The Women in Retail Leadership Circle (WIRLC) is excited to announce that Stormy Simon, president of Overstock.com, will be a keynote speaker at our Women in Retail Leadership Summit, taking place in Miami, April 22-23.

Simon’s “make it happen” mantra has helped motivate teams throughout Overstock.com. Under her leadership, Overstock.com was named to Forbes’ 2014 list of America’s 100 Most Trustworthy Companies.

Simon didn’t take the “traditional” route of an Ivy League undergraduate degree followed by a M.B.A. from a lofty institution in her rise to president of Overstock.com. A self-described student of the “school of hard knocks,” Simon joined Overstock.com in 2001, the second year of the online retailer’s existence. Her first job with the company was an entry-level position on the sales team, where her tireless work ethic and innovative business instincts caught the attention of Overstock.com Founder and CEO Patrick M. Byrne, and led to Simon’s promotion to a series of leadership and executive roles at the company.

Simon’s impressive track record of successes as senior executive over several departments, including customer care, partner care and marketing, culminated with her being named co-president of Overstock.com before assuming the sole presidency in 2014.

In the 13 years Simon has been at Overstock.com, the company has maintained its position as a leader in the e-commerce world, reaching sales of $1.3 billion annually. Her dedication to developing the culture and soul of Overstock.com, from the founding years to the present, has led to its evolution into the caring, customer-centric organization it is today.

To get a sense of who Simon is and what’s led to her success with Overstock.com, I listened to a recent interview she did with Jake Sasseville, host of the “Jake Sasseville Show” podcast. During their discussion, Simon shares some of the following pearls of wisdom:

On the Importance of Laughter

  • “You can do really important things while you’re laughing [or] wearing a pair of jeans. If you don’t roll with it, if you don’t learn how to giggle a little bit, you might go crazy. You really might.”

On Overstock.com’s Corporate Culture

  • “It’s not just hiring someone; it’s [the employee] agreeing to spend 8 [hours] to 10 hours a day with us working on our vision. And that’s an amazing thing. When that agreement has been made, I don’t break it lightly.”
  • “The best teams don’t always win. Every player has a story, and that’s really important to understand. Every human has something they’re dealing with. I try to understand everything that’s going on with our employees [before] I make a decision that’s best for the organization.”
  • “We don’t want a bunch of grumpy people running around the company, because it matters. So even if you’re the smartest, if you’ve got the worst attitude, I’ll take happy for almost the smartest.”

On Staying Competitive in an Increasingly Saturated Market

  • ”We’ve stayed true to a few things. For starters, [Overstock.com is] not a marketplace. Our partnerships are real partnerships. We know our partners’ names, we have conversations with them, and they’re our friends.”
  • ”Amazon has done things outside of traditional selling, such as offering cloud services, streaming services, the Kindle, the Fire Phone. We’ve stayed true to our brand.”
  • “We’ve just had 11 straight quarters with a profit. That is amazing.”

To hear more from Simon, attend the Women in Retail Leadership Summit, taking place in Miami from April 22-23.