09: Surviving a Near Death Stabbing to Building a $20 Million Dollar Business // The Story of Gigi Stetler

Being stabbed in the back by people, metaphorically or friends and things that you just don't expect is almost ten times more hurtful. So the first thing you've got to do is set a goal. But you've got to set a goal very high. If you set a goal that's mediocre, well, then you're going to be mediocre and your life's going to be mediocre.

Welcome to From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. I'm your host, Eric Gilbert Williams, and this is the podcast where we explore personal stories of people who hit absol rock bottom, then got back up, wiped off the dust, kicked failure to the curb, and now they're rocking it like you'd never believe if you didn't hear it. Live right here we cover subjects in business, sports, and life in general. If you like this podcast, please share it. These interviews are intended to inspire, to motivate, to give hope and vision. So please share this episode with someone who needs it. Use your Instagram Account, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. Hand signals. Trained pigeon sent smoke signals up in the air. Use Morse code, whatever you like. Just share the love and share this episode. Also, email me anytime. Podcastricilbertwilliams.com Send me questions you would like to have asked of future guests and I will incorporate them. Or just send me some suggestions on how to run a better podcast. Or just say hello, I'd love to hear from you. That's podcastricilbertwilliams. I know you're going to love today's interview, so let's get started. Here. With us today on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it is Gigi Stetler, leader of the country's first female led RV company. However, before rockin it in the RV industry, Gigi had a rock bottom moment. It involved a hospital bed and 200 stitches. She was the victim of a vicious stabbing that, statistically speaking, should have just killed her outright. But she survives. She's a trooper. She's going to tell us about this story today. A homeless man stabbed her 21 times across her body and strangled her with an electrical cord. Then, thinking she was dead, the guy left her and ran away. But somehow Stetler survived and luckily she wasn't paralyzed. But doctors said she would definitely lose the use of her left arm. But that didn't happen either. It's a miraculous recovery. She's going to tell us all about it. All of this didn't stop her from building and sustaining a large business dealing with many millions of dollars every year. Gigi you are a living miracle. Thank you for being on the show. How are you doing?

I am grand, thank you.

Good. And what part of the country are you in right now?

I am in sunny Florida. Fort Lauderdale, actually.

Okay. I'm out in California right now. This is being recorded in the hills of Cupertino. The time of this recording is taking place in March right now. Right. Sort of at the beginning of the COVID 19 coronavirus outbreak. I understand that you're doing an initiative, Gigi, that is coming out pretty soon. And we might talk about that a bit later while we're chatting here.

Okay, that'd be great.

Yeah. I mean, what do we do, right? We gotta just do what we can. And maybe there's a rockin it moment here and a story here that we can share with our listeners.

Sounds fun.

So, Gigi, please help me and everyone here to understand that in your own words, what happened? I was checking it out a bit before we started talking today. I was doing some online research. I checked the Miami Herald, and to my understanding, there was a homeless man. It involved a homeless man. And you were trying to help him, I think. Is that right?

Yes. I just bought an apartment building. This was back in the 80s when Art Deco was coming to Miami. And I had bought this apartment building as an investment and to refurbish it. And after I had closed on it, I was doing the walk through on the building and noticed a homeless man sleeping in the basement. And not sure how long he had been there or whatever, but I of course felt sorry for him. So I had worked out arrangements with him that I would give him an apartment in exchange for painting and doing some mild renovations and stuff. So it would be a win win, because I didn't have a whole lot of cash flow to fix the building and he didn't have a place to live. So anyway, without, you know, I would pay for all the supplies and stuff and he'd get a couple hours a day. So that went on quite well for about three months. And then one day I had a manager of the building and she had called me and said that Jose was the guy. He was up on the roof of the building throwing beer bottles at cars passing by. And he was a little out of control. Of course. I figured, oh, there's nothing I can't handle. Let me go talk to him. So I drove over there and tried to talk him down from the roof and he was just mumbling something. And so I had some friends in the police department, so I attempted to call some of My friends, because I didn't want him to get arrested. I just thought maybe the cops come talk him down and, you know, put him in his apartment and that'll be that. I guess they didn't answer. And somehow all I remember was as I was on the phone on hold or waiting on for somebody to answer, he stormed in and he stabbed me in the chest. But I didn't really know what happened at the moment. I just saw blood everywhere. And it's amazing when you kind of get yourself in a situation like that, you go through this denial like that. Didn't, you know, maybe he just punched me, I don't know. So I had dropped the phone and he just started coming at me. Then I saw the 7 inch fishing knife and I kept trying to protect my body and I was using my hands and he managed to saw three off of my fingers on my left arm as I was grabbing the knife so it didn't go all the way through my chest. But he really meant to kill me. And that struggle went on for quite a while and it seemed like for days. And I could hear in the distance, I can hear the 911 operator or the police operator saying, hello, hello? What's going on in there? Hello? Hello? And there's screaming going on. And I actually at some point heard the neighbors actually calling in. And you can hear the call ins that they were calling and reporting an altercation at 900 Jefferson. I'm like listening to this whole thing like as I was having an outer body experience, you know. At one point I did manage to get the knife away from him, wrestled him and got the knife away from him, but that didn't stop him. He grabbed the cord out of from the air conditioner that was plugged into the wall and he put it around my, my neck and started choking me. So I lost the possession of the knife again. And then he continued to stab me many more times. And I don't know if I did die and came back or I pretended I was dead or I passed out or I don't know. But I woke up in the hospital.

