Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Startup of Human Potential. We're your co-hosts.

Speaker 2: 0:04

I'm Clifton.

Speaker 1: 0:05

And I'm Victoria.

Speaker 2: 0:07

And together we're Faces of the Future. Faces of the Future is a startup studio with a personal development platform at the intersection of consciousness, connection, innovation and well-being.

Speaker 1: 0:22

And today we're interviewing Ellie Rollins. We're so excited to have you on the show. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.

Speaker 1: 0:31

A little bit of background about Ellie Rollins. She's an incredibly beautiful soul. She grew up in the Bay Area, moved to Hawaii when she was 25. All her kids were raised in Hawaii and she has deep ties to Hawaii. And we're doing this podcast to talk a little bit about the benefit that she's organizing for Lahaina.

Speaker 1: 0:52

And before we get there, ellie's three passions that she works on as a quantumpreneur are in retail, music, environmental. In retail, she has crystal stores. There's a Santa Monica location which also doubles as a music venue and a space where healers can offer their modalities to the public, as well as a crystal location called Beach Goddess Crystals in Waikoloa on the Big Island in Hawaii. As a musician, singer-songwriter, she's got the Ellie Rollins band and they're about to release their first single in November and they perform all over the greater Los Angeles area and will be at the Ohio Valley Bluegrass Festival. And as an environmentalist, she has seven reuse centers and thrift locations around the Big Island called Transfer Station Thrift Store, and it's part of a landfill diversion program operated with the Big Island or the County of Hawaii. We're so excited to have you here today, ellie. I really am inspired by all the work that you do and just the beautiful soul that you are.

Speaker 4: 1:56

Thank you so much. I appreciate you guys having me yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:01

Awesome, and one of the things to start with is how did you get into this multi-passionate entrepreneurial venture with these three different areas? You embody the being of a true manifesting generator who has multi talents that she brings to the table. So how did this all come about?

Speaker 4: 2:25

I guess it started I mean, I don't know like the exact starting point, but I always wanted to be a singer and a songwriter and I just never. You know, when I was a younger person, life didn't evolve for me in a way where that came into being. And I took a class, actually with Michael Beckwith. That is a life visioning class, and I was living in LA about 12 years ago and the reason I was here was to pursue music. And in that life visioning class, one of the things that Michael Beckwith has you do and there's also a life visioning book which I definitely recommend is ask yourself in meditation what is seeking to emerge through you at this time and this place.

Speaker 4: 3:26

And I was really surprised that I was, you know, thinking that I was here to be an artist and only an artist. And then what was seeking to emerge through me was a bridge between all of my artistic nature and then my business nature, and this really far out there idea came to me called Live Artist. Now, that's actually how I first met Euclipton and I realized that we have to continue to ask ourselves the question what is seeking to emerge through us all the time, because we're ever evolving people and we also. It behooves us to ask how can we serve?

Speaker 4: 4:16

And also is the place that we're, you know, is the place that we are participating in the world and living the place that is like the highest vibration for us. So, once you get to the place on the planet that is the highest vibration for you, then you get to ask yourself how can I serve this community and what is seeking to emerge through me, as me, at this time and this place? Because, as the world's evolving, how I can serve and who I am is evolving, and so I think that's where it all began. I realized that I actually was a really passionate entrepreneur and that I had many talents and gifts, and that singing and writing music wasn't the only one, and that, because I started out as an artist, I truly knew how to serve that artistic, sensitive soul, and so that's why there's been many iterations of many different companies that I've had, and that they all have this level of service that, at the core of everything I do, it's about how can I be of service.

Speaker 1: 5:25

Wow. Yeah, spoken like a true quantum preneur, Literally the archetype the artist with that entrepreneur business. How can we fuse both? And I love what you said about I think this comes from Michael Beckwith actually about how life happens as you, how you evolve as you go through your consciousness journey from life happens to you to life happens by you, right that's the next one, and then through you. Through you and then as you.

Speaker 4: 5:56

Yeah, yeah, those four levels of consciousness. I've definitely memorized it and I describe it a little bit different. We have four levels of consciousness, and the first one is it's happening to me. Right.

Speaker 4: 6:09

And then the second one is I'm happening to it, and then the third one is it's happening through me, and then the fourth one is I am it. And my goal is to live in a space of it's happening through me. I feel like when I am it, I won't be in the physical body anymore, so I'm not like making that my goal, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Gotcha so cool.

Speaker 2: 6:36

So, yeah, it really helps put into contact some of our life stories as we've moved around and there's certain modalities where you can understand what parts of the globe you might have a connection with and what might be the highest vibration for you, and so I wanted to anchor it into where you are now and how you navigate all these different businesses that are a natural byproduct of who you are.

Speaker 4: 7:05

I think where I am now is a little bit of coming back to center, and you think it's easy as an entrepreneur or at least for me to get distracted and becoming someone who's highly productive and you know, I always see potential. So there was a moment where I wanted my company, cap and Creek, to be a national brand and I started an online store and I got a little bit away from really asking myself what brings me joy, what is seeking to emerge from me, how can I be of the most service and also forgetting about that I matter in that equation so huge and yeah. And so I recently have been experiencing and still kind of going through a level of burnout and I sold a store and brought in a partner for another store and just have been meditating more and, interestingly enough, I think I'm doing like the same amount of work. I'm just taking more time for myself and doing more things that bring me joy and also just being gentler in my self talk and knowing that my worth is not tied up and how much I can get done, and it feels like more is happening. But I'm giving the opportunity to work more collaboratively and it's, overall, more joyful and I think I just have to spend more time really sitting with.

