The Queen of Branding: Lynda Resnick’s $6 Billion Empire of FIJI Water, POM, & Wonderful Pistachios

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:00):
So many people have had Fiji Water, they've drank POM Pomegranate Juice, they've had those Wonderful nuts. And they take for granted that some entrepreneur decided to create a brand around an agricultural product. It's like, well, no big deal. Of course, Fiji Water. But today, we sat down with the person that created these brands, the person that conceptualized the idea of taking really high quality commodities and creating this brand, these emotions, connection, this huge business around these things. And she did it in a way that is just, I don't know, it's mind-blowing.

David Segal (00:00:41):
Mind-blowing. I mean, Lynda Resnick is one of the greatest marketers-

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:44):
Maybe ever.

David Segal (00:00:44):
... in history, ever.

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:46):
She can take something that is so uninteresting, and make it interesting.

David Segal (00:00:50):
And along with her husband, Stewart, they've built multiple billion-dollar companies.

Harley Finkelstein (00:00:53):
That's right. Think about this, 75% of all pistachios sold in America come from Lynda Resnick's company.

David Segal (00:01:01):
Teleflora, Franklin Mint, Wonderful Pistachios, Halo Oranges, Fiji Water, the list goes on and on.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:06):
And those are not even all of them, right?

David Segal (00:01:07):
No, no.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:07):
And they keep doing it over and over again.

David Segal (00:01:09):
Lynda's sold $150 million of Monopoly, and she's never taken a dollar from anyone.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:12):
Yep, Monopoly board. She's never taken a dollar from anyone. She's never raised money. Even at this stage of life, she's in her 80s, she's still building all these things.

David Segal (00:01:20):
And she goes into some of the ways she uncovers and unlocks the unique value.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:25):
Oh, she talks about the secrets of how she-

David Segal (00:01:26):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:27):
Why is there a flower on the Fiji Water?

David Segal (00:01:29):
Right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:29):
Why is POM's bottle shaped that way? Why is the logo of POM the way it is with the heart in the middle?

David Segal (00:01:37):
How does she figure out what the customer truly values? This is an incredible [inaudible 00:01:41].

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:40):
It's an amazing episode. And she goes into detail of how she figures out what consumers want, and she projects it. If you have to say she has one incredible superpower, it's taste.

David Segal (00:01:54):
And it wasn't always easy. She went through an incredible adversity.

Harley Finkelstein (00:01:56):
Oh my gosh, yeah.

David Segal (00:01:57):
Overcame a lot and became this enormous success, and now gives back, I mean, billions of dollars in philanthropy. I mean, what the Resnick's have done in education, in climate, it's remarkable.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:08):
Yeah. You may not know Lynda Resnick, but you know the products that she has helped build. It's an amazing episode. So ladies and gentlemen, Lynda Resnick.

MUSIC (00:02:16):
Started from the bottom, now we're here. Started from the bottom, now the whole team here.

(00:02:19):
Started from the bottom, now we're here. Started from the bottom, now my whole team here.

(00:02:24):
Started from the bottom, now we're here. Started from the bottom, now the whole team here.

(00:02:30):
I done kept it real from the jump. Living at my mama house we'd argue every month.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:33):
We want to start here. We're curious, Lynda, how someone born in Baltimore, grew up in Philly, I believe.

Lynda Resnick (00:02:41):
Never grew up, honey.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:42):
Well, never grew up, sorry. Was raised in Philly.

Lynda Resnick (00:02:44):
Until I was 15.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:45):
Maybe not raised either. People have described you to us as the POM queen, but actually, David and I, over lunch, were talking to this, you're actually the brand queen.

Lynda Resnick (00:02:55):
Thank you.

Harley Finkelstein (00:02:56):
And we're curious about the journey from Philadelphia to being the brand queen. And we want to start with your childhood. Tell us a little bit about growing up, the Shabbos dinner table, if there was a Shabbos dinner table.

Lynda Resnick (00:03:08):
Sadly not.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:09):
There was not. But what was it like growing up in your house? Was there an entrepreneurial spirit?

Lynda Resnick (00:03:13):
My father was very entrepreneurial. He was in the film business. He was in partnership with his father, but they had a falling out because his father wouldn't pay him enough, and then he went out on his own, and he produced The Blob in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:29):
We know The Blob. Great.

David Segal (00:03:29):
Right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:29):
Amazing.

David Segal (00:03:29):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:03:30):
All right. And that's what brought us to California. So I left in my senior year of high school, which is not easy to do, to come... But I came to paradise, right?

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:42):
And when you got here, one of the things that we know around the time is you started a company when you were 19 years old.

Lynda Resnick (00:03:47):
Right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:03:48):
And we were trying to put ourselves in that moment, put ourselves in your shoes. A female founder, 19 years old. Most 19-year-olds don't start companies, first of all. Most women weren't starting companies at that time. And you created Lynda Limited. Why? How did that even happen?

Lynda Resnick (00:04:06):
I wanted to be independent. I was working for people that I didn't have a lot of respect for, but I learned the advertising business. I went to college for a year. Before I went to college, I worked in a clothing store, and by happenstance, I started doing their advertising. I mean, I'm 16, 17 years old, and I'm doing their ads. Because I had this cute idea of this character that I invented. And she went all these places but she was always dressed in Steve's was the name of the... I owed them more money at the end of the week than they owed me.

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:44):
Because you were taking clothing?

Lynda Resnick (00:04:45):
I was.

Harley Finkelstein (00:04:45):
Okay.

Lynda Resnick (00:04:47):
And I remember one day, I sold somebody $25,000. We're talking the '60s, right? $25,000 worth of clothes, and she brought them back the next day because they were wrong. But I was very happy for a while.

David Segal (00:05:00):
You oversold her.

Lynda Resnick (00:05:01):
I oversold her.

Harley Finkelstein (00:05:02):
So you start this company, what was Lynda Limited all about?

Lynda Resnick (00:05:06):
It was limited. Okay, it was me, and then I hired an art director who was a student at ArtCenter, and we hired freelance writers, and we did everything. And I was still at home, in the house, with eventually my kids screaming to get in, and the pediatrician said, "Get the hell out of there. You can't be there and not be there. So when you're there, be with your children, and when you're not there-"

Harley Finkelstein (00:05:32):
Go to work.

Lynda Resnick (00:05:33):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:05:33):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:05:35):
I read a great story about your first customer at the potpourri store or something where you use brown craft paper. I mean, it's a wonderful story of turning lemons into lemonade. Take us back there.

Lynda Resnick (00:05:45):
I have it here, I could show it to you. I don't know where the book is. There's a book that they just gave me at the office, with pretty much most of my campaigns in there. And that's the first thing you see, yes. Jonathan had just been born, at this point I was 21.

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:02):
This is your first child?

Lynda Resnick (00:06:03):
Yes. And I was best friends with this fellow who had a cute store called The Store, and we couldn't afford decent paper, and we couldn't afford typesetting, and we couldn't afford photography, so I drew, hand-lettered, and kept saying to the printer, "You must have something cheaper. You must have something cheaper." He said, "Well, I have butcher paper." I said, "Perfect. Let's do that." And I remember I left with my mother to go visit my relatives on the East Coast, and when I came back, I had a big business. I mean, people were clamoring for... And then I started hiring more people and moved to the-

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:43):
The big leagues?

Lynda Resnick (00:06:45):
... little-

David Segal (00:06:45):
Why do you think it worked so well, that first campaign with that-

Lynda Resnick (00:06:50):
Well, it was just so fresh. Jerry Magnan, do you know who he is?

Harley Finkelstein (00:06:55):
Mm-mm.

David Segal (00:06:55):
No.

Lynda Resnick (00:06:56):
He started Polo in the United States. He had a deal with Ralph Lauren very early on, and he wanted me to promote a store around the same time. And again, I used butcher paper, and again, I did the illustration. But what I did was I made a foldout that if you held it up, you were wearing a Jerry Magnan suit.

David Segal (00:07:20):
Oh, cool.

Lynda Resnick (00:07:21):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:07:21):
And that was the ad?

Lynda Resnick (00:07:22):
That was the ad.

Harley Finkelstein (00:07:23):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:07:23):
And we sewed labels in, and I used people with special needs to-

Harley Finkelstein (00:07:28):
To do it.

Lynda Resnick (00:07:28):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:07:29):
That first early business you had, Lynda Limited, that's-

Lynda Resnick (00:07:33):
Then it turned into Sinay and Sinay Longino.

David Segal (00:07:34):
And even bigger than that.

Lynda Resnick (00:07:36):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:07:36):
That's right.

David Segal (00:07:37):
I mean, looking back on that, you're 21, you're a first-time mom, you have this business, was entrepreneurship something you thought you would go into? Was that surprising to you? Or was it natural that you would be creative in business as you were in life?

Lynda Resnick (00:07:52):
I wasn't premeditated about anything, I just took opportunity. I didn't sit back and have dreams of being a big entrepreneur. I was very impressed with what Mary Wells was doing at the time. And she was my, we didn't know each other, but-

David Segal (00:08:08):
She was a role model, kind of.

Lynda Resnick (00:08:08):
She was my role model at the time. So I knew it could be done because Mary Wells did it, why couldn't I do it? But it wasn't premeditated. I just started planning in my 70s. Up until then, I was just carried away on, I don't know, the current of life, as it were. Because once you have children at such an early age, your life isn't your own anymore. And I had a child with special needs, and so my life was complicated. And then the Pentagon Papers was a blow for two years, my life stopped. And so it was hard then.

Harley Finkelstein (00:08:47):
Yeah. Let's talk about the Pentagon Papers. That is something that, obviously, it's a part of your story, but it's an unlikely part of your story. I mean, you went from advertising to being involved with governments and being involved in politics. Tell us how that all happened.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:03):
Well, I had gotten a divorce. I was dating a fellow named Tony Russo. He was best friends with Dan Ellsberg, and he and Dan decided that they, long story short, going to end the war in Vietnam, that-

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:18):
They decided they're going to end the war in Vietnam. I mean, think of just saying that out loud.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:22):
I was trying to cut to the chase. I'm used to writing headlines.

