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Luke’s Diner: A Sweet Surprise · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I am all in again.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Let's do Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson an iHeartRadio podcast.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Everybody Scott Patterson, I Am all and Podcast, one of
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: eleven productions iHeart Radio Media. iHeart Podcast Luke's Diner one
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: on one or two on one interview with some incredible women.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Here Georgetown Cupcakes founders. And here they are Catherine Coaleenis Berman,
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  Speaker 1: Sophie Kalinas La Montaigne, the powerhouse duo behind Georgetown Cupcakes
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  Speaker 1: and the star of TLC's DC Cupcakes. Inspired by their grandmother, Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it's family, they opened their first bakery on Valentine's Day
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. It quickly became a global destination
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  Speaker 1: for cupcake lovers. And let me tell you, let me
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  Speaker 1: do a testimonial right here and now I had one
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  Speaker 1: this morning because these lovely ladies sent me two cases,
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  Speaker 1: two cases, vacuum packed, sealed, a cooled. I mean, what
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  Speaker 1: a process that must be at the at the at
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  Speaker 1: the fulfillment center and just buttoned down and tight. And
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  Speaker 1: I opened it up and I got through it, and
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  Speaker 1: I read the instructions and I knew how special an
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  Speaker 1: experienced this was. You guys thought of everything good on
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  Speaker 1: you for that. Uh, And I I took the lid
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  Speaker 1: off and I looked down on twelve of the most
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  Speaker 1: beautiful things I've ever seen in food form, and I
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  Speaker 1: decided on the chocolate. Chocolate, and man, I think I
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  Speaker 1: ate that thing and maybe three bites it just it
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  Speaker 1: just I just wolfed it down. It was wonderful. So
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  Speaker 1: they're they're best selling authors, they're TV personal, they're proud
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  Speaker 1: supporters of children's health through their work with Make a Wish,
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  Speaker 1: a cause near and dear to my own heart. I've
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  Speaker 1: been involved with them for twenty five years. What a
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  Speaker 1: great organizations. And we just recapped season two, episode eight,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Gilmore Girls, the Ins and outs of in one of
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  Speaker 1: my favorite favorite episodes, and we will be discussing cupcakes,
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  Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen. Ladies. You sent me the cupcakes, and
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  Speaker 1: I told you what I thought. You both left corporate
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  Speaker 1: jobs to open up a cupcake shop during a recession.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what gave you the guts to do that?
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  Speaker 1: And were there moments when you thought what have we done?
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  Speaker 3: Definitely? So Sophie and I, like you said, are sisters.
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  Speaker 3: We grew up in a Greek household. So both of our
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  Speaker 3: parents were from Greece. Our grandparents were from Greece, and
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  Speaker 3: like most Greek families immigrant families, our grandparents actually lived
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  Speaker 3: down the street from us, so when our parents went
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  Speaker 3: to work, they would drop us off at our grandparents' house.
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  Speaker 3: And so Sophie and I were pretty much raised like
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  Speaker 3: our formative years by our grandmother, who baked everything from scratch.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, they had a huge garden in their backyard.
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  Speaker 3: Buying things at a grocery store was a very foreign
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  Speaker 3: concept for them because they grew up on a farm
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  Speaker 3: in Greece. And so Sophie I would follow around the
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  Speaker 3: kitchen when we were little girls, mimicking her making all
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  Speaker 3: of her cakes or Greek desserts, her breads. And we
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  Speaker 3: have this dream when we were very young of opening
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  Speaker 3: a bakery. And I remember telling our parents and they said,
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  Speaker 3: are you crazy. People in our country are trying to
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  Speaker 3: get out of the bakery. We came to this country
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  Speaker 3: so you could be a doctor or a lawyer, work
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  Speaker 3: for a big company, and so they were totally set
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  Speaker 3: against it, and we were very We were very sad
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  Speaker 3: because that was sort of like a dream that we
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: kind of held onto. And even though you know, we
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: went to college. Sophie ended up studying well like other
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  Speaker 3: biology in college. I ended up studying politics. We sort
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  Speaker 3: of went on our different career paths. Were still kind
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  Speaker 3: of held onto this dream of owning this bakery inspired
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  Speaker 3: by our grandmother, and it came at a very weird
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  Speaker 3: time in our lives. When you're right, the recession had
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  Speaker 3: just hit. We could not get a bank loan to
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  Speaker 3: start our business whatsoever. So we were in our late twenties,
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  Speaker 3: early thirties at that point. This has been it's been
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  Speaker 3: seventeen years we've been doing this, and I remember we
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  Speaker 3: had this frank conversation with each other where we said, listen,
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  Speaker 3: we know that over fifty percent of food businesses failed
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  Speaker 3: within the first year. So are we okay if we
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  Speaker 3: do this and we completely fail, starting all over again,
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  Speaker 3: knowing that we were going to max out all of
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  Speaker 3: our personal credit cards to get this thing off the ground,
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  Speaker 3: use like the life savings that we had, which wasn't
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  Speaker 3: that much, because you know, we weren't we were late twenties,
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  Speaker 3: early thirties. We both looked at each other and we said, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we're willing to do it because we were afraid of
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  Speaker 3: always wondering what if, you know, what if it didn't happen,
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  Speaker 3: Like what if it did work out and we did succeed,
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  Speaker 3: So we took the plunge in two thousand and eight.