Speaker 4: 8:55

If someone volunteers to help me do something, is that the right imperfect collaboration? And I keep on going back to? I believe it's something that Gandhi said, that the more work that he has to do, the more time he spends in silence and that is something that I've started practicing and I started teaching a class, a transformation class, and that has that teaching people how to check in with themselves more often and that's the key to transformation is really knowing who you are and cultivating a deep relationship with the inner divine helps make every step in our ongoing transformation more in alignment with ourselves in the universe. So I think that's where I'm at now, where I'm just doing an ongoing inner check in more time with self and then not just moving a lot slower. I hope that that answered the question but that's where I'm at now is

Speaker 4: 10:00

that I know that I want my music to grow and to be heard and I know that I really love Cabin Creek and Beach Goddess crystals but I'm actually really happy with them being stores that are successful, that don't have to be national brands, Like that's not even a desire, and it was really interesting that I was trying to make that happen and that and I think it's also because there's like a shift in the in myself and the planet that the most important thing is my music, sustaining what I have and working to growing sustainability and other municipalities.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Wow, amazing, and I love what you said about what Gandhi said how he gets more done when he's in silence. And that really resonates with what we teach our clients in our Quantum Purnure Academy. We teach them to align to their joy and when you're operating in that level of consciousness of joy, things happen in a nonlinear fashion. It's like timelines accelerate for you and things just come to you and on the outside it looks like you're moving less right, because there's less of that doing, and there's more of that being.

Speaker 4: 11:16

Yeah. So, I mean, I still really need to work on it. Like I will say, this does not come naturally to me.

Speaker 1: 11:23

As a manifest generator. Yep, yeah.

Speaker 4: 11:25

This is not, like you know, borderline workaholic. My boyfriend's a therapist, and so I asked him. I'm like, am I a workaholic? And he's like I don't think so, because there's nothing you're trying to escape, but you do have a hard time standing still, and so I'm thinking that this experience of burnout is a really great gift, because I'm learning to practice doing less, like I had a fellow musician just call me this morning asking me about what is the B line, which I didn't even know what this meant until recently. I might even be saying it wrong, but so when musicians do professional gigs, they have all of their. There's equipment that belongs to the venue, and so when musicians are traveling, they sometimes enjoy knowing what the list of the equipment and musical instruments are that are available to them, because that makes going from gig to gig easier, and especially with something like the La Haina Festival, where we have nine artists I think eight or nine artists each day performing an hour set.

Speaker 4: 12:47

So, that's like a lot of movement. And so Lance from this band called the Strands that they're performing, he reached out to me and he's like what instruments do you have available for all of the artists? And I just wanted to like die. I was like none, I don't have any. That hasn't even occurred to me. I'm like I've been so busy with X, y and Z that that didn't occur to me. And he was like, well, no problem, I think he kind of figured that, and so he offered up instruments and a plan to make that happen kind of effortlessly. And I wasn't doing anything, I was just today. It took everything I had to get out of bed and put clothes on, and I know that my brain is like yeah.

Speaker 4: 13:37

I don't own a pair of sweats because I love to dress up and I'm literally like how can I find cute sweats that look like I'm ready for work, Like there's something new emerging in me? That is all about comfort, which is like incredibly, not the normal way that I operate. But I cannot tell you how excited I am about loungewear to the point, in the middle of the concert yesterday or not the middle, but at the end of the concert that we threw yesterday I put my pajamas on and I just did not care. I went and said good night to all the musicians. You guys keep playing.

Speaker 4: 14:14

Have a good night. Yeah, I washed all the makeup off my face. It's like this hippie calf-gan nightgown. I just did not care. I'm like this is the best I can do and I'm so okay with it. So that's definitely a new thing about me and having that opportunity to feel like I should be out in the world and promoting this benefit, but knowing that I just don't have it in me, and then to get all the support without having to leave my house. After this phone call, I'm gonna order some pajamas online and some sweatpants. Ha, ha, ha ha. Or after this talk, excuse me.

Speaker 1: 14:58

Yeah, cliff did, and I talk a lot about how B comes to A when we're doing our work and we're in alignment, and burnout is just a natural byproduct of being out of alignment for too long and having the priorities skewed. So B coming to A is what we see a lot. When people step into their beingness and into their alignment, instead of A moving through space and time to get to B, it's like B just shows up.

Speaker 4: 15:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I also in this class that I'm doing. I'm asking what do we do when opening meditation? And then I ask people every single time what is seeking to emerge through you, and then we do journaling about that and then we ask ourselves what the next indicated steps. And it used to be in my life, all these action steps and now and it used to be these grandiose ideas and I'm just like I'm just entering into a new phase where what just keeps on coming up for me is simplicity and asking for help. Yeah, so cute. Take over and over again. Yeah, Give other people the opportunity to serve. Like I've created this framework. I don't need to do all the thing and I'm excited that I don't have the desire to anymore. Like that's pretty mind blowing to me.

Speaker 2: 16:33

Yeah, and I think it might be good to give a little bit of context of where you're coming from, so that the listener doesn't think that, oh, you know what, I should just be in swaths all day and not do anything. There's an aspect of Ellie that needs to be established, I think. Yes.

Speaker 2: 16:51

Recognize what it is you're coming into alignment to, and that can speak a few moments to the high performing nature of yourself that maybe you were over high performing that you're coming back into alignment to, rather than just sitting on your couch all day, kind of a thing.

Speaker 4: 17:08

Yeah, and my idea of not doing anything is deciding to stay home and promote and be on phone calls and participate in your podcasts and there's still like 20 things and that feels like doing nothing to me.

Speaker 2: 17:27

Yeah, it's like you've been running with 50 pounds on your back and now you're just taking the 50 pounds off, but you're still running. Yeah. You're still doing a lot of things, yeah, yeah. I think that's a nuance to get clear on so people understand that you are moving forward and you are doing a lot of things.

Speaker 1: 17:45

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:46

In comparison to what you were doing it seems like less, but you've put in a lot of work. I mean you're in a unique lifestyle. The way you've cultivated your own environment, I think is a really fascinating point of topic for a second to discuss is where are? You, and how did you combine everything that you have in your living space? Mm-hmm.

