Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
Welcome to another episode of the Worst Advice I Ever Got. I'm your host Sean Taylor, along with my producer, jb and today our guest is Mernouche Sadat. Merush is an attorney turned entrepreneur, the founder of Sober Ish, a boutique that's redefining how we think about alcohol, free options, cannabis and wellness. Her journey has spanned real estate, law, and now a bold venture in plant medicine and lifestyle, always with an eye toward challenging expectations. Mirnous, thanks for joining us today.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Well, Marnoush, we start every episode off the same way. We just want you to tell us what was the worst advice you ever got.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: So the worst advice I ever got was you have to get a professional degree to be somebody. So whether that's being a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, those three things are all you are allowed to be.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Tell me a little bit about the timing when you got this advice and maybe just lead into what, what happened when you got it.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Well, the timing was probably from birth, being Middle Eastern and children, my brother and I, children of immigrants, especially Middle Eastern immigrants. The conversation is that you will be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer, that there are no if and or buts. And from there, maybe you can be a home builder, maybe you can be a realtor, but only after you've gotten one of those kinds of things under your belt. So it's definitely was ingrained into me my whole life, my whole upbringing.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: So. So you did make the choice to pursue one of those things, it sounds like. Tell me what you pursued. Right.
And. And just, you know, kind of what happened from there?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Um, well, so my father was an engineer. He later became a home builder. And so he got me into real estate in that regard. So he was like, you should really. You know, I had gone to college. I had a degree in international relations, which really, you know, I was. Even then I was supposed to go to law school, but I. In that moment, I decided not to. So my dad was like, get your real estate license and be my realtor. Why should I hire anyone else to do this family business kind of thing? So I got into real estate from that perspective. That was 2005. I was getting my license. And then after a decade is when I went back to law school and continued in real estate.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: You listened to this advice for a long time. You were like, okay, got to get the title, got to get the job.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: I definitely did what my parents wanted me to do, what my community wanted me to do. I listened to that. So I was following in those footsteps. But that just didn't feel authentic for me.
And so I thought, you know, through some life circumstances, I thought, okay, like, now is the time that I should be going to law school. After a decade of being out of school to. In 2011, I decided to go back to school, law school. And I thought, I'm not going to do real estate law at all. I'm going to get out of that. But wound up right back into real estate because it was comfortable and for so many different reasons. But I did, I did listen and I did get my law degree.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: So do you feel like you chose law for you, or was there still this advice sort of nudging you to do something that maybe didn't feel right?
[00:03:17] Speaker B: I think I was doing it because of what everyone else was telling me at the time.
And I even, and I know that because even during law school, I debated getting my master's in business. They had a joint program where you could add one extra year and then you'd have a joint MBA JD And I thought about that. But at that time, I was a little later in life and thinking I was old for schooling. And so I thought, I don't want to add on an extra year before I can get into my career, so I'm not going to do that. But business and business ownership and entrepreneurship and all of that is. Is ironically also what was ingrained in me. My parents were both entrepreneurs. They. But that wasn't the takeaway for them, but it was in, it was in my blood and bones, and it was really where I wanted to end up. And. But I pursued the path of what everyone told me to do to some degree.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: Was there any kind of straw that breaks the camel's back situation for you, where you're like, okay, I'm doing this and everything's fine because you're being, you know, pretty successful with it and things are working out, you're on back to school, so you're making these decisions. Everything is kind of working out. So was there any moment where you're just like, okay, this is not right?
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, so, so you, you had all of these nudges, these, these pushes, the community, parental input, and so you go to law school. So tell me what happens in law school and tell me what happens after you complete your law degree. Presumably, yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: So ironically, during law school, I was doing more real estate then than I ever had as a realtor during that time because the market had crashed. But then all of a sudden, people were wanting to buy real estate. Right. So it was an interesting time. And it's always so I find interesting the way the universe will put before you your past to see how bad you want your future. So I'm doing a lot of real estate in law school, but I do graduate law school. I think I'm gonna move abroad. I've had great internships in London and Dubai during law school, which was really exciting. Maybe I'm gonna break out of Atlanta. I'm gonna do international law in some capacity. But there was something about, you know, watering your grass where it grows and thinking about a thought of like, I've been in Atlanta my whole life. I know every street left, right and center. Do I really want to leave that and the community that I've built here for again my entire life? And so it made me stay. And I then, you know, easiest option, let me look into real estate closings. It's what I know, it's what I do. So then I again went right back into that world. But quickly I realized that I was not made to work for others.