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:25):
No, it's okay. It's okay.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:26):
Forgive me, I'm sure it was much more nuanced than that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:09:27):
Yes.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:28):
But be that as it may, people in Congress said that if they got the papers, they would expose them to everyone. And with that in mind, the reason I got involved is because I had an A12 copier about the size of a Volkswagen in my advertising agency.

David Segal (00:09:47):
And they needed that copier.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:48):
They needed the copier.

David Segal (00:09:49):
And when you first heard-

Lynda Resnick (00:09:50):
So they didn't love me for myself alone.

David Segal (00:09:53):
It was your technology.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:53):
They loved me for my copier.

David Segal (00:09:53):
Your technology.

Lynda Resnick (00:09:54):
Exactly. You got it.

David Segal (00:09:55):
Were you interested in that, or is it just more like you're helping Tony? Is it the same?

Lynda Resnick (00:09:59):
Oh, no. I had been working against evil my whole life. I did Tom Bradley's first campaign for nothing. We helped pass Vote 18. I was marching my little feet off during all the protests against the war. I was always involved, and cared so deeply.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:24):
So here you are, I mean-

Lynda Resnick (00:10:25):
Especially about the war.

Harley Finkelstein (00:10:26):
Lynda, what you've done in your life is nothing short of remarkable, and we're going to talk a lot about your business successes, but going back to this time in your life, here you are, you're an incredible marketing and advertising talent, you have this big team, you've had a business partner that didn't work out, that took some clients from you, you've had to take on financial liabilities. This is not an easy time for you. What were you telling yourself at the time, that you ended up with so much resilience to get through that?

Lynda Resnick (00:10:57):
I wish I had a pat answer for you, something really exciting, but I was just peddling. I happened to have a gift, and the gift is marketing. Look, my father made movies that people went to see. It's just in my DNA. And I had something to express, and it was a way to express it. I was thwarted because I wanted to go to art school. I had a portfolio, I had studied art all my life, my life being short at that point, but I went to a progressive high school, Hereford it's called, in Philadelphia at the time, and they saw my talent as an artist and a writer, and all I did was write poetry and plays and paint all day long. I couldn't get into Santa Monica... Well, I did get into Santa Monica City College, but that was about all I was... And remedial math, I think I had to take, but-

David Segal (00:11:55):
So did you compartmentalize that part of your life? Were you just like, "I'm focused on the creative, I'm focused on moving forward"?

Lynda Resnick (00:12:01):
Well, the creative is a spirit that you can't... It's just a force.

David Segal (00:12:05):
Right.

Lynda Resnick (00:12:06):
And I could make it work to make money.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:08):
Which is why we-

Lynda Resnick (00:12:08):
I mean, I was almost arrested in high school for doing everyone's biology drawings. They caught me. Everybody's aorta looked the same.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:18):
Did they pay you for those drawings?

Lynda Resnick (00:12:19):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:19):
Oh, good.

Lynda Resnick (00:12:20):
You think I did it out of the goodness of my heart? No.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:21):
So you use the term peddling, but you've always been peddling and hustling and doing this thing to take your talent and convert it into opportunity.

Lynda Resnick (00:12:30):
Yeah. Because you have to take advantage of what you're given. If you don't, that's a sin in my mind.

Harley Finkelstein (00:12:36):
I agree. Which is why I think the Pentagon Papers for us are so interesting, because that is, it's different. It's a different type of creative pursuit.

Lynda Resnick (00:12:42):
It's not different. If you knew me, you'd realize that's me. That's what gives me heart. And if you don't listen and you're not compassionate, you can't market. I mean, you can for a while.

David Segal (00:12:56):
Let's talk about that for a sec. I mean, in our research, we came across one of your sayings I thought was really interesting. Think inside the box.

Lynda Resnick (00:13:04):
Right.

David Segal (00:13:04):
Talk to us about that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:13:05):
What does that mean?

Lynda Resnick (00:13:06):
I don't know if all bets are off in this new world today, because it's changed so much. But to me, the answer to the problem is intrinsic with the problem itself, it's not borrowed interest. In my experience, the answer to the problem lies within the problem itself. That's why you don't see movie stars holding Fiji Water. I don't need a movie star because this is the greatest water in the earth. It is earth's finest water. Did you see that? We couldn't say it unless it was true. And why is it earth's finest water? Because it has a unique selling proposition. Doesn't come from a tap like smartwater. It is real. It falls as rain in the most protected part of the planet, 1500 miles from the nearest civilization.

Harley Finkelstein (00:13:57):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:13:58):
Yeah. And it falls as rain through volcanic rock where it picks up silica, into an underground active aquifer, and it comes through hermetically sealed pipes into the bottle with no people, untouched by man until-

David Segal (00:14:12):
We touch it.

Lynda Resnick (00:14:12):
... you unscrew the cap. Now, who's going to be better than that story?

David Segal (00:14:18):
Nobody.

Lynda Resnick (00:14:19):
And do you know that people repeat it to me over and over again?

David Segal (00:14:23):
Verbatim.

Lynda Resnick (00:14:24):
Pretty much.

David Segal (00:14:25):
Yeah. I mean, it sounds so romantic. When you look at brands, what do you look for?

Lynda Resnick (00:14:37):
Unique selling proposition. Why do I want to buy your juice over health in a bottle for POM? When this business started in 2002, a fraction of the population... I remember sitting next to Michael Eisner, I used to bore people to death, I was so excited about pomegranates when we first rediscovered them. And Michael is such a good dinner partner, but I was boring him to death about pomegranates. And he finally turned to me he said, "What is it? What is a pomegranate? I've never even seen one." I thought, "If the head of Disney never saw a pomegranate, maybe I better get busy."

Harley Finkelstein (00:15:16):
Wow. It's interesting because I think for most people, pomegranates, I see it at a Rosh Hashanah dinner-

David Segal (00:15:20):
Rosh Hashanah, right. Exactly, yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:15:21):
... where it's on the table, but usually it's there mostly for decor. Before we get to pomegranates, I want actually start with the flower company first, Teleflora. One of the things we discovered, and I think my numbers are correct here, you went from having 7,000 florists to 21,000, so 3x.

Lynda Resnick (00:15:37):
I thought 26, but fine.

Harley Finkelstein (00:15:38):
26, okay. Flex. And each florist initially was paying $7 per month. And actually, by the time you were finished with it, they were paying over $140 a month or so. Tell us about the flower business.

Lynda Resnick (00:15:52):
Well, I mean, "by the time you were finished with it," we're not finished with it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:15:55):
Sorry, sorry.

Lynda Resnick (00:15:56):
Not at all. And second of all, you're talking about over, what, 40 years? How many years is it?

Harley Finkelstein (00:16:00):
Long time.

Lynda Resnick (00:16:01):
Yeah. It's over 45 years or so.

Harley Finkelstein (00:16:03):
What was it about that business that, first of all, got you interested?

Lynda Resnick (00:16:06):
You have to understand something. I never want to buy a business. It's all Stewart. Because I know when he buys a business, it comes to me to do the marketing.

Harley Finkelstein (00:16:20):
Is that the dynamic, Stewart buys a business and you say, "Let me help you build it, fix it"?

Lynda Resnick (00:16:24):
No, I say, "Do I really have to?" And he says, "Yes." That's how it goes.

David Segal (00:16:28):
I mean, you have this unique talent to figure out what the customer wants.

Lynda Resnick (00:16:31):
Right.

David Segal (00:16:32):
And you did that at Teleflora.

Lynda Resnick (00:16:33):
Yes.

David Segal (00:16:34):
Tell us what you uncovered.

Harley Finkelstein (00:16:35):
What did the customer want there?

Lynda Resnick (00:16:37):
It was a recession economy, flowers die, and I thought, "What if the flowers came in a gift? The passion, the love, the caring that you sent, the flowers will last forever." And we made adorable gifts. We made mugs with happy faces on them, we made bunnies for newborn babies, we made a colander with... I sold a million of those, with little strawberries all over them, filled with flowers. I mean, just happy and very affordable.

Harley Finkelstein (00:17:09):
So the innovation was really, instead of just getting flowers that last for a week-

David Segal (00:17:13):
You get to keep [inaudible 00:17:14].

Harley Finkelstein (00:17:13):
... I'm going to actually give you flowers and this other thing, and that other thing will last for a long time.

Lynda Resnick (00:17:18):
That's right.

David Segal (00:17:18):
But your florist didn't like this idea at first.

Lynda Resnick (00:17:21):
Oh, yes. Well, why do you think we grew? They liked it so much that they joined us in order to get them.

David Segal (00:17:29):
But didn't you first-

Lynda Resnick (00:17:30):
I wouldn't sell them to anyone unless they were a Teleflora florist.

Harley Finkelstein (00:17:34):
Part of that network.

Lynda Resnick (00:17:35):
That's right.

David Segal (00:17:36):
But didn't you have some in the network at first that gave you a hard time about it?

Lynda Resnick (00:17:39):
Oh, yes. Well, can you be in business without getting a hard time?

Harley Finkelstein (00:17:43):
Definitely not. If it was easy, everybody would do it.

Lynda Resnick (00:17:45):
I mean, there was one time that I was in Texas, and they locked me in a van. And they were inside, and so was I, and so I knew I was eventually going to get out. And I can't remember what I had perpetrated upon them at this point, but I think it was that they wanted us just to be a wire service and not to sell the gifts. But they were just a minority, because that's what grew our business. You can't raise dues if you don't raise the service that you're delivering to people. And so we made flower shops exciting again. We were fabulous. It was really fun.