Speaker 4: 18:10

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 18:11

I think also there is great value in understanding that I did used to get.

Speaker 4: 18:17

What used to be in alignment for me was a lot of action steps, and when I talk about manifestation or I coach people, when I ask what is seeking to emerge through me and it comes up for me and then I ask what the next indicated step is, I do not hesitate, like whatever it is, I go into action and I do it.

Speaker 4: 18:43

I think there's two things about there's lots of value in that, but the things that come up for me are when you listen to your inner self and you get an action step, whatever it may be, and then you go and take action on it or subconscious the information that you trust yourself and that you will take action, and so what ends up happening as a byproduct of that is that your intuition just grows to be more and more powerful and you get divine messaging quicker because your brain and your consciousness and your soul is like well, she's really listening and the things that the guidance that she's given is not falling on deaf ears and that's like all inside job right, like it's just like my self knowledge knows that if I get a message, I'm gonna follow it.

Speaker 4: 19:39

And I mean when I started my very not my very first, but in the early days of my entrepreneurial journey, I would wake up and do this process every single morning of the free right and the asking for the next indicated step, and I would recheck in if the thing that and the project that I was working on was still what I was supposed to be working on or what was in alignment for me. And I'll always remember that one day I got this message and I tell the story a lot to go to the coffee B&T we found Wilshire, which is not there anymore, and wait for the red-haired woman to speak to me. And I just like.

Speaker 4: 20:20

I was like okay, sounds like a plan.

Speaker 1: 20:25

And you know. Okay, spirit.

Speaker 4: 20:28

I mean there was some doubt.

Speaker 4: 20:30

I've got to say I was like what is going on and at the time, like I didn't have the money to go spend, I had just landed in LA and I think I had like 20 bucks to my name, so going to an expensive coffee house was not on my radar, but I was just like, well, I'll buy the cheapest coffee and I'll sit there as long as I can. And it only took like an hour and I ended up feeling pretty high vibration the whole entire time because anytime my brain was like what are you doing? I have this practice of just saying thanks for sharing. You know, I don't engage. I don't like engage with my ego. I just am like thanks for sharing and I always compare it to like if you have a child throwing a tantrum you don't go down to the child and be like engaging in that conversation with the child.

Speaker 2: 21:20

You're just like oh, you're upset and you pick the child up and you leave the grocery store.

Speaker 4: 21:25

Yeah, and you're like you might need a nap. That's kind of how I treat my ego. And so I sat there and this beautiful woman, talia, gorgeous red hair. She walked out of the coffee bean and teemed me if I was sitting like on the patio area, and she commented on my cute outfit Like she has amazing style. And I'm like, oh, thank you. And then I just told her I don't recommend this to everybody. But I just told her like hey, I was divinely guided to wait for the woman with the bright red hair to speak to me, and you did, and so would you like to have a conversation with me and see like why she was totally open? She was completely open to it. She sat down with me.

Speaker 4: 22:09

The project I was working on was all about live streaming music and she was very well connected in the music industry. And she was also like needy me as well. She had been working on producing a film with a business partner for years and she completely used all of her financial resources to the point where she did not know how she was gonna pay her rent. And at the time I was like renting someone's couch to live on and I just started a job, so I had the really good income coming in, but I was like in that middle point where I didn't have any way to put a down payment on an apartment and LA is so expensive, and I was just like I'm just gonna live on this couch for however long, I'm just gonna live on this couch. It was in Mar Vista and she was like I have this rent control department in downtown Santa Monica for only $1,200 a month, but I'm really worried that I'm going to lose it. And I was like, well, your apartment's way cuter than this couch, and so I could come live with you and you could stabilize, and I could stabilize and we could work together and I'll just pay 100% of your rent. And so that's what we did.

Speaker 4: 23:29

So having that confirmation that when you just take a risk on yourself, then helps you in your entrepreneurial journey take more risk on yourself. And every time things have gone awry for me, it's because I let the influence of something outside myself mainly people deter me. And so the new lesson or reminder is not to share my divine ideas with people that can't be trusted with them, and what I mean by that is that they're not going to hold them in the highest vibration. So I let things be worked out within me and spirit and then, once it's ready to share, I make sure that it's with somebody that is really trustworthy with my ideas and my dreams and my thoughts. I don't think we got to what you were talking about, clifton, about getting context.

Speaker 1: 24:23

I think we did.

Speaker 2: 24:25

You did Okay, Well yeah, I mean, I think that was beautiful and a wonderful example of intuition and being that quantumpreneur, listening to this higher guidance and where we were going with. That was just how you've come to be where you are now actually physically, where you fused all of these passions together in where you're currently living and having this podcast.

Speaker 4: 24:50

Yes. So what happened after that is that I learned a lot, and Clifton knows that that idea never came to fruition. I still think maybe it will one day. But it taught me so much about myself and what I was capable with and like the kind of people that I want to work with. So it's kind of funny that here we are again, and then I felt divinely guided to move back to Hawaii to be close to my children, and I went to work for the four seasons and they're an amazing organization.

Speaker 4: 25:24

But I was starting to realize that I felt like I was unemployable and I realized, because I had all these ideas and desires and ways, that I wanted to do things and they just couldn't be like, they couldn't be experienced or explored working for someone else. And so I just out of nothing, started a housekeeping company and it was a practical side of me, because there is a big need in tourist places to have housekeepers, because there's just so much tourism and travel and it's a really great way to create your own schedule and your own freedom. Rick Rubin talks about how that your passion doesn't have to be how you make money, and I think as artists and entrepreneurs and dreamers and people that see endless possibility, that we know it's possible for our passion to be the way that we make money. But it doesn't have to be that way, and sometimes that puts too much pressure when you're cultivating and growing a dream, and so just doing something that supports your dream and supports your lifestyle and is of service can be a really great bridge. And so I decided that if I was going to do something like cleaning houses, then I would just do the best possible job, and so I got all these super high end clients and I networks myself to real estate agents and I have this great desire to do design, and so I started doing staging, and then that turned into working for an interior design firm and it just like kept on growing and growing and I got to have more and more freedom and then once again, I realized that I didn't want to work for another company, and so then I ended up going back within and asking what was seeking to emerge through me, and it was open, a thrift store, which I was just like oh my God, why?

