Latest / Real Estate for Real Life / Episode 19 • The Airplane Ride That Changed Everything | How Lauren Sherlock Built Big Little Pies Lauren Sherlock w/ Co-Host Pam Foley

Transcript

Episode 19 • The Airplane Ride That Changed Everything | How Lauren Sherlock Built Big Little Pies Lauren Sherlock w/ Co-Host Pam Foley · Real Estate for Real Life

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  On Real Estate for Real Life podcasts, we sit down with
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  standout business leaders to unpack what's actually working.
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  How they scale, lead teams, win clients and build businesses
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  that last. We're your hosts.
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  I'm Courtney Gauchman. And I'm Ryan Wilson, thanks for
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  tuning in. Welcome back to Real Estate for
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  Real Life. I'm your host, Courtney
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  Gauchman, and I have a new Co host with me today filling in
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  for Ryan Wilson. Pam Foley, thanks for coming in.
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  Thanks. For having me excited to be
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  here. Yeah, and thanks for bringing a
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  guest with you too. So we have an amazing guest as
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  well, from corporate burnout to building a business from
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  scratch. We have the founder of Big
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  Little Pies, Lauren Sherlock, here with us.
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  Hi, so happy to be here. We're thrilled to have you.
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  So excited that you're here. So we're excited to learn a lot
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  about how you left the corporate world and started building this
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  amazing big little pie business. Tell us.
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  I mean, it kind of starts with a story of you being on a flight,
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  right? You were a you were a
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  consultant. I was a consultant working for
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  it was a nonprofit. I was working with school
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  districts across the country and I was coming back from this trip
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  from Texas. I had been previously a
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  consultant with in the for profit space made the shift to
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  the nonprofit space thinking that that would be more
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  fulfilling. But ultimately, you know, a lot
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  of it was still moving numbers around on a page, making a lot
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  of PowerPoints. So I was on this flight and
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  feeling pretty burnt out for my job, pretty uninspired.
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  And I was scrolling through those sort of like in flight
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  entertainment offerings and stumbled upon this 90 minute
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  video on how to make the perfect pie crust.
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  I've always liked to bake, but I'd not mastered pie.
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  And I was like, all right, I'll watch like 10 minutes of this,
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  watch the full 90 minutes, go home, make my first pie, my
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  first pie crust and my first grape pie.
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  And in the video, she says it's like, and with the scrap,
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  though, you could make like small pies on the side.
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  And I did exactly that sort of just like, wait a minute, these
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  pies are even better than the big pies.
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  You get the perfect ratio. It's like it's the the right
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  amount of sort of crust to filling to crispiness.
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  And I was like, we have cupcakes, we have munchkins,
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  where's the mini pie? And that was the inspiration for
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  the business. So now two years in, I've been
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  making this mini pie business. Big Little Pies.
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  That's that's amazing. First of all, the ratio thing is
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  completely accurate, right? Plus you don't feel nearly as
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  bad if you have like a little bite size pie versus like who
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  buys a whole entire pie? That's what I'm saying.
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  You have portion control, then you get a variety of flavors.
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  Hey. Brilliant.
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  I love it. I also grew up on Table Talk
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  pies, so I haven't had one of those since I was little, right.
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  So when you brought these in and I got to try them, I was like,
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  wow, this is like a homemade incredible version.
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  Not one of those like preservatives, like filler, like
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  all the stuff that when you were a kid, you don't even realize
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  how it's not real. It's.
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  A little personal pie. Exactly.
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  And like, I don't want the Worcester mob coming after me
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  with tabletop, but yeah, there's a little bit of a different
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  thing. Definitely a difference, right?
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  Like no shade of tabletop like that was.
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  I think that was the OG of mini pies, right?
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  But but you're just bringing a higher caliber and a more like
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  luxury brand with mini pies. Exactly.
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  I love that. What I want to circle back to,
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  though, in this is I think to me, the most intriguing piece of
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  your story. Everyone has these moments of
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  saying I'm burnt out in my job, whether it's a corporate job or
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  whether it's entrepreneurship, whatever it might be.
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  We all have these ebbs and flows of burning out because I think
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  that's just the way the world is right now, right?
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  Like we don't get to shut off our businesses.
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  We have cell phones attached to us at all times.
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  We have emails coming through all hours of the night.
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  And every business now can just get to that level of burnout.
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  What gave you the courage and the confidence, though, to
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  finally say I'm going to quit my full time job and take this on
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  full time? Like, how did you really get to
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  that level of transition? Yeah.
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  It was a few things. The first thing was I turned 30
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  and I was like, Oh my God, what am I doing with my life?
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  Like I have a very supportive partner.
