Latest / Entrepreneurial OOMPH / Judy Annunziata — From Four Stores to #1 in New York

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Judy Annunziata — From Four Stores to #1 in New York · Entrepreneurial OOMPH

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: It's just so nice to see you again. It's been
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: so long.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: So long. So long. I think back in the day,
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: Orange County Chamber, which I don't really attend much now,
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: and B & I and all the chambers and all
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: the things. It's just too much. I think it reduced
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: my life a lot. I merged the stores. I kept
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: the territories. But we can talk about that. But I'm
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: just saying I've changed a lot in not even a
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: year with just my relationship, just everything.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: So you've done a reinvention.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say I kind of reinvented myself. I'm
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: making myself a little bit more social media noticed, I guess,
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: with my videos.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: I'm number one in New York.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: You were always at the rank. You always ranked high
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with your.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: I mean, I fought for number one and I'm on
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: the top 10 in the country. I fluctuate. I'm going
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: for number one, but it's really hard to get number one.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: You're up against the corporate store. So I'm going to
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: get there and.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Then I'm retired. Okay. Well, there you go.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: So I'm going to do this.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Okay. So Judy Annunziato. Am I saying it right?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Annunziata.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Annunziata. Okay. Wait, Mayash, let's delete that, delete that, delete that.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I don't want to mess up your name. Okay. We're
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: going to start over. You ready?
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Mayash, we're going to start here. Okay. I'm just going
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to say Judy. Hi, Judy. Hi. All right. So you
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: say your last name so I don't butcher it.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: It's Judy Annunziata.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Annunziata.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Okay. That is not Italian, is it?
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's a nice Irish name.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Come on. It has been a really long time. It's
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: so wonderful to have the opportunity just to see your
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: face again and to kind of catch up. Years. It's
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: been years.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure how many years. I'm sure we could
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: figure it out, but more than it needed to be.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think so. I think that's what happens. Life
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: happens and in a blink of an eye, you turn
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: around and you're like, oh my gosh, it's been how long? Yeah,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: I think that's the way things go when you're busy with,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully mostly good things and good health, which,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: which is important. So I remember, I remember you being
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: always known as the fruit queen.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: 20 years this year. 20 years of being the fruit queen, yeah.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so maybe we should explain what that is so
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: people don't, yeah, they're like, what? What's a fruit queen?
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's some different interpretations of what it is.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: So the fruit queen.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I own Edible Arrangements of the Hudson Valley. It's located
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: in Newburgh. I did have, and everybody remembers, I had
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: four locations, and after COVID, I came up with, merging
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: everything into one store, but taking on still all the
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: delivery territories, just because life changed a little bit after COVID.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: You know, walking into a store is rare these days,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: between third party delivery services, Uber, you know, DoorDash, etc.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: We just people don't come in anymore. It's very far
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: and few between other than a major holiday, but it's
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: far and few between that we see faces coming in.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: I never go to a grocery store, so I can,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: I can attest to that.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Well, that's it. So wait a second. So that's interesting.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I remember when you opened up the store, it was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: right off of 17. And what was that Harriman?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: So when was that?
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: So I opened my first one in 2006. And then
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: the other two followed within two eight months. I opened
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: up three stores within a year. And then in 2000,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: and I believe it was 17, I opened up Kingston.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: And then 2020 came, we had COVID. And believe it
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: or not, COVID was great for me because we became essential.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So I just couldn't manage the people because people were scared.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: So nobody was coming into work. So I took all
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: four locations, merged it into one and did everything out,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: like kind of like an Amazon hub. I took all
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: the orders out of one and then I just over
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: hired delivery drivers and then just was like, you're going
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: to this section, you're going to this section. And it worked.
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: And then I started to do that after for a
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: little bit during the holidays. And then after that, I
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: was like, why am I paying rent and staff and
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: et cetera?
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: You don't need the brick and mortar.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I called up my corporate office and it was like, hey,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: I want to merge. And at first they were saying no.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: And then they were like, I'm like, trust me, it works.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: It will work. I promise you. And then it worked.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: And now everybody's doing it. Everybody's merging their stores.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Do they give you credit for it?
