Shawn Nelson: “The Blessing Is the Mission”
All In
DB Podcasts
4.8 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2020
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Lovesac was the fastest-growing furniture company in America in 2019 according to Furniture Today. Shawn Nelson can’t be certain if the company he founded would still be in existence if he hadn't served a Latter-day Saint mission, but he doesn’t think it would be. After all, it was his ability to speak Mandarin that made fulfilling the company’s first big order possible. But Nelson says his mission also taught independence, mental toughness, and how to build relationships of trust—all skills he has since used to build his business.
“For missionaries...the blessing is the mission, the blessing is the experience. Sadly, I worry that I took a lot more than I probably ever gave because it blessed my life in so many ways."
Show Notes
1:17- A Giant Bean Bag
10:42- A Mission in Mandarin
15:04- Everything Else is Dust
19:34- Highs and Lows
24:43- Sharing the Gospel Through YouTube
30:45- Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
36:40- What Does It Mean To Be “All In” the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Find the full episode transcript at ldsliving.com/allin.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | In 2019, Love Sack was the fastest growing furniture company in America. |
| 0:06.8 | The company started with a giant foam-filled bag, but his sense expanded to become a publicly |
| 0:12.7 | traded company on Nasdaq, selling in the hundreds of millions. |
| 0:17.5 | Today, we talk with the founder of Love Sack about how the company likely never would have |
| 0:22.7 | gotten off the ground if it hadn't been for the fact that he could read Mandarin. |
| 0:28.0 | A language he had learned a few years earlier as a Latter-day Saint Missionary. |
| 0:33.6 | Sean Nelson founded Love Sack in 1998 and currently serves as the company CEO and a member |
| 0:40.8 | of its board of directors. |
| 0:42.8 | In 2005, Sean won Richard Branson's reality television show The Rebel Billionaire on Fox |
| 0:50.6 | and continues to participate in ongoing TV appearances. |
| 0:54.8 | Sean has a master's degree in strategic design and management. |
| 1:02.0 | This is all in, an LDS living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean |
| 1:06.8 | to be all in the gospel of Jesus Christ? |
| 1:09.9 | I'm Morgan Jones and I am so excited to have Sean Nelson with me today. |
| 1:14.5 | Sean, welcome. |
| 1:15.5 | Thank you. |
| 1:16.5 | Thanks for having me. |
| 1:17.5 | Well, I have been looking forward to this conversation. |
| 1:20.7 | I had the chance to have a phone conversation with Sean last week and have been looking |
| 1:26.3 | forward to this ever since. |
| 1:28.1 | So Sean, thank you so much for being willing. |
| 1:30.8 | And I'm wondering if we could just start out by having you quickly summarize for those |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from DB Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of DB Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.