Wow.

200 stitches later.

And this was happening at the same time that you owned the business, I think, or did the business come a little bit later? What was the timing like there?

Yeah, this was before the RV business. I wasn't actually in the hotel business.

Okay.

And I had bought that property as an investment, but I was helping a friend manage. He was selling five hotels and I was helping him with that project. So that's what I was doing then that point.

This is like an extreme miraculous recovery. It's astonishing. It's almost like you were meant to be here and you were supposed to be alive. How long were you in the hospital for?

I think I was there about a little over two weeks. I sometimes can think of myself as like a cat with nine lives escaping death. But, you know, it really puts things into perspective because I've had metaphor of being stabbed in the back, you know, by people. I sometimes, you know, I almost think of being stabbed in the back by people metaphorically or friends and things that you just don't expect is almost 10 times more hurtful than what a physical attack. And not that I'm discarding it, but it's like, I mean, I was attacked and, you know, then you go on your. Your men to heal. You know, I've had some crazy things that have happened to me and people so unexpected that have tried to knock the wind out of me, you know, by stabbing me in the back is kind of. It's hurtful, you know, or it's just a different kind of pain. But I've always used that when people do try to hurt me on an emotional side. Now I can just look at them and say, you know, I was stabbed 21 times and, and survived. What have you got? Like, you can't hurt me, you know, so it's made me develop this outer skin that is extremely tough. And. And I think when I put things into perspective, that to try to block my personal feelings for other things that happen, I use that, I always use that, and it just kind of bounces my strength back.

So now I have a bunch of questions that, you know, that I want to dive into on that just before I do. However, on the flip side, when you were rocking it, you built this company from the ground up. You were the first female to be in an ownership position of a company like this. Tell me, please, Gigi, what was your highlight? What was one of your favorite moments in this company that you built from scratch? Tell me that before I go into and dive into the really specific questions.

In 2007 and first quarter of 2008, when the whole economy in the world was crashing, I was on fire. I had. I had just topped $20 million in sales. I was the only dealer left in my basically in south Florida. I had either bought them out or put them out of business. And these were all men owned dealerships that all told me to go home and bake cookies at the beginning. So I was quite proud and pleased of my accomplishments, because, you know, if I was a man, it would, you know, much easier and, you know, for men to get to get there. I was the number one dealer at one point in the country. And the accomplishment of being a woman, being the number one dealer was. And it shouldn't be like that, but it is. It's reality. So I think yes. And then when so many dealerships were. We were in a huge crisis in 2008, we were actually growing and, you know, doing quite well. So that was a huge accomplishment. But there's a saying it's sometimes when you're doing well, you're most vulnerable for larger companies to come and take you out. And that's kind of what happened to me.

Right. And this journey from going like, in the hospital bed with 200 stitches and recovering and then becoming a leader in your industry, this is why I do this show. This is why I do From Rock Bottom to Rockin It. And that's why it's called From Rock Bottom to Rockin it.

Love it.

It's for people who are listening in and having their own version of a rock bot. And it's important to note that rock bottom is a very different thing. It's a different experience for everyone. Like, we're all individuals, we're all different people. We all have different relative experiences and memories. And rock bottom means something different to me than it means to you. And it means something different to everyone who's listening. We already know this. I mean, and even if you listen to some of the other episodes here, everyone who's on this show shares their own version of a rock bottom moment. And sometimes there's parallels, but they really are all unique. And so does Rockin It. Success looks different for everyone as well. And I'm fascinated by your story, Gigi. So now, going back to this hospital bed, I'll tell you a little story. And then I have a question. So going back in time, two years. It was New Year's Eve two years ago, and I was downtown Calgary. I was partying, obviously, hanging out with some of my friends, and I was at one of their condos downtown. And at the end of the party, it was, you know, wee hours of the morning, I don't even know, three, four in the morning. And I left the. My friend's condo and I was calling an Uber, obviously, because that's the responsible thing to do. And I had my head down, focused on my phone. And of course I'm exhausted, not paying attention to what's going on around me. I'm just standing Minding my own business and looking down at my phone. And there was a guy. I think he was a homeless guy. It's hard to tell. He wasn't very kept well and kind of had that vibe. And he attacked me. And I know he attacked me because my head whipped back. He uppercutted me in the face. And I didn't see him coming. I didn't know that there was a person there that had been approaching me while I was looking down at my phone. So he hit me in the face. All my vision went black. Luckily, I was able to stay standing. And then he was yelling at me. I'm pretty sure he was holding a knife in his pocket. He was definitely hiding something, but I'm not sure what. And eventually he ran away. I don't think he expected me to be still standing. Of course, I was, you know, shocked, but also aware. So he ran away. I got a good description of him. I called the police. I gave the description as best as I could to the officer and the constable, I should say. And actually, he was really good. Him and I worked together to try and find this guy. We didn't. Right. We weren't able to bring him to justice. And I had to let it go. I was hospitalized, not nearly like you were. I mean, I had a few stitches to my face, and there was a little bit of blood loss, but I mean, nothing compared to what you went through. The point is, though, this guy got away. He's still out there. He's probably going to do it again. And somehow I needed to re. Establish faith and trust in the human race. I needed to find a way to go outside in peace and not feel like I was going to be jumped at any point. Because who knows? I mean, if it happened once, maybe it'll happen again, right? And these stories are all over the news. So, Gigi, for you, you had such an extreme experience here on a breach of human faith and trust. How did you reestablish that trust? How do you go about your daily business now outside and have trust that you're going to be okay and still see the positive light? Like, how did you do that? How did you heal emotionally from something as dramatic and traumatic as you went through?

