. And I
think it's really amazing. And so you're you an Uber
eats driver. Now, is that how you're supporting yourself? Drove yesterday,
drove yesterday. Yep, proudly.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I love Uber It's I've done deals with Uber.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I mean, you have to be old enough to appreciate
greatly gigwork because it's sixty seven.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I'm the best waitress on earth.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Some of their best drivers are people my age who
take care of the food, who respect having the privacy
of the job. I've died a million deaths behind the
wheel of that car. I've been shamed to the point
where I can't even tell you I've been so grateful
I've been I could literally do. I want to do
their corporate training videos to help people my age use
their equipment and understand how to do it and not
(18:40):
be frightened of it.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
They're missing a big market. No, And you're also saying
that like it's not the same thing. But years ago
you were able to dance to support your kids, and
now you're saying that Uber eats has like, given you
the freedom to do this, and you're producing shit and
write a.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Book, Well, do you want to hear the moments where
it's very difficult, something that down which I don't get
knocked down, believe me. I was delivering one day and
it was, you know, I pull into this gated neighborhood
and you know, I'm like, I used to own a
house like that. You know, sometimes it's just visually shocking
a lot of times. And I walk up to the
(19:15):
front door and I rang the doorbell and Louie Anderson
answered the door. And Louis knew me back in the day,
and he knew who it was delivering his food.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And he has said it's the craziest story. No, no, But.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Here's what's crazy. Is I hand over his life's battle.
And he would say this, I'm not speaking okay. His
life's battle was fast food and a lot of it food.
Food was his life's battle. Sorry, And so he opened
the door and looked. He knew, Oh my god, I'm
a position, that's what That's what I'm saying. But he
(19:49):
what was what used to be your life's battle? Well,
not even that I might I didn't have a life anymore.
Beth and like, I'm his delivery driver, and he knew me,
and I knew him, and I was as respectful in
handing him, and we looked at each other. But I
turned around from that three days in tears, three days
of just like Susan, what like what I mean? So
(20:13):
it's not just oh, I'm proud I work no matter what.
This has been a very painful ten years.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Wow, I believe it. Wow. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
There have been many moments where people say I worked
on the strip. The most hated people on the strip
are timeshare people.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What does that mean? Timeshare people?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You know, they hand you stuff, they stop you, they
try and get you to go on those horrifying tours
the whole afternoon and you're stuck up in the middle
of whatever. I worked the strip and only two people
knew who I used to be. This is a couple
of years ago. And the Elvis who's there every day
if you're on the ship, always has a huge beer
(20:51):
like it's seven in the morning. And it was Elvis
who recognized me. Now, what should be funny and what
should try to be was stragic to me. Character was
drunk as hell. He was drunk as hell, and he said,
you remind me of that crazy woman.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You remind me of that?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Are you that fucking woman? Are you that glipper?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And I ran through planet Hollywood and I didn't go
back to work for days, a couple of days, and
then I would sit alone and think that ship that's
ironically kind of hysterical, but it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Come on, you're a human being, well as Vegas.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, you're a mother, and you're used to be fancy schmancy,
and you got all your money and your competent whatever.
And then eight years later you look up and Elvis
is screaming at you. You still got kids, You're still
a mother. It changes that dynamic too, changes every dynamic.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
First of all, can I just say something like.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
You could say anything, this is yours.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But no, no, you're a guest in my home. Constructive
criticism when you slow down and tell these stories like
I feel it, I get it. I can't like I
really get it because I'm gonna tell you a story.
And the Louis Anderson thing tracks too, like you're just
like this is that moment and it's just the two
of you, so it's not like everyone's seeing it, but
you are and you're feeling and so is he because
he had a has been feeling too in his lession. Yeah,
(22:22):
I mean I'm feeling it for like Joan Rivers, who
in her documentary said that she felt like her identity
was about filling up that calendar. Like everybody who was
somebody Elizabeth Taylor, everybody feels degraded at some point, Like
that's that's what the show Hacks is about. Yeah, you know,
like she's washed up, but she's trying to like get
it back. Like I believe that I will be Jean
(22:44):
Smart in Hacks, Like I think that's who I am,
Like someone who used to be major, has all these
major possessions and is like gonna still go bargain at
the antique place and my assistant going in to try
to get a deal while I'm driving up with the
Rolls Royce. So we all get it as you get older,
like you're just like wait, WHOA Like every everybody you know,
no one gets out without paying the bill. And that's
why I think it's so remarkable. And I really hope
(23:06):
this documentary, like really thank you gets this because it's
so granular. And I had a moment let me just
tell you my story that that reminded me of. It's
not exact, and I wasn't like rock Bottom by any stretch.
I am on I have no idea why the tables
keep going hot, and the minute they're called, I'll walk out.
(23:26):
Not to intentionally use a Vegas reference, but now I
feel lucky and smart, Like I feel like I'm lucky
and smart because of what's happened to you can happen
to anybody, and so I feel grateful for all the
obsessing over the details and for being a little bit tough,
like people would be like, she's so aggressive, and she's
so tough. And someone commented in a post of mine
(23:48):
there was a post about me and it was a
flashback of the way someone treated me on a show,
and the people commenting someone said, now I know why
she can be so aggressive because people have tried to
demean her so long. After you're a woman, people have
tried to demean so long and diminish what you've done.