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  We don't have kids, but I've sort of was feeling like it's
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  never going to get easier than it is right now, so like, let's
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  try it. The other big thing was I found
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  Commonwealth Kitchen, which they are a shared commercial space in
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  Dorchester. They are like an incubator for
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  small businesses, very much built to help people like me
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  that don't have a background in the space go from zero to
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  actually starting and you know, they have an application
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  process. I was like, all right, let me
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  try. We'll see.
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  And then when I did get accepted to their, they called the ready
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  to launch Pro cohort. I was like, OK, this is a sign.
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  Let's let's do this thing and feel so grateful because there's
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  so many supports sort of built into that of like figuring out
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  the insurance and the permitting and the like food safety, like
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  all of the different things that I really had no background in,
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  had that sort of served up to me in a really great way.
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  That's awesome, I didn't even realize that something like that
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  existed. Right, I hadn't either.
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  Yeah, it's cool because I guess if you relate it to real estate
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  or anything in our realm of, of the world, right?
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  It's it's similar to a brokerage, right?
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  So for us, you become a real estate agent, you get licensed
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  and then from there you're like, OK, what do I do now?
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  Right. So you hang your license in a
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  brokerage and basically they carry all of the ENL, which is
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  the errors and emissions insurance.
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  They help protect you, right? They help keep you above board
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  on everything. They usually offer some sort of
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  education or training, right? So like I'm just kind of
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  relating that as you're talking. I'm like, OK, that makes sense
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  that one of those businesses exists, right?
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  Commonwealth Kitchen, so it's where they like, help you launch
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  your career in the food industry.
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  Essentially, and what's also amazing about that and, and
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  maybe you have the same thing in, in real estate is, you know,
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  I'm starting from zero and I get to see businesses that are two,
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  5-6 years down the road and you know, how they've navigated.
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  What are the different opportunities to really just get
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  a sense for like what else is out there and see and even learn
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  some of the like production side of things, Just being able to
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  see, you know, 20 different versions of people doing similar
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  things. Yeah, it is the same.
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  And I think that's the best thing about real estate and
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  entrepreneurship in general, right, Is there's so many ways
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  to succeed, whether it's, you know, a baking business, right,
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  where there's a million different ways that you can
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  succeed in that. We were just talking about this
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  before we started filming, but you could get into franchising,
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  you could have a brick and mortar.
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  You can do shipping, right? Which if you're going to be
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  shipping soon, right? The packaging is absolutely
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  gorgeous, which we love this because we're always looking for
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  amazing treats, which we can get into kind of some of our
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  business steps as well too, that we always ship sweet treat
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  because it still has that like small business feel, but you're
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  able to ship it and actually make it get to more doors and
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  actually get into the hands of more human beings than if they
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  had to step foot in brick and mortar or go to currently right
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  now you're at mainly at farmers markets, right?
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  Is that Harry? One of farmers markets, which is
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  great and that is where I met Pam.
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  That's. Where we met.
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  And then, I mean, the thing that was so interesting is she would
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  run out of pies every single week.
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  That's a good problem. And then more and more people
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  would say, oh, I have to go over to big little pies.
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  I love her cherry pie. So yeah, it started to spread,
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  right? And I think that's a really
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  popular market for you. Yeah.
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  And I do a few. So that one that Pam and I met
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  was in Framingham, but also do Newton.
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  So locally around here I'm doing Andover, Union Square and SOA.
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  So it's such a great way to get out there and it's, they're all
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  such nice communities, but it is like you got to be there, hope
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  the weather is good, set up the tent, bring the right number of
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  pies, hope people show up. And it's been a really good way
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  to launch everything. But starting to think through
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  how do I sell pies without having to be there or hope the
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  weather is good. And that's where some of the the
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  shipping idea comes from. Yeah, of course also it's, I
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  mean we live in New England, right?
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  So farmers markets are only usually about six months of the
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  year is that. And I think that this is smart
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  and strange strategic, right? And you do have a corporate
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  background where you actually went to other businesses, right,
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  as a consultant and had to sit there and assess and figure out,
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  I assume growth plans of some sort, right.
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  So tell us a little bit about how your corporate background
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  helped lead you into this, because I assume with pies and
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  the seasonality of farmers markets, you have to have a plan
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  for what gets you through the winter seasons, right?
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  And your growth plan just in general of being able to take
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  this on full time and then maybe someday being able to take your
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  husband on full time as well too.
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  Let's talk a little bit about how your background has set you
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  up for success with this business venture.
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  I mean, obviously it's been quite the shift, but the thing
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  that I do feel grateful for having the background in more of
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  the corporate space. Like I think a lot of people
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  come in from the other end where they have the experience in food
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  and then they master the product and then they come in and
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  they're like, I'm going to sell a ton.
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  Not necessarily having the the background to think through,
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  like what are the economics and what are the fundamentals of the
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  cost of goods and how do, how should I price these things and
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  where does the scaling come in? So I'm extremely comfortable in
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  a spreadsheet and everything else has been new and learning.
