Where Grit Meets Growth: Jeremy & Lila Stewart on the Hari Mari Journey

What does it take to turn a flip flop into a lifestyle brand? For Jeremy and Lila Stewart, it meant grit, resilience, and a belief that comfort, color, and community could reshape an industry.

Inspired by their time in Indonesia and frustrated by stagnant footwear options, the Stewarts launched Hari Mari in 2012. What started with crayon drawings and focus groups quickly ran into real-world challenges: supply chain failures, defective shipments, and even counterfeit sales undermining their launch. But rather than quit, they doubled down—building the brand grassroots, one store and one customer at a time.

In this episode, Jeremy and Lila share lessons from the trenches: why perseverance matters more than glamour, why early failures can be fuel, and how community—from their internal team to philanthropic commitments—has been central to Hari Mari from day one.

From their first Nordstrom order to Joanna Gaines and Bradley Cooper sightings, their story is a masterclass in authentic brand building. If you’re an entrepreneur, retailer, or simply someone chasing a vision, this conversation offers both inspiration and hard-won advice.

Guest Bios

Jeremy Stewart co-founded Hari Mari in 2012 after careers in political consulting, global communications, and media production. He previously served as co-founder & CEO of Margate House Media in Indonesia, VP at Vox Global in Washington, D.C., and Director at Allyn Media in Dallas.

Lila Stewart, a Dallas native, brings experience in wholesale, PR, retail, and sales management. Before Hari Mari, she worked in live music sponsorships at Anschutz Entertainment Group. Today, she has helped place Hari Mari in nearly 1,000 retail locations across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the Bahamas, and secured media coverage in VOGUE, Forbes, WIRED, Travel + Leisure, and more.

Episode Transcript

Rich (00:02):
Have you ever been curious as to what it takes to turn a
humble flip-flop into a premiumlifestyle brand, one built on
comfort, color and community?
In this episode, we go insideHari Amari's founder's playbook
the day one comfort design rule,the early supply chain punch to
the gut, and how they recoveredthe door-by-door hustle that
built their first 45 stores, andthe steady, even-keel mindset

(00:25):
kept the mission moving.
I'm Rich Honeyball, and I'mjoined today by two of our
co-hosts Jamie Lynn Curley, whois our brand storyteller, and
Guy Cortin, who is our supplychain and tech guru.
Together, we dig into how theStuarts turned setbacks into
systems and systems into a brandthat people are proud to wear.
Jeremy Stewart co-foundedHarimari in 2012 after careers

(00:46):
in political consulting, globalcommunications and media
production.
He previously served asco-founder and CEO of Margate
House Media in Indonesia, vicepresident of Vox Global in
Washington DC and director atAllen Media in Dallas.
Leila Stewart, also aco-founder of Harimari, is a
Dallas native who brings inwholesale PR, retail and sales

(01:07):
management.
Before Hari Mari, she worked inlive music sponsorships at
Anschutz Entertainment Group.
Today, she has helped placeHari Mari in over a thousand
retail locations across theUnited States, canada, mexico
and the Bahamas and has securedmedia coverage in Vogue, forbes,
wired, travel, leisure and more.
What you're going to hear rightaway isn't just the origin story

(01:29):
, it's how they operationalizedit, translating a clear point of
view into fit standards, colorstories, retail partner
alignment and a cadence of winsthat multiply.
Let's jump into this episode ofRetail Relates with Harimari,
co-founders Jeremy and LilaStewart.
Welcome to another episode ofRetail Relates.
I am joined today by two of ourLustrous co-hosts Guy, Good to

(01:53):
see you again.
Good to see you, rich.
And Jamie Lynn, great to seeyou as well.
Great to see you, rich.
And, as I introduced them inthe intro, I'm very excited to
have Lila and Jeremy here fromHarimari.
Hey guys.

Lila (02:09):
Hi, thanks for having us.

Rich (02:11):
So I am going to go ahead and get started.
This is going to be as organica conversation as possible,
which I think you willappreciate.
We'll have a little bit of fun,but want to find out a little
bit more about you and,obviously, harimari and what you
do.
Now we're used to single guests, so when I ask the question, I

(02:34):
kind of need both of you to jumpin, or one of you can take the
lead, but we have your bios andwe know the history of Harimari.
The first question we alwayslike to ask are what are the
three pivotal moments, personalor professional, that brought
you to where you are sittingwith us today in this opulent
podcast studio?

Jeremy (02:56):
Oh, there's so many.
You know.
I think one of the firstpivotal moments to getting us
here was, for us, just timespent together living in Asia.
We started off.
Lila and I lived in Indonesiafor four years.
We had the inkling of this ideawhen we were living there of

(03:16):
potentially starting a flip-flopbrand based in Dallas, and we
were having this pretty healthydisagreement on what to do after
Indonesia.
And she wanted to leave, Iwanted to stay and you know,
it's just kind of one of thosegodlike moments where a
terrorist bombed our favoriterestaurant in Jakarta where we

(03:37):
ate, and for your listeners whoare married, you know the look
your wife gives you and you givethem back and you don't need to
say anything and you know thatyou're going to do exactly what
she had wanted in the firstplace.
That was one of the firstmoments that brought us back to
Dallas to begin this journeyhere with Hard Mart.

Lila (03:57):
And to echo.
But also add on to that.
It was a pretty life-changingexperience and we were there for
a while and inundated in theculture and saw some really
incredibly sad things but someamazing things and it was just a
an opportunity to see the worldfrom a completely different
perspective.
And so, after being there forthe time that we were coming
back, we were just changedhumans and wanted to do

(04:18):
something completely and totallydifferent.
Jeremy was in politics, I wasin the music business, and just
jumping back back into those twothings was was of zero interest
, zero desire after having theexperience that we had abroad.
And so it was you.
I know you asked for three, butthat's the big one, that's the
big whammy.
I think it'd be tough to comeup with that with some other
ones, because that was prettypivotal for us for so many

(04:38):
different reasons.

Rich (04:40):
I think I can take that one and parlay it into.
I'm really curious in how musicand politics translated into a
flip flop brand in Dallas.

Lila (04:52):
That's a great question.
We're still trying to figurethat out.

