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

Background:

Gigi Stetler is an entrepreneur, life coach, CEO, author, designer, equestrian, mother, and survivor. She has made a very successful career in the RV industry. Her decades in the business of buying, selling and servicing RVs, trailers, and campers have given her unprecedented firsthand knowledge and experience to become one of the nation’s top RV experts.

Gigi’s walls are lined with plaques and certificates of achievement for outstanding sales and service for every year dating back to 1988. In 2004, Gigi helped set up and run a 170 RV camp in a remote region of Guatemala for the hit show Survivor on CBS. In 2005. Gigi set up a 200 RV camp for first responders and victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

3:07 Gigi shares the harrowing story of how she got stabbed many times by a homeless man and almost died.
7:11 Being stabbed 21 times has made her a lot tougher and the experience balanced her strength.
8:57 In 2007, her RV dealership was having a lot of success.
10:51 Eric was attacked by a homeless man. He talks about how to reestablish trust with people.
12:24 They talk about restoring the trust in humanity and moving on from hurtful experiences.
14:41 She still shows a high level of trust but she also takes extra steps to verify the background of the person.
20:01 Gigi uses the metaphor of climbing a 10,000 feet mountain when it comes to failures and reaching goals.
23:55 Reaching that goal is the driving force that kept Gigi going even after she almost died in the hospital.
25:43 Eric tells the story of how he almost went bankrupt and it was game-over for his company.
28:01 Big companies made a lot of effort to take her down when she refused to sell her business.
30:02 Gigi is a fighter, especially when she feels she has been wronged. She fought back, sued the big companies, and won after 11 years.
36:35 When somebody gets angry at something that is stupid and can be fixed, Gigi uses the line “do you have cancer?”
39:30 She has been in the business for a long time that she can easily tell if she can’t make a certain customer happy.
42:05 Gigi shares her most favorite line that can help people who are feeling defeated.

This Episode Sponsored By:

18:26 At the age of 17, Eric thought he was going to jail for a long time but there were people who helped him get back up again. Please check out Eric’s book to find out more about his entire story. You can download a FREE Copy of the intro and prologue at EricGilbertWilliams.com/Book-By-Eric/.

Key Point from the Interview:

“The first thing you’ve got to do is set a goal, but you’ve got to set a goal very high. If you set a goal that’s mediocre, well then you’re going to be mediocre and your life is going to be mediocre.”
“My best line that I tell people that are feeling down or defeated or whatever, I say if you don’t have anything that money can’t fix, you don’t have problems.”

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