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:20):
I mean, part of that is also your persistence. There's this great quote that David and I were laughing at over lunch today, "She can talk anyone into anything, including me, to write this blurb for her book," Larry David. And we just thought that was the most, first of all, the most Larry David thing ever, but also the fact that Larry probably doesn't write a lot of book quotes, but you are so persistent and so convincing that he did.

Lynda Resnick (00:18:41):
Well, he drinks POM, so that's why. He wanted the stuff for free.

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:45):
That's amazing. So we did the florist thing, which you still have, and it continues to grow, it's an amazing thing.

Lynda Resnick (00:18:49):
I stopped working there several years ago, because they were doing well, they became a global business, and I really had to focus more on the brand. Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:18:57):
Can we talk a little bit about how and why you decide to go buy a bunch of, effectively land, in San Joaquin Valley? Is that pronounce that right?

Lynda Resnick (00:19:07):
San Joaquin Valley, yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:07):
San Joaquin Valley. Why do you decide to buy land there? I think 1978 or so, you decided to buy land. Where did that even come from? What was the dinner conversation that led you to go do that?

Lynda Resnick (00:19:17):
You have to understand something.

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:19):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:19:20):
Our business, our enterprise is divided in two, but once we bought the land, we grew crops. And those crops were commodities. Because we were busy at the Franklin Mint running that together. When we came back... Because the model for the Franklin Mint didn't work.

David Segal (00:19:40):
Interesting.

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:41):
What did [inaudible 00:19:42]?

David Segal (00:19:42):
Franklin Mint, just for our listeners-

Lynda Resnick (00:19:44):
Oh, it was a collect-

David Segal (00:19:44):
Just to set the table-

Lynda Resnick (00:19:45):
It was one of the high-end collectible companies that sold everything from Scarlett O'Hara dolls, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana-

Harley Finkelstein (00:19:54):
Elvis Presley.

David Segal (00:19:54):
Became a billion-dollar business. But it didn't work at first.

Lynda Resnick (00:19:58):
Oh, it worked brilliantly. If I didn't make millions of dollars every day... It was so easy in the beginning, oh my God.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:04):
Tell us about that business.

Lynda Resnick (00:20:06):
Well, they were a coin business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:08):
Okay.

Lynda Resnick (00:20:09):
All right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:10):
Literally making coins?

Lynda Resnick (00:20:11):
Collective coins.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:12):
Collector coins.

Lynda Resnick (00:20:13):
Collector coins. That sort of memorabilia.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:15):
Okay.

Lynda Resnick (00:20:15):
And boring Ben Franklin, whatever. Philadelphia whatever. And we bought it from Steve Ross, who was a delight. It was so much fun to buy a company from him. He didn't want to sell it, so we made it difficult. And so we said, "Look, let's get an apartment in Philly, when we're done in about six weeks or so, we'll move back." Well, it was 16 years that we were in Philadelphia.

David Segal (00:20:42):
Wow.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:42):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:20:43):
16 years. And it was so much. It was like I was in charge of Santa's workshop.

Harley Finkelstein (00:20:51):
So you have a coin company, or making collective coins. How do you decide to go beyond that?

Lynda Resnick (00:20:56):
Well, the first thing that happened is I went to someone's office and there was a doll. I'm saying a doll that would cost $500 today.

Harley Finkelstein (00:21:06):
A beautiful piece of art.

Lynda Resnick (00:21:06):
A beautiful, gorgeous porcelain doll of Gone With the Wind, of Scarlett O'Hara in the picnic dress. I said, "My God, what are you doing with that?" He said, "We're not going to do that Hollywood riffraff. We can't ruin our reputation." I thought, "Really? I could." And so we began. And I licensed every great movie ever. John Wayne, Frank Sinatra singing dolls. He had the 10 coins in his pocket that he'd always carry, the dimes, Frank. And every movie star, and every queen, king that you ever heard of, cars of the '50s, cars of the '60s, all those diecast cars, the Monopoly set.

Harley Finkelstein (00:21:52):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:21:53):
So it's a cute story. So I wanted to license Monopoly. It's my favorite game. I will take any of you on. I have never lost in Monopoly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:02):
Okay, yeah.

David Segal (00:22:04):
But when you say licensed Monopoly, you're licensing it-

Lynda Resnick (00:22:07):
From Hasbro.

David Segal (00:22:07):
Yeah. And then what are you doing with it on [inaudible 00:22:10]?

Lynda Resnick (00:22:09):
Exactly. What are we doing with it?

David Segal (00:22:11):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:22:12):
So I brief my people, I want it to be great. It's do your research, I come back, and there's Atlantic City in 1940, where I used to go in the summer. I said, "This isn't motivating, little picket fences and clapboard houses, what the hell are you thinking? I want Donald Trump. I want it to look like a million bucks. I want people to sit down at this set and say, "I'm rich."" And we made it out of Mahogany and we sold it for $500. And we made what? $150 million. In those days, 150 million-

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:47):
It's a lot of money.

David Segal (00:22:48):
And this is what? This is a set? It's a-

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:49):
It's a Monopoly set.

David Segal (00:22:50):
Monopoly, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:22:50):
The Monopoly set. It's beautiful, with gold-plated houses and silver-plated hotel. I mean-

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:54):
Do they exist anymore? Can you buy those this [inaudible 00:22:56]?

Lynda Resnick (00:22:56):
On eBay.

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:57):
On eBay or something?

Lynda Resnick (00:22:58):
Yeah, on eBay.

Harley Finkelstein (00:22:58):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:22:59):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:00):
So you did this Monopoly, you've done a few of these others. Where are you selling in general? Are you selling through retailers? Are you selling direct?

Lynda Resnick (00:23:05):
No, there's no such thing, honey. We're talking all direct response.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:07):
It's all direct response.

Lynda Resnick (00:23:07):
Yeah, I had 10 stores at one point, but that isn't really-

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:11):
And how are you actually... Obviously now you set up an online store and you'd sell it that way. But in those days, they came through-

Lynda Resnick (00:23:17):
Well, it was ads in parade, it was ads and TV Guide, things that nobody reads anymore. We were a huge advertiser.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:25):
And they would call you and say, "We want to order this [inaudible 00:23:27]"?

Lynda Resnick (00:23:27):
No, they would fill out a coupon and send it in. I mean, we're talking before you were born. We're talking the dark ages here. That's what it was like.

David Segal (00:23:34):
And you did $150 million on-

Lynda Resnick (00:23:36):
Or the Jackie Pearls. Did you hear about that?

David Segal (00:23:38):
Yeah, of course. You bought the Jackie Pearls. No, they were not real pearls.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:41):
21,000.

David Segal (00:23:41):
You bought them 21,000, and you sold $5 million.

Lynda Resnick (00:23:43):
No, I bought them for 211,000.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:45):
211,000, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:23:47):
And we made $20 million on that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:23:50):
Wow. Wow.

David Segal (00:23:51):
That's remarkable. And so how are you, I mean-

Lynda Resnick (00:23:54):
I don't know how.

David Segal (00:23:56):
Well, no, hold on.

Lynda Resnick (00:23:56):
So I get the two catalogs of Jackie, who I of course worshiped, I go through the whole thing. I said, "There's only one thing I'm interested in." Stewart says, "What?" I said, "The pearls." He said, "Ah, $50 to $80. I'm sure we can swing it." Right. And as the days marched on, I mean, it was so exciting. Because every day, they were saying, "Well, it's going to cost you 10,000. It might be 25. It's looking like 50. No, it's looking like seven," and on and on and on. And so when they got to 150,000, I handed the phone to Stewart, I said, "I'm afraid." And he bought them.

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:33):
And this was an auction, this is the estate doing an auction?

Lynda Resnick (00:24:36):
Yeah, [inaudible 00:24:37].

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:36):
[inaudible 00:24:37]?

Lynda Resnick (00:24:37):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:38):
Wow.

David Segal (00:24:38):
And this means that you have the right to sell them any which way you want?

Lynda Resnick (00:24:41):
And where are they today?

David Segal (00:24:43):
And then you-

Lynda Resnick (00:24:43):
Do you know where they are today?

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:44):
No.

David Segal (00:24:44):
No.

Lynda Resnick (00:24:45):
Where do they belong?

David Segal (00:24:45):
Oh, the Smithsonian.

Harley Finkelstein (00:24:45):
Smithsonian.

Lynda Resnick (00:24:46):
That's right.

David Segal (00:24:48):
Okay, so you get the rights to these, whether it's [inaudible 00:24:51]-

Lynda Resnick (00:24:51):
Star Trek, everything we ever thought of.

David Segal (00:24:53):
You put it in TV Guide, and then you get a bunch of orders in. But you haven't pre-made all this stuff, have you?

Lynda Resnick (00:24:58):
Oh, yes, we have to have-

David Segal (00:25:00):
You have to guess the demand.

Lynda Resnick (00:25:01):
In the old days, what you did is you would test in a market, or three markets, in a limited run, because you could buy regionally, newspapers and magazines in those days, which of course, there aren't even magazines. And you would see how it sold, and then you would roll, so we call test and roll, and then you would roll it out based on your assumptions of what it did.

Harley Finkelstein (00:25:25):
We talked about a couple of businesses already. I want to figure out, I want to go back now to 1978, so Stewart comes home or a dinner and says, "I'm going to buy a bunch of land." You say what?

Lynda Resnick (00:25:36):
Why?

Harley Finkelstein (00:25:36):
And he-

Lynda Resnick (00:25:37):
It looks like a good investment.

Harley Finkelstein (00:25:39):
He says, "It looks like a good investment"?

Lynda Resnick (00:25:40):
Yeah. A lot of oil companies were selling off their land because maybe they had dry wells or whatever.

Harley Finkelstein (00:25:48):
Sure.

Lynda Resnick (00:25:48):
We bought some from some French investment companies that wanted to get out of agriculture because it was volatile, the weather. And so we were able to start buying. First it was oranges, and then we drifted into pistachios.