Jeremy (04:56):
I can tell you on politics, it was actually a
pretty natural transition.
You know, one thing we figuredout in political consulting we
would be part of the people whogo into foreign countries and
we'd poll and message test andresearch and kind of put
together campaign strategy.
But really we're kind of themedia teams in campaigns and we

(05:16):
always looked at politicians aswalking consumer goods before we
even had the idea for Harimari.
You dress them up, you packagethem, you attach messages to
them, you put them, put them inthe right distribution avenues
and put some you know, modestlygood marketing behind them.
And if you do it the correctway and you start with a good
candidate or a good product, you, you know, tend to have success

(05:36):
if you kind of, you know,follow those basic rules.
So really, you know, startingHarimari from that perspective
wasn't, wasn't too much of astretch and we knew we wanted a
consumer good, we knew we wantedto get into consumer goods and
just doing a little bit ofresearch, we were, yeah, we were
passionate about flip-flops,but but just kind of, after some
cursory research on how big themarket was for the for that and

(05:59):
for, for sandals and forflip-flops globally, us, and
knowing we could bring somethingdifferent and unique and
innovative to the table.
That's what really kind of gotus going.
I don't know about music.

Lila (06:10):
Well, I don't play an instrument and I don't sing, but
I was on the sales side of themusic business.
I used to work for a companycalled AEG Live and so when we
decided to do this, and reallythere was a bunch of reasons why
and we went out of flip-flopsand came home and had to buy

(06:31):
some new pairs and literally thesame pairs that were hanging on
the wall in 2007,.
We're still hanging on thatsame wall, three, four years
later, maybe differentiterations of black and brown,
and I we always tell people thatwas kind of like our Oprah aha
moment that should we look intothis business?
Should?
Why is this so stagnant?
Why is there nothing new orfresh?
Why is it only black and brown?
And so, having that kind ofmoment, combined with the
passion to want to go do it andto bring something fresh and fun

(06:54):
to the space, and with mehaving a sales background and
Jeremy having a marketingbackground, it was very yin and
yang and so, kind of right outof the gates, we knew our lanes.
We may not have always stayedin them but, you know.
So that's how it came to be.

Rich (07:07):
In a very quick nutshell, yeah, and I like the music angle
and the let's try to reinvent.
I don't know that I want tomake the political and flip-flop
connection, so I'm just goingto avoid that one Cause I could
see both in Guy and Jamie Lynnthat they were like OK, can we
go there?
Can we go there?

Guy (07:28):
Sorry, you can have one flip flop that's red and one
flip flop that's blue.
Right, there you go.

Jeremy (07:31):
Well, that's the beauty.
Of international politics isthere are no red and blues.
It's all different sides.

Rich (07:38):
So let's throw the script out a little bit and talk before
we kind of dive into the lessonpart.
Talk about that kind of firstinspiration of Hari Mari and
flip-flops and you're back inDallas and where that was born.

Jeremy (07:53):
We moved back and it's like the idea was there, the
seed was planted.
Lila was pregnant with ourfirst child at the time and so I
came to her one day.
I was like, hey, I think I'mgoing to start a flip-flop
company.
And she was like that's great.
You can't, the audienceprobably can't see right now,
but she's patting me on the back, she's like you go have fun
with that.
And so really I was kind ofR&Ding it solo for I don't know

(08:16):
six months, something like that.
I started focus grouping peoplehere in Dallas.
I went out to all the collegecampuses and I handed out flyers
for free pizza and 50 bucks ifyou came to our focus group and
you just started gaugingpeople's opinions, attitudes on
flip-flops, because I didn'tknow where we could have an
effect.
I didn't know how to change theflip-flop or make it different
or make it unique or make itbetter really.

(08:37):
And so those focus groups, Ihired a buddy to moderate, I sat
behind the glass for three daysand we focus group 100 people
kind of ages 18 to 40.
The key kind of takeaways fromthose three days were so
invaluable because we didn'tknow if there was anything to
improve upon, but we thoughtthere was lylan.
I hated that little piece thatgoes between your first and
second tone the pain it causeswhen you buy a new pair of

(08:58):
flip-flops and you break them in.
And funnily enough, in thatfocus group we have one of the
of the respondents say I willnever forget it because I'm a
big fan of the Godfather thefilm series.
And they said you know, tryingon flip flops the first time is
like being the mafia.
They're like it's blood in,blood out.
So if you bleed on your firstpair of flip flops or with them
on your toes, then you're goingto be with that pair of flip

(09:19):
flops for your life.
And so I think like kind of thatmoment you know, I knew that
there was, there was somethingthere and so kind of fast
forward a few months and we putsome really bad kind of crayon
drawings together and sent themout to some factories that we
wanted to work with or hope wecould work with, and they sent
us some samples and and I gotthe samples in the mail and I
remember it was like this brightorange and white flip-flop

(09:42):
probably the worst lookingflip-flop I've ever seen, to be
honest and I pulled it out ofthe box and Lila looked at it
and she's like, well, I kind ofwant to do this too.
And that's when Lila joined.

Lila (09:57):
I'm such a visual person and I always tell people this
sounds so silly.
But seeing the product for thefirst time, my level of
excitement just seems likebursting out of my skin, just
wanting to go do this with him.
And I also know that he's not asalesperson and I can't handle
that side of it.
And so that came on from thatday.
I was like let's go do this.
That's how we got here.

Jeremy (10:13):
Yeah, that was it, that was the beginning.

Guy (10:15):
So if I could just jump in real quick.
So that's really fascinatingand I'll freely give you guys a
disclaimer and Rich knows this,and Jamie Lennon started to
learn this too.
Like I'm a supply chain guy,I've been in supply chain for 20
.
So when you guys start talkingabout factories and getting
stuff like that just gets meperked up.
But can you, how have you guysnavigated that?
Because obviously the bigchallenge for startups like
yourselves, right, is it's greatto be able to do a prototype,

(10:35):
but then you've got to actuallyget some scale right, get some
factories, get the landed costhandled, get the distribution
handled and hopefully, knock onwood, you guys become even more
successful.
Now that probably justcompounds itself, right?
It's just something that a lotof I've seen this a lot, right,
a lot of retailers who start,they kind of forget the supply
chain side.
They want to get their product,they want to do their design,
they want to do their marketing.
It's all fantastic.