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  So it's been good to be able to sort of dream it all up in my,
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  you know, spreadsheet and be able to say, how can I actually
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  execute this? And that's where all of the
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  learning in the last couple of years has gone.
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  That's incredible. So you're you're speaking my
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  language. These are my favorite things I
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  love doing. I love writing out a plan.
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  So we have a couple episodes on business planning on, you know,
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  kind of visualizing where you're going with your with your
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  business, creating goals, creating rocks like, you know,
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  attainable type measurable steps.
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  What are some of the things that you have to do as an
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  entrepreneur to make sure that you're able to actually sell out
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  at these farmers markets? I mean, I want to hear every
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  detail from like how you guys are marketing, like from the
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  logos to how you actually, you know, of course, like you're
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  selling at a farmer's market and everything, but like, how did
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  you get your foot in the door with the farmer's market?
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  And then from there, what do you do in the winter months?
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  Like because we have seasonality in our business too.
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  So a lot of entrepreneurs that have that, especially in the New
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  England area where we have Four Seasons a year, it's like you
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  have to actually forecast so much differently than maybe a
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  state that doesn't have those types of massive fluctuations
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  for us too. I'm sure this effects you as
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  well, but the school year, right?
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  So the school year is huge. When kids are back in school,
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  things slow down, right? Because our customer usually,
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  like a lot of them have children and when the children are busy,
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  our business slows down substantially.
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  So tell us a little bit about how you're navigating that type
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  of stuff in your business. Yeah.
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  Such a good question and it's like sort of the crux of it all
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  and very much still figuring it out.
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  But you know, I started in May of 2024, so that was really the
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  perfect time to say that is when the farmers market season
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  starts. And what's good about those is
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  you can apply and get accepted and then there's like plenty of
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  hoops to jump it through as far as like getting permitted and
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  paying the vendor fees and figuring all of those pieces
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  out. But again, that's something that
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  has been so great to have the community at the kitchen where
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  you hear from people of like, make sure you talk to this
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  health department and like this market is really good.
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  Like I had no sense that like there's like different quality
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  of farmers markets as sort of it was all new to me.
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  So that was a great way to launch and be able to sort of
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  test the market, see if people were even interested in the
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  product. And then from there sort of each
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  year starting to layer on a new piece.
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  So, you know, I have my wholesale license.
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  So that also opens up doors with selling to different retailers
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  as well as caterers. So one of the opportunities that
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  I have last summer, I worked with gourmet caterers and
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  they're the the preferred caterer for the Boston Symphony
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  Orchestra and the Tanglewood. So in the summer they have these
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  beautiful picnic boxes. They sold my pies in their
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  beautiful picnic boxes in at Tanglewood and we're planning on
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  doing that again this summer. So things like that where it's
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  just like opportunities start to take shape in a way that I
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  hadn't totally anticipated. And now two years in really
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  trying to drive towards like I do want to get to that
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  storefront. So thinking about how did all of
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  these pieces fit together where it's farmers markets, it's
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  holiday markets, it's working with different wholesale
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  partners and then really trying to scale up the personal
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  catering side. So catering for events like
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  birthdays, baby showers, weddings, doing those sorts of
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  things, but then also do some of the like institutional pieces.
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  And exactly to your point of the like seasonality of it all.
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  So for example, like pie day is great for me.
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  And we live in Boston where there are a ton of universities.
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  So, you know, working with MIT math department to say, let's do
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  a 200 pies for for Pi day and really trying to say, how do we
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  layer all of these pieces together to get to a point where
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  this is actually a sustainable, scalable business speaking.
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  Of scalable, are you the only one that does the baking?
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  So I've gotten. Some help in the kitchen and
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  that is a bit of a game changer, but still working on doing that
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  in a again, a sustainable way because right now it is mostly
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  me in the kitchen. My husband gets pulled into
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  anything and everything and I do also draw from that kitchen
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  community community that which is great to be able to say like
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  does anyone have anyone? Can anyone help me out?
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  But for for a long time it was just me and I'm just starting to
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  get some more regular help in the kitchen.
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  Amazing. What's been the hardest part so
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  far of entrepreneurship I. I think it is the every decision
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  is mine every right now it is mostly just me.
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  So nothing moves forward unless I'm moving it forward and sort
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  of, I think that sort of decision fatigue can come in of
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  the like what does the logo design look like?
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  Which markets am I doing? Did I make sure that I applied
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  for this permit? Should I go for shipping?
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  It's all of the sort of big and little decisions that are up to
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  me, which is of course like what I've decided.
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  Like that's what entrepreneurship is.
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  And it's the thing that is I think the hardest and and
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  thinking about like managing the finances in a way that this is
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  actually going to be a real business and in a way that you
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  know exists beyond just the me of it all I love.
