This week we have Heather and Lori from The Cupcake Girls join me on the Sandbox To Success podcast. I loved our talk and we covered everything from being a mom to making ice cream.
You can hear more of Heather and Lori’s story at Sage Summit, July 27-31 in New Orleans. Make sure you take advantage from our special offer from Sage. Use promo code NOLA to get a $99USD rate for Sage Summit (regular $799USD). Register at www.SageSummit.com.
Want to learn more about Heather and Lori of The Cupcake Girls?
Visit their website or follow on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
What’s New And Exciting:
Lori: On a personal note, we have finished having kids! I have 2 that are 5 and 3, and Heather and Spencer have 2 with 9 months between them.
Work is great. We haven’t been doing the show and are focusing on our work instead. We’ve expanded our product selection, being retailers, and will soon launch an ice cream brand. Just keeping busy!
A Little About Social Media:
Heather: We have a very talented and creative manager at one of our locations that has been great putting together short clips that give you a snippet of what happens with our employees. It’s super fun!
The owners of the location like the creation aspect, and we notice a huge jump in viewer numbers when we post this type of info. We also started a YouTube channel called “The Original Cupcakes” and are working with the WE to showcase some of our old shows.
Has Your Business Approach Changed Since Becoming Mothers:
Lori: Yes! There’s less time to sit around. We aren’t always able to pull the trigger, but we pull the trigger a lot faster these days! I enjoy being a mother and business owner and find that having the kids makes it a lot harder to multitask well. Doing both at the same time is stressful. I’ve reduced my workload to spend more time with the kids. It gives me less time to work, but I’m grateful that I did that because I get to see them more. They grow up really fast!
Heather: I focus my energy on time chunking and have my day organized, clothes ready, and workout done before works out. When my son is out of school, this allows me to dedicate all my focus towards him. It’s important to me that as a family we sit at the dinner table together with the phones for distractions. I find if your time is organized you don’t spend a lot of time wasting it trying to fill in the gaps.
Lori: I’m all over the place! Heather is much more organized than me, and I’m more likely to get work done in the dead of the night when in the house is quiet. Heather has much more balance than I do!
Heather: An “Hour Of Power” to yourself each day is important to your mental stability. You HAVE to have this!
Lori: I’ve intentionally cut out an hour for my workout. I’m not cooking right now! We’re going out a lot, and my Husband is cooking a lot! This gives me that time I need. I’m retiring cooking for a while to focus on other things.
Is There A Different Way You’re Approaching Ice Cream than you did Cupcakes Now That You Have Children?
Lori: If you think of your network and the people you’ve met, you’re already ahead of the game. Implementing all of this is not hard. The challenge is making sure not to compromise and making sure that the ice cream we are making is the best ice cream on the market.
Heather: You also learn from your mistakes along the way, and utilizing the awesome mentors you’ve met along the way. Once you start creating, it’s like riding a bike. You hop on and do it again!
Tell Us About Your Ice Cream Brand:
This will be sold in a scoopable form at Cupcakes, and soon to be at a grocery store near you! They are called “Better With Ice Cream Brand” so the slogan will be “Cupcakes are better with Ice cream!”
They are custard based which means they are super premium and a very satisfying ice cream. We have focused on making a really quality product that people can enjoy eating. It has 5 ingredients and will be the first custard all natural super-premium ice cream in Ontario! The strawberry ice cream taste just like real strawberries! At Cupcake, you’ll even be able to enjoy an Ice Cream Sunday!
What’s different now than in 2002 when you launched Cupcake?
Heather: The best part of the whole idea is that people aren’t selling with stabilizers and “may contain.” This is about REAL ingredients. It’s traceable. You can trace the milk back to the real cow that created it, and they’re treated well! As moms we want to feed our family the best products we can find. That’s important to us! The timing was right, and we were really able to focus our time and energy on developing the brand.
What’s the first piece of advice you’d want to share with someone wanting to start a business?
Lori: Retail is detail. Whatever percentage of energy and effort you put into your business is what you will get out.
Heather: Really understand and grasp the business you’re in and focus on that. We realized if we did a better job and spend more time in our retail locations, vs. grocery stores and such, we could hit the ball out of the park!
To connect go to OriginalCupcakes.com, The Original Cupcakes on Instagram or connect on Twitter at Original Cupcake.