Jeremy (11:03):
And then all of a sudden , they're like oh, it's a great
question.
It's a great point too because Ithink you're right, I think the
supply chain is like anafterthought when people start a
brand.
We have learned only by justcrashing and burning several
times and, you know, skinningour knees and kind of picking
ourselves up and tryingsomething different.
I think that you know, just forexample, on the very first
order we placed, we hadsomething like we bootstrapped

(11:31):
the RMI ourselves first coupleof years and we placed an order
for 25,000, 25,000 pairs ofsandals with and I got on a
plane and, by the way, I went tovisit about 10 different
factories in China that I met on, like Alibaba, met those that
expressed interest and wouldwork kind of around the MOQ, the
minimums that we could order,and so I got on a plane, I went
and visited all 10.
It's like you know, took atrain around China for two weeks

(11:51):
and pressed go with one thatwas, like you know, the most
willing and the most eager andseemed like the most sincere,
and so we placed an order of25,000 pairs of flip flops with
them and without a single POagainst.
Yeah, flops with them Without asingle PO against you.
Yeah, with no demand.
Who does that?
And so Lyle's brother had justgraduated from Texas Tech and he
was kind of wondering what todo next.

(12:12):
I'm like you're coming with meto China.
I need somebody there to helpme inspect and look over this PO
and make sure it goes through,okay, with no hitch.
And so he and I flew to northernchina and we watched every
single pair go by on thisconveyor belt and I know that
like I'm gonna date myself here,but it was like laverne and

(12:32):
shirley opening scene style,where all the beers are going by
and they're, like you know, oneither side that was him and me.
You know, in like this, youknow, freezing cold factory for
10 days, shivering with likeparkas on and and we pull all
these pairs off and you knowthey were defective and we put
them next to us and the guywould come by and pick them up
and take them to the trash, andyou know, every hour or so.
And we got back on this planebecause we found so many

(12:52):
defective pairs while we werethere, got back on the plane
high-fiving, like so excitedthat we had, and three months
later the order arrives back inDallas.
They call us because Customsflagged our flip-flops for not
having the right markings onthem, which is another area that
entrepreneurs probably don'tthink about too much when they

(13:15):
should.
We took and they said well, wecan either do it ourselves.
We can relabel all yourflip-flops to 25,000 pairs It'll
take about five months or youcan bring your entire company
down here and I looked at Lila.
It's like our entire company,it's like two of us.
So we grabbed all of our friendsand family and free pizza and

(13:37):
beer is the theme of startingthis company and flip flops and
flip flops.
And we grabbed a bunch offriends, went down to this,
grabbed a pack and play to putour newly born daughter in, and
went to this warehouse uh,outside of dallas and started
opening up the boxes.
One of our friends looked at usafter he opened and took out
the first pair and I'll neverforget.
He's like are the?
Are the flip flops supposed tolook like this?

(13:57):
And the flip flop was literallybent in half.
We're like oh my gosh.
We started opening the rest ofboxes.
Well, it turns out the factoryjust put all the defective pairs
that we had taken out rightback into the order, even though
they said they would remakethem, and they shipped them to
us.

Lila (14:13):
It gets worse.
The story is not over yet.

Jeremy (14:16):
So the first order 40% of that order 10,000 pairs were
totally defective and unsellableand they were so bad in fact we
needed to get them like out ofthe country and so we chose a.
There was a local 501c3, I won'tmention their name, but their

(14:37):
sole business is shoes anddonating shoes and so we met the
CEO.
We're so excited and and theyhelped us choose it you know
he's a local guy too and helpedus choose a couple of countries
where we could donate all 10 000pairs they wouldn't go to waste
.
We loaded you know truck,pulled up in our warehouse and
we loaded all 10 000 pairs andand waved goodbye to it.
And literally two weeks beforewe're due to launch on our own
site where our pairs will retailfor 60 bucks, we started

(15:00):
getting pop-up advertisementsfor flash sales, selling our
defective flip-flops for $3.
That was the story of thelaunch of Harimari.
But it all goes back to thesupply chain and if you get your
supply chain wrong, that firstone is I'm sure it kills a lot
of dreams a lot of brands.

Rich (15:18):
The beauty of that story is, if there are students that
are listening to this, many ofthem have dreams and aspirations
of starting a brand and I thinkthe percentage of students that
are now reconsidering justjumped with that story, which is
I'm not trying to discourage it, because obviously you guys
have seen success, but you justcause some to think a little bit

(15:42):
more about what they're goingto do.

Guy (15:44):
Oh, I was going to say I think it's.
It's a.
It's a I love.
I don't love the stories.
I appreciate the pain you guyswent through, but you are, but I
love the.
It is a great example to me ofall the things that a lot of
entrepreneurs don't think about.
And to your point, right whereyou just said, jeremy, is all of
a sudden you're about to launchand you've got this dump on the
market of your defectiveproduct.

(16:05):
I see this all the time.
I deal a lot of retours withother manufacturers who come out
of China or Bangladesh or theFar East, and it's tough because
it's one of those things wherethe quality control, the ability
to understand everything youjust mentioned Don't even get me
started on all the problemspeople feel about getting
products out and what you needto do in terms of bill of
ladings and taxation rights andimports and all this.

(16:28):
It's not the fun part, but ifyou can't get your product in,
it's tough.
So I appreciate the story.
So, jamie Lynn, go ahead.

Jaime Lynn (16:35):
I was just going to say how did you push through?
You hit roadblock afterroadblock after roadblock.
Somebody just said let's justcut our losses and step away
from this.
But clearly you didn't.
So what was the driving factorthen?

Lila (16:48):
Just sheer determination to make this work and we still
have that same grit today.
I mean, our challenges aredifferent now and there will
always be hurdles, but I mean Ithink our families and friends
thought we legit were crazy whenwe told them we were starting
this business to begin with,they did.

Jeremy (17:04):
It's not even a joke.
They basically told us you'rethe biggest idiots on earth for
doing this.

Lila (17:09):
In a really nice way.

Jeremy (17:10):
We still love you, but you're idiots.
There's a big piece of this.

Lila (17:13):
It's like not only were we determined to make this work
and were we excited andpassionate about it, but there
was another piece where we'relike, well, we can't let them be
right.

Jeremy (17:20):
And I think we also just we're really good about just
finding a way.
And so, for example, when thosesales popped up, lila like, I
think, lila Seekler.
She either wanted to be like anFBI agent or a lawyer in a
different life, because shereadily welcomes those types of
situations, and so she literallywent on some site to figure out

(17:43):
the phone numbers for theowners of those websites that
were putting up the flash sales,found them, called each one of
them I think there were likefive to eight or something like
that and then sent them allcease and desist letters.

Lila (17:55):
I got their cell phone numbers.
I called them and told them hey, I have your address, I'm going
to be on your front porch ifyou don't pull these down.
It worked, I wasn't going to.
I'm not that nuts.

Jeremy (18:02):
So they all came down.

Lila (18:04):
We don't know where they went, but we got them off.