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  Speaker 3: I remember we we had like no money left when
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  Speaker 3: we first opened the business, and we wanted to make
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  Speaker 3: a little sign in the window to say we were
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  Speaker 3: opening on Valentine's Day. We passed the health inspection and
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  Speaker 3: we're like, we got to open the next day when
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  Speaker 3: this tiny signed and so, you know, people came that
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  Speaker 3: first day because it was Valentine's Day and they were
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  Speaker 3: walking down the street in Georgetown we're located. We were
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  Speaker 3: located our first shop and this quaint little street in
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  Speaker 3: Georgetown in Washington, d C. And we had a line
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  Speaker 3: and people actually came the first day, but we thought, okay,
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  Speaker 3: it's just the first day and it was Valentine's Day.
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  Speaker 3: Tomorrow will be different. It'll be very slow because it
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  Speaker 3: was kind of chaotic the first day. But the second
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  Speaker 3: day more people came, the third day, the fourth day,
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  Speaker 3: and we were very shocked and surprised that people actually came,
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  Speaker 3: and in a weird way, we really weren't set up
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  Speaker 3: for having that much business. Early on, because it's just
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  Speaker 3: the two of us and our mother who came to
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  Speaker 3: help us for the weekend and ended up staying forever.
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  Speaker 3: She never left, she's still here.
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  Speaker 1: You know what that But that's I think that's a
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  Speaker 1: plus because that's really charming. If you're standing in line
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  Speaker 1: and you know that it's a brand new business and
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  Speaker 1: the owners are overwhelmed, I mean, that would give me
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  Speaker 1: the incentive to continue to support that business and wait
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  Speaker 1: in line a little longer because you want to support
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  Speaker 1: that business because you're so happy that they're experience that
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  Speaker 1: you're experiencing this kind of success. I mean, if it's
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  Speaker 1: all buttoned down and perfect and sort of you know,
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  Speaker 1: I would I'm not say corporate, but maybe automated and
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  Speaker 1: we expected this, you know, it's like kind of too
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  Speaker 1: much of a corporate experience, but it's there's something very
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  Speaker 1: small time charming about it that would make one people
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  Speaker 1: want to completely support it and feel like they are
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  Speaker 1: participating in the growth of this.
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  Speaker 3: And I do feel that that was sort of the
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  Speaker 3: you know, the only advertising we had back then, it
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  Speaker 3: was word of mouth, and honestly, I think that's the
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  Speaker 3: best form of advertising, is someone has a great experience,
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  Speaker 3: they tell like other people, and then those people want
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  Speaker 3: to check it out too. So in that way we
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  Speaker 3: were very lucky, although there were some customers who were
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  Speaker 3: very upset at us in the beginning, and they would say,
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  Speaker 3: what's going on in there? Do you only have two ovens?
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  Speaker 3: And we always did.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Scarcity is you know, it's it's good for a business,
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  Speaker 1: you know, make them way run out when they get there,
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  Speaker 1: you know, that kind of thing.
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  Speaker 2: From our perspective that we were scared because sometimes having
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  Speaker 2: too much business at the beginning, it's just as bad
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  Speaker 2: as having no business at all. We're not set up
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  Speaker 2: for it. So I remember in the early days we
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  Speaker 2: would pray for rain somedays, so please God let it rain,
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  Speaker 2: because it was just the two of us and our
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  Speaker 2: mom and didn't keep up.
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  Speaker 1: So when did you realize that you needed Did you
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  Speaker 1: bring on more help? Did you? When did you realize?