You're gonna be a little agro, which I am. But
I was asked to open the stock exchange and ring
(24:11):
the bell and I said yes, and my team said yes.
As something you say yes to you.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Just say yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It sounds iconic, it sounds big and like we should
be doing it, like the cover of a magazine. But
I didn't really understand what it was because I have
so many things going on and sometimes something comes that
you know is good and yes, the box is checked
and you're going to do it, but you don't really
understand on a granular level what it means.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
So I agree to it.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I get dressed up, I go down there to Times
Square to do this thing, and I remember like having
a weird thing. Should my daughter come? But then she
had practice after and she was like, mom, I have practice.
She doesn't understand the magnitude of it because I don't
understand it, and I haven't said you need to come.
This is important. This is like me coming to your recital.
And I'm like that nobody needs to come. I didn't
invite one person. I show up there with a publicist
(24:56):
and a publicist assistant, and as I get there, it's
so big and there making such a big deal about it,
and the studio is so big and we're in Time
Square and I'm just like wait, and it like seems
kind of grandiose and massive and I was so like,
just it was part of my calendar. And as I
get there, of course it's on a time thing. It's
when the market closes. I didn't have time to get
my daughter there. I feel so I'm gonna cry. I
(25:17):
feel so alone. I feel like such a loser that
has done so much in my life and is so successful,
and the world's about to see this. This is a global platform,
and I didn't even stop down to like think about it,
to take the time to ask anybody to be there.
And I feel like I'm at my funeral by myself,
Like I feel like no one came to my feeld.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I am so alone.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I'm hysterically crying. I cry on the internet after I
was just like wait and it was going too fast,
and I did it alone, Like I feel, I feel
like a loser now talking about it.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
It was so I understand. I understand, so anyway, I understand.
That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I understand too, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I understand what that moment on someone's stoopid that should
mean nothing, who cares? That was like your whole life
and on that Vegas strip of that guy, I really understand.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
And because you're a mother. I'm a mother. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I got a forty two year old and forty one
year old in a twenty seven year old. I don't
care how old they are. There's still my children. Then
you're gonna add you have to add the ripple of
Oh my god, I like totally failed my family, like
I like, I like I totally failed.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You feel like a loser in front of them too,
even though they don't know what's going on, like you
still feel like a loser of failure. Part breakingly so,
the whole thing is degrading, demoralizing, and it can happen
to anyone at any economic level.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Things do not always work out. And you know, I mean,
you know cliche. It's beyond cliche. How you manage it?
If they really go sideways, it has nothing to do.
It's not formulaic. I'm not telling you how to be
wealthy in the face of poverty. I wouldn't do that.
I'm not insulting. For God's sake.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
What I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Is I would have absolutely been dead if I didn't
have the physiological strength that I've spent years building. I
was when I was walking upstairs delivering uber eats in
the middle of the winter. Let's not pretend it's like hell, raining,
rainy days, trying to find an apartment, just being shocked
(27:11):
at what's happening. I'm all, I literally say, Susan, you
got strong legs, let's go. I saw it as exercise
and movement I encourage. But you know, that's all great
because I have that ethic. I have a strong work ethic.
And there's no load to this high. I maintained pride
in myself even on the days where sobbing, sobbing, sobbing,
(27:34):
many of them, many, many, many of them. I maintained like,
it's okay, Susan, It's just get up. And it's very
interesting to me that you mentioned Joan, because a I
knew her back in the day.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I refer to her all the time in the book.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Because when I had an opportunity, which is again is
right here, you know, here's the story again, right here,
out of nowhere, I got a call a year and
a half ago. I wasn't thinking about anything. I didn't
even even writing the book. I was just writing down
the chronology because I didn't think i'd make it.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You just wanted to get it out.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I wanted my story told.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, but out of nowhere, I got a text from
someone Susan Powder, question mark. Nobody knows I have three
children and one friend. I don't nobody. Nobody calls me nobody.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Are you surprised that I knew exactly who you were?
I was like, wanted to have you on here?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I was.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I wasn't surprised that you knew who I was, because
I know that you knew that time. I was fascinated
as to why, because I know you're smart, and I
was like, and you know, I know you haven't read
the book, you haven't seen the movie Eve and whatever,
so that's why you know you're coming from where most
people are, which is, what the hell are you talking about?
I was fascinated because I'm appreciate talking about real things
(28:44):
and having the chance to just even if it's encapsulated.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Explain it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
And also, come on, you know you have a voice
and you've never you know, you're you're not a sackape.
I mean, Bethley Franklin wants you on. I'm like thrilled,
thank you well. I was grateful too, very great, Like
I was like, oh, I'm really glad because I know
it'll be a good conversation. So anyway, I get a
text out of nowhere that said Susan Powder question mark,
which was and I thought it was someone I just
delivered to who figured out that it was me, and
(29:12):
I was like who? And I called my friend Marianne
who's in the movie on the book, called my friend
mari Anne and I said, what who is this? And
she called like, you know, hey, you know you're trying
to get in touch with Susan Powder. And it was
a very talented filmmaker who said, Hi, my name is
and he said, I'm interested in meeting with you about
a documentary. I said, no, Like, I mean, what would
(29:33):
Joan Rivers do? That's what I said out loud, What
would Joan do? And what I said is Joan would
show up if there was work, even in the back
rooms of Las Vegas, which she played for years when
Johnny Carson tried to destroy her career, she would show up.