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: No, come on now. You know, I mean, maybe. I
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: doubt it, though.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, for the individual, so you're a franchise owner.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: I am a franchise owner. Yes.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: So for the individual franchise owner, it makes so much
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: more sense not to have all that brick and mortar overhead.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: It makes corporate look better when they have more locations
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: because they're right. So it looks better on there.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: And it also depends on the kind of business, too.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Let's be honest. Like, you know, if it was a
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Dunkin Donuts, obviously, the more locations that works because people
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: are going to go in and write coffee. But I'm
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: more of a delivery service. So it's very rare that
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: people pick up. I might get a dozen pickups in
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: a week. The only time people actually walk in for
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: pickup is if they're picking up for DoorDash, Uber Eats or,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: you know, Grubhub. Other than that, it's very it's very
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: rare that somebody is picking up because they want that
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: wow factor anyway of a delivery being delivered at their house.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: So it works.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I like that's good. That's great. So let, let, can
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: we just go back for a second? So I remember
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you were working with a coach. I don't remember his name.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Chris Masters.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: And he was helping you to look, get the locations
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and row into your brick and mortar locate. Is that,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: am I remembering correctly? Am I having a, I had
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the locations.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: He helped me, um, pretty much promote the businesses market
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: myself as the fruit queen go. He ran with the
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: fruit queen thing. It was, it was a lot of
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: Chris that did that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: So he did. And it worked because 20 something years later,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: I'm still calling you food queen.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: So there you go. There's probably, we were talking about
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: this today. I would say 75% of people have me
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: in their phone as fruit queen and they don't know.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: My name is Judy. Yeah. Like I'll talk to people
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and they're like, Prue Queen. I'm like, I know they
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: don't know my name. So I answer to Prue Queen.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: It's fine.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, good. So how many employees do you have now?
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: I went from 35 employees to, I think I'm at
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: a dozen right now. I mean, I put the best
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: people from three locations and I merged them. So I
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: took the managers and I brought them in. So for
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: every two employees managers equal between two to three. And
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: so I didn't need to have that crazy overhead of stuff.
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: I still have Megan 20 years later. She started day
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: one and she's still there.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: I remember her.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah. She's, she was in high school and college. Now
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: she's married, has two kids and she's still.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Running that show and can do it in her sleep.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: I'm sure. And now I have a couple of more.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I have Brie. And then I have a, Most of
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: my staff stick around. So they've all been there for
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: over six years. Megan's been there 20, but it's, it's,
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: you know, my old crew comes for the holiday and
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: that's it.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: So back in the day, were you doing deliveries?
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Me personally or the store?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: No, your, your teams.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: We were doing deliveries.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: So how much of your, like what percentage of your
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: business was delivery back then?
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Back then, probably still what it is today, between 80
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: to 85%. It was always a web-based business. And then
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: as the years went on, they were trying to get
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: people to come in, do the smoothies, the snacks, the treats,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: which is still great things, but people get those door dashed.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: They don't come to pick it up.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Who picks up a coffee anymore unless you're in drive-thru? Yeah.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Like you stay and jive through. You can do three
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: different things at the same time while you're waiting for
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: your coffee and then you get it through the window.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: If you can't, guess what? You can call DoorDash and
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: get your coffee, meet you at work when you get there,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: which is crazy. But that's how people operate now.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: So how did you get started with the first one? Anyway,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I kind of remember the story. Something to do with
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: your your family.
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah. My dad, your dad.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And he had a closet in Poughkeepsie. and the Poughkeepsie
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: Edible Arrangements wanted to rent from him and he was
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: like I need you to go do a little you
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: know R & D over there check it out see
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: if this is a real company how's it gonna work
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: and I did and I was like oh my god
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: this thing's gonna blow up dad it's gonna be great
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: and then I believe it was my sister-in-law she was
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: having the twins and I was like hey I got to,
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: I have a gift for her that's healthy because she
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: couldn't have the cookies and all that. So I loved
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: the concept. I loved where it was going. I knew
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: it was going to blow up and it did blow up,
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: but now it's been a long time. It's been 20 years.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: So now I, I finally have competition. I really didn't
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: have any. competition.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: My first, who's, who's your competition? Who's, I mean, come on.
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: They want to be my competition, but you know, there's
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: some franchises that are out there. I would say they
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: would consider Sherry's berries, my competition, but there's no face
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: to Sherry's berries. No.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: I mean, edible arrangements and there are two franchises. The
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: difference is, is that I run mine like a mom
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: and pop. So yes, I own edible arrangements, but I
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: made it where you're ordering from the fruit queen. I
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: came from the restaurant world. My parents, this is how
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: they taught me. So I changed it up a little.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: I think it's fantastic. It does. What's your logo look like?
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: It's a big circle with a fruit basket in the center.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Right in the center.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Colorful. Now it's white. And we're also edible now, not
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: edible arrangements. Kind of like Dunkin' Donuts dropped donuts. Edible Arrangements.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: Wait a second. Wait, this is like all new to
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: me now. Wait a second. So I can't call you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: Edible Arrangements anymore.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Everybody calls us Edible Arrangements.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: But when I think of edibles, I think about like,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you know.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: THC. So are people going to.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: They have.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: You're not. Okay. They have.
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: But Edible Arrangements does have a sister store that is selling. Edibles. Edibles, yeah.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: They're not connected. It has nothing to do with the fruit,
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: but they did, they own the name Edibles. So they
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: ran with that while they're in Georgia.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: I mean, smart. I'll give him credit.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Boy, look at that marketing, leveraging the name, huh?
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. I mean, so what I tell people is
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I do not have edibles, but after you take them,
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: I can feed you. When you get the munchies.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: So wait, can they order both from you or they
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: have to put two separate orders in?