So a year after roughly working for a firm, I was like, I want to do this on my own. I think I can do it better, smarter, different, whatever the case may be, I want to break the mold a little bit and do something different. So a year out, I'm like, okay, I think this is what I want to do. And the way life worked is my name really wasn't on the door. I had a. It's called, it was called Blue Ink title. So it wasn't like Sadat Law.
It was in that exact part of town. And it was just really funny that I manifested something I didn't even really mean to. The thrill for me and the excitement for me was building a business from the ground up. And I think that once it was getting there and became successful is when I started questioning like, do I know everything I'm supposed to know? Maybe people know more than me. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. I can't be this successful at this. So then I decided to merge with a very well established firm here in Atlanta.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: Talk about the merger.
How did it go? What happened once you merged? Did it. Did it solve all those questions and concerns you have or what happened from there?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: It. It didn't.
I think that the partners were, were good people. They are good people. And, and I still today.
But I found that I think being younger, having different access to technology, thinking differently, like I was in a space. I was in my 30s, I was thinking about digitizing everything. Lawyers of the past were thinking about printing, making Copies and storing those things in an off site storage. And I just couldn't. There were so many things where I felt like I was ahead of them.
But my advice and guidance, although I was coming in on a partner level, wasn't being conformed to. I had to conform to their model. And that was frustrating. I think that'd be frustrating for any entrepreneur when, when you feel like if we did this thing, we would be more efficient, it could process faster. But you've got people that are your partners that are doing it, used to doing it a certain way and change is hard. And so that Flash started to become really big and bigger and bigger every day for me, I mean, one of my first discussions with, with one of their founding partners and again, this firm has been around for 45 plus years, so a long time, really said to me, how did you get so successful so quickly? And I said, well, I credit Instagram to a lot of it, interestingly. And he said, what's Instagram?
[00:07:50] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:07:51] Speaker B: And I thought, okay, like if you're not on that platform to understand how it can bring business to you, I don't, I don't know how to get you there. But this was one of, of the ways that I, you know, tried really hard to get them to catch up. But again, attorneys are the hardest people to change more than any others, truly.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: I want to know. So it sounds like this didn't solve your problems and you start running into new ones. Like, how did you, how did you deal with it? What happened?
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Because I am who I am internally. If I can't see growth and movement and a way to move things more efficiently, then I'm frustrated. And I found that I was just consistently frustrated and it just didn't feel like I was feeling that relief at work. I was trying to do my things the my way and the staff was doing things the other way. And I couldn't make those things mesh. And it just became increasingly overwhelming to me.
[00:08:40] Speaker C: So as you sort of are wrapping up and you're like, okay, well maybe I don't want to do this anymore. Is that, is that when the shift happened into kind of.
[00:08:47] Speaker B: And I had been thinking like part of the merger conversation was, I don't know if I want to do this job forever too. So it got me thinking about, okay, now that this merger is done, how do I potentially phase myself out? How do I get out of this industry? What's the next place I want to be and what does that look like and how can I create the next thing?