And she kept showing up until she paid for that
damn wedding of Melissa's at the Plaza Hotel.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
The biggest joke in our family is what Mom always says,
is you know ww they think it's what would Jesus do?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
It's what would Joan do?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I say it, I say it on a daily I
can go get the picture right now. Yeah, there's no coincidence.
It's not coincidence. It's not coincidental at all. But when
that happened, I was just shooting a Vice interview. So
I watched my first infomercial and I'd never watched it,
and I thought I'd be ashamed.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
I thought i'd be ashamed. I was so proud of
what I did on that stage.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It was the only the last authentic thing they let
me do was that first infomercial because nobody gave a
crap because they didn't believe it because I hadn't generated
a penny yet. It's not just if your talent. It's
not just if you have a good thing. It's not
just if you know your market. It's not just if
you know your brand. It isn't because you make two
hundred million dollars for someone and it's like.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
No, I just don't need to tell her. No, we'll
talk to Susan about that later. No, No, you know what, well,
I heard those things.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh no, that's how But that's how Bravo was with
the ratings. They didn't want anyone to know how well
the ratings were doing, because then they would have to
pay people more. And I was the one who would
badger them and say, I don't understand why if we're.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Breaking Susanne did that on Three's Companies.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, I was just saying, you need to send us
the ratings, and I made them send them every week.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Every cast member will claim.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And what I'm saying is the fact that women are
still saying that is beyond bloody ridiculous. But even now
you can do that because look at the power you
can have.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
No, I love this, I love this.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I love this for them, for you, but like to
make it, to elevate it and to make it even
more meaningful because it's great that you're speaking to them
about with pride. You're amazing. I can't wait for this documentary.
Good for you for everything the pride. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So yay.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I can't wait to see what happens next. And I
can't wait to tell my friend I'm glad we had
you on.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Thank you so much.
I'm very excited.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
It's funny because I don't know how to say this
without sounding like into myself. But I've had some big
people on this podcast and that I've had other people
reach out to be on it, and truthfully, what's most
interesting to myself and listeners is just nonsense. So it's
rare that I'll say, wait, I want to have that
person on because it's just somebody that I'm interested in
(00:35):
speaking to and hearing from. This is sort of like
my garage band. I kind of do exactly what I
want and I talk to only who I want to
talk to.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
That well, other than what a compliment that is, that
means the most to me because I don't think it's
you being full of yourself at all. You are the
bipolar opposite of the story I'm telling now, because you
succeeded enormously from a platform I honor and respect to
hell lot of that. The interesting thing is that what
(01:03):
the story I'm telling now, I didn't do that. I
did not do that.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
It's funny because I didn't know you were doing something.
I have a friend who mentioned you to Manic Wait.
He thought he was pitching you to me, and I'm
like no, yeah, what happened to her? Because we're going
to explain to the audience what we're talking about, because
most of my audience, probably half my audience, has no
idea who you are, all right, So let's start from
the sort of beginning from my perspectives. So growing up, like,
(01:30):
there were certain people that you remember. You remember Suzanne
Summers in the fitness sort of health diet space. Diet
was a big word back in the day. Half a
cantalope tab a cigarette like that, you know, Dexa trim,
slim fast bars. That was sort of like my life
of coming up from diet Atkins diet. Later it was
(01:53):
a South Beach diet. Later later it was the Zone diet,
the Scarsdale diet. Hot dog on a Tuesday, all fruit
and meat on a Wednesday, like yeah, boo yon. Like,
so I remember, because I grew up in an eating
disorder household, I was always ripping out the magazine thing
that had all the diets, and so in our vernacular,
(02:14):
there was a period that was later called stop the insanity. Okay,
in the same way that you'll hear that's hot now
or hot mess and not know where that comes from.
Not remember that that that's hot as Paris Hilton or
hot mess came from Christian Siriano or you know certain,
or that I invented the skinny margarita, like a lot
(02:35):
of people just anecdotally order skinny margarita, thinking it came
with like Adam and Eve, you know, with the apple.
I invented that. So stop the insanity, which many people
may say now came from Susan Powder.
Speaker 4 (02:48):
Absolutely okay.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
So from my purview, there was a woman who was
tall and lean and thin and ironically slightly insane, like
unhinged and passionate, and she had almost shaved platinum blonde hair,
and it was like she was just talking about low fat.
(03:10):
So I was watching this woman who began the fat
free movement, which was as prevalent as the calorie deficit
or the low carb or the kytosis movement or any
of that or the whatever they call it, like the
carnivorre diet. There was a woman and this is her,
this is Susan Powder. She was massive. She was piling
(03:31):
up potatoes, piling up pasta and saying, you can have
all of this as long as you have no fat.
And people were going to restaurants ordering spaghetti and tomato
sauce as long as it had no oil, no fat,
and that was a precursor to the low carb act
in South Beach lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Okay, so enter Susan powder.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
Well, the interesting thing is that that was one component
to stop the insanity because what I was saying is
whole foods versus process I was saying low fat, not
processed low fat food. I was saying whole foods. That's
what people who read the books, who came to the seminars,
it did get massive. But the interesting thing about stop
the insanity was the fact that I had any chance
(04:14):
in hell. And that's why I understand and respect a
lot of what you have done, because I'm sure that
you have heard. Oh my god, she said so much energy.