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  That you admit to that? Because they do think that it's
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  funny, right? Like everyone that gets into
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  entrepreneurship, a lot of it has to do with the fact that you
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  want to be your own boss, right? You want to be the one in
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  control of making all those decisions and control of your
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  future. And I do think that that's one
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  of the most attractive pieces of entrepreneurship.
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  I think that's why Pam and I chose to be in a business that
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  gives you a lot more of an entrepreneurial feel.
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  However, we're also on a team and I think a huge reason is
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  because it's also nice to bounce ideas off of people and not be
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  solely responsible for every single decision, right?
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  So I think that there's like such pros and cons to that.
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  And I think that that's just all in how you how you manage it,
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  right. So right now you're starting to
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  figure out, you know, potentially, probably getting
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  some sort of support and help, whether it's social media and
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  marketing help, which right now you have from your husband or
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  support in the kitchen. So I think it's one of those
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  things where I love that you admitted that.
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  That is what's hard because I think a lot of people like, it's
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  the sense of pride. I get to make every decision on
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  my own. I don't have anyone to report
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  to. But it's also like, but that is
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  exhausting. And you, you really do get to a
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  point where it's like, is that the best use of your time,
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  right? Because some decisions are so
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  small and they could just be a standard operating procedure,
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  right? Which is what we do.
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  We try to say any decision that should just be like an SOP,
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  we're going to just put a process in place because it
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  prevents the decision fatigue, right?
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  So I think that's kind of what it sounds like your business is
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  Next up for is starting to create some of those Sops, if
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  you haven't already and starting to say like, let's just put a
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  process in place. So now there is no decision
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  fatigue because you don't even have to think, you know what the
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  decision is because you've already put a process in place.
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  And that's kind of what we had to do with our business as well
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  too. It got to a certain point where
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  it's like, all right, we face this every single time, right?
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  Or every single season or whatever happens.
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  And it's like, why don't we just put a playbook in right here and
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  now? We just know this is what we do
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  when this happens, when this occurs.
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  And I do think it helps prevent that decision fatigue because I
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  completely understand what you're explaining.
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  And again, I love that you actually admitted that.
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  That's the hard part. Yeah.
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  Are you? Busy Do you want to be the CEO
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  of Big Little Pies? Exactly the right approach to
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  all of this. Yeah, no, I mean, I have a
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  little extra most people. Don't realize how difficult it
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  is to run a business. It's a business.
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  It's not like, you know, we're selling houses, right?
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  But it's a business and you're selling pies.
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  It's not as simple as I'm baking the pies and going to the
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  farmers market, right? There's so much more involved
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  and now you're a business owner, right?
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  So that's where all the challenge pieces come in.
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  Exactly. And you'd like, I certainly
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  before I started this, like I would go to the pharmacy market
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  and it just appeared and like there are 1030 people selling
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  their stuff and like, I guess that happens.
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  And hadn't thought about any of the like, oh, these are people
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  that are really serious about running a business and are
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  trying to grow that and doing it in a way that is much more than
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  just a hobby. Yeah.
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  So from there, right, obviously you're utilizing mainly the
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  farmer farmers markets to get in front of a lot of people, right,
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  to start to make a splash, make a name for yourself.
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  What are other ways? So once you have people at the
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  market, what are other ways that you're connecting with the
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  clients that have now tried your pies and love them?
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  And how are you staying top of mind for them?
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  Because you know, obviously with the shipping, you're trying to
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  make your pies more accessible, right?
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  Because I, I had said to you, like, we tried them and now if I
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  can just order them and ship them to anyone and everyone.
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  Like to me, that's the ideal scenario, right?
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  Because I can't go to a farmer's market every Saturday or Sunday.
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  So tell us kind of like, what is the like for us?
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  We have a client retention plan of how we stay in front of
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  people. What do you kind of do after
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  that? Like is there any way that you
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  try and stay in front of them? Yeah, it's hard.
• 18:53
  And that's such a good question. And it's a thing that I'm
• 18:55
  certainly working on like, like I do have a newsletter and a
• 19:00
  subscriber base. I, I send out emails and because
• 19:04
  of the seasonality, it is sort of a fun like, Oh yeah, now it's
• 19:07
  a year later and we're back and we're doing the weekly thing.
• 19:09
  But I think that's exactly right of how do I like building out
• 19:13
  the the muscles so that it is more than just I'm standing in
• 19:17
  front of you by my pies. So honestly, working on that.
• 19:21
  I'm my husband is my social media manager.
• 19:23
  He does a great job of putting out content.
• 19:27
  And then we do do a lot of direct outreach to businesses
• 19:30
  and other caterers to partner on some of the larger scale orders.
• 19:36
  So that's really, you know, one of the things that that we've
• 19:39
  done is we've worked with a lot of the luxury buildings in the
• 19:43
  area. A lot of them do tenant events.
• 19:46
  So what we'll do is walk door to door and drop off samples and
• 19:50
  say, like we'd love to partner. So doing more of the, the really
• 19:54
  like face to face salesmanship, but that it's, it's a challenge.
