From Fired to Fashion Powerhouse: Jeweler Marla Aaron

Summary

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The Messy Parts with Maryam Banikarim

Episode: From Fired to Fashion Powerhouse: Jeweler Marla Aaron
Release Date: February 9, 2026
Guest: Marla Aaron

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Overview

This episode of The Messy Parts dives deep into the “messy,” nonlinear journey of Marla Aaron—founder of Marla Aaron Jewelry, known for her innovative and now-iconic locks and hardware-inspired pieces. Host Maryam Banikarim guides Marla through an honest, at times vulnerable discussion tracing Marla’s tumultuous path: from being fired and divorced to founding a thriving jewelry business in her 40s. Together, they explore resilience, self-belief, the agony and power of starting over, and the importance of carving one’s own unique career path—even when odds (and naysayers) stand stacked against you.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Years and the Power of Discomfort

• Resilience Rooted in Upbringing

  • Marla discusses growing up with divorced parents, moving from Missouri to New York, and identifying as a "latchkey kid"—experiences that instilled self-reliance and a comfort with discomfort.
    • “I think all of that alone time is really good, creative time. I think I had a very rich life alone.” — Marla, [04:01]

• Craving Adventure and Curiosity

  • Marla was compelled by a desire to experience the unknown, which led her to Argentina as an AFS exchange student at 17:
    • “Meeting these two young girls from Venezuela who are still my friends to this day, it was like another world ... I just decided I wanted to go to South America.” — Marla, [02:37]

• Early Signs of Agency and Initiative

  • Applied to only one college (Syracuse), more focused on travel than planning her future in a conventional sense, and leveraged her senior thesis on the Hispanic market for her first job.

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2. Falling (and Pivoting) into a Career in Advertising

• Entry into Media and Advertising

  • Began in Spanish-language radio in NYC before moving to Spain to work at Elle magazine—illustrating Marla’s willingness to “throw herself into the fire” and take big risks.
    • “I was 23 years old and I got like 6 replies and I went to Spain and I got the job with Elle magazine... I didn’t know it was Elle magazine.” — Marla, [08:35]

• On Being Proactive and Unapologetic About Taking Chances

  • “You just need to do those things. I mean, the proactivity. You only get one chance in life. Right? It’s not like we get multiples.” — Marla, [10:42]

• Career “Messiness” and Constant Reinvention

  • Marla’s trajectory included shifts between journalism, marketing, and advertising, each time adapting, sometimes driven by necessity (e.g., needing a reliable paycheck as a single mom).

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3. Navigating Professional and Personal Upheaval

• Divorce, Layoffs, and Emotional Low Points

  • After a marriage ended and she was fired from Departures magazine following 9/11, Marla recounts feeling overwhelmed:
    • “Like a sucker punch. Like the worst sucker punch. Like, I'm never going to get up again.” — Marla, [17:25]

• Choosing Survival over Passion (Temporarily)

  • Took a job at the Interactive Advertising Bureau out of necessity, found the work uninspiring but used evenings for creative pursuits.
    • “Having that job that was really boring for me...fueled me.” — Marla, [18:26]

• Juggling Single Motherhood and Creativity

  • Marla discusses the challenges and solitude of being a single mom, and how limited alone time, even while raising her son, kept fueling her dream of becoming a jeweler.
    • “I’ve been thinking about jewelry design for a very long time ... I love jewelry. I always have, I always will.” — Marla, [19:19]

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4. The “Hobby with a Dream” Becomes a Business

• From Side Hustle to Passion Pursuit

  • Marla spent years making jewelry at night, using lunch breaks on 47th Street, New York’s jewelry district.
  • The pivotal moment: At the Cannes advertising festival, after a literal mishap (a burnt arm), Marla hit her breaking point:
    • “I want to make jewelry. I want to quit my job and make jewelry. But everyone says that's absolute insanity.” — Marla, [21:16]
    • Created a PowerPoint for her husband outlining why she needed to quit.
    • “I could tell I was at the breaking point ... So [my husband] was like, 'okay, yeah'.” — Marla, [23:37]

• Taking the Leap: No Regret, Only Relief

  • “So happy… I felt like I could do this. As disorganized and sort of chaotic as I am as a person, I had a very clear notion of what the collection would be.” — Marla, [23:42]

• Vision and Value

  • The concept: modular, hardware-inspired jewelry; for women to remix and personalize pieces.
    • “It is for women to be able to wear with their own jewelry, use the jewelry as tools to make other things ... It's still the same for me.” — Marla, [24:15]

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5. Early Stumbles and Persistence

• Initial Failures with Wholesale

  • Tried door-to-door sales to jewelry stores—nearly all rejected her or ignored her.
    • “They wouldn't even say no. They were just like, who are you and what are you?” — Marla, [25:33]
    • “That felt terrible. But ... I knew the idea was so strong. I can't express it to you. Otherwise I would just be like, they're crazy in my head.” — Marla, [25:41]

• Moment of Truth: It's Not a Hobby

  • Turning point during a consulting pitch:
    • “Mary was standing, and she was wearing my jewelry… CEO said, yes, I do. I have a question about the necklace you're wearing ... This is not a hobby.” — [27:27]
  • This clarity led Marla to fully commit and drop consulting gigs.

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6. Age, Reinvention, and Embracing Change

• Never Too Old to Pivot

  • Launched her company in her 40s.
    • “I’m 59 years old. And I know when I hear that number, I’m like, wow, I’m really old. But I don’t feel like—I still feel like I’m 17.” — Marla, [29:12]

• Unlocking Growth with Instagram

  • Originally wary of social media, Marla’s sons taught her Instagram—which enabled DTC sales and global reach.
    • “At dinner that one night ... I want you to show me how to use the Instagram, they laughed very hard. And then they showed me...” — Marla, [30:17]
    • “One day … they're like, you have a blue mark by your name... I guess I’m not so bad.” — Marla, [30:35]

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7. Growing the Business, Managing and Learning

• Scaling Up

  • The hardest but most transformative growth step: hiring the first employee.
    • “Once I hired one person, then it all changed ... the first person was the hardest for me to hire.” — Marla, [31:50]

• Loneliness and Leadership

  • Entrepreneurship is lonely and filled with self-doubt.
    • “It's very lonely. I mean, it's so extremely lonely. In many ways, making the decisions are lonely, you know, all of it.” — Marla, [32:48]

• User-Experience as a Differentiator

  • Obsessed with details—jewelry, packaging, and even customer experience (see the "sea salt butter cake" in a custom box).

