Business Innovators Radio - Tessa Greenspan: “From Outhouse to Penthouse” – An Inspiring Story of Triumph

Episode Date: June 17, 2024

In this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Tessa Greenspan, a successful entrepreneur, business expert, and author of the book “From Outhouse to Penthouse” – which is soon to be adapted into a movie.Tessa’s story is truly inspiring. Despite humble beginnings and immense challenges, Tessa has achieved extraordinary success through grit, determination, and an unwavering positive mindset. Born to a teenage mother who had been raped, Tessa grew up in poverty without running water or electricity. Yet, she refused to see herself as a victim, instead deciding at a young age that she would become “so strong, so cute, so smart that no one could ever ignore me again.”During the interview, Tessa shares key insights into the attributes and strategies that contributed to her success. From an early age, she learned valuable entrepreneurial skills like sewing, selling produce from a bread truck, and running a small grocery store. Tessa’s creative problem-solving abilities shone through, whether it was designing an engaging toy train display to attract families, sourcing hard-to-find Bosnian foods, or setting up a profit-sharing plan to motivate her 80 employees.This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking inspiration and practical business advice. Tessa’s remarkable resilience and innovative mindset provide invaluable lessons that can be applied to entrepreneurship, career growth, and personal development. Whether you’re an aspiring business owner, a seasoned professional, or simply someone looking to live life to the fullest, Tessa’s story will motivate you to embrace your challenges, tap into your creativity, and become the “victor” in your own life.Listeners will also be excited to hear about the upcoming movie adaptation of Tessa’s book. As she shares, finding the right producer who is truly passionate about bringing her story to the screen has been a journey in itself. Tessa is eager to connect with individuals who can help make this vision a reality, as she believes the movie will inspire and empower countless people.To learn more about Tessa Greenspan and her incredible story, visit her website at TessaGreenspan.com or reach out to her directly at [e-mail]. Be sure to also follow her on social media, where she shares valuable business insights and updates on the movie project. Get ready to be inspired and empowered by Tessa’s remarkable journey from “Outhouse to Penthouse.”[e-mail]: facebook.com/Tessa Greenspan Love is in bannerLinkedIn: https:/:linkedin.com/in/TessaGreenspanInstagram: Tessa.greenspan/officialSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/tessa-greenspan-from-outhouse-to-penthouse-an-inspiring-story-of-triumph

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and I'm really excited about today's guest. She is truly inspiring. Her name is Tessa Greenspan, and she is a successful entrepreneur, business expert, and author of the book, soon to be movie from the outhouse to penthouse. It will soon be adapted, like I said, into a movie. And even though Tess's journey was very humble, very humble beginnings, she has an extraordinary story to share, and she'll be doing that with us today. So I'm going to ask her to share some of her insights into business, health, and how to live. live at your peak potential throughout your life. Welcome, Tess. Thank you so much. I'm honored to be

on your show too, by the way. Thank you. So Tessa, your story from outhouse to penthouse, great name. It's so incredibly inspiring. Can you share with our listeners some of the key attributes that you believe really contributed to your success? Yeah. Can I start at the beginning? Yes, please do. Well, that really is always a place to start so that anyone can know where I came from. And it doesn't matter where you came from. It's where you decided to go, by the way. So my mother, I have to talk about my mother because this is really, the book was to honor her.

And I'm the reason. She's the reason that I'm the way I am. She was from the back hills, Warkinsaw, her father was a sharecropper. She was one of seven kids. Her mother died when she was five, and then her father remarried another one, another woman with three kids. Now, they lived in a shack,

two bedrooms, one long room where they ate with an outhouse, hard dirt floor, no electricity, and no running water. So that's where she began. So every year, they would go, to this picnic area after the crops were in and just meet other neighbors in the area.

They only saw them once a year. She met this cute boy at the picnic and they were walking and talking. It was by a woods and they walked a long way. He pulled her in the woods and raped her. He told her if she told anyone he would come and kill her family. She was traumatized. She was 14 years old. She was traumatized, so she didn't tell anyone.

And her stepmother saw when she was about six months along that she was pregnant. And she wanted her to have an abortion from this back country doctor. And she refused. This was a girl that had nowhere to go, no one to depend on, no one to talk to, but she refused. Well, I am the product of that rape, and I was born in that shack with a hard dirt floor, no electricity, no running water in an outhouse-out bag. Now, she married a man that was going into the service. She had another little girl two and a half years later, and he was in the service. Well, this was in Arkansas.