She's so aggressive, she saw this, she talks so much,
she does this. Yet it was the energy that what
I did was stop the insanity. Was I told the
story of my ex husband. I flat baloney in the
air and said, this is a pig's butt.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It was disruptive before disruptive was a thing.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Like I said, stuff that had nothing to do, nothing
to do with it. Being a dietician, never I never
called myself a fitness guru. The press, which you know,
is far limited in the nineties compared to even now.
There was no Internet, so the press said fitness guru.
I never said that. What I said was from the beginning,
and I say it now, I'm sixty seven years old.
(05:00):
I'm just a housewife who figured it out. That's what
I said. So the big industries that came in later, Bethany,
and I don't think many people would understand this more
than you. Never once believed. I had no chance in hell.
It was a complete fluke.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Normal Ray.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
It's the movie Norma Ray when Norma Ray, when Sally
Field steps on the thing and brings the mills to
a grinding halt. The American women said, I don't care
what she's saying, like there's something real.
Speaker 4 (05:27):
They it was the way you're saying.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
It's disruptive.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
It was disruptive, it was polarizing, it was shocking. But
by the same token, in the way that like a
Hule Cogan is disruptive too, like you barely it's not
about what he's doing or fighting's just who he is.
You're just like, wait, what. So it was disruptive, but
by the same token. You did not have the Internet
to clarify anything.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
I didn't need to because millions of women came to events,
bought books. Seven of them bought platinum videos.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
So my message.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
But I didn't have the direct to consumer like I
have now. But unabashed is the word and hull Cogan,
I mean whatever a woman being unabashed. In nineteen ninety three,
single mother, ex stripper, unapologetic, beyond belief. I was a
stripper in Dallas, Texas, and I started teaching exercise and
(06:14):
the women gathered and I would talk a million mas
a minute, a million like I still do now, a
million maza minute. Stop the insanity started. It started in
the grocery aisles of Piggly Wiggly, that was the name
of the grocery store. I heard everyone in Texas two
babies in a thing a year apart. You have a daughter,
(06:34):
you have a child. I was single mother, two babies
a year apart. He walked out when I had a
six week old and a one year old.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
What is like an evangelist and people were just like
clung to you.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I just told the truth of my and storytelling was
not in the fitness world.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
When I stepped into fitness. I never. I never got
a degree. I never.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
I made fun of having to be certified because I
sent in the money when I finally had it, like
a thousand dollars to be certified, and I said, you
never met me, you don't know anything about me. I've
got my certificate. It was unabashed. It was insane. But
it was me talking to women, not directly.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
By the way.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
But that's that's interesting because well, first of all, that
was when there was a movie called Perfect with Jamie
Lee Curtis. Fitness was the most fitness has ever been.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Like.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
It was the it was the the headband, it was
the neon leggings.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
Did you see the redoing of the skit that she
just did it on Saturday Night Live a couple of
months back.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
It's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Now you have to say, no, no, she did it
as a And do you know that Jamie Lee is
the executive producer of the movie.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
Okay, there's so much we have to talk about. No, No,
that's why you bring her up.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I would be because that's my generation and I remember
all the videos and the Jane fond of this is
when like fitness started to be like, wait, I could
be fit at home and do calisthenics and all this
stuff and diet.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
It was down hundred percent.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
What you're saying.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Effectively, I always say that people did not buy the
skinny margarita.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
They bought me.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, stop the insanity.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
The infomercial, which was part of what came Simon It's
us two books, We got all that. They shot that infomercial,
I said, get women live, audience five camera shoot.
Speaker 4 (08:18):
They didn't believe it was going to be anything.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Believe me when I tell you the reason it was
a success was because of conversion rate. People were calling
up to order the product. They saw the informer and
they were just like, I want it. Yeah, And they
hadn't seen that in the industry. Because the infomercial Injucy
comes up with you if you order in the next
five minutes, and you get, and you get and you get.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
The most important thing. I've had brands reach out to
me and say to me that I've moved so much
product and other people who have millions of followers haven't
sold a single And that means that I have a
high engagement and conversion rate and you have that too,
And for you. You were in the world of QVC, et cetera.
And if you're bringing in new customers, if people are
(08:58):
sitting there for a minute, and maybe by other things,
those ares metrics people think about. So you were like
an influencer. Before there really were influencers.
Speaker 4 (09:06):
Well, they didn't even exist.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
And the other thing that compounds this is that people
don't understand because it was so big, because it went
into a lot of different industry. I mean, I did
all the work. Nobody wrote my books, nobody did a thing.