• Managing Generational Shifts in Staff

  • Focused on empathy, inclusivity, and valuing all voices:
    • “I believe that everyone is trying to do their best in their own way. And that looks different.” — Marla, [35:30]

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8. Experimentation, Failure, and Responsible Innovation

• Willing to Try and Fail

  • From vending machines for high-end jewelry to unique marketing stunts, Marla embraces the possibility (and necessity) of failure as part of innovation.
    • “I'm willing to try lots of things and fail...I think we have to.” — Marla, [36:03]

• AI in the Business

  • Cautious early adoption via customer service tools, but wary of its misuse (e.g., generic AI-generated cover letters).
    • “If the COVID letter has I love your rebellious approach ... Like. Oh, God. Like, Gemini wrote that.” — Marla, [38:08]

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9. Giving Back: Lock Your Mom Initiative

• Supporting Single Moms
  • Initiated “Lock Your Mom,” gifting silver lock necklaces to single mothers for Mother’s Day and hosting events for unhoused single moms.
    • “Being a single mom was the most complicated and rewarding chapter of my life. ... We give sterling silver heart locks ... to single moms. And we've been doing this for 10 years.” — Marla, [39:00]

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On Fear & Compartmentalization

  • “Always, Mariam. I'm always scared. I'm scared going into work today. I'm scared of everything. ... But it just must be done.” — Marla, [11:45]

• On Messiness as Growth

  • “Getting fired.” (as her biggest mess that became her biggest growth) — Marla, [40:24]

• On Advice for Young People

  • “Travel and get lost. But I don't mean travel and stay at a hotel. I mean, like, go. Go to the end of the earth.” — Marla, [40:31]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Taking the Leap from Day Job: [00:00], [23:42]
• Childhood, Travel, Early Independence: [02:14] – [05:46]
• Starting in Advertising & Proactivity: [06:01] – [09:23]
• Moving to Spain & Cosmopolitan Launch: [11:02] – [11:37]
• Personal/Professional Messiness (Marriages, Job Loss, Single Motherhood): [12:44] – [19:19]
• From Hobby to Full-time Business: [19:19] – [24:15], [27:27]
• Rejection and Persistence in Sales: [25:33] – [25:54]
• Instagram and Selling Direct: [29:37] – [31:12]
• Hiring and Scaling: [31:50] – [33:04]
• Managing a Young Team: [34:47] – [35:54]
• On Failure and Experimentation: [36:03]
• AI, Technology, and Recruiting: [37:24] – [38:44]
• Lock Your Mom Initiative: [38:53] – [39:39]
• Rapid Fire “Messiest Moments”: [40:09] – [40:48]

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Conclusion

Marla Aaron’s story, as crafted in this conversation, exemplifies the spirit of The Messy Parts—embracing career detours, personal upheaval, uncertainty, and the grit required to build something lasting. Her advice to “travel and get lost” resonates as a metaphor for career and creative exploration. Above all, Marla reminds listeners you’re never too late (or too scared, or too unqualified) to bet on your own dream.

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Transcript

[Mariam]

Tell me how you felt in that moment where you actually threw in the towel on the day job.

[Marla Aaron]

So happy?

[Mariam]

Scared?

[Marla Aaron]

No.

[Mariam]

So if somebody is sort of, you know, has a side hustle, when is the moment that they should recognize it's not a hobby? What made you trust your instinct?

[Marla Aaron]

I think I had gotten to a place in my. I was like, this is it. You know, it's now or never. Like, I don't think you should get to that point. Like, I hope people do it much younger than I did, but it had gotten to that point where it's like, this is. If this doesn't happen now, this is never going to happen.

[Mariam]

Today. On the messy parts, we're going to have on Marla Aaron, a jeweler, a founder of Marla Aaron Jewelry, a very interesting jewelry line that actually goes from $95 to the very top. What's interesting about Marla is that she started off in the advertising marketing space, but always had a side hustle. In her 40s, she took her hobby with the dream. That's what she calls it, a hobby with a dream. And she actually quit her corporate job, leaned in, and made it into a successful business. Now, this wasn't something that she did overnight. She'd been working on it on the side at night while a single mom. But there was a moment where she decided, this is it. It's now or never. This is a great story of resilience, of betting on yourself and making that a real success. Well, Marla, I am so excited to have you on. You and I were introduced years ago via our babysitters, which is.

[Marla Aaron]

That is correct.

[Mariam]

Such a great New York story.

[Marla Aaron]

It is.

[Mariam]

They decided that we needed to meet and introduced us.

[Marla Aaron]

Yes.

[Mariam]

And that was when you were in the advertising business.

[Marla Aaron]

That's right.

[Mariam]

And I think I was, like, in media myself.

[Marla Aaron]

You might have been in. At Univ.

[Mariam]

At Univision.

[Marla Aaron]

You were at Univision? Yeah. The big wig.

[Mariam]

So let's start at the very early days. Right. I think we all know you as this incredibly successful jewelry business entrepreneur, but I want to go back to, like, the early. Marla, why did you even decide to go into advertising? You know, what was the motivation to even just have a drive at all?

[Marla Aaron]

I think it's really hard to say what the motivation was at the time. I think I sort of fell into advertising. I think I have to go back a little further. I wanted Desper to go, like, to a foreign country. You know, that was just a dream that I had. And I became an AFS exchange student.

[Mariam]

Which was well, why did you want to go abroad?

[Marla Aaron]

I don't know. I don't know. I guess I just felt it. I wanted it. I wanted it badly. I grew up. Well, I grew up first with my mother. She was a single mom in Missouri. And then I ended up living with my father in New York, in Bedford. In Bedford. And I suppose the time I was in seventh grade, our neighbors came over to the house in Bedford and said, oh, my nieces are moving here from Venezuela. Meeting these two young girls from Venezuela who are still my friends to this day, it was like another world. Going to her house was like another world. Everyone spoke Spanish. The food was different. Everything was different. And I just decided I wanted to go to South America, you know, I applied to the American Field Service, afs, as it's known, and I ended up graduating early from high school and going to study in a village in Argentina. Oh, wow. Yeah. At the time, I was 17. I am still in touch with my Argentine family, and that really changed my life.