Speaker 4: 27:48

And it ended up being because it's like just truly a need, like any thrift stores doing in landfill diversion, there's so many opportunities to serve community. I started with my rent money and I did a Facebook campaign to help to close the homeless. Every Sunday, like it was just so many opportunities to serve, I did a dress for success program. I ended up becoming president of a children's charity that helped kids that were in foster care. I mean, the amount of ways that you can serve when you own a thrift store is kind of endless. Workforce development I ended up working in prison, reintegration like on and on and on. What a life hack.

Speaker 1: 28:35

I'll make a thrift store.

Speaker 4: 28:36

Yeah, I don't even thrift stores. It's a really big life hack. And I have this other idea bubbling up in me that one day I'll create a franchise to teach people how to be their own boss and entrepreneurs and serve community, all based on the thrift store model that I created. But I'm not doing it now, but that's a thought. It's brilliant, I love it.

Speaker 4: 29:00

I'm sure it'll eventually happen, but I'm not going to do it alone. And then that grew into a little thrift store like mini empire. At one time I had nine thrift stores and then now I have seven. I sold one of my businesses, which was also a great experience, and that's why the franchising idea came up for me, because I was able to create financial. I was able to assist them one in creating financial stability for themselves.

Speaker 4: 29:30

And then one of my I mean, it's just kind of a no brainer and then one of my thrift stores ended up reiterating into this metaphysical healing space. It was just like I started evolving into a retail store owner where I did all of my favorite things. I think that gets us to like where we are today, where now I like get to sell crystals and sage and I'm obsessed with jewelry and all the things that I'm just like really excited about are things that I get to offer to other people. And then I turned my back patio into a music venue and then there's an apartment above my store and so that. And then someone came in and did a concert here and ended up becoming my songwriting partner and now I'm 80% done with my first album. So that was really interesting, that like I had let go of this dream and like you were talking about earlier, it literally came into my backyard and thought me out and so you created the space for it, the container for it to find you.

Speaker 4: 30:44

So yeah, really beautiful.

Speaker 1: 30:47

Totally unintentionally yeah, but just listening to the guidance, one step at a time.

Speaker 1: 30:52

You know, a lot of times the path is a little nonlinear and how it looks like you don't think, oh, I'm going to go and work for someone and then that helps me create my business. That's not like a logical thought, right, but it creates maybe sometimes that more abundant mindset when we need it. So it doesn't put pressure on the passion and what you're describing about you know, the thing that you do for money doesn't have to be that passion. We find that is very common, especially in manifesting generators and human design. We'll probably do a whole episode on human design for our listeners because we keep referencing it. But something that is so key in creating those beingness-based businesses is understanding how you naturally operate when you're in alignment. So manifesting generators tend to be the multi-passionate entrepreneurs and they have a lot of excess energy that they could burn off. So what they can do is create their side hustle and have their job and their work, and their job doesn't have to be the same thing all the time.

Speaker 4: 31:50

Yeah, yeah. Do people ever shift out of being a manifesting generator? You mean, like, where's the off?

Speaker 1: 31:59

switch.

Speaker 4: 32:02

I'm not a manifesting generator. Do we age out ever?

Speaker 1: 32:07

From what I've observed, they don't really retire.

Speaker 4: 32:12

I talked about retirement to Tom, my boyfriend, and he looked at me like you're never going to do that, yeah.

Speaker 1: 32:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:22

Exactly, we go into that, some of the more societal constructs and programming. That just doesn't work for certain energetic types. Like Victoria's grandfather. He walks more and does more things than even his home attendant at his age because he just has so much energy.

Speaker 1: 32:38

He's 94 now and he's a manifesting generator. Yeah, he's like oh and he does the dishes and all this stuff.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Yeah, and that's what's in alignment for him, and so it's just interesting to note those personalities. And, ellie, you talk about your journey and I really appreciate it. One of the things that we also talk about is someone's unique gift or ability, and it's often those things that are so normal or natural to an individual that, if you pointed out, you're like, well, isn't that what everyone does? And something that I've seen and perhaps we can explore.

Speaker 2: 33:18

It is just your ability to bring in financial abundance, whether it's within a community, and maybe from there we can transition to the concert you have. What is this gift of yours? Like you just naturally talk about oh I did this. I made a lot of money. I was successful. I did that and I was successful. If you look statistically, that's not the case, right? So what is it about you that creates this kind of success? What have you gone through and what is your just essence to a team or to a community?

Speaker 1: 33:50

Yeah, Clifton told me a story about how you had like $1,500 as your budget for a project and you did something crazy with that amount that you had.

Speaker 4: 33:58

I remember the look on his face. He showed up and he was like what are you doing? What'd you do? Yeah, so I produced a commercial for the app idea that Clifton and I were working on with $1,500. It turned out really great. Yeah, I think that's great that you point that out. That actual incident.

Speaker 4: 34:23

One of my things is I will ask anybody anything. I don't believe in limitation. I believe that people have boundaries, but I don't know what your boundaries are and I don't know what is about, not you personally, but of any person on the planet. I don't know what your boundaries are. I don't know what your perceived financial limitations are, and so I just don't ever go into any setting where I have a request of anybody that there is a limitation. Bye my willingness to ask people either really love about me or really don't like about me, because some people don't want to have to have a boundary. You know, that's just like.