I did the work. That's great, but it was a
very short amount of time. It was four and a
half something years. It went from nothing to stratify.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Everything to nothing. It happens.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I was just reading somebody talking about this girl who's
a podcaster who literally I saw only every second of
the day during the pandemic, and it was only she
probably had six months, but was astronomical And now we
don't see her anymore because so, you know, it is
fool's gold. You had a four year moment. Social media
now is so insanely relentless. You could be the biggest
(09:51):
thing in the world for three months and be over
like it's really insane. Because there's so much volume. When
you were big, there was really no volume. Like I
can literally name ten people. I could say Suzanne Summer's,
Richard Simmons. You this is pre Oprah, Jane Fonda. You know,
Redisphilben was a big deal back then, but not selling
anything like I could name the people.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
It was not.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
You know, it was a different time, so you were
a big deal. How much money did you make?
Speaker 4 (10:19):
Okay, I was a dancer in Dallas, Texas.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I opened it making nothing. You had no money?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
No, I made really good money as a stripper. No, no,
really it was a stripper.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
What we let's slow this down because people have to
follow as a stripper, you had your babies as a stripper.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
You had your babies after being a stripper?
Speaker 3 (10:35):
No, no, no, I had two children a year apart.
The original book of Stop the Insanity is I was married,
had two babies a year apart, two ten pound babies,
woke up a year later, husband gone, and you know
two hundred and sixty like shop like a lot of
millions of women nursing babies, running a thing.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
I had to change the way I looked and felt
because I hated it what I was scared about, and
I was genuinely scared about it is. I looked up
to twenty four months goes by, you know, to fifty,
and I remember thinking, you know what's next?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Three? Three?
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (11:06):
I didn't hold on you weigh two hundred and fifty pounds.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Or sixty pounds before and after picture and stop dance ending.
I didn't have a babysitter, I didn't have any money.
So here's the answer to your question.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And you want to be there for your kids? Which
is the number? It was never my phone.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
I didn't even think of it.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
Well, no, no, that wasn't my primary thing. I was.
I wanted to get myself back.
Speaker 3 (11:24):
Yeah, I mean, he walks out, he's got a you know,
ten year old girlfriend whatever, girlfriend like you don't even know.
I told the story in the original book about when
he finally did show up for visitation. You deal with it,
I know, divorce. Everybody understands. I was hugely fat.
Speaker 4 (11:41):
My kids.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Finally, it had been two months since I had had
a weekend off, and I was crouching down trying to
look at his girlfriend, and I got stuck between the
chair and the wind.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
I got stuck.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
And it's a story this is fat.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
That's what that launched the I mean I it.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Was anecdotal, atidotal come up.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
With I'm a fitness expert. I never said that. I said,
this is how I live. It's still how I lived.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
Well, there's a woman who created Stacy's Pita Chips, and
the business was about the sandwiches. She had a sandwich cart,
and the only thing that you couldn't ever run out
of with a sandwich car because you had a bunch
of ingredients in the freezing cold in Chicago, was the bread.
So she never had she never ran out of peda.
She was at extra peda. So what did she do
with the extra peda not to waste? Was the maid
of the peda chips. The pita chips was what popped off.
(12:27):
But that's not what her business was. That's what she
sold for two hundred and fifty million dollars. So I'm
saying your what you're saying is what became The thing
that they wanted was not the main thing you were
talking about. It was you just saving your life. And
everybody ended up clinging on to the weight loss one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
But that was the peta chips that immediately was massive corporations.
I mean it was literally, can you write a book?
I was like, yeah, well I'll write a book whatever.
I wrote my own.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
What were you making as a stripper a year?
Speaker 4 (12:57):
You know, on a good night eight hundred on a
de can break on twenty five. I didn't pay it.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
You can make a quarter million dollars a year.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
You could well in Dallas, the biggest clubs ever.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
I mean that's you know, okay, I just want to
get okay, So what did you personally make in the
four years on?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Stop the insanity, just broad strokes? What did you make?
What did you met?
Speaker 4 (13:16):
Well, they're in lives the story.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
I don't know what I made because I got we
got a phone call that said, you know, so and
so wants to invest in you to do two things,
to build franchise, studios and a clothing line. I was like, yeah,
let's do a clothing line and franchise. That's great, get it,
take full responsibility. But no, it wasn't that deep. And
then they built another studio, and then all of a
(13:40):
sudden it blew the hell up. They they did not
expect it. So when I went into that meeting a
year and a half in and said, I just want
to do things. You know, you make your money back.
That's fine. He put his finger in my face and said,
I own you for These are the exact words for batim.
This is in lawsuits.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
So the cautionary tale for the audience, which has happened
in many cases, and this is why I've been successful,
is in the beginning, when you're creative and you have
a good idea or you're succeeding, you're like yeah, yeah, yeah,
and you'll listen to so many different people. And the
truth is that's when the things that seem like it
don't matter because you're playing checkers, but you have to
play chess at the same time. You have to think
(14:19):
of the little thing, the little kernel that could become
something massive, because that's really the key to success. And
you were so successful and then you ended up being
an uber eats driver. That's quite a swing because you
were folks. And this happens, by the way, many chefs,
successful chefs, very successful famous chefs. They are not focused
(14:41):
on the business because they're focused on the passion and
the creativity, and they lose their name, they lose their ip,
they lose their business. Like you could not even have
your own name.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
I had the owner of this ex owner of the
season Battle Corporation bought a racehorse in my name that
AI didn't know existed and was winning races with it,
and I didn't know that existed. And absolutely what you're saying, Yes,
but it's I think there's a dimension to that that
you have to add. The nineties not as an excuse,
as an absolute reality.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
No people, no one had a brand, No one was
an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
I couldn't go to Time Warner and say I want
to see the book. Sorry, it didn't work that way, right,
you know, I got it. I literally was sitting in
a business meeting. I mean, this has happened to me
all the time. I knit a lot, and I get
bored in business meetings. And I was knitting and there
was a huge meeting and there was an agent in there,
and everybody was nervous and I was just knitting. And
this guy came by and you remember that used to
(15:35):
wear the Madison Avenue white collars, you know, on the
white cuffs and the stripe ties. And he walked by
and said, you don't look like a woman who knits.