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: They have to put two separate orders.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: New York though is kind of different. They have it
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: in Georgia, but New York has some rules. So we're
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: not allowed to cross there, but you know, being in
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: New York, that's how it goes. I know.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, so I got to wrap my head around this.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to refer to you as the fruit queen,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: even though I do know you and I do know
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: who you are and I do know your name. I'm
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: still going to call you that. So the one gift
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: that Chris did, I mean, for real, was he really
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: did a great job with branding and getting you promoted
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: as the fruit queen.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: That was a gift. Yeah, he definitely did. He definitely did.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: It got to the point where I would walk around
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: in chamber events and I would look at him and
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: he'd be like, that is... And the reason why was
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I was meeting so many people at one time because
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: I covered such a large territory. I think it was
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: a part of 11 chambers.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: At one point.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And it was just getting the name out and letting,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: and I had to educate because I opened pretty much
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: when Edible opened, only a few years after Edible opened.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: So I had to educate everybody on what Edible Arrangements was.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: So that was my first five, 10 years. And then
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: after that, it was, you know, five years of going
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: to everything, keeping myself on top of it. I did
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: the commercial for corporate. I was, I think, the only
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: franchisee that had a speaking part in a commercial for them.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: And then I, we had COVID. Not that that's, I
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: hate to bring it up, but we had COVID.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: And I think- Well, it happened, right?
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I literally went MIA. Like if you ask people, have
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: you seen Judy? They would tell you no. And that
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: is because we got busy plus short staffed, had four locations.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: We're juggling it all. I was physically in it every
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: single day. I was transferring calls to my cell phone
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: and taking calls from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. at
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: night and I just got lost in it with everything
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: that was happening because people couldn't see each other. So
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: I was the middleman. I had to get these arrangements out.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: I was doing numbers I don't even do on holidays.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: So it got crazy. And I hired my entire family,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: my brother, my sister, my nieces, my nephews. I took
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: them all in. But then when everybody went back, I
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: ended up having to work again twice as hard.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: And then I....
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: My mom got sick and before she got to the
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: point where she wouldn't have this kind of conversation, she
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: told me not to work my life away. And that's
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: because since I was a kid, I've been working like
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: a dog. So I think she saw that I was
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: just constantly working and life was just kind of like
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: years were just going, okay, it's 2020, 21, 22, 23.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: And then it was like, 23, 24. And I'm sitting
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: there going, how did I get here? Like, where are we?
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Lincoln and I. Yeah.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: And then I came up with the merging said it,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: let me tell you, that was a hard nut to
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: swallow because I was calling it failure. I was depressed.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I was sad. I would cry. I would have breakdowns.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: Everybody thought I was crazy at work. I would just
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: like walking around, losing my mind. And then I was like, no,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: it's not failure. And a few people would be like,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: are you insane? You've been working so hard for so long.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Why do you think it's failure? I'm like, I'm closing
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: a store. They're like, because you're smart enough to know
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: as a business owner that this 100% but wrap your
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: head around it. You know, it made me feel like
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: a failure. And then when I realized the concept made
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: more sense. You're going to get better customer service. I
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: was going to have my hands on everything in one
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: location instead of being at one store. Think I know
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: what's going on over there. Even though you have cameras
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: and managers, you're not.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: There, you know?
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: So I needed to reel it all back in my life,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: my work. And now I get to see my mom more.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: So that was a bonus. That's really what I wanted.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: And yeah, she gave me some good advice.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: She did. Very wise woman.
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: Very wise woman. Also a very hard worker. I took
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: after her. Yeah.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: You know, it's so interesting. So I have, and if
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I talk, I get to talk to a lot of people,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: whether it's on the podcast or I do a lot
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: of executive coaching. And one of, and I just literally
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: said this today to one of my clients, I said,
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: working with executives at your level, right? Where you're solopreneurs and,
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: You're a creator, you're a visionary, you're a marketing person,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: you're all of that. And you have a team of people.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: First of all, I think what happens is sometimes for
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: most of the clients that I work with, when they
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: come to me, their identity is completely intertwined.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: With what they do.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: And when they have to pivot and pull back, I
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: think their first reaction is very similar to yours. It's no,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: it's a feel it. And then like you, it's an awareness. Like,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: wait a second. I'm actually saving money. I'm going to
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: be more efficient. I'm going to do probably more business, right?
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Because you can hire people that are driving in all
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: different areas now.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I became number one in New York as soon as
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: I merged.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: It's fabulous. I'm so happy for you.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: I'm so happy for you.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, not that it wasn't owed... To me then,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: I felt like I was working so hard and I
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: would look at the numbers every week. Like, I just
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: want to get up there. And then when it happened
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: and I saw the first, you know, number one, I
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: was like, I literally cried. I was like, it was
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: like the biggest thing ever. So that depressing failure feeling
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: went away real quick.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Good for you. Good for you.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: That's fabulous. So when... When you're, okay, so here's Judy today.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: You have one location. How many hours a week are
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you working right now? Please tell me 20. I'd be
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: so happy for you.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know if I'd say 20, but
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: I was definitely in the high numbers, probably more like 90.