Speaker 4: 35:12

So, as I'm aging, I'm starting to realize I can use my empathic, intuitive, psychic nature to be a little bit more gentler with people, but I just, I just don't believe. I just don't believe that there's any limitations. I like, I try to tell my staff, or I tell my staff, every single moment is an opportunity to have the best sales day ever, and you never know who's walking through the door. And so, and we're all magnets of our experiences. So whatever is occurring in my life, I magnetized into it and I just I believe that I always have a choice to change how to tune my magnet. And there's like the magnetism of my truth that is eternal and existed before this physical body and like this after. And then there's the thoughts and the beliefs and the attitudes and the emotion that will be in alignment with my magnet or be out of alignment. And the more I can get my thoughts and beliefs and all the good stuff into to be in alignment if I'm making choices, or in alignment, the faster I'm going to magnetize an experience.

Speaker 4: 36:27

And I just believe that opulence and abundance is the order of every day and that anything that is a limitation when it comes to finances is a limiting construct that we have forced upon ourselves that needs to be purged because it isn't in alignment with the truth of the universe, like we're in an ever expanding, everywhere present. There is no lack of resources. So I have that and then I know that the world to me. I believe that the world is a multi dimensional chessboard, and so I can be at choice about what my energetic field is. I'm not at choice about what everybody else's energetic field is. So I'm just being open to a match to my energetic field for the thing that I am allowing to materialize, and so I just I also just have fun with it.

Speaker 4: 37:33

I'm just like well, what would be our day?

Speaker 1: 37:37

today, yeah.

Speaker 4: 37:40

The joy part is really fun. Sometimes I'm like what the heck? Like you know, what was I thinking? And then I stumble and I fall and then I remember how it felt for the greatest manifestation opportunities I've had and I'm just like oh yeah, I got this. Telling the story of the really amazing things that you have done is very empowering, because then you remember oh yeah, I can totally do that, and then sharing them.

Speaker 4: 38:07

So I try to do today. That's what we're doing. $1,500 for commercial. I like that $1,500 number for some reason. $1,500 for my first store Wow. I started a company that has a gross revenue of a million over a million dollars a year with someone else's credit card. They had like $10,000 on their credit card and I had really bad credit at the time and like no extra income. The store I had at the time was, like you know, giving me my lifestyle and I knew that transportation, thrift stores payroll was going to be around $35,000 every two weeks, but I still started the company with a borrowed $10,000. Wow. And then by the end of 90 days I was making net $30,000 a month.

Speaker 1: 39:01

Wow Did you learn those skills from anybody, or how did no? No, I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

Speaker 4: 39:11

I just I just ran the numbers. I was just like, okay, it's seventh thrift stores. Here's what it would cost for all the people to work there. Here's what the insurance is would cost. Here's what my thrift store does. Here's what the potential of what all these thrift stores could do. Here's the worst case scenario of what they could do. And then I'm like is that worth a $30,000 risk the first month? And I was like sure the worst it's going to happen is I'm going to fall flat on my face and fail and they'll give the contract to somebody else. The best thing that's going to happen is I'm going to become wealthy in one year. Yeah, Wow, and I love the quote. Oh, go ahead.

Speaker 1: 39:58

I was going to say I love the quote you said a little bit earlier. What was it about?

Speaker 4: 40:03

opulence and abundance, opulence and abundance are the order of the day. I don't know, is that?

Speaker 1: 40:09

like a mantra of yours that jumped out at you when you said it. And I was like oh, I like that.

Speaker 4: 40:14

Yeah, cause I feel like opulence is more about experience. Like I my intention setting, a lot of the time is surrounded about around creating an opulent experience for myself and others. That seems to be something that continues to come up for me all the time. And so my first thrift store I wanted to create an opulent experience for people with a fair price. So, like everything was washed, everything was clean, people would walk in and be like, why is this so beautiful? It says thrift store outside, and that just continues to be like a repeated mantra for me. Like I want to set intentions to give, I want everyone to know that an opulent experience is available to them. I think some people are living in this world where they think that that's something that other people do, and I grew up with extreme poverty. Wow.

Speaker 4: 41:16

And I I don't nest Well. So I had a really interesting thing happen. Like my mom is a drug addict and we moved all the time and we lived in extreme poverty and had food insecurity. Wow, I lived in the Bay Area, where and it's similar in here in LA where you could just go to the next town and you see some of like the wealthiest people in the world, and I figured out that I could get an inner district transfer and go to a really good high school and I just had to take the part train and I figured out that, like, style is affordable through thrift stores and I had really wealthy friends.

Speaker 4: 42:04

No one ever knew that I, you know, was growing up in poverty and I started making money, like really young, and I was like 17 years old and making more money than my friends that had college education. I just, I was just like, oh, this is just like a belief system. All I have to do is like take the bar train into a different energetic field of a different belief system and I don't have to live in the ghetto. Wow, that's really nice. Yeah, like I could just, and I like work, I enjoy work, I think there's value in work. It's like, oh wow, I can just travel on a bar train, get off and be in Walnut Creek, get a really good job and have a nice place to live and raise a family. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 42:58

I think I'd rather do that. You just teleported into a new reality.

Speaker 4: 43:03

I just think that you know, that was a really good experience like, oh, this is really bad experience. Yeah, I can just make a different choice. And so each time I'm having a bad experience, I'm like, well, maybe I should make a different choice.

Speaker 2: 43:19

It's beautiful. I love the simplicity. Yeah. Sometimes people, myself included, can get dragged into the details and that details are those anchor points to prevent change and shifts. And I wanted to hear how you've created this kind of experience on Main Street right Down in Santa Monica, cabin Creek Crystals. Like you walk in, you feel opulence. I mean it helps that there's crystals everywhere. But how have you been able to create this kind of environment and where you're hosting this concert? How were you able to combine this belief system with actual physical opulence of crystals?