And I said, you look like a fucking barber pole
with a head on it, and he said, Hi, I'm
the president of blah blah blah, and we got the job, Bethany,
we got the job. I am who I am, but
they produced me out of me.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
No, that is very common too.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
TV came along, Multimedia, net Star comes a lot, you know,
the infomercial came along. Simon it Ch used to in
time Wonner. I was up I mean, you may as
well crucify me. I was up against and that is
not an excuse, but I did not.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Know that makes sense. And the nineties people were smoking
cigarettes and drinking alcohol while having babies, like anything really
went and that could work. And that's why it's so
ironic that back then there were so many archaic rules
because in some other ways people were so fast and loose.
It's like there's a combination of people being more pearl
clutching but then also being completely rogue. So it was
(16:34):
an interesting time. It makes perfect sense what you're saying.
It makes perfect sense. Not until shows like Shark Tank
did anyone talk forget women, But did anyone talk.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
About brands ip lawyer?
Speaker 2 (16:46):
You just sort of you know, this is why Roger
Ayles was fondling people that worked at Fox like it
was a digretch and Carls this is it will go
a bit beyond fondling. Yeah, exactly. No, it was a
different time. That's why the cast and couch. It was
a different time, you know, and you just accepted it.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
And also it is we didn't have any way. I mean,
I wrote it in my book that I just wrote
I went before e commerce was e commerce. I said,
I want to do products that are authentic. I mean
I loved my audience always everywhere I went all over
the world, but I couldn't get directly to any of them,
to any of them.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
This has shanged now.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
There was no direct to consumer and you could be
yourself right now and you could connect and if there
was somebody that did something wrong, you could have a
platform for it, you could talk about. It's a different
world and this the world of streaming.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
It makes so much sense that you are.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
In a new I think it's a new documentary like
this with Jamie Lee Curtis. This makes perfect sense, Like
it's so circular, and it really also shows people that
like you just never know.
Speaker 1 (17:50):
Ironically, the Fat Lady hasn't some pardon the pun, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You never know when something's going to come around and
you're gonna be able to have a voice. And I
think it's really amazing. And so you're you an Uber
eats driver. Now, is that how you're supporting yourself? Drove yesterday,
drove yesterday. Yep, proudly.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
I love Uber It's I've done deals with Uber.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
I mean, you have to be old enough to appreciate
greatly gigwork because it's sixty seven.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
I'm the best waitress on earth.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
Some of their best drivers are people my age who
take care of the food, who respect having the privacy
of the job. I've died a million deaths behind the
wheel of that car. I've been shamed to the point
where I can't even tell you I've been so grateful
I've been I could literally do. I want to do
their corporate training videos to help people my age use
their equipment and understand how to do it and not
(18:40):
be frightened of it.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
They're missing a big market. No, And you're also saying
that like it's not the same thing. But years ago
you were able to dance to support your kids, and
now you're saying that Uber eats has like, given you
the freedom to do this, and you're producing shit and
write a.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Book, Well, do you want to hear the moments where
it's very difficult, something that down which I don't get
knocked down, believe me. I was delivering one day and
it was, you know, I pull into this gated neighborhood
and you know, I'm like, I used to own a
house like that. You know, sometimes it's just visually shocking
a lot of times. And I walk up to the
(19:15):
front door and I rang the doorbell and Louie Anderson
answered the door. And Louis knew me back in the day,
and he knew who it was delivering his food.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
And he has said it's the craziest story. No, no, But.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Here's what's crazy. Is I hand over his life's battle.
And he would say this, I'm not speaking okay. His
life's battle was fast food and a lot of it food.
Food was his life's battle. Sorry, And so he opened
the door and looked. He knew, Oh my god, I'm
a position, that's what That's what I'm saying. But he
(19:49):
what was what used to be your life's battle? Well,
not even that I might I didn't have a life anymore.
Beth and like, I'm his delivery driver, and he knew me,
and I knew him, and I was as respectful in
handing him, and we looked at each other. But I
turned around from that three days in tears, three days
of just like Susan, what like what I mean? So
(20:13):
it's not just oh, I'm proud I work no matter what.
This has been a very painful ten years.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Wow, I believe it. Wow. Thank you for saying that.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
There have been many moments where people say I worked
on the strip. The most hated people on the strip
are timeshare people.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
What does that mean? Timeshare people?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
You know, they hand you stuff, they stop you, they
try and get you to go on those horrifying tours
the whole afternoon and you're stuck up in the middle
of whatever. I worked the strip and only two people
knew who I used to be. This is a couple
of years ago. And the Elvis who's there every day
if you're on the ship, always has a huge beer
(20:51):
like it's seven in the morning. And it was Elvis
who recognized me. Now, what should be funny and what
should try to be was stragic to me. Character was
drunk as hell. He was drunk as hell, and he said,
you remind me of that crazy woman.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
You remind me of that?
