Shownotes
Business Inspiration
Willa’s start [4:52] Transition of the business to Nashville [6:19]Candle Flickering Moments
Trying to fit the Willa’s Shortbread product into the wrong market [26:11]Business Building Insights
Advice if you’re taking over someone’s business [8:33] Watching pricing and keeping an eye on costs [10:43] Whole Foods product analysis [13:34] Adding new flavors and adjusting their niche [16:23] Blackberry Farms and a surprising tactic to get noticed [18:09] Savannah Bee and the trick to wholesale markets [23:30] Overall keys to success [29:14] All about rebranding through packaging [29:56] How Willa’s Shortbread got into Southern Living and Unwrapped 2.0 [37:13] How to work with a public relations agency [39:50] Goals for the future [41:04]
Contact Links
Behind the Scenes of Willa’s Shortbread Video Website Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedInIf you found value in this podcast, make sure to subscribe and leave a review in Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts. That helps us spread the word to more makers just like you. Thanks! Sue
Transcripts
Hi there.
Speaker:This is gift biz on rapt episode 76.
Speaker:And she says,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:what do you do?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:well, I've got the shortbread cookies right across the way here.
Speaker:She says,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:I'm the person you need to talk to.
Speaker:No way way.
Speaker:Hi, John Lee,
Speaker:Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,
Speaker:and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,
Speaker:and now it's time to light it up.
Speaker:Welcome to gift bears,
Speaker:unwrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop
Speaker:and grow your business.
Speaker:And now here's your host,
Speaker:Sue Monheit.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.
Speaker:Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or
Speaker:are just getting started,
Speaker:you'll discover new insight to gain traction and to grow your
Speaker:business. And today I have joining us Eric Ryan of willows
Speaker:shortbread. After 28 years of fighting the stress of corporate America.
Speaker:Eric joined the growing ranks of corporate expatriates and took on
Speaker:the challenges of running a small business.
Speaker:Willis shortbread is a family owned and operated business located just
Speaker:North of Nashville,
Speaker:specializing in handmade shortbread and savory cheese cookies.
Speaker:Willa's currently offers over 20 varieties in their all natural all
Speaker:butter products and is featured in gourmet and specialty shops,
Speaker:subscription boxes,
Speaker:and private labels all across the country.
Speaker:Willis shortbread has been featured in numerous publications,
Speaker:including Southern living magazine and winning their prestigious best of the
Speaker:South award.
Speaker:In 2015,
Speaker:they've also been featured on unwrapped 2.0
Speaker:in December of 2015.
Speaker:What an exciting business,
Speaker:Eric, welcome to the show.
Speaker:Thank you soon.
Speaker:Glad to be here.
Speaker:I like to start out every episode by having us learn
Speaker:a little bit more about you in a creative way.
Speaker:And that is by having you describe your ideal motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to do that,
Speaker:what color would that candle be and what would be the
Speaker:quote? Oh wow.
Speaker:You're making me think this early in the morning,
Speaker:painful, painful.
Speaker:You are the one who said we had to do this
Speaker:early, so you don't get out of that so easy.
Speaker:No, I'm a morning person.
Speaker:Believe me,
Speaker:color wise.
Speaker:I don't know if color of candle really matters.
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:I guess the fragrance matters more to me than the color.
Speaker:So I need something that is soothing,
Speaker:soothing fragrance.
Speaker:That's not overly.
Speaker:Okay. It smells like old spice.
Speaker:Oh, old spice,
Speaker:old spice.
Speaker:I'm kind of a old school type guy when it comes
Speaker:to that.
Speaker:So go ahead.
Speaker:So like the aftershave old,
Speaker:like the aftershave,
Speaker:Well, yeah,
Speaker:now the new stuff is no good.
Speaker:And the old,
Speaker:the old stuff is,
Speaker:So what would be the quote on that candle that smells
Speaker:like old spice.
Speaker:This is from a song that I like,
Speaker:and it's,
Speaker:it's a very simple quote.
Speaker:It's breathe in,
Speaker:breathe out,
Speaker:move on.
Speaker:And it related to Samantha,
Speaker:hurricane Katrina.
Speaker:And it's just,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:Hey, you just gotta take a deep breath,
Speaker:read that,
Speaker:keep going.
Speaker:And that to me describes love,
Speaker:especially in small business.
Speaker:Yeah, you're right.
Speaker:You can't just dwell on problems because I think as an
Speaker:entrepreneur and running your own business,
Speaker:they're going to be problems every day.
Speaker:You just have to tackle them,
Speaker:get over it and carry on.
Speaker:Like you said,
Speaker:There's another little one here and I've got one over on
Speaker:the wall and I'll go over here.
Speaker:Cause this is by some old German guy.
Speaker:It goes back to like 18 hundreds.
Speaker:And it,
Speaker:this quote goes whatever you can do or dream,
Speaker:you can begin it.
Speaker:Boldness has genius,
Speaker:power and magic in it.
Speaker:So the thing is,
Speaker:you may be hesitant to start something,
Speaker:but once you start,
Speaker:you go.
Speaker:So if you've done all your prep work and you go,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:if I can just get this done or that done,
Speaker:then I can get going with it.
Speaker:But the thing is,
Speaker:the boldness comes from starting.
Speaker:Once you start things,
Speaker:start going,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:falling into place.
Speaker:Have you ever run into people who say,
Speaker:well, I'm going to write that book or,
Speaker:Oh yeah,
Speaker:I'm going to start a business.
Speaker:You know?
Speaker:And it's always in the future,
Speaker:but it never actually happens.
Speaker:And I totally agree with you in terms of getting started.
Speaker:I think that's the hardest thing.
Speaker:Just taking that very first step.
Speaker:Yeah. We all have dreams.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:Oh, I'd like to do that.
Speaker:Well, okay,
Speaker:go do that.
Speaker:Right. But I can't do that.
Speaker:I've got to do this and I got to do that.
Speaker:Then you don't want to do that bad.
Speaker:Right. Right.
Speaker:Or you're fearful.
Speaker:You're just afraid to take,
Speaker:or you don't know the first step to take,
Speaker:which is also possible.
Speaker:Yeah. And that's why,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:doing what you're doing here.
Speaker:People have a resource if I'm starting a business or maybe
Speaker:I need to hear from people,
Speaker:more people who do this.
Speaker:Okay. So Eric,
Speaker:take us back to what will is starts with.
Speaker:Cause that's a really interesting story.
Speaker:And then how you integrated into the business.
Speaker:Okay. Yeah.
Speaker:Willa Allen,
Speaker:the lady who started Willow's shortbread is my sister-in-law's mother-in-law Sister
Speaker:in laws,
Speaker:mother in law.
Speaker:Okay. Got it.
Speaker:For, for the,
Speaker:for the uninformed of his it's my wife's sister's husband's mother.
Speaker:Okay. Let's just go with a relative distant relative.