Speaker 4: 44:07

I used to say earlier, clifton, that the things that seem special about certain people, we don't realize that they're special because they're just like how we operate. So for me it was just like it came pretty naturally. It seemed like not even a question. I have this hobby of going on LoopNet because I'm a little bit obsessed with commercial real estate, and so it was during the pandemic and I was at home in Hawaii and I was just browsing LoopNet on my phone and I saw this space and I was like I know exactly where that is. That's right next to Buffalo Exchange. Like that's the store, yeah, that's right. Ding, ding, ding. And what's really funny, like Side Note, is at one time I had four crystal stores and all of them were next door to thrift stores. Wow, and I didn't, you owned them at the time.

Speaker 1: 45:06

No, it's really interesting.

Speaker 4: 45:09

So like I had this store, luhia Street Crystal Company, and I had a store I owned for Good Thrift, so that was like the beginning, and then I sold for Good Thrift and then I rebranded Luhia Street Crystal Company multiple times and now it's in Waikawa, so we're not next to a thrift store anymore. And then I had one in South Lake Tahoe and it used to be a thrift store and then I turned it into a crystal store.

Speaker 4: 45:34

And then I opened one in Reno and it was a crystal store. And then Freestyle Clothing, which is the similar or the same business model as Buffalo Exchange, moved in next to me. Wow, I've sold that business and Freestyle Clothing is still there. So it's a crystal store and a thrift store. And then this one showed up on Loopnet and there was Buffalo Exchange right next door. That's funny.

Speaker 1: 45:58

And so I was just like yeah. It's like the evolution of storefronts, from thrift store to crystal store to crystal store music venue.

Speaker 4: 46:06

Yeah, yeah, and I'm like, okay, there's a sign here and I saw the pictures and it was beautiful and it was actually like affordable for Main Street. I was in no position to open a crystal store. I had just opened two during the pandemic and I at that point had three and I also at that point had eight thrift stores at the same time, so like there is no business to do another crystal store. But I just felt something that was special about this space and I really felt it called to me. So I just made a little promise to myself that the next time I was in LA, if the space was still available, I would go look at it.

Speaker 4: 46:51

And this is part of my practice in I always know that the chessboard is moving and so I don't force things and I just allow each next indicated step to unfold, and it also helps me to not put pressure on myself. So I just like simply said and I think it's a high vibration way to be like it's there, it's available. When I happen to be in LA the next time, then I'll go look at it. And I forgot about it. And then I was in LA maybe six months later and it came back into my awareness and I looked on loop net and it was still available and so I said, well, if the leasing agent will see me today, then I'll go look at it, okay. Universe.

Speaker 4: 47:43

And so I called the leasing agent and he said I can meet you in two hours. And I'm like, okay. So then I show up and the space is really, really beautiful. And I walk into the courtyard and I'm like, oh my God, I could turn this into the classroom space or like a music venue. That immediately hit me. And then the leasing agent said would you like to look upstairs? I'm like what's upstairs?

Speaker 4: 48:08

And he's like come take a look, it's for rent too. And so I walk upstairs and it's this really cool apartment and I'm like are you kidding me? What's going on, universe? So then I didn't have the ability to take on another lease at that time because I was moving my Reno store into a larger space because it had done so well that we had outgrown our space in a year. We were doing like $600,000 in 2021. And so and it wasn't that I didn't have the money, it was that I didn't have the manpower to open another store. So I thought, well, if they'll give me three months free, then I can hold this space and then in three months, when I have the manpower, I can open a store here. So I looked at the leasing agent and I said I have no business looking at the space. I just really felt called to be here.

Speaker 4: 49:15

And I know this is kind of a crazy question, Remember that whole. I can ask anybody anything, but now I'm being a little bit more gentler about it, Like preface. I know this is a crazy question, but if the owner of the building wants to rent to me, I just won't be ready to do it for three months. I can put a deposit on it, but I won't be available to take on the lease for three months. So if she wants to give me the first three months free, then I can go into a lease around this. And he's like well, there's two other offers. There was like a mini war and he's like but I'll ask. Her kind of looked at me like I was crazy and I just was like, well, you know, if it's meant to be felt really good about it. When I left, kind of knew that I was absolutely going to get it Super excited to be on Main Street, was thinking about the apartment, how to secure the lease on the apartment.

Speaker 1: 50:08

You're doing the inner game work, yeah.

Speaker 4: 50:12

And then he called me and goes she really likes your business plan, she's excited for what you want to do in the space. Wow, she is open to your terms. And so, yeah, I'm like okay. And then I was like I'd like the apartment too, and so that's what we did, wow.

Speaker 1: 50:34

Amazing.

Speaker 2: 50:35

That's beautiful and in that business model. Did it talk about the vision of how you would use the backyard yet, or was it primarily?

Speaker 4: 50:44

It was just a retail store and an apartment and then I got her permission to use it as a music venue and she just thought it was like the greatest idea ever. She also is an interior designer, so she loves what I've done with her space and she's come to visit. And then we ended up you know, our windows were bashed in, which was a great opportunity that we redesigned the whole front facade of the store into looking like a cabin. So I was just like, hey, thanks, dude. You know I it wasn't fun to spend the $6,500. But it pushed me in a direction that I really needed to go with the business and you know that everything is in alignment and on brand and it helped me really figure out what my brand really is and what my priorities are really and what I want to do. And so that's why I ended up selling other stores, because this became the place that was revealed to me that I really want to be.

Speaker 4: 51:41

That's happened multiple times around Santa Monica. That whole energy of like what is the right, imperfect place for you and for me it's Topanga and Santa Monica, like those are the places that I vibrate the highest Like it's kind of silly that like I barely go back to Hawaii now and it's because that isn't the place anymore that I move forward in. It's the place that I refuel. So I still love it and it's still my home. But it's just like I do all the action things of my life here and then.

Speaker 4: 52:13

I go home and I refuel, I reset, and so that's kind of why I always feel this call to always give back to Hawaii, because it's always nourishing me.