David Segal (00:26:07):
And that's what it was for you for a long time, a good investment. But it wasn't something-

Lynda Resnick (00:26:10):
It was a commodity.

David Segal (00:26:11):
Right. You weren't like, "Hey, we're going to un-commoditize agricultural products and create brands around them."

Lynda Resnick (00:26:17):
I knew I could.

David Segal (00:26:19):
But was it even factoring into your mind at the time?

Lynda Resnick (00:26:21):
Absolutely.

David Segal (00:26:22):
It was?

Lynda Resnick (00:26:23):
Of course.

David Segal (00:26:24):
Even while you're building Franklin Mint? Because I mean-

Lynda Resnick (00:26:26):
Not while I'm building, but when I came home, I said, "Let me turn these into brands." And so we did, eventually. There was a pistachio recall, and Obama had been in office just a short time. And before that, they had missed a peanut recall, and people had died. And so they overreacted to a small little place that had some salmonella. It wasn't us. And they said, "Throw out your pistachios." I remember I was on my book tour, and Stewart called me and said, "You've got $15 million. Give us a brand." I said, "Okay."

David Segal (00:27:10):
But in the research, one thing that seemed absolutely astounding to me was, when you started POM, and when you bought Fiji Water, you hadn't yet sold Franklin Mint, and you still had Teleflora. So you have these two massive businesses that you're running-

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:26):
Concurrently.

David Segal (00:27:26):
... concurrently, and you have-

Lynda Resnick (00:27:28):
Do you want me to start crying? It's been like this my whole life. You know I retired.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:36):
Yeah, I could see how [inaudible 00:27:37].

Lynda Resnick (00:27:36):
A few weeks ago.

David Segal (00:27:37):
But there you are. I mean, these are for-

Lynda Resnick (00:27:40):
Not from my philanthropy.

Harley Finkelstein (00:27:41):
That's where you're going to be spending more of your time on.

Lynda Resnick (00:27:42):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:27:43):
But these are like, "Hey, go start two new startups." Or buy a business, Fiji Water that's not that big at the time, and do another startup in POM while you're running these other two huge businesses. I mean, how?

Lynda Resnick (00:27:57):
Well, difficult. A lot of hard work and good people around us, hopefully, that would help.

David Segal (00:28:06):
Did you have [inaudible 00:28:07]?

Lynda Resnick (00:28:06):
But eventually, I said, "I can't do Teleflora and the Franklin Mint." Because I was the president of Teleflora in those days. And so I said, "I..." And so then we looked-

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:14):
And so you felt that POM needed your attention.

Lynda Resnick (00:28:16):
No, I thought that Franklin Mint needed my attention, because I was the president of Teleflora and went to the Franklin Mint to redo that. And that was like three full-time jobs.

David Segal (00:28:26):
And I mean, at this point, there's no email.

Lynda Resnick (00:28:31):
Right. Can you imagine?

David Segal (00:28:33):
Right? So I mean, you're either at the office or you're not. So I'm assuming you're at the office a lot.

Lynda Resnick (00:28:38):
Oh, yes, dear. I worked seven days a week my whole life. I mean, I just have.

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:43):
Since you were 19, probably.

Lynda Resnick (00:28:44):
Well, no. I mean, I've just been busy. Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:28:47):
Let's go back to POM, because what you did there that is in particular really interesting to us is, you created a new category. There wasn't that, "Hey, I'm going to build something like this other company." And you actually had to start by doing research on the benefits of pomegranates and what it actually did for humans.

Lynda Resnick (00:29:05):
But that was part of the decision, you see.

Harley Finkelstein (00:29:06):
Tell us about that.

Lynda Resnick (00:29:07):
Yes. We had a doctor that we revered, and he was married to an Italian woman from a Roman girl. And she and her family were into Pomegranates. It's very much in the culture of most of Europe, all of Asia, the Middle East.

Harley Finkelstein (00:29:22):
Everywhere but here, I guess.

Lynda Resnick (00:29:23):
Yes, exactly. And they said that they had heard these stories, and there was a study going on in Israel with Michael Aviram about the benefits of pomegranates, and we started looking into it, and it sounded so promising. So we decided to expand our 180 acres into 6,000 acres, and so forth.

Harley Finkelstein (00:29:47):
And was that area known for pomegranates or It was just one of many things.

Lynda Resnick (00:29:50):
I think a long time ago, there was a pomegranate industry here, maybe in the '50s or '60s, a small pomegranate industry. But eventually, they went out of business. So people really didn't know what a-

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:02):
And so you do this research, you realize it's super healthy, obviously now it's becoming better known. And then how do you package this thing together? I mean, the bottle shape, for example. Tell us about that. It's so unique and interesting.

Lynda Resnick (00:30:15):
Yeah, so we had no money to spend. We did local advertising to try and build the brand, and then take the results and sell it to other retailers across the country. But the bottle, all right, I worked with a designer, he's still there, it's his 40th anniversary, Brian Hanakawa and I have designed everything you see. Every package, everything.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:42):
Fiji bottle, POM, all of them?

Lynda Resnick (00:30:43):
Everything, everything. Not the square bottle. We inherited the square bottle, but-

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:47):
But this, the beautiful flower-

Lynda Resnick (00:30:49):
Yeah. And all of JUSTIN, Landmark, when it comes out, the new wine business, and all the packaging, and all the displays, all the advertising, all the-

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:57):
You and Brian have been doing all of this?

Lynda Resnick (00:30:59):
No.

Harley Finkelstein (00:30:59):
For four years.

Lynda Resnick (00:31:00):
I have an agency in-house of 100 people that are brilliant. And they answer to me. There's a president that's just, great guy to work with, that I've worked with for many years. And we do everything in-house. We are not directors. We hire directors to film the videos and the TV. So way back then, I said to Brian, "Let's see what you can do." He has a whole studio of artists. There were 100 bottles on the wall, 100 different shapes, 100... And I just went, "That's it. I don't have to think about it." Two pomegranates, one on top of the other. It's so obvious, except you can't make it. It's the only problem. Well, we can make it in glass, so we'll make it in glass, but it's so expensive and heavy to ship and ba, ba, ba. But we'll get the manufacturers there eventually. And we did. We taught them how to make it in plastic eventually, our plastic is all recycled now, and the rest is history.

(00:32:03):
And it was so successful in the beginning, but then we had a freeze, and we couldn't fulfill the orders, and they got very mad at us, the retailers. And then Coca-Cola and Pepsi came out with competitive products. So we're 100% pomegranate juice. Theirs was one 10th of 1% pomegranate juice. And the rest was grape and apple, which are sugar juices, and that's what they were selling. And eventually, we to the Supreme Court, one lawsuit after another. But it really dragged our business down for a long time. I married John Wayne, he's not going to let them get away with it. And now we're back and-

David Segal (00:32:51):
Was it worth it in the end, the legal battles with them?

Lynda Resnick (00:32:58):
I'm afraid that it was, for the consumer. Not for us, because the wear and tear in me and Stewart was pretty bad. I mean, going to Washington and-

Harley Finkelstein (00:33:08):
Sure. Yeah. It's no fun. You want to run a business, you want to build.

Lynda Resnick (00:33:10):
Yeah. But consumers thinking that it's going to help prostate cancer to drink this sugar water that the competition was selling, we had to do it. And it was unanimous decision, except for Steven Beyer, because he had to recuse himself, because he drank it every day.

David Segal (00:33:30):
He did. I can't help but think, we talk about, "Do things that aren't scalable at the start." I mean, this is the ultimate example of this. I mean, the bottle, really, at the time when you conceived the idea, was not scalable.

Lynda Resnick (00:33:42):
Right.

David Segal (00:33:43):
But you guys did it anyway.

Lynda Resnick (00:33:44):
Yes. It was a fight every single day.

David Segal (00:33:48):
It was a fight?

Lynda Resnick (00:33:48):
Oh yeah. You think I ever got my way? I mean, Stewart's tough, and we had to make these decisions, and in the end, he makes... Isn't that awful, a woman my age say, "My husband makes the final decision"? But someone has to be the very boss.

Harley Finkelstein (00:34:06):
So at what point are you walking around this piece of land with Stewart, and you realize there's even pomegranates on the land? Because again, you didn't buy the land for pomegranates or for almonds, or for anything. You bought the land for the land. How does that happen?

Lynda Resnick (00:34:19):
The timing is that he had a marketing guy that was handling the marketing for POM as it were. He asked me to come into a meeting. It wasn't called POM, it was called Pomegranate Juice. And he said, "I'd like you..." Because at this point, I was, whatever I was doing, I wasn't working on POM as a business. So I came in and they said, "We're going to put in 10% pomegranate juice, and the rest, fill with water, and it's going to be called..." I said, "I don't agree with any of this." And I wrote P heart M. I said, "There's your name. If you put pomegranate in the title, they'll be in the lettuce by the time they figure out what you said."

Harley Finkelstein (00:35:01):
P heart M. Wow. Simple but beautiful.

Lynda Resnick (00:35:04):
And I said, "It has to be 100% pomegranate juice for its health benefits. It just has to be. Otherwise, you're a juice, not health in a bottle.

David Segal (00:35:13):
But let's just go back even further. I mean, you guys have these commodities. What made you think, "We're going to take agricultural commodity products and put a brand on it"? Nobody had really done that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:35:24):
Yeah. No one had ever done that.

Lynda Resnick (00:35:26):
Well, because I was trained for the unique selling proposition, I had trained myself through my life, through success and failure, that the only products that work is if they're unique. At least I know you're in a different world because you make money a different way, which I don't understand.

Harley Finkelstein (00:35:45):
But how do you make Pistachios unique?

Lynda Resnick (00:35:48):
Well, we happen to have the best pistachios, the best roast. And we also, I think, control 75% of the market.

Harley Finkelstein (00:35:54):
75% of the pistachio market?

Lynda Resnick (00:35:58):
In America.

Harley Finkelstein (00:35:59):
In America.