So what happened One New Year's Eve, I get the year confused because it's 20. It's New Year's Eve right there. But it was 2022 going into 2023. And a girlfriend of mine, her and her husband came over to our homes with just two couples hanging out at home. And we. She does not drink. She's been sober for 20 plus years. So she brought a bottle of a THC drink to have that night, and she was sharing it with us all. And I thought, okay, you know what? I don't really want to drink tonight either. I'll try that. But the bottle was really feminine and really floral. And I thought, how can we bring more sober options? Sober, curious options. How are women affected by this? What's that conversation like? I feel like it might not be entirely true, but it does feel like to me, growing up, cannabis was not ladylike. It wasn't something girls were 100%, for example. But I feel like guys were right. I don't know, Maybe, maybe yes, maybe no. But in college, all of them dies. Kind of hard to hear it all.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: You know, Mary, Niche, you. You talk about when you're in the midst of this pain, you have this kind of an epiphany moment. And it just makes me think, jb, about a number of our guests. They always, at some point reached this moment. It sounds like you had that. That New Year's Eve or shortly thereafter. It led you, I think, to start your company. Talk a little bit about how you went from epiphany to the bridge and your. And starting your company and more about your company.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: I found that reducing through. Through naturopathic medicine and so many other things, just the toxic overload in my body was a lot between just natural cortisol, adrenaline, all of that being spiked. But then, you know, our food supply here is a whole nother conversation that we can have another day. But that's the fact. Not getting enough exercise, you know, working morning, noon and night, drinking and sustaining on coffee all day. And when you add one more layer of toxicity into that, which was for me, alcohol. I had a very natural and normal relation with alcohol. I didn't have any issues, and I never used it as a crutch. But when you're entertaining, and I want to say especially in real estate, but I feel like it's every walk of business, it's, let's get dinner. Dinner usually means a glass of wine, two cocktails, or let's meet for a drink. There's always that aspect in business. So when you tack on Even just one drink a day, it's going to have an effect on your body, on your sleep, on your health. So now we've got from 2020, I'm drinking less, I'm taking more plant based medicine, I'm learning about all that. I'm taking the cannabis for my herniated disc as opposed to pharmaceutical pain medications. I'm learning a lot about how that can actually be a great pain reliever.
Which leads me into this 2022 New Year's Eve where my friend brings this bottle and I'm like, okay, there's something here. And there's a conversation I need to have with busy working professionals, but also women exclusive, exclusively because we're overworked and overwhelmed and we've got so much going on. And here's something that can help take the edge off a little bit if we're looking for a little buzz and a way to unwind, but can be healthier and help us get greater sleep and all of those things.
So through all of that, in that one night, I conceptualized soberish. And I'm a pretty quick, quick to task. Like when I figure out I want to do something, I'm going to do it. So it was by April, I think April 1st, maybe even March, I had told my firm, hey, I'm going to open this new business.
This is where I'm going to focus. I don't know where that's taking me just yet, but I want you all to know this is what I'm going to be doing and I'll be leaving. I just don't know my timelines on things yet.
[00:12:30] Speaker A: Two, three, four months, you've made the, made the business plan so ish you've to use ish is in your title and you start soberish. So talk more about soberish, what it is, what it does and, and, and let's dig a little bit into, into that.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: So Soberish is a non alcoholic bottle shop and cannabis boutique. I describe it that way because again, non alcoholic bottle shop is a newer concept we're coming to learn. There's now again many nationally, but still it's not as big of a thing. But when you think of any kind of spirit, tequila, rum, bourbon, whiskey, you can have the same kind of product without alcohol, wine, beer, all the things. So that was a part of it. But again I wanted to bring cannabis more mainstream and all of those things. But I did think about, you know, why when you walk into any headshot, is it all either behind a glass counter and you can't Touch it, and it feels very, very sterile. It's like you're walking into a teenager's basement. There's someone behind the counter. He's got headphones on. He doesn't care about you. You guess again. You're guessing at what you need. And then you have a terrible experience because you've had too much, because no one told you what dosage was like or that.
So I thought, how do I change that experience entirely? And I wanted to, number one, throw you off your tracks right away. It's feminine. Our colors, our brand colors are pink, pops of red, pops of orange. Like, it's very fun and colorful in there. People describe it as an adult candy store. I wanted it to be elevated, so we built really beautiful custom shelves. It's really eye catching. And then I wanted to bring back a nod to, like, the retail I grew up with, which was. When you walked into a store, there was a floor set. It was spring. It was pretty. It was. So I was bringing in all these fun things, but kind of trying to shape the industry a little bit too.
And again, not that we're geared towards women, but there is a feminine aspect to it, but also an adult aspect. It is an adult place where we're going to have conversations about what you really need and why you're. Why you're looking to thc.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah, I've been there before. It's very, very pretty. It's very pretty. Store trying to go. It's. Yeah, it's very pretty. Adult candy store is. Pretty is a really good description of it. But why. So why name it sober Ish, not just sober.