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: I would mark it while I was at dinner. So
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: I would say I'm at a good 30 hours. Good.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: But that's all inclusive, like in all hours, you know,
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: between going to events and things. But for the most part,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I have such a good team that they know what
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: my expectations are. We just constantly have our meetings and
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: our talks. Megan and I are on the phone from
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: the minute, from 9 a.m. That minute she walks in
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: until whatever time she's leaving. And then sometimes we're on
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: the phone even after she wears an air bud and
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: literally everybody's like, are you on the phone with Judy?
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not there.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: You're checking in and you're managing.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: I'm going over things. We do inventory on the phone,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: but I just don't need to be there physically anymore.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: Whereas before I needed to be running between stores to
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: get inventory, to check on things, to, you know, to
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: do all those things. And now I don't need to
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: do that because there's nothing to check except for two
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: girls that know exactly what I need. So I can
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: go the whole week and never talk to them. And
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: I know it's getting done. which is great. It took
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: you 20 years to figure that out, but you know.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: It's, it's, it all comes around full circle. So you've
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: got a lot of standard operating procedures that I'm assuming
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: that corporate gave you, but some of it probably you
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: created for yourself.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing. I, we do have standard operating procedures, but
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: I would say the bulk of it came from running
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: the restaurant.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's interesting.
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Making a lot of the checklists that I did when
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: I was at Umberto's, I brought to, you know, the store.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: At the same time, the way I trained my staff
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: at Umberto's is kind of how I trained my staff
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: at Edible, which they would say, you don't need to,
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: you have, it tells you how to do everything.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, yeah, but no.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: And I would do it my own way. So yeah,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of it was my to be
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: in control a little bit no yeah so I might
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not a perfectionist but I do like things done.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: If you weren't a solopreneur visionary you know professional woman
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: who didn't want to make sure that things were run
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a certain way and had standards that she had expectation
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think you would be as successful as you
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: are thank.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: You I appreciate that I feel like I agree with
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: that statement.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: You resemble that statement? Yeah.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, I'm a little crazy, but I'm like
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: 20 years, this 50 year old me. I feel some,
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I feel like the things that scared me and the
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: things that gave me anxiety as a business owner. I mean,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: you know, being a business owner, you're faking it till
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: you make it the first five years.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: Even your 20 years, there's things that pop up that
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: they've never dealt with. And everybody looks to you like,
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: this just happened. And you're like, well, this is my
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: first time too. So I got to figure it out,
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: but I don't know how to handle it. I mean,
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: I was getting all of those kinds of things and
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: it used to freak me out. Now I'm like, it's fine.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: We'll figure it out. We always do. It's not the
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: end of the world. No one's dying. And it's just fruit.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: So it's just fruit.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: I am not.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Going to be conducting heart surgery. I'm just going to
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: give you an edible or anything.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: That's so that's great. So when back in the day,
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I remember being in the back. And with, with Megan
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and you in the Monroe store, I don't know if
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: you remember. Yeah. And you guys were, they were chopping.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Like this was like real hands. This is a hands-on business.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Like you've got to, you've got to have your inventory.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: You've got to have really good produce and you've got
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: to have good relationships with those vendors.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And you have to have a really, really, really, really
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: good refrigeration system with the backup. Yes, you do.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I have one of the biggest walking coolers that they offer.
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: And that thing is my baby. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: That's crazy. Yeah. And, you know, so thank God about
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: that now. So now you're in this this position where
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: you have some more time on your hands.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: So what's next for Judy?
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: So what's changed? Something I said I would never do
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: is do videos and go on social media because if
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: you ever looked, I never really did a selfie and
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: I never did it. I always did edible arrangements. I
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: put the photos of them. We had a chamber event.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I just never knew how to do all that or
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: wanted to, I guess you would say. And I one
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: day was like, You know, we need to do something different.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: I need to I have to work smarter, not harder.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: So I realized that I can take orders like FTD
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: and send them out to a sister store in another
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: state or even within New York if it's too far.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: And so I wanted everybody and I still want everybody
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: to order from me and I get to distribute them
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: out like I am FTD. And I get a commission
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: on it. Why would I not want to take thousands
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: of orders and not have to make them? You know, so. 100%.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: That's a massive income.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So I ran with that on my video. Like, yes,
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: order from Edible Arrangements. But order from the Fruit Queen.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: We'll take care of you. Like, you don't need to
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: call the 1-800 number. And you don't need to call
• 25:22
  Speaker 2: that store in Florida while you're living here. Or even
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: if you're in Florida. you can call me and I
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: can still take care of it. So I started doing
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: these videos on TikTok and, uh, I went on a
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: podcast and, and the gentleman that invited me as he
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: actually had made my brother viral on TikTok. And he
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: was like, you know, you should really try it too.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: You're like your brother. And I was like, okay. And
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: his name is Joe from Vivo creations.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And, uh, okay.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: And, um, And he started doing the videos and then
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: we went viral our second month, 2.1 views on me
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: talking about the largest edible arrangements being, you know, five
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: feet tall. And I'm like doing the whole thing. It's
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: feet tall and it's about $ 2, 000. And if you can
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: eat the whole thing, I'll buy it for you. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: it went viral. So, At first I was like, is
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: this working? But now I know it's working. We have
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: a little, you know, we have people that enjoy it.