Lynda Resnick (00:35:59):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:00):
Wow. And they're not just pistachios, they're wonderful pistachios.

Lynda Resnick (00:36:03):
Indeed.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:03):
It's its own thing.

Lynda Resnick (00:36:05):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:05):
Right?

Lynda Resnick (00:36:06):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:06):
I don't know any other names of pistachio companies. I actually don't know any other names of pomegranate companies, either.

David Segal (00:36:12):
Or orange companies.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:13):
Or orange companies.

David Segal (00:36:13):
Halo Orange.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:14):
Do you Sunkist?

David Segal (00:36:16):
Sort of. [inaudible 00:36:17]-

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:17):
... Yes, but I didn't think [inaudible 00:36:19]-

David Segal (00:36:19):
I wouldn't have thought about that. But this idea-

Lynda Resnick (00:36:20):
But again, our new product, which is so amazing, seedless lemons.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:25):
Seedless lemons.

Lynda Resnick (00:36:26):
And you think, you scoff, "Seedless lemons?"

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:30):
No, I don't.

David Segal (00:36:30):
No, I don't. I put in my water and I'm always fishing out those.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:31):
Me too. I'm always fishing out little seeds.

Lynda Resnick (00:36:33):
But you must buy them, because they're juicier and they're more yellow, and they're sweeter. I mean, they're really-

David Segal (00:36:41):
Wow.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:41):
Like a Meyer lemon, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:36:42):
Yeah, Meyer Lemon.

Harley Finkelstein (00:36:42):
So how do you even think about this idea of doing a seedless lemon? How does it even happen?

Lynda Resnick (00:36:47):
It's somehow out of the ether, it comes. We can get the license for seedless lemons in America. Do we want it? Yeah, we want it. Sure we want it. We're a big citrus company. We grow Halos, and oranges, Valencias, and that sort of thing, but they're not private label. I mean, they're more private label.

David Segal (00:37:09):
You had a saying in our research, "A brand reveals itself over time, not in one grand gesture." I look at all these brands-

Lynda Resnick (00:37:17):
Did I say that? That's so clever.

Harley Finkelstein (00:37:18):
Very clever.

David Segal (00:37:19):
It is clever, that's why I like it. Take us to some instances where you had to have patience with these brands. Where they didn't reveal themselves at once. And how do you think about the evolution of the brand in the early days, knowing that you have this vision, but you're not there yet?

Lynda Resnick (00:37:36):
I don't know if I don't see it. I can't remember struggling with strategy on Fiji or POM. It's so simple. Because if this is the world's finest water, and I truly, I swear to you, believe it is-

Harley Finkelstein (00:37:56):
I believe you believe it is.

Lynda Resnick (00:37:57):
I mean, I do.

Harley Finkelstein (00:37:57):
I can feel it coming from you.

Lynda Resnick (00:37:58):
And Stewart and I both believe it. And also my bone density went up 19% after three years of drinking it, because of the silica. So once I realized the silica content, once I realized how it was made, when we bought it, it had a waterfall on this. Nobody wants surface water to drink. And it was called a taste of paradise. Well, couldn't any paradise say their water was a taste of paradise?

Harley Finkelstein (00:38:26):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:38:26):
But who could say what we could say? Nobody.

Harley Finkelstein (00:38:29):
Let's talk about that. I mean, Fiji Water is its own thing. It is a category of its own. When I see it in a beautiful hotel, or I'm at a restaurant, they ask me what kind of water I want, I say, "I'd like some flat water," and they bring me a bottle of Fiji. There is a feeling, there is an emotional connection to, "This is the best stuff." And I mean, the bottle shape is lovely, the photo is amazing. It's clear, you can see right through it. Talk to us about how the whole Fiji Water thing happened, because you didn't start the company, you purchased it. How did you learn about it and why'd you buy it?

Lynda Resnick (00:39:03):
We have a friend in Aspen who had a small piece of it. The company headquarters we're in Aspen.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:10):
Fiji Water was in Aspen?

Lynda Resnick (00:39:12):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:12):
Sort of [inaudible 00:39:13].

Lynda Resnick (00:39:12):
Okay.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:13):
Not in Fiji.

Lynda Resnick (00:39:15):
Not in Fiji. I mean, they had a factory there, they had a plant, but you know. So Stewart was very friendly, he used to walk up and down Aspen Mountain with this guy, and he said, "I'm interested in buying a water company." I said, "That's ridiculous. All water tastes the same." And I had these magic taste buds that are-

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:33):
Well, we've heard about your magic taste buds. These tricks at parties, blind-tasting of wine where you blow everybody away.

Lynda Resnick (00:39:37):
Exactly. Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:38):
Amazing.

Lynda Resnick (00:39:39):
But those days are over. But anyway. No, because allergic to wine now, which is so sad.

Harley Finkelstein (00:39:43):
That is sad, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:39:44):
Yeah. Anyway, so we did a blind tasting, I swear to God. And he had all these waters set out, and I had a blindfold on, and I tasted them, and I said, this is the best one, and it was Fiji, and I was sold.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:02):
And then what happens?

Lynda Resnick (00:40:03):
We bought it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:04):
You bought the whole company?

Lynda Resnick (00:40:05):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:40:06):
You didn't just buy it. I mean, you had 1,500 events for Fiji Water in a year. That's four a day.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:12):
Yeah, we calculated, four events per day.

David Segal (00:40:14):
Four a day. While you're running Franklin Mint, Teleflora, starting POM-

Lynda Resnick (00:40:18):
No, but I'm not going to these events.

David Segal (00:40:18):
No, of course not. But still, I mean, I get that you hire good people, and you're going to tell me that, but you did something more than that.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:24):
So you decided to buy this company, and other than the bottle shape, which, it was already the square bottle, which is also very unique.

Lynda Resnick (00:40:32):
Well, but it's also the efficient way not to waste space when you're shipping from Fiji, because yes-

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:39):
Oh, right, because-

Lynda Resnick (00:40:39):
... Virginia... It is from Fiji. Yes, it is.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:42):
So you buy this company, what's the first thing you do?

Lynda Resnick (00:40:47):
Understand it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:40:49):
Which means what?

Lynda Resnick (00:40:50):
Do deep dive, so to speak, into how is the water created? All this information that we gathered about, how far are we from the nearest civilization? Does the water fall as rain? Is it captured in this underground aquifer? How does it come through? And that's how "Untouched by man" was easy, because it is.

Harley Finkelstein (00:41:15):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:41:15):
So you do deep research to understand the unique properties of what you're selling.

Lynda Resnick (00:41:21):
That's right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:41:21):
And why does a flower go on this?

Lynda Resnick (00:41:24):
Because that's Fiji. That's what grows all over Fiji, these beautiful, beautiful flowers.

Harley Finkelstein (00:41:30):
Wow. And then because you have this incredible through POM and Wonderful, you're able to... Is distribution easier for you because of the experience you have with the other businesses? Are you able to get into stores?

Lynda Resnick (00:41:42):
No. No. The water company has its own sales force. And I think that they work together in some ways, maybe in convenience stores, whatever. But basically, the brands, POM, Halos and so forth, and Pistachios, are marketed by one sales force, and Fiji Water has its own sales force.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:05):
And how do you convince people to buy premium water?

Lynda Resnick (00:42:11):
I think they taste it and they want it. I mean, I can't tell you how many restaurants I go into, and Stewart and I tease them because we know if it's an Italian restaurant, "Do you have Fiji?" "No, but that's what it's in my fridge." I mean, that's what people tell me all the time because it's the best water.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:27):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:42:28):
But it wasn't like that at first, right? I mean, you had-

Lynda Resnick (00:42:30):
Oh, it was always the best water.

David Segal (00:42:31):
It was always the best water, but-

Lynda Resnick (00:42:32):
It's just you didn't know how to talk about it.

David Segal (00:42:33):
Right. People didn't know it yet. So how do you transition?

Lynda Resnick (00:42:35):
And it was very tiny. I mean-

David Segal (00:42:37):
Right. How do you transition from you know it's the best water to everybody else knowing it's the best water?

Lynda Resnick (00:42:41):
Well, you say it, don't you?

David Segal (00:42:43):
Over and over and over again.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:45):
Four times a day.

David Segal (00:42:45):
Four times a day, for events.

Harley Finkelstein (00:42:47):
Over and over and over again.

David Segal (00:42:47):
You said something that really struck me. You said, "I've worked seven days a week my whole life."

Lynda Resnick (00:42:52):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:42:53):
Nowadays, you hear a lot in the mainstream, this idea of work-life balance.

Lynda Resnick (00:42:57):
Yeah. I didn't know what that is. I was hoping maybe now I could have some.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:02):
Well, you're now two weeks into retirement?

Lynda Resnick (00:43:04):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:05):
Two weeks?

Lynda Resnick (00:43:05):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:05):
How's it going?

Lynda Resnick (00:43:07):
It's great.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:08):
So there's a lot of work to prepare for retirement?

Lynda Resnick (00:43:11):
Yes. You can't just leave, you have to-

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:13):
You spent years preparing.

David Segal (00:43:14):
Two years.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:15):
Two years preparing.

David Segal (00:43:16):
And I mean, your philanthropic efforts.

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:18):
Yeah. Let's talk about this. Now you get the focus on philanthropy. What does that mean to you? I mean, what does charity mean? What does Tzedakah mean to you?

David Segal (00:43:25):
How do you think about it?

Harley Finkelstein (00:43:26):
How do you think about it?

Lynda Resnick (00:43:27):
Well, I think it's my responsibility. That I was put on this earth to be successful and to give the money away, and to help others. I really think that that's my calling. When I was seven years old, and we lived on Boudinot Street in Philadelphia, little row houses, I remember the house cost $6,000. I was knocking on doors for the March of Dimes, and there was a little old Jewish man, Narold, he's probably 10 years younger than me, who came to the door. He said, "I'm not giving you any money, you're going to take it home and spend it." I mean, it made such a horrible impression on me. I felt so sad for him, for me. Do you know that I've never raised money in my whole life? I have never asked anyone for money. So if I was going to do something, I made up my mind, no one was ever going to accuse me of that. That we would have to pay for it ourselves.

Harley Finkelstein (00:44:37):
Because that one experience.

Lynda Resnick (00:44:39):
Yeah, it was profound.

Harley Finkelstein (00:44:40):
It was profound. Sure.

Lynda Resnick (00:44:42):
I know. It seems silly, doesn't it?

Harley Finkelstein (00:44:43):
No, it doesn't seem silly. It actually, it seems profound. It seems like that gave you this desire to, "I'll just do it myself. I don't want to be accused of ever doing anything wrong with it."

Lynda Resnick (00:44:52):
Exactly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:44:53):
"Okay. I don't need your money. I'll figure it on my own."

Lynda Resnick (00:44:55):
Right.

David Segal (00:44:56):
It's motivating to be self-reliant.

Lynda Resnick (00:44:59):
Yeah. It feels clean.

Harley Finkelstein (00:45:01):
Yeah, it feels clean. And in terms of philanthropy, what are the major things that you care most about? What do you want to have an impact on, now that you can focus full-time on philanthropy?

Lynda Resnick (00:45:11):
Well, do we have time to talk about my epiphany?

Harley Finkelstein (00:45:14):
Of course.

David Segal (00:45:14):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:45:15):
All right. This is a great story, I think. Michael Sandel is a writer. Do you know who he is? Harvard professor, you should look him up, he's a genius. He did a series called Justice in America, he's written about meritocracy, was his last book. It was brilliant, listen to it or read it. Anyway, he's one of my mentors, and he was an Aspen at the Aspen Ideas Festival. You know I'm very involved in the Aspen Institute, and I thank them for really igniting my humanitarian spirit, I must say. That's where it took wings, where I figured out what to do. It's one thing to want to give back, we wrote checks, we did things, but I knew that eventually, I had to find the time to do it myself, to actually do the work.

(00:46:05):
Because I was very disappointed, you give 3 million here, 3 million there, and you never hear back. They don't call until they're... You know what it is. And you will know, trust me. So there was a dinner party at a girlfriend's house, and I said, "Do you mind if I bring Michael Sandel? He does a great lounge act." So he runs this great class at Harvard, 2,000 kids at Harvard Hall, and he'll talk about the ethics of life. So what would you do if a train was coming, and there was an enormous man on the tracks? There were five people that were going to die if that train advanced, and you could save their lives by pushing him over. I mean, easy things like that. So they said, "Great." And so after dinner, we had this great discussion, and eventually, it found its way to torture, because this was the summer of waterboarding, and how everyone was feeling. How do you feel about waterboarding? What do you think? Is torture ever fair? Would you support torture? The women were, "Torture's never fair. I'm not doing it. I'm not hurting anybody's kid, blah, blah, blah."

Harley Finkelstein (00:47:19):
The men said, "What if it's for a good cause?" kind of thing, right?

Lynda Resnick (00:47:22):
Exactly. Exactly. And he said, "Well, let me tell you a story. There was once a town that was so perfect. The birds chirped, the sky was blue, everyone had a happy marriage, beautiful children, and a great education. But there was one problem. Nobody ever talked about it, but somewhere in a deep, dark basement, a damp basement. There was a child, and that child was being abused every day, 24 hours a day. And if you ever mentioned it, they sent you away. Because the only way you could keep your perfect life was to allow that child to be tortured." I'm going to cry because it's... They Walked From Omelas is the story. When we got in the car that night, I said, "Well, I could never allow the child to be tortured ."

Harley Finkelstein (00:48:24):
No matter how perfect everything else was.

Lynda Resnick (00:48:26):
And Stewart said, "So what are you doing about it?" And that was it. My life changed in that second, and I realized I was doing nothing about it, and I better get off my ass and do something about it. And that's when my philanthropy started, and I guess it was what... I'm sorry, I'm getting so emotional. 2010, I started searching. Do I want to give to Africa? Do I want to give to the Middle East? Do I want to join my girlfriend, Jacqueline Novogratz with Acumen? What do I want to do? And someone said to me, "Why would you leave California and the Central Valley? That's where your workers are."

David Segal (00:49:06):
And that's what you did.

Lynda Resnick (00:49:07):
And that's what I did.

David Segal (00:49:08):
And what have you guys done that you're most proud of, with your workers in the Central Valley?

Lynda Resnick (00:49:12):
We have actually taken a town called Lost Hills, that was a lonely little forgotten... It's not even on a map, because it's unincorporated. So it gets no tax dollars, we're going back to 2010. Today, it's a thriving town. It has pre-K to high school graduation.

David Segal (00:49:39):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:49:39):
It never had a high school. It has free healthcare for all the students in the school, as well as their families. We built a bridge, so the kids wouldn't be killed on Highway 46, that is so exquisite, it's an architectural triumph. We have two community centers. We have two fabulous soccer fields. Our schools, we have two schools, one in Delano, one there, we give free healthcare. We give free healthcare to all of our employees. We see about 12,000 people a year. We've reduced pre-diabetes, 51% among our population. We give about 300 to 350 scholarships a year. We stay with our kids from preschool to college graduation. They have their coaches, their support team, their mental health support.

David Segal (00:50:34):
That's amazing.

Lynda Resnick (00:50:35):
We have psychiatrists and psychologists, psychiatric social workers at the plants, and also at the schools. We're reversing the cycle of poverty.

Harley Finkelstein (00:50:48):
Yeah. It sounds like you've taken an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy.

Lynda Resnick (00:50:52):
Exactly. It's business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:50:53):
You figured out, "How can I have the most impact as a..." And a lot of people don't do it though. They write a check and they let it go, hope for the best [inaudible 00:51:03] not doing that.

Lynda Resnick (00:51:04):
No, we were in-

Harley Finkelstein (00:51:04):
You were doing what Peter May would call intentional philanthropy,

David Segal (00:51:08):
Right. Touching every aspect of life from healthcare, education, to-

Lynda Resnick (00:51:11):
Well, what did I do? First of all, they didn't trust me, "Some broad from Beverly Hills, she really gets us, doesn't she?" So I come in and start focus groups, one after another, with the people that live there. "Tell me what you need. What do you want? What's wrong?" "No hope. No hope for my children. Crime, et cetera." Five years later, there's streetlights, there's streets, there's education. Crime is down 80%.

David Segal (00:51:42):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (00:51:43):
People say it's a tranquil lifestyle to live in Lost Hills today. So that's what happened. But I didn't know what to do. We did house-to-house surveys, training the people of Lost Hills how to go in and talk to their neighbors for 20 to 30 minutes about what their needs were. And that's how I knew to build the basketball court first, because the kids had to leave their lights on at night to play basketball. After being in a bus for two hours to go to high school.

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:15):
Right. Now they can go to school in their community. They have a basketball court that's lit up, that's safe.

Lynda Resnick (00:52:20):
Exactly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:20):
They can get back to their proper house using a bridge.

David Segal (00:52:23):
Work, learn, play, get healthcare. It's like you took the skills that you have building brands in doing that deep research to understand the customer and applied it to philanthropy,

Lynda Resnick (00:52:33):
It's exactly the same. It has to be run like a business.

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:37):
I do want to ask you something that we read about in your early days, Lynda, which was, I believe it's called The Campfire Girls, which are, I guess like Girl Guides.

Lynda Resnick (00:52:52):
Where'd you find that?

David Segal (00:52:52):
We got our sources.

Harley Finkelstein (00:52:52):
We did.

Lynda Resnick (00:52:54):
I have to really, I'm so impressed with the research you did. To dig up the Campfire Girls is really [inaudible 00:53:00].

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:00):
So I want to talk the Campfire girls, because you were rejected by the Campfire girls.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:05):
I was.

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:06):
And you were rejected because you were Jewish.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:09):
Exactly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:10):
I'm curious how... So the core mission and thesis of this project, of Big Shot, is to uncover these stories of incredible entrepreneurs like you and Stewart, but specifically, Jews make up. We're about 15 million people on the planet.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:31):
1.5% Of America. And we control the weather. Get on it, for God's sake.

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:40):
I agree.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:41):
I mean, obviously.

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:41):
I agree. We're not doing a very good job with the weather.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:42):
No, [inaudible 00:53:43].

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:42):
But I would say, we've had a disproportionate impact in business, in industry. 20% of Nobel Prize.

Lynda Resnick (00:53:48):
Of course. Nobel laureates.

Harley Finkelstein (00:53:48):
Yeah, it's unbelievable. So I'm curious, you being rejected from the Campfire Girls because you were Jewish, and the anti-Semitism you felt, how do you feel about that today? Has it carried with you?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:01):
What about when this girl came over to visit and she was feeling my head?

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:05):
For horns?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:06):
She said, "My mother said you have horns." I said, "I don't, but I have a tail, would you like to see it?"

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:10):
How old were you when that happened? You were a kid?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:12):
Same time.

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:13):
Same era?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:13):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:14):
Really?

David Segal (00:54:14):
How do you feel about that today, looking back on that? I mean, in many ways, [inaudible 00:54:20]-

Lynda Resnick (00:54:20):
I've numbed it a bit. I did become president of that class. I didn't take that rejection lying down, let me tell you. I became so adorable that they made me the president of their class. So I couldn't be in the Campfire Girls, but I was in the Girl Scouts.

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:35):
You were?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:35):
Yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:37):
What is the role that Jewish culture plays in your life, if any?

Lynda Resnick (00:54:41):
Oh my God. I mean, it's everything. My father was born in America, but he spoke Yiddish. We all speak Yiddish, because how can you express yourself if you don't?

Harley Finkelstein (00:54:53):
We all speak Bissel Yiddish.