Speaker:So had this business,
Speaker:she had started from out of her home kitchen,
Speaker:over in the Highlands of North Carolina,
Speaker:back in the mid seventies and had grown it to be
Speaker:a fairly nice business.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they had,
Speaker:it was probably half a million dollar,
Speaker:a year type business that they had grown at two,
Speaker:had a nice location,
Speaker:pretty good comp client base.
Speaker:Well, Willis husband had retired and she was getting kind of
Speaker:tired of this,
Speaker:doing it every day and,
Speaker:and whatnot.
Speaker:So she decided to sell the business.
Speaker:Well, her son and I,
Speaker:and our wives,
Speaker:her sisters cooked up this great idea.
Speaker:Why don't we take the company over and we can move
Speaker:it over here to Nashville where we are and run it
Speaker:as a part time.
Speaker:Think how much fun would be.
Speaker:Ha Yeah,
Speaker:just shoot me now.
Speaker:I'll get it over with bang.
Speaker:So, and if the time it was like,
Speaker:yeah, great.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:we all had regular careers to why for both sisters Clark
Speaker:was an engineer and you know,
Speaker:I was doing my sales gig,
Speaker:just fat,
Speaker:dumb and happy.
Speaker:And so we did,
Speaker:and in a summer of 2006,
Speaker:we kind of loaded everything up on a couple of trucks,
Speaker:brought it over here and set everything up in the,
Speaker:the luxurious building I'm sitting in right now,
Speaker:which is a converted industrial strip mall.
Speaker:Which, I mean,
Speaker:she obviously gave you the recipe.
Speaker:Did she teach you how to make the cookies?
Speaker:Or how,
Speaker:how did that transition?
Speaker:That's funny.
Speaker:Well, the wives went over and did the two days of
Speaker:cookie school.
Speaker:They called it over and that before we moved everything out
Speaker:of there.
Speaker:So they went and watched and actually got to play around
Speaker:with it.
Speaker:And of course her son had helped out there at the,
Speaker:in the company as he was in high school and stuff
Speaker:in college.
Speaker:So he basically knew the basics of a,
Speaker:we brought it on all over here and said like,
Speaker:how difficult can it fate?
Speaker:Well, yeah.
Speaker:Good luck.
Speaker:Two things.
Speaker:First of all.
Speaker:Yeah, you may have a recipe,
Speaker:but if you don't know how to do it,
Speaker:it's difficult.
Speaker:What is the texture you trying to get?
Speaker:What temperatures do you need to be working at?
Speaker:Oh, Hey,
Speaker:butter's better cold.
Speaker:No, not when you're baking it.
Speaker:Interesting. And those are little tricks of the trade that either
Speaker:get passed on or you have to learn,
Speaker:You learn the depositers that we have.
Speaker:This is the machine that physically makes the cookies.
Speaker:There's a video that I think you're going to put a
Speaker:link onto here that shows our old cookie King.
Speaker:It's a hand crank wire cut deposit.
Speaker:Or that basically I cranked this thing by hand for over
Speaker:10 years,
Speaker:Willa said early on that thing is not a science.
Speaker:It's an art.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:you blow that off and you think,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:everything, your art,
Speaker:but then when you start doing,
Speaker:it's go,
Speaker:why did these things not look right?
Speaker:Well, I don't think fall.
Speaker:Right? And Oh,
Speaker:it's, it's,
Speaker:it's a technique.
Speaker:And it's a learning a flip of the wrist.
Speaker:Or if the Doe's fallen in this way,
Speaker:you can adjust this or you change how you drop on,
Speaker:but it's,
Speaker:and it takes years.
Speaker:Now, this is significant because if some of our listeners are
Speaker:thinking that they might acquire a business,
Speaker:instead of starting something themselves,
Speaker:is there anything hindsight now,
Speaker:again, it was in family.
Speaker:So you knew you had access to will,
Speaker:if you,
Speaker:if you had any questions,
Speaker:that kind of thing.
Speaker:But is there any advice you'd give our listeners if they're
Speaker:looking at acquiring a business that you've learned now,
Speaker:hindsight after taking it over?
Speaker:Yeah. Definitely spend as much time as you can learning the
Speaker:actual process and watch it participate.
Speaker:If they'll let you come in and physically do it.
Speaker:Oh, by all means,
Speaker:please take advantage of every bit of that.
Speaker:You can get,
Speaker:it definitely will flatten out that learning curve so much trial
Speaker:and error.
Speaker:I pity the people who got our first cookies.
Speaker:Unfortunately it was our largest customer at the time.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:everybody goes through that learning process.
Speaker:So it's not like you start a business and then you
Speaker:just jump to perfection and winning the best of the South
Speaker:award and all of that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:you have to go through these processes in these phases.
Speaker:So I think it's a really good conversation to have,
Speaker:because you can hear what Eric is saying.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:he was a professional from the corporate world.
Speaker:He had someone who could train them,
Speaker:who was in the family.
Speaker:So what better in terms of a situation for wanting the
Speaker:best for the product moving forward yet still there's a learning
Speaker:curve and you have to go through probably those still very
Speaker:delicious cookies,
Speaker:but not shaped properly or,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:whatever it was right in the beginning.
Speaker:But that's how you get to the point of perfection with
Speaker:your product is by taking that time,
Speaker:going through those phases and learning what you have to do.
Speaker:And it sounds to me like Eric,
Speaker:cause I have watched that video and you and I met
Speaker:years ago when you were having trouble with your shoulder,
Speaker:from all that cranking.
Speaker:Right. But it sounds like it's really,
Speaker:it's the feel for the machine.
Speaker:And I know how you've upgraded and replaced that machine.
Speaker:I believe.
Speaker:I just want to underline this for everybody that it's a
Speaker:process. You don't go from nothing to perfection right away.
Speaker:So be gentle with yourself and understand that it's going to
Speaker:take a little bit of time.
Speaker:Yeah. We were fortunate that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:Wilson was very into the physical business side of it.
Speaker:The financials,
Speaker:getting everything set up.
Speaker:As far as the system,
Speaker:we went from a very antiquated bookkeeping system and upgraded into
Speaker:the time QuickBooks was state of the art,
Speaker:having to transfer all this old programming and everything over.
Speaker:So have somebody who can get that,
Speaker:then you have to really start drilling down into it.
Speaker:And it's one of the things that,
Speaker:that I did for my past was be able to,
Speaker:to develop spreadsheets and,
Speaker:and look at,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:actual costs and being able to take things and say,
Speaker:okay, well we need to do some pricing adjusting here or
Speaker:quantities. Something's not jiving and find out where you need to
Speaker:be. So you're not just taking,
Speaker:like we came in with existing price levels that we'll have
Speaker:had been using and we rode with those for awhile.
Speaker:But then we,
Speaker:you gotta keep a very close eye on your cost and
Speaker:watch your pricing.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:unfortunately for us,
Speaker:you've got to also stay within a market,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:price level,
Speaker:I think for everybody,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you had a different layer that people already existing customers already
Speaker:knew a certain pricing schedule from you guys from the past,
Speaker:but you always have to be adjusting and changing and you
Speaker:know, your costs change too.