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: And I guess when they see it, they realize let's
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: just call her and she'll get it out. She's going
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: to make it easy. It's not going to be difficult. Right.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Call Judy, call the fruit queen.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Oh, the fruit queen.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So the fruit queen has nationwide distribution channels.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I do. And yeah, The other thing is,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: is that edible arrangements isn't just fruit anymore. We are
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: literally become a whole gift giving concept. So things have
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: changed in that way too. Okay. We do edible bake shop.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: We have cupcakes, cookies. We bake them right at the store.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: We have cake. We have flowers. We have candles. You
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: name it, we have it. We have non-alcoholic treats. We
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: just have so many options for gift giving now. We
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: want to be the one-stop shop so you don't have
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: to stop at a store to pick up a candle.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Then you need to get some balloons. Plus you have
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: to get the cake. Then you have to get, it's
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: like one-stop shop. You can get the whole thing there.
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: Down to the paper plates, forks, and knives for the cake.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, okay. So all of those lines is for the edible.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: So can I just call them edible arrangements? Because how
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: do I not?
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: I can't, you know, it's because of that. That's why
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: they took the edible and their whole concept was the
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: dunking thing. It was because now we're not just fruit
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: that you can eat an arrangement. It's platters. We do
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: a dessert board. Like, you know, you see charcuterie board
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: came out. We made a dessert board. So it's like,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: Everything that happened in the last six years that changed,
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: we just jumped on that bandwagon so that we're still
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: your gift-giving place.
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: Okay. So I understand that. So that's the brand. The core, though,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the actual fruit arrangements, is that still the biggest percentage
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: of your business?
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: 100%.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: Everybody's going to continue to order chocolate-dipped fruit from me.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: The best. And wait a second. For those of you
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: who have not tried a chocolate-coated banana from Edible Arrangements,
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: you better call Judy right now and order a basket
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: with chocolate-dipped and the strawberries, too, I have to say.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, the apples. The best.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: Oh, I love the chocolate-dipped apple.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: It's so good. It's my favorite. If anybody watches the videos,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: I am constantly eating an apple. Yes. that Granny Smith
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: apples are my favorite. Everybody goes to strawberries. I think
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: they have to try the other fruit, pineapple, kiwi.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know. My favorite is the banana. I just
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: took a cover banana. It's got my name all over it.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: They're not marshmallows.
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: Well, okay. So I can tell you that I was
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: one of those people until I bit into it and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I went, oh, this is not a marshmallow.
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: Everybody. Surprise. We're only fruit. At that point, we were
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: only fruit. Oh, yeah.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: My God. So next year, five years, where, what are
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: you going to be doing?
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: Um, you want to laugh today? I signed my contract
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: for five more years, so I will be with edible arrangements.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: Um, what will I be doing as the fruit queen?
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: I hope I will be still very involved in it,
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: but I'm enjoying doing these. A lot of people have
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: been asking me to talk about my experience being in
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: a franchise or being a business owner for 20 years
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: in Orange County, or, you know, it's a lot of
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: work things, but I enjoy talking about I guess I
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: figured out how to be a boss. It took me,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: you know, 20 years to figure out how to be
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: the best entrepreneur I can be. And I'm still learning,
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: you know, I hope I'm going to be better in
• 30:38
  Speaker 2: five years. And my dream is that me, all the
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: training I gave Megan, that she just says, don't worry
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: about it. I'll take it over. That would be my dream.
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: I've said to her, she laughs at me because she
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: has little young kids. But she knows that place better
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: than I do at this point, I feel like. As
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: far as the physical, putting the arrangements together and knowing
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: how to do everything, the computers, the drivers, she has
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: it all down pat. They don't need me for that.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: They need me more for teaching, uplifting, motivating, and I guess.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: Continuously selling the product and keeping us, you know, top
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: of the mind. Because after a while, people are like,
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: how many times can I get an edible arrangement for
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: my mother on Mother's Day? You know, so I just
• 31:38
  Speaker 2: got to keep everybody. Don't forget me.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: So it's interesting. So I have this really strong feeling
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: that you are either thinking about it or somebody asked
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: you that you should be writing a book.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: A book about being an entrepreneur?
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: Being a female entrepreneur at a very young age in
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: a franchise business in New York State.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I was one of the first. Yes. I was
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: the youngest female at that time.