This was the back hills of Arkansas. So when he went in the service, we went to East St. Louis, Illinois, which was a city, and she worked as a waitress. We were visiting my grandparents, my sister and I in Arkansas. She was two and a half, and I was four and a half. And the father, who I thought was my father, came in. He brought my sister a da and a pearl necklace and nothing for me. I thought, what's wrong with me? I went into the kitchen and an aunt said to me,

Honey, don't you worry? That's not your daddy anyway. How do you process that when you're four and a half years old? And I'm telling you this story because that was the moment that changed my life. I decided at that moment I am going to be so strong, so cute, so smart that no one could ever ignore me again. And I became an over-achiever, even at a very young age. Well, fast forward a little bit. bit, not long. We were visiting my grandparents again in Arkansas. My mother was working as a waitress. Her co-worker said that he was driving into his relatives and he would drive her. On the way,

they had a huge concrete apartment, crushed her from the waist down. They had to cut her out of the car. Now, at this time, she was 20 years old. She was in the hospital. Every bone in her body, by the way, from her waist down, was crushed. She was in the hospital for 13 months. After 12 months, gangrene sat in her left leg. And the psychiatrist came in to tell her that they were going to have to amputate her leg, 20 years old. She said, do what do you have to do.

I have to get out of here. I have two little girls to raise. Now, this is the kind of person that was my role model, and that's really why. I was able and have been able to achieve so much because I had this phenomenal strong role model that never felt sorry for herself. Never complained. It was just amazing. She got out of the hospital. She had two kids, one leg, and no money.

We were on welfare in East St. Louis, Illinois. She did not want to be on welfare. You know, it takes about a year for amputee to heal in order to be fitted for, prosthesis. She found a government program to taught people different skills. She went to school on a bus, on crutches with one leg for over a year learning to be a secretary in office. We got out of, we got off of welfare. So this, and I'm telling these things for the simple reason that it's, I feel so blessed because I had a person, a mother who loved me unconditionally, and nothing was going to stop her no matter what.

Fast forward, she always said, you can be a victor or a victim. And there's many things that I did and learned, really, from 10 years old, I learned to, I wanted clothes. So I learned to sew. Neighbors told me how to sell. I went to Salvation Army, spent 10 cents, got two outfits, and took them apart and made some really cute clothes. So that was my determination. And it was because of her. So fast forward, eventually I grew up and got married and I had two children.

I'm going to stop for just a minute, though, and say, you can be a victim or a victor. You choose, and that was from my mother. My sister was poor me. She was a victim. She said, you know, we didn't have or whatever. I was going to find a way no matter what happened. no matter what, I was going to find a way to succeed in what I wanted to do. And I will tell you eventually what happened to her. Just think about it, though. If you're in the same house,

and I've asked many psychiatrists, what makes one person thrive in another not? And most said, it's resilience. It is resilience. But it's also a decision that we make. And I don't know why I did, but I want to tell everyone that it really is the decisions that you make in your life. And many times you're a little bit older than four and a half, but maybe 12 or whatever. When you have something all the time, you're going to always then be this way or you're never going to be this way or one or the other. It's decisions that you make, and sometimes it's subconsciously that you're always going to be this way or you're never going to be that way. I decided I was going to be smart, cute, successful, all of this and an overachiever. And my sister decided for me, I didn't have anything.

And so she actually became an alcoholic and then her drug addict. It's the choices that we make. And I'm not blaming her. You know, it's really she saw life differently than I did. As I said, fast forward, I always tried to help my daughter. I got married, had two children. My husband and I had a small store, mostly fruit and produce. And we service a lot of peddlers, men who would come and pick up produce.

We had a huge refrigerated place in the back of our store, and we would provide the produce for these men to go sell. These men made a lot of money. And so I was looking around for something to really. really help my mother to give her a little extra and to help my sister get an apartment. And I didn't want to take away from my family. And I was looking for something extra to do. And I saw all of these men coming back making a lot of money. And I said, I can do that.

I bought a big bread truck. I rented a gravel lot in Ponteen Beach, Illinois at 11-162, made an a frame black and put special of the day, picked up the produce every day, and I was in business. I made a lot of money, more than most men could. Now, I did work seven days a week for nine months of the year. I did that for five years, and it's where I learned so much about people, how to market, how to do all of these different things. And it was the first thing I did by myself. which gave me confidence. I did this for five years.