Rich (18:06):
Was there that moment where things started to turn in
your favor, where you said youknow what?
We think this is going to turninto something?

Lila (18:18):
Yeah, there were many.
I feel like we get thatquestion a lot and there's never
one, two, three or even 20things that I think about.
There's that saying you know,death by a thousand swords.
And I like to flip that and saysuccess by a thousand wins.
And that's how I kind of lookat how we built Hari Mari over
the years.
And, sure, like you know,getting our first PO from
Nordstrom, that was so excitingand really cool.

(18:41):
The first celebrity sightingseeing on the organic was Joanna
Gaines.
I mean, that was just a reallyspecial moment and we were like
maybe three years old at thetime when that happened.
And so, yes, there were reallyfun wins along the way, but I
don't I can't name just a fewthat have contributed to where
we are today because there havejust been so many.

Jeremy (19:01):
I can tell you, though, that I think, even like the
hardest times right.
So part of, I think, the waywe're able to do this I'm sure
you all have found the samething is we never go high with
the highs, we never go low withthe lows, and we try to stay as
even keel as possible, even inthe lows of the lows.
In the first couple of yearswhere we were, you know, we
started hiring people and we'relike how are we going to make
payroll this week, or how are wegoing to pay the rent, or how

(19:22):
are we going to pay for the nextround of flip-flops?
There's always things that kindof like to pick you up, and I
remember, like one of my lowpoints, I was traveling, and I
think I was going to Chinathrough Japan or something, and
I was in Japan or we're tryingto figure out maybe a client in
Japan and I was away from thefamily and we didn't know how we
were going to make payroll infour or five days and all this

(19:44):
stuff and just trying to fixthat from Narita Airport in
Tokyo, and I remember sitting onthe ground like I don't know
what to do, and this wasprobably four years in at that
point, and I remember clear asday is, I was sitting there and
I was only looking at feet.
By the way, that's another badhabit of getting into the
footwear business, like you walkaround with your head down all

(20:05):
day long just looking atpeople's feet and you can all.
You could be like a carnivalBarker for guessing feet sizes
too, which is amazing.
So that's all I bring to thetable, though, and they I was
looking at feet walk by Naritaairport, and somebody walked by
in a pair of our flip-flops, youknow, and it was like got to

(20:25):
pick it up, got to keep going.
Things like that happen quite abit.
We call them God links.
They're pretty amazingoccurrences.

Guy (20:28):
Yeah, I was going to say it must be so amazing to see one
of your products right out inthe wild, right?
That's, that's the beauty of it.
I guess a follow-up question onthat from Rich, like for both
of you, what was the first sortof aha moment you guys had that
this could actually work reallywell.
Not not just the narita storyis great, but was there one that
you said, hey, we've got abusiness here?
Like this is, this is not justfun and games like we can

(20:50):
actually make a living off this,we can create a great brand and
and all of a sudden, boom, we,we are, we are a brand I think
that that that came for me whenwe started selling to people
online whose names we didn'trecognize as family members or
friends.

Jeremy (21:05):
Lila always kids me because on the first day we
launched the website I literallywoke up at 3 am and she's like
where are you going?
I'm like I'm going to startfilling orders because they're
just going to be pouring in.
We turned on the website.
It was one of those classicmoments from the films where
you're hitting your computerbecause, like, is this thing
working?
There's no orders.
We got six orders that firstday and literally we knew every

(21:26):
person.
I think we started realizingwhen orders started coming in
and comments and people'sfeedback was there, was positive
, and that it validated that wewere bringing something new to
the table.
I mean, kind of coming out ofthe focus groups, we hired an
engineer to wrap basically thetoe post, which is that little
thing that goes between yourfirst and second toe, create
like a memory foam piece thatgoes in there so that it's not

(21:49):
uncomfortable when you firststart wearing it.
We patented that.
I think that validated thatquite a bit.
And I think when you startlooking at some of our wholesale
and retail successes I meaneven when Lila was first on the
road again, we had all theseflip-flops sitting in a
warehouse, no orders, and Lilawas going to each of the
retailers, got in our car andwent all around Texas and
Oklahoma, louisiana and Arkansas.

(22:10):
She would say what brands doyou have?
They would say, we have thisbrand at 55 bucks and we have
this brand at 95 bucks.
And they didn't have anythingat that 60, 65, 70 level.
And she'd be like, oh well,that's us.
You know, we're the steppingstone, we're the price point
you're missing.
But we're also andcoincidentally enough, we're
also like a customer that theydidn't know they were missing,
which, for us, like, end upbeing, you know, the guy or girl

(22:31):
that gets out of college and,you know, is on the first or
second job, they income and theywant to get out of those nasty,
fungus-filled shower shoesthey've had for the last eight
years.
But they don't want to jumpright into their grandmother and
grandfather's flip-flops yeteither.
They want something that'stimeless and unique.
I think when we startedrealizing that we had a thesis,
but then we hadn't quite put allthe pieces together, the thesis

(22:52):
we didn't realize everything.
Then, when all these piecesstarted falling into place,
between product, betweenmarketing being here in Texas
where the growth story of FlipFlops, by the way, is in Texas
and the Southeast, not on thecoast, where most people think.
I mean when all those thingsstarted falling into place, I
mean that's when we knew we wereon to something special and
then, yeah, I mean those werekind of like our collective aha

(23:12):
moments.

Lila (23:13):
You know, jeremy runs one side of the business and I run
another side, so we always kindof have different answers to the
questions.
And I looked through Hari Marithrough a wholesale lens and so
for me it was starting to getattention and orders from, I
mean, right here from Dallas, stBernard Sports and then Tyler's
, which is a chain across Texas,and getting really good sales
reports from them.
That was really cool.

(23:34):
And being at trade shows andJeremy and I working the shows
and people coming up eitherwearing the product or
complimenting the product, thatwas really special.
And then, once we started tohave it in the budget to start
hiring people to bring on a teamunderneath us that saw the
vision and got it and werehelping us grow and they were
obviously really talented and sothat was meaningful and special

(23:55):
to be able to bring on peoplewho believed in it as well.
And so there was so manydifferent things and I think
early on Zappos was one of ourprobably larger retailers to
come on board and I rememberthat their first season they're
testing the brand, they wereshocked at the sell-through and
so they started telling theirfriends that had buyers in the
industry of larger doors thatthey need to look at AriMari and

(24:16):
that was a big moment for sure.
The retail side has been fun.
I mean when we launched it wasjust me and my little bag
driving all over Texas andthey're all over the Southeast
and within a few months got, Ithink, like 45 stores.
And then so we took that quoteunquote success and went to our
first trade show and just kindof built it from there.
So just seeing these retailerscome on board from places

(24:38):
outside of Dallas, you know, itwas really cool.

