Prosecutor, Influencer, Sauna Boss: Molly Hale Chinnock on Running Southeast Leisure

Molly Hale Chinnock is the operations director of Southeast Leisure, an Alpharetta company that has built custom saunas, steam rooms, wine cellars, humidors, and golf simulators across the Southeast for more than 25 years. She splits her life between San Diego and Georgia, flying to Atlanta every Monday and home every Sunday. She and Logan connected through mutual friends and her Instagram stories, and she showed up to 216 Coworking in flip-flops because she'd forgotten her business shoes. Her theme for the episode: "You can change your mind a million times and all roads will lead to Rome."

From Goat Neck Road to the San Diego DA's office

Molly grew up on Goat Neck Road outside Helen, in White County, back when it was mostly campers and quiet. In high school she was student council president and Miss White County High, "only because I liked leadership." One week after graduating from the University of Georgia with a marketing degree, she moved to San Diego with $500 and one suitcase. Back then, she says, marketing job ads mostly meant door-to-door sales. She ended up working for a lawyer, decided she could do his job, finished law school in two years, and became a prosecutor for the San Diego District Attorney's Office. She liked the theatrics of trial work, but she wasn't passionate about it, and she says you have to be in that job.

20,000 challengers and a viral first date

After leaving law and having two kids, Molly joined a spin-class friend's 30-day clean-eating challenge. She lost eight pounds, loved it, and went into business with her. Over six years the challenge grew to more than 20,000 participants and was featured by the Today Show's website and HuffPost. The lesson she took from it was how to build community, which she calls the key to social media. After her divorce, she started an Instagram about dating again at 40. One live-updated first date went viral, and she grew to about 15,000 followers in five months. Restaurants and brands paid her to bring in the crowd, and she starred in "Molly Tries," a web series made by an Atlanta platform where she tried out different local jobs. Last year she renamed her account from Molly Tries to Molly Does.

Ten deals in fourteen days

After a rough stretch, Molly's stepmom introduced her to Keenan, who was running Southeast Leisure, and her small marketing agency took on the account. When Keenan called about a sales slump, she assumed it was her fault and flew to Georgia for two weeks, ready to work golf tournaments and wine parties to keep the client. Instead she found the website was producing plenty of leads, but the team of skilled builders wasn't organized about following up. She closed about ten deals in fourteen days. Soon she was asked to run the company. "Me, a girl who cannot hang a frame on a wall," she said. It was the hardest season of her life, with skeptical crews and mornings she felt sick from stress, but she says the job comes down to organization and over-communicating with clients. Keenan, who left for a while, is back too.

What Finland taught her about saunas

Materials make up about 70% of Southeast Leisure's costs, mostly because premium heaters and lumber come through layers of distributors. Molly planned to fly to Finland and knock on manufacturers' doors herself, then discovered the World Sauna Forum was in Jyväskylä the week she could go. She landed about 30 meetings on the first day. In Finland, she says, "sauna" is a verb, a place, and a way of life: communal, social, and unhurried, with people going in and out for hours instead of watching a timer. Back home, she's seeing developers add one- or two-person saunas to penthouse bathrooms in place of oversized tubs. Southeast Leisure rarely builds a sauna for under $15,000, and its custom pieces with curved benches and starry-night ceilings can run $50,000 to $60,000 or more.

Marketing is the assist

Molly warns homeowners about do-it-yourself builds and fake websites. Southeast Leisure has fixed saunas built with lumber that oozed sap at high heat and one whose builder had sealed the inside with shellac, which is toxic when it heats up. She also sees lead-generation sites with stock photos that sell your contact information to whatever contractor will buy it, which is part of why the company keeps a warehouse where it fabricates benches and panels before installing. And when sales dip, she no longer blames the marketing: "Marketing is the assist. You have to take what you're given and then you gotta go sell." Her advice to idea people is to point every idea at one goal. "Imagine if you took all that energy and put it into one trajectory, how much quicker you can move."

Listen to the Full Conversation

Molly was the first guest Logan ever asked "Are you okay?" Her honest answer: no, but also the happiest she's ever been. The rest of the rapid-fire round covers The Birdcage, a festival lineup built around Taylor Swift and Dierks Bentley, charcuterie and wine, and why she'd hire a glam squad before a chef. She and Logan also bond over showing up to the airport three hours early. Her morning drive is positivity: an upbeat playlist in the shower and business podcasts on the way in. See Southeast Leisure's work on Instagram @southeastleisure and follow Molly @molly_does. Catch the full episode below.