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: Yep.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And I bought out two partners as the years
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: were going on. because, well, I was doing all the
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: dirty work. I mean, my brother was a partner and
• 32:27
  Speaker 2: he was at the restaurant. But, you know, I felt
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: like they were mine. So I needed to fight for
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: them and keep them. And I did and I won.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: But I guess I could write a book. It's funny.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: I'll be honest. It took me a long time to
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: realize that I'm not a new owner anymore. Like, I
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: know it's crazy. I say 20 years, but like, you
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: know it as well. Like you learn something new every year.
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: Plus what's going on social media, whatever it is. And
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: I was like, I am never doing that. But then
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: I was like, I'm not done yet. So I'm going
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: to go at 51 years old onto social media and
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: make it happen. And if I listen, everybody's been pretty
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: good to me. So I can't complain. I don't have
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: any terrible stories to say where people are bashing me
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: or anything.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: So.
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: Not going to win on that, too.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: But no. Why? Yeah, no, it's not that. And, you know,
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: there's a group in and it's more Orange County, not.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: Let me see. WEDC, Westchester Economic Development Center.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: I spoke for them. I did. I spoke.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: I spoke.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I spoke for them. I wasn't a part of it.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: I learned about it. They asked if I would speak.
• 33:48
  Speaker 2: as a female entrepreneur and the many years that I
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: was in it.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: And I was like, yeah, sure.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: I don't think I thought I was a role model until,
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, I always was, Megan would always say it
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: to me, but, you know, I don't think I thought
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: that as an entrepreneur to other entrepreneurs or other young
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: females that are starting businesses and things like that until
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: somebody actually said it to me recently. They were just like,
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: you're such an inspiration. I'm like, I am? Doesn't everybody
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: work this hard? I mean, all you work this hard.
• 34:21
  Speaker 2: Everyone I came into contact with during my growing of being,
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: I felt like we're all strong business women, you know,
• 34:30
  Speaker 2: killing it out there. And I'm still friends with a
• 34:33
  Speaker 2: lot of business owners, female business owners, regular business men, women,
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: married couples, single, you name it. And I just enjoy
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: helping them out because when I was struggling, there's no checklist.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: No, there wasn't.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: I kept saying that. That's what the book I need
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: to do. There's no checklist of you can go into
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: work on time. You can run work. You can, you know,
• 34:56
  Speaker 2: teach your staff, but then you get a flood. What
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: do you do? And you're like, I don't know. Or
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: like some kind of, we got held up at gunpoint
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: at Monroe and then how to handle the aftermath. Like
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: all those things.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: Wait a second. That really happened?
• 35:12
  Speaker 2: That really happened.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I didn't know about that.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: We were held up at gunpoint in Monroe. I've had
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: a fire. I've had, you name it, we've had it.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: And there's no checklist. You have no idea how to
• 35:28
  Speaker 2: do this. I mean, we didn't have chat GPT. We
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: didn't have all these good things to go to now.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Now chat GPT should be on my payroll because I'm like, okay,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: what are you doing? And I'll be honest, like you say, It's,
• 35:44
  Speaker 2: it was a lot for me to take in. And
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: I didn't realize that as an entrepreneur, you're constantly learning. Yeah. So,
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: and every day. Yeah. But I guess I could teach
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: a few things now.
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. A hundred percent.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: I think the best thing I would say to somebody
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: right now would be it's everything is fixable. There is
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: not a single thing that happens in your business. That's
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: not fixable. Do you get freaked out when you open
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: up something and it says, you know, whatever, whether, let's say,
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: Department of Agriculture needs you to renew something. You're like,
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: oh my God, you know, like, or you're going to
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: be suspended. You start freaking out because you don't know
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: any better. And then you're like, oh, wait, this isn't
• 36:30
  Speaker 2: that bad. I just call somebody. I can deal with it.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: I can handle the problem. Back when I started, everything
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: was a catastrophe. And now it's like, that's nothing. We
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: had a fire. We were held up at gunpoint. If
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: I can handle those things, I can handle anything now.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: There you go. That's a good attitude.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: That's the attitude I have now.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Now it's much easier. Thank God everybody was okay and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: nobody got hurt. You still had the Monroe location. What
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: year was that? 2014.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: I must have heard about it. I just.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: don't remember oh my goodness yeah all right well all
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: right my dear so in five years we're going to
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: have another conversation.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Well it'll be before that hopefully yeah.
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: I want to know what's going on in your life
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: how many speaking engagements you have been committed to and
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: how many uh business schools have invited you to talk
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: to their female entrepreneurs Because there's actually, I don't know
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: if you know this, I didn't have this opportunity when
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I was younger. There's actually colleges now that offer just
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: entrepreneurship as a degree in their business schools. Oh my God, yeah.
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: Where was all these things when we were younger?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't have cell phones. I didn't
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: have a microwave.