Do you have a question? Yeah, I'm thinking about your business, all of that business acumen and how you developed it. And so can you talk about the practical tips about how you did develop that business? I can. I think it's probably,

would be more helpful for me to tell about the store that I bought, which it was really learning on the fly, the fruit stand, I mean, the produce stand. It was really great information. And one of the things I feel strongly about is that customer service is the best thing. Being friendly, going above and beyond is really a good thing, awesome. So I think I have a lot more tips when I bought the store. When I closed the fruit stand, I decided I wanted to have a store. And I found two partners in Bellevall who had a chain of stores in Belva, Illinois, and asked them if they would like to partner with me in a store in St. Louis. And they did. And our agreement was that they would run the store because they had more experience in the grocery store itself.

And this is something that I take responsibility for. I was not watching. I was not paying attention. After about four years, they wanted a meeting. They handed me the keys and said they were declaring bankruptcy. They had sold the stores. The man defaulted. And there were a lot of major other problems.

This was traumatizing, really traumatizing. really traumatizing. And so I didn't know what to do. So I had a lawyer, and most people wanted me to declare bankruptcy. I wasn't going to do it. I knew all of these vendors, first of all, and I decided I was going to give it my best to turn the store around. When I got into the books, I saw how they'd done it.

They had gotten one vendor and went as far as they could go and then switched to another and then had all of these vendors. I was left with a million dollars in debt in today's money. And I can tell you, and this is another really important thing for your audience, and that was it was eating me up, that I had been betrayed, all of these things. It was really important that I forgave them. Doesn't mean I forgot it, never saw them again, ever. and it was really important for me to clear my mind of that

because it was important for me to use every ounce of energy I had to turning the store around. By the grace of God, little by little, in years, I was eventually able to pay that amount of money off. It took a lot, and I did, and I'm really grateful. So many things I'm grateful for now. I built that business. It was a small store, and it was really doing successful.

And I then decided I was going to open a store three times the size because the people would just go around and around. There was no more place to park even. And it was just too small. So I opened a second store three times the size as the first. And this is where I have a lot of really great suggestions for your audience on the business tips. I didn't realize that I was creative until after the fact, actually. I designed the store and my goal was always to have a toy train. I wanted to really market to families with children.

I had a toy train that went around the entire store over the shelving. And each day, it was big, a G-Gauge train. The kids loved it. The mothers loved it because the kids wanted to come to this grocery store. And most kids don't want to do them. I would make a sign every day, and this is a creativity part here. Every day, I would make the sign. There was a flat car.

It was G-gauge, which was the biggest toy train you could get in. And I would put the special of the day. Well, the mothers always had to go around the entire store because the kids wanted to see it. And they saw the special of the day. And there were a lot, and there's a lot of tips in the book. There's really so many things. When you find a need, this is what I say, find a need and fill it. Find what people want.

Another example is there were a lot of Bosians that came to St. Louis. I thought, if I could bring something from their homeland, it would make them feel welcome. So I found an exporter in New York, and I brought in a palette of mixed Bosnian food. I then advertised in their little Bosnian newspaper, and I was in business with the Bosnians. Little by little, the aisle grew until it was like a four-foot, not even a four-foot. foot section to a 16-foot aisle of Bosnian food. Then I found out that they loved Kubanella peppers, which was not available in St. Louis. They're like a green, long, a light green long pepper that the Bosnians loved. I had a farmer who then grew the Kubanella peppers for me.

And I sold them by the case. They absolutely loved it. So this is like finding a new. need and filling it. It's just being aware. And this is where I like to encourage everyone. It's being aware. There are several other things that I think would be really helpful to people. And one, and I'm doing all the talking, by the way, you want to ask me any questions? Well, I was just listening to everything that you were saying. And like you said, you're giving some really good creative business tips. And it's interesting to me, because a lot of the things you're talking about, even though they were happening in a brick and mortar situation, you can still apply them today in both brick and mortar and then also online

because what you're talking about are really practical and it's interesting that you were aware of who your customers were. And your customers could be. And even though you said, okay, I'm just this very small group of people, but you did all the right things. Like you found out, well, what do they want to? What would they buy from me? Then you promoted it in places where they congregated.