[Mariam]

You grew up with divorced parents. Right? And so in a lot of ways, divorced kids actually do fend for themselves. So I think that's kind of an interesting thing that it. For. Forced you to even fend for yourself Further.

[Marla Aaron]

Further. Yeah. It was like forcing myself into the uncomfortable, which, as I think about it now, is probably something that's happened over and over again in my life.

[Mariam]

But you're doing it willingly?

[Marla Aaron]

Willingly, yeah. You know, living with my mother in Missouri. Cape Girardeau, Missouri. I was a latchkey kid. Like, there's no. I mean, at a very young age, I was alone. And I think all of that alone time is really good, creative time. I think I had a very rich life alone.

[Mariam]

You're in Missouri. What age did you leave to go to Bedford? Because that's a pretty big shift. Missouri to Bedford.

[Marla Aaron]

Well, how about New York City to Cape Girardeau?

[Mariam]

Okay. Yeah. So here you go. Right.

[Marla Aaron]

It's crazy.

[Mariam]

So you come back from Argentina and what happens?

[Marla Aaron]

Well, I'm gonna back up one more time. When I got accepted to go to Argentina, my father said, that's great. You can't go until you're accepted to go to college. And I know young people hearing this will be shocked, but I literally was like, okay, I'm just. I'm just going to apply. What seems easy, all I could focus on was that I was going to Argentina for a year. I mean, I have to. That was the entire thing for me. I remember vividly getting the application for Syracuse University, pulling out the application, sitting With a ballpoint pen on the front yard of my house and filling out the application like no more than a half an hour.

[Mariam]

Did you do only one application?

[Marla Aaron]

That was it?

[Mariam]

Yeah.

[Marla Aaron]

And you got in? Yeah, new house. And I went there and. But I did.

[Mariam]

Why did you pick that?

[Marla Aaron]

Because I just was going to Argentina.

[Mariam]

So it didn't matter. It was like, whatever school, it didn't matter.

[Marla Aaron]

You know, I regretted that later in life that I really was so focused. But, you know, my dad had said, if you don't get accepted to college, I'm not letting you go away for a year. That's crazy. So I was accepted. That's it.

[Mariam]

So you come back and you go to Syracuse and what'd you study?

[Marla Aaron]

I studied communications.

[Mariam]

So then what takes you into advertising?

[Marla Aaron]

My first job was working for a Spanish language radio network, selling advertising. Super Cacu FM Innoventa Yocho. That's now known as La Mega.

[Mariam]

Very big station.

[Marla Aaron]

Very big. Very big. And I had done my senior thesis on the importance of the Hispanic market. The owner of the company said, I want you to just say what your thesis was, and I'm gonna send you to ad agencies and you're just gonna talk about this like your thesis. And my first day, he sent me to bbdno. I mean, I didn't even have a media kit. And he was just like, just go talk about your thesis.

[Mariam]

But this is a really great lesson, actually, because your thesis wouldn't even be on your resume. Right. But what the thesis basically brings out in an interview process is, is the Marla who was willing to just pack up and go to Argentina, live in a small village, build resilience.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

And then it actually gave you a differential advantage because you came back and were getting jobs, you know, in Spanish language media.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, I got a job the year I Forget it was 1980, was it 88. Yeah.

[Mariam]

We always graduated. Into recession.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, into recession. A lot of my classmates were like, worried. And I graduated with a job, you know, a crazy job working for this station, but it was a job. I mean, it was exciting.

[Mariam]

So when you think now about the market, right. And all these kids who are graduating, I read an article just the other day that said it's going to be the worst market for the next five years for people graduating from college.

[Marla Aaron]

I hope none of those kids read any of those statistics, to be honest, because I think that's very demoralizing and I think they just have to just go out there. Yes, it's going to be a bad market, but it's also a different kind of market and they're built for it.

[Mariam]

What does that mean, a different kind of market?

[Marla Aaron]

Well, I think there's more. Other kinds of opportunities we couldn't even dream of that they are dreaming of. My stepson was he does video games. That's his career. That's his life. I mean, we didn't have that opportunity. There are kids doing AI robotics. I mean, my sons have friends who are in AI companies, in robotics companies.

[Mariam]

I think that more people will start businesses now too, because the barrier to entry is much easier now than it was in our generation.

[Marla Aaron]

Sure.

[Mariam]

And I think all kids now have side hustles in a way that they're all side hustling. They all have side hustles.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. And you have to decide if that side hustle makes sense for your business as.

[Mariam]

But at least it gives you like an alternative path. Which. That wasn't a thing when we were graduating.

[Marla Aaron]

No. We had to commit everything to the company we were working for.

[Mariam]

So you go from a Spanish language radio company. And having worked at Univision, I have some familiarity.

[Marla Aaron]

I left SBS to go to Spain.

[Mariam]

Spanish broadcasting station.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, system. I wanted to go work in Spain again. Just throwing myself into the fire. I did research at the business library on Fifth Avenue in 40 seconds where I said, I'm going to get a job in Spain and I'm going to send my resume to 10 companies and if three reply, then I can go to Spain for a week. I mean, I was 23 years old and I got like 6 replies and I went to Spain and I got the job with Elle magazine. I didn't know it was Elle magazine. This is so funny. The thing that I was sending my resume to seemed like just a big publishing company with no specific name. And it turned out it was Hachette. And I didn't know that till I had gone through the entire interview process that week.

[Mariam]

But I love this story of just putting yourself out there.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. But that's what I think you have to do.

[Mariam]

But so many people when I do mentoring sessions or I was an executive in residence. So many kids. And they're actually not even kids. Right. Because they could be in an executive program, are looking for permission to do things because things have been so structured.

[Marla Aaron]

Well, that's what I was saying to you about this creative time and being alone. Like, don't knock being a latchkey kid. I mean, I think it was some of my most important.

[Mariam]

I just wanna say you were a latchkey kid before the Internet. So it's not like you could have been scrolling. You actually were in the space.

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, I turned my room space. No, I did things in my room. You know, I was left alone a lot, and I think that might be a really good thing. But I thought about that when I had my own son and what his room should be like and what leaving a kid alone in a room to explore what that means, but without a computer in it. Yeah, definitely without a computer in it.