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: Agreed. Like what? I didn't have Google. I don't know.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Oh, what happened? So these new young people, they just
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: don't know how lucky they are.
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: I literally tell my girls all the time, you have
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: no idea how lucky you have it. Just jump on GPT,
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: jump on Google. There is nothing you can't figure out.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: I'm like, do you understand? You guys have so much.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: And they're like looking at me like, it's still hard.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: I'm like, no, what we went through was hard. But,
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: you know, they'll never know.
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: No, they won't. I used to have to wait an
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: hour and a half for a baked potato in the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: oven because we didn't have a microwave for like in
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: six minutes you could have.
• 38:47
  Speaker 2: I'm going to make you laugh. I was interviewed by
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: a great guy recently. He has a channel and I
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: asked him how old he was and his response was,
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: I'm post 9-11. So I learned it from books, not
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: living it. And I went and sat back and I
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: was like, Oh, my God, am I old? Wait, you
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: didn't know about 9-11 or lived it like we did? Like,
• 39:15
  Speaker 2: you know, like, no, I have zero clue what you
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: guys lived. And I was like, that blows my mind.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: And now you're interviewing me like you're a baby.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: It's really scary when you go to the doctor. and
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: the doctors are younger than you. Oh, I'm not ready
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: for that. No, no, this can't happen.
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: When somebody calls you, ma'am.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, I'm so five years ago, we
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: left New York and we live in South Carolina, Charleston area,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: which is phenomenal. We love it. Best thing ever.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: Just went there to visit for the first time. Loved it.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Did you love it?
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Right. I didn't know you were there, but I'll, I'm
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: coming back.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Okay. Next time. So everybody calls you ma'am. And some
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: people from the North, they don't know that they get offended.
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: They're like, don't call me ma'am. And I'm like, no, no, no,
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: that's it. That's actually being nice to you. That's the
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: other thing I noticed is.
• 40:06
  Speaker 2: That you can tell who a New Yorker is in
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: Charleston because I got off the plane. I was wearing,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: you know, leggings and a But everything was black. And
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: then I was walking and I was melting. Nobody wears
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: black in the summer in Charleston, except for a New Yorker.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: There was multiple New Yorkers wearing black. And I was like, yep,
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: that's a New Yorker. That's a New Yorker because they're
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: wearing light clothing. And I was like, because you're melting
• 40:32
  Speaker 2: while you're walking. That doesn't happen in New York City.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: Everybody still continues to wear all black.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, wait. And there's one more thing. So did
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: you did anybody say or did you hear anybody say
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: bless your heart? Yes.
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: And I heard what it means.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So one of my friends, when we first moved
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: down there, she's like, well, we mean it as a nicety.
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: And I looked at her name's Roseanne. I said, Roseanne.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: If you're telling me that bless your heart doesn't mean, oh,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: you poor, pitiful, ignorant thing. You just don't know any better.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: And I bless your heart because I feel bad for you.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: Then you're full of it. And so, yeah, so that's
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: what it means. I do have to say one thing.
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: You must miss New York food. okay, we missed the bagels.
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: We missed the pizza. My husband hasn't had a really
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: authentic chicken cutlet Parmesan hero since we moved down here.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: I mean, I don't want to say anything.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I know.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: I know. I was like, why is Old Bay in everything? Everything.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Everything has an Old Bay bagel. I'm like, um, Can
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: I just get a, you know, and in New York saying,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: can I get a gluten-free bagel? It's easy. You go
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: to South Carolina, we have an Old Bay bagel. I'm like, no,
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: I don't want that.
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: No, it's not the same thing. Not the same thing.
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: The next time you come to Charleston, I'm going to
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: tell you where to go. You go to Horse Chop House.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: They have gluten-free fried calamari. It's an almond flour. It
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: is phenomenal. Phenomenal.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Nice.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: It's the best fried calamari and I'm gluten intolerant. So
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you go there. And then you go to,
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: you go to Miller's all day for breakfast. They have
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: gluten-free toast. They make the best breakfast.
• 42:08
  Speaker 2: It's great.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: Totally worth it.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: Before I went next. All right.
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: So next time you come, I'm going to give you
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: a whole list. So Charleston is known for, it is
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: known for its restaurants and its food, but you just
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: have to know where to go. And then did you
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: go to any music venues? Did you get to hear
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: any music?
• 42:27
  Speaker 2: No, we had, we had a reunion, our high school friends,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: we got together, we went to, I think it's called Cooper,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: the new, the Cooper. It's new and it was beautiful.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: It's on, it's on the water.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Yes. It's on the water. Yeah. You have great coffee.
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a big part, but the food was
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: just like, I can't wait to go home.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: Oh no. So you're going to, you're going to come
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: visit us and we're going to take you to some
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: of the really great restaurants. And the music scene is
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: you can go anywhere, any night of the week and
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: have at least five or six choices of really great
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: music to listen to. It's phenomenal.