Jeremy (24:40):
So you guys can cut that previous 10 minutes of us just
talking a lot, and here's whereyou cut to.
We knew we had something whenwe saw Joanna Gaines wearing our
flip-flops on TV and in FixerUpper.
We knew we were having success.
When we saw Bradley Cooperwearing our flip-flop around New
York.
I mean those kind of momentswhere people are wearing your

(25:01):
flip-flops that you've nevereven met but you don't know them
.
That's validating for us.

Rich (25:05):
What year was that?

Lila (25:07):
Winning games was what 2015?
2015, 2016, something like that.
Yeah, it was really early.

Rich (25:14):
I have her beat.
I don't know why my picture'snot up.
I think I was trying to do themath.
Why my picture's not up?
I think I was trying to do themath One to make sure I didn't
get a pair of the $3 flip-flopsthat went overseas.
But I actually think my, livingin Dallas, I think my first
pair of Harimaris was about 2013, 2014.

(25:34):
Oh, my gosh, I'm so sorry.

Lila (25:35):
You were early in the office.

Rich (25:37):
No, it's okay, it's okay.
I've subsequently bought more,so we're good.

Jeremy (25:41):
Yeah, in fact I have a pair from our first order
sitting on my shelf in my office.
It's a great reminder.
It's very embarrassing to meactually, I look back at it and
I'm very embarrassed by them.
But it's a great motivationaltool because it just kind of
forces you to think about how toget better.

Rich (25:59):
Great motivational tool because it just kind of forces
you to think about how to getbetter.
I'm going to go nerd for asecond, which is going to, you
know, hopefully everybodydoesn't top off from an audience
perspective.
But you said you patented that,the toe cushion.
What year was that we filed?

Jeremy (26:10):
in the year.
We started in 2012, 2013, right, 2012.
We filed in 2012.
And because it's such a simplepatent, you know like I think
the more complicated patentsprobably go pretty fast.
I think we didn't get until2019.
It was seven years to get ourfirst patent.
After three filings yeah, Ithink we actually have two or
three patents now, but it tookseven years to get the first one

(26:32):
.

Jaime Lynn (26:32):
So I have a question .
You know, hari Mari'scommitment to helping children
with pediatric cancer seems tobe a powerful part of your brand
.
Was that always baked into yourbusiness model or did you know?
How did that evolve over time?

Lila (26:48):
Yes, it was something that we knew our philanthropy before
we knew what business Jeremywas going to start.
So, after our time spent inIndonesia with Jeremy, jeremy
produced a documentary there, adocumentary film about
malnutrition, how it affectedkids.
When I was there, I got on theboard for the American Women's
Association.
I spent my time volunteeringfor orphanages in and around

(27:10):
Jakarta.
So, as you can imagine, we sawsome stuff, and so a big part of
whatever we did moving forwardneeded to be philanthropic.
We learned throughout mypregnancy and nothing was wrong
with Aiden, thank God but welearned that pediatric cancer is
the most fatal disease ofchildren here in the US, more so
than all childhood diseasescombined.
So it was a little backwards inthat.
We knew that that's whatever wedid.
That was going to be what wewere going to support, so we had

(27:32):
the philanthropy decided beforethe product, and so, yes, it's
been something that we've beenvery fortunate to be able to do
in a small harry-mary way, so wecall it Flopster Cancer.
You know the team appreciatesit.
We love it.
It's really special to us, forsure.

Jaime Lynn (27:49):
That's fantastic.
I'm sure that really helped inthose, you know, moments of
trial and wall kicking moments,just to continue to push forward
with that in mind.

Guy (27:57):
I had a question to go back .
So one of the things, jeremy,for me, especially for people
who are listening when they wantto start a business, and also
for you, lila, from yourperspective, a lot of it is
you're talking about your tripsto China, right, going like
literally, it sounds likebootstrapping, going out and
knocking on doors and visitingdifferent factories and trying
to gauge them.
And, lila, you said, take yourlittle bag and drive around

(28:17):
Dallas and the greater Texasarea knocking on doors.
It sounds like forentrepreneurship and for
starting a business, right.
A lot of it is sort of this yougot to.
Just it's not digital, it's notthrough email, it's not through
social, it's not through.
It's literally packing your bag, going somewhere, uncomfortable
, spending time on the road.
I'm sure a lot of you havestories of maybe eating terrible
food because you didn't getsomewhere in time.

(28:40):
And, jeremy, I can't evenimagine some of the stories of
you taking the train throughChina.
I've gone through China and thedeeper parts and it's and I'm
half Chinese.
I'm with my mom who speaksChinese, so I had that advantage
.
But can you talk a bit aboutsome of those stories Because I
know from my experienceentrepreneurs always sometimes
see the glory.
Oh, I'm going to create thisbrand.
It's going to be like you guyshave this great big flip-flop

(29:02):
behind you and you got to talkabout their great success, but
they don't know that hard firstpart, right, and can you shed
some light on that for folks?

Jeremy (29:09):
Yeah, probably too much light.
I mean, there is nothing sexyabout this zero.
And if there's any ego or anystandards of hotel food travel,
those left us 13 years ago it is.
I mean, we have traveled tosome of the craziest places.
I mean, we've had incredibleexperiences, regardless, right.

(29:31):
But yeah, I think that poundingthe pavement it's a big piece of
building a brand and whetherthat is with our factories, you
know, we used to go there quitea bit before COVID.
Actually, I used to go four orfive times a year and meet
suppliers, go around, andthere's some you, you know you
stay in some interesting places,interesting towns.
I think life in asia preparedus, you know, living in jakarta

(29:52):
and indonesia and seeing, seeinga lot of stuff there kind of
have prepared us well for that.
So that kind of nothing,nothing shocking.
But I know that this one, youknow she, she travels all the
time for sales.
You know, especially like rightnow she's in sell, sell, sell,
sell mode for next year and so Ithink we had something like 20
trade shows, 10 in addition tothat, 10 majors meetings that

(30:12):
she goes to directly and I thinkthat most people are about.
I think that there's some time,especially when flights are
canceled late at night fromcoming home or flights are
connection flights are canceled.
You just have to adapt and Ithink that's.
I think that's entrepreneurship.
Honestly, they're like to meentrepreneurship.
Honestly.
To me, entrepreneurship can beboiled down to a very simple set
of standards or points.
You have to have the ability toproblem solve.
You have to have the ability toadapt and be flexible.