[Mariam]

I'm so coming back to that.

[Marla Aaron]

Okay, so you go.

[Mariam]

You're working for a Hachette Co. In SP, and that's a pretty good gig as they come.

[Marla Aaron]

It was a great gig.

[Mariam]

What do you think gave you the guts? Cause we had a conversation about you saying, oh, I'm not confident as you're.

[Marla Aaron]

Doing things like that. You're like, I'm really crazy for doing this, but I'm gonna do this.

[Mariam]

People say to me all the time, what made you think to send a mock up to Mickey Drexler in the mail?

[Marla Aaron]

You just need to do those things. I mean, the proactivity. You only get one chance in life. Right? It's not like we get multiples.

[Mariam]

I'm like, what do you have to lose?

[Marla Aaron]

What do you have to lose?

[Mariam]

Or nothing.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. What's the worst thing that can happen? They can. No, no's not that hard.

[Mariam]

Okay. So how long do you stay in Spain?

[Marla Aaron]

I was there for five years. I ended up leaving Elle to go to work on the. The launch of Cosmopolitan magazine in Spain, which was very exciting. I had been at Elle for a year, and they were launching Spanish Cosmo, and it sort of was an outrageous concept. The other fashion magazines were a little bit conservative. Spain is a conservative country. In spite of Ibiza, in spite of everything. I mean, it's pretty conservative country. Cosmopolitan was very in your face. The articles about sex on the COVID Like, you really needed an American. Someone else needed to translate this.

[Mariam]

Were you. Was there ever a moment in your journey of like, okay, you go, you interview, they give you a job. Were you scared at any point?

[Marla Aaron]

Always, Mariam. I'm always scared. I'm scared going into work today. I'm scared.

[Mariam]

What are you scared of?

[Marla Aaron]

I'm scared of everything.

[Mariam]

Scared of you do not present as somebody. I'm scared of everything.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

And so how do you put that aside?

[Marla Aaron]

It just must be done. It must be done.

[Mariam]

And so somehow you're able to compartmentalize that to the side.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, I'm just like, I have to do this. I have to do the best that I Can. I'm gonna do the best that I can today. I'm probably gonna. Can I swear.

[Mariam]

Sure.

[Marla Aaron]

I'm gonna fuck up a number of things today, but hopefully some of those things will be okay.

[Mariam]

Oh, I love this. Because I'm definitely also a compartmentalizer. But I think you learned that as a kid. Like, I at least learned it as a kid. It just was how you. How you made it through.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, you just have to get it done, you know? And I. And I think it's okay to be emotional. It's okay to be emotional at work, you know?

[Mariam]

So you have this great run. What brings you back to the States?

[Marla Aaron]

It was time to come home.

[Mariam]

Why?

[Marla Aaron]

I mean, for several reasons. Well, I was married and I was coming back to the United States.

[Mariam]

Wait, did you get married to somebody in Spain?

[Marla Aaron]

I did. This is like you're getting real dirt here.

[Mariam]

There's no dirt. Like this is part of your story.

[Marla Aaron]

Because there's more than one. This isn't like. This is. I'm actually my third marriage, which.

[Mariam]

What?

[Marla Aaron]

I know. No one knows this.

[Mariam]

I just want to say Viviana, who works with you over there, her head just popped up because she's like, what?

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, no one at work knows this either. I decided that I was going to talk about this today.

[Mariam]

Come on down. There's something about the blue couch.

[Marla Aaron]

What are you talking about?

[Mariam]

I listened to so many interviews, no.

[Marla Aaron]

One'S ever asked about it.

[Mariam]

What?

[Marla Aaron]

I know. I was married to an Argentine that I met in Spain, but then we ended up. We moved back to New York. He was. He was a banker. He was a real fancy banker.

[Mariam]

Wow. And then how long were you married to him for?

[Marla Aaron]

Not long. Not long?

[Mariam]

What's not long?

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, my gosh, I'm not even going to remember. Like maybe four years. That's long. Yeah.

[Mariam]

I mean, you could have just been married three months.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. No, no, no. And he was much older than me. And then I ended up getting. Yeah, I ended up getting a divorce.

[Mariam]

And so by that point you were back in New York?

[Marla Aaron]

I was back in New York. I came back to New York from Spain with him.

[Mariam]

With him. Wow. That was number one.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

Okay, so where did number two come in?

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, yeah. Number two is a mistake, a total mistake. But I have a wonderful son out of that.

[Mariam]

But so number two was a bigger mistake than number one. Yeah, but number one, no, not a mistake because you haven't.

[Marla Aaron]

I had my son. Yes, yes.

[Mariam]

Wow. So how far?

[Marla Aaron]

This is all very messy.

[Mariam]

Who, of course, is messy?

[Marla Aaron]

Super messy. Right.

[Mariam]

Wait, so how, how long after that did you meet your second husband?

[Marla Aaron]

It was a couple few years after that. Few years after that. Yeah.

[Mariam]

And how long were you married to him?

[Marla Aaron]

Three years. I mean, that marriage was really. It was a very bad marriage.

[Mariam]

So now you leave, but now you're actually a single mom now?

[Marla Aaron]

I'm a single mom now. It's. Where were you working now it's really messy now. It's just. It's hard. It's crazy.

[Mariam]

And where were you working at the time?

[Marla Aaron]

At the time, I was working for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the iab. It was at the very early stages of the iab. I ended up being there for five years, which is the most unlikely, crazy thing that I could even imagine. You know, I interviewed because I needed a job. On the cusp of my divorce to number two, I was the marketing director of Departures magazine.

[Mariam]

Oh, that's a perfect one for you with your love of travel.

[Marla Aaron]

Okay. It was so, so. It was such an incredible experience.

[Mariam]

That was Amex's like travel magazine. Yeah, yeah.

[Marla Aaron]

And 911 happened, which was terrible. My marriage fell apart and I lost my job at American Express. They needed someone who. With real travel background to focus on travel.

[Mariam]

So were you selling there?

[Marla Aaron]

No, I was the marketing director.

[Mariam]

So you'd pivoted at this point?

[Marla Aaron]

I had pivoted. I pivoted a while before that. I'd gone back to graduate school. Oh, yeah, you're missing.

[Mariam]

I'm missing a whole chunk.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. I mean, am I really going to go through all of it? I ended up going to Columbia. I went to graduate school. For journalism. For journalism. For journalism.