It's a really good question, and I actually have to ask myself the same thing. But I isolated my attack and I isolated that person that. That was, you know, basically a crazy person. I still to this day help homeless people. I still, to this day trust everyone, but maybe verify a little bit better. But I trust everyone and people all the time are saying, are you, you know, what's wrong with you? Why do you, why do you help? I just gave an RV to a homeless guy, you know, not long ago and a job, and they thought I was nuts. When people think I'm crazy, and I had a bad first husband, you know, the father of my son, he beat me and twirled me around like a helicopter, and he abused me. And so do I now punish every man that might come into my life. You just can't do that. So there's something that I've said, you know, I've struggled with my mother and issues with my mother. And there's something that, and it's for me, it's not for the outside individual. But you have to forgive, to forget. By doing that, it allows me to move on. And I've never punished another person because of, you know, if they haven't done anything to me, I can't blame that person for something that happened or what somebody else did to me. I just can't do that. And I, I struggle with that with so many people, because watching so many people do that and be angry with, with the rest of the world because of one incident, and I do a lot of coaching on that and try to help people to forgive so that they could forget and move forward. If you don't do that, you're going to. It's more of a punishment for yourself. If you don't trust then the person that you're not trusting. Because if you think about it and you shut yourself off because you don't trust people, you're not going to meet people.

So, okay, so on a scale of 1 to 10 on the trust scale, let's call it. All right, so a one here would be that you don't really trust people at all. And a 10 would be you trust everyone maybe even a little bit too much. Right? Because it's good to have a healthy skepticism, let's say. So let's say before this attack, let's say that you had a general trusting level of maybe a 7 or an 8, and you reserved the extra a little bit for healthy skepticism. Then this attack happened, then you healed. Where are you at now? Like, where's your trust in humanity, generally speaking, right now? Are you like, on a one, do you not trust anyone or have, have you gone to the other extreme and you trust everyone, or are you in the middle? And I guess more importantly, did your trust in humanity go down a little bit after all this happened or not?

Well, different. Okay, I have different trust levels. Like in business, professionally, I don't trust anybody. Okay, professionally, because I've been screwed over in more business situations than my personal life. But everyone has a story. And like, there's homeless people all the time that I, that I deal with. Either they're working, you know, and I, and I don't even know that they're homeless when they come and apply for a job because I don't discriminate and I don't, you know, but I do take that extra step to find out why they're homeless and what happened and what's going on and, and I have found some extremely intelligent people that just were down on their luck and, you know, a couple of things happened and they just don't know how to get back up. I have just allowed a certain level of trust to kind of maybe get to the grassroots of exactly what's, you know, what's happened. Now if someone has a domestic violence background or any type of bodily injury type of background, I don't trust, you know, on a background check, any, anything like that, I, I won't have any level of trust, but I do, like I said, I verify and I, I just kind of get the story. Maybe I don't personally, you know, I have staff that looks into background just to kind of make sure that they're not, you know, domestic violence side or any type of violence in, in that measure. But I guess I, I should quantify by saying, you know, trust but verify, you know, where before maybe I didn't verify, you know.

Okay, so you put a few precautions in place to help prevent a recurrence of this type of event, if I understand what you're saying correctly here. And, but also, you didn't lose complete trust in humanity. You didn't lose all that faith. You did heal from the experience emotionally. The visual here would be you're not hiding in a ball, scared of people attacking you at all times because your trust was shattered. That didn't happen to you. You've gotten through this somehow. And you didn't just get through that adversity, you walked into another one and overcame that too. You started a business. And that in and of itself is a huge pile, a big box of adversity. Definitely know all about that. And people listening to the show know what I'm talking about. And then there was another adversity. There was this gender inequality adversity, which you also overcame. You have this repetitive track record of just overcoming different types of adversity. And it makes me wonder, is there a Connection. Is there a parallel between overcoming adversity in one scenario and overcoming adversity in other scenarios? Is it the same toolkit that you use to overcome the mindset, approach, or type of energy that you use to overcome any adversity? Or is every adversity a little bit different? You know what I mean? Are you doing the same thing with every adversity, the same process and approach, or is it just different every time?