Speaker 4 (21:08):
Are you that fucking woman? Are you that glipper?
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And I ran through planet Hollywood and I didn't go
back to work for days, a couple of days, and
then I would sit alone and think that ship that's
ironically kind of hysterical, but it wasn't.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
Come on, you're a human being, well as Vegas.
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Yeah, you're a mother, and you're used to be fancy schmancy,
and you got all your money and your competent whatever.
And then eight years later you look up and Elvis
is screaming at you. You still got kids, You're still
a mother. It changes that dynamic too, changes every dynamic.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
First of all, can I just say something like.
Speaker 4 (21:57):
You could say anything, this is yours.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
But no, no, you're a guest in my home. Constructive
criticism when you slow down and tell these stories like
I feel it, I get it. I can't like I
really get it because I'm gonna tell you a story.
And the Louis Anderson thing tracks too, like you're just
like this is that moment and it's just the two
of you, so it's not like everyone's seeing it, but
you are and you're feeling and so is he because
he had a has been feeling too in his lession. Yeah,
(22:22):
I mean I'm feeling it for like Joan Rivers, who
in her documentary said that she felt like her identity
was about filling up that calendar. Like everybody who was
somebody Elizabeth Taylor, everybody feels degraded at some point, Like
that's that's what the show Hacks is about. Yeah, you know,
like she's washed up, but she's trying to like get
it back. Like I believe that I will be Jean
(22:44):
Smart in Hacks, Like I think that's who I am,
Like someone who used to be major, has all these
major possessions and is like gonna still go bargain at
the antique place and my assistant going in to try
to get a deal while I'm driving up with the
Rolls Royce. So we all get it as you get older,
like you're just like wait, WHOA Like every everybody you know,
no one gets out without paying the bill. And that's
why I think it's so remarkable. And I really hope
(23:06):
this documentary, like really thank you gets this because it's
so granular. And I had a moment let me just
tell you my story that that reminded me of. It's
not exact, and I wasn't like rock Bottom by any stretch.
I am on I have no idea why the tables
keep going hot, and the minute they're called, I'll walk out.
(23:26):
Not to intentionally use a Vegas reference, but now I
feel lucky and smart, Like I feel like I'm lucky
and smart because of what's happened to you can happen
to anybody, and so I feel grateful for all the
obsessing over the details and for being a little bit tough,
like people would be like, she's so aggressive, and she's
so tough. And someone commented in a post of mine
(23:48):
there was a post about me and it was a
flashback of the way someone treated me on a show,
and the people commenting someone said, now I know why
she can be so aggressive because people have tried to
demean her so long. After you're a woman, people have
tried to demean so long and diminish what you've done.
You're gonna be a little agro, which I am. But
I was asked to open the stock exchange and ring
(24:11):
the bell and I said yes, and my team said yes.
As something you say yes to you.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Just say yes.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
It sounds iconic, it sounds big and like we should
be doing it, like the cover of a magazine. But
I didn't really understand what it was because I have
so many things going on and sometimes something comes that
you know is good and yes, the box is checked
and you're going to do it, but you don't really
understand on a granular level what it means.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
So I agree to it.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
I get dressed up, I go down there to Times
Square to do this thing, and I remember like having
a weird thing. Should my daughter come? But then she
had practice after and she was like, mom, I have practice.
She doesn't understand the magnitude of it because I don't
understand it, and I haven't said you need to come.
This is important. This is like me coming to your recital.
And I'm like that nobody needs to come. I didn't
invite one person. I show up there with a publicist
(24:56):
and a publicist assistant, and as I get there, it's
so big and there making such a big deal about it,
and the studio is so big and we're in Time
Square and I'm just like wait, and it like seems
kind of grandiose and massive and I was so like,
just it was part of my calendar. And as I
get there, of course it's on a time thing. It's
when the market closes. I didn't have time to get
my daughter there. I feel so I'm gonna cry. I
(25:17):
feel so alone. I feel like such a loser that
has done so much in my life and is so successful,
and the world's about to see this. This is a global platform,
and I didn't even stop down to like think about it,
to take the time to ask anybody to be there.
And I feel like I'm at my funeral by myself,
Like I feel like no one came to my feeld.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
I am so alone.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
I'm hysterically crying. I cry on the internet after I
was just like wait and it was going too fast,
and I did it alone, Like I feel, I feel
like a loser now talking about it.
Speaker 4 (25:46):
It was so I understand. I understand, so anyway, I understand.
That's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I understand too, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
I understand what that moment on someone's stoopid that should
mean nothing, who cares? That was like your whole life
and on that Vegas strip of that guy, I really understand.
Speaker 4 (26:01):
And because you're a mother. I'm a mother. I don't care.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
I got a forty two year old and forty one
year old in a twenty seven year old. I don't
care how old they are. There's still my children. Then
you're gonna add you have to add the ripple of
Oh my god, I like totally failed my family, like
I like, I like I totally failed.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
You feel like a loser in front of them too,
even though they don't know what's going on, like you
still feel like a loser of failure. Part breakingly so,
the whole thing is degrading, demoralizing, and it can happen
to anyone at any economic level.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Things do not always work out. And you know, I mean,
you know cliche. It's beyond cliche. How you manage it?