[Mariam]

What? There's like eight different jobs in your past. Wait, maybe six.

[Marla Aaron]

So many.

[Mariam]

That might be why the babysitters knew we had to be friends.

[Marla Aaron]

Maybe that's why. That's amazing.

[Mariam]

Okay, so at some point you think you're going to be a journalist?

[Marla Aaron]

I don't know actually what I was thinking. I think at this point I wanted to write long form magazine features. After Columbia, I ended up interviewing, getting some job opportunities for journalism. And this is where everyone's gonna like hate me when I say this, but when I started hearing the salaries, I got really scared to take a journalism job.

[Mariam]

You, were you a single mom?

[Marla Aaron]

No, no, not yet. So I was like, oh, God, this is a really bad turn of events. And I ended up getting called from Time Warner because of my work background to work in the marketing development department of corporate, which is doing big idea development, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that was sort of creative. And that was my first real marketing job. And that was sort of putting a lot of different pieces together.

[Mariam]

Okay, so now you discover like, okay, this job journalism doesn't pay. You pivot into marketing, which is not like a high paying job, but better paying.

[Marla Aaron]

Better.

[Mariam]

Better paying. And then what happens?

[Marla Aaron]

I ended up at the International Herald Tribune doing, you know, marketing, development, Same thing. And then I end up at Departures.

[Mariam]

And then what happens?

[Marla Aaron]

And then I get fired from Departures.

[Mariam]

You're getting a divorce, which is already traumatic emotionally, but also financially. And you're being fired.

[Marla Aaron]

Yes.

[Mariam]

And you're a mom.

[Marla Aaron]

Yes. Yes.

[Mariam]

So how did that feel?

[Marla Aaron]

Like a sucker punch. Like the worst sucker punch. Like, I'm never going to get up again.

[Mariam]

Like.

[Marla Aaron]

Like, you know, I want to take to my bed. But you can't.

[Mariam]

Yeah, you cannot take to your bed.

[Marla Aaron]

You cannot take to your bed. You just have to plow through. And a headhunter called me and said, we have this opportunity with this trade association.

[Mariam]

Oh, that's how you end up at iab?

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. And I was like.

[Mariam]

And you're like, whatever, I'll take it.

[Marla Aaron]

I'm like, no. I was like, blah. I'm like, I'll take the test, but I'm going to fail the test. It's a tech job. Like, it's tech, right? Like, how am I ever going to do this job? I took the test. They said, oh, my God, they want to meet with you. The test is like saying, what are you good at? You know? And you are the perfect person they want for this job. I'm like, I am so not the perfect person. And I literally went in and they hired me that day. And I was like, well, they said, I can be good at this.

[Mariam]

And you needed a job.

[Marla Aaron]

And I need a job really badly. So. And I did it for much longer than I thought I would.

[Mariam]

Why is that?

[Marla Aaron]

But it was really boring, too.

[Mariam]

Interesting. So why do you think you did it for longer than you expected?

[Marla Aaron]

Because that was a time in my life where I had to get a paycheck. But at the same token, I had lots of time at night when I went home because nothing else was happening in my life to be extremely creative. And I think it fueled me. I think having that job, that was really boring for me.

[Mariam]

Did you guys share custody?

[Marla Aaron]

Not really, no.

[Mariam]

Really?

[Marla Aaron]

You had your son, but that was a time when you and I met because of our babysitters.

[Mariam]

So the reason I was asking this question is because I know friends, when they go through divorce, sometimes they share custody so they have a lot of free time, right?

[Marla Aaron]

I didn't have a lot of free time.

[Mariam]

You didn't have a lot of free time?

[Marla Aaron]

No.

[Mariam]

But you had time where you were alone, Right, Right.

[Marla Aaron]

And it fueled me. And I really. I'd been thinking about jewelry design for a very long time.

[Mariam]

Why?

[Marla Aaron]

I love it. I love jewelry. I always have, I always will. You know, collecting things, little pieces, making things.

[Mariam]

So you start this as a sort of a side hustle. Well, really more like a hobby with a dream. A hobby with a dream?

[Marla Aaron]

A hobby with a dream.

[Mariam]

Yeah. You're not just like, I'm needle pointing for myself. I get that. Okay, so then you. Where do we get to you meet your next husband, your current husband?

[Marla Aaron]

I'm in New York. I'm dating. I'm, you know, not. Not dating much. I decided I had to go online. And this is 20 years ago. And it was very early days. Very early.

[Mariam]

Wow, you're an early adopter.

[Marla Aaron]

So I wrote a profile, no picture. And I put it online, and I decided I was gonna do five online dates in a week. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And David was Monday.

[Mariam]

Wow. So you didn't have to go much further than that.

[Marla Aaron]

And we've been together now. Yeah, 20 years.

[Mariam]

So then eventually, you have a blended family.

[Marla Aaron]

We have a blended family.

[Mariam]

And you were one of each. You were with David when you were at Cannes.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

And you went to Cannes. This was as.

[Marla Aaron]

As I start the company, I am now fully making jewelry on the side. Yeah, like, totally. All the time. I'm spending my lunch hours on 47th Street.

[Mariam]

You're still at IAB?

[Marla Aaron]

I'm still. I'm at IAB. Then I leave IAB, go to MRM.

[Mariam]

Yeah.

[Marla Aaron]

But I'm still. I spend my. I was like, mrm even closer, you know? Iabs on 20.

[Mariam]

What is.

[Marla Aaron]

It's a division of McCann World Group. I forgot what it stands for.

[Mariam]

In the business, basically.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. In the business of advertising. I was there only very briefly because then I really jumped ship and started the company.

[Mariam]

But you go on that job to Cannes.

[Marla Aaron]

Correct.

[Mariam]

Which is, you know, big advertising festival, which is even crazier every year.

[Marla Aaron]

It's awful.

[Mariam]

Yeah. So you go. And this is sort of the moment that becomes a pivot for you. Cause you're making the jewelry. You were sort of giving the.