(30:35):
You really have to be able tokeep again going back to the
even keel.
You just got to keep things inperspective and not get down and
not get too up.
Don't read your own press.
Stop looking at your ownInstagram posts, because none of
that's real.
What's real is the work that Ifound, or we found, is the work

(30:56):
you put in, is what you get outof it, and if you're not putting
that work in, it doesn't happen.
No one else is going to driveyour ship.
No one else is going tochampion your brand like you do
and, however, even when we firststarted out, we were like let's
just hire that one person andthat person will.
We can take it a little easier.
That one person will then helpus get to there.

(31:16):
I'm like hockey stick up and tothe right and that doesn't work
like that.
You're going to be the hardestworker for your brand, always,
and it doesn't change, even whenyou can't afford to bring great
people in, like we have now.
I mean, they still have to goabout it, you still experience
all this stuff, like there'sLila still stays in some of the
worst hotels you've ever seen,you know, and it's like we're we

(31:38):
elevate our standards.
Now that we're you know muchbigger than we were.

Rich (31:52):
Like it's, it's still difficult and it's it's not.
It's not easy, but what I loveabout what you're saying is
you're obviously giving agrittier side to launching a
brand, but you're doing it withthe right term is not a badge of
honor, but with that grit anddetermination of that's just
what you have to do.
And if you're passionate aboutit, then you're going to go
through it and you can tell theauthenticity.
And if this was a marketing TEDTalk, we would be talking about

(32:12):
Gen Z and how importantauthenticity and community are
to brands today, and a lot ofbrands are trying to discover it
.
Tell me about the Harimaricommunity.

Lila (32:21):
We have an amazing team.
Right or wrong, we always calleverybody a Harimari family.
I know that's not technicallyour family, but we have a team
here that genuinely cares andjust wants to win.
It's a gift to be able to workwith a lot of them.
It's a gift to be able to havetheir help.
It's a gift to have theirtalent and insight.
Some of the most recent hiresthat we brought on board have

(32:41):
way more experience in retailspace than Jeremy and I do, and
that's really special.
That's really cool.
We always like to say we workhard, play hard.
I think our team also Jeremyand I are horrible about
celebrating wins.
We'll get some amazing news andjust be like what's next.
And what I also love about ourteam is that they're like nope,
we're stopping down, we're goingto go have some drinks, we're
going to go celebrate, we'regoing to go do something cool

(33:02):
for the win.

Jeremy (33:08):
And I think that's a probably good way of summing
them up.

Rich (33:10):
We sound like a lot of fun to hang out with.
Well, I was going to ask youhow old are your kids?
13 and 9.
13-year-old girl and 9-year-oldboy.
So the analogy that I use and Iwonder if it translates into
business, and I use this with mydaughter is when your kid
brings home a piece of art andit's good something they've
drawn in school, you put it onthe refrigerator and you

(33:33):
compliment them.
If they bring back somethingthat's really good, then you rip
it to shreds because you seeart, scholarship and potential.
So you wonder sometimes ifthat's kind of the.
As you start to really achievethe success, it's like, okay,
what's next?

Jeremy (33:43):
Yeah, I think we're just closet masochists that are
parading as entrepreneurs.
Maybe every entrepreneur has tobe a masochist and kind of be
your own worst critic.
I think that we definitely dothat and we're also there to
support each other too.
I mean, I think one of theamazing things about this
business is working with eachother.
I literally have.
It's giving me a newfoundrespect for startups and

(34:05):
founders who do it on their own.
I don't understand how they doit.
Honestly, she's my like foxholecompanion.
We're obviously very we havevery different skill sets.
We complement each other verywell, but we're also there to
soundboard each other's problemsand challenges and also there
when we do celebrate, we'rethere to celebrate each other's
successes and I can't imaginehaving that.

(34:27):
And it's funny.
When we first started together,we said we will never talk about
work when we come home.
We're going to cut it off Like5 pm, no more work.
We've got to preserve ourpersonal life.
Well, I think the thing thatmost people understand now that
our age and have done this but Iprobably didn't understand when
I was 20 and coming out ofcollege is your work life and

(34:48):
your personal life, if you wantto be really good at what you
want to do, at least in mypersonal opinion.
They got to blend.
It's got to be like a tapestrythat's woven together.
You got to figure out a way todo it that makes you happy Us
being together.
That 5 o'clock pm curfew onbusiness went out the window the
first week of starting HariMari we curfew on business went

(35:10):
out the window the first week ofstarting hearty morning.
We'll stay up, you know, justchatting about everything at
night and in the mornings too.
I mean, it's just so.

Jaime Lynn (35:14):
It's like it's great having a sound work, because I
think that would be really toughdoing on your own, doing it
solo well, I think what I'mhearing from you is that it's
you know, when you have thisbusiness that you're so
passionate about you.
You want to continue to see itevolve and it becomes your
lifestyle, and I love that youfound a way to make it work.
I have a question how do youmeasure success beyond just

(35:37):
sales numbers?
You talked a little bit aboutit, but I'm just curious how you
continue to see success andmaybe you're working on this
delegating part else what elseis the success for you guys?

Lila (35:49):
I think about that one for a minute.

Jeremy (35:51):
I do more of the product stuff, so I love product, I'm a
product geek and so when I,when we sit down and talk about
product or ideate on what thatnext season looks like, or have
really cool partnerships in thepipeline that take, you know,
years to develop sometimes, orjust products that sometimes
take years to develop, I thinkwhen you see that product for

(36:15):
the first time, that's when,like you, start to like beam and
get really happy and giddy andI think that those are kind of
moments of internal success thatI really value.
And I think when you see othersnow in our business so
originally it was just us andwe'd have our own little moments
of that, you know.
But now when we see others inour business and on our team and

(36:35):
you can see that they havethose same types of moments of
pride, I think that's a specialpiece and I think I'm a big
believer that stuff justtranslates outward.
You know, in sales or whatever,if you're going about the right
way, that will take care ofitself and you've got the good
people and the right seats, thatwill take care of itself.
So I look at the core of ourbusiness and when we do it right

(36:56):
and we do great things, thenI'm really excited about what
happens next and then handing itoff to this woman and saying,
all right, good luck.

Lila (37:04):
I get super excited and just giddy when we get like a
press hit organically, like, forexample, this summer, I've been
wanting to get Harimari and GQsince day one and I get this
Google alert and maybe, like amonth ago, and they featured our
stone fields in GQ and that wascompletely and totally organic.

