136 – It’s About Finding a Happy Life with Maureen Basile of Maureen’s Sweet Shoppe

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You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 136.

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but for now pleasure of introducing.

had to save others for despair and real ingredients Oh my

gosh. This is going to be such a sweet You Maureen.

I just know it.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you Sue,

for having me.

We're really excited to be here today.

I cannot wait to hear the whole story.

I've known you for a while,

but we've never gone into the backstory.

So I am super excited for this one,

but you know,

we started off in a little bit of a different way,

and that is by having you describe yourself through an ideal

motivational candle.

So if you were to us a color and a quote

or a saying that represents you,

what would your motivational candle look like?

My motivational candle would be pink because pink is colored to

me of happiness,

purity, cotton,

candy, all the fun things in life.

And it motivates me and it always keeps me going forward.

And the motivational quote I would put on it is anybody

can do anything for a day,

a week or a month.

And I got that from my brother who went battle cancer

and he would go in for these horrible treatments and he

would sit there and go in for a week at a

time and I'd sit there.

And I say that anybody can do anything for a week.

And it just kind of stuck in my head.

And when I get really tired,

I just keep saying that to myself,

anybody can do that for a week or for a month

of whatever season it is and how long we have left.

I think sometimes within our businesses,

it does seem like it's too much.

It gets too heavy.

The burden gets too much,

not as much as what your brother had for sure,

but it still does feel like that.

So being able to say,

yeah, you can just get through it.

Cause it seems like there also then comes a point where

you go home and you take,

you get some sleep or you get some time off or

something and then it's all good again,

but you've just got to get through That's it.

But when you see somebody that goes through something like that,

I mean what's a week of 14 hour days.

You can get through anything.

I agree with you there.

All right.

Did you just create this quote?

Is this like an original for you based on the situation

with your brother?

Yeah. It was just something that watching him.

He was probably one of the strongest people watching what he

went through.

I drive my strength from that and it just was something

that you can do it.

You can do anything for a week.

And it has stayed my mind through the holiday seasons.

And I mean,

we do 14,

20 hour days depending on the day.

And it's just four o'clock in the morning comes and you're

sitting here thinking,

Oh, I'll never make it.

And you're like,

you can do anything for two more days.

It just stuck around here.

And we all say it to each other and it motivates

us all to keep going.

All right.

Well, let's talk about how you ended up working 20 hours

a week during the holidays.

How did this all begin,

Maureen? Well,

it's kind of a crazy story.

I started out practicing and family law,

which as you can imagine is incredibly depressing.

And I did a lot of grandparents taking custody of their

grandchildren. That was my specialty.

And I have like parents calling and threatening me.

The grandparents were always in tears.

The kids were always a mess and I'd come home after

a 12 hour day dealing with that.

And my husband thought it was miserable.

And I was to be honest with you and he's like,

would you just do something else?

You're not happy.

We're not happy.

And to be honest with you,

the other part of the backstory is my husband is a

concessionaire. Who's got food trailers that goes to different fairs and

I would go out on weekends and be with him and

notice everybody happy there.

It was like a fun environment.

And I,

then I go back Monday to work and I'd just be

a basket case.

I ended up starting to work less and less and hanging

out with him a little bit more.

And one day my father-in-law said,

what do you want?

And I'm like,

I want a cotton candy trailer joking with him a week

later, he called me,

well, what color do you want your counters?

I just bought all the equipment.

I'm like,

are you kidding?

No, we literally built me a trailer and I hired some

teenage girls and they would go out and they would make

the cotton candy.

And I'll tell you,

cotton candy making is a lot of fun.

They make the cotton candy and I'd go out and supervise

them on the weekends.

And then it kind of grew.

I mean,

I turned my husband's food business into like a great success

and we were out all the time and it was fun.

And he finally just said,

why don't you just leave the other job and help me?

And so I did.

And then one day,

my father-in-law's like,

you need those big swirly lollipops.

So I'm like,

Oh, so I went out,

I searched for them on the internet.

I found the manufacturer called them.

And they're like,

Oh, you got a distributor,

not too long from you out in long Island.

They sell them.

So I called and I'm like,

I'll come out and pick them up.

So I went out one Monday and we pick them up

and I came back and they had a showroom there and

they had all kinds of candies and chocolates and everything on

my mind started to work.

And I'm like,

this is fun.

I've got to do something like this.

I came back,

I told my husband like,

Oh, I bought you this bag of chocolate covered almonds.

And he goes,

where's your mind going?

I'm like,

I'm thinking we need to sell them somehow.

They're not going to work out on the Ferris because it's

too hot and melt,

but we better do this.

Next thing.

I know my father-in-law was calling me.

My father was a great man.

I mean,

he's got great ideas and great vision.

He goes,

I have the perfect spot for your candy store.

I'm like candy store.

He goes,

yeah. And it was a little kiosk in the mall that

was like 150 square feet.

But as part of it,

it was like an old jewelry stand that had counters all

around. And it was absolutely perfect place to start.

Two days later,

I'm signing a lease for something.

I had no clue what I was doing.

And I was working my tail off to come up with

the money,

to buy all the stock and everything.

And I did it.

And all of a sudden we opened this little kiosk in

the mall and it was crazy.