Lynda Resnick (00:54:53):
You can't do it in your plenums, you both [inaudible 00:54:56]. Anyway. And I like going to Temple, I love Kabbalah, I've been involved in that on and off in my life. I mean, I like the principles of it, and I love Temple, but I don't go as often as I should.

Harley Finkelstein (00:55:12):
We are sort of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur guys. Three days a year is when we're there, and we feel guilty for not going more. But it's less about religion to us and more about culture. It's cultural to us.

Lynda Resnick (00:55:23):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:55:23):
It feels like it is-

Lynda Resnick (00:55:23):
I love the Jewish culture. Of course I do. And I think that when I had our research done in our family, that my father's family were Klezmer musicians, and everyone in my family is very musical except me.

Harley Finkelstein (00:55:39):
Amazing. Do you do Shabbos dinners? Is that something you-

Lynda Resnick (00:55:43):
I like the candles every Friday night. My mother didn't because my grandmother almost burned her house down lighting the candles one Friday night. But I took on the practice because I find it really soothing to let the light of Shabbat fill you and at least carry you through the week.

David Segal (00:55:58):
Right.

Harley Finkelstein (00:56:00):
That is a nice ritual.

David Segal (00:56:00):
It marks the end of-

Lynda Resnick (00:56:02):
I love that. Yeah.

David Segal (00:56:03):
There was a really interesting story. You, I believe, did some acting when you were young?

Lynda Resnick (00:56:09):
No, I started four. My father put me to work at four years old. I was on the Horn and Hardart Children's Hour.

David Segal (00:56:15):
Right. And you had a moment that taught you the value of preparation. Can you tell us that story?

Lynda Resnick (00:56:19):
So I started at four, I was washed up at nine. But-

Harley Finkelstein (00:56:24):
You were a washed up actor at nine.

Lynda Resnick (00:56:26):
I was a has-been. I mean, it was over. That's even more interesting, because I went to the principal and I said, "Mr. Warfer, you have to understand something. Mrs. Frankenford is just not smart enough to be my teacher." He said, "That's fascinating. I think your mother may want to hear about that. Let's call her." I went, "Mm." Anyway, so mother came and turned me over and gave me a spanking and said, "You're washed up in Hollywood, and that was it." So I wasn't on television anymore. But yeah, I forgot my lines. But my father was on the road, and he didn't give me the script until Saturday night. And I was a little girl, so I forgot my lines, but they made me go back on the horse.

Harley Finkelstein (00:57:05):
And that embarrassment, or that feeling of not being prepared, it feels like it carried with you.

Lynda Resnick (00:57:11):
Oh, I've been prepared ever since.

David Segal (00:57:11):
Ever since.

Harley Finkelstein (00:57:11):
You've been prepared ever since?

Lynda Resnick (00:57:12):
Yeah. I mean, there were long periods of time, most of my life, when I couldn't walk into a theater where there was a... I could walk into a movie theater, but never where there was a live performance.

Harley Finkelstein (00:57:22):
No Broadway or anything like that, you couldn't do that.

Lynda Resnick (00:57:24):
I couldn't do it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:57:24):
It just made you anxious?

Lynda Resnick (00:57:26):
Physically, because I worked in front of a huge live audience, as well as the camera. And so I would get physically ill, run a fever, start sweating, and really-

David Segal (00:57:37):
But when you had to run a big meeting, that didn't impact you?

Lynda Resnick (00:57:39):
No, not at all. But I've done a lot of public speaking in my life, because I was on the road all the time with Teleflora, going from Grapevine, Texas to God knows where. And I would do public speaking, and I would be very, very nervous. Very nervous. In the beginning, I would take a little shot of vodka. One time I took too much vodka, that wasn't pretty. And I'm not a drinker. I've never been a drinker.

Harley Finkelstein (00:58:06):
Except for some good wine sometimes.

Lynda Resnick (00:58:07):
No, I'm allergic. Exactly.

Harley Finkelstein (00:58:08):
And now you're allergic.

Lynda Resnick (00:58:09):
Yeah.

David Segal (00:58:09):
Looking back on your life and all these incredible, both hardships that you've had to overcome and then unbelievable successes, what would you tell a young Lynda Resnick listening to this right now?

Lynda Resnick (00:58:23):
Look, the world is pretty messed up. It's tragically messed up. I'm so worried about what my generation has left to you and your children. Do you have children yet?

David Segal (00:58:36):
Yes.

Harley Finkelstein (00:58:37):
We both do.

Lynda Resnick (00:58:38):
How many?

Harley Finkelstein (00:58:38):
I have two girls, and he has two girls and a boy.

David Segal (00:58:40):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (00:58:41):
Lovely.

Harley Finkelstein (00:58:41):
Yeah. They're wonderful.

Lynda Resnick (00:58:43):
Don't work for a company whose values you don't share. It will eat you up alive. Unless of course, you're not a good person, and then it won't matter. But if you really have character, and you really care about the future of humanity, do something that at least leaves the planet better than you found it.

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:03):
You talked about Stewart and your relationship, and you referred to him as, "I married John Wayne," I believe is the quote you used earlier. You guys have this amazing partnership. Marriage too, but we obviously, we went deep on the partnership. It is very rare for a couple to have such a incredibly strong business partnership as well as personal partnership. And you speak about him with such incredible love and respect, and-

Lynda Resnick (00:59:37):
I do?

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:38):
You do.

Lynda Resnick (00:59:39):
Oh, good.

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:39):
It's amazing. So we've been married 10 years, you've married 15 years, what's the secret? How have you and Stewart created this thing?

Lynda Resnick (00:59:48):
We really have passion. I hope that you don't go ick.

Harley Finkelstein (00:59:53):
No, not at all.

Lynda Resnick (00:59:55):
But we really dig each other still. We get each other, we dig each other, we think we're both adorable. But we fought like cats. And please don't work with your partner, your husband or wife. Don't ever do it. It's so hard.

Harley Finkelstein (01:00:10):
But yet you've built an empire.

Lynda Resnick (01:00:11):
You've worked so Well, yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (01:00:12):
I mean, you've built this incredible empire.

Lynda Resnick (01:00:14):
Well now you see a person sitting here, but it's very difficult, because someone has to be the boss.

Harley Finkelstein (01:00:21):
Yes. And was that the most difficult part, is knowing, given a decision-

Lynda Resnick (01:00:26):
Well, I had to fight for everything I wanted, to prove that I was right, or not, as it were. Until a certain point where I just, in 2000, I think I said, "Look, I'll come home and I'll work at the company." I mean, it took me 10 years to talk him into calling it Wonderful. But you need the yin and yang. You need that. Because if I got everything I wanted, we'd be bankrupt. And if he ran the company, it wouldn't have the marketing zest.

David Segal (01:00:57):
Yeah, it would personality... It would be lacking soul.

Lynda Resnick (01:00:59):
We'd still be commodities. It would be a totally different business. He would always be successful, I think I would always be successful, but the magic is the two of us together.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:08):
The combination.

Lynda Resnick (01:01:09):
Because what we always say is, when I say yes, I mean maybe. And when he says no, he means maybe. And so when you get that, then you know how to work with us.

David Segal (01:01:20):
Do you think you need some healthy conflict?

Lynda Resnick (01:01:22):
Absolutely. Otherwise, I can't imagine. But it hurts. It hurts to have the conflict.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:28):
Yeah, the pillow talk must be interesting when you're talking about bubbles.

Lynda Resnick (01:01:30):
No, we never took it home.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:31):
Okay, you never take it home.

David Segal (01:01:32):
Oh, interesting. Talk to us about it.

Lynda Resnick (01:01:33):
Never take it home.

David Segal (01:01:35):
So where did it end?

Lynda Resnick (01:01:36):
Because when you take it home, that's the end.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:38):
It's harder when you're working from home, I guess.

David Segal (01:01:40):
Well, nowadays, there is no... Exactly, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (01:01:42):
You know what I mean.

Harley Finkelstein (01:01:43):
Yeah, of course.

Lynda Resnick (01:01:43):
Don't bring it to your partner. If you work together, you got to let it go. Now we have thought about things at home.

David Segal (01:01:50):
So did you, when it was time to have dinner together, or did you have a certain minute-

Lynda Resnick (01:01:54):
Every night of our lives, that I can remember, unless we were going out to dinner, having a party, whatever, the two of us sit down to dinner with candlelight, every single night. And we ate with the children also, because that was sacred. And from 6:30 on, I'm his.

Harley Finkelstein (01:02:14):
And no business talk.

Lynda Resnick (01:02:16):
Oh, no. And no business, and no internet, and no anything.

Harley Finkelstein (01:02:19):
Wow.

Lynda Resnick (01:02:20):
I mean just, we usually have to watch television, but we play cards.

David Segal (01:02:25):
Sure.

Harley Finkelstein (01:02:25):
Yeah.

Lynda Resnick (01:02:25):
And I win, mostly.

David Segal (01:02:27):
That's remarkable.

Lynda Resnick (01:02:27):
I know.

David Segal (01:02:28):
Because running, I mean, you're running a lot of big businesses working seven days a week, but you had, this was sacred time for the two of you.

Lynda Resnick (01:02:34):
Sacred. Every night.

Harley Finkelstein (01:02:38):
When you think about your incredible empathy towards the consumer, you think about Fiji and POM and Wonderful and all these amazing businesses and brands you've built, do you think the tactics you used to build these companies are timeless, or is it changing now? Do consumers' preferences, have they evolved, or is it still the same stuff?

Lynda Resnick (01:02:58):
Well, there's a lot of shiny objects out there that are very exciting for a while. But what's going to last? Brand and brand integrity.

Harley Finkelstein (01:03:09):
What is a brand?

Lynda Resnick (01:03:10):
What is a brand? Something that personifies an idea that people relate to. I just thought of that, but I mean, that's what it means to me.

Harley Finkelstein (01:03:18):
No, it's beautiful. Beautifully said.