• 20:00
  And I think that I'm trying to work on to make sure that people
• 20:04
  do remember Big little Pies. Yeah.
• 20:06
  It I get like so excited hearing you talk about that though,
• 20:09
  because I feel like the boots on the ground type marketing
• 20:12
  strategy is one of my favorite strategies for building
• 20:14
  businesses. And you're in an industry where
• 20:17
  realistically speaking, your marketing can go a long way to
• 20:20
  get you more of the orders now that you have the ability to
• 20:23
  ship because you can get in front of people that are far
• 20:26
  away from you. Right?
• 20:27
  Like geographically speaking, by using social media, leveraging
• 20:30
  ad campaigns, things like that. But the boots on the ground
• 20:33
  marketing is really amazing because you have a product that
• 20:36
  needs to be tasted, touched, seen, look at the packaging,
• 20:40
  that kind of thing. And I think it's a really fun
• 20:42
  business to do that, right? So like for us too, we kind of
• 20:46
  have a similar business as well. Like we actually can't
• 20:49
  necessarily go nationwide. I mean, we can help people
• 20:52
  across the country move and connect them with amazing
• 20:55
  people, but for the most part, when we get to actually impact
• 20:57
  people the most, it's it's local, it's fairly local.
• 21:00
  It's geographically like within a driving distance.
• 21:03
  And for us, the fun stuff, it comes from partnering with local
• 21:07
  businesses, partnering with, you know, the apartment complexes
• 21:10
  you're talking about or the different corporate corporate
• 21:14
  companies. I like small businesses
• 21:16
  personally because I just think it's such an amazing concept to
• 21:19
  collaborate and just like share their business in front of our
• 21:23
  audience and vice versa. So I love hearing some of the
• 21:26
  things that you're working on because it brings it back to
• 21:29
  what makes you feel a little bit more like, wow, it's not an AI
• 21:33
  situation. This is a human to human
• 21:35
  connection, which tends to be the trend on this podcast.
• 21:38
  We are constantly talking about what makes you different.
• 21:42
  How do you scale your business? We talked to entrepreneurs in
• 21:44
  every single industry and every single person has brought up
• 21:47
  relationships. So from your corporate
• 21:51
  background, have you leveraged and leaned on anything that was
• 21:54
  from your past experience? I mean.
• 21:56
  I have had some friends that I worked with that are great
• 21:59
  supporters, and they'll order for like the business that I
• 22:02
  used to work for, which is amazing.
• 22:06
  But, you know, I think just having the experience in the
• 22:09
  corporate world and having this sort of like professional
• 22:13
  experience where you're used to talking to people makes a lot of
• 22:18
  this a little bit easier. Yeah.
• 22:20
  For sure. It's a like I think one of you
• 22:22
  guys just said it's, it's a muscle, right?
• 22:24
  So it's like you're exercising that muscle of something you
• 22:27
  already were good at, and now you're just leveraging it for
• 22:30
  your own business, which is really cool.
• 22:32
  So from there, what are some of the things that you're finding
• 22:37
  you're taking big risks on? I mean, aside from just starting
• 22:40
  this from the beginning, yeah. No, it does feel like everything
• 22:43
  is a little bit of a risk just because like everything is just
• 22:49
  new and trying something. So that is it's exciting, but
• 22:53
  it's also scary. I think now, you know, we keep
• 22:57
  talking about farmers market day one of the market is actually
• 23:01
  like such a scary experience, like showing up with your tent
• 23:03
  and just hoping that people show up Now two years later, that
• 23:07
  feels a little bit more comfortable.
• 23:10
  So now moving into some of the newer things, particularly with
• 23:13
  the shipping, you know, the, the first step to that is designing
• 23:16
  the boxes and then ordering the boxes and we order the boxes.
• 23:19
  It makes sense to order them in bulk and it's like, I don't
• 23:21
  know, do I order 10,000 boxes and like where am I put in the
• 23:25
  boxes and like will any of the will anyone buy these things?
• 23:29
  And then starting to do more of the long term planning of
• 23:32
  thinking about if I want a storefront, where do I want that
• 23:35
  to be? That is, that will be the first
• 23:38
  sort of really capital intensive upfront expenditure that I would
• 23:42
  need to make. And that feels both like
• 23:45
  extremely exciting and so scary. So those are the pieces that
• 23:50
  feel sort of but like the make or break, but also like the
• 23:54
  reason to do all of this. Yeah.
• 23:56
  So when you talk about storefront, that to me sounds
• 23:59
  like you'll be hiring employees. OK.
• 24:03
  Tell us a little bit about kind of some of the the things that
• 24:06
  you kind of want to work towards before you get to a place where
• 24:09
  you're actually hiring somebody. Is that going to start before
• 24:12
  you open up the brick and mortar?
