YouSaid · the spoken record

Steve Madden

lines on the record: 70
first: 2019-12-23
most recent: 2019-12-23
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Let me just say that mistakes can be a very good thing. Know, so there were some mistakes that we made, but we did so many great things. And the thing about that is if you start getting gun shy, And start being afraid to make a mistake, you'll never have the brilliant ideas. You'll never have the big ideas. You know, if you just try to hit the safe ones, you know, then you're doomed, I feel like. So you need to make mistakes. You need to make mistakes. You need to goof because if you're not goofing a few times, it means you're not reaching.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think a lot of it is luck. I do. I think my own sort of philosophy is that the window of opportunity Opens for you several times in life. For one, and I think the intelligence comes from knowing when that window is open and being able to jump through that window. Because you could have all the talent in the world, but sometimes the window is just not open.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm acknowledged by a lot of people probably too much. You know, young men coming up really know and identify with the struggle and the grind and what I've done. So I think there's a different kind of respect going on. Not what I had thought, but another kind of respect. And I feel it all the time. You know, I'm walking down the street and people shout out to me. And, you know, it's the real thing.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Buy Manola Blanc. I always say it's a gateway drug of shoes. Steve Madden, they're not buying Lou Vuittons and Manolos without starting with Steve Madden. So, Manola should give me tons of love for that. I reach much, many more people than him.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They won't I'm not allowed in the building. So, you know, and they would say, well, you copy, you know, Balanciaga or whatever it is, whenever And we definitely are aware of expensive shoes that are out there, you know, but I mean,”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“CFDA, it's something for designers. The FDA. Very, very posh. And they put Puffy in there. And I thought to myself, Puffy, he's not, what does he have to do”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it bugged me. It bugged me a lot. You know, or I would go into a high-end department store like a Barney's, let's say, and they wouldn't carry Steve Madden. They wouldn't dare carry Steve Madden. But all the people working in the store wore Steve Madden. Would you drive me crazy? Yeah. That happened so many times. And still to this day, there's a bit of that going on. It's frustrating.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no. I look like a garage mechanic some days. On that runway. Yeah, I wear t shirts and jeans. I'm very lucky. I don't take that for granted. I'm blessed that I'm the ability to wear... A nice clean t shirt every day.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, we have a factory in Long Island City's just outside the East River in Manhattan. But I'm always fiddling with shoes and thinking about shoes. Of course, I have a great team that does most of the work and I take most of the credit now.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, the money is the money, but it's something I think about a great deal because I feel so good. If I have had a great day at work, Where I'm inspiring and inspired at the same time is such an amazing feeling. There's no amount of money that can replicate that. So, I guess that's what I want. Inspire and be inspired.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, it's a heavy question. It really is. But of course, it's a luxury that people with money have to be able to talk about this stuff. You know, there's somebody out there that will listen to this and, you know, they've got to pay their rent next Friday and they'll say, well, listen to this idiot talking about it. And I agree with them. It does get lost.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, okay, that's a good. These are great questions. And I want to ask other entrepreneurs or other people. So how do you stay motivated? You know, let's say you've got. Know a few dollars in the bank, and you know that the rent is paid and all of that. And so what keeps you going?”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually, that's an eternal. I grapple with that all the time. So I love the idea of making shoes and the people want to buy. And I love seeing my shoes being worn. And I just love all of it. And I love making money. Let me be clear about that. I love it. I love the whole thing.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So Argal was to make great shoes. And, you know, I think that that kind of like won out at the end of the day. The marketing wasn't super fantastic. It was just great shoes, great prices, great value. And I think that we just wore everybody out with that. More people were giving us their open to buy and we opened more stores and our internet business exploded. But the big thing about Steve Madden, I have to say, and I've said this many times, was the people at Steve Madden, is that I've hired so many great people. It starts with recognizing my own limitations. I'm weak at that. So let me get somebody that can do that for me. And, you know, that's really the story. It's people.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, everybody, you live and breathe it, and then you could be a CEO because you touch everything. But then a business, you know, once a business gets past a certain point, it's impossible for someone like me to do that job.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The same position I'm in today, which is the founder. which is the chief cheerleader. Have fabulous people running Steve Madden. I wasn't a great CEO.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a transition period you go into a halfway house, but I was fortunate because I had a job. I came right back to work. So it was an amazing time”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I just can't remember. It was so blur. There was so much coming at me. You know, when you're locked up after 30 months. Everything is like amazing, like a slice of pizza is like, oh my God, like this is the greatest thing ever.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, that's such an interesting question because. I don't really Is a bit of a blur. I think of it now. I thought about that day when I was away for so long, what it was going to be like. And I can't remember it now. I really can. My wife picked me up”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, particularly the African American experience really touched me. And young men dealing drugs, getting huge sentences, unfair drug laws that really were biased against black people. So that was, you know, to see problems in those communities, to talk to young black men and... It's a very complicated. Issue, I mean, yeah. I just think I'll give you an example there's a little thing when I grew up I went to grade school in the 60s right we learned that Robert E. Lee was a kindly gentleman he was called a hero like he defended his homeland of Virginia And that's just complete racism. But we didn't realize that it's this subtle form of racism. So that's the kind of thing that those kind of feelings or stuff that came up imprisoned, that kind of thing. Thy learnt and read more about it.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's exactly right. I'm a very big believer in destiny and your path and all that corny stuff. I just believe it viscerally. So, I'm so grateful for my life after prison. I married a great girl. I had great kids. I don't know that I would have had children had I not gone to prison. So, I regret some of my choices, you know, shortcuts that I took or thinking that money was the most important thing. I regret decisions like that. But I don't regret a day in prison. It was an amazing experience. It was very painful. I mean, the only thing I can, I've tried to describe it to people. Your heart gets broke every day. You're in prison, your heart breaks every day. The living in prison part is not as terrible as one might think. Your heart's breaking because you're not with the people you love. That's the difficult part of prison.