40: Sexual Assault Victim To Impact Entrepreneur // The Story of Carlie Rioux

Carlie Rioux is the founder of Thea Caye, a social enterprise creating stylish and functional beach bags while making a positive impact in the world by creating jobs for survivors of exploitation, using sustainable materials, using bio-degradable packaging, and working with unknown artists to help them build their rep. Through this venture, they can provide scholarships to the children of the survivors to help break the cycle of violence. They support the Drop-In center in Nepal so that present-day trafficking victims have somewhere to go. Carlie and her team are also helping to create jobs in poverty-stricken areas by removing ocean plastics. In her early twenties, Carlie was sexually attacked 4 times by 4 separate men: a friend, a boss, a date, and a massage therapist. Different races and different ages, different dynamics in different places. Since then, it has been a difficult journey for Carlie, but one morning everything changed for her. Her mom hated beach bags and so does most women she knew. This gave her the idea to start her own beach bag business, which also opened her eyes to the many exploitations happening in the fashion industry and all around her. Carlie knew she had to do something about it, which started her career in impact entrepreneurship.   *** For Show Notes, Key Points, Contact Info, Resources Mentioned, & More on this episode please visit our website: RockBottom2RockinIt.com. *** Feedback? Questions? Comments? I would love to hear from you! Contact me at us via: Email (eric@ericgilbertwilliams.com), LinkedIn (@ericgilbertwilliams), Twitter (@ericgilbertw), or Instagram (@ericgilbertwilliams). EP Tags: 

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From Rock Bottom to Rockin' It explores personal stories about those who hit absolute rock bottom. Then got back up, wiped off the dust, kicked failure to the curb, and now they’re rockin’ it like you’d never believe. These interviews are intended to inspire, motivate, and give hope and vision to those in their rock bottom by sharing stories, tools, and the resources that our guests used to create their 'rockin' it' moments. Host Eric Gilbert-Williams is a Canadian Entrepreneur who faced hardships as a youth like bullying, learning disorders, drugs, and crime before discovering success through his entrepreneurial pursuits. During his times through these teen social challenges, he found self-esteem and the passion to change his life through listening to the inspirational stories of others who overcame deep hardships to create great success in their lives.