[Marla Aaron]

Making jewelry on the side. Totally giving it away. Giving it away. Spending time on 47th street thinking, like, if I could spend all my time on this little block of New York City, I'd be so happy. But fast forward anyway. So I'm going to Cannes and I'm very angry because a, my kids were leaving for camp, your two boys. And I could not see them off to Cannes. So I'm already in a rage. I want to make jewelry. I want to quit my job and make jewelry. But everyone says that's absolute insanity. What are you even saying? You don't even have a jewelry background. You don't know what you're doing. You know all those supportive comments. Yeah. Everyone's like, you have to stop talking about this. And I arrive in Cannes on a Sunday, early in the morning to my rented apartment, because I'm not staying in a hotel, because I'm just gonna at least have this little bit of something for myself. And I make myself a cup of coffee and the pot explodes on my arm. And I get second and third degree burns all over my arm. Everything is closed in can. And I'm knocking on a pharmacy, like, metal door. It seemed like the guy lived above it. And he came out and he brought me in. And suddenly I hear an ambulance and they're taking me to a hospital. And I'm like, oh, God, this is.

[Mariam]

Not most people's canned experience.

[Marla Aaron]

No. And I'm like, oh, God, I can't be in the hospital. I have work to do. And this doctor who was so kind, he said, we were working with Google Translate on the computer, and he said, I'll let you go, but you have to come here every morning and every evening while you're here. But I had this huge bandage, and that went on for like three days. And I was. The rage was really. I mean, it was real, real, like the. Wasn't helping, you know? So I turned to. I'm someone who is still a very close friend of mine who is sort of like, we worked together, but kind of like my boss, she was senior to me, and I told her I was leaving, I'm going to go home and I'm going to make jewelry and I'm quitting and I'm gonna do all of these things. And she was like, yeah, I think you should do it. And so I went home. And on the plane ride home, I wrote a PowerPoint presentation to my husband about what the benefits to him would be if I immediately quit my job. I think that the deck coupled with the bandaged arm, I mean, he could tell I was at the breaking point. So he was like, okay, yeah.

[Mariam]

So tell me how you felt in that moment where you actually threw in the towel on the day job.

[Marla Aaron]

So happy.

[Mariam]

Scared.

[Marla Aaron]

No, not at all. I was super. I felt like I could do this. I was like, I can do this. As disorganized and sort of chaotic as I am as a person, I have a. Had a very clear notion of what the collection would be. And it is the same today, but with much more. It is for women to be able to wear with their own jewelry, use the jewelry as tools to make other things, to bring out the detritus of their jewelry box and wear other things. It's still the same for me.

[Mariam]

You'd been working on that vision for a long time. When did you really have that crystallization? Like, can you pinpoint that time?

[Marla Aaron]

I think it was around 2002, when I fully understood, you know, I'd spent so much time with this hardware, understanding what the carabiner could do, I spent a lot of time, like, thinking about it, looking, you know, knocking around on 47th street, begging people to make them. So I had the vision for much longer. You know, I don't want to say the vision that sounds. It's not who I am, but I had the idea. Yeah. And. And then I didn't start the company till 2012, but I was giving jewelry away between 2003 and 2012.

[Mariam]

Lucky people getting the early.

[Marla Aaron]

And so the funny part of that is I started the business and I was like, now, great. You know, okay, how do I get to the stores? And that was the part that I. How does the jewelry get to the store? And that was something I had absolutely not thought through. I didn't know about the trade shows. I didn't the business at all. How is the customer going to get my jewelry? I thought I was going to go door to door to jewelry stores and sell the collection like a. Like, you know, the Willy Loman of the jewelry industry. And I had that plan, and I did that. And I realized very quickly that that wasn't going to work out.

[Mariam]

Why? Because they said no.

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, my God. They wouldn't even say no. They were just like, who are you and what are you?

[Mariam]

Okay, so how did that feel? Because, like, did. That felt terrible.

[Marla Aaron]

But I was like, okay, but you know when you have an idea. I knew the idea was so strong. I can't expl. I can't express it to you. Otherwise I would just be like, they're crazy in my head.

[Mariam]

There was no moment where you were like, maybe they're right. Maybe I should stop.

[Marla Aaron]

No, no. I was like, this idea is so good. I know. It's so good because I wanted every. Every piece We. Every time I made a piece, I was like, oh, God, this is it.

[Mariam]

This.

[Marla Aaron]

I know. And people would compl. People wanted it.

[Mariam]

People would compliment you all the time.

[Marla Aaron]

And wanted it all the time. So I knew. Knew I had something there. But, you know, I was nervous about not making money. I did not like not making money. So I started taking consulting jobs.

[Mariam]

Oh, this is something I'm very familiar with.

[Marla Aaron]

Right. And so then I was doing.

[Mariam]

You were hedging your bets.

[Marla Aaron]

I was getting a lot of consulting gigs, and my husband was like, this is great. He's like, there's no. No change here.

[Mariam]

No downside. We're still getting.

[Marla Aaron]

I'm like, no, it's not. It's not great. It's. It's really not great. I'm not progressing on the jewelry side. So this was really in my. And then a woman who I'm still very close to, the woman I actually confided in Cannes, she had actually left and started her own ad agency with her husband, and they still do that. And she and I were consulting on the side. We ended up on the short list for an RFP for a business in Detroit. Let's just leave it at that. And we ended up flying to Detroit. And I was, like, very ambivalent about this. I said to her, I'm like, mary, if we get this gig, I'll never make the jewelry. Like, this is going to take over my life, even if we. She's like, oh, but we have to. The fact that we were on the short list, the two of us on the short list for this thing, is ridiculous. We have to go. So we went. We were in the boardroom with the CEO, and of course, they had created, like, a binder about us, about all the companies. And the CEO was looking at the binder. Mary was standing, and she was wearing my jewelry. And, you know, we were at the end of our dog and pony show. Mary said, does anyone have any questions? And he. The CEO said, yes, I do. I have a question about the necklace you're wearing. What? And she goes, oh, this? Oh, yeah, this is Marla's hobby. And then he opened the binder, and they found. Because I had had a website up, and he goes, this is not a hobby. This is not a hobby.

[Mariam]

So you didn't get the business?

[Marla Aaron]

We didn't get the business. But he was right. It wasn't a hobby. And we knew we didn't get the business on the way back. And I knew that I was gonna rip the band aid off, that I was gonna Stop doing consulting jobs.

[Mariam]

Did you ever connect with that CEO again?

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, yeah. Yes, I have.