Lynda Resnick (01:03:23):
Tesla is a brand. Or is he the brand?

David Segal (01:03:27):
Right. And what's the idea that that's personifying?

Lynda Resnick (01:03:30):
Oh, I think innovation and Mars.

David Segal (01:03:34):
The idea of new frontiers.

Lynda Resnick (01:03:36):
No frontiers.

David Segal (01:03:37):
No frontiers, right.

Lynda Resnick (01:03:38):
No frontiers,

David Segal (01:03:39):
Right.

Lynda Resnick (01:03:39):
Yeah.

David Segal (01:03:39):
Interesting.

Lynda Resnick (01:03:41):
Or all frontiers, yeah.

Harley Finkelstein (01:03:42):
We did a lot of research, but we also used some AI to do some research on you that would find stuff in the bowels of the internet that we couldn't find ourselves. And we asked AI, it was Perplexity in this case, "What is Lynda Resnick's superpower?"

Lynda Resnick (01:04:02):
Oh. What'd they say?

Harley Finkelstein (01:04:03):
It said taste. Taste.

Lynda Resnick (01:04:08):
I love that.

Harley Finkelstein (01:04:09):
Me too. Beautiful. Beautifully said.

Lynda Resnick (01:04:12):
You've given me such a gift.

Harley Finkelstein (01:04:13):
Isn't that nice? Taste is what, of all the research that it's able to process in hyperreal time, taste is what it came up with. And David and I were like, "Okay, that's fascinating." We've done this a few times now. We've never got something so precise and eloquent like that. And then we started looking, so we went a step deeper and we said, "Well, where else can we learn about taste besides the products she built?" And there was this quote that I think you said, which was, "Hearts and minds over eyeballs." And I think when you marry this, your superpower of being taste, with this strategy philosophy around hearts and minds over eyeballs, what you end up with is things that matter that otherwise may not. That it's not just water, it's Fiji Water. And it's not just nuts, it's Wonderful. And it's pomegranate juice, and it's not just water. It's the best pomegranate juice.

(01:05:08):
And then we read this final quote, which was this, "If you want to make money, you have to give it away." And this idea that all of the things you've built, all the incredible success you have, has led to you deciding, four or five weeks ago, to retire, so you can give it all away. It's such a beautiful-

Lynda Resnick (01:05:28):
Can you imagine the phone calls?

Harley Finkelstein (01:05:31):
yes.

Lynda Resnick (01:05:31):
Can we not put this in there?

Harley Finkelstein (01:05:32):
Well, I'm going to have to. I assume you're pretty good at deciding what you work on. But, "If you want to make money, you have to give it away," is such a wonderful lesson to every entrepreneur, because for us, we're still in the midst of our careers, we're still building.

Lynda Resnick (01:05:45):
And you don't know what the future holds for you.

Harley Finkelstein (01:05:47):
We have no idea what it is. But when we see someone like you, Lynda, who is so incredibly successful, and so thoughtful, who has a superpower of taste, which is amazing, I mean, I believe you bought the rights to Mother's Day. I mean, that's an unbelievable story in itself.

David Segal (01:06:03):
Where do you even get that? How do you get the-

Harley Finkelstein (01:06:04):
Yeah, how do you buy the rights to Mother's Day?

David Segal (01:06:05):
Yeah, where do you go for that?

Lynda Resnick (01:06:06):
I mean, I just think of it. And I just-

Harley Finkelstein (01:06:08):
Like, "What do you own?" "I own-"

David Segal (01:06:10):
Mother's Day.

Harley Finkelstein (01:06:10):
"I own Mother's Day."

David Segal (01:06:12):
But who did you call?

Lynda Resnick (01:06:13):
No, no, I don't think we [inaudible 01:06:14] Mother's Day, but we did a big Mother's Day promotion.

Harley Finkelstein (01:06:17):
And you won a big award for that too.

Lynda Resnick (01:06:19):
No, the-

David Segal (01:06:19):
No, that was for the-

Lynda Resnick (01:06:20):
... Effie was for flowers into gift.

Harley Finkelstein (01:06:22):
Oh, okay. Got it.

David Segal (01:06:23):
But the Mother Mother's Day thing, I mean, you had this program, America's Best Mom, you bought the rights from someone to be able to do this. Who?

Lynda Resnick (01:06:32):
Yes. No, no, I think it was free. In those days, it wasn't like it is today.

David Segal (01:06:36):
You could just do it.

Lynda Resnick (01:06:38):
Yes. When you try to think of a name of a company today, everything you look up is a porn site. But in those days, it was much easier. That was 2008, I think. And it isn't what it is today.

David Segal (01:06:54):
And that was such a tremendous success for you guys, right?

Lynda Resnick (01:06:57):
Well, it was a success, because we sold, I don't know, over a million of those things. But the problem was the TV show. We were preempted by a golf tournament.

Harley Finkelstein (01:07:10):
What?

Lynda Resnick (01:07:11):
Don't even.

Harley Finkelstein (01:07:13):
I'm asking.

Lynda Resnick (01:07:14):
I have worked on this thing for over a year. I was not in my comfort zone doing television. I mean, I had a preconceived hatred of it, to tell you the truth. But I wanted to do the America's Favorite Mom and create all this hoopla around the country and so forth. Everything was brilliant. Until the TV show was preempted by a golf game. I've never seen people walk so slow to pick up their trophies than they did. And it was horrible. I was crying, and Ben Silverman's on the phone, "I can't help you." "What do you mean you can't help me?" He was the head of [inaudible 01:07:48].

David Segal (01:07:48):
You mean the golf tournament was on before-

Harley Finkelstein (01:07:51):
Yes.

Lynda Resnick (01:07:51):
And they-

Harley Finkelstein (01:07:51):
And they extended it.

David Segal (01:07:51):
And they dragged it on.

Lynda Resnick (01:07:54):
It missed the whole show.

David Segal (01:07:56):
Oh, my. And months and months, if not years, of preparation.

Lynda Resnick (01:07:59):
Years.

David Segal (01:07:59):
Years.

Lynda Resnick (01:08:01):
We had to work 18 months ahead for products. Because we had to sell them months before the event, so they could be stocked, so that they would be there when the people went to buy the flowers for Mother's Day. So our lead time was 18 to 24 months.

David Segal (01:08:18):
So what did you do in that period? How did you make the most of it?

Lynda Resnick (01:08:20):
Well, it is what it is. It was what it was. But it would've been much bigger if we... We were on the Today Show with the winners and blah, blah, blah. It was like the mountain market got it or something. It was sad. But the first double truck I ever did in my life, in Women's Wear Daily, was the day that Kennedy was assassinated. I named my first child after him, John Kennedy.

David Segal (01:08:49):
John, yeah.

Lynda Resnick (01:08:49):
Yeah. But stuff happens. The world is fragile.

Harley Finkelstein (01:08:54):
And you keep going.

Lynda Resnick (01:08:55):
You Keep going. Ups and downs.

Harley Finkelstein (01:08:58):
You don't seem like someone that regrets a lot. But is there something that you would've done differently knowing everything now? Someone who's watching who wants to be Lynda Resnick in the future, what would you tell them? What's the advice you'd give them?

Lynda Resnick (01:09:12):
Oh, there's many things, and then nothing, because I'm fatalistic about it, that we are the sum of our parts. We're a mosaic. We're not a clear picture. We're made up of tiny, tiny, little shiny objects. And you put them all together and it makes us. And so if you take one out, what happens? So yes-

Harley Finkelstein (01:09:35):
You need to have all those ups and the downs to have the final result.

Lynda Resnick (01:09:40):
Yeah, kind of. I mean, if Jonathan didn't need me so much, maybe I wouldn't have the love of children that I have and the humanitarian feeling I have about saving all the children. That sort of thing. We are the sum of our parts, and we should embrace them if we can.

David Segal (01:10:04):
Wow. Lynda, Harley loves to say that we stand on the shoulders of giants. And you are one of those giants. You've inspired not only us, but many, many people without even knowing it. And we can't thank you enough.

Harley Finkelstein (01:10:18):
Without even knowing it.

David Segal (01:10:19):
We can't thank you enough for doing this today, and I know that a lot of people are going to get a lot of meaning out of your story.

Harley Finkelstein (01:10:24):
And I know you think you're not a big shot, and I know you like to say, "I'm not a big shot," and that's fine. But David and I get a chance to meet with a lot of incredible entrepreneurs, and you're at the top of the list in terms of most impressive we've ever sat down with, and we're so grateful for your time.

David Segal (01:10:38):
Thank you so much.

Lynda Resnick (01:10:39):
Really? Thank you.

David Segal (01:10:40):
Yeah. Thank you.

Lynda Resnick (01:10:40):
Thank you. What a gift you gave me. I believe that taste is my unique selling proposition. I really do. I'm such a visual person.

Harley Finkelstein (01:10:51):
It is obvious. But it's so interesting that after processing more information than a human can process, an algorithm, a very smart algorithm, is able to come up with that. I mean, that is true objective research. It isn't me saying, "I think she's," this is a third party large language model.

David Segal (01:11:11):
Non-biased model.

Harley Finkelstein (01:11:11):
Non-biased large language model.

Lynda Resnick (01:11:13):
Anyway, I loved meeting you. You're adorable. Why wouldn't I?

Harley Finkelstein (01:11:16):
Thank you so much.

Lynda Resnick (01:11:16):
I have your undivided attention, you're talking to me. You're both so attractive and smart.

David Segal (01:11:22):
Oh, go on. Thank you.

Harley Finkelstein (01:11:23):
You too kind. Thank you so much.

Lynda Resnick (01:11:24):
All right.

David Segal (01:11:25):
Hope this was fun for you too.

Lynda Resnick (01:11:26):
Oh, I had a ball, are you kidding? Talking about myself, it was great.

David Segal (01:11:29):
Fantastic.

Harley Finkelstein (01:11:30):
Fantastic.