Well, as a woman in business, we have to work twice as hard to get half as much, number one. And number two, things that have happened to me along the lines in business wouldn't have happened if I was a man. So, you know, and I don't play the woman card. I generally don't. And I don't consider myself as a feminist. I consider myself as a true feminist. And there is a difference in business as far as trust. There are no coincidences. So I kind of really look deep into business decisions more than I looked into, like, personal decisions. Like, I've had just in my. To separate them out. Like, in my personal life, I've had friends that say, oh, don't talk to so and so that that person's really bad and, you know, that person did whatever and to, you know, other people and it's someone that I, you know, they're nice to me. And being a victim of the, you know, of smear campaigns because of people just being outright jealous and women don't support each other and women are always tearing each other down, which is another subject. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt. You know, if you haven't done anything to me, then I'm not going to listen to those people. And, you know, until you do something to me that affects me. So I think that's kind of. But in business, it's a little different.

How does someone overcome these types of challenges and break through to find that success on the other side? This energy, this willpower, that's what I would love for you to answer for us, Gigi, as soon as we come back from this short break. Thank you so much for sharing this show and spreading the love. Every time you click that share button or put it on your social media, it makes a big difference to those who listen to it, to the guests that I have on here as well, and to me personally. This is a passion project. And so all of your help, sending me feedback, sending me an email, clicking that contact me button on my website, all of that is amazing and it really touches my heart because when I was little and struggled, I Dropped out of school. I got into drugs and violence. It was very difficult and I hit rock bottom. My own rock bottom in that context was when I was around 17 years old and I thought I was going to jail for a long time. I didn't know what was going to happen. And I got out because people reached out to me and helped me. People picked me back up and gave me motivation to move forward, just like you're hearing in these interviews. So this really is a passion project for me and I'd love it if you checked out my book as well. I tell my whole story on there. You can find it on my website, ericgilbertwilliams.com just click on my book. I would love for you to download a free copy of the intro and prologue. It's there right now anytime there's an audio version as well. And now we're going to go back to the interview. Talk to you guys soon. We're back now here on From Rock Bottom to Rockin it. And Gigi, where we left off was in your words, in your thought process. How does someone overcome this type of adversity? How do you put that into words, what you did? And remember that people listening are having their own type of a rock bottom moment. It could be in any type of an industry or scenario or circumstance, but they're going through this adversity as well. We all are in our own ways. So help us, Gigi, understand. What would you say is the magic bullet? Right? We all want that magic bullet. How do we get through this immediately? And obviously it doesn't exist. But there is something that you did do and you did do some miraculous things here and I'd love to hear how you put that into words. What is it that someone listening right now could do as a stepping stone to get out of their own adversity and then of course, to succeed as you have.

I use a metaphor and that I probably been using since I was probably, I don't know, 11, 12, 13 years old. So I always wanted to be a millionaire since I was rejected by my father, who was a millionaire, and I just wanted to be like him or I wanted him to accept me. So I needed to prove myself that I was worthy of something. So I had been basically hustling and working and this and that since I was 11. So I have this metaphor of climbing Mount Everest and or a mountain and it's 10,000ft. So I'm climbing and I'm climbing and I'm climbing and I know that I have to get to the 10,000ft, because that's where I need to be. And I've set my goal so high. So I climb and I climb and I could get to three or 4,000ft and boom, fall, slip, fall all the way back down to the bottom. Well, let me go again. So I go again and I go again, and then I get up maybe 5 to 6,000ft and I fall again. I've done that so many times. I've fallen, fallen down off the mountain. But I keep my eye on the goal of that 10,000ft under. Many people, what will happen is after they've fallen four or five, three, two, whatever it takes off the mountain, they'll finally get up to like 3,000ft and they'll say, you know, it's not so bad here. The view is pretty good. I'll just settle with this. And settling has never been an option for me. So as many times as I've hit the bottom, I still look for that 10,000ft and I will get there. And to be honest, I've been to 9,000ft and I've fallen. Do I want to go back? And you think, you know, well, can I really get there? Yes, you can get there if you want to get there. And I'm still not at 10,000ft. And I think for me, when I get to 10,000ft, I may push it to 11 or 12. If you don't push yourself and you don't have a goal, then you're not going to be able to thrive or survive. So the first thing you've got to do is set a goal. But you've got to set a goal very high. If you set a goal that's mediocre, well, then you're going to be mediocre and your life's going to be mediocre. So you've got to set a goal extremely high. Set that goal and never take your eye off it. Never. Even when you fall, because you will fall, you will fall many times. So you've just got to dust yourself up. And failure, it's. It's not about, you know, failure is a stepping stone to success. And the way I measure failure is not by what you have in the bank or how your day is today or whatever. It's. It's when you fall, it's how fast you get back up and go, you know, that success. So if everyone had a, you know, that type of metaphor of a goal, I've spoken to, you know, groups and stuff, and I tell them to raise their hand as far as how high you want to be, you know, and you raise your hand, and people raise it as high as they can in their sitting. I'm wondering how come they haven't stood on top of the chair, how come they didn't get on top of the table? You know, how come they didn't? They just sat there and they raised their hand. Well, that's not high enough. So when you say, how high do you want to be? How high? How high is your goal? How high could you be? You got to be at the highest you could possibly be with, you know, which would be maybe if the highest object in the room is a table, you stand on top of the table and raise your hand. So that's kind of my own exercise that. That I've used throughout my journey, and I try to instill that in anyone that wants to know how to get back up.