If they really go sideways, it has nothing to do.
It's not formulaic. I'm not telling you how to be
wealthy in the face of poverty. I wouldn't do that.
I'm not insulting. For God's sake.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
What I'm telling you.
Speaker 3 (26:50):
Is I would have absolutely been dead if I didn't
have the physiological strength that I've spent years building. I
was when I was walking upstairs delivering uber eats in
the middle of the winter. Let's not pretend it's like hell, raining,
rainy days, trying to find an apartment, just being shocked
(27:11):
at what's happening. I'm all, I literally say, Susan, you
got strong legs, let's go. I saw it as exercise
and movement I encourage. But you know, that's all great
because I have that ethic. I have a strong work ethic.
And there's no load to this high. I maintained pride
in myself even on the days where sobbing, sobbing, sobbing,
(27:34):
many of them, many, many, many of them. I maintained like,
it's okay, Susan, It's just get up. And it's very
interesting to me that you mentioned Joan, because a I
knew her back in the day.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
I refer to her all the time in the book.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
Because when I had an opportunity, which is again is
right here, you know, here's the story again, right here,
out of nowhere, I got a call a year and
a half ago. I wasn't thinking about anything. I didn't
even even writing the book. I was just writing down
the chronology because I didn't think i'd make it.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
You just wanted to get it out.
Speaker 4 (28:04):
I wanted my story told.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
Yeah, but out of nowhere, I got a text from
someone Susan Powder, question mark. Nobody knows I have three
children and one friend. I don't nobody. Nobody calls me nobody.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Are you surprised that I knew exactly who you were?
I was like, wanted to have you on here?
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I was.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
I wasn't surprised that you knew who I was, because
I know that you knew that time. I was fascinated
as to why, because I know you're smart, and I
was like, and you know, I know you haven't read
the book, you haven't seen the movie Eve and whatever,
so that's why you know you're coming from where most
people are, which is, what the hell are you talking about?
I was fascinated because I'm appreciate talking about real things
(28:44):
and having the chance to just even if it's encapsulated.
Speaker 4 (28:48):
Explain it.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (28:50):
And also, come on, you know you have a voice
and you've never you know, you're you're not a sackape.
I mean, Bethley Franklin wants you on. I'm like thrilled,
thank you well. I was grateful too, very great, Like
I was like, oh, I'm really glad because I know
it'll be a good conversation. So anyway, I get a
text out of nowhere that said Susan Powder question mark,
which was and I thought it was someone I just
delivered to who figured out that it was me, and
(29:12):
I was like who? And I called my friend Marianne
who's in the movie on the book, called my friend
mari Anne and I said, what who is this? And
she called like, you know, hey, you know you're trying
to get in touch with Susan Powder. And it was
a very talented filmmaker who said, Hi, my name is
and he said, I'm interested in meeting with you about
a documentary. I said, no, Like, I mean, what would
(29:33):
Joan Rivers do? That's what I said out loud, What
would Joan do? And what I said is Joan would
show up if there was work, even in the back
rooms of Las Vegas, which she played for years when
Johnny Carson tried to destroy her career, she would show up.
And she kept showing up until she paid for that
damn wedding of Melissa's at the Plaza Hotel.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
The biggest joke in our family is what Mom always says,
is you know ww they think it's what would Jesus do?
Speaker 4 (29:58):
It's what would Joan do?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
I say it, I say it on a daily I
can go get the picture right now. Yeah, there's no coincidence.
It's not coincidence. It's not coincidental at all. But when
that happened, I was just shooting a Vice interview. So
I watched my first infomercial and I'd never watched it,
and I thought I'd be ashamed.
Speaker 4 (30:16):
I thought i'd be ashamed. I was so proud of
what I did on that stage.
Speaker 3 (30:20):
It was the only the last authentic thing they let
me do was that first infomercial because nobody gave a
crap because they didn't believe it because I hadn't generated
a penny yet. It's not just if your talent. It's
not just if you have a good thing. It's not
just if you know your market. It's not just if
you know your brand. It isn't because you make two
hundred million dollars for someone and it's like.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
No, I just don't need to tell her. No, we'll
talk to Susan about that later. No, No, you know what, well,
I heard those things.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Oh no, that's how But that's how Bravo was with
the ratings. They didn't want anyone to know how well
the ratings were doing, because then they would have to
pay people more. And I was the one who would
badger them and say, I don't understand why if we're.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
Breaking Susanne did that on Three's Companies.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Yes, I was just saying, you need to send us
the ratings, and I made them send them every week.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Every cast member will claim.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
And what I'm saying is the fact that women are
still saying that is beyond bloody ridiculous. But even now
you can do that because look at the power you
can have.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
No, I love this, I love this.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I love this for them, for you, but like to
make it, to elevate it and to make it even
more meaningful because it's great that you're speaking to them
about with pride. You're amazing. I can't wait for this documentary.
Good for you for everything the pride. It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So yay.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
I can't wait to see what happens next. And I
can't wait to tell my friend I'm glad we had
you on.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Thank you so much.
Host
Bethenny Frankel
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