• 24:14
  Are you going to start that like by having another assistant in
• 24:16
  the kitchen or will you hire someone else to be doing
• 24:19
  marketing with your husband? Like what's?
• 24:21
  What does that next hire look like to be able to scale now
• 24:24
  such a? Good question.
• 24:25
  It is getting help in the kitchen is #1 like the
• 24:30
  difference between doing everything yourself and having
• 24:32
  someone even just, you know, supporting on the, the cleaning
• 24:34
  is huge. So the nature of the shared
• 24:39
  kitchen is you book you book the time hourly.
• 24:42
  So it's a little bit of a challenge to find something that
• 24:44
  you can sort of consistently work with and also say like this
• 24:47
  is not a full time job, but getting to a place where it's
• 24:52
  hiring that person that can be consistent.
• 24:54
  And then for me, really learning like what, how do I best at work
• 24:58
  in the kitchen with someone else when it's not just me And it's
• 25:01
  exactly what you're talking about of developing those SOP so
• 25:04
  that it's not just we show up and it's completely a mess every
• 25:09
  time. So it's getting help in the
• 25:12
  kitchen. And then, you know, and we
• 25:14
  talked about storefront, the, the goal and the dream is for my
• 25:18
  husband and I to do that together.
• 25:20
  So then you have two people that can really dedicate full time to
• 25:24
  that and then thinking about what are their supports around
• 25:26
  that. But yeah, so really expanding
• 25:32
  that way of just getting the production side down because
• 25:37
  everything is handmade and time intensive.
• 25:39
  Yeah. So getting someone to help you
• 25:41
  with the production so you can actually scale, make more pies
• 25:45
  to then be able to sell more pies and then simultaneously,
• 25:48
  like it's kind of goes hand in hand where it's the marketing
• 25:50
  kind of marketing. Piece so it comes into play.
• 25:52
  At that point it stops. Out.
• 25:54
  It's funny because we talk about our, our timeline for
• 25:57
  transactions, right? It's you might meet buyers or
• 26:00
  sellers today, they might not sell for a year, right?
• 26:03
  Well, you then want to stay in touch with them, add value and
• 26:07
  keep them in your pipeline, so to speak, right?
• 26:09
  But then you need to continue to find more people and meet more
• 26:13
  like human beings that are looking to buy, sell or invest
• 26:15
  in real estate. So as we continue on this
• 26:18
  process, then you also end up in transactions with people, right?
• 26:21
  So you end up wearing all these hats and that's the piece that's
• 26:23
  scaling, I think always kind of stops people in their tracks
• 26:28
  because you have to be able to manage so many elements at the
• 26:31
  same exact time. And that's where it's always you
• 26:34
  kind of hit this crossroads of what comes first, the chicken or
• 26:37
  the egg type thing, right? And it's do you scale without
• 26:42
  having the support and help? Do you create the SO.
• 26:44
  PS Now, before you even get to that point where you're ready to
• 26:47
  go or do you kind of like figure it out, trial and error, like as
• 26:53
  you're growing, right? Like, and it's like, I'd say the
• 26:56
  best thing to do, And this is kind of how I always advise
• 26:59
  anyone on our team who's brand new, like a brand new
• 27:02
  entrepreneur, you're ready, like out of the gates, you know, you
• 27:05
  want to be your own boss is start writing your Sops now.
• 27:09
  So start writing down every process, every little thing.
• 27:12
  How do you package your pies right?
• 27:15
  Things that you could eventually delegate to someone.
• 27:18
  Everything should be documented, written down.
• 27:20
  Now with AI, it's like you can literally just talk it into any
• 27:23
  form of a platform, right? And it will write these
• 27:25
  beautiful. SO PS out for you.
• 27:28
  I actually typed them all out 10 years ago when I started in real
• 27:31
  estate. Every little detail, but the
• 27:34
  goal is is, and this is for any entrepreneur listening who's new
• 27:37
  in in the business, right? New in their business.
• 27:40
  It's, you want to be able to scale when you're already busy
• 27:47
  and ready to scale. And that's also the hardest time
• 27:50
  to backtrack and like create all these processes.
• 27:53
  So your processes will constantly change, right?
• 27:55
  We are, I'm 10 years into real estate now.
• 27:57
  I've been with Wilson Group for almost 6 years, right?
• 27:59
  We're constantly tweaking and changing our processes because
• 28:02
  things constantly change and evolve and, and develop into new
• 28:05
  things or new products or new databases or new marketing,
• 28:08
  whatever it might be. O you have to be able to pivot
• 28:11
  and, and be able to change with the times.
• 28:12
  But the reality is though, is at least we had a foundation.
• 28:16
  And I think that that to me is the key for successful
• 28:20
  scalability in entrepreneurship because as much as it's fun to
• 28:23
  be your own boss, it's also like at some point, I think the
• 28:26
  passion project turns into, is it going to be lucrative?