Okay, so let's go back a second here. Way, way, way back. If you don't mind, let's go back to while you're in that hospital bed, right. The doctors are telling you the bad news. You're realizing you lost your fingers. Like, you're just absorbing the reality of everything that was going on. And something snaps or triggers inside of you. Something inside of you says, screw this, I am going to get back up. I'm going to wipe that dust off my shoulders, climb back up that mountain. Right. Like you were climbing a mountain and then you fall back down. You were at 5,000ft, you fell back to the base, and you decided to get back up and climb the mountain again, get up there and do it again and just move forward. Despite anything going on, what was your motivation?

Like I said, from my early on days, believe me, I was laying there in that hospital bed. My past didn't look so great, and my future looked even less great. Very grim. But, you know, I drag myself back to my goal. You can't take your eye off the goal. And that's the thing. And that's my goal. So. And the 10,000ft could mean, you know, many different things.

Yeah. Some people bump into adversity. That's a lot less than being stabbed 21 times. People bump into a far less significant adversity and issues and challenges, and they give up. Right?

Yeah.

You know what I'm talking about. You probably know who those people are, and they just say, oh, no. And they stop. Oh, I would have done it if this, or I could have done it if that. And they stop and they don't move forward. They don't make it through and then there's other people like yourself.

But I shouldn't have lived, okay? I fought to live, fought back. Maybe I shouldn't have grabbed the knife and cut off my fingers by grabbing the knife and let him stab me and that would have been the end of it. I shouldn't have lived, but I fought to live. So if I can fight that, I can fight anything. So whether people are attacked physically or mentally, I have so many, you know, women that I've talked to that, you know, gone through domestic violence. That is just absolutely horrible. And, you know, and how do you get out of that? It's, you know, the same thing. You've got to have a goal. And the goal for, you know, one like that might be just happiness and a good relationship and happiness and someone that loves them. That could be a goal. Whatever your goal is, it doesn't always have to be money. You have to tell yourself what would make you the most happy, the happiest, and reach for the stars. That's what you fight for. But if you don't have a goal, then you might as well give up because you have nothing to fight for. You got to love life and you got to love yourself and you gotta. If you don't have a goal, then you got you. Then you've lost the battle. The battle is to obtain a goal, make sure that you have a goal and create that goal and then you'll win. But people that don't have goals is a problem.

I remember there was a time in my past, I think it was 2000, winter of 2014, in my old construction company. There was about 50 of us at the time or so. And I went through this moment of a betrayal. There was inside the team. I had hired a consultant and the consultant had a lot of day to day input and direction with that team, a lot of power and influence. And she screwed up royally. It was a terrible scenario where essentially the team ended up way off track from targets and objectives and we had a huge overhead. It was winter now, so there was no chance to make up for it. It was a really bad time in my life. I'm talking like, all right, I guess I'm going bankrupt now. There's nothing left to do. It's the end of the road, right? Game over. And many days I woke up and I just wanted to give up. I wanted to stop because I was exhausted and I didn't know what to do. Now. I surrounded myself with and there was people that were around me who encouraged me to just focus on the one next day, today. What am I going to do today? That's all that matters. And just focus on doing everything I can to make today the best as it possibly can so that there is a tomorrow and that tomorrow is slow, slightly better than today. And if I can get through today, then I can also get through tomorrow. And I remember looking at all the problems that were going on in all the departments with all the people, and I thought, man, there's just, there's no way that we can fix all of these problems in the right way and in the right timeline. And flat out the answer was not possible. And then I found, when I switched the question to be what could I do just today? Then all of a sudden I found a whole bunch of little things that me and my team could do that would be at least somewhat helpful in giving us a fighting chance. And when we focused on just doing those little things every day, all of a sudden we started to make just a little bit of progress. And we made it through one day and then two days and then three days, and the next thing you know, we made it through a full week and then a second week. And it was a big process of shaving down costs and finding little bits of revenue that we could sell, little projects we could sell, and collecting on outstanding receivables, little tiny things that helped us get from no win scenario where it's game over, into a spot where we could at least survive until tomorrow and do that enough until at one point finally everything aligned and it was time to break free. And we found this big key sale and that one big sale that we closed on, or that I closed on, I should say, ended up being enough of a money maker to get us out of trouble, to pay off all of this accumulating problems that we had growing, and also to give us a future, to give us a project to get us through the next several months. And it ended up being a fantastic year. In fact, it was the best year that we'd ever had. It was the year that I thought for sure we were going bankrupt and ended up being the best year on a top line revenue and on a bottom line profit revenue that we had ever had today. All because we focused on the little tiny things to do right now that give us a better fighting chance tomorrow. With a subtle but significant shift in attitude and perspective, the path started to unfold beneath our feet. It just started to appear. So, Gigi, in your experience, did you have something similar to this? How would you describe your path from rock bottom to Rockin it. What was kind of the approach and the mindset that you had to change or embrace fully in order to do this?