[Mariam]

Cause that's a great story.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, he's a great guy. I've never told him that. He became a turning point for me, but that moment was like, this is not a. When he said, this is not a hobby, I was like, damn straight it's not a hobby.

[Mariam]

It's not a hobby. So if somebody is sort of, you know, has a side hustle, when is the moment that they should recognize it's not a hobby? What made you trust your instinct?

[Marla Aaron]

I think I had gotten to a place in my life. I was like, this is it, you know, it's now or never. Like, if this is. If this doesn't happen now, it is never gonna happen. I don't think you should get to that point. Like, I hope people do it much younger than I did. But it had gotten to that point where it's like, if this doesn't happen now, this is never gonna happen.

[Mariam]

You were about 40. You never thought to yourself, I'm too old to reinvent myself.

[Marla Aaron]

No. I'm 59 years old. And I know when I hear that number, I'm like, wow, I'm really old. And. But I don't feel like. I still feel like I'm 17. You know, it's the same emotional turmoil as in my head, you know, when I was a kid.

[Mariam]

And you're still curious.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, still very curious.

[Mariam]

Which actually brings me to the unlock that you had about how to sell came from you being curious, but also torn about Instagram.

[Marla Aaron]

Well, that's. As a parent, I was very withholding about all computer, iPad, social media, anything for the kids. I was very against it to an extreme and really thought it was problematic.

[Mariam]

But I think what's interesting to me about this is because you had mixed feelings about it. We all have mixed feelings about it. Right. Things have unintended consequences, and yet it became the thing that unlocked your business.

[Marla Aaron]

There's good and there's bad. I mean, there's good and there's bad. And me using it and us using it and how we use it.

[Mariam]

So you're. So tell.

[Marla Aaron]

The boys taught me.

[Mariam]

The boys taught you about Instagram?

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. Well, I knew about Instagram, but I didn't know how to use it, and I didn't know how to post on it. So at dinner that one night, when I was like, I want you to show me how to use the Instagram, they laughed very hard. And then they. They showed me, and they, you know, they said, my Photos were terrible and all the things.

[Mariam]

Don't worry, my daughter still tells me. Oh, that's blurry. Did you post that?

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah. They're so awful. Your photos are so awful. Everything's awful. Oh, my God. It's so ridiculous. And then one day I woke up at breakfast and they were like. They were like this. And I was like, what's wrong? They're like, you have a blue mark by your name. And I was like, what does that mean? They're like, you don't even know that you have a blue mark.

[Mariam]

Oh, he'd been verified.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, I had been verified. And they were like, freaking out over this. I mean, just, they couldn't believe it. So I'm like, I guess I'm not so bad.

[Mariam]

How did you get verified?

[Marla Aaron]

I don't know.

[Mariam]

It just happened. Yeah. Amazing. So this unlocks you selling direct to consumer at a time where people really didn't understand that many people, I should say.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

And so people start buying directly from you.

[Marla Aaron]

Celebrities, they start buying directly from Australia, from Japan. I'm figuring out how to ship things. I'm learning it all all at once. I'm. I'm in my house in a tiny little, like, tiny little, like really a closet that I turned into an office. And I'm just doing it. And it's getting crazy. I need help. Once I hired one person, then it all changed. Like, really the first person was the hardest for me to hire. And I.

[Mariam]

Because you didn't want to spend the money.

[Marla Aaron]

I didn't realize that I had really had a business. It was very hard for me to understand that. And actually, friend of mine, she just decided to place an ad and interview people for me because she was so concerned about how insane the whole thing looked. The first few employees I hired were temps because I didn't quite believe in it, that it was really a thing.

[Mariam]

It's such an interesting thing. I was obsessed with bags. This is. We're learning new things about each other. I was obsessed with bags. And I started a bag business mid career when I had a crazy job that sort of blew up that's not even on my resume. And. And I started with a partner. She got into business school and left like a month in after we had gotten Barney's as a customer, which was a big deal.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah.

[Mariam]

Also something I knew nothing about, but she'd been in the bag business and same like you. I started getting these consulting jobs and it was really hard. You're like, spend my own money, make money. I found it hard to be in business by myself, I found it a little too lonely.

[Marla Aaron]

It's very lonely. I mean, it's so extremely lonely. In many ways, making the decisions are lonely, you know, all of it.

[Mariam]

Maybe you being in the room by yourself prepared you better than me.

[Marla Aaron]

Maybe. I don't know. But I like to be surrounded by people. Viviana can attest to that.

[Mariam]

Yeah. Because I ended up keeping it alive for five years, but then threw in the towel when I got talked back into a corporate job. You now have a successful business. I don't even want to call it a small business. I actually think it's a real business, like not small and, you know, you've been in.

[Marla Aaron]

But I consider it, I think about it as a small startup.

[Mariam]

A small startup is different than a small business.

[Marla Aaron]

Right, right.

[Mariam]

You've been in Bergdorf, so you have a, you know, partnership with Liberty. The pieces are amazing. So much attention to detail. I was in your showroom the other day, which I recommend everybody go visit because it really is different in real life. And by the way, I left with a pastry that you made with a.

[Marla Aaron]

Recipe with the cake.

[Mariam]

The cake which came in this amazing box. I thought to myself, Steve Jobs would have really loved this because you sweat every single detail, including the box. What is it? It's a.

[Marla Aaron]

It's a sea salt butter cake. I don't. I have to be just fully disclosed. I don't make them anymore. And that was the year when I finally hired someone.

[Mariam]

Fine. I'm just saying it was delicious in the box. When it opened and there was two, everybody was like, what? There's secret compartments.

[Marla Aaron]

Okay.

[Mariam]

So I highly recommend the secret compartment box. Extra money, Extra money, but totally worth it.

[Marla Aaron]

But that's making lemonade out of lemons. Because I just. The box arrived and mistakes happen all the time in business. The box was too big for the cake. What do you do? You could fill it with paper, but that's kind of cheesy. But what if you turn it into a double decker box?

[Mariam]

Which is what you did.

[Marla Aaron]

Yeah, that's what we did.

[Mariam]

So you now have an incredible pivot. This very successful line, which, you know, I've been a fan of since I ever discovered it. Thank you. I'm constantly wearing it. People are constantly commenting. And I will say anybody I introduce it to falls in love. But one of the things that's interesting to me is that you must manage a young staff now.