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But I quickly ascertained early on that whining and moaning would not do me any good and running around saying I was innocent would not do me any good. So I would try to get through this, try to better myself, if it sounds corny, but exercise and read and learn. that kind of thing. And so I did.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, my first night I looked up at the ceiling and I said, how the heck am I going to do this? How am I going to get through this?”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Oh, sure. Yeah, I had made such a success in the shoe business, and I was a bit of a rebel, so now people are going, aha, see? That's what happens when you do that.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, pretty much. You know, I thought I could have, my goose was cooked. But I did have the sense that I could get through it.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that's a very heavy question. How one gets fulfilled? I'm still grappling with that today, you know? So there are moments where I'm very fulfilled, you know, and there are moments when I'm not. I was raised to think that money was everything. Money is the center of the universe. And if that's what your core belief is, you know, you'll do anything and you'll break the law. You know, money is like a drug, you know. We got in trouble”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Ultimately illegal. Why? If you already have the creativity in the business, no, because you just. Just get caught up. You just get caught up in this thing.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Making that much money is certainly thrilling. For sure. I wish that I hadn't done it. But you know, more than wishing I hadn't done it because that's sort of an empty thing to say. I wish that I didn't feel compelled to do it. I wish that I didn't have that feeling that money was everything because it's not. It's not everything. So I was greedy and foolish.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Other deals, they brought me into other deals. So I lied to myself. You know, everybody's doing it, you know, like that. But I knew in my heart. It was illegal and it was wrong.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I knew it was too good to be true. I knew it. So we know I lied to myself. And I told myself that it was a gray area, you know, the trading in these stocks and the flipping they would sell me the stocks and I would sell them back to them.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we used it. I took it and in a very short period of time from a half a million bucks, I was doing 40 million a year or 50 million a year.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They were totally manipulated the stocks they went up. And it was a classic pump and dump. Only Steve Madden was a real company. So, if you kept that stock, you would make on that day. Yeah.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I want to just to digress for a moment. because People listening to this budding entrepreneurs. I'm not one of those entrepreneurs that thought he was going to be super successful. You know, I was just trying to survive. And I'm very negative and very pessimistic. Unlike maybe some of the guys that you've done, you know, the shows. Yeah, totally. I'm sure they think that they're going to be getting...”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then I started talking about my shoes thinking that they would actually be interested. But they really weren't. I was just a piece of.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The stock price checked up, and then they People would lose their shirts. Wanted to do it with Steve Madden. I was the perfect guy for them.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Pretty good movie, actually. My name is Jordan Belford. The year I turn 26, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You're really talented. I've known you my whole life. You know, what would you do if you got 600,000? $600,000 was like $600 million to me. Yeah. And then he said, Well, not only will I get you 600 grand, but I'm going to get you $6 million when I take you public. And I laughed at him, you know, because I probably had $30,000 in my... To my name”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Danny Porsche And, you know, we're going to raise you, we're going to get you, we'll raise you 600 grand, and then we'll get you $6 million.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, where I'm at is, I started the business. And, you know, I'm just not really don't have much money. I'm just sort of working hand to mouth. And a friend of mine who I grew up with went to work for this brokerage firm. And they were raising money for small companies.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know it's funny because it was originally the first couple of shoes were called Sulier. Yes, it's a French word for slipper. And so, you know, there was some dispute about that brand. Or maybe I just wanted to call it Steve Madden. I can't remember, but I switched it pretty quickly. There was one guy that called me up. How dare you? I bought Culieta once, Steve Madden, who do you think you are? And a guy, he's still in the shoe business, that guy, and I always torture him when I see”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, it seems like they just abandoned. I mean, Nine West, it was a company called Nine West that was dominating the industry. Of course, there was Nike and Reebuck. But nobody was like making funky little shoes. It was kind of a throwback to the 70s. Know from that other era, so I kind of brought that back, and I was just in the right place at the right time”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You go with your sample case and you lay your shoes out and people would buy them. And that was it. What was happening? Was the market that I was selling to everybody in the shoe business walked away from it. The teenagers, you know, and stuff like that, the young, and it was a different generation, you know. And so they had their own thing, their own music and their own style. And we just tapped into that whole thing.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, you know, Macy's and anybody that carried shoes I sold. And then I would go to the national shows and sell them all over the country.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, you know, the way it was, you know, we made some shoes and we just got this fabulous reaction, but not from the people I thought I was going to get a reaction from, which were my contemporaries, which was from the younger kids. They were like, the phone was ringing. Like, where do you get that shoe and all that stuff? So we knew that something was going on here. So that's the track that we went on.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I discovered this market by accident. They were very ill served. You know, basically we stepped into that at Steve Madden.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I would say because I didn't really think about it. I just wanted to make shoes. It wasn't something that I thought. But what happened was I ended up making shoes for the Gen X customer. Those would be people around. Today. Right after, I guess that's right after the baby boomers.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was sober when I started Steve Madden. I mean, it was just a miracle. You know, I started, I got sober. I started this company. And, you know, my life completely changed.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah. Drugs and drink, yes, cocaine. Everything And I would work. You know, it went, I worked. I'd work, work, work, and then get stoned at night. hammered”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, I could tell you a lot of stories about it. Basically, I couldn't stop, and you know, I was embarrassing myself, and it was starting to affect my work, and I had to stop or die.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I started using drugs and drinking. I was pretty much pretty inebriated most of my 20s. They say when an alcoholic hits bottom, they keep there's another level of bottom to go. So yeah, it was pretty bad.”
2019-12-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Steve Madden: Steve Madden (2018) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT