237 – How to Use Influencer Marketing to Increase Sales with Sarah and Noelle of Berra Bites

Gift biz unwrapped episode 237 It's fun and it's frustrating cause

when we get the first flavors and it doesn't taste just

right, we think,

Oh my gosh,

is it ever gonna get there?

Attention gifters,

bakers, crafters and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.

Whether you have an established business or looking to start one

now you are in the right place.

This is gift to biz unwrapped,

helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.

Join us for an episode packed full of invaluable guidance,

resources, and the support you need to grow your gift biz.

Here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Hi there,

it's Sue.

Thanks for joining me here today.

I'd like to kick it off right away by thanking Terry

for giving the show a wonderful review.

She says,

if you are a creative entrepreneur,

add this podcast to your list.

I've followed Sue for over a year.

She loves what she does and knows her stuff.

Listen and learn.

A big shout out in virtual hug to you,

Terry. Thank you for sharing.

Also that you've listened for so long.

It helps to know I'm on the right track with content

and then it continues to bring you value.

Reviews are always so helpful.

They reinforced for me all the work I put into the

shows and also helps to get the podcast seen by more

people. If you haven't done so already and could jot down

a sentence or two for a review,

it would be most appreciated.

Up today we'll be talking to two sisters who have gone

into business together.

You'll hear how their skills compliment each other and how they

successfully navigate what many times becomes an issue when you're working

with family.

If got tips and advice on what they've found has really

worked well for them.

Interestingly, one of their first strategies to getting attention for their

new product was through influencer marketing.

Here, what this is all about and how you can integrate

this as an Avenue to new customers too.

Let's get right to it.

Today I have joining us.

Sarah and Noel Yusuf have a Bureau bites.

These are two sisters in business together combining Sarah's culinary education

and Noel's business background.

The two put their minds together to create Barrow bites which

are dark chocolate covered fruit centers,

made with 100% pureed and pressed fruit and I can be

witness to the fact that they are yummy.

Their goal is to create dark chocolate covered fruit bites that

are different than the typical fruit and talk glut combos that

are out there.

They love combining different types of fruit to make unique combinations

that balance perfectly with dark chocolate in January of this year,

They launched their first fruit flavor and chose to use four

types of berries to give their customers that pop of Berry

flavor. Sarah,

Noel's newest and more exotic flavor.

Passionfruit and Kiwi brought a new twist on chocolate covered fruit

with its strong tropical taste.

All of their products are project non GMO verified kosher and

they only use fair trade cocoa and their chocolate.

Sarah and Noel,

welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.

Thank you Sue.

I am so excited that you guys are here to start

this off.

I like to do this in a little bit of a

different way.

And that is by having both of you describe yourself through

a motivational candle.

So if you were to create a candle that speaks completely

to you,

Noel, why don't you start us off and tell us what

color and what quote would be on your candle.

So my candle would be blue,

the color blue,

maybe like a dark blue.

And the quote would be the most difficult thing is the

decision to act.

And the rest is merely tenacity.

I love that because you're right.

So many people think,

think, think and never act.

But for some reason I'm feeling that you don't have that

trouble. I think you're pretty good at getting,

going, taking the function just by way of your product.

Right. And Sarah,

how about you?

Okay, so the color of my candle would be yellow.

And my motivational quote would be,

in order to be irreplaceable,

one must always be different.

And what does that mean to you?

It means that you always have to be different in everything

you do.

Can't be the same.

Yeah. And you know,

it's interesting because when I met you guys just last week

almost as we're recording,

but when this actually airs,

it'll be a couple months ago,

I came up to your booth and I was thinking that

you had chocolate covered fruit,

but then when I understood that they were pureed and mixed

and all of that,

so you're kind of have a takeoff on something traditional like

chocolate covered raisins,

but you've added your spin of being different.

Right, exactly.

Yeah. And I know we'll get into that in a little

bit, but that's what I think of when I hear your

quote. So perfect.

You've applied it to your business already.

All right,

well take me back.

I'm not sure how you guys want to do this,

but how did you come upon the idea of this business?

Maybe your background's merged or tell me how this all happened.

So when we were little,

we always talk,

it was a big part of our lives.

Our mom loved chocolate,

our grandmother was French,

she was introduced us to European types of chocolate,

her family and France owned and still own a bakery out

there. So we were always exposed to different flavors,

desserts, but primarily chocolate was revolved around that.

And we used to always cover fruit and chocolate growing up.

I think it was a favorite family thing to do.

And when Sarah went to culinary school,

she got a chance to really experiment with different things and

desserts and yeah,

I mean,

I went to culinary school and I actually studied baking and

pastry. So I've always loved baking things in my house.

And on my mom's side,

our grandma came from France,

so we had a bakery there.

And baking was just a big thing in our family.

We always used to bake every weekend.

My grandma used to always make delicious French tarts at home.

So did you guys grow up in France?

No, we grew up actually in the middle East.

Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. We grew up in the most,

but our grandmother always lived with us when my grandfather passed

away. Oh,

gotcha. Okay.

Yeah, she was a big part of our lives.

She lived with us,

a multigenerational home.

And so when you were in culinary school,

what was the vision of our product?

Well just Sarah,

when you're going through school,

like what were you thinking you were going to do with

it? Did you always know you were going to start your

own business?

You know,

that's funny.

When I first went into school I was thinking of the

idea like maybe I want to open up a bakery,

follow what my French site did with their bakery.

And then as I went along I started to become more

creative. I started using more like middle Eastern spices in my

pastries and I started using more of my cultural background and

then I realized soon on that I kind of want to

start my own product.

I kind of want to make something on my own and

sell it,

do something a little bit different and more creative that we

have out in the market.

So the idea started bubbling up.

It just wasn't all of a sudden revelation has kind of

like merged,

twisted maybe as you were in school.

Yeah, and I think our French background was,

we used to eat a lot of French chocolate.

We never really ate a lot of Hershey chocolate growing up.

You know what I mean,

like fence to her.

She had no offense to her.

She, I mean her,

she's good too.

I use the Hershey kisses too.

But so I wanted to bring some of that element of

with the snack industry,

you know in the U S have more of an elevated

taste. You know what I mean?

In the snacking world and everything.

I found like a lot of the chocolate was just,

it was okay but it just did not meet our standard.

I feel like we would eat a lot of French chocolate

and we were like,

ah, I wish there was something out there in the supermarkets

where we can actually love to like,

you know,

that's really good cause you saw an opening,

you saw that there was something missing.

So that was really smart.

And so Noel,

what about you?

What about your educational background up to that point?

So my educational background was a lot more dry than Sarah's.

I mean I did my master's in international finance and my

MBA. So it was very business oriented.

Very, I guess it's relevant to what we're doing now.

I think it's very important to have educational background business for

sure. Which we quickly realized when we started this,

but that's how we kind of came together and we'd always

gotten along.

Sarah and I were like best friends so we let each

other shine at the right moments.

She knows I'm better with the numbers and the business strategy

and I know she's better at the creative product development,

even marketing side.

So we really mesh well together I think.

So it came together very naturally.

Okay. But tell me how like the moment when you guys

are like,

yeah, let's do this.

Let's actually go into business together.

Let's do it.

Well it's funny cause when I was still in business school,

Sarah had already kind of tried to start her own product.

She was looking into doing like a date bar business and

she was doing it with some other family members and she's

like, you know,

this is maybe not too difficult,

but maybe it wasn't the right time.

Right. Timing was the challenging part in our lifetime.

And then when I graduated,

I had a decision to maybe go work for a corporate

company or to start something,

Sarah. So Sarah was like,

you know,

do you want to try to do this together?

I said,

you know what,

let me take a year and try to do this before

I rushed into getting corporate job.

I have some time.

I saved up some money,

so why don't we put it into this and try it

for a year.

That was our moment where we came together and started this.

So right out of school.

Yep. Right out of school because I knew if I had

spent too much time thinking about it,

I don't know if we would have ever gotten started.

I think also our parents too,

they were really big encouragement for us to start our own

business. They told us,

you know,

you can go get a job of course,

but you can also go and start your own business now

while you're younger and you won't have any regrets in the

future. At least you tried something.

Yeah. Because you could entrench into a corporate job and then

never see your way out to Oh yeah.

So well it's really,

you were guys were very fortunate because you had the encouragement

of your parents.

A lot of people,

especially this whole entrepreneur,

I'm going to do my own thing type idea isn't as

well received because we're not used to it as much.

And I would suggest European background.

That's what people do there,

right? They have their own shops.

It's all the more boutiquey type businesses.

As I kind of reflect on my travels,

that's what I think of when I think of Europe.

So, alright.

So for our new people who are just thinking about a

business, tell us the first steps you took to start getting

established. So for us,

we registered our business.

Of course,

as the first step we developed a business plan.

Sarah and I,

we sat down and really thought about what the product was

going to be,

what market it fit into,

how we were going to sell it,

what the price point would be,

all those little details.

And that changed over time.

But we had a starting point.

We had thought about those things.

I think from day one and we did a lot of

research researching online,

reaching out to people for information,

see if they would be willing to share their experiences,

trade shows,

just different types of research that we could do to really

grasp the industry.

Yeah, that's one of the things I actually did before Noelle

when I first started my original product with my bar business,

I actually went to the fancy food show up in San

Francisco and I just walked the floor and I just talked

to some of the vendors.

I saw what was out there,

what was there and I got some ideas and I just

studied the market more.

I really encourage a lot of people to do,

just go to these trade shows and just walk the floor,

see what's out there.

If you're interested in starting a food product or any product.

Yes especially,

well anything industry specific,

but I've been to that fancy food show too and it's

huge, which is really nice cause you get to see lots

of different options.

You probably also got to consider price points there too.

What's already in the market,

or not exactly the same thing,

but something comparable to kind of feel you're ranging out of

what it would be.

So you just started this year,

you're about eight months into your business,

right? Was it the fancy food show this past January or

the January before?

No, it was about three years ago actually,

when Sarah first went to the fancy food show.

Oh, got it.

Okay. Yeah,

and we had spent about a little over a year in

research and development and then we just launched in January,

so it took us a little over a year to finalize

the flavors,

the design,

the certifications.

That took us a while.

So our product is a little bit different in that sense

where we had the certifications to get on our product.

And so yeah,

it took us a little while to get to this point,

or you see a January launch,

but there was work behind it going on.

Yeah. People don't look at that part.

You don't see like,

Oh, you just started in January.

Well, actually we started over a year ago in the product

development stage.

No, I think that's really important.

You know,

I did the same thing when I started my first business.

I took my time and really planned everything out.

Did the research just like you're describing.

And I think that's smart.

I think some people,

they want to start a business now yours because it's a

consumable business.

You do have the licensing,

you have to think things through a little bit further.

But even for people who are product based,

it's so tempting just to say,

okay, here's the name and I'm going to start Sally.

You know,

someone said I should start selling the scarves that I make.

So let me think of a name,

grab some business cards.

And now I'm in business and I'm selling without any planning,

any thinking of how they'll be put into the market,

like their positioning and all of that.

So I'm really glad you brought it up because that was

really, really wise in a year.

That makes sense for you guys.

For sure.

Where are you producing your product?

About an hour outside of San Francisco.

So do you have a commercial kitchen or do you have

other people producing for you?

How's that?

What are you doing with that?

Yeah, we work with a contract manufacturer that has our recipe.

We develop it with the food scientists to scale it.

Cause that's another thing with food.

It could be one taste in your kitchen or tastes a

certain way.

And then when you scale that it's a very different process.

Especially when you're working with fruits like we are,

we have to be careful with certain things and the scalability

of our product.

Right. And did you do that right from the beginning?

Yes. Okay.

Yeah, we started in our kitchen experimenting with different flavors to

see what flavors would go together.

Like the pasture fruit,

Kiwi. We started that in our kitchen to see if those

flavors blended well with chocolate.

So we made like a little jelly center in our kitchen

and covered that in our dark chocolate and then tried that

and then we would take it to the lab and try

to see what that would taste like on a bigger scale.

That had to be a fun,

It's fun.

And it's frustrating cause when we get the first flavors and

it doesn't taste just right,

we think,

Oh my gosh,

is it ever gonna get there?

But then all of a sudden a batch 10 yeah.

So it's really a balancing act,

especially with the passion fruit.

Passion fruit can be really acidic and sour.

So it was trying to get that right balance with the

QE. And I wanted to throw in the QE because I

just felt like that was just a cool thing to just

mix with passion fruit.

Like I haven't even seen that in the market yet.

Like passionfruit QE,

so like let's just throw that in there.

And then we also have to balance it with the dark

chocolate. So it's like,

okay, so how do we balance these two things together?

It took us a while,

actually people don't realize even the marketability of flavors too.

We had to think about like,

okay, how is passionfruit going to be received in the marketplace?

But we've got great reception so far.

I think it's kind of a risk.

Flavoring are mixed.

Berry was more safe I think.

Yeah. And passion fruit.

When you think of passion,

fruit and pastries are in chocolate in general.

It's usually only seed in the higher end pastries and little

chocolate bars.

You never really see it in the snack industry.

I always felt like,

why don't we elevate this knack industry?

People are always on the go.

They're traveling or they're working and stuff.

They want to eat something a little bit more higher end

than just chocolate covered strawberries.

It also makes you different,

right? I mean,

I guess it is a little bit of a risk.

It does make you different.

I was thinking as you've been talking and talking about the

combinations, and this really doesn't have anything to do with where

we're going,

but I'm super curious about it.

You also have to figure out the ripeness of the fruit.

Do you have to catch the fruit at the right time,

I'm guessing?

Right, and so that's a good thing about our product is

we tend to source our fruit from fruit.

That's going to be maybe not thrown away,

but it's the overripe fruit get gets used to puree and

juice, so we get to benefit from that.

It's not the fruit that goes on the shelf that's pretty

imperfect and fits in the box.

We use fruit for juicing and impressing and different things.

So it's softer and probably has more sugar to it than

to, right,

right. It has more flavor,

more flavor.

Yeah. Yeah.

Interesting. I just was curious on the side,

cause I know how we are at home with our fruit.

My husband likes them unripe and I like them riper and

so lots of times I,

there's no fruit left when I get back because I was

saving it and he's already so a little challenge,

but we can overcome that.

That'll be fine.

All right,

so your experience up to this point,

so up to where you are now,

having created your product,

gotten the business started doing your market research,

all of that.

Any suggestions or thoughts or direction for someone who's just starting

out? Things that you've learned up to this point?

Yeah. I think sticking with an idea is very important.

You know,

we can get really excited about a new business idea or

a new idea in general,

and then it'll fizzle out after six months and you'll get

to a certain point where like,

Oh, this is too hard,

or this is a barrier,

it's too complicated,

it's too complicated,

or it's too saturated or whatever.

Someone else is doing the same thing and we just stop

and then we just Carry on or find something new that

we want to do and we never stick with it.

So sticking with a concept is really important.

Seeing it through within your means is I think really important.

Well, it sounds like you've had the experience where maybe that's

happened before and I'll suggest that potentially there is a point

you test a product or you're seeing that it's just not

working, it's not being received and there might be a point

where you step back.

So how do you know whether to step back or to

push forward?

That's a good question.

I think people's reactions,

honestly, that's one thing that we do.

We always have people try our product like,

Oh, try it.

And then you can tell by somebody's reaction when they first

bite into a food product.

If they really like it,

you see the reaction like wow,

this is really tasty.

Like what is this?

Whereas you see somebody who tries the product and I'm like,

Oh it's good.

And you know what?

I will say one thing we did come out before we

came out with the mixed Berry and passion fruit Kiwi.

We did come out with like a prototype type product of

just strawberry in the center covered in dark chocolate and milk

chocolate. And we got feedback from people on that product and

that was before we even thought about getting certifications.

We're like,

well certifications,

those are for big companies.

Like there's no way we can ever apply for those.

And we did more research and we found out we could.

But anyway,

when we came out with that first product,

the trial product,

we got a lot of feedback from people.

We saw the reaction,

they weren't so thrilled about the product.

The taste wasn't there for them.

And they're like,

well, you know,

if I'm going to buy this product,

you don't have any certifications with some of the distributors that

looked at the product,

so we adapted from there.

That was the point of the shift in our business.

We're like,

okay, we need to do this better,

and that's when we decided to really hone down on the

flavors and certifications and finding a contract manufacturer to help us

with that process.

So we shifted at that point.

Yeah, and you know,

a lot of the times sometimes people will be really negative.

You'll meet people who try your product buyers and stuff,

and they'll be like,

well, it's okay.

It's not that great,

or you don't have certifications.

Instead of taking that as a negative thing,

we looked at it a positive thing like,

okay, what can we do to make our product better or

to make it more sellable?

You taste your end with certifications.

We went back to the drawing board and we changed things

and we really thought about how to adapt our product.

Yeah, I agree with you.

Because if they would have just said no,

not interested,

you would have had no idea and certifications,

although that's in your John rhe no call.

That part you get to do.

Right. But had people not said that to you,

you wouldn't have known an Avenue.

You would have just known that there was something wrong.

Something missing maybe I should say.

And the other thing I think especially with that first flavor,

the strawberry with dark chocolate and white chocolate,

I'm guessing there was a pre supposed flavor connected with it

just because of chocolate dipped strawberries.

Right, exactly.

So even if it was good,

they might have been thinking it was going to be one

flavor and then all of a sudden it's another.

So that could have been something,

I don't know.

Yeah, that's true.

Because when people think chocolate dipped strawberries,

it could be many things.

It could be that synthetic tasting strawberry flavor that you taste

in some products they have like the artificial flavoring,

strawberry flavoring.

So sometimes we'll have tried that product in the past like,

well it doesn't really taste like strawberry.

Well, actually it's just pureed strawberry covered in dark chocolate.

And I'm like,

well it doesn't really taste like strawberry.

Well it doesn't have any synthetic flavorings or anything,

right? So sometimes yes,

you have to like convince people.

And we're like,

okay, well we want to make an all natural product.

We don't want to use any artificial flavoring.

So we're like,

well how can we get more of that Berry flavor out

of the fruit?

So we were like,

okay, without adding any artificial flavorings.

Really. Okay.

Well how about if we mix multiple berries together and really

hone in on that Berry taste?

Yeah. Perfect.

Well that's a check in the column for the combos and

all that and bringing something to market that isn't there already

for sure.

Okay. And so as you got started,

you got all the certifications you needed and all of that.

How did you first start getting the word out to people

about Barrow bites?

We'll hear all about how Noel and Sara attracted attention to

their business.

Right after a quick word from our sponsor.

This podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the

ribbon print company.

Create custom ribbons right in your store or craft studio in

seconds. Visit the ribbon,

print company.com

for more information.

Well, online,

we started our social media pages trying to share it with

people. Influencers.

Did you have a website then?

Already? We did.

I made the website and we started reaching out to different

influencers, sending them free product.

We went to trade shows,

different events that we could share a project with people,

give them samples and different little markets.

We approached different supermarkets,

like specialty markets,

knocking on their doors,

telling them about our products,

selling it to them directly to get it on shelf and

then yeah,

that's how we got started with spreading the word about our

product and within our community to share it with our friends.

We joined different,

yeah. Some of our friends were really cool.

They actually bought our product and they posted it on their

Instagram pages like,

wow, that's really nice of you in the beginning.

That is really nice.

Yeah. Those are good friends.

They need to have extra samples.

Free samples afterwards.

Oh yeah,

free stuff.

All the freestyle.

You guys have been doing this as your full time jobs?

Both of you.

Yeah, at this point,

yes. Okay.

And so I want to get back to influencers in a

minute, but when you were talking about between influencers shows and

supermarkets, did you guys have strategic planning meetings together to talk

about how you're going to approach all of this?

Was there a plan or was it Willy nilly?

How did all that happen?

Yeah, we did have a plan and we would adapt that

plan based on how much feedback we were getting.

So for example,

with the influencers,

we would reach out to the influencers kind of cold Turkey

like, Hey,

we're so and so,

or from Berra buys,

we'd love to share our product with you.

And some of them were receptive toward it and then others

were like,

well, here's fee.

Yeah, some of these influencers are really big.

And then they have a lot of followers.

Of course they'll ask like,

well, this is my fee and it's outrageous.

Well, because they have a big audience,

right? Yeah,

exactly. So that's understandable.

We're like,

well, we can't really afford that right now.

So we changed our strategy.

We're like,

well let's change how we're approaching these influencers.

Why don't we tell them a little bit more of a

personal story about us and how we're sisters and we're getting

started and we're a small company,

we're a small family company and the feedback we were getting

for them was great.

They're like,

you know what,

I'm a bigger influencer.

These are my posting fees.

Like this is how much it costs to do a post,

but I'll post it to my story instead for free.

And that really worked out well for us cause we were

like that's really nice of you.

Thank you so much.

We approached them almost like this will be a future partnership.

We grow,

we would love to invest in a post with you.

But for right now we're very small.

So being transparent with them really work.

So that's how we started with one strategy.

Can I just stop you for a second?

I want to point something out to the people who are

listening. You didn't see that approaching influencers when you first started

and it wasn't quite working.

You didn't just stop and say,

this is not the way it's going to work for me,

for both of you.

For us,

you adjusted your approach,

which I think is really important.

If your goal is goal one and your strategy to get

to it doesn't work right away.

Don't always change the goal,

change the strategy,

right? Because you'll have found,

okay, this approach doesn't work.

Then you tried another approach which was personal story,

which that wins all the time.

I mean,

if anything is going to do it,

it's going to be that personal story behind whatever you're trying

to do.

Whatever the action is that will have the most impact for

sure. So I'm glad you brought that up.

So, okay,

so that was influencers.

Okay. Then shows what happened with shows.

So shows we displayed our product,

the prototype product that I was referring to before the,

uh, just the strawberry center and we showed that one at

the fancy food show,

I think about two and a half years ago.

Two years ago.

Exactly. So wait,

before you actually establish the business,

right? So were you representing under a different name then?

No, it was under the same name.

I'll take that back.

We did establish the business,

but it wasn't in full force yet.

We had established the business name to attend the show.

We had a small booth that we were sharing with somebody

else, a couple other people.

So it was more feasible to kind of get our feet

wet in the industry to see what it's all about to

put us.

And it was really nerve wracking for us because that one

was in New York,

a food show in New York.

Yeah. It was scary for us and that was a huge

show that was almost too big for us.

It started with,

but it was good in that we were throwing thrown in

the deep end right off the bat.

So we displayed that product.

We learned how the industry worked really quickly by talking with

people, we learned that we needed a distributor because we had

thought originally like,

Oh, we'll sell just all directly to these stores.

And they're like,

no, who's your distributor?

Or who's your broker?

Who's this?

I'm like,

what's that?

You know,

really intimidating too.

Very intimidating.

Cause we're like,

Oh, we don't know what that is.

So that's how we put ourselves out there and showcase the

brand at first.

But some really liked it.

And then that's when we got the feedback on the flavors

and the certifications.

Yeah. A lot of people are really nice about that.

They're like,

you know,

you need to have this,

you need to do this.

And we learned from that and honestly really thankful for those

people. Yeah,

we are.

Because we ask them,

they would almost walk away and we would stop them.

Be like,

no, no wait,

we want to learn.

Can you please explain how that works?

We're new.

Then they kind of calmed down a little bit.

They're like,

Oh, okay.

Like let's give you some more information about this.

You guys are trying,

Some people will,

some people won't.

Right, Right.

So people won't,

some people would just walk away and not have any time.

Yeah. They don't have time.

They're like,

I don't have time.

But you guys are lucky because if you had those situations,

you weren't unto yourself where you just go back and like

hide corner.

At least you guys could talk with each other and support

each other,

which was a big advantage I think for you.

Yeah. I always say you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable,

then you're going to be learning.

So whenever we get to a point where we're too comfortable,

I always tell Sarah like,

let's go do something that's gonna make us feel a bit

uncomfortable. Whether it be public speaking or talking on a podcast

or anything.

You are not uncomfortable than you think.

But that's the way we learn.

We put ourselves out there and we have to grow that

way right through.

We always put each other like in really uncomfortable situations.

Like you will be like,

Oh, go talk to this person or whatever.

And I'm like,

I don't want to.

But then when I do it I'm like,

Oh, I'm glad I did it.

Yeah. Yeah.

And you've got that backup support of your sister.

So that's really lucky.

I would say.

I have a couple more questions right in this category because

I think this is where a lot of people start and

actually this is where I suggest that people start not necessarily

as big as fancy food.

I would agree with you there,

but even like if someone has a product and let's just

say with a consumable product since that's what we're talking about

here, but any product,

I don't even have to say it that way.

Farmer's markets,

local craft shows,

anything like that.

To see the receptivity of your product,

to get feedback on it from a consumer and to see

the words they use to describe your product,

all of that is really great information to go back and

to build on.

Absolutely. Yeah.

We did a couple of farmer's markets in the beginning of

that was very helpful.

Shows that you would never think that your product fits in,

but does.

We went to a couple of movie theaters just having like

a little display to share the product.

You can go up to the manager of the store or

event space and ask them like,

Hey, I have this new product,

I want to hand out samples.

Would that be okay with you?

Some places they're okay with that.

Others know,

but unique places where you have almost like a captive audience

and you're the only one there.

But that's okay.

You're getting feedback like cafes,

like local cafes and things like that.

Like a lot of smaller cafe owners will be really nice

and be like,

Oh, can I,

can I hand out some samples to your customers?

A lot of the times they'll be really nice and they'll

let you do it and that's what we did Well and

hopefully maybe they're going to buy and put them on the

counters for the way or whatever.

You never know.

And then what about supermarkets?

What happened there?

Is that where you had distributors for?

Right. So supermarkets are an interesting case because when we first

started we would sell directly to the supermarkets and now the

specialty supermarkets in my opinion are going through a change where

they're working with certain distributors.

Now, a lot of them,

The restructuring,

it's easier for them to work with one distributor rather than

a hundred vendors directly.

Some of them still have hybrid structure.

Didn't whole foods go through that in a mass lab?

Yeah, I thought so.

Yeah. When they got purchased by Amazon,

I think their structure is changing a little bit,

but so we started approaching distributors directly.

We never got any calls back.

We're like,

okay, there's something wrong here and we're doing something wrong.

We've tried that for about a month.

I think we give ourselves a month to really try to

talk to every distributor that we could find to see if

we can share our products with them and get feedback on

it. Never got any responses or like,

okay, we're doing something wrong.

Maybe we need to look at brokers.

Maybe there's something to this structure in the business.

Let's try that.

And so we talked to various brokers and it seemed like

that was our way into the supermarket business was talking with

brokers directly and they have the contacts with the stores and

distributors. So that's the route we took.

We worked with one broker in California and they helped us

get in with the distributors and stores,

so we're always learning,

adapting, changing our strategy quickly And again,

you didn't change the goal,

you just changed the way you were going to get to

the goal.

Right. With each of these three,

did you approach all of these at once or did you

start with one really landed and then go to the next?

Yeah, I think we started with one and then went to

the next,

because we are a really small team,

so we want to do everything in the best ability that

we can with our time,

so we would start with one.

We're going to approach brokers,

we're going to try that for a period of time,

see how that goes.

In the meantime,

we're still selling directly to some customers via online,

but that's our focus for this month and we prioritize things.

We go back and forth And talk to me a little

bit about social media and what you're doing there.

What's your biggest platform?

Yeah. We mainly focus on Instagram.

Right now we don't do a lot of Facebook.

We're trying to focus on one social media platform at a

time. So our main focus now is Instagram and we've been

doing a lot of different things on Instagram.

We've been doing giveaways with other smaller companies,

other food companies,

and we'll contact them and then we'll do a giveaway together

and then we'll pick a winner every week or so.

And then we'll send them out our products and then we'll

also use influencers as well.

Yeah, reaching out to them.

We pay for some ads as well to get our name

out there.

But yeah,

Instagram is our main focus right now with the ads.

My strategy specifically,

I focus on the ad spend,

but I try to spend the money in the locations where

we have store presence.

So instead of just blasting out the ads,

spending the money all across the United States,

I'll try to focus it in certain zip codes where I

know we're selling the products.

So maybe that community in that area,

they'll see it online via Instagram or other platforms,

and then they'll go to the store and see it again.

So maybe if they see it a couple Of times they'll

recognize the brand over time.

Yeah, you're smart because they need a couple of those touch

points before they're going to buy.

And so how are you gauging the results of your ads?

Because you're not seeing a direct correlation with code coupon codes

or something on ads?

It's hard with the regional ad spend,

we talked to the store and we see how it's rotating.

It's really hard to get a solid gauge.

We spent a certain amount of money there,

but we also do coupon codes.

That's more for like online sales.

So we do that as well.

It's easy to gauge because we can see the sales coming

from that.

And also influencers.

Sometimes we'll give them a coupon code as well to see

what their influence looks like and we'll do a combination.

But yeah,

this store reach and the zip code is harder to gauge.

But we noticed that when we do it,

the store rotates more.

I mean,

so maybe it's correlated,

maybe it's not.

Maybe there are other factors.

That's a pretty good sign.

You're right.

Yeah. It's hard to tell.

But we also let the store know for the relationship building

so we will let them know what we're doing.

Cause that's also another value is that the stores happy that

you're supporting them and we'll tell them like,

Oh we published this ad in this zip code.

It's around your area to let you know that we're trying

to promote the product.

What percentage,

you don't have to give me exact percentages,

but I'm just curious,

is more of that mass performance through stores versus individual direct

to consumer sales online?

Yeah. So it peaks,

you know it depends on the season.

So in the summertime,

online sales slow down a bit cause it's hot.

Yeah. Yeah.

No it's,

yeah, people are not craving,

I think so much chocolate over the summertime.

Maybe some people,

but you know overall the seasons more than the holiday.

So our sales peak during the holiday season online,

and I believe it's overall,

I think online sales are about 10% and the rest is

all in store for our product because it's a snack impulse

buy. But you also made a conscious decision to go that

way. Yes.

I mean you could have wanted to go direct to consumer,

maybe gotten into some schools kind of thing or more local.

But I think based on again,

influencers, shows and supermarkets,

that was where you were going to go.

That was your direction in your strategy.

Exactly. Wonderful.

Alright, so all of this sounds great.

It sounds like you've done everything perfectly.

I don't know about that.

that was a great reaction by the way.

So tell us the story of when it didn't go so,

right. Well I remember one point,

I thought this is still hands down probably the worst day

of my life where we were going to like an outdoor

show. It was like an outdoor festival and we wanted to

present our product and everything that could have gone wrong that

way went wrong.

Like one of those days where it was raining and it

was outdoor event,

so no one showed up.

We had spent a lot of money to be there and

it was just a mess.

And I thought,

this is it.

Can we spend all this money?

I don't know,

like this is just a bad omen.

But those things happen sometimes.

Right? In the beginning it was in the beginning and it

was just a terrible day.

But there's incidences like that have happened to us where we're

like, Oh,

this is not going to work.

Or people say no.

A lot of times buyers will say no to our product

or like,

okay let's go find somebody else.

They'll say at this time we can't purchase.

Or you know,

maybe in the next three months or six months from now

we'll be like,

okay so we've made another,

I Feel like it's another standard response.

Like canned response or something.

Right. Exactly.

Yeah. So how often do you guys back and forth support

each other?

Like one of you comes and says,

Oh, whatever,

you know,

whatever the issue is.

And the other one's like,

no, no,

no, let's do this,

let's do this.

And then vice versa.

Do you play off each other?

Like, Yeah.

That's funny.

I feel like Noel is more of the stressed out one

cause she's more of the finance.

So I'm always the one that's like,

Oh be okay.

Like don't worry,

we'll get it done.

You know what I mean?

And then I'm more of like the calm.

I feel like sometimes I get stressed out,

but I'm more of like the calm person.

It's almost like every other day it seems like we're in

such a transition in our business.

So I think this year we're seeing more of that than

maybe next year we'll be more accustomed to all these things

that we have to do,

paperwork. Every time we go in with a new vendor,

insurance, paperwork,

all this work in the background,

I'm like,

and then they don't approve it.

I have to go back and forth and so it's very

stressful. And then meantime we have to focus on marketing and

all the other stuff.

And we're such a small team that we do everything.

We have to send the invoices out,

we do the social media,

we go to shows.

So some of these companies are so big that they hire

people to go to the shows and do it for them

and hand out samples.

We're doing all of that.

Well it's the two of you,

and then at least someone's making the product.

Let's go with that.

That's true.

Wealth is part of your team.

My husband Pablo,

he's a big support too.

All right,

and what's his role?

He communicates between the broker and the stores and we both

kind of do that back and forth.

He helps with whatever needs to get done and then I

support him on that too.

So he handles the brokers Well,

you know,

and I think even as you advance,

I mean next year there's things that you're going to know,

but there's more things you're going to learn that you don't

know. I think that's just the way it's going to always

be. Absolutely.

And then the market changes or something happens,

like they'll always be those challenges.

Right? Absolutely.

I used to think when I started my business that I'm

going to get to a point where like I know everything

that's going on,

everything is going to be running smooth.

I'm going to be able to afford a team and have

it in place and all is great and I am still

waiting for that year and I don't think it ever happens

because that's just how business is.

There's always going to be some type of an obstacle or

problem or challenge that you're facing and if not,

you're probably not growing either.

Absolutely. Yeah.

I think that just comes to comfortable.

Right. And then Nicole is going to be stressed out cause

the numbers aren't going anywhere.

Right. And you know another thing is that our team is

so small,

I made sure that Sarah has a hand in something that

I'm doing and that I have a hand something she's doing

the same for Pablo.

We kind of interchange roles just so that we all understand

what each other's work.

So if One of us gets sick or something,

the other person can come and jump in and have an

idea of what's going on.

Or we have that team effort in everything we do.

I think.

Yeah. And I feel like we've gotten to the point now

where I can almost sense when one of you two are

getting stressed out and I try to like fix it before

it gets worse.

Like what can I do to like help this situation?

Like what,

can I take something off of you and you're like,

let me do something else to help you because it can

be really stressful.

So we were a good team.

We communicate all the time.

That's really good.

Do you have any advice for people who are going into

business with family members?

Cause that could be a disaster.

Oh man.

Yeah, we're really fortunate in that we all really get along.

But we have an older sister and we love her dearly,

but I don't know if we could ever go into business

with her.

She's also a part and we make her a part of

some decision makings,

you know,

like what do you think about this?

Her input.

But there's certain family members that sometimes you just don't have

chemistry in a work relationship and you have to recognize that.

And I think deep down,

I think it comes to respecting each other.

Some family members are better at listening to each other.

You always have family members that are kind of the overpowering

ones or it's their way or the highway.

We have a lot of family members like that in our

family. But we found a good chemistry between the three of

us and it works,

but we have to,

I think work when it's time to work and hang out

as a family.

When it's family time we have to separate those two things

cause it can really consume your life.

You could be at eight o'clock at night talking about something

and we have to turn it off and we have to

make a conscious decision,

Hey, let's talk about this tomorrow morning.

Let's leave that for tomorrow.

Let's talk about something else.

Yeah, you need to get away.

You still need to have a relationship as family members together.

Exactly. It's very important because it can really consume.

Yes. It's really challenging sometimes and you have to be conscientious

of how you treat each other.

You have to remember like,

Oh, this is my sister.

I can't be that harsh.

Right. I realize like sometimes I don't realize,

sometimes I'll say something that can kind of hurt your feelings

like, Oh,

why didn't you do this correctly?

Or something like that and you're like,

Oh wait,

I didn't mean it like that.

And then she's also my sister and I'm like,

wait, I can't talk to her like that.

You know what I mean?

So you have to recognize what you're saying a lot of

the times.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean,

I think because you have history with each other,

you know what I mean?

Your relationship existed long before you went into business and not

just as friends,

you know,

his family and sisters and spouses and all of that.

So I can see where it can become a very delicate

situation. But it sounds like you guys are managing it wonderfully.

Yes. You have to be conscious.

You have to be aware that it's just business.

It's nothing personal.

It's nothing personal.

The goal is to live a happy life together.

And that's the goal.

If you think about that going forward,

because people can get kind of consumed by the money spent

and we're not hitting our goals or this is super stressful,

you know,

we all have the same goal to,

yeah, we're all working together to achieve that goal.

So at the end of the day you might say something

to me that's kind of hurtful or I might say something

to you,

but we understand where we're coming from.

At the end of the day,

we all want it to succeed And everyone's human.

I mean,

it's going to happen.

Going to be days that that's going to be that way,

but to brush it off,

to be able to get back on course all towards the

common goal,

all of that.

That's a great example.

Thank you for sharing that.

I appreciate it.

As you look at your business,

and again for people who are just starting,

what kind of tools are you using that you rely on

every single day for your business?

Well, we use Gmail for our emails,

a plethora of resources.

As far as planning apps,

we use a lot of Google docs to share documents.

We make lists of different stores and so everybody can see

it, add to it,

make notes.

We use that a lot.

We use WhatsApp a lot for like a group chat where

we're sharing information.

So we have multiple platforms and where we're communicating all the

time. So with either emails or whatever tools,

we use a lot of resources to keep updated in the

industry. We read a lot of articles that are what's going

on in our industry and outside overarching macro events that are

going on and how it's going to affect us.

And what I mean by that,

I mean like on a bigger scale,

like what's going on with supermarkets,

the trends,

how are people consuming products.

There's a big shift going on,

so we're just trying to keep up to date with that

Because then you can pivot and adjust as need be.

Absolutely wonderful.

Any shows that you're doing through the rest of the year?

We're considering going to the expo West in Anaheim and then

also the snack food sweets and snacks show in Chicago potentially.

Okay, so that's next may,

right. Next day,

yeah. But from now to the end of the year,

I don't think so.

Bomber because I'm going to be at the Philadelphia candy show.

Oh, okay.

And guess where it is.

Hershey. So when you said that,

yeah, that could be a show for you to look at

though. Yeah,

definitely. Somebody to consider.

It's not going to be in Hershey next year.

FYI, this is the last year.

That's an aside and it's in the fall.

And you said it's in the fall and it's also in

January. I'm going to be at both of them.

I don't know if I want to be in Pennsylvania in

January. Yeah,

but you're inside work.

Yeah, I think the January one.

I've never done the January one before.

I'm usually at a different show,

but I am going this year and I think that's a

smaller one.

I think the September one is really the one to go

to. You know,

if you were to look at it,

you know,

to get started.

Anyway, advice to someone who is thinking of starting a business.

They're thinking and then they go to sleep and the next

morning they wake up,

they're all excited,

but by night time they're like,

no, no,

no. That's way too much.

And they keep going back and forth and wavering.

What would you say to that person?

Take it one step at a time.

If you look at all the things you have to do,

it can get overwhelming.

Take it one step at a time,

little tasks,

and you have little wins over time.

I think it's very helpful.

Also stay away from scams.

I mean,

when you start your business and you have a website or

a social media presence,

you will get with emails of people trying to promise you

the world and Oh yeah,

they look at your,

yeah, we get a lot of people who see our social

media page and there'll be like,

Oh, I love your feed,

or I love your social media or your Instagram page,

but I feel like I can grow it more for you

for like $2,000

plus a month.

And if it sounds too good to be true,

most likely it's too good to be true.

Yeah. We put a rule out there now that when somebody

contacts us,

we're not going to work.

Yeah. Most of the time it doesn't work.

We really,

And we asked them questions and when we first started,

we were a little bit shy about this,

about asking for references and Oh yeah,

their background in the beginning we're like,

Oh no,

but they seem really big.

It would be embarrassing for me,

like who am I to ask them for all this information,

but never be embarrassed to ask for references or their background

details about their background.

If someone's asking you for money,

you have that right to ask as much detail as you

want about them.

So that's been our takeaway from staying away from overspending on

people like that is just be careful,

but stick with it.

Little things at a time,

make a big difference.

You step back and you realize,

Oh my gosh,

he did all of this in four months,

six months,

a year,

and you're like,

I accomplished my goals.

So just little tasks at a time.

I love it.

Yes, you're right.

The small step by step.

Exactly. And that's what looks achievable.

And I'm just going to make a comment really quick about

what you're talking about with the money.

The second worst case is you're out a lot of money

because they've done nothing.

The even worst case is if you already like to use

your idea about social media,

what they've given you are just bots to your site because

if that's happened and you ever want to analyze who your

customer is against,

who likes your Facebook page or Instagram,

you can't because now your information is all muddied so you

really do have to think it through and I like what

you're saying,

taking control and really analyzing and asking the hard questions and

making decisions from there.

That was really smart.

Really appreciate you bringing it up.

Of course,

and a lot of these companies,

they prey on small businesses.

They know that there are moments of stress in every business

and they know that they're going to say the right words

to make you think like,

Oh, these people can solve all of my problems.

You know,

I don't have time to work on social media.

Like why don't I just hire somebody just to focus on

my social media?

For me.

They seem like they know what they're doing.

Or even sales,

like some people will promise you,

Oh, I can get you into target here or there,

sign this paper that says you owe me commissions for the

rest of your life.

You just have to be really careful.

Really careful.

SEO too is another topic,

right? I visited your website,

I can fix your keywords,

get more traffic to your website,

get you sales,

all that.

All things to be really wary of.

You're right.

So now I think we've scared everybody away.

The main,

It's also reach out to people in the business who are

doing it right?

Or you see them reach out to them,

ask them questions.

I've had other entrepreneurs reach out to us and ask us

like, Hey,

how did you do it?

I'm interested in starting a food product.

Can you share some information with me?

Absolutely. We try to be as transparent as possible.

Help other people in this business because we know it's tough.

We wish we had someone who could walk.

Uh, you know,

Noel and I,

when we meet somebody who just starts out in the food

product and we're like,

well how did you guys do this?

Like, how did you guys grow up to this point?

People just see our success right now.

And then we tell them,

you know,

honestly in the beginning we went through a lot.

We didn't know,

made a lot of mistakes.

We didn't have that person to go to and ask questions

that are in the industry.

And there's a lot of unknowns in this industry that a

lot of people don't know and we didn't know either.

So when somebody approaches us and they have a food product,

we're more than happy to give them advice because this industry

is difficult on its own.

It's so hard.

So we feel like if we can just take a little

bit of stress out of somebody,

just give them that little bit of advice that can help

them in the future or help them grow their business,

we're more than happy to give that to them.

Well then it has to feel so great because you mentioned

earlier that that's what you did in the beginning too.

You reached out and tried to learn from people.

Some were receptive in some words,

so isn't it cool now that people are reaching out to

you? It is.

It's really neat because you share our experience with them and

they're very excited about it and for some people,

I had one of my friends now and we became really

good friends,

but she was in tears when I was telling her all

these detailed stuff because she had been going around in circles

and she just hit to that point where she couldn't find

anybody to give her this information.

She couldn't find it online very easily and she was in

tears. She was like,

thank you so much.

You stopped me from spending all this money going into a

direction that I didn't know.

I'm going to take it another way that's more comfortable for

me and my family.

I said,

yeah, start there and then grow organically from there.

Sometimes it's just that one little thing.

They need that one piece of advice or that one encouragement

or direction to go one way or another and then they

can go.

Then they're on the way.

Right, but support.

Yeah. So what does the future hold for you guys?

Can you give us a glimpse into what your dreams would

be if they could be almost insurmountable for the future?

Like what's that huge big dream?

I think for,

I guess I can speak for both of us.

I don't know Sarah.

It's just to see our products everywhere.

It's good.

We want to share it with everybody.

We want to grow other businesses in the future and continue

that creative process going forward.

Yeah, I mean,

I sort of had the same dream of course,

but I was like wanting to have this feeling where I

walk into a supermarket and I see somebody buy our product

on the shelves and just have that excited being like,

Oh, somebody is actually buying my product.

You want to go up to them and tap them on

the shoulder and say,

Hey, it's my product.

Thank you for buying my product.

That's so great.

Yeah. Well when you say you want to see your product

everywhere, I have that same dream cause I wish I had

your product right sitting here on my desk right now,

I could use it.

It is so yummy.

I loved sampling it at the show.

Share with us how some of our listeners would be able

to sample.

Where would you send them to get product So it,

depending on where you live,

if you live in New York,

we have a couple of cafes that we're into that we

sell at.

We have on our website,

if you go to the contact us link there's,

you could type in your zip code and see where the

nearest store is and also you can order it online.

We ship in all States.

That's kind of everybody can get it in.

Yeah, Perfect.

And your website is bearer bytes.com

for those people who aren't at a place where they can

write it down,

bear bites.com

and all of the links,

social media sites,

all of that will be on the show notes,

gift biz listeners.

You know that already,

but I just thought I would remind you Sarah and Noel,

thank you so much.

Your story has been fascinating and I really was interested in

the fact that you started right away going in for the

bigger picture for the wholesale play versus doing the individual sales.

That's something we haven't heard here on the show before,

so that was really interesting.

So many really good solid best practices to your business growth.

I look forward to seeing what happens with you guys in

the future and I wish you both much success.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thank you very much,

Sue. It's so impressive to hear how far Sarah and Noel

have come since just January.

I hope you think about this idea of influencer marketing and

try it out for your business too.

You know,

if you're a local business influencers for you could be the

mayor of your town,

the high school principal,

or even a famous person who grew up in your town.

Take this idea and tweak it to be your own.

It's possible you'll land on some really amazing results.

So let's see up next week we're going from one sweet

business to another.

Sweets are in the air and I'm sure it's because my

mind is set on the holidays and hopefully yours is too.

Halloween is only a few short days away and after that

full steam ahead for the biggest sale season of the year.

Do you have everything in place?

Are you still finalizing?

Maybe there's still a spot in your plans to include influencer

marketing. My wheels are actually even spinning over here about that

a little bit.

Anyway, make it a great week and I look forward to

us being together again next Monday.

Bye for now.

Are you discouraged because your business is not performing as you

had envisioned?

Are you stuck and confused about how to turn things around?

Sue's new best selling book is structured to help you identify

where the holes are in your business and show you exactly

how to fix them.

You'll learn from Sue and owners just like you who are

seeing real growth and are living their dream maker to master

find and fix what's not working in your small business.

Get it on Amazon or through www.