It was so much fun.

So first off,

kudos to your husband for recognizing that you were in a

place that wasn't fulfilling to you and making you happy.

And then your father-in-law just walking you down the path step

by step.

Almost. You had no choice once he's bought the van for

the cotton candy or the truck for the cotton candy,

I guess I'd say.

And then your shop,

but interesting Maureen.

Cause I think you similar to me,

didn't have the idea yourself that you could start yourself.

If someone had to place that idea with you,

why do you think we're like that?

I think we've just tried to please.

Everybody. I had said when I was little girl,

I wanted to be a lawyer and my father was so,

Oh, great,

great. You want to be a lawyer?

You want to be a lawyer.

So my entire childhood,

I was geared towards becoming a lawyer.

Then you spend all that money on the degree you practice.

And to be honest with you,

when you go to college,

you have no clue what the future career is going to

be. So you sit there and you're like,

okay, it's going to be great.

It's gonna be great.

I can out of law school and realized that 90% of

my day is going to be pushing papers on a desk.

And I'm like,

this isn't what I wanted.

I wanted to be in the courtroom.

And I wanted the activity of being a lawyer.

And it just wasn't there.

I was so disillusioned and so stuck to it because of

the money I invested in the degree.

I didn't let myself think that it was okay to have

another dream.

It's like I had had this dream,

my whole life and that,

okay. I fulfilled it,

but now what it wasn't what I expected.

And because I invested so much in it,

it was,

they were only buddy down.

I didn't wanna let myself down and I wasn't letting myself

have the ability to do something I truly was passionate about.

I'm thinking that there are listeners here who are probably in

a similar situation.

They've invested in a degree,

they've got their career.

Things are pretty comfortable,

but it's only okay.

They're not totally fulfilled.

How did you go through telling yourself it was okay to

leave? Cause I'm sure you went back and forth a little

bit. Yeah.

I'm not as happy,

but it's solid and not everyone can be a lawyer.

Let's face it.

But what was your mindset of making that transition?

Yeah. I don't think it was as much telling myself that

it was okay.

I think it was letting the world know it was okay.

I was afraid of people's reactions because I had been so

focused on this career.

When you work in a job like that,

I mean,

you've been in an industry where you work crazy hours per

paycheck and you just sit there and it's like,

you're focused.

You kind of lose some friends because you're so busy with

the work.

And then it's like,

okay, now I'm going to come out and say,

okay, I made a mistake.

That's one thing.

I am a perfectionist and saying,

I made a mistake was hard,

but I felt like I was going to let everybody down.

And I was wrong because all anybody ever wanted for me

was to be happy.

And I was so focused on,

I was letting the world down that I couldn't see past

that. Interesting.

So what advice would you have or what first steps would

you have for somebody who should consider doing that consider going

off and separating from what they thought they were going to

be doing as their lifetime profession?

I would say,

let yourself do it.

You're not failing your life changes in every step.

You're single.

You're a teenager.

You go off to college,

your life changes.

You go to grad school,

you go out to the workforce,

your life is junior and you buy your house.

So with every change,

your life has changing.

So just because at 18,

you thought you wanted to be a fireman or a lawyer

or a doctor.

It doesn't mean you have to stay that way.

I married a guy.

I never would have thought I'd marry,

has been wonderful.

It takes my mood swings.

Like he's a pro and comes in here and helps when

he's not working.

I married a champion and he helped me realize my real

dream. Okay.

So here we are.

And you did get permission.

I mean,

obviously he said,

okay, that's fine.

Let's do this.

And then also support from your father-in-law.

So the whole family really was backing you,

which does make it a little bit easier.

Makes a lot easier.

Yeah. What point did you,

along this way from the cotton candy to then the spiral

lollipops and all of that,

and then the chocolate covered almonds.

At what point did you actually create Maureen sweet shop?

It was probably in a three or four month period of

time. To be honest with you,

it just happened quickly.

We found the space and we started to work as hard

as we could to make sure we had the savings we

needed to go forward.

And I think that that would be like the key to

anybody thinking about this is before you jump work hard,

save the money so that you can go a good six,

eight, 12 months,

not having to worry about income stock and all that,

because it's going to take a while for you to be

able to build your income back up.

We worked really hard that summer,

fortunately, with the trailers and stuff,

we're able to book them and make the money we need

to make.

So you were consciously then putting it aside.

Yes. Knowing that this was the plan,

the plan was going to be to open the shop and

face it.

Retail is expensive.

Exactly. And we went to a mall,

so they required four months rent upfront.

And there are a lot of things that they were requiring

that were expensive.

So we had to make sure that all that was covered,

we had to make sure the bills at home are covered

as well because losing my income was a major hit to

us. We just had to make sure that we had that

ready and in the background.

And then we move forward,

full steam ahead in a very short period of time.

And it was kind of crazy at first.

And without the family support and their help actually doing everything,

we wouldn't have been able to do it,

but they were right there helping me construct the space,

helping me stock everything,

helping me decorate,

put the signs up and everything.

So, I mean,

you need the support of Natalie,

your husband,

your kids,

but whatever family that will come in and help because whatever

help they'll give you will help you succeed in the future.

Decide on your name as being part of the name of

the company versus anything else.

Talk us through how you created that and decided upon that.

Actually, I give my father-in-law a lot of credit for that

because he always felt like a woman's name should be in

the name of the business for something like this.

And he said,

it'll go farther.

People will respect because women,

they associate with big products and candies and things like that.

And he always liked the old fashioned way to spell shop.

S H O P V E.

And he just thought it would,

it would just flow well together.

Let's talk about your grand opening in the mall.

What did you do?

The grand opening in the mall was a little bit easier

than when we opened the store because we went in that

night. Cause you had to come and go in after the

mall was closed.

Cause we're in a kiosk.

So we went in about nine o'clock the night before literally

worked all night long to get the kiosk all set up,

get the signs up,

get the counters loaded and everything and opened at nine 30

the next day.

So it was,

my brother has family,

my father,

mother-in-law my mom,

Chris and I.

And we were in there and working around the clock to

get it up and open.

Oh my gosh.

That's crazy.

And so you were there obviously as it opened and the

first customers start coming in.

Talk about that a little bit.

Well, they're all excited because this mall had a candy store

in quite a while and the customer,

there's a movie theater in the mall.

So we sold the lot of the bulk candy and some

chocolates and everything.

And one of our first customers happened to be one of

the jewelry stores in the mall.

And they came in and they literally bought all of our

chocolate covered Oreos and pretzels to hand out to their staff

because of the day.

And I'm like,

okay, what am I going to do now?

Because I can't get delivery until Monday.

It was crazy.

He scrambled and kind of filled some spots with different things,

but the mall staff itself and the employees were so supportive

of us and they were always there.

And the movie theater customers came to us for candy because

we were cheaper than a movie theater and it worked out

well for us.

It was a great little spot for us to start in.

Wonderful. Okay.

And then what happened from there?

Cause obviously you're not there now.

Right? Well,

we grew and in order to sustain the business,

we knew we needed to make our chocolates because it's very

expensive to buy them and we didn't have facilities to do

that. So we were looking for a spot where we could

make our products and we found a spot that used to

be a candy store and they had a kitchen already in

there. So it wasn't going to cost us a lot to

build out and we rented the space and I regret it.

I'm going to start by saying that and I'll tell you

why. At first it seemed like it was a great spot,

but we were set behind a grocery store.

So we were kind of like the backyard Plaza and there

was a pizza shop in there,

Chinese restaurant and a hair salon.

So I thought,

you know,

good traffic,

that sort of thing.

Well, the plan was,

it was going to be great,

but what happened was we get in there and I loaded

everything up and having opened in the mall before,

there really wasn't a chance for a big grand opening.

So here it was like,

I set the date for the grand opening before we were

ready. So our stock came in Tuesday night,

Wednesday morning,

and we were,

had a grand opening on Friday.

And it was just disappointing,

not only for myself,

but for the customers that came in for the grand opening.

And there was really nothing grand.

It was just us still just stocking shelves,

trying to get the shelves filled.

And it was a huge mistake that kind of haunted me

for the four years I was there.

So the mistake was making sure you were truly ready for

the grand opening.

Right? Had I done a soft opening and just open the

store as I was stocking it and then planned a big

grand opening and invited all the officials and everything.

It would've gotten much smoother because everything would have been ready,

but I wasn't ready for the grand opening.

So when people came,

cause it was in the paper and everything,

the store wasn't stocked properly and the shelves were kind of

empty and it was just done wrong.

So if you're opening a retail,

brick and mortar,

make sure you're ready for grand opening before you schedule it.

They don't have to go through what you went through.

Exactly. And then two weeks later,

I ended up very ill and needed emergency surgery.

And I was out for eight weeks and it just,

one thing led to another led to another and it just

turned out to be a cursed,

bad location.

And it never got to where it needed to be because

of the incidents in the beginning.

It's hard to rebound when you falter in the beginning.

Okay. But that was four years.

You stayed there four years.

Then what happened?

Well, during the four years,

we're able to build up some corporate customers while we were

there. We did some TV advertising,

but then what happened was the store that had opened next

to me,

wanted to expand.

And there was nothing for him to expand.

On the other side,

the pizza store had been there for 20 years and my

landlord is like,

you take the smaller space across the street and we're going

to let him have your space.

I'm like,

well, that doesn't work for me because it's going to cut

That's not working well.

He needs that space.

And he thought he was going to call my bluff and

we ended up having a battle Royale and I a new

spot and in the spot is right in the smack dab

center of our town across from town hall,

less money for rent and double the space.

Oh my gosh.

A blessing in disguise.

When you say exactly now,

did you have to build out a kitchen there?

It's kind of Funny how we did it.

We actually built out a sink room where all of our

sinks to wash up everything is sectioned off.

Just cause I didn't want people seeing that.

We built a smaller kitchen upstairs and we have a whole

downstairs that we build half storage and half our full kitchen.

So we did a little bit of build out,

but it wasn't too too bad because the space was designed

perfect for us.

Okay. So let's talk about moving into that space.

So you have this learning about a grand opening.

What did you do differently the second time?

The second time around what we had done is the minute

I knew I was moving,

I went to the town hall,

filed for all the permits followed through on them because the

town hall we'll let them sit there.

So I had to go down and I would call every

day, where are we sitting?

So then I knew exactly when the inspections would be and

when our licenses would be issued.

So that was all set and ready to go.

Before we even got close to opening,

we finished all the plumbing,

we got the health inspection done.

And then we would open the doors every day for probably

about a week and a half.

Then I sent out all my formal invitations for our grand

opening. I set the date for two weeks later,

sent out invitations to all of our customers,

to the town officials,

to our state reps,

to the press releases to the newspapers,

had everybody down here,

got little citations from the house of representatives.

And it was just,

everybody came free,

publicity like crazy because all the press was here and it

was done,

right. The stores were stocked full and you couldn't have gone

any better.

Oh, that's fabulous.

So everyone got samples.

I'm guessing Samples all over the place.

Absolutely. We had a coupon in the paper for a 20%

off. Any of your purchases,

everybody that came for the ribbon cutting.

What we had done is like we had done like a

soft opening.

Then we did an invitation,

opening, fell our customers.

And then we had the big grand Caribbean cutting opening on

a Friday afternoon.

And each event brought new people in that's spent money.

So it was just great to plan it out properly and

do it so that people got an invitation,

they felt special and it was just perfect.

So once you've got everything set in terms of the licensing

and the inspections and all of that,

you had the doors open so people could come in,

but you weren't officially ready yet.

I'd say so you would call that your soft opening,

Ready to go full speed yet.

We're still stocking the shelves.

We're still making product be fully loaded,

but people have been so curious because they'd seen the decorations

in the window that we would let them come in.

And if they wanted to buy that goodbye and we're like,

Oh, we're still stocking.

We have another grand opening,

but welcome.

And then you're making them feel special because they can go

back and say,

you know what?

They're not really open yet,

but they let me come in.

Here's what I saw there.

Exactly good strategy.

I don't know if you meant to do that,

but that was excellent strategy.

I'm here.

The doors should be open.

There you go.

Why would you lose sales?

Then everyone needs chocolate every day.

I'm thinking exactly.

So soft opening and then specific invitation grand opening.

And then the full bone public opening where you're three steps.

Yes. So what happened after the grand opening?

Obviously you want to keep the momentum going.

What was We had done?

Because typically when you open a candy store,

you open it August through October because you get all the

holidays coming in and when you move your store,

it takes about six months for people to find you.

So we had known,

we were moving in January and what we had done is

we have put a big banner in the old store saying,

we're moving,

here's our address.

We've made everybody sign up for our mailing list.

And then we invited everybody that signed the mailing list on

Valentine's day to the invitation opening.

And we opened about,

I want to say a month before Easter.

So people were able to find us.

We wanted to open before a big holiday,

because if you open in the summer,

it's like summer and chocolate,

they don't mix well together.

So we needed to find a way to let people know

that we were here and that we're still the same company.

And that this is where you can get your tacos Question

for you.

What happened to the candy of the beginning?

Like cotton candy and all of that.

Did that go away at the point that you opened Maureen

sweet shop?

Now, unfortunately we still have it and it drives me crazy

because I'm so busy here.

It's hard to run that on the road,

but it's trying to juggle too many things,

but it's still a great money maker for us.

It's something that we really do need.

So we find a way to make it work.

Chris is great and he goes out and he makes sure

that all of that is set up and ready to go.

And then I'll come out for the weekends and make sure

that everybody's in their place and doing the right thing.

And that's even grown too.

And we're doing so many different things that we never thought

we do there.

So it's trying to juggle a lot,

but they compliment each other too,

because we do a lot of favors that involve cotton candy.

So I just robbed one machine from there and bring it

here and do that.

And I'm wondering if,

because you're right chocolate in the summer,

I don't know if it does or not,

but does that take a little bit of a dip and

then in terms of sales and then the cotton candy and

other increased during that time?

Absolutely. And a lot of chocolate shops will bring in ice

cream during the summertime.

Our board of health is kind of funny with ice cream

and their health codes and everything.

And I'm not sure I could actually bring the store up

to code for the water system that you need for that.

So we don't bring that into the store,

but the trailers that we have with the cotton candy and

the stones and all that,

that helps us offset what the store isn't making during the

summertime. I don't know if you do that intentionally,

but that works great.

It's awesome.

And the timing of it,

it really compliments each other because that picks up right after

we get through the Easter mother's day season,

and we're waning down on the early wedding season.

So that'll pick up during when we're really slow.

And then as wedding season starts again in the fall,

that starts to slow off a little bit.

So they compliment each other very well on that.

Good idea for everybody.

If you have a little bit of a dip in your

sales, is there something else complimentary and in line with what

you already do,

but a little bit different in terms of a product,

even perhaps that peaks at a certain time when sales normally

are low,

because you've already got the staff you've already got all your

fixed costs.

So if there's a way to divert and make more money

just to cover all of that,

like Marina is saying,

it's perfect.

And it's great because different,

even though you're here at the retail store for so many

hours a week,

you get to get out and do something different that isn't

in the norm and it helps break it up a little

bit. So when you come back,

you're kind of refresh.

Oh, great point.

Let's talk about your mailing list.

You are one who obviously understands the value of collecting emails

so that you can communicate with customers.

How are you using your list?

I will freely admit I don't use it as well as

I should use it.

I should be emailing constantly.

And I tend to email reminders of the big holidays coming

up. I will email if like I have a focus group

for our kids.

Cause we do kids' birthday parties here at the store and

I'll email like,

Oh, we're having a special on birthday parties,

but I don't do it as much as I should.

And I don't do it as like with the material that

I probably should plan ahead more.

And I freely admit that that's one of my,

the whole technology and social media part is something I'm working

on and growing because it does help with the store,

but I'm not quite where I should be yet because I

focus on other things and I haven't in the past,

viewed it as something that really worked until I really started

to work at.

And then I realized it does work.

Ah, very good.

And I use still though,

even if you're not putting as much emphasis on it right

now, are you still working on continually collecting emails?

Absolutely. Okay,

good. So even if that's the first start because you can't

have a plan and an email is strategy,

unless you have emails.

Exactly. Even just taking that first step when people are coming

in, however you can attract emails all along the way.

Totally makes sense.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Wonderful. Okay.

So we've talked about some of your challenging moments already in

terms of first not being happy in your law career from

the beginning,

I will say what I'm hearing from you challenge continues to

equal opportunity for you.

So you switched over to the candy trailer,

to the mall,

to your first shop.

Then you had challenges there,

multiple challenges we've discussed.

Now your next job.

Tell us another one.

Where was another challenge in your journey here?

Well, I think one of my,

My biggest challenges was not knowing how to grow this business

beyond what it's been.

I have always,

you know,

okay, candy shop,

either carrying him,

draw, you,

make the chocolates,

put it in the case,

but where do you go from there?

It's like you get stale after a while.

And it's just like,

there are some people out there that they love painting chocolate

molds, to be honest with you,

it's the worst thing in the world for me.

I don't have the patience for it.

So how do I get my pops to look really pretty

without having to do that?

I've invented my own little techniques that will help me add

the charm and the color and the design to pop that.

So I don't have to paint it.

And it's kind of the same thing,

but it's just a little bit different.

And for me,

it's a lot more fun this way.

And it's just trying to keep things new and fresh.

It's chocolate.

I mean,

there's so much you can do with chocolate.

That's different.

And you've got to come up with new things every year

because we have big corporate customers and we stock their entire

gift shop with their chocolates and like,

Oh, what's new this year.

And I just sit there thinking,

Oh my,

what do they want from me?

It's chocolate.

You know what I mean?

So I have to look at it as a canvas and

what is motivating me.

So like every day we try to do something that's different.

And a lot of times it fails epically.

Other times we come up with this product that is just

fantastic. Like we have one that we're about to launch probably

in the next couple of months,

actually we were going to start the launch tomorrow or Wednesday

at a tasting that we have,

but it's not ready for sale quite yet.

Cause we're in the middle of trying to trademark the name.

You have my curiosity,

like so on edge.

Now I'll have to send them out too,

but it's a magnificent product that can combines pastry and chocolate

and truffles.

And it's just something I had tasted something once in an

each flavor hit me while I was trying this dessert.

And I'm like,

I can make this out of chocolate.

And it took,

I want to say three years for us to actually get

it right.

And it is just decadent.

It is sinful and it is rich and it needs to

be on Oprah's list because that's my goal and my dream

is for it to make Oprah's list.

But we're excited about it.

So this is going to turn into your signature product.

Really? Yes.

And again,

here you go.

What I'm saying,

challenges equal opportunity because had you liked,

what do you call it?

Painting the molds.

Is that what you call it?

Yep. Okay.

So if you had liked that and done that,

then you're going to be similar to other people.

Like how then is your,

what you're presenting different?

What is the reason why people would come besides the fact

that your chocolate is delicious?

Because I've tasted it several times,

besides that if it looks the same,

what is the additional advantage of coming only to you?

So the first is that technique you were doing because you

didn't want to paint the mold,

but now also this new product.

And I talk a lot about signature products when I'm talking

with people in any type of a consumable industry,

because you're right.

What do you do to make yourself different in the chocolate

industry? So I am so excited to know what this is

going to be.

Now let's talk about this for a second.

I'm turning around and I'm looking at my calendar.

I believe that this show is going to be going live

November 13th.

Okay. Is the product going to be available at that point

as do you know yet?

I am about 99.9%

positive. It will be available on November 13th.

Okay. So here's what we're doing.

Gift biz listeners.

She's not going to say anything right now.

So we're keeping you all in suspense,

but I am going to now this is,

if you're listening to the show live on the day,

it goes live November 13th,

2017, but let's put a link to the product on the

show notes page when we can.

So if you're listening to this right now,

you can jump over to the show notes page.

See if the link is there.

If for some reason something has been delayed,

I'll put the link up when that product's available.

How does that sound?

Maureen? That sounds awesome.

Thank you.

Yeah, that'll be fun.

So this is a little mystery package that we have to

unwrap. What type of a teaser over and above what you

already told us.

The combinations.

Give us a little teaser pitch to make sure everyone goes

over and checks it out.

And it's going to be like nothing you have ever tried

before. It is a combination.

We have Chris Croft from a bakery into a chocolate shop,

all in the same dessert.

It's got chocolate.

It has a flavoring like caramel.

Apple is one of the flavors we're working with right now.

For those of you that love smores,

we've perfected a smores category.

Think Carmel,

think amazing.

Think rich,

think something that is just different.

I get excited about it because to be honest with you,

when I finally got it right,

it was just,

I tasted them like,

that's it.

Then I went from there to the different flavors and we're

working on,

I think lemon now lemons.

One of my favorites,

Maureen FYI.

All right.

You may become one of my samplers once.

It's ready.

Love to.

They're just so decadent.

And we're working on shelf life right now and how we

can maintain the flavor and extend the shelf life so that

we can offer them to the gift basket industry with a

decent shelf life on them.

Because right now we're at about a month and a half

to two months,

but we're trying to get it up to about four months,

Give his listeners how exciting is this.

You could hear the energy even get higher with our conversation

because it's a new product.

This is something that you can do with your businesses too.

What can you do to create something that you can get

really jazzed about?

As you can hear Maureen talking,

what is it that you can do that re energizes your

business? Because it's something different and something you can talk about.

Cause Maureen,

I bet you're going to promote that like crazy.

Oh, we are going to do a full launch for it.

We're going to have an invitation launch here and then a

grand launch for the product right here at the store.

It's something that I really feel is an area in the

industry that has never been touched.

I just think that it's a breakthrough product and we're really

excited about it.

I cannot wait to be able to present it to everybody.

I sampled them out to some companies and everything,

but we're not quite ready to roll it out yet.

And once we're ready to roll it out,

it's going to be hard and heavy and we're going to

hit everybody.

Oh, excited show notes,

page, gift,

biz listeners,

look for the link.

I'm going to actually make it big too so that everyone

could find it really easy.

So we'll have to follow up with that.

Maureen, getting back to our conversation here.

I'm not going to say it's easy,

but it's easier to get people to come into your shop

for the first time to try you out.

Exactly. What other things do you do?

And you've also mentioned that you have a list of corporate

clients. What else do you do to make sure that they're

not coming in just for one time,

but that you keep them coming in.

And I know you will be doing the email list.

We get your confession that you're not doing that right now,

but what else do you do to get repeat business?

When they walk in the store,

we do our best to make them feel like they've been

our friends life.

That's the key that separates us from any big business.

When they walk in it's hi,

how are you?

The minute I see them,

I make eye contact.

I ask them how their day's going.

I, we talk about the weather just to kind of break

the ice a little bit.

Then we talk about some of the products in the store.

I ask them if there's anything they're looking for,

if they need something to let me know.

And then when I come over,

I make sure that we kind of have a little conversation

about something like they'll a lot of times somebody will mention

something. Like I had somebody in the store the other day

it's been a tough year for a lot of people.

And they had just recently lost somebody and we were talking

back and forth and I'm like,

Oh my gosh,

I'm so sorry.

And a lot of these people have become friends of ours.

And when they come in,

they have a conversation with us.

Sometimes it lasts a little too long,

but I want to know what's going on because we celebrate

the good times and the bad,

it's a special occasion.

We gift drop everything for them and we don't charge them

for it because it's just a little extra thing that sets

us aside from a Macy's or any big company.

So people come in and they feel welcomed and they feel

at home and they feel comfortable and they feel special.

Right. And even if they leave without buying anything,

because like,

Oh, we're driving by.

We just want to check it out.

Or I have an appointment next door.

And I just have some time to,

I still engage and we still talk to him.

And then when they leave,

we make sure we say,

Oh, thank you for stepping in.

We hope to see you soon.

And we want to make sure that they're not buying something.

Didn't bother us.

And they're welcome anytime.

Because a lot of times with our name,

some of them think that we're a bakery and that we

offer like cupcakes or something.

So they're like,

Oh, I was looking for cupcakes.

So I'll direct them to the nearest bakery,

which is around the corner,

you know?

And I'll offer them a sample of something.

Do you always have samples in the shop?

We don't necessarily have them out,

but we can offer everybody a sample.

So if they're in here,

Oh, would you like to try a truffle?

Would you like to try this?

Would you like to try that so that everybody can try

our product?

If they're trying to decide what they want?

Oh, what would you like to try that way?

There, they can actually enjoy a product and then realize that

the taste is great.

So even if they're not shopping for it today that they

can come and come back in the future when they're looking

for a quick gift.

Got it.

Okay. And what about on the corporate end?

What do you do there?

Corporate customers are tough.

I mean,

we do a lot of kissing.

We have some great corporate customers.

We had one guy.

This is a funny story.

I had opened the first store outside the mall and this

guy comes out at Christmas,

hands me a list and says,

okay, I'm going to start picking these up on Tuesday.

And it had a list broken down to days of different

platters that he wanted,

never met the guy before.

So I'm like,

okay. So I looked at my mom who was working with

me that day.

I'm like,

is this for real?

And she goes,

I don't know.

So I took a leap of faith and I would never

advise anyone to do this.

Please don't do what I did.

I did it.

And the guy came in and he picked up the platters

and walked out and I'm like,

okay. He goes,

I'll see you tomorrow.

So I did it and I did it the whole entire

lesson. He comes in and he goes,

here's my credit card.

And he paid for the whole list and he has been

my customer ever since every year,

he comes in,

his list is growing and he's like doubling the size of

his orders and everything.

I think it was just like a test run for me,

but I should have gotten the money up front.

I didn't know the guy.

And please,

if you do it,

make sure you get paid upfront.

It was just every now and then you get a feeling

like it's okay.

I did everything for him when he picks up his last

order, I have a little gift for him because he goes

up to Maine every year with his family so that he

can enjoy that for the holidays,

with his family.

So you always want to thank your corporate customers too.

We have another great one.

They have this big light display here in town.

And it's wonderful because we do their gift shop for them.

And we load the whole store with chocolates and everything.

We let them borrow some of our fixtures and our tables

and our displays.

And they come back every year.

They refer corporate customers to us because when they say,

Hey, I know it's tight.

Can you do this for me tomorrow?

I will work all night to do it for them for

tomorrow because they're good to me and I need to be

good. So you would recommend Maureen.

The first thing you were saying is don't ever do this

as don't ever wait until the end to make sure you're

paid upfront someone who's bigger.

And I think maybe corporate people,

it might be okay to do at least a deposit,

like 50% or something.

Yeah, Absolutely.

Like the one where we stock the gift shop,

I invoice them.

I'll stock at night,

invoice them and they'll send me a check for,

I've been working with them for years and I don't have

a problem with that.

But like,

if it's a new company that's coming in and they're ordering

something big,

I need at least a 50% down payment.

And that's only fair because you got to buy the stock

and everything.

And a lot of times it can be a lot of

money that you're putting out and you gotta make sure you're

covered for that.

Yeah. And you need history with people.

And I think a lot of businesses would understand that as

you go,

as you're further along,

you don't have to do it if you've had experience with

them, but certainly in the beginning.

And if you're doing that and it's a big order,

make sure to get a contract.

And that's where my legal background comes in because I can

do my own contracts.

I can do all that,

that work myself.

But if you don't have that background,

have somebody that does have that background,

review your contract.

If you draw it up yourself or draw one up for

you because you don't want to miss anything.

And there's certain elements that have to be in a contract,

make it valid.

And I don't want you to be burned on that.

Yeah, absolutely good point there.

All right.

So what,

during your day,

you really busy because you've got the trailers going,

you've got the shop going,

et cetera.

What do you do or what type of either an app

or something that you rely on in your business helps you

keep this all together and stay as calm and cool as

you sound right now.

Well, if you were my husband,

you know,

I never stay very common.

Cool. That's a little caveat.

I guess It's kind of funny.

There's a lot of different tools that we use here.

One of them is I do a lot across the country

with gift basket industry.

So I use square up to do my invoicing online,

have a great platform.

And it's very easy to set up an invoicing system through

them. And it goes right to their email and they can

click the link and pay right then.

And there that's been a wonderful tool to us.

Believe it or not,

you're laughing at me,

but YouTube is great because if you're looking for something and

you can't quite figure it out,

there's always a video somewhere of somebody doing that.

So it's been like a great tool to kind of get

a little bit more creative in the store.

I mean,

chocolate is a bit of a,

Oh, what are they doing?

You got to keep up on it.

And we do.

And like,

I was getting bored with my stuff and there was,

there's this company out in New York called Hercules candy and

we've become friends with them a little bit.

And they do a lot of foiling.

I'm like,

Oh, I watch their videos to see how they get it

smooth. Cause like I love the look of a foil chocolates.

So I've been watching and seeing how they smooth it out

with the towels and things like that.

So that to me has been a great tool.

Obviously, Pinterest is a great tool because you can think outside

the box without like sometimes I do cookies,

the little sugar cookies that are decorated.

It was like the first time I'd ever done it.

And I'm like,

okay, I don't know how to do this.

But I said,

I do the order.

And I went on to Pinterest and there was like a

recipe for the frosting that I needed and it was perfect.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. I've never had anybody talk about it in that way,

in terms of things that then provide you motivation because you

don't have to copy necessarily exactly what you're seeing,

but it inspires you to take that and enhance it and

make it your own.

Then Facebook,

there's always like different groups we're on.

And part of the industry that does it from home,

kind of like they don't have to do the permit thing

that I do and everything.

So it kind of rubs me a little bit.

But on the other hand,

some of these women are so talented that they're doing these

glitter things and things that I knew nothing about until I,

I watched them and I sit in awe every day of

some of the pictures that they posted.

Most of them do cake pops,

which I don't know if you've ever made a cake pop,

but I will never make another cake pop.

As long as I live,

they're the worst things to make,

but they turn them into little animals and designs and I'm

in awe of their work.

I've learned a lot from these women and a lot of

different tools I use now.

I never would have known existed if they weren't sharing it

with us,

look everywhere for inspiration.

Look everywhere for help because it's hard when you're doing it

yourself and you don't really know what's the new trend or

what people are buying and people are willing to teach.

You just have to be there and you have to ask

and people will help you.

Right. Absolutely.

I totally agree with you there.

So this is a great way to also stay current in

your industry.

You can see what new techniques are out there,

demonstrating all of that.

Is there anything else you do to make sure you stay

up on everything,

either within business overall or your specific industry?

I definitely go to conventions as often as possible.

I mean,

I go to different conventions.

I just don't go to the chocolate ganache and I go

to the gift basket convention because I learned marketing.

You're a great mentor to me for marketing,

social media and all that.

Oh, thanks.

I mean,

I think you say to heart and I implement it.

If you can do anything,

watch Sue and watch gift biz gal,

because she has so many great tips on marketing.

Use her as a mentor,

reach out to these different groups that could be helpful to

you as far as marketing management,

anything business wise,

because the more,

you know,

the better you're going to do because marketing is something I

never really had to do.

So it was like a new animal to me that I

had to conquer.

And it's still a daily thing for me,

like, okay,

I only have so much this month for my advertising budget.

Who's going to get it.

And if at the free local paper or you've got the

newspaper and they're all knocking on your door for money,

but you have to know which channel is going to work

for you.

And that's something that,

that you have try to figure out because it's going to

cost you a lot of money And things keep changing so

fast now,

too. Oh yeah.

And you need to stay focused on what you're the best

at, which is your business and making sure everything's on target

there until you're right.

Why do you have to learn it yourself?

You go find other people who have figured it out and

can tell you That's one thing that you're always on top

of is what's going on in social media and the marketing

area. So if anything you say I listened to,

like you said,

do live video and that has been something I do quite

frequently now on my Facebook page.

And you have,

I'm so proud of you.

I took off For me not to feel self-conscious now.

It's just like,

I set up the tripod and I took the phone on

there and I just started talking.

Perfect. It works great for us.

So, and getting a lot of attention and I don't just

do, Oh,

here's this chocolate.

I have done bow tying lessons and all kinds of things.

Yeah. And even just showing a picture of,

even at the cotton candy trailer.

Oh, that's so good.

I hadn't even thought of that.

Yeah. Yeah.

You know,

You could do something with someone who has just gotten their

cotton candy.

Why did you pick that flavor?

Or how do you eat it or isn't it sticky or,

you know what I mean?

You have so much opportunity for content.

It's crazy.

And I want to be seen it when that new product

comes out.

Oh, absolutely.

Well, definitely going to do a video launch on that.

All right.

Good, good,

good. So any final advice,

Maureen, for someone who has gotten inspired from our conversation and

is thinking about getting started,

but 10 minutes after they're done listening here,

all of the questions come up again,

they're getting nervous and anxious.

What would you say to that person?

How much time do we have?

I would probably say is go for it.

Because since I started this,

I don't work anymore.

I play,

there's going to be some up and down days.

And there's days that are going to frustrate you like the

day, the board of health walks in the door for your

semi-annual inspection and you're not expecting her.

And you've got a sink full of dishes,

but nothing is insurmountable.

The key piece of advice I can give you is just

make sure you have a nest egg to fall back on

because it's going to take you a while to turn a

profit. If you do it outside your home,

if you have the ability to do it inside your home,

it frees up your time for marketing,

networking. Networking is key.

Go out,

join some groups and do some networking,

but go for it because it's so much more fulfilling.

I mean,

I make less money now and I work longer hours,

but I don't work.

It's just 90% of my time.

I'm enjoying the day.

There's always some times like tax season and Christmas Eve.

And I haven't slept in a week,

but go for it.

If you don't go for it,

you'll regret it and regret you can't live with Words from

someone who's done that.

Thank you,

Marie. And now I want to offer you an opportunity,

Maureen, to dare to dream.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

So accept this gift on of myself and our listeners and

let us know what's inside of you.

Box inside.

My box would be listening our new product that we're about

to launch on Oprah's best list.

Tell us how you're going to get that to happen.

Well, I think I'm going to,

once I launched the product,

I'm going to have to send it to Oprah.

I think so.

And we'll make her try it.

And do you already know which flavor you're sending are All

of them?

Of course.

Oh, a sampling of everything.

That's it.

They're going to try them on.

She's going to pick her favorite.

Love it,

Love it.

All right.

Gift biz listeners.

You know that there's going to be a show notes page

with a big,

bold linked title to her product.

And there's also going to be all of the other information

about her shop.

But if someone is listening right now and cannot wait,

what's the best place for someone to look and see what

you're all about.

Corrine it's moorings sweet shop.com

and there's two S's in the middle and it's PPE on

the end.

The shop.

Thank you so much,

Maureen. It has been so fun to listen to your backstory

because I have no new for awhile,

but we never went into all of this detail and kind

of went down this other side road and so much great

information, especially for someone who's just starting out,

hearing how step by step by step,

you have created this into something that you love.

You no longer work you play.

We all know that you will be on Oprah's list very

soon. Best of luck with that.

We are all rooting for you and may your candle always

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So get this listeners.

You might've heard some pounding near the end of our interview

in my office building right below me.

There's a new spot coming in.

And of course they're doing demolition,

right? When we are recording the broadcast.

In any case,

they held off for a little while,

but they had to start working again.

So I just let that in because I did not want

to miss any of Maureen's super exciting story.

I also want to remind you one more time,

but then if you're not already to give to biz breeze,

Facebook group,

make sure you don't.

It's a great opportunity to get additional exposure for your business

and to pick up some new holiday sales for the season

to make it super easy for you.

Just go to give is breeze.com

and you can join right there.

All right.

That's a wrap for this week and I look forward to