And if you look at that, it's the same thing that you tell people today about where are your customers. where are they looking for things. And your examples are right on target. It's just, you know, in the time you were doing it, like the Bosnian newspaper, well, that might be today a Facebook group where you might be sharing things. So I find that's great. So I'm letting you give all these great tips. And then I definitely want you to talk about.

this movie that's going to be happening. So if you can give a few more tips and then go ahead and talk about the movie, I'd really appreciate it. Okay. One of the other things I say, well, there's several other things that are creative that I would like to share because it doesn't matter what business you're in,

whether you're a CPA firm or whatever kind of business, you can take from what I am suggesting and put it towards what your business is. And there are many ways to do it. When I designed the second store, I had a wishing well built. And I decided that I was going to have a nonprofit every single month and whatever money is from their friends that was put into the wishing well, I would match up to $400. This works so well. I talked to the, I mean, this was the agreement that I stipulated that you put it in your newsletter saying that you can donate money and no, you know, no sale is requested or required.

Then I, at the end of it, I had this huge write-off check that I would take a photo with the agreement. executive director. I got more, and it was just, I was just doing it because I felt strongly about it. It was so amazing. I got more publicity from that than anything. So, I mean, every single month, a different organization, you can imagine how much publicity there was. I mean, it was really, we were, I was a community store.

We had different events, different things going on. people would come and they would just love to just visit the store because there was always something going on. And that's created also. It's really important. Charity is good for business. It's good for your soul also. Don't just do it picking something out of thin air. Do something that you feel passionate about because then you really will get into it too, whether it be can drives, different events, different, you know, fundraisers, whatever, it really would be a good thing. Charity is great. One of the other things that I did is that I had cheese and I could not compete with the chain stores.

So I was racking my brain, what can I do? So I found a cheesemaker in Wisconsin and my manager and I went and I made a deal that they'd would send me 3,000 pounds a month, and then I built this room for girls who did nothing but cut rapid size. I was able to cheese, and there were like 200 kinds. I was able to sell cheese two, three, four, five dollars a pound less than the chain store. Because the packaging, when you come, when the packaging really adds so much to the cost of anything. So that was another. So there's, There's many things that I didn't know was creative. I was just wanting to survive and finding ways.

And I found, I discovered that I was very creative in a lot of different ways that I didn't realize it first. So I'm really blessed. There were so many other things and people can read the book if they lie. But it's really, it was fun too. I had 80 employees. I loved, loved the people. my employees. And I say also to people in business, treat your employees as if they're your most valued customer because they are. They're the front people usually that represent your company.

And it's really important. One of the other things I did is I set up a profit sharing claim because I wanted everyone to feel really that they're part of this. So there's little tips that I think are really valuable for listening audiences. I agree. And like you said, all of those things, when you realize the value of those employees, because they are the people out there every single day, it can make or break your business. Yes. Sorry about that.

But I love the cheese idea. Because so you actually went to Wisconsin, found a lot. to Cheesemaker. They were able to make 200 different cheeses that you were able to buy in bulk and then you had the employees cut down and package them up so that. Right. But I just the idea of 200 different cheeses, I don't think local grocery stores even carry that many cheeses. I don't know. They don't. And there was there was some that I had to get from other places. But the major bulk was from the cheesemaker in Wisconsin. Yeah, that's really phenomenal because I know in just the local grocery store I go to,

there's probably, it's probably 12 feet of different cheese. But I noticed that there's maybe five brands, you know, and a store brand is normally the one that is the least expensive of all of those and everything. But yeah, the tips you're giving. So in your book, you are actually giving all these fabulous creative business. And just the few that you've talked about, I mean, you know, in my mind, you could easily, again, apply any of this to today. And, you know, with a unique product that you could either sell physically in a brick and mortar or, of course, go online. line. That's true. So that is pretty phenomenal. So yeah, tell me more about your movie and how that's

coming together and how that happened. Well, it happened because so many people said, this is so good. It needs to be a movie. I mean, I heard that so many times. And I thought, and I knew, I knew it was going to be a movie. My goal is to inspire, to encourage. for people to know they're worthy. And it doesn't matter where you come from. It just is where you decide you're going. And I really want to encourage, and it's really inspiring. And a movie will inspire many, many people.

And this was really my goal then. Well, I had a person come to me and wanted to make it, a producer, and COVID hit. and that really killed everything. And then there was a writer's strike, and then there was an actress strike. So there's been a lot of different kinds of things. And then there was another person that wanted it, but wanted to do it.