Speaker:So the price of your product changes.
Speaker:Exactly. Let's talk more about the pricing and how you made
Speaker:your adjustments.
Speaker:Did you go back to some of the existing customers and
Speaker:then have to adjust their rates at some point Yeah.
Speaker:Pricing you have to.
Speaker:Now one of the things that we'll have had done for
Speaker:last year or so of the businesses that she knew she
Speaker:was going to be exiting this.
Speaker:So they were taking a very close look at their costs
Speaker:and had done things like started using margarine instead of butter
Speaker:using a more and more margin into the product because you
Speaker:know, it's a dollar,
Speaker:a pound then versus $3 a pound or $2 pound,
Speaker:whatever it was,
Speaker:that's one of those decisions that you have to make.
Speaker:They still had a flavor profile.
Speaker:That was right.
Speaker:But what I'm trying to get to here is that you
Speaker:have to recognize the niche you're trying to go into all
Speaker:right. We had it.
Speaker:Yes. We had an existing customer base,
Speaker:but if we're going to grow it,
Speaker:what are we going to do?
Speaker:And one of the things I had to do at that
Speaker:point was to look at the product itself,
Speaker:will ahead brought in and started using margarine,
Speaker:using the lowest end of flour and just done some things
Speaker:to drive as much cost out as possible.
Speaker:My vision for the company was not that because you're,
Speaker:if you're taking your price down,
Speaker:if you're trying to sell price and compete with Nabisco and
Speaker:all these other people,
Speaker:you're at a business,
Speaker:right? You can't compete with them.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:They can kill you.
Speaker:And they don't even know that they stepped on it.
Speaker:And when we started this whole,
Speaker:all natural clean products,
Speaker:as you will,
Speaker:if you will,
Speaker:that are so big right now,
Speaker:the whole foods and all that thing,
Speaker:they were just really getting a handhold in this.
Speaker:We didn't have a lot of places to go sell our
Speaker:product. Whole thing with the,
Speaker:with the all natural product is that the market didn't really
Speaker:exist in a big form like it does now,
Speaker:but you could see it was out there.
Speaker:And the eye-opener was,
Speaker:we had a meeting with whole foods and they sampled our
Speaker:product. They said,
Speaker:it tastes very good.
Speaker:They took one look at the ingredients and they said,
Speaker:Oh, our children can't do that one,
Speaker:your sugars,
Speaker:okay. You're using an enriched flour.
Speaker:We see that as not a deal breaker,
Speaker:but we really don't like that.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:they basically rip my product to shreds and I walked away
Speaker:from that meeting and go,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what, if I'm going to play,
Speaker:I got to make some changes.
Speaker:So that was the big eye-opener to get rid of all
Speaker:the margin.
Speaker:We went to an unbleached on enriched and brominated flour,
Speaker:whatever the bro mating is.
Speaker:I don't know what that is still to this day,
Speaker:but we are on whatever that is and cleaned up and
Speaker:decided to go down this natural path.
Speaker:So we cleaned all the recipes out all back to all
Speaker:butter. Everything was all natural and just started really pounding that
Speaker:in as our core.
Speaker:So now we had a fantastic tasting product that let's just
Speaker:people raved over it.
Speaker:It was clean.
Speaker:And that's my differentiator as danced Nabisco,
Speaker:who's using hydrogenated oils and all the other crap that people
Speaker:are saying,
Speaker:that's going to kill you.
Speaker:Right. So now I can say,
Speaker:yeah, you can have a cookie and it's actually got good
Speaker:stuff in it.
Speaker:A couple of things I want to make mention of here
Speaker:that Eric's talking about is he went out and did market
Speaker:research. Okay.
Speaker:So gift biz listeners,
Speaker:if you have certain customers that you're looking to attract,
Speaker:don't even think about selling them at first,
Speaker:go in,
Speaker:show your product and see what the response is.
Speaker:So Eric was really smart because you went into a big
Speaker:name, listened to what they had to say,
Speaker:took that feedback.
Speaker:And what happened.
Speaker:This ended up being his differentiating feature because natural was just
Speaker:coming on the market at the time.
Speaker:So he would have be then one of the first to
Speaker:provide this totally different than what a lot of his competitors
Speaker:were doing.
Speaker:So that's number one.
Speaker:The other thing that I really like about what Eric's talking
Speaker:about here is he placed a Mark in the sand.
Speaker:If you will,
Speaker:that he was not going to compete on price.
Speaker:He was going to compete on quality.
Speaker:He upgraded all of the cookies in terms of the ingredients,
Speaker:and then he could go after a different type of market.
Speaker:So all of these things are things for you to consider
Speaker:with your product if you're in baking consumables,
Speaker:but also if you create scarves or jewelry,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:what kind of yard are you using?
Speaker:Is it the high grade,
Speaker:top quality or more medium range?
Speaker:And either is fine.
Speaker:It's just a matter of,
Speaker:you need to decide who you are as a business and
Speaker:what your product represents as a business.
Speaker:So, okay,
Speaker:Eric, back to this again,
Speaker:how did you start integrating in all of the different flavors
Speaker:of products and start expanding the product line?
Speaker:When we took the company over Willa had her core four
Speaker:or five that were her originals.
Speaker:And most of those to this day are still some of
Speaker:our best sellers.
Speaker:And our number one seller is still our original classic shortbread.
Speaker:Will's original recipe,
Speaker:40 something years old,
Speaker:but she had flavors in there such as a ginger.
Speaker:It was a crystal crystallized,
Speaker:ginger. There may have been a niche market for it.
Speaker:And in fact,
Speaker:I've still got some crystallized ginger here in our freezer.
Speaker:From those days,
Speaker:there was an oatmeal raisin.
Speaker:That was a nice one,
Speaker:but it didn't kind of fit in to where we were
Speaker:going with our niche.
Speaker:We did them enough times to realize it was a mess.
Speaker:There was also a,
Speaker:a peanut butter chocolate chip that they did several flavors that
Speaker:were just kind of dated if you will.
Speaker:So, you know,
Speaker:we're looking at packaging,
Speaker:we're looking at flavors.
Speaker:The packaging at that time was very dated white.
Speaker:Ten's a very stark,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:almost sanitary looking packaging recognizing early on,
Speaker:we need to expand on this.
Speaker:Probably one of the first ones we did was actually in
Speaker:the ginger snaps.
Speaker:That was what I needed something for the holiday,
Speaker:something new.
Speaker:So we created a ginger snap and it's award-winning cookie for
Speaker:us. I'm back.
Speaker:We just baked yesterday.
Speaker:The place actually still smells like ginger snaps in here this
Speaker:morning. I wish you could bring that across.
Speaker:Well, we did ginger ginger snaps and pumpkin spice yesterday.
Speaker:Ooh, I don't know about one.