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  Speaker 1: Was that pretty quick? It was within the first month
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  Speaker 1: or so.
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  Speaker 3: It was in the first month, and we actually had
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  Speaker 3: one of the food editors from the Washington Post come
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  Speaker 3: come knock on our door early one morning. I was
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  Speaker 3: covered in like read velvet batter and I opened the
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  Speaker 3: door and he's like, I'm from the Washington Post and
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  Speaker 3: I want to do an article on this jop like
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  Speaker 3: we've been seeing lines. And I said, I'm so sorry,
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  Speaker 3: we can't let you in. I'm baking back here and
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  Speaker 3: we get angry customers. I have to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: I have and he's like, no, no, you don't understand. Like,
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  Speaker 3: I'm from the Washington Post. I want to write a
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  Speaker 3: feature article. And I was like, I understand, but I'm
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  Speaker 3: really stressed out. I had to bake all these comments, so,
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  Speaker 3: you know, in retrospect, that was like the dumbest thing
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  Speaker 3: I could have ever done. But luckily he stayed. He
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  Speaker 3: waited till we opened the doors. He came in, he
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  Speaker 3: observed the chaos, our mother yelling at us mes serving
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  Speaker 3: the customers, Sophie Frosting, and he wrote this article in
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  Speaker 3: the Washington Post. And I think that was the first
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  Speaker 3: major hit that we had gotten. This was back in
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  Speaker 3: two thousand and eight when we first opened, within the
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  Speaker 3: first couple of months, and then that brought in more people.
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  Speaker 3: And then Frank Bruney, who at the time was one
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  Speaker 3: of the food writers for the New York Times, the
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  Speaker 3: restaurant critic, the restaurant critic had come in unbeknownst to us,
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  Speaker 3: and they did a they called us for a fact checked,
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  Speaker 3: and Sophie and I were panicking. We said, oh my god,
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  Speaker 3: what if he had a horrible experience, Like we didn't
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  Speaker 3: know what he was going to write. But he ended
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  Speaker 3: up writing this glowing like little article on us, and
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  Speaker 3: that kind of put us on the footy map. So
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  Speaker 3: people give people from like New York coming this time around,
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  Speaker 3: and we slowly had to start hiring more people, you know,
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  Speaker 3: getting more ovens and slowly scaling it. And then the big,
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  Speaker 3: the big thing for us was the television show. And
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  Speaker 3: that came about in a very you know, uh, off
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  Speaker 3: the beaten path kind of way, where a producer and
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  Speaker 3: we're not from the TV world whatsoever, So we had
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  Speaker 3: a television producer I guess was in line. He came
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  Speaker 3: into the shop and he said what is this place?
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  Speaker 3: And I was like, it's a cupcake bakery and he said, oh,
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  Speaker 3: I thought they were just giving away free stuff. That's
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: why I stood in this lot. And he said this
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  Speaker 3: place is crazy, like you all this place? And I said, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: my sister and then my mother was like there and
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  Speaker 3: he's like, do you mind if I film here for
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  Speaker 3: a weekend. At that point in time, Sophie and I
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  Speaker 3: had been doing like YouTube interviews with local college kids
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  Speaker 3: and that kind of stuff. So we're like, yeah, sure,
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  Speaker 3: come in, you can film for a weekend. And that
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  Speaker 3: week it was a pretty chaotic weekend. We had some
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: wedding orders going up to New York, and unbeknownst to us,
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: you know when you're when you can mic on, you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: even though the cameras are down, they can hear everything
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: you're saying everything. So they got some good footage and
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: I guess they had taken it to TLC, and before
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: we knew it, they had picked up the first season
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: of d C Cupcakes. So we had a film crew
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  Speaker 3: kind of following us around and we did that for
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  Speaker 3: three seasons with TLC, which was really a really great
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  Speaker 3: experience for us because it really resonated with a lot
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: of young girls and their mothers too. It's a very
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: family friendly show. Sort of A sister showed a cake Boss.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember that show, but that
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: and that really kind of brought even more people to
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: the Vittoria Baker.
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  Speaker 1: So let me ask you this. As you were beginning
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  Speaker 1: to experience the growth. What were the difficulties did you
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: run to some any sort of major like uh oh,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you know kind of because there's always bumps in the road, right.
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  Speaker 1: I've had a coffee company for nine years and it
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  Speaker 1: did not start out the way your business started out.