The thing is that it's happened so many times to me.

We could have you on the show six times and cover six different subjects.

I know. So it's kind of like, yeah, I don't even know how to respond to that because it's happened to me so many times and for so many different reasons. But my last situation was just an outright conspiracy where when I was doing extremely well, my competitors wanted to buy my company and I didn't want to sell, and when I had no intentions of selling and they went on a personal mission to take it anyway. And the stuff that happened to me was so bizarre that because big companies, like big, big corporations, pictures, you know, a company like Walmart, you know, like a big company tried to take me out because I wouldn't sell. And the amount of money and effort that they put into to destroy me, people were wondering how I didn't. Why and why I didn't jump off a bridge. Because things that happened to me were just beyond words. But I had to figure out a way to make it positive. And I thought to myself, you know, I was like, I had to take it as a compliment that big company like General Electric was one of them. And a big company like GE and in Camping World and Marcus Lemonis and all this stuff that happened to me, the things they did to me, I had to take it as a compliment that I was that, you know, that they spent that much time and effort to destroy me. I must have been powerful. So that's the only way that I was able to, like, make sense of it and have to turn it around into some kind of positive note. And that's what I did.

You're talking about interpretation here. Perspective. If I understand this correctly, tell me if this is right. If I understand right, you're saying that you put on a different lens and looked at the scenarios that were and the events that were happening to you from a different perspective. And that perspective was one that would actually help you move forward instead of something that's going to hold you back and keep you down.

Exactly.

Yeah. This reminds me of sailing, where if you're going and the sail's in the wrong direction, you're going against the wind and the wind is actually forcing you backwards, it's not helping you at all. But if you shift the sail to be in a different position, then all of a sudden what used to be pushing against you is now helping you actually move forward. And then the boat propels forward at a faster rate. That's the visual I'm getting here.

No, that's exactly what I do. I have always. Because otherwise it eats you up inside and it. And it'll destroy you. And, you know, the other thing, I've always, you know, managed to fight a battle when I'm right and, you know, or I feel like I have been wronged and I have fought for, like I fought for the industry, of the RV industry. I'm fighting our new company, the RV Advisor. You know, I'm fighting for consumers rights. I've always considered myself kind of like the Aaron brockovich of the RV industry. And the stuff that happened to me in 2008, you know, between Camping World and General Electric and all this crazy stuff, I sued them. You know, I went on about my normal, you know, everyday business and. But I did two big companies and people just expect you to lay down and run your right over. And I just always had to fight for myself and fend for myself. So in the end, I actually filed suit against GE for something that happened in 2008. And we actually went to trial and reached a settlement agreement. And then they breached the settlement agreement and I took them back to court in 2013. And we went to trial just recently in September of 2019. And I won. Took me 11 years to beat them to the day, but I won. I beat them. So there's some things you just can't give up. It didn't consume me, you know, I also, you know, in litigation, because people are like, you know, you can't sue General Electric or just, they just give up fighting. And you have to, instead of it letting, allowing it to consume you, you have to like what I've done, because I don't. It doesn't consume my life. I say now that I litigate for sport. So it's a sport because otherwise it affects you emotionally and you can't move on to other things. But I went on, rebuilt my company from what, you know, once destroyed by them, but also fought back, but I didn't fight back. And you know, with. In the back of my mind, they're gonna have to pay me. I was going to rebuild my company whether I litigated or didn't litigate or I won or I lost or whatever. So not using any of that to think that, oh, that's what's going to build my company. No, I fought to rebuild my company back from ground zero all over again. And when all of those Things happen. And I got knocked off of Mount Everest. I was eleven and a half million dollars in debt within two days after their hostile takeover that they did. And I. I didn't file bankruptcy. I didn't use any of that options available to me. And I'm almost out of the woods. But I have paid basically all of about a million and a half back. So I've been diligently working to rebuild. And, you know, it's funny, I've been on a number of talk shows, or you know what I just tell people, and my life's an open book, and I say, oh, yeah, you know, I'm about a million and a half in debt or whatever. Like, oh, my God, you owe a million dollars. You know, And I'm like, yeah, But I owed 11.

It's perspective, right? Yeah, it's comparison has a little benefit there. I remember when I was having my rock bottom moments. I remember just feeling overwhelmed. I was stuck and I was alone. It's that feeling of alone that I remember the most. And it is just a mind game. Obviously, I wasn't alone. But that's how the mind interprets these experiences when we're highly emotional. It's like we're in the bottom of this pit and there's no ladder to climb out. We're stuck. That's what the mind says. You're stuck. There's no way out. You're alone. It's a crazy mind experience. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, right? Like, I wasn't actually alone. It's just the game, the trick that my mind was playing on me.