• 28:30
  Is it going to be something that, you know, your husband can
• 28:33
  eventually like do full time as well, too, right?
• 28:36
  And like, how do you get to these like amazing spots and
• 28:39
  milestones that you're looking to have?
• 28:41
  And I think that you're in such a fun part of the business being
• 28:44
  two years in where it's like you're seeing the fruits of your
• 28:47
  labor. And then now you're in this like
• 28:49
  really fun planning phase two where it's like, OK, this is
• 28:52
  where you have to like lean into that business mind that you have
• 28:57
  also that talent that you have of being able to bake these
• 28:59
  pies. Now, can you train someone?
• 29:02
  Can you train someone to replicate be another you, right.
• 29:05
  And that's the part that I think it's it's the trickiest, the
• 29:09
  trickiest, but the most fun. Yeah.
• 29:10
  And. Always being innovative and
• 29:13
  thinking about where you're going next, right?
• 29:15
  We have to do that everyday. And so he's like, keep up with
• 29:17
  the next trend of marketing, right, and social media and.
• 29:24
  Your favorite things my. Favorite things?
• 29:26
  Yeah, No. But it is, I think though,
• 29:29
  there's so many tools now at our fingertips, whereas I think when
• 29:32
  social media and marketing and all that stuff first, I mean,
• 29:35
  marketing has always been around forever.
• 29:36
  But when social media first hit like the business world and it
• 29:41
  became much more of a marketing platform as opposed to a social
• 29:46
  platform, I think that there were there was a lot of learning
• 29:49
  that had to come from that. But now we're in a place where
• 29:52
  you can actually use AI to kind of do a huge majority of it for
• 29:56
  you. So I think that there's like so
• 29:57
  much value to that too. That being said, you have such a
• 30:01
  hands on business and like it's physically you have to do so
• 30:06
  much of it, But are you going to lean into AI at all for any of
• 30:10
  the the stuff that you do like maybe more from the business end
• 30:13
  of things? And I know that this is like
• 30:15
  such a beaten topic in our world, like it's constantly
• 30:18
  discussed, but I am like really curious of like how that would
• 30:22
  play into your world. Yeah.
• 30:24
  I mean, I have started to integrate that in some of the
• 30:27
  business planning. Obviously I feel fortunate that,
• 30:32
  you know, the machines can't make the pies right now.
• 30:34
  So that feels like good job security, but a super helpful
• 30:37
  tool to say like, OK, if I'm looking at the storefront, how
• 30:41
  much does the how much does it cost?
• 30:42
  And what are the what are the different elements that go into
• 30:45
  that? And where should I be thinking
• 30:48
  about? If I have these criteria, what
• 30:49
  should I be thinking about? So it just sort of gives a good
• 30:53
  starting point for these more nebulous questions.
• 30:57
  And that's been really helpful to your point of the like
• 31:00
  building out the procedures where it's, you know, I started
• 31:03
  and it was just like a year of me running around like a maniac.
• 31:07
  So then like actually it was great to have that time to sort
• 31:10
  of learn my own systems. But now being able to documented
• 31:16
  and really build out those processes, I think that there is
• 31:20
  more of a space for these tools can be so helpful with that type
• 31:23
  of thing. That's smart.
• 31:25
  Yeah, so obviously we've learned how you kind of got this
• 31:29
  started. Big little pies.
• 31:31
  So in flight entertainment, Yeah.
• 31:34
  Are we giving a shout out to JetBlue Delta like?
• 31:37
  I I honestly don't remember who which airline, but I will give a
• 31:42
  shout out to Erin McDowell. Bake it up a notch.
• 31:45
  That was the video. Anyone needs pie inspiration?
• 31:48
  She's the expert. That's amazing.
• 31:50
  I would. Have guessed Martha, but yeah.
• 31:52
  Yeah, yeah. No, Erin is a younger.
• 31:56
  OK, that's, that's amazing. So, you know, we got to learn
• 31:59
  the inspiration behind it, the courage that it took you, right?
• 32:04
  What would be one thing you wish you knew before you started or
• 32:08
  when you first started you know? I constantly feel like so
• 32:12
  grateful for doing this and like, as scary as it is and as,
• 32:17
  you know, how much more like there is a question mark of
• 32:21
  like, will this work and, you know, where is the next paycheck
• 32:25
  coming from? I feel like I, I wish that I had
• 32:29
  started only sooner because, you know, I'm wearing a hairnet, I'm
• 32:32
  scrubbing floors and I'm so much happier than when I was sitting
• 32:36
  at my pretty cushy desk job. So no, I it's all a learning
• 32:41
  process and that's been good along the way.
• 32:44
  So no, I just, yeah, I, I wish I could know if this is going to
• 32:48
  work, but that's, that's what the journey's for, I guess.
• 32:51
  Well, it seems to be working so far so.
• 32:53
  Far so good, yeah. Yeah.