Speaker:No, You don't because you don't call me anymore,
Speaker:but I'm here now.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:and pumpkin spice,
Speaker:you know how these things come about,
Speaker:all right.
Speaker:Some of the ones we've done,
Speaker:I'll just kinda add,
Speaker:we've got a pumpkin spice.
Speaker:We do a Blackberry jam.
Speaker:And that was kind of in response to a customer requests.
Speaker:Let's talk about that.
Speaker:Blackberry jam.
Speaker:The original thing for the Blackberry jam actually comes from a
Speaker:private label customer.
Speaker:And that is Blackberry farm up in East Tennessee.
Speaker:A very five-star place.
Speaker:Very, very well-respected.
Speaker:You can't even get on property unless you're invited.
Speaker:Let me stop you right here.
Speaker:This is what happens when you niche your product.
Speaker:So you heard what,
Speaker:what Eric was just saying is,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the top quality people are coming to him to create the
Speaker:cookies that wouldn't be happening.
Speaker:If he hadn't upgraded and decided that he was going to
Speaker:go after the high quality businesses,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the, the upper scale businesses because of the product.
Speaker:Okay. Eric,
Speaker:I just wanted to jump in with that.
Speaker:Well, interesting thing on that and where your listeners are going.
Speaker:Well, I have my traditional ways to market.
Speaker:This is how I'm going to go find my new business,
Speaker:the way we found Blackberry farm.
Speaker:Okay. I knew where they were.
Speaker:They're up in East Tennessee.
Speaker:They're not far from my daughter's house.
Speaker:I had been there physically to their location,
Speaker:taking samples in and really not knowing who to get them
Speaker:to. You know,
Speaker:I got a name and I took them in and said,
Speaker:here's some samples,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:kind of possible.
Speaker:Well, now they're all busy.
Speaker:Leave the samples we'll get back to,
Speaker:well, really never heard back called did follow-ups.
Speaker:It has nice.
Speaker:They can we'll we'll consider it.
Speaker:There is a biscuit festival in Knoxville,
Speaker:Tennessee, every spring.
Speaker:This is the international biscuit festival.
Speaker:Now why would a shortbread cookie guy be at a biscuit
Speaker:festival in Knoxville,
Speaker:Tennessee? I,
Speaker:it doesn't make much sense.
Speaker:Does it with the exception of it's in downtown Knoxville,
Speaker:you've got a nice clientele.
Speaker:You've got a lot of people coming to see biscuits and
Speaker:taste biscuits and the other things.
Speaker:So we get into this thing and I'm very fortunate that
Speaker:I'm beside mass general store,
Speaker:which is another very nice company.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:we're going through,
Speaker:we're selling some product.
Speaker:It's been a good day and rough set up across from
Speaker:us. Blackberry farm actually has a tent set up and they're
Speaker:doing their stuff.
Speaker:Oh. So I've been trying to get ahold of them.
Speaker:Never really done well.
Speaker:So at the end of the festival,
Speaker:come towards the end,
Speaker:I'd go over there.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:introduce myself.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:I've been trying to get our products in and get somebody
Speaker:to, to recognize us,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:up there or just at least get an audience.
Speaker:And she says,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:what do you do?
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:well, I've got the shortbread cookies right across the way here.
Speaker:She says,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:I'm the person you need to talk to.
Speaker:No way way,
Speaker:definitely. So I said,
Speaker:well, let's step into my office.
Speaker:So I'd bring her over.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:and we have a wildflower honey.
Speaker:And so we,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a couple of others that I have brought specifically for this.
Speaker:And she said,
Speaker:Oh, that was a really nice,
Speaker:as she said,
Speaker:can I get some,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:sample of certainly.
Speaker:So I take her,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:give her a few boxes of samples and get her information
Speaker:the next day.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:my leave my daughter's house.
Speaker:We're going to go up into the Smokies up in the
Speaker:Gatlinburg for the day.
Speaker:And I have literally just passed the road that goes down
Speaker:to Blackberry farm and foam break.
Speaker:Well, let's just lady from Blackberry farm.
Speaker:And she said the,
Speaker:the, the chef and the owner have tasted these.
Speaker:And they're very interested in working with you,
Speaker:like, okay,
Speaker:I can turn around right now.
Speaker:She said,
Speaker:no, don't do that.
Speaker:So they listed what they wanted to do.
Speaker:And we got samples up.
Speaker:They started selling our product as it is our packaging.
Speaker:And Within,
Speaker:Within a few months they said,
Speaker:could we private label this?
Speaker:And now we are.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:I've got,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:next Monday we have another release.
Speaker:So now I'm shipping out 300 boxes every other week for
Speaker:Blackberry farm.
Speaker:Now is that recipe proprietary to them.
Speaker:Now We want to do things that are on their property.
Speaker:That's their big draw,
Speaker:right? Anything they do.
Speaker:If they're doing meets,
Speaker:they've cured them on site.
Speaker:If they're doing preserves,
Speaker:they've preserved it on stuff.
Speaker:They've taken off site for the most part.
Speaker:So I said,
Speaker:fine. I mean,
Speaker:what do you got?
Speaker:He said,
Speaker:well, we got Blackberry jam.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:let's try it.
Speaker:So they provided me samples of the jam,
Speaker:played with the recipe a few times.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:wow, this is really great.
Speaker:They love it.
Speaker:Then they came back and threw a thing.
Speaker:It says,
Speaker:we want to use sorghum flour in it.
Speaker:For those,
Speaker:if you have never worked with sorghum flour,
Speaker:it is not fun.
Speaker:So we had to go back and tweak it again.
Speaker:And we had finally,
Speaker:after six,
Speaker:eight months,
Speaker:we got it perfected.
Speaker:Now, during this time,
Speaker:yes, they were buying product,
Speaker:but we keep tweaking it in.
Speaker:So now we have a product that is the Blackberry jam
Speaker:using their Blackberry jam to carry that into my world where
Speaker:my generic people are.
Speaker:I've got a jam company here in Nashville that we deal
Speaker:with friend of mine for an electrical bit to see he
Speaker:makes jams,
Speaker:jellies and all that very successful with it.
Speaker:So for my regular use customers,
Speaker:I'm using his Blackberry jam and just labeling it as a
Speaker:Blackberry jam shortbread.
Speaker:So now I'm still using local.
Speaker:It's very well done,
Speaker:very high quality product in it.
Speaker:But that's how you developed a little niche things because here,
Speaker:you know that you've got a winner because Blackberry farms loves
Speaker:it. Now you bring it into your regular thing.
Speaker:Right? Right.
Speaker:Wonderful story.
Speaker:I'm so glad we got on this topic.
Speaker:This was perfect.
Speaker:Perfect of the other ones We started off with,
Speaker:and this is another one that shows how these things can
Speaker:develop. As I've told you,
Speaker:we've done the market in Atlanta,
Speaker:which is a great way.