Speaker 1: 52:30

Yeah, so as we're sitting here talking with Ellie, she's sitting in her beautiful backyard space at that Santa Monica location of Cabin Creek Crystals where this benefit coming up for Lahina is going to be. So, ellie, I'd love to hear more about this benefit that you've been organizing. You said that you feel a call to give back to Hawaii.

Speaker 4: 52:53

Yeah, the first way we talked a little bit about it and I'll move into what we're doing for Lahina is that I have this landfill diversion company that has really been sustaining for me, for my children, everybody that works for me there, and we've diverted over 7 million pounds of things from the landfill just on the big island alone. Wow.

Speaker 4: 53:24

And I just, and my children are from Hawaii, and so my soul, my financial life, my ability to serve, I have three very successful children, meaning that like they're just really Emotionally well, spiritually awake, contributors to society, kind people, and I know that so much of that has to do with the fact that they were raised in Hawaii and the beautiful you know. My ex has this beautiful family that they come from as well as me, and so I was sitting here in my apartment in Santa Monica and doing my morning Instagram scroll. Sometimes I put my phone in my kitchen so that I have to get up and make coffee to touch my phone, so it's not like the first thing I input in my brain, but this was not one of those mornings. And just seeing the devastation of the fires on Nali, there's just something about it because I love that land for all the islands. Oahu and the big island in Maui are where I spent the most time and so I just really feel tied to them and all three of those places have been really big spiritual gifts for me, and Maui actually feels to me like I'm a part of that land. I've never had that experience before. I literally got off the plane and started rubbing the dirt on me. The first time I ever went there. It was like that's a topic for another discussion of my psychic Taitamao, which I think a lot of people feel.

Speaker 4: 55:10

But anyways, though I'm watching about the devastation of the line of fires and I every day, I just can't stop crying and seeing that the whole entire city has just town has burned to the ground, like the school is gone, the post office is gone, the grocery store is gone. I don't think we can even imagine. Not only did you lose your home and you lost your family members, but you lost your whole entire town and you're not living in the restaurants, like every place you used to go to visit, when you used to go visit your auntie and your uncle, and then on top of it, there are real estate developers that in the middle of your morning trying to purchase land, and I felt very, a very unfamiliar feeling for me, which was disempowered, and I just thought imagine what these people are going through and how that would feel to lose so much and then to have somebody be so insensitive of what your needs are and such selfishness. And I think that as spiritual beings, that I just can't stand by and do nothing, and so I don't have the means to solve the problem, but I do have a little music venue and a wonderful community and fantastic friends and I can throw a benefit. So, without any thought, I hopped on Instagram and started bawling my eyes out.

Speaker 4: 57:07

You can find it I'm Ms Ellie Rawlins. Go ahead, look at my cry face in my bed. It's the most watched Instagram I ever have had. She sucks, because every single time I go on Instagram it's me crying, because it's like we post this. It's doing really well.

Speaker 1: 57:24

It was so beautiful and authentic. I loved when watching that I felt moved to tears as well when I watched it.

Speaker 4: 57:31

It's just, you know, it's how I really feel, and it's nice to talk about all the nice things that happen in the world, but it's important to talk about the things that aren't so great that are happening in the world.

Speaker 4: 57:44

And I think it's even more important to not allow people that have less than great intentions to be opportunistic when people that are at their most vulnerable and I saw this thing going around social media Lahaina lands in Lahaina hands, and I just think there's enough cultural trauma on the planet that it would be really nice to see the people of Lahaina have the opportunity to not be displaced. It would be really great to stop this cycle, and I know that I'm not going to do it alone, but I can take a step in the direction, and so I put out a call to action on Instagram and Facebook, and so many people have responded, and so we now, on October 7th and 8th, are doing a aloha Aina for Lahaina two day festival in our cute little courtyard, giving people so many different opportunities to come together and feel, to bring awareness to what's happening in Lahaina, to get money directly into the hands of the people who lost their homes or have been displaced in Lahaina.

Speaker 4: 59:07

Like the people that aren't homeowners, that were renters there, they deserve to stay in their community, and the people that are landowners, they deserve to rebuild on their land. So that's our goal. It's two days of music, vendors and a silent auction, and so right now, I'm just so grateful for every person that has volunteered to perform and every person that has so far donated for a silent auction. We're just a little bit over a week away and I'm still looking for more donations and more vendors, and now we're in that last push to get every ticket sold and just put as much resources into the hands in our small way, into the people of Lahaina and I know there's a lot of people doing things for Lahaina, so we're specifically focusing money going into the hands of the people so they can not be displaced.

Speaker 1: 1:00:08

Yeah, when we were talking offline, I know you said 100% of proceeds are going directly into the hands of the Lahaina people.

Speaker 4: 1:00:15

Yeah, we've decided not to partner with a nonprofit at this moment in time because nonprofits they have to charge an administrative fee to be a fiscal sponsor, and so we're just going through GoFundMe so that 100% of the money can be donated. None of the musicians are getting paid. I personally have purchased plane tickets. Local hotels are putting up some of the musicians. We're still looking for some more rooms from people that are traveling all over from Hawaii. It's a mixture of Hawaii artists and also Southern California based artists.

Speaker 4: 1:00:53

And we have Kaleo Phillips, who is an amazing singer-songwriter who lost his home in Lahaina, and some family members that will be performing for two days. So we'll just have an opportunity to do good, starting with Kaleo, and then the Fairmont Miramar has given us two days free for him and his wife to stay at a resort hotel. Anything we can do to hold the people at Lahaina to give them a good experience, I think is worth all the exhaustion I've experienced.

Speaker 1: 1:01:28

Yeah, and offline you were explaining what aloha aina for Lahaina means in Hawaiian. What does that mean? Could you share with our audience, please?