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  Speaker 1: It started out with an utter disaster, and it seemed
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  Speaker 1: like disaster after disaster, And so what were the first
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  Speaker 1: what was the first real like uh oh moment when
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  Speaker 1: you're as you're expanding.
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: For us, I think, like you said, every day, especially
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: early on, something would go wrong and we would be
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: like we would get buried down on ourselves and say,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: when's this day gonna come where nothing goes wrong? And
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  Speaker 2: then as an entrepreneury, risk that day doesn't exist.
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  Speaker 1: Doesn't exist, And once you make peace with.
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  Speaker 2: That fact, you become a lot happier because we were
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: just it's a lot. It's day in and day out
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  Speaker 2: of waking up with this thinking feeling in your stomach
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  Speaker 2: and then you re is that is just part of
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: running a business. And so I don't know that there
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: was one major snaff who or roadbook. I think it
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: was day to day to day everything something would go
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  Speaker 2: wrong and it's just being able to manage that and
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: get through that. I know at the very beginning, one
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  Speaker 2: of the challenges we face actually turned into an opportunity
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  Speaker 2: for us. So because we didn't ship our cupcakes when
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: we first started, like how we sent them to you,
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: but we had customers who were coming in from all
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: over saying, hey, I want to send you to my
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: friends in Texas. I want to send it to my
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: friends in California, and sorry, we don't ship. They would
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: literally take the pink box, wrote in an f X
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: or ups couch and put it in the meal and
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: the cupanies would are all jumbled up and realized, hey, listen,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: like the there's a demand for this. People want to
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: send these cupcakes his gifts. We used bigger out how
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: to do this, or else they're going to end up
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: getting all tossed around and arrived like a jumble mess.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: And so we took that you know experience, and we
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: designed some packaging. We really worked on it hard, and
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: we figured it a way to ship our cupcakes overnight
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: so that people that's them as nice gifts, you know.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: And so that was something like a roadblock we encounters.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: We could didn't do something our customers who wanted it.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: We tried to listen to our customers. But I think
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  Speaker 2: there's been seventeen years of that just failing learning from it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: We like to call them lessons learned, not it's not.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Failures, but you know, no learning opportunities.
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  Speaker 3: They are and there's a law along the way. And
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  Speaker 3: I think that, you know, for anybody we always say
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: this funny was interested in starting their own business, whether
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: it's you know, food business or whatever. It's it's kind
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: of it's scary and and I think it's the uncertainty
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: of it, because I think that a lot of people
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: and I think for us too, we just wanted to
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: be guaranteed a day where nothing went wrong, And like
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  Speaker 3: Sophie said, it doesn't exist, and every day something and
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: sometimes be very taxing on you. Oh my god. Every
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: like there's always going to be something, and like Sophie said,
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: it's almost like you have to make peace with it
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: and somehow learn to like cope with all this uncertainty
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: and sort of this this feeling of like what's what's
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: it going to be today, What's going to happen today?
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, how many skews did you
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: start out with on day one.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I think they baked like eight flavors and now our
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: menu has over one hundred flavors.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: But we took it was a slow process.
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: We kind of tried to like grow slowly. I mean,
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: we've been around a long time seventeen years, so it
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: wasn't like all overnight. Definitely wasn't a linear path that
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: we always call it a roller coaster. But over the
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: years we were able to figure out, how are we
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: going to make more, how are we going to experiment
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: with flavors. For us, that's one of the coolest parts
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: of our job, is like coming up with these new
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: flavors and expanding our menu. But at the same time,
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: we want to keep what makes our brand special. And
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: when people walk into the bakery, especially after seeing it
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: on a TV show. I think when people see something
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: on TV, they had this expectation and you want to
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: live up to it and you want to look them
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: to come in and say, wow, that place was as
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: school as I thought it would be. The staff was
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: as friendly, the cups were as amazing, and we want
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: them to be able to share that. The worst thing
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: that can happen is to come in there saying wow,
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: that was not what I thought it was going to
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: be and it was disappointing. So I think there's a firebar.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Sometimes we're on TV because people have this perception or
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: expectation and we want to meet it.
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  Speaker 1: And this is your store, is your cupcake shops? A
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: place people come in and sit down and they can
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: get they can can they have coffee and tea as well? Ok? Yeah, okay,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: all right, great? And how many what's the seating for?
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: How much?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Oh it's small. I think we have like four tables
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: inside and four outside.