Speaker:If you're selling a product,
Speaker:if you can get into some of these larger wholesale markets,
Speaker:if that's where you're trying to go after is wholesale business,
Speaker:you need to find at least one or two of those
Speaker:that you can get to to get exposure.
Speaker:If nothing else,
Speaker:we were two boosts down.
Speaker:I think it was the first year that we were actually
Speaker:back in Atlanta with the company,
Speaker:two boosts down from a little company called Savannah bee.
Speaker:And those of you who are familiar with it,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:they've just grown exponentially,
Speaker:paid the owners.
Speaker:They're, they're doing the Biscoe commercials now for things,
Speaker:but one of their honeys was a Tupelo honey.
Speaker:And this stuff is absolutely fantastic.
Speaker:I have never really been exposed to it.
Speaker:So I'm walking by all the time.
Speaker:I'm sampling their honey.
Speaker:And I go,
Speaker:wait a minute,
Speaker:this be really good on one of our cookies.
Speaker:So I go back and get them on swirl some on
Speaker:it. And I'm like,
Speaker:Oh man,
Speaker:y'all got to try this.
Speaker:So there are people loved it.
Speaker:We loved it.
Speaker:I went back and started playing around and developed a Tupelo,
Speaker:honey shortbread.
Speaker:It took a couple years,
Speaker:but the next thing they're saying,
Speaker:yeah, we'd like to do that.
Speaker:Could we get those for us?
Speaker:So we developed there again,
Speaker:this is Savannah.
Speaker:Be a lot of good exposure.
Speaker:They did a private label.
Speaker:They sell them primarily during the holiday season at that time
Speaker:a tent.
Speaker:And they sold like crazy.
Speaker:So their customers loved them.
Speaker:And to what portion of your overall sales mix is that
Speaker:kind of product versus to the general public,
Speaker:It's a small portion.
Speaker:It would probably be 10% or less,
Speaker:But it introduces you into different ingredients that you could then
Speaker:go out and not duplicate,
Speaker:but do something similar that then could be for the general
Speaker:population. Exactly.
Speaker:So we take the Tupelo,
Speaker:which we done primarily for Savannah bee.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:well, this honey works really good.
Speaker:And then as you learn about different honeys and their different
Speaker:flavor profiles,
Speaker:we go,
Speaker:Oh, well,
Speaker:let's try some other honey.
Speaker:So we did a local wildflower honey that I get five
Speaker:miles from here at the bakery direct from the beekeepers.
Speaker:The taste is completely different between that and the Tupelo.
Speaker:Okay, now we're onto something.
Speaker:So now,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we went from doing the Tupelo.
Speaker:It'd be just as a flute to get started doing it.
Speaker:Now we offer four different honeys.
Speaker:I have private labeled different honeys.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:we still do for Monta cello.
Speaker:We actually make cookies for Monta cello using honey that is
Speaker:produced all the Monta cello estate and they private label that
Speaker:Beautiful look,
Speaker:we've been talking a lot about things that have been great
Speaker:and working well and the business building and all of that
Speaker:bring us to a place where there was a real struggle
Speaker:in this journey of developing and re-establishing Willis,
Speaker:sharp bread,
Speaker:something challenging,
Speaker:something that was really frustrating.
Speaker:And how did you overcome it?
Speaker:Love the big sigh.
Speaker:There's so many,
Speaker:this is a very frustrating thing.
Speaker:Sue and I,
Speaker:and you were,
Speaker:you were aware of this.
Speaker:You were part of it.
Speaker:One of the markets I identified with our packaging and we
Speaker:went, we,
Speaker:we redesigned our willows packaging.
Speaker:We went to generation two,
Speaker:which was very slick,
Speaker:very colorful,
Speaker:very bright,
Speaker:nice Gable,
Speaker:top box looked really nice.
Speaker:And I said,
Speaker:this is perfect for the basket industry.
Speaker:Look at this basket.
Speaker:People got to love it.
Speaker:And we have one or two local ones here that embraced
Speaker:it and did it.
Speaker:So, And I used your product and you Most certainly did.
Speaker:Yes. So I go to the national gift basket convention.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:I've got huge expectations.
Speaker:This has got to be big.
Speaker:This is the national gift basket convention.
Speaker:There's people from all over.
Speaker:How great is this going to be?
Speaker:I get there.
Speaker:And yes,
Speaker:it's a nice setup.
Speaker:There's nice displays a lot of people.
Speaker:As far as vendors set up to show their wares and
Speaker:hopefully take orders.
Speaker:And when the basket people come in,
Speaker:they don't buy what is up.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:I see baskets everywhere,
Speaker:FTD all these people.
Speaker:Well, then he realized that this is pretty much a cottage
Speaker:industry. They were so entrenched with buying the salty 25 year
Speaker:shelf life stable product that I was radical concept.
Speaker:Oh, Oh no.
Speaker:Well, four months shelf life.
Speaker:No, can't touch it.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it won't work.
Speaker:I need something.
Speaker:I can sit there and sell a few at a time.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:there was a few people like you who said,
Speaker:Hey, wait a minute.
Speaker:I can do that.
Speaker:It may be a seasonal item.
Speaker:I can bring it in peak times,
Speaker:but we can do it.
Speaker:And I went back,
Speaker:I did the second year thinking,
Speaker:well, maybe that was a fluke,
Speaker:but then you realize,
Speaker:okay, this is a market.
Speaker:That is not me.
Speaker:The market is,
Speaker:does not exist in the way I anticipated that.
Speaker:It did.
Speaker:So you got to make a change and pull out of
Speaker:that. Right?
Speaker:The other thing is just finding those markets.
Speaker:When we first took this over,
Speaker:there was not this gourmet craze,
Speaker:this food craze that's out there.
Speaker:The food network,
Speaker:if it existed was very,
Speaker:it was in its infancy.
Speaker:You didn't have all these celebrity chefs and even locally,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:Nashville right now,
Speaker:it's got this huge,
Speaker:wonderful food scene.
Speaker:When we started,
Speaker:there was probably one other company in town that did the
Speaker:sort of thing we did.
Speaker:Where did you go to it?
Speaker:Because you didn't have these gourmet shops and all these stores
Speaker:and all these people.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:I busted it.
Speaker:I traveled,
Speaker:I visited every time that I thought we could do business.
Speaker:And you know,
Speaker:to scrounge up enough of this new business to,
Speaker:to give us some measure growth.
Speaker:I actually liked the story of the gift basket experience because
Speaker:it shows that you do have to try some things.
Speaker:And then when you see that it's not going to work,
Speaker:don't just keep doing it over and over again,
Speaker:release it and go and do something else.
Speaker:Right? Well,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:a couple things,
Speaker:all kind of meshed together to finally get us to a
Speaker:successful point.
Speaker:Number one is when we took the company over ourselves,
Speaker:the other partners got out of the business after my demise
Speaker:from Westinghouse.
Speaker:So I was free to do more.
Speaker:The other partners,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:they, they didn't want to spend money and to do it.