(37:24):
That was really special.
Oprah Magazine did a 2025Footwear Awards and they chose
our women's product as the bestflip-flop.
That was pretty cool.
We don't have a PR firm y'all,so to get those kind of wins and
there have been more thisseason and those are two that
come to mind.
Oh, sports Illustrated.
Sorry, I can't stop.

Jeremy (37:45):
But just with every single one of those there's also
like a gotcha moment.
So, for example, like twomonths ago, lila comes to me.
She's like you will not believethis.
Disney just reached out andthey want to carry us in all of
their theme park stores.
They're not happy with theircurrent flip-flop sales.
Like that's incredible.
You know, we promised wewouldn't get excited about it,

(38:08):
but then, you know, we promisedwe wouldn't get excited about it
, but then the guy came back andwe didn't know how big the PO
was going to be.
He's like we want you in all,we want Harimari in all stores
and we want you know X number ofunits per store.
And we just looked at eachother and we're like this is
amazing.
Well, like an hour later we dida Google search on the guy and
figured out it was a totally afraud deal.
It's like you go in this way,you can't go high, you can't go

(38:29):
low, because, like that stuffhappens all the time.
You know, get so excited aboutdisney and, by the way, if
anybody from disney is listening, we really want you have the
best parks, you have the bestrides, the best movies.
We'd love to work with youthat's great.

Jaime Lynn (38:44):
You're celebrated.
They're going to call you.

Rich (38:47):
We're going to hashtag the heck out of it and see if we
can get some Disney love forthat.

Guy (38:51):
Well, I was going to say, Jeremy, when you said the aha
moment, I thought you were goingto say you realized the supply
chain issue to get all thoseflip-flops is going to be off
the chart.

Jeremy (39:01):
By the way, you're right .
There's a piece we kind ofgloss over all the time, but it
is such a critical factor indelivering on time, making
people happy, making yourcustomers happy, making sure
that you're bringing it in thesmartest, most efficient way
possible, which also can bechallenging.
It's not?

Rich (39:19):
easy.
So one of the natural questionsfor me to ask because we talk
about risk, we talk aboutfailure and what you learn from
it, and you've been very openand authentic about it.
But I'll twist the question alittle bit Is there, either from
an account perspective or adirect to consumer, a single
customer where it started offhorribly wrong and you were able

(39:41):
to turn it around, and how?

Lila (39:44):
Yeah, I'll take that one.
So we got our first PO from REIand we were so excited about it
and it's a meeting with them inJune and I'm taking my samples
for the upcoming season and shekind of surprised me and she's
like, oh well, we want to placean immediate order too.
And I was like, oh well, that'sgreat.
So we shipped them and it satin the distribution center for

(40:06):
like two months.
We completely missed theopportunity to sell to them that
immediately.
So they slashed their pre-bookafter we'd already placed the
order for the upcoming year.
So it was just a disaster fromstart to finish.
And but what was really cool isthat we just got another PO
from them for next year.
So they're coming back on boardand it took some time but we're

(40:26):
really excited about it and themeeting went really well and
they're going to put it in allTexas stores and I think across
the southeast as well, and so.
But it took me two years ofstaying in touch with them and
reaching out with updates in thehopes that we could get we
could try again, and so that wasan example that comes to mind.
That was pretty recent.

Rich (40:43):
And I think I probably know the answer to it, but I'm
going to ask the question howdid you address it when you
discovered, or they discovered,that it was sitting in the
distribution center?

Lila (40:52):
Well, it was kind of an awkward conversation because it
was actually their distributioncenter, not our distribution
center, and so they by the way,if anybody from REI is listening
to this we love you, we loveyou, we love you.

Jeremy (41:05):
Can't wait to work.

Lila (41:06):
They've been great.
They've been great, butobviously because the product
got to the floor late, salesweren't great, and so that's on
us in part.
Right.
At whatever point it got tomarket, you want it to perform,
whatever the time of year was.
Obviously it wasn't the righttime, but it still didn't
perform.
So that piece is on us, and soit was a little bit of an
awkward conversation.

(41:26):
You want to be sure andhighlight the fact that the
delay wasn't our fault, but then, at the same time, the slower
sales was ours, right.
So it's just being open andhonest and transparent, but just
kind of being delicate about itat the same time.

Guy (41:39):
So I one question you guys it's really fast.
And again, from theentrepreneurship side, as a team
, you guys have been doing thisand obviously it's it's it's
your brand, it's your baby, it'syour baby, it's your, it's your
company.
How do you see sort of the nextstage, right as you grow this
and having to bring inpotentially people that you're
going to have to give more powerto from a leadership, whether
it's from sales or design ormarketing or or partner,

(41:59):
whatever that may be Like?
Can you talk a little bit aboutthat?
Like, have you thought about it?
What is that going to look likefor you guys?
Cause I know it's.
It's always a challenge as yougrow to a certain level.
You can't do everything likeyou used to.
You're too big.
You need outside leadership tocome in.
How do you guys see that?
What's the challenge for youguys?

Jeremy (42:17):
What's really interesting about that is for
the first nine, 10 years of thebusiness we grew the business
with just me and Lila and a lotof 20-year-olds who mostly hired
right out of college and wewere trying to train them how to
do what they were doing.
And we got to a certain leveland found we kind of would
plateau those levels right andwhen we started to be able to

(42:38):
afford best-in-class folks with20 years of experience at XYZ
companies most of them here inDallas, you all know and bring
them on board in key leadershippositions, it was a little scary
at first, to be honest, becauseit did feel like we were kind
of losing control, some control,which is ridiculous I mean not
in hindsight, it's ridiculousthat we even had any hesitancy

(43:00):
to do that, but we did, becauseit's kind of like losing control
of your baby.
We always call Hardin-Mars ourthird child.
It's the most temperamental outof all of our children but
you're kind of losing some ofthat control.
But it's been a breath of freshair in having other people grow
the business, not just us, and Ithink once we realized that we

(43:22):
were okay with that.
And not only were we okay withthat, but they're doing a great
job in what they're doing,because they're better at what
they're doing than we are.
I mean, it's just kind of, it'sjust a reality check, you know,
with yourself.
I think that once we realizethat it's like yes, like what
for us, like let's go do this,like let's add here here are the
other positions we're lookingto fill, and I think, as we

(43:43):
continue to grow out, it's likewhat are the key levers that
we're pulling to make thatgrowth happen?
And let's find the best peoplewe can put them in those
positions.
And for us, I think it's been abig, a big hurdle to get over,
but a silly one because, lookingin retrospect, it was that's
the absolute only way to do this.