Speaker 4: 1:01:38

Yeah, so I mean I'm first going to preface this by I'm a holy girl. I'm a white girl from the Bay Area who lived on the Big Island and still lives on the Big Island half of the time for 20 years. Luckily, my daughter has studied Hawaiian language and so I've been able to be around a lot of amazing Hawaiians and language experts. But I'm just going to preface with I might not get it perfect, but it's my understanding that the word aloha is an acknowledgement of the shared ha, which is our life essence and our breath. The beautiful thing that I've discovered about the Hawaiian language is that every word is multi-dimensional. It, to me, is the most beautiful language in the world.

Speaker 4: 1:02:34

So when you greet someone, you would, in ancient Hawaii and still with Native Hawaiians and local people you would touch your forehead and you would take a breath and you would acknowledge the shared ha, the shared life, energy, the exchange of life, whenever you would greet or whenever you would depart, and so that's why we ended up loosely translating that into hello and goodbye, but that's not the meaning. Or we would loosely translate aloha to love, and yeah, there's that. The love is the building block of everything that we are and we're exchanging our life, essence, we are exchanging love. So it's really just like this exchange of life and love and our essences. So that is the meaning, as I understand it, of aloha. So we here are going to be having our Southern California family and our Hawaii family exchanging music. So our benefit is aloha, aina, and aina is the land for Lahaina. So we're giving our aloha to one another and to the land and to the people of Lahaina.

Speaker 1: 1:03:53

Awesome, and where can people join or register to give love to the land and the people of Lahaina?

Speaker 4: 1:04:00

They can go to cabincreekco. That's our website and you go to our events page and you'll see a beautiful graphic that our social media person, sophie, designed that says aloha aina for Lahaina. You can see all the different tiers of tickets. You can come for four hours, you can come for eight hours, you can come for two days, you can stand, you can come in and out, you can reserve a fire pit or you can just donate if you can't come. All on that. Aloha aina for Lahaina. Events page on our website.

Speaker 1: 1:04:40

Awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:04:44

That's beautiful, and I just want to preference the sensitivity with which you're approaching this, because it can certainly be a challenging topic, a lot of emotions, a lot of opinions on it, and so just your ability to hone in and focus on the people and really take that personal perspective of supporting them is beautiful and it seems like a fabulous although in challenging times, a fabulous culmination of everything that you've been doing up until this point.

Speaker 2: 1:05:20

The music with the landfill diversion programs, with the crystals, it's all coming together to support the land of Lahaina. And so I just want to take a moment and just reflect that back to you and really, really appreciate you for taking that action and not just feeling the emotions but using that to catalyze some form of a response. We call that true alchemy, that emotion of pain, of loss, of disempowerment and really creating a step in that direction of empowerment, as small or as large as it may be, to create a new narrative for people to focus around and to connect with one another. And just the fact that you're sharing breath between LA and Hawaii, with musicians who sing using their breath, is a beautiful mix and expression of that intention, and I know you cover the challenging topic of cultural appropriation with such conscientiousness and just really appreciate you being you and an example for people to see how you can take that cry face in your bed and turn it into a different face.

Speaker 4: 1:06:53

Yeah, you know it's not always fun to be sensitive, but I think it's a lot better than the alternative.

Speaker 1: 1:07:03

Yeah, and you're not hesitating to take the inspired action, as you were sharing earlier in our conversation. Just listening to the call.

Speaker 4: 1:07:15

Yeah, I mean it's usually after you listen to the call and you're in the like this thick of the work that I am like, oh my goodness, what did I do? But I know that when we get to the end of this benefit, that I'll be happy that I listened to and I'm so happy. Now I'm just in, you know, a week out and I just I need everybody else to listen to the call.

Speaker 1: 1:07:43

Okay, everybody let's all do this together. They're listening. They're going to tune into the podcast?

Speaker 4: 1:07:48

Yes, and I mean, and so many people have we talked a little bit about, maybe telling the people that have listened to the call, which that's been overwhelming and amazing and very touching, and the people that are willing to travel all the way to Los Angeles from Hawaii has been just like such an honor that they would trust me for them to share their stories and their music and their time. So I'm really appreciative of that.

Speaker 1: 1:08:20

Yeah, wow, what an amazing conversation. Ellie, I'm really grateful and honored to have you on our show today and I learned a lot from this conversation about you about like energetics and how you use the quantum field and the universe, and you're such an example of inner radiance and outer beauty and confidence. So really, really grateful that you joined us today.

Speaker 4: 1:08:48

Well, thank you guys, it's been wonderful. I'll just remember to have tissue the next time I talk to you.

Speaker 1: 1:08:56

And for you all listeners. Thank you so much for joining us in this conversation and if you feel inspired and called to contribute to the people of Lahaina, we'll drop the links below for you.

Speaker 2: 1:09:07

Awesome, and beyond the concert. What's the best way for our listeners to get in touch with you for any of the topics? That we covered today.

Speaker 4: 1:09:20

I'm really active on Instagram. You might have noticed that I'm a tiny bit addicted to it. So on Instagram we have two different ways that you can private message us or, you know, post or share our post. Cabin Creek, santa Monica, is our business Instagram and then my personal Instagram is miss ElleRollins, and you can contact me through messaging me in any way on both of those, or you can tell me. It's kind of long, elizabeth at CabinCreekCrystalscom. I think Instagram is probably better because I received like a thousand emails a day, so I will be honest that, like, I do not read them all. So I definitely recommend, if you want to speak directly to me, to message me on Instagram. If you want to help and you're not feeling called to come to the concert or donate money, just simply going to our page and sharing any of the post about the benefit. Or if you want to do all of the things like the more people that see what we're doing, the more successful our event could be.

Speaker 2: 1:10:29

Absolutely yeah, so thank you so much for joining Ellie. This has been been a treat and, as always, I'm Clifton.

Speaker 1: 1:10:41

And I'm Victoria.

Speaker 2: 1:10:42

And we are Faces of the Future and we look forward to you tuning in next time. Thank you.