Speaker:We had packaging and said,
Speaker:well, we're going to run this packaging until we die.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:no, we're not because it ain't working.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:look at it.
Speaker:So we redid our packaging,
Speaker:we cleaned the product up,
Speaker:we got everything done.
Speaker:And that coincided with this explosion in the food industry.
Speaker:So we were the right product,
Speaker:the right packaging at the right time,
Speaker:kind of the moon and stars aligned there for awhile.
Speaker:So it was really good.
Speaker:If, if people don't think packaging is important,
Speaker:you've seen our new package.
Speaker:We went from a nice slick glossy,
Speaker:nice looking box,
Speaker:which the guy who does art,
Speaker:who did our most recent packaging had looked at for a
Speaker:couple of years before he actually did our work.
Speaker:And he said,
Speaker:it looks very nice,
Speaker:but it looks like it could be Nabisco.
Speaker:And I'm like,
Speaker:ah, he said,
Speaker:is that what you want to do?
Speaker:No, it's not us.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:well, think about that.
Speaker:So when we redid it,
Speaker:we went to the vintage,
Speaker:look, the craft boxes,
Speaker:the vintage look that kind of fit.
Speaker:What was evolving.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it wasn't big van,
Speaker:but you could see it was coming.
Speaker:The first show we went to with Atlanta in this,
Speaker:we have a nice display,
Speaker:very nice,
Speaker:big, impressive display of these boxes set up with all our
Speaker:product in it.
Speaker:And I'll never forget day one.
Speaker:This lady comes by,
Speaker:we had only been open for about an hour,
Speaker:but she walks by.
Speaker:She turns around,
Speaker:she looks at it and she says,
Speaker:we've got to have this.
Speaker:What is it?
Speaker:Just by the box?
Speaker:And I called up,
Speaker:I've done a design work.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:it's, Did you do any tests,
Speaker:like focus groups?
Speaker:Or how did you know that that was the right box?
Speaker:The concept of the box originally was I wanted to emulate
Speaker:a beehive.
Speaker:So the way it does and it folds in the top,
Speaker:and it's kind of like the lid on a,
Speaker:on a commercial beehive,
Speaker:the designer sat us down with several books of vintage packaging.
Speaker:We knew we wanted to go vintage.
Speaker:We knew we wanted to go crack because that was,
Speaker:you could see the market was drifting that way.
Speaker:Plus it aligns with your all natural ingredients,
Speaker:With the handcrafted,
Speaker:with the small,
Speaker:Small batches and all that.
Speaker:Yeah. They gave us books full of all vintage packagings and
Speaker:go through here and pick out ones.
Speaker:You'd like that gave us a thought process of where we
Speaker:were going.
Speaker:They took that input.
Speaker:And the girl who actually did the design work is just
Speaker:an absolute genius Legion.
Speaker:If you hear this rock on your great we've tweaked the
Speaker:design, it was probably a six month process actually from concept
Speaker:to when we had the first finished look.
Speaker:The other thing we went with when we were doing this,
Speaker:now this is critical.
Speaker:If you're talking packaging flexibility,
Speaker:that's a big word.
Speaker:Our previous stuff was like I said,
Speaker:very slick four color process box.
Speaker:When I ordered them,
Speaker:I had to order 10,000
Speaker:of each,
Speaker:that was back the minimum to do Flavor any size.
Speaker:We only had the one size in the box.
Speaker:Okay. All right.
Speaker:So, but it was,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:you're talking 10,000
Speaker:of each and a minimum orders,
Speaker:probably 20,000.
Speaker:So I'm looking at 20,000
Speaker:boxes. Every time I turn around,
Speaker:well, 80,
Speaker:20 rule,
Speaker:guess what?
Speaker:If you've got four flavors or six flavors,
Speaker:two of those are going to be moving a lot faster
Speaker:than the others,
Speaker:which turns out to be very true.
Speaker:So you're constantly watching your inventory because these boxes are move
Speaker:real fast.
Speaker:These aren't,
Speaker:well, I've got to order 20,000
Speaker:boxes, but I'm only at a one title.
Speaker:What do I do?
Speaker:Well? Okay.
Speaker:So I'm going to split that up.
Speaker:I'm going to hope that these do better here.
Speaker:And then if you add a new flavor,
Speaker:you've got the design work,
Speaker:everything that has to go into that to create a new
Speaker:one. And then you're out another 10,000
Speaker:boxes. Well,
Speaker:if it doesn't sell good,
Speaker:guess what?
Speaker:You're sitting on boxes.
Speaker:I have thrown away no town,
Speaker:how many boxes in my life since I've been here,
Speaker:because it didn't sell,
Speaker:it didn't sell enough or whatever.
Speaker:So flexibility.
Speaker:When we designed this,
Speaker:the whole thing was to have one box on that box.
Speaker:It has two different labels.
Speaker:One of them is a flavor label.
Speaker:It's a nice colorful disc.
Speaker:And then the other is the ingredient panel.
Speaker:So now I have one box that I can buy 20,000,
Speaker:30,000 at a time,
Speaker:whatever I need,
Speaker:I can get to a nice economical quantity order.
Speaker:Bam, bang,
Speaker:no question.
Speaker:Labels. Labels are relatively inexpensive and we have the capability to
Speaker:actually print all those labels in house.
Speaker:So I can,
Speaker:if I want to develop a flavor,
Speaker:when we went with this,
Speaker:we knew we had six,
Speaker:seven core products at that time.
Speaker:I forget how many,
Speaker:but we went ahead as part of the initial design process.
Speaker:We designed all those flavor labels for those as well.
Speaker:So you can pivot at any time I can pick.
Speaker:Yeah. Now,
Speaker:if I want to add a new flavor,
Speaker:let's go back.
Speaker:Right? So let's go back to the example of the Blackberry
Speaker:jam. So I've done this for a quarter for a private
Speaker:label. And I think in paint,
Speaker:this could work now for me to create that all I
Speaker:have to do is design a new label,
Speaker:get it to sign.
Speaker:I call it.
Speaker:My designer said,
Speaker:Hey, I want to do Blackberry jam.
Speaker:Boom. In two days she sent me another label over.
Speaker:It can move very quickly.
Speaker:The ultimate example of that,
Speaker:we, one of the big crazies here in Nashville now is
Speaker:the hot chicken.
Speaker:Okay? I mean,
Speaker:it's big.
Speaker:Everybody's doing hot chicken.
Speaker:Well, we have a spice supplier that I use who has
Speaker:a hot chicken spice blend.
Speaker:And it's really good.
Speaker:It's hot,
Speaker:hot, hot,
Speaker:hot. So we've been working with them and we'd done a
Speaker:few sample test batches.
Speaker:And it's like,
Speaker:Hey, we're onto something here because I needed another savory flavor.
Speaker:I had the opportunity to do a beer festival.
Speaker:Remember we were talking about going to places you don't normally
Speaker:go to shortbread cookies at a beer festival.