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: I saw some of the venues that they're like, I
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: saw some of the places that had live music when
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: we were walking. I think, what is it? King street.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: Is that what it's called?
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: King streets with all the shops, the, all the stores
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: and the rest. Yeah. And the restaurants.
• 43:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I, I, I did that whole thing. OK, I
• 43:25
  Speaker 2: was getting my steps in walking and I was like,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: there is a lot of stores here. Yeah. Yeah. But
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: it was fun.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: So King Street and then you have Bay Street, East
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: Bay with all the other restaurants and then you can
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: walk along the water.
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: And yeah, we did do it. We went along the water, too. Yeah.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: And we love Charleston.
• 43:47
  Speaker 2: We did a lot. It was, of course, raining. when
• 43:50
  Speaker 2: we were there, but it was like raining, go, go
• 43:52
  Speaker 2: back in the pool, come out, you know, it was fine.
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: Your rain isn't bad.
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: No, it's not. We, I, and yeah, so we are,
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: we're very happy. We're very happy. So what we do
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: to get our New York bagel fixes, we go up
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to New York at least twice a year and we
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: get a couple dozen bagels and we put them in
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: our suitcase and then we come home, we cut them
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: in half and we put them in the freezer.
• 44:17
  Speaker 2: Smartest thing you should do the same with pizza. Do
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: the same thing with pizza.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: We should do the same thing with pizza.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: Take them, freeze them up.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Okay. That's what we're going to do. I'm going to.
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: Try to send one out to you.
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So funny. So that, and
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: if I want an edible arrangement, you're going to have
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: to call somebody in South Carolina to have it delivered
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: I will do that.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: It's really going to come from you. I know that.
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah. So that's the difference too, is that I have,
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: I tell the girls that even though we're sending it out,
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: I want you to make sure that everything gets taken
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: care of when we send it out. We don't just
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: send it out and forget them. Like I want you
• 44:55
  Speaker 2: to make sure that you keep calling me back. So
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: I'll make sure it gets taken care of.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's good. That's good. All right, my dear. Thank
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: you so much for joining me and jumping in and
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: jumping transparently and sharing your story. And I just, it's great.
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: I'm really happy for you. Really happy for you.
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you called. I was so excited when I
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: saw it and I was like, this is great. I'm
• 45:17
  Speaker 2: glad that we did it. I'm glad that I made
• 45:20
  Speaker 2: it happen today because, you know, today was one of
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: those days, but it needed to happen and it did.
• 45:25
  Speaker 2: So I'm glad.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 45:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: And it's been a great conversation. So, all right. Is
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: there any, so for the young women listening, do you
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: have any golden nuggets or one thing that you'd like
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: to just leave them with a thought?
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: If it scares you, do it. If not, you think
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: you're a failure or that you're doing something wrong, you're
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: in the right place because you have to fail to succeed.
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: I failed a bunch of times and I feel like
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: now I'm much more successful today than I was with
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: walking around saying I had multiple locations because a multi-unit
• 46:13
  Speaker 2: store sounds so much more, you know, my God, she's
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: got so many, she must have her Life in order. No,
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: I'm much more successful as a business owner today, merging
• 46:24
  Speaker 2: everything and understanding how to do it the right way
• 46:28
  Speaker 2: than I was when I was just purchasing and purchasing
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: stores and trying to become bigger. You can become bigger
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: and successful using your brain more than your hands.
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's good. Wise advice. Thank you for that.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I appreciate you. All right, my dear. So we're going
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: to have you back on again in a little while.
• 46:47
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about your book. That's going to
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: be coming out very shortly when we talk. Yes. I'm
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: manifesting this for you. I am. I am manifesting your book.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: It's something I never thought to do, but now I'm
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: going to put it on there, but I've got, I've
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: got things in my head that you may see me
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: doing things differently in three years. Good.
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Good. I hope so. If I do hear.
• 47:13
  Speaker 2: The first one I'm calling.
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: I would be honored to have that phone call. That
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: would be awesome. That would be awesome.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: All right, my dear.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: I will see you soon. We will talk to you
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: in a couple months and see where you're at. How's
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: that sound?
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: Perfect. Thank you so much for having me.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: All right, Edible Arrangements, Hudson Valley. Oh, no, wait, no.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: How do they find you? How do people find you?
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: So you can go to the website, but we prefer
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: you to call us so we can give you that
• 47:42
  Speaker 2: attention that you need. On the website, it's different. But
• 47:45
  Speaker 2: you would call 845-565-1144. We're located at 606 Broadway in Newburgh.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: That's where our location is. And we do everywhere in
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: the Hudson Valley plus anywhere out of state.
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: Nationwide.
• 48:02
  Speaker 2: Nationwide. As long as that state has an edible arrangement. Oh, okay.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: Well, that's another whole conversation then, but we're not going
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: to have that now.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: No worries. It'll get there. I promise.
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: It'll get there. It'll get there. All right, Judy. Thank
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: you again. I really appreciate you.
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: Thank you.