You just feel like it.

Yeah. And at the time, I really did feel like I was alone and stuck and that the world was against me. And I remember at the time I came across a friend. He was a coach. We started as a coaching relationship. He was my business coach. And then we ended up really getting along, and now it's turned into a great friendship. And I remember every time I would throw a terrible scenario at him, something that I believed was really bad and not something I could overcome, I would throw this story at him how bad my life is all emotional, right? Like, oh, there's no way I'm ever going to get through it. And he would throw back at me a story about something he's going through. He'd be like, look, this is what I'm going through. Speaking from facts clearly, what he was going through was ten times more difficult and challenging than what I was going through. And there he is. He's fine. Cool as a cucumber, dealing with it and rocking it. And so it gave me this perspective. Why am I all stressed out about this? Maybe what I think is not overcomeable. Maybe what I think I'm stuck on is strictly what I think I'm stuck on. Maybe I'm not actually stuck at all. And it's the thinking that I was stuck is the actual problem. And by focusing on the mindset shift, all of a sudden, the problems didn't seem that big anymore, thanks to my friend sharing with me how much of a pickle he was in and doing fine. It was a great motivation. Leading by example, Right. My takeaway from it was that if he can get through those difficult times and things, then so can I. And, Gigi, you've been $11 million in debt, and you got through it. So maybe someone listening to this who's $100,000 in debt now, they can believe that there's a way to get through it as well. If you can do it, then maybe they can too. Right? Maybe you've been injured on the job or you hurt something or whatever it is, but you didn't get stabbed 21 times. Let me just put in context. This isn't a competition. This isn't an egotistical battle or complaining area where we try and talk about who has it worse. It's not about that. This is about perspective. It's about, what do you think is the worst thing going on in your life? People listening to this right now, I would ask you this question, what is the worst thing going on in your life right now? And ask yourself, honestly, is it as bad as being stabbed 21 times, or is it as bad as being $11 million in debt? Because if it's not, then think about it for a second. Maybe there is a way through this and there is light at the end of the tunnel here. I hope that you find that shred of hope and belief that you will get through this. Right. Whatever it is you're going through right now, you will overcome this. Right? Gigi, if we look really closely, I mean, you were stabbed 21 times, and if we look close, there's probably people that were stabbed 100 times and survived. It's comparison, isn't. There's no benefit in comparison at all. I'm just talking about context.

It's all about perspective.

Yeah. And if you can make it through this, then other people can, too.

Everybody can.

So another little challenge for people listening to this right now. Think about a big issue, a huge rock bottom moment that you had in the past, whatever it is, just recall it briefly in your mind, right? So you got it in your mind now. Think about this crazy rock bottom in the past and acknowledge to yourself that you got through it. It was in the past. It's gone now. It was a huge rock bottom moment that held you back. And it seemed catastrophic at the time, and it probably was at the time. But you did get through it. You succeeded. And now there's tomorrow, and there's always going to be tomorrow. So whatever you're going through now in the same context, you're going to be looking back at it at someday, and you're going to say, wow, I got through that, too. It's amazing. And it also feels unfair when these really bad things happen, right? But the reality is that that's just life. These things do happen. We can't choose what happens to us, but we can choose what to do about it. We can choose what to do today, right now. Now, Gigi, please tell me. I have this question that I like to ask of guests on the show pretty frequently now. Circumstance is a damned thing, right? Sometimes the shit that happens to us is so powerful and extreme, it sucks. There's no other word for it. It's terrible. And that being said, the power of choice is really strong. And in my opinion, what I like to suggest for consideration is that the power of is stronger than any circumstance that can be thrown at us. What to do with today is more powerful. That opportunity and choice and perspective that we have is more powerful than what happened yesterday. So what's your perspective? Do you agree with that or do you have an opposing perspective or opinion? I love this subject and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Well, taking health risks and, you know, health issues, like the way I put things in perspective, all of the things that have happened to me and stuff like that. I always kind of consider myself as one of the luckiest people alive. And people look at me sometimes like, you know, things that were not so lucky happened to me, but they. I don't look at it like that. I look at, okay, number one, I'm alive. So I'm. I'm so lucky. I'm just lucky because I don't have anything that money can't fix. So when you take that in perspective of, okay, someone that has stage four cancer, that's a very unlucky person. I had a customer came in one day, I did some service on their RV and possibly I'm not even 100%, but one of my technicians or somebody might have by accident hit it with something and it had. The RV had a couple of scratches on it. And we don't really know 100% if it was done in our facility or whatever, but when they came to pick it up, they had an absolute meltdown. A meltdown that their RV had a scratch. And the scratch was probably like literally a scratch. I had an absolute meltdown. The husband, the wife, they were screaming at me and I looked at the gut. The husband, because he was so irate, he had his finger in my face and was unbelievable. I looked at the husband and I said, do you have cancer? And then he said, no, I don't have cancer. I'm perfectly fine. And I said, then shut up and take your RV and look at the scratch and get the hell out of my face. So about four days later, flowers came to the office and I got a phone call and the guy actually apologized to me. He said, you know, you're right. I was just so out of, out of reality. And I thank you for snapping me back into reality. I use that line all the time when somebody gets irate over something that's so stupid and fixable. And I use that line all the time now, you know, do you have cancer? You know, because having something that money can't fix, that's a problem. That's a real problem, and that's something that can't be solved. So everything else, you know, you have to go with it.