Speaker:Is that going to work?
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Let's go try it.
Speaker:So I wanted to take a second savory flavor.
Speaker:So I called my spice guy said,
Speaker:Hey, I need a couple of pounds of your spice.
Speaker:Okay. No problem.
Speaker:And he already had a label designed by my label designer
Speaker:that they used on their product.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:you mind if I tweak that a little bit?
Speaker:Cause I don't want to put hot chicken on my right.
Speaker:He said,
Speaker:nah, fine.
Speaker:Go ahead.
Speaker:So I called the designer said,
Speaker:all right,
Speaker:he's good with this.
Speaker:I want to change it from Nashville.
Speaker:Hot chicken to Nashville.
Speaker:Hot. Ah,
Speaker:you said,
Speaker:Oh great idea.
Speaker:You said have a teen a minute within 30 minutes.
Speaker:Here's my new label design.
Speaker:So I have my new flavor.
Speaker:Labels ingredient panel is very easy to do tweak a few
Speaker:things so that it's ready to go.
Speaker:We bake up a nice batch of them.
Speaker:We go to the beer festival.
Speaker:I have a brand new flavor and 24 hours that didn't
Speaker:exist the day before.
Speaker:And I'm sitting here at a beer festival now with the
Speaker:new flavor and guess what?
Speaker:Very good acceptance.
Speaker:They love the packaging.
Speaker:They love everything else.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:bang, guess what?
Speaker:There's my new flavor.
Speaker:That's how quick it can happen.
Speaker:Yeah. You're adjusting your product to the event.
Speaker:But then you're also getting some trial,
Speaker:some research on whether it's going to go or not.
Speaker:Yeah. Perfect.
Speaker:Beautiful In flexibility.
Speaker:Now we've taken that same concept with the box.
Speaker:If you look again at the website,
Speaker:we take the same basic design and we've moved in that
Speaker:concept into the packaging we do for our 10.
Speaker:So now I do a base label for the tens that
Speaker:use the same flavor labels that we use on the boxes.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Give biz listeners.
Speaker:I am making a decision because after all it is my
Speaker:show, we are not going to do the reflection section for
Speaker:time purposes.
Speaker:No, no,
Speaker:no, because I do want to ask you one more question.
Speaker:So I want to get into one more topic.
Speaker:And so I'll get biz listeners stick with us because I'm
Speaker:sure you can agree.
Speaker:This is super informative.
Speaker:Talk to us a little bit,
Speaker:Eric, about what happened with getting into Southern living magazine and
Speaker:then also being an unwrapped Apple son wrapped the other 1,000
Speaker:pounds. That 2.0,
Speaker:so how like PR wise,
Speaker:what did you do?
Speaker:Or how did,
Speaker:how did all of that come about?
Speaker:We have been featured in Southern living five or six years
Speaker:ago with our limit pecan shortbread.
Speaker:So we had a contact base.
Speaker:So had they come to you?
Speaker:Did you present it to them?
Speaker:How did We Southern living's headquarters are in Birmingham,
Speaker:Alabama. And there again,
Speaker:this is in that stage where you're trying to find business.
Speaker:You want markets,
Speaker:so you have to understand how they work.
Speaker:I had actually contacted them.
Speaker:I had taken out an ad in their holiday gift guide
Speaker:to doing some other stuff,
Speaker:which was a complete and total bust.
Speaker:If you've been thinking about doing that,
Speaker:call me first,
Speaker:but it allowed me some contacts.
Speaker:So if I'm going through Birmingham,
Speaker:Alabama going to the beach or wherever I'm going,
Speaker:I stopped.
Speaker:And I drop a little package off at the front desk
Speaker:and say,
Speaker:Hey, can you get this to so-and-so or whoever's doing your
Speaker:magazines now?
Speaker:So if I had a new flavor,
Speaker:so I'm ready to drop it by.
Speaker:So they were doing a feature on lemon,
Speaker:the feature of this page,
Speaker:that there was lemon yellow,
Speaker:and it was could be yellow paint.
Speaker:It could be a yellow dessert or whatever,
Speaker:but they picked our lemon pecan shortbread put in there.
Speaker:Boom, quick feature where that was great.
Speaker:So we had basic contact last year.
Speaker:I made a decision to bring on a PR firm for
Speaker:a little while.
Speaker:It's so tough.
Speaker:They're so expensive,
Speaker:but you know,
Speaker:can they be worth it?
Speaker:They did some nice work us.
Speaker:And I think one of the things was get a little
Speaker:bit more exposure.
Speaker:Now, Southern living.
Speaker:I said,
Speaker:we've been doing this long.
Speaker:I don't attribute that to the PR guy,
Speaker:unwrapped attribute to the PR guy.
Speaker:They chose our Tupelo honey shortbread.
Speaker:So they,
Speaker:they have a best of the South awards and they actually
Speaker:called us up.
Speaker:Cause I had forgotten that this was going on.
Speaker:I get a call from one of the writers or whatever.
Speaker:It's a living and says,
Speaker:Hey, the best of the South awards are ending next week.
Speaker:Can we get a sample of some of your stuff in
Speaker:here? I went,
Speaker:Oh, Oh wow.
Speaker:Yeah. So,
Speaker:I mean they knew it's we're on their radar and they're
Speaker:again, that's a lot of longtime stuff doing it.
Speaker:They finally said,
Speaker:Hey, you know,
Speaker:somebody may have been in Savannah,
Speaker:Georgia or someplace and tried some of our stuff or been
Speaker:there and said,
Speaker:Hey, wait a minute.
Speaker:Willis needs to be in here.
Speaker:Call them up.
Speaker:So we got our samples down to them and sure enough,
Speaker:they loved them.
Speaker:And Well I think the learning here,
Speaker:Eric is you need to be out and about.
Speaker:You need to be sharing your product.
Speaker:You need to be seen to get any type of recognition.
Speaker:Someone has to know about you.
Speaker:So your idea of just dropping off product is perfect.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:anyone who is listening,
Speaker:who has some type of consumable,
Speaker:get your product out there And use them,
Speaker:use them wisely.
Speaker:If you're going to bring them in,
Speaker:have a set of goals,
Speaker:day one,
Speaker:not just,
Speaker:well, we're going to put you out on Facebook a lot,
Speaker:or we're going to tweet you a lot or we're going
Speaker:to send out samples every so often because it is very,
Speaker:it's very expensive.
Speaker:It can be worth it,
Speaker:but make sure that you are on the same page as
Speaker:the PR guy who's promoting you.
Speaker:Because if you're somewhere else,
Speaker:which is where we ended up being,
Speaker:we ended up being different places completely.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:are you going no.
Speaker:Well, you know,
Speaker:we know PR we know what we're doing.
Speaker:Well, you may know PR,
Speaker:but you don't know my product.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we had a lot of difficulties,
Speaker:which is why I'm no longer with them.
Speaker:Would you do it again under a different environment now,
Speaker:knowing what you know now,
Speaker:would you hire a PR?
