Latest / Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast) / 6 Quick Questions with Tiffany Chen, Founder of Tiff's Treat (part 2)

Transcript

6 Quick Questions with Tiffany Chen, Founder of Tiff's Treat (part 2) · Imagine If with Doone Roisin | Health, Wealth & Wisdom for Women (formerly Female Startup Club Podcast)

• 0:00
  Welcome back. Here are the six quick questions. So question number one is, what's your why? Why are you doing what you're doing?
• 0:17
  So the why for me in terms of why I keep doing the business would be because we're building something that hasn't been done before. So when we started, warm cookie delivery did not exist at all. And largely to this day, it doesn't exist in a major format where we're baking cookies to order. So we don't even bake the cookies until your order comes in and then we deliver them hot out of the oven.
• 0:40
  So we're building an industry and that's what is so exciting for us, building an industry and building a brand from scratch. And that's the why for why we stick with the business. The why for Tiff's Treats is that we're creating warm moments.
• 0:56
  So one of the coolest things about our job is that we found over the years that it connects people together. So if I'm sending you cookies because I'm thinking about you, we're having this connectable moment, or we may be ordering together just side by side and sharing these nostalgic, warm, comforting treats. And we get to see that from people and how much that means to people to be able to show love, appreciation, joy, condolence.
• 1:22
  And so that's really what gets us and everybody here going all the time is to be able to be a part of those warm cookie moments. Oh, warm cookie moments. I love that. Even saying it, it makes me feel so good.
• 1:35
  Question number two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Favorite, oh, favorite marketing moment. Oh, my gosh. Well, we did a fun marketing thing last year that was fun as part of our anniversary. I mentioned earlier that our very first customer was named Amy.
• 1:54
  And we thought, you know what? I wonder where Amy is because Amy was sort of anonymous to us. We knew her first name. Leon was the one who delivered to her. So he had some recollection of what she looked like. But we had never talked to her. We had never said thank you. We had never said you were the first one. We never said, you know, without you, it maybe wouldn't have started. And we went on a search for her last January and we went on a search for her last January.
• 2:17
  And it took about a month, but we found her and we were able to connect with her and say thank you. And it was really, you know, we put it out on social media. You know how it works. You know, you put out, here's what we know about this person. Help us find her. And people were very engaged and we found her and she was in Europe, actually. So we never would have connected with her otherwise. And so it was neat.
• 2:40
  What did she say? What did she remember? She did. And she was so nice. And that was one of the clues that we remembered about her was that she was overly nice. And so when we connected with her, she was just as nice as ever. And in fact, we were even offering free cookies for a year to the first customer. Like, if we can find Amy, we're going to give her free cookies for a year. She couldn't use it because she was in Europe and we're in America and we don't have locations there. But she donated it to charity. She said, what charity should I give this to? And so that was.
• 3:09
  really, really just like a neat topper to it. And so that was fun. I love it when you just want to do something fun and then it hits. Wow. I love that. So heartwarming. That's a warm cooking moment. Yeah. Yeah. Gosh. Question number three is what's your go-to business resource if you had to think of a book or a podcast or a newsletter?
• 3:32
  Oh, good question. Gosh, we read a lot of articles, but probably not from one particular. As they come through, as they surface through, we'll read anything that's of interest. We Pour Your Heart Into It was a Starbucks book. We've always read that. And then our other big one was Good to Great, which is an older one by Jim Collins. But yeah, that was sort of a stepping stone to our business. And now we'll just ingest anything that comes through. I don't think it has
• 4:02
  medium. Love that. We will add it to our recommended reading list for every founder listening. Question number four, how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated every day?
• 4:17
  Um, I feel like I've won the day if I get one thing off the list of things I wanted to do that day done, because it's so easy to let those escape. And I don't always, but it feels great if you have like a list of kind of back burner things that you want to check off and you get something on that list done because the day is going to throw so much at you. And then we spend our evenings with the kids and I love doing that. And that's, that's fun. And I wouldn't want to have that any other way.
• 4:48
  Amazing. Question number five, what's been your biggest money mistake in business? I think, I don't know if this is dreadful enough, but we have spent on marketing without understanding what we would get back for it. So for example, knowing that we had a great TV ad that we had put together and we placed it on TV and we just said, let's go for it.
• 5:14
  And then overspent and then just didn't get the return on it. That always hurts. And we've done the same thing with digital ads sometimes too, where we're like, let's blanket. So I think that would be in terms of spending without like a really tight plan. Are you able to share how much the TV commercials...
• 5:36
  kind of cost or what the loss is? Honestly, I don't remember. But it was like, it was a campaign. And you know, sometimes you got to take a chance. It's not even necessarily that it was a mistake. It's just that it didn't work. And so it's just, it's always painful when you're like, you go for it and it didn't work. But sometimes you got to learn it that way. It's kind of hard to learn lessons other than just making mistakes. A hundred percent. Absolutely. That's where you learn.
• 6:01
  Last question, question number six. What is just a crazy story in the business that you can share, good or bad? Well, we used to have some funny ones for deliveries. So we've...
• 6:14
  Well, actually, let me tell you this one. This one's actually in the book because this is one of the craziest. It was during this period of time where just like everything was set, like setback after setback. And one day there was a tornado. Well, it was like a really heavy thunderstorm slash mild tornado outside. And we were inside what used to be the shared kitchen space and now was all ours. And water started shooting up from inside the floor drains.
• 6:41
  and also sewage. So like something had happened with the water pipes from the storm and the sewage pipes weren't working right. And the whole place just started flooding like crazy. And so much so that like I sat on, you know, those big, well, we have these big Home Depot buckets, these big, big giant buckets. I turned it over, sat on it and the water was just like carrying me off because it was just spewing up like a fountain from all of the floor drains. Yeah.
• 7:07
  And, you know, in hindsight, we were lucky it didn't totally destroy the space. But it's one of those things where you're like, geez, I really feel like I'm getting kicked in the gut on this one. So, yeah, not everybody has like a sewage fountain story in their history, but we've got one. Oh, my gosh. I'm going to have to lead with that. The sewage fountain. Yeah.
• 7:31
  Oh my gosh, Tiff, this is so much fun. Thank you so much for coming on the show to tell us about your journey and your new book. I'm excited to read it. I'm excited to get all the learnings, see those mistakes and see what's next. Thank you so much. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me.
• 7:51
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 8:16
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 8:38
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.
• 8:55
  Hey, it's June here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the Female Startup Club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out femalestartupclub.com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter. We send it out weekly covering female founder business news, insights and learnings in D2C, and interesting business resources.
• 9:20
  And if you're a founder building an e-commerce brand, you can join our private network of entrepreneurs called Hype Club at femalestartupclub.com forward slash Hype Club. We have guests from the show joining us for intimate Ask Me Anythings, expert workshops, and a group of totally amazing, like-minded women building the future of D2C brands.
• 9:42
  As always, please do subscribe, rate and review the show and post your favorite episodes to Instagram stories. I am beyond grateful when you do that.