[00:14:45] Speaker B: Some people have thought that the concept is, like, sober and then the ish, the other stuff. And I like to break that conception because it's not about that. It's about wherever you are in your soberness, Sobriety today. So for me, I still do occasionally drink. People ask me in the early days, like, oh, how long have you been sober? And I. I do like to break that misconception because I'll have maybe a dirty martini once a month. That's. That's my level. So I'm sober ish in the sense that if I feel like it today, I might. There are people that might want to take two or three months out of the year where they don't drink to feel better. You might be entirely sober because you have, like, addiction issues. Maybe it's religion, maybe you have medical needs. Maybe you're pregnant. There's so many reasons why you might not want to drink alcohol. So it is wherever you are in. So that that's what the ish means to be sober. Ish, wherever you are today.
[00:15:34] Speaker C: Yeah. Inclusivity.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: That makes sense. Yeah. Some people, you know, it's all different.
All right, so what's it like, you know, opening a store like brick and mortar, you know what I mean?
[00:15:43] Speaker A: And yeah, you went from closing real estate deals to having a, I guess, retail brick and mortar. How's that?
[00:15:50] Speaker B: Oh, what I wish I knew then there's so much I didn't know that I've had to learn along the way. And then adding on to that cannabis, I had a few people that had open stores and knew a little bit and they shared some advice with me, so I thought I knew enough. But again, so much I didn't know about payment processors and how it's just still such a gray area and everything is changing every day. You deal with so much Georgia legislation and now there's pending federal legislation which might take this category away for us. I don't think so, but there is talk of that. So it's like a never ending ebb and flow of like, what could happen. The instability of that and then again trying to figure out the right platforms and systems I'm supposed to use in technology.
It's a lot. It's a lot.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: So you didn't necessarily replace the stress in your life that you were before, just a different type of stress?
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I think what I've learned the most is that being an entrepreneur will have the same stressors. It doesn't matter the role. I've learned that I'm still managing people, I'm still managing clients, I'm still dealing. You know, there's different things that happen here and there, but it's all the same at the end of the day.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: You talked about telling your business partners you were leaving and doing this. That's one thing. But what about the people that gave you that advice and the community that gave you that advice? Were they supportive, were they not? I mean, just talk a little bit about that because that's where this worst advice came from, right?
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Yeah, the, the advice to only be a professional in whatever category. Yeah, I think that twofold. I think that my community has been really supportive. My partner in life, David, he has been so supportive of, like, do whatever makes you happy. Like, I think this is great. He's been in real estate for 20 plus years too. He understands the stressors. So he's been super support. My friends and family have been very supportive in so many ways. But I Think with that internal thing that was said in. When I was young, I questioned myself, am I doing the right thing here? Should I go back to that, that part of me? So I don't know. And I've talked to a couple people in career changes, career changing moments in time, and they, they've had similar concerns. So I know I'm not alone in that, which is nice. But overall, I think, I think there is a good amount of support from people again every year we change so much as a society and the way we think. I think again, 10, 15 years ago, if you went from being a lawyer to a retail store owner, there might be more chatter. Today it's like, be happy. That's all that matters. Do whatever feels good for you. So I'm lucky that this is the moment I'm doing it.
And so I do think I started asking myself the right questions of what do I really want in life? Who do I want to be? What do I want to say in 30 years about myself? And I don't know if that's, if that's a result of 2020 because so many people have that same earmarker as a moment in time, if that just comes with age to some degree.
But yes, I, I think listening to myself was really important and pivotal to, to change my direction.
[00:18:46] Speaker C: It's a really common theme in our podcast too, is like you get, you know, somebody gives advice and one thing that's kind of coming to the surface is, is all advice bad? Because advice comes from other people and their ex, their exact situation. And what helped them might help, maybe it did help them, but it doesn't help you at all, you know, so there's a lot of things like trusting yourself, pivoting into this thing and having all the same stressors and all these. And do you still feel like you would you have done something differently if you had done this earlier or do you think it happened at the right time?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: I think it happened at the right time. I, I think I couldn't have known all the things and done anything earlier. So I think all of that happened in the right time.