Speaker:Yeah. Oh,
Speaker:I'm looking,
Speaker:I'm constantly looking for one.
Speaker:You need somebody who's creative right now.
Speaker:When I look at our business,
Speaker:we're probably 85% wholesale is where it is.
Speaker:I want to grow my retail side.
Speaker:That's where I see it.
Speaker:So how do I get somebody who can bring me that
Speaker:business? Who understands take this back one step shortbread cookies.
Speaker:That's something your grandma made.
Speaker:We have no problem with that market group.
Speaker:That's 60 years and older.
Speaker:They know what it is.
Speaker:They have no question.
Speaker:These millennials have no clue what a shortbread cookie is.
Speaker:So how do you,
Speaker:and this is what I tell when I'm sitting down with
Speaker:a PR guy and I want to see it.
Speaker:And I say,
Speaker:I make a cookie.
Speaker:Okay. How do I make that cool to somebody who's 28
Speaker:years old and got income.
Speaker:And then I shut up and listen.
Speaker:And if they got a stammer and stutter,
Speaker:well, we're gonna put it on Facebook.
Speaker:Okay. How now?
Speaker:What do you,
Speaker:what are you telling them?
Speaker:How do you make it cool to them?
Speaker:Because they got the money.
Speaker:That's the work.
Speaker:And I want,
Speaker:I want those guys that are on the internet because it's
Speaker:very cost-effective business.
Speaker:And that's one of our big struggles right now is getting
Speaker:that because I don't understand all the electronic commerce and how
Speaker:that works.
Speaker:I don't know the mindset of millennials Well,
Speaker:and you want to stay in what you do well,
Speaker:and what you do well is identifying all of these new
Speaker:ingredients because you're connecting up with local people for all the
Speaker:private label and then evolving that type of a concept into
Speaker:a new product.
Speaker:I can hear it in your voice.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:that's what you're good at.
Speaker:You're good at dropping things off.
Speaker:I know you're good in person selling the product cause I've
Speaker:seen it several times.
Speaker:So I think you're right in terms of getting someone who
Speaker:knows that,
Speaker:but the idea of goals is really important.
Speaker:Again, another great piece of information that you've shared with us,
Speaker:of course.
Speaker:All right,
Speaker:Eric, we could go so many other places.
Speaker:I have so many other questions,
Speaker:but I think we're going to have to start closing it
Speaker:down because we all have to get onto all the other
Speaker:things. There you go.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:But gift biz listeners,
Speaker:you know that you can go over to the show notes
Speaker:page, I'll have all the links.
Speaker:FyreK also offered up.
Speaker:If you wanted to call him about something,
Speaker:it sounded like you were receptive to that.
Speaker:If someone wanted to chat with you,
Speaker:we'll have the website up.
Speaker:We'll also have a link that I want you guys to
Speaker:look at.
Speaker:It's a video really interesting behind the scenes,
Speaker:look at his business for those people who are on the
Speaker:road, maybe they're running or they're actually working in their shops
Speaker:right now while they're listening.
Speaker:Eric, what is your website?
Speaker:It's real simple.
Speaker:This, if you'll go Google Willis,
Speaker:shortbread, and w I L L a S shortbread Final thing.
Speaker:I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.
Speaker:It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.
Speaker:This would be your dream or your goal of almost unreachable
Speaker:Heights that you would wish to obtain.
Speaker:Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.
Speaker:What is inside your box?
Speaker:It's the,
Speaker:a check from the person who's buying this business.
Speaker:Okay. So,
Speaker:so that's good.
Speaker:So you have the vision of setting up this business and
Speaker:having it prepared and ready to sell at some someday.
Speaker:Yes. That is the whole goal.
Speaker:Now. I mean,
Speaker:this is not something that I don't think my kids want
Speaker:to take over this.
Speaker:Wasn't my dream of what I wanted to do my whole
Speaker:life, but it is what I do.
Speaker:So I want to be very successful at it and I've
Speaker:become very attached to it to a degree.
Speaker:But if I open that box up and there's a check
Speaker:in there for the right amount of money that I don't
Speaker:have to do this anymore,
Speaker:hi, I'm fade off into the sunset nicely and go do
Speaker:other things.
Speaker:And I think that is your goal as well.
Speaker:What do you want to do with your company?
Speaker:Do you want to grow it into something that your can
Speaker:prepare it and do all this wonderful stuff with?
Speaker:Do you want to make a good living and be able
Speaker:to get out of it?
Speaker:My goal right now is to get this to a point
Speaker:where it's so valuable that somebody wants to come buy it.
Speaker:You never know.
Speaker:One of our listeners might just have peaked up their ears
Speaker:a little bit and you never know.
Speaker:No, I'm not sticking a for sale sign out in front
Speaker:of it.
Speaker:But just like I don't physically have to go out as
Speaker:often now or do things.
Speaker:I don't have to go out and get business every week.
Speaker:Now I've got people that are calling us up going,
Speaker:Hey, can we sell your product?
Speaker:I'm like,
Speaker:great, wonderful.
Speaker:I want that same thing.
Speaker:I want somebody to call me up and go,
Speaker:would you like to sell your business?
Speaker:And my first answer is always yes,
Speaker:because yeah,
Speaker:I do.
Speaker:I would love to sell it,
Speaker:but I'm not going to give it away.
Speaker:Well, and you've invested in it.
Speaker:So you're definitely gonna want to sell it to the right
Speaker:person. Who's going to take the concept,
Speaker:carry on,
Speaker:et cetera.
Speaker:Yeah. Happy with it.
Speaker:And in the meantime is to keep putting out a quality
Speaker:product here.
Speaker:Then people want to buy Eric,
Speaker:thank you so much for coming on.
Speaker:I'll be at very early in the morning.
Speaker:Great information.
Speaker:I really appreciate it.
Speaker:You've taken us down some paths that I did not want
Speaker:to stop because it led to really,
Speaker:really important information for all of our listeners.
Speaker:Wish you continued success.
Speaker:I wish you at some point for that telephone to ring
Speaker:with that purchasing call.
Speaker:Not too soon though,
Speaker:I have to say,
Speaker:and may your candle always burn bright?
Speaker:Where are you in your business building journey,
Speaker:whether you're just starting out or already running a business,
Speaker:and you want to know your setup for success.
Speaker:Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,
Speaker:access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y
Speaker:slash a gift biz quiz or from your phone like texting
Speaker:gift biz quiz to four four,
Speaker:two, two,
Speaker:two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for
Speaker:the next episode.
Speaker:Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,
Speaker:looking for a new income source for your gift business.
Speaker:Customization is more popular now than ever new products with your
Speaker:logo for Kindle happy birthday,
Speaker:Jessica bourbon,
Speaker:to add to a gift,
Speaker:right, a checkout right in your shop or across video in
Speaker:second check print company.com
Speaker:for more information after you listen to the show,
Speaker:if you like what you're hearing,
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