In this episode, I sit down with my good friend and business partner, Mike Smith, to talk about how he came out publicly as a pro-Trump supporter and how it has impacted his business and his life.
00:01:26.000I said, yes, this is a divine appointment.
00:01:28.000And we're talking, and we talked about the inner city, what I was going to do with my foundation, and what his plans were and his agenda to help the country.
00:01:37.000And when I walked out of that room, I suppose it was a half hour, and all the amazing things he's talking about, I go, wow, this is going to be the best president in history.
00:01:51.000Well, here, I walked out, and I didn't stop there.
00:01:54.000I did my due diligence, and I went and checked out his employees, and all of his employees that I talked to, to this day, every one of them is like talking to one of my own employees.
00:02:28.000And then after he won, of course, then they all wanted to know, how do you know he was going to win?
00:02:33.000So then, of course, all the press was after me.
00:02:35.000Well, then, as you know, I was attacked, Better Business Bureau, A plus to an F rating over, you know, wanting me to take down my two-for-one ads.
00:04:21.000They better match, you know, be right for the job.
00:04:24.000And just like I went all in for the president, I'm going all in for a few other people in this midterm that I've met, and they're amazing people.
00:04:45.000They interviewed me on a radio station the other day and they said, are you, they said, yeah, Mike Lindell founded my pillow and he was used to be a Democrat.
00:05:26.000It's very inspirational and very just empowering because, like you said, you started out and you had drug addiction issues, and then now you have this huge business that's worth, well, you sell over $300 million worth of pillows and just an incredible business.
00:05:44.000And, you know, it's very inspirational.
00:05:46.000It really represents the American dream.
00:05:48.000And so I was going to ask you, is that something that you see in President Donald Trump as really this embodiment of the American dream?
00:06:51.000He said, well, this pillow changed my life.
00:06:53.000I run the Minneapolis Home and Garden Show.
00:06:55.000Well, when I did that show, I was able to talk to people then because I had a table in front of me and they're coming out to me and I didn't need drugs behind that to do that.
00:07:04.000So for seven years, I did shows, made them, you know, but I had a lot of adversity at 20, lost a 20-year marriage.
00:07:35.000If no one will take my pillow, let's do an infomercial.
00:07:38.000And we ended up doing, you talk about the American Dream.
00:07:40.000I said, I told my friends and family go, Come in, pull your money.
00:07:43.000I said, we'll just bring it right to the public.
00:07:45.000And well, the night before during the read, you know, we're doing our reads when this producer goes, he goes, this guy's the worst guy I've ever seen.
00:08:15.000And we're making about 90 to 100,000 pillows a day, but I have my own call center where your customer service goes back to your customer service.
00:08:41.000I mean, your story and President Trump's story, it really shows people no matter where you are in your life, how old you are, how rich or poor you are, you can become a success story.
00:08:51.000And, you know, even for me myself, I've experienced some of those struggles because people are always telling me, you know, you're not going to make it.
00:09:11.000My company, since, you know, this got brought up the other day, I was actually on, I won't say the news station, but it was one of the big three.
00:10:29.000Especially if Sean Hannity is a friend of mine, Lori, they do something, and then they'll say, the boycotts will come up again, boycott my pillow.
00:10:36.000And then the bots and trolls on Twitter will say this.
00:10:39.000Well, then someone else over here will say, don't boycott him.
00:11:52.000Everyone needs to buy my pillow because president Trump uses my pillow absolutely and you can see on that.
00:11:57.000I was invited to the White House in the summer of it was last summer 17 for the manufacturers summit for the Made In America and I walked in there and it was so surreal here's about 15 people around this thing and and I said you all got your names.
00:12:18.000And they walked in and he, he did a whole like one-minute talk about, you know, my pillow and him having it.
00:12:25.000He had bought some and he tried them and he said he loves them, he's getting great sleep and it was that's quite a quite a compliment.
00:12:30.000And because i'll tell you what that guy I don't know when he does sleep, but it needs to be quality, I know because he's always he's like me he goes to bed uh, really late.
00:12:41.000I see him tweeting at three in the morning and then he's tweeting at five in the morning, at six in the morning, and I love president Trump, that's hard worker, he's hard worker, his work ethic.
00:12:56.000I actually bought my dad my pillows for his birthday two years ago and he was telling me because he saw that study in the news about how people were coming after you and because you called yourself a sleep expert and how they said, oh well, you can't say that the pillows are therapeutic and they help people, right?
00:13:13.000But my dad's a doctor and he said that he used it and he has pain issues and he feels a lot better now and he recommends it to all his patients and they feel better when they use your pillow.
00:13:23.000So he told me to tell you, to tell you that he signs off that it is medically approved, he recommends it to his patients.
00:13:30.000Well, we just we just finished our sleep study there that this company did for us and they proved all these things, that you get sleep faster, stay asleep longer um, or you get these great sleep cycles um, snoring.
00:13:43.000I mean 95 percent, this positional sleep apnea.
00:13:46.00095 percent of the people had improved.
00:13:48.000It was just an amazing study that i'll be all over the news now in the magazines that they uh, there's getting published right now, but i'm very proud of that because it validates what you know 40 million people know now.
00:13:59.000You know that have been saying it going.