• 32:55
  And then one thing that you said at the beginning that I really
• 32:58
  love this is you said, you know, you're 30 or early 30s, right,
• 33:02
  Early 30s, early 30s. I'll.
• 33:04
  Say early, but you said. Something that I loved the way
• 33:07
  you worded it, because it does kind of show, I think
• 33:10
  entrepreneurs have to be somewhat on the optimistic side,
• 33:14
  right? Like for us, we take a
• 33:16
  personality test before people join our team, right?
• 33:19
  And it's very helpful though, because one of the big things
• 33:22
  that will kind of be indicative of your success is how
• 33:28
  optimistic are you? Because you have to get up and
• 33:30
  believe in yourself every single day.
• 33:32
  But you said it's, it's never going to get any easier, right?
• 33:36
  Like you're at this like amazing phase where you have a husband,
• 33:40
  you have a support system, right?
• 33:41
  So you have like an amazing support system at home.
• 33:44
  You have some experience under your belt and you're, you don't
• 33:48
  have children yet, right? So ultimately you knew that this
• 33:50
  was a time to capitalize. And I love hearing that the
• 33:53
  biggest like thing you wish you knew was you should have started
• 33:56
  sooner, right? Because they think every
• 33:58
  entrepreneur, you, you kind of wait until you finally are
• 34:02
  ready. And I think that I shouldn't say
• 34:05
  every entrepreneur, there are some that jump in two feet
• 34:07
  first, right. But I do think that that's the
• 34:10
  best advice that you could ever give somebody is don't wait.
• 34:13
  Just actually like take the leap.
• 34:15
  If you really truly believe in what you're about to do, take
• 34:18
  the leap. And then you'll figure it all
• 34:19
  out as you keep going. You just have to have the work
• 34:22
  ethic and the drive, which sounds like you definitely do.
• 34:24
  Thank you. Yeah.
• 34:26
  So we'll leave it with this, right?
• 34:28
  We are super excited. Are we mentioned we have a
• 34:31
  referral process? We love everyone that gives us
• 34:34
  referrals. We always give them something
• 34:35
  sweet. So we say there's nothing
• 34:37
  sweeter than a referral from you and we send them a sweet treat.
• 34:40
  Big little pies. I can't wait to start shipping
• 34:43
  to all of our amazing people who send us referrals.
• 34:46
  We usually send out like, I don't even know, 160 a year.
• 34:51
  So we're excited to get these into the hands of all of our
• 34:54
  favorite people that help support our business and build
• 34:56
  our team. And then the farmers markets we
• 35:01
  have. And again, if you're not
• 35:02
  watching this, if you're just listening, you are missing out
• 35:04
  on the gorgeous pies that we have here.
• 35:07
  But the big little pies themselves, you can get them at
• 35:10
  Farmers markets or at some point a storefront near you.
• 35:13
  That's right. Right.
• 35:15
  Anything else that you want to kind of mention about Big Little
• 35:19
  Pies? What's your favorite flavor?
• 35:20
  I. Was just about to say what are
• 35:21
  the most popular flavors that was going to?
• 35:23
  Be What's the most popular? What's your favorite too?
• 35:26
  Well. Pam and I have the same favorite
• 35:28
  sour cherry I. Love the sour cherry.
• 35:31
  My personal favorite, honestly the I make all these fun
• 35:35
  flavors. I do a BlackBerry, Peach egg,
• 35:37
  peanut butter fluff with chocolate.
• 35:39
  The hazelnut apple pie is the number one seller.
• 35:42
  Is it really Apple? Apple Strawberry rhubarb #2 OK.
• 35:45
  I had the strawberry rhubarb that was it's really.
• 35:47
  Good it was. So good and I actually don't
• 35:50
  even think I had ever had a strawberry rhubarb pie before,
• 35:53
  but I'll never go back now. It was unbelievable the the
• 35:57
  crispy crust on top that you do that is to die for.
• 36:03
  It is buttery and delicious and it's heaven.
• 36:06
  So again, we can't wait to start shipping these out to people and
• 36:09
  getting them in the hands of all the people that we love.
• 36:11
  And we are really excited to see your business continue to grow
• 36:15
  too. Thank.
• 36:16
  You and I'm so happy to be here and this has been such a fun
• 36:18
  experience that I'm so appreciative.
• 36:20
  Well. Congratulations on taking this
• 36:22
  leap two years ago. I think it was obviously the
• 36:25
  right decision for you. I think you know that and we
• 36:28
  can't wait to see what happens. I'm excited to see what town you
• 36:31
  end up deciding to open up your store in.
• 36:33
  Yeah, well. We'll probably need help
• 36:34
  finding. It so.
• 36:36
  Yeah, such a. Great idea, right?
• 36:41
  Yeah. Well, thank you so much for
• 36:42
  being on today. Thank.
• 36:43
  You so much for having me.