[Marla Aaron]

Yes.

[Mariam]

And there's so much that's written about sort of the generational divide and managing people and sort of Expectations and the disconnect and the sense of entitlement, which I think is actually just a misunderstanding.

[Marla Aaron]

It's a misunderstanding.

[Mariam]

What's it like managing a young team today?

[Marla Aaron]

I think it would be the same way if I was managing a team 20 years ago. I think it would be the same. And I think fundamentally I always want to keep front and center that even in the jobs that I hated, I was trying to do my best. And so I believe that everyone is trying to do their best in their own way. And that looks different.

[Mariam]

What does that mean?

[Marla Aaron]

My best and your best could be two very different things. But everyone is trying their best, and to them, they are trying their best. I truly value everyone's opinion and that will not change. Like, we do a lot of things, even design wise. I'm very interested in every person at my company's opinion of what we're releasing into the world.

[Mariam]

You're also willing to try lots of things that people haven't tried before, like a vending machine with high end jewelry. I mean, you're willing to try and fail?

[Marla Aaron]

I'm willing to try lots of things and fail. Even with our collections, with our pieces, I love throwing lots of things out there. And I think we have to. I think the price of gold is gonna really make a lot of decisions for us as it relates to the business, but it just also is an opportunity for extreme creativity.

[Mariam]

But let's talk about the price of gold thing, because I think that's a real thing. Right. We have this conversation about what you're seeing in terms of the price of gold and how it's impacting your business and who it's leaving out. Like, the high end is doing well and the rubber is doing well. So the entry point.

[Marla Aaron]

And silver.

[Mariam]

And silver. Do you worry about sort of the middle evaporating?

[Marla Aaron]

I do, but I worry about it as well. When I go into the supermarket and I see $12 blueberries, who's buying those? It's happening in the supermarket and it's happening in the jewelry world. Which one are you more concerned about? I'm more concerned about the one at the supermarket. Yeah, that's right.

[Mariam]

Yeah.

[Marla Aaron]

We're creative at our company. We're finding ways to use gold judiciously, to be smart, to be strategic. If we do make big gold pieces, which we will continue to do, they better be fantastic. I mean, I've always felt like they better be fantastic, but now I really feel like they really better have a reason to exist.

[Mariam]

How are you guys using AI?

[Marla Aaron]

I mean, we're really at this point, our customer experience platform uses Gorgias. It creates a lot of macros for responses, but are. But that platform is run by real humans. So it's serious human intervention with the use of gorgeous, obviously. I think every single person. I hope every person on my team is using ChatGPT and Gemini in efficient ways. It can help turn people, especially disorganized people like me, make us a little more efficient.

[Mariam]

I say it can, like, help you organize. Right. Again, I think we'll see if there's unintended consequences. It's what we. We saw early on with the Internet and social, but it's sort of the.

[Marla Aaron]

Path I don't like to see, which I posted about on the tick. I called the TikTok the tick. We've been getting some cover letters for jobs that are exactly the same, which means they're chatgpt. And I can tell because in our about section, it says we're a rebellious little company. So if the COVID letter has I love your rebellious approach. I know it's fully chatgpt and I wanna make magic for you. Like. Oh, God. Like, Gemini wrote that.

[Mariam]

Yes. Yeah. You want somebody who really wants to be there. I say that is the basic entry point to a job is like, yeah, do your basic homework.

[Marla Aaron]

Just write the letter.

[Mariam]

Okay, so I'm gonna get to. Well, I have two more questions. One is you did something for mothers. Mother, single mom.

[Marla Aaron]

I do something for mothers.

[Mariam]

You do something for single moms. And clearly it comes from actually your own experience as a child and also.

[Marla Aaron]

As a mother, more so as a mother. Being a single mom was the most complicated and rewarding chapter of my life. I, you know, I really understood what I was capable of. The genesis of Lock youk Mom was Mother's Day. Feels a little lonely when you're a single mom, so we give jewelry away. For those who don't know, we give sterling silver heart locks with an exclamation point to single moms. And we've been doing this for 10 years. If you know love or are a single mom, you just sign up and we'll send you one until they run out.

[Mariam]

That's amazing.

[Marla Aaron]

And if you look at the hashtag lockyourmom, you'll see some great stories.

[Mariam]

It's a lot about being seen in that moment.

[Marla Aaron]

We've turned it into a physical event for unhoused single moms and single grandmas. Through Henry Street Settlement, we do an entire, like a luncheon and an activities day for the kids and a whole.

[Mariam]

Thing there's something in you that has the sense of wanting to open things up and have more people be seen.

[Marla Aaron]

Yes. And I think more people should experience jewelry and have beautiful jewelry. Jewelry.

[Mariam]

Okay, we're gonna do rapid fire.

[Marla Aaron]

Okay. So I have to be quick.

[Mariam]

Yes, exactly. Messiest moment you've had on a scale of 1 to 10.

[Marla Aaron]

The divorce. 10.

[Mariam]

When was the last time you cried?

[Marla Aaron]

This morning.

[Mariam]

Okay. Biggest mess that you think was actually your biggest growth?

[Marla Aaron]

Getting fired.

[Mariam]

What do you think everyone should do before they're 35?

[Marla Aaron]

Travel.

[Mariam]

I knew you were gonna say that.

[Marla Aaron]

That is a Travel and get lost. But I don't mean travel and stay at a hotel. I mean, like, go. Go to the end of the earth.

[Mariam]

Live in discomfort, basically, in some ways. And explore, I think, curiosity.

[Marla Aaron]

And be curious. Yes. Yeah.

[Mariam]

Like genuine curiosity.

[Marla Aaron]

Genuinely curious about the world.

[Mariam]

Marla, thank you so much for coming on. What's amazing is that we had lunch not that long ago. Yeah. And there was still so much ground to cover that I'm so glad I discovered new things.

[Marla Aaron]

Oh, my God. Okay, good. Thank you for having me. It was really a joy. And I love the blue cat couch.

[Mariam]

Thanks so much for tuning in to the messy parts. This was a great story for anyone who's thinking of pivoting or who has a passion with the dream or just wants to be inspired by somebody's unusual, messy, but very successful story. Now, if this episode resonated with you, like it, comment, and make sure you share it, because we want to be around for a long time telling stories of people like Marla Aaron.