Rich (44:03):
So you mentioned the 20 somethings that you had early on
, with everything that you'velearned, with those that are
starting their careers or justgraduated from college, looking
at the job market, witheverything going on today, what
advice do you have for thatperson to stand out from the
crowd?

Lila (44:21):
Put in the work, work hustle.
There are no shortcuts.
Not only do you want to dowhat's been asked of you to do,
but be that person that'soffering to do more, saying what
else can I do?
Or not only because you want todo well, but also just in the
interest of learning more right.
We have members of our teamcome up to us that were younger
and even now with interns.
I love that.

(44:41):
I always appreciate someonewho's eager and asking questions
and wanting to dive in and gettheir hand.
Diving in and getting yourhands dirty is an amazing thing
that I think everyone right outof college needs to do.
We still do it to some extenttoo, but that's huge.
You're not going to learnanything until you do it.

Jeremy (44:57):
I think problem solving, willing to adapt, helping
figure things out on your own,or at least trying to figure out
on your own, before you know,pulling somebody else in, I
think stick-to-itiveness is abig deal.
You know, I think a lot, a lotof times what we saw, especially
with 20 somethings, that whenwe hire, that they jump, you
know, in a year or two, I think,just being able to, you know,
assuming you like your careerchoice, like just stick with it,

(45:17):
good things come when you stickwith your position.
And I think that that's how youknow, even in our previous life
I mean I know you all too.
I'm sure you have the sameexperience I mean, yeah, there's
a time when you need to make achange.
For sure, there's also time tostay.
I think there's.
You know, the grass is notgreener anywhere else.
I mean this is, I think, thethings that you all have
experienced, we've experienced.
They're kind of like maxims,like everything is hard,

(45:39):
everything's challenging,nothing is given to you, you're
not, you know, entitled toanything.
When you come in, like it isall meritocracy, like all
meritocracy, it's meritocracytime you come into a new job and
you earn it, and I think at theend of the day, it's like if
you walk into a mentality andyou're going to go, do your best
and own it and kind of give ityour all, I think that it bodes

(46:01):
really well and honestly, now,if you do that as a 20-year-old,
in my opinion, you stand out,you stand off the page and it is
really clear as day when thattype of person and personality
comes in and it's refreshing.

Jaime Lynn (46:16):
So then, what would you say is like an underrated
skill or trait that you do lookfor in new teammates.

Lila (46:22):
Right now and that I would answer that question
differently as we've evolved andgrown over the years.
But I always feel like and Iknow where we've been doing this
for 13 years and you can sayHari Mari has been successful,
but I don't know how much longerI will feel like we're a
startup, but I still in so manyways still feel like we're a
startup and I feel like gettingto the bottom of whether or not

(46:44):
someone has any kind of a littlebit of entrepreneurship in them
.
For me, I feel like that's key.
I think when I look at our team, for the most part everyone has
a little bit ofentrepreneurship and a little
bit of that spirit in them, andI think that's important.
And that answer may change ifwe visit again next time in
three years or five years, butfor where we are right now, I

(47:05):
think having a little bit ofthat understanding is really
helpful.
And also but just flexibility.
You know, as you grow andthings are changed, whatever we
do next month may not work, orlast month may not work for this
upcoming month, and there'sjust it's.
And when you're growing at therate that we're growing,
whatever policies and procedureswe had in place last year have
been thrown out the window for awhole new set the following
year, and so with that,flexibility is also important.

(47:27):
And understanding the needs ofthe business.
It's not going to be the sameevery day.
It's going to constantly change.
You just got to roll with it.

Rich (47:34):
So I'm going to take this opportunity to roll into the
rapid fire round.
I am going to look for a showof hands between Guy and Jamie
Lynn to see who wants to takethe first question.
All right, so Guy's going totake the first question, jamie
Lynn the second, and then I willwrap up First answer that comes
to mind, but you get a twoferbecause this has worked out very

(47:54):
well.
So, guy, you first.

Guy (47:56):
All right.
So I'm going to ask you guysand maybe we should have put
Rich in like two differentchambers where they can't hear
the other answer, and then seewhat they would say right, the
newlywed game, but all right.
Traveling to a new city,describe your perfect day.

Jeremy (48:11):
Good, all right.
Traveling to a new cityDescribe your perfect day.
Good food, really.

Lila (48:15):
See all the sites.
You got one word.
Oh, I got.

Jeremy (48:17):
Oh yeah, Food is yours Sites.

Rich (48:20):
OK for question number two .
You don't have to go one word,it was kind of the first thought
you went into your mind.
But food and sites and just theinteraction.
I mean he said newlywed gameand you guys just nailed the
newlywed game.

Jaime Lynn (48:31):
So I love this.
All right, I'm going to stickwith the travel theme.
So you've traveled so much,right?
What is one thing that youpurchased on one of your trips
that you absolutely love?

Jeremy (48:39):
Headphones.

Lila (48:41):
Furniture.
In our house we have some ofthe most amazing teak furniture
from Indonesia, from our timethere.

Rich (48:47):
Really cool.
Do you kind of collect thingsfrom travel?
Oh yeah, I'd love to.

Lila (48:50):
I like to have mementos, big or small.
Absolutely Reminds you of thetrip.

Jeremy (48:56):
I call it from the house into the garage after they've
spent some time there.

Rich (48:58):
Yeah, I'm in the process of kind of decompressing what we
have, but the thing that willstay is the broken toucan from
Honduras from a trip a coupleweeks ago.
All right, if you couldtransport yourself anywhere in
the world right now and here'sthe deal 24 hours and it's
instantaneous they'reinstantaneous back so you don't

(49:19):
have to worry about connectionsand missed connections and all
that, where would you go?

Lila (49:23):
Bali.

Jeremy (49:25):
That's a good one.
I want to go hang out withRichard Branson on Necker Island
.

Rich (49:31):
I read his autobiography.
I don't know whether I wasinspired or a little bit
frightened, but he definitelyhas a terrific attitude about it
.
All right Well, lila Jeremy,this has been fantastic and I
think you have probably done avery effective job scaring a few
people out of starting a brandand being entrepreneurs, but you
, at the same time time, haveprobably inspired a lot more

(49:54):
that with hard work, passion andauthenticity that.
Thank you for letting us frothof the mouth about flip-flops.

Lila (50:00):
Yes, we enjoyed it.
Thank you so much.