That's a really powerful way to deal with someone. You're dealing with strength. With strength. There's so many people that would cave and feel crushed by verbal attack, like someone yelling in their face or being very aggressive up front right in front of you. It's a fine line to collapse and be the amicable problem solver versus holding your ground and establishing healthy boundaries. What I'm hearing that you did is you established a healthy boundary where you want to help someone and you're willing to go to a certain extent. But if this other person crosses a line, then you need to respect yourself and say, no, get the hell out of my RV shop. Right?

Yeah.

This subject of establishing boundaries is a really powerful one to me. I see people all the time who don't establish these boundaries and they get taken advantage of all the time. Right. People come and they just take. Because there's no limit. The person didn't set up a limit of, no, I'm not going to do this in a healthy, crystal clear way. Or some people. I can definitely say I've done This myself. I dump in so much energy to try and help someone fix something. So much energy. And I shouldn't have done that. Right. They didn't asked for that much help, and I overdid it. And then next thing I know, there's no energy left for myself. Right. It's like, how can you save a drowning person if you're drowning yourself? So, Gigi, do you have conscious view of your boundaries? Do you write them down? Do you reflect on this sometimes? Like, where are your boundaries? Or is it intuitive? How did you get that line? And if you were telling all your customers to get out of your business, then you wouldn't have a business left. But you do have a business.

Have any customers, right? Yeah, it's one case at a time, one situation at a time. You know, sometimes people are upset and angry and frustrated. You know, I've been doing this so long that I can read a customer now. I can read a person now. I can tell if I'm. That I can't make a customer happy. And we go beyond, you know, is needed to make a customer happy. I have a sense now that I can't make somebody happy. I just don't even take their business. There are certain personalities, like my operations manager, Christina. She, her and I have different personalities. And there's some customers that just keep me away from them, you know, Like, I know because they don't come in looking for the service manager, you know, or the owner manager, you know, man, I show up in my. My high heels and in my clipboard, and they're telling you to go back and get the service manager. And I am the service manager. So usually I knock them right off their horse right away because I know what I'm talking about. It's like, put your money where your mouth is. Now, if I was a man and didn't know what he was talking about, he wouldn't even have to try half as hard as I have to try to prove that I know what I'm talking about. But now, today, it's like I pick and choose. Now, if someone has an attitude and tells you, you have to do this, you better do that and you better do this. I don't even deal with them anymore. I just don't. And sometimes Christina will have a little more patience than me, and she'll take them and just keep them away from me. Because people are so angry, you know, ever since our last election, people are angry, just angry, angry, angry. And, you know, I really hope in these times, trying times today, that this is Going to bring people together mentally, spiritually and all of that to try to get through this situation we're in right now.

Wrapping up here. Tell me. There's this saying, and I know you've heard it, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And Gigi, you're like the living example of this saying in real life. I have to ask you though, do you avoid saying those words or do you embrace that? Do you use that line sometimes or what happens when you hear that saying?

I just kind of chuckle.

What are you going to do? Right.

Yeah, I very sparingly use it, but if I use it, it's kind of on a. Just something that would happen that would be kind of like an unrealistic situation kind of thing. So. But I. I think things that have so many situations that I'm beyond that, you know, like the cat with the nine lives or something. I don't know. I. A whole new. A whole different perspective, whole different reality world, I guess. I don't know. But yes, people say it all the time and it is. It's a very good phrase. You know.

What's your favorite saying?

Do you have cancer? Actually, my best line that I tell people that are feeling down or defeated or whatever, I say if you don't have anything that money can't fix, you don't have problems.

Okay. That puts things into perspective a little bit.

It's really my favorite line.

I think that you have an amazing story. I do hope that we keep in touch. I know that you do have some involvement in some cool initiatives. You feel free to reach out to me anytime. I'd love to have you back on the show at some point. And I hope that listeners who followed this interview today, I hope that you feel and see that there's hope at the end of your rock bottom moment. You know, these stories are meant to give a little bit of perspective and shed that light to bring some clarity to and make your day today just a little bit better. So change your perspective. Take a breath. Realize that there is going to be a solution for you. There will be a tomorrow. You will get through this. I hope you guys have a rockin it day. Gigi, I appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on the show.

You're very welcome. Have a great day.

You too. And that's it, my friends, for this episode. We will see you next time. Please send me an email, say hello, give me some feedback. Let me know what you think. Give me some tips and suggestions. I'd love to hear from you. Also, please share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, doesn't matter. Just get it out there. I really appreciate it. And we'll see you next time on from rock Bottom to Rockin it. Have a rockin it day.