Do I wonder if I did the right thing sometimes? Some days. But I'm not a person to look for. I'm always going to look forward and, and you know, I love what I'm doing right now in so many ways. So I'm going to see it through, of course.
But I question a question if I should. I have jumped from a lot better remind myself I can always go back, right? So right now I'M here, I'm focused on the present, I'm moving forward. I can always, I can always change course again.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Well, as it relates to Cyberish, what do you think is the future? What's your vision?
[00:19:53] Speaker B: I want it to be a national brand. I believe that it can be. I think there is still nothing like it that I have seen nationally in the two years. I think there are more and more stores that are similar but not quite the same. They're, they don't have the same ethos that we do in the same principle because again, it's a lot of hands on communication that we do. It's. What are you really looking for? Is it sleep? Is it anxiety relief? Have you ever done this before? Like, we have a lot of conversation with people, we help a lot of people try something they've never tried or have been told. They've been stigmatized about it, they've been told it's bad and now they're. I have 80 year old women that come in like my grandson told me I should try, try this and then they're coming back because they're like, I sleep so much better.
So that, that lights me up a lot too. Or people that come in for non alcoholic products because so many people now are into the gummies and into the drinks and that's cool and that's great, but when someone comes in looking for a non alcoholic bourbon, that lights me up. Like I'm so excited to see more people discovering that you don't have to have any kind of stimulant, you can just have a really good tasting drink and be happy about that too.
[00:20:54] Speaker C: Well, on this show, every once in a while we do get into some advice questions. So, you know, if there's a young woman out there and she's to join any kind of male dominated workforce or society or thing, do you have any advice specifically for them?
[00:21:07] Speaker B: You would say as an early days closing attorney, finding those women like it was few and far between. And in the cannabis industry right now as well, there are not a lot of female players. So for young women that are trying to do the same thing, find someone if you feel like you need a mentor. If you find women within your community doing what you want to do, and I promise you most of them, if not all of them will be really supportive and help you through, I think that's the best thing. I really did have some really great people to shepherd me through and figure out where I wanted to be and somehow my personality is quite confident and dominant. So I think that helps. You have to just know who you are and love who you are and be who you are. You know, something I say to myself a lot is when I look back on my life, who do I want to be when I'm looking back at 90? And I think about that a lot. And if my story is, well, I was a lawyer and then I opened a bottle shop, and then I did this, and then I moved to Costa Rica and I like, I would love that story. Life is a really big adventure, and I think that more of us should flow into that. Economically, that can be scary. We all have certain obligations with life and children and homes and mortgages. And so I do understand that path as well. Carving out and finding the path that you want to be on, even if it means some sacrifice, is maybe you're starting slow. Maybe you're just putting. Dipping your toe in to see if that's the next thing. Maybe it's not all or nothing. And that's going to be really hard for a while, but it's worth it. And then you'll know where you want to be from there.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: I really am impressed with you and your business and Serverish. I think it's a great title. Even though we couldn't call this the worst ish advice I ever got, we had to say the worst, right? It has to be definitive. But Servish is a great concept, and you sharing how you got to where you are created a great episode for our listening audience. So I thank you for joining us today.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you so much, jb.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: What stood out to me is how much of Marinous Journey is about permission.
For years, she followed the path others said, and it took her health breaking down before she finally asked herself, what. What do I actually want?
[00:23:13] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, I love that. That New Year's Eve moment that she had, that kind of became the spark for what she's doing now.
You know, one night and one idea. And as a lot of our guests do, she didn't just sit on it. You know, she built a whole life around it, a brand. And she's got this colorful, inviting, and like, totally different form of any kind of cannabis shop I've ever seen.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And her line about health, wellness, and authenticity mattering more than any title, that's. That's something leaders everywhere need to really hear.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Totally. You know, we all chase titles at some point, you know, but hearing her say that you can always change the plan and pivot. It's, you know, it's nice, it's freeing.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: It really is. It really is. Mirnous, thank you so much for joining us today as our guest. And to all of our listeners, this has been another episode of the worst advice I ever got. We'll see you next time.