But he wasn't tapped into it. My goal is that the person that makes it, it's really important for them to be passionate about it, for them to want to make a difference too, and that it be the best movie they can possibly have. So that didn't work because I really didn't feel that they were sincere. And so actually now I am really wanting or desiring that people suggest persons or introduce me to someone. The screenplay has been written and they may want to rewrite it or reframe it, which is okay.

Though I know without any shadow of a doubt. And there are some feelers. I would really like the introductions and for people, even for producers to come to me and read the book and see for themselves. And if they want the screenplay, I can send that to them also. So I know, and visualization and knowing without any shadow of a doubt is really an important thing for everyone to know if they want to go into a business, to know, to see this, to see every single thing. in their mind of exactly how it's working out. And I know in my mind exactly how it's working out, which is, you know, I know without any shadow of doubt it will.

My hand is getting tired from holding this. It's dying. My hand is getting numb. So anyway, I love my life. For example, Netflix, there's a lot of movie production companies. that produced for Netflix, and Netflix is now one of the biggest places where movies are found, and even on Amazon. But Netflix, it seems to be one of the most popular places,

and there's always new movies coming out with that. So if I want to give you an opportunity just to give me some final information. here. How can somebody, if they want to reach out to you in any way, what's the best way to do that? Well, there are two ways. One, they can go to my website, which is tessa greenspan.com, and there's places to put. And they can email me. Actually, probably the best one is Tesla 2525 at gmail.com. And they can just put in the subject line, heard you have some advice or whatever. or want advice. By the way, I feel I love business, by the way, love, love business. I mentor a lot of people and I'm developing a branding that I will be mentoring high-end CEOs because they don't have anyone to talk to. And I've been really successful in mentoring a lot of

people that have really knocked it out of the park with their business after this. And so I feel that I have a gift of encouraging, inspiring, and knowing quite a bit after many years of frown air in many areas. So, but Tesla 2525 at Gmail.com or Tesla Greenspan.com. Or anyone can go on my Facebook. Love is in the banner. I've started putting the things on Instagram, but I also have a LinkedIn account. So I have a lot of places that people can contact me.

Okay, so TessaGreenspan.com or TessaGreenspan 2525 at gmail.com? No, just just Tessa 2525. Just 2525. Okay, sorry about that. So, so it's just got such a wide variety. Eddie, where is your book available? Is it available on Amazon? Amazon.

Yes, Amazon. It's just on Amazon right now. Okay. So you can go to Amazon and find Tesla Greenspan's book from outhouse to penthouse. It was amazing that when you were describing what happened to your mother and that I could actually see all of that in my mind, you know, as if it were a movie. So obviously it does get itself to something visual. And then like you said, the very fact that your mother said it, you can either be a victim or a victor.

And that's exactly. And I think that people need to think about that not only in their business life, but in their personal life, because you make choices. You said that. And all of the choices you made and then that creative entrepreneurship of taking that, you know, a million dollars in debt to rising up and creating the store with, you know, where you have 80 employees and that people were just clamoring to get there. You mentioned before we started that you're being honored.

in the St. Louis area? Can you tell me about this? And I'm really grateful. I have a lot of boards. I was the woman, the woman grocer of the year nationwide. And I had one store at that time. So I just, this month, a small business monthly in St. Louis, there are seven people that have, that are in the Hall of Fame. So St. Louis Entrepreneurial Hall of Fame, I'm one of seven people who are, in this Hall of Fame. Well, congratulations on that. So before I let you go, do you have any final words for the audience? No, I just want everyone to know, to be creative, and nothing is out of the box, just have fun with it, too. You know, if you're not having any fun, you really shouldn't be doing it because, really, life can be hard. I love life. I am so grateful. Absolutely love life. And my goal is to make a difference in many people's lives. If you've learned something, also, I feel that it's really good to mentor or to coach or do whatever to help those that haven't gotten to that point.

So it's really important to help, you know. Have you had a kind of show on? Pass it on. Good advice. So everyone, Tessa Greenspan.com. Reach out to her, read her book from outhouse to Penthouse to Penthouse. And again, just in the short time we've been talking, she's really dropped some golden information.

So I suggest you go back and listen to the interview again, take notes and get all the gold that Tessa Greenspan has given us. Go make it a great day. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovators radio.com today.