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  Speaker 3: So it's it's a cozy little place.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Wat yeah, quaint Yeah, absolutely, And have you had have
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: you ever had thoughts of expanding the shops?
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: We did so for ten years before COVID. We had
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: shops in New York and in Boston, in LA and
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: we ran us for ten years ago. Def page just
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: flies by, and then after COVID we had to make
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: a decision or we're going to renew them or not.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And then we started shipping. So one thing that happened
• 15:46
  Speaker 2: during that's another problem is that COVID had these the
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: restaurant industry and everyone kind of, you know, just totally
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: freaked out, and for us, our shipping business really just
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: took off in a way we would not expect during
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: COVID because people we still wanted to celebrate from a
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: far and so we really kind of double down on
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: our shipping business and found that we can reach our
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: customers this way. And so I think, you know, like
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: like I said, these these problems are roadblocks turned into opportunities.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: And for us, shipping was part of our business, but
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: it was like a huge part that after COVID and
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: during and AFTERCD it just became a huge, huge part.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: And so we've really tried to.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Build that is this United States only a ship in
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: a candidate only.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: To us because we do everything overnight. Maybe one day
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: we can go international. We have on time, we have
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: had times shipped international. People actually come into the shop
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: and like literally we'll take like you know, twenty dozen
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: back to like Dubai or all like people take the
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: cup exeterates.
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: They just put it on their private chat right exactly.
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, actually so much so fun to see where they
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: go because people send us photos of their cupcakes in
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: all these places around the world, and it's as fun
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: for us. How far they make.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: It such a great success story. And now so are
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: you as engaged with the store as you have always been.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, you're going there every day and you're spending
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: time there every day.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Sophie was just there. She just felt bad.
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: I literally just I think when you have a food business,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: you have to stay in the weeds as owners, I think,
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: and Catherine and I are happiest when we're in the weeds,
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: to be honest, because you feel in touch and in
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: tune with what's going on. You're connected to your customers,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: and we love it. And I think one of the
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: main reasons we started this business is because we wanted
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: to work together and live our dream. And it's not
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: something one, Hey, We're going to start something and try
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: to sell it a couple of years later and flip it.
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: I mean, for us, I can't. I don't know why
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: I would do if we weren't doing this, and I
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: can't I can't picture do anything else, especially without Catherine.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: So as sisters, it's been really rewarding and fun. I
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: mean it's hard.
• 17:55
  Speaker 4: It's definitely trying it, you know some days, but overall,
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: you know, we love what we do, and I think
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: you kind of learn to like live in a chaos
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: like you just it's a constant set of chaos.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: We always say, kind of like running a marathon that
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: never ends, because when you own a business, you can't
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: do at the opposite. You're taking it with you all
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: at all times. Right, But I think you know, it's
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: kind of like it was. You know, we have children,
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: but like this is kind of our first baby, really.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: And sometimes the chaos is really exciting and other times
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: it's just a giant headache. It's either or.
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: And it's nice having a business with a sister in
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: that regard because you have someone as your support system.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: If being an entrepreneur can be a very lonely experience
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: if you're doing it on your own, because it's very
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: intense the experiences. It's not for the faint a part.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: We always say that because there's a few people understand
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: like what's going on in your head when you own
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: a business, and when you do with your sister, it's
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: like you have this buddy who's got your back, and
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: you know, we're able to have these like crazy fights
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: as sisters. We can talk to each other like the
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: way you can not talk to your coworker, and we
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: really make the best decisions for our business that way
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: because we don't have to worry about stepping on each
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: other's toes or how do I deliver this message?
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: We just say, like it is the feeling.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like, you know, it's not for everyone to
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: Some people say I can never work with my sister,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: and some for us. Some people it works for us,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: it works, but it's not for everyone.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Right, did inflation hit your business? Did the costs? Yes?
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: So how did you deal with that and and maintain
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: your margins?
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: For us, the egg prices is the rise and the
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: eggs crazy because that's like that's a key ingredient in
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: all of our cupcakes and we bake everything from scratch
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: fresh every day.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: So it's hard.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: It's very hard, as I think honestly, like I am
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: in all of all the food businesses that stayed in
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: business after COVID, because what COVID did was just it
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: was looking back now, I'm like, how did that we survive?
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: How did anyone survive this?
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Not many did? Actually?
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, like sometimes I like, you know, like
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: how do we do? How do we even manage this?