00:14:01.000Now I can get on tv and really say what my pillow does before.
00:14:04.000It's just the passion and and all the people it's helped and and um well, that's great.
00:14:10.000Well, focusing now on Minnesota, there's some Republican candidates who you've endorsed.
00:14:14.000You have Doug Wardlow, who's running for attorney general against Keith Ellison, who's a really bad guy.
00:14:18.000He's the deputy chair of the DMC and uh, you know, what would you say to Minnesota voters who are well looking to vote in the election on november 6th?
00:14:31.000I don't just get behind someone because, like I say, I do my due diligence.
00:14:36.000I put my name and my platform of trust out there, which is a big platform, and I uh, Doug's an amazing guy smart, the guy is so smart.
00:14:45.000He um, he worked for this Christian organization that backs my Christian beliefs.
00:14:49.000I mean, he's just, he's an amazing guy and he's the best one i've ever could ever see for Minnesota.
00:14:55.000He's going to really be an amazing and I believe that um, from what i've heard from Ellerson to political, political politicize the position of Attorney General, and say you're going to go after the president.
00:15:06.000Aren't you supposed to be helping us here in Minnesota?
00:15:09.000I mean, I mean, I was just blown away by that.
00:15:11.000And I kind of have a little fear about that because I've been very, you know, Doug's an amazing guy.
00:15:19.000And my big concern, too, as a woman, is all these domestic abuse allegations against Keith Ellison and how you see the Democrats right now trying to weaponize the party against Brett Kavanaugh.
00:15:30.000But they're completely ignoring the fact that Keith Ellison has multiple allegations of domestic abuse.
00:15:34.000He supports Antifa, which our government has recognized as a domestic terrorist organization.
00:15:40.000Antifa is always terrorizing Trump supporters and beating them up.
00:15:43.000And you see Trump at rallies speaking out about Antifa.
00:17:34.000I have the Lindale Foundation, I have the Lindell Recovery Network.
00:17:36.000The foundation first, I'm bringing trust back into giving.
00:17:41.000I'm taking private sector money where you see it home and you'll be able to pick whatever that square is, know that 100% of your money goes to that need.
00:17:50.000And then you get to hear back a difference you made.
00:17:53.000Where, you know, before it's like, are those really my kids?
00:18:35.000Well, it's because I'm paying all the overhead over here.
00:18:39.000And then the Lindale Recovery Network, that's going to be amazing where we're gathering stories right now of hope.
00:18:45.000Imagine if you're on a website and you put in your age and your addiction.
00:18:50.000So you put in, you know, 22-year-old opiate addict.
00:18:54.000They might not, or heroin addict, they might not be able to relate to a 55-year-old meth addict.
00:19:00.000But the closer you get to a match, so you put that in, and all these stories of your agent and that drug come down, and they've made it through.
00:19:22.000And I'll say, you guys, here's where to go here.
00:19:25.000All these sinners that are all faith-based, your teen challenge, Union Gospel, Salvation Army, these are the ones that work.
00:19:30.000I'm going to say, go over here, get your help.
00:19:32.000And when they come out of that, they're going to have an app, an app that's going to, with these mentors that I'm going to be paying that are going to be, you know, I'll say, hey, don't worry, when you get out, we're right here for you.
00:19:43.000And we're going to bring them through.
00:19:46.000It's going to be one of the biggest employers in the country.
00:19:48.000You team up with Trump because he has this really big opiate program as well to counter the addiction issues in this country and the war on opiate crisis.
00:20:11.000What message or what piece of information or inspiration could you give to business owners who are conservative, but they're nervous to come out in support of President Trump?
00:20:23.000I mean, you get out there and you support them, and you will be, don't be afraid.
00:20:29.000I mean, your business is going to increase.
00:20:32.000I mean, everyone, let me tell you, even things that are over here on the left, you've got maybe, to me, it's 80 to 90 percent that are still supporting your business.
00:20:42.000It's just that small voice that's loud and don't be afraid of those guys over there.
00:21:17.000And they're going, you are guiding, by being so voiceless, they're able to go ahead and speak their mind that they've been instead of having to hide and be afraid of somebody attacking them.
00:21:28.000Well, one guy came up and he goes, you know, I love what you're doing, but you're aligning yourself with the worst person ever.
00:21:42.000Because everyone around him, and this is right in the heart of the, you know, in the heart of Minnesota.
00:21:47.000So I think people, it's just like my Facebook.
00:21:50.000When I started out back in the day, I would put a picture of me and the president up there, and I'd get, you know, like 10 likes just before the election.
00:21:58.000You know, I'd have Rudy Giuliani or someone that I'd met, I've had there up there.
00:22:48.000You better put it right out there, whether you're in business or whatever, and say, hey, look what it's doing, and brag about what he's done.
00:22:56.000You need to get out there and brag about it.
00:22:58.000Look at everybody, the lowest unemployment for black, kind of pro and Hispanic in history.
00:23:04.000We were way ahead of the curve before they started announcing this.
00:23:07.000This is why it goes back two, three months.
00:23:09.000I mean, out where my factory's at here in Minnesota and Scott County, I mean, everyone's now is finally paying people what I was paying people because we have careers at my bill.