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: And so all these challenges, I mean, they're challenges that
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: all food businesses, restaurants face. That's part of doing business,
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: you just kind of figure it out. I think, you know,
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: for us, Katain R. R. Like we are in the weeds,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: were involved.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: We have a tight team.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: We're small, you know, we're we're big. We have a
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: wi reach, especially because of the TV show. But at the
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: end of the day, like you know, we are a
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: tight team, and I think that's how you have to
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: like manage it carefully.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: Wow, yeah the egg Press we're nuts.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: No, right, they whacked everybody. All right. I have to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: ask one Gilmour question. Okay, yes, if Georgetown Cupcake had
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: opened in Stars Hollow, what would your signature Gilmore Inspire
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Inspired cupcake be?
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: Okay, well, so, first of all, we're a huge Gilmore
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: Girl Girls fans. My daughter who is twelve years old,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: she just binge watched the entire series last year. I
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: mean everyone and even the new one that just came out,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: I think to meet personally, Like, it's such a cool
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: feeling that I've seen the show, but now my daughter
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: has seen it do the whole thing. So my daughter
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: was like, you need to pick flavors for certain characters
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: and all this stuff. So I was I was prepared
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: to pick certain flavors for certain characters.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: Okay, you want to go there.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: For Luke, I was going to do I'll start with you.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: I was gonna do first. I was going to give
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: him the carrot because it's like very you know, no nonsense,
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: gets the job done. There's no like frills, you know,
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: it's it's like it's good, it's it's healthy, and you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 3: it just gets it. It gets it done with. With Lorelei,
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: I was definitely going to do the mocha anything coffee related,
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: you know. And for Skie, I was going to do
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: the banana split, just because it's just so colorful, so joyful,
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: brings like just just happiness to people. For really who
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: I love. She's a tough lady, but I kind of
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: love the grandmother. And I was gonna it. We were
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: either gonna do lavender or gray or lemons because it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: very classic, very traditional for Rory. I know, Ror Rory.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: I was like debating because Rory's a complex character in
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: that she's very classic all American girl, but there's she's
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: a complicated young lady too. I mean like there's definitely
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: decisions that she's made within the show where I'm like, wow, Rory,
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: So so I would stick with like a classic vanilla,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: but maybe add a little bit of like Chai Chai vanilla,
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: something that's in there. She's not so straightforward. And then
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: who else I was gonna do? I was gonna do
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: all these like the brooding heart throbs, Velvet.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: Kirk.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: My daughter's obsessed with Kirk. And I don't know if
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: this is a thing with the young crowd, but I'm like,
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: what is your obsession with Kirk? And she's like, is
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: a vibe? He's just he does these things and he
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: shows up at these different places. For Kirk, I will
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: maybe you like a confetti, but you know, I don't know.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: I just never know what's going to get with Kirk.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: And then and then Paris, I would have to say,
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: you know a chocolate ganoche, which is basically our chocolate
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: barmant and make dipped in ganache, just because it's very straightforward,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: like to the point, you know, it's for us. We
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: love going into a bakery and seeing what customers are
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: picking him too, because I'm wondering if I could figure
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: out people's personalities by the flavors that they do choose.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: We used to have a twenty four hour live stream
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: cuppa camera over the packing counter, so you could log
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: in anyone in the world and see what people were
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: ordering as they went to the boxes. And it's fascinating
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: to see what people order. And sometimes people watch, I'm like, oh,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: I think I know what they're going to get, and
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: they totally surprised. Well, I would never have thought they
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: would got that flavor Compty.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: It's fun to get right, right, right right. You know
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: you have to come back, please, you gotta come back
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: for round two, Ladies, an extreme pleasure and continued success
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: with Georgetown Cupcake. That's in Georgetown, d C. And what's
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: the address again for Georgetown Cupcake.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: And Georgetown three m So just come and find us.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and what's your website.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: Georgetown Cupcake dot com.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: Okay, and they ship all across the US of A. Ladies,
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: thank you so much. It's been a distinct pleasure. Uh.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: And I am gonna go to the gym now and
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do about one thousand crunches to offset
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: the joy, let's call a joy that is now rounded
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: out in my belly a little bit from having a
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: couple of your cupcakes this morning with my with my eggs.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Thanks for all the downloads everybody, best fans on the planet,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: and remember where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everybody.
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: Dot Hey, everybody, and don't forget.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Follow us on Instagram at i Am all In podcast
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.