086 – Stirring Up the Toffee Biz with Dr. Ray’s Toffee

Thank you for joining me.

This is gift biz on rapt episode number 86.

People need to taste it and when they taste it,

they buy it.

Hi John Lee,

Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to gift to biz unwrapped,

and now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to gift bears on rapt,

your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop and

grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Monheit.

Hi there.

I'm Sue and welcome to the gift biz unwrapped podcast.

Whether you own a brick and mortar store sell online or

are just getting started,

you'll discover a new insight to gain traction and to grow

your business.

And today I have joining us Dr.

Ray, he's the owner and founder of Dr.

Ray's topic.

He's also the business manager of the main wood Melrose park

Broadview school district number 89 and perform storytelling and stand up

comedy in Chicago and Rio de Janeiro Brazil.

Ray holds three degrees,

a PhD in educational administration,

an MBA and a master's in elementary education.

He's an adjunct professor of educational finance at the university of

Illinois Concordia university and the college of new Jersey's international master's

program in Bangkok,

Thailand. He surrogates around often.

Great. Also has completed six Chicago marathons and is registered for

All my gosh.

Where in the world do you have time to make the

tophi welcome to the show Dr.

Ray? Yeah,

it's sometimes a challenge,

especially around the holidays.

It's finding the time,

but with the little planning,

it all seems to work out.

I'm just curious,

how many frequent flyer miles you have?

Well, not that many.

I used to work for GE and got to travel all

the time,

but I've lost that status.

It certainly sounds like you've seen the world some parts of

it to start off the show.

We'd like to get to know you in a little bit

of a different way.

And that's by having you describe what your ideal motivational candle

would look like.

So if you were to select a color and a quote,

what would your motivational candle be?

Sure the color would be blue and the quote would be

from Senator Ted Kennedy.

I think the first time he spoke,

this was at one of the democratic national conventions.

And his quote is that the work goes on the cause

of doors.

The hope still lives,

and the dream shall never die.

I've worked in usually high poverty schools,

most of my career.

And so I just find that to be a very meaningful

quote for the work that I do.

I am going to jump right away into tophi because you

are such an educated man.

There's so much here in The intro and I am so

curious. How did you get to where you are now with

your toffee company?

Well, it was really a series of fortunate coincidental events.

I was student teaching in Boulder,

Colorado. I was a senior at the university of Colorado and

the supervising teacher that I worked under in his sixth grade

classroom. He's probably 70 years old.

And he told me when I walked in that he was

going to teach me how to teach or how to make

toffee. And he did both.

mostly for family and friends at the holidays.

And then probably six years ago,

seven years ago,

I started doing corporate gifts,

just gift bags of tophi for my brother who gave those

to his landscaping company clients.

And so I would end up with them 101 pound bags,

every Christmas season that I was doing and did that for

a few years,

just kind of low key,

not as a business,

just as a side thing.

And then about three years ago,

I was leaving my last school district and looking for the

next job and thinking,

you know,

besides looking for another job in schools,

which I was doing,

I thought,

well, what can I do?

Because what if I didn't get another job?

So I thought,

well, maybe it's time to start the tophi business and go

into it full full-time if I needed to or as a

side. So I started the business about two and a half

years ago.

Then I did get another job in schools,

my current full-time job.

And I've been doing it as a side business ever since.

And it's been a great way to start a business when

you don't have to rely on that income to pay the

mortgage and then pay the bills and I could grow it

organically and incrementally and not be crazy about anything.

Right. Well,

I have a couple of questions for you.

How did you initially,

what is it that you love about tophi?

Because if you're thinking of possibly doing this more,

as you were,

you know,

when you started into the corporate gifts,

what is it you love about making toffee?

Well, I guess there's a couple of things.

When I go into the kitchen and I rent a shared

use kitchen,

it was just great for people starting up a food business

because, you know,

you've got to have a commercial license kitchen.

And so I go in there after work and where,

so much of my day job involves face-to-face contact with people

and we're solving big problems for education and finance.

And then I go into the kitchen oftentimes by myself and

I'm making the toffee and it's just sort of this quiet

solitary activity.

And I think there's something just calming about that.

The other thing that is gratifying is the response I get

from people,

because I'll tell you after 36 years of baking and tastings

of tophi,

I'm kind of it.

I mean,

I taste the toffee when I'm cooking it,

you know,

for quality,

but it's not something I crave anymore.

So when people taste it for the first time,

then I get a very positive response and they just love

it. And they go on and on.

It's kind of gratifying that the work that I do,

you know,

in the kitchen,

people enjoy it.

People appreciate people like to give that gift to others,

to show their appreciation for something that they've done.

And so it's just gratifying.

Sure. So I wanted to get to this because it seems

so different from what you're normally doing,

but just the idea of it's a place of solace and

kind of inner reflection while you're making the toffee.

I find really interesting.

And then it's also,

as you say,

so satisfying because of the response that you're getting.

Yeah. And honestly,

what mean,

one of the things that really gave me pause going into

this was,

but in public education,

I mean,

literally I had been an 18 year old school board member

in Illinois.

And so I've been doing public education a lot time and

the thought of actually shutting it off and walking away from

it gave me some something to think about.

And did I really want to do that and make that

clear choice and leave it?

So this is a way I'm able to balance still being

in public education and being an entrepreneur,

which I also love so much because it's so different than

public education as an entrepreneur,

you can be so much more creative it's frankly,

just more thought,

There you go.

Well, and you're running the ship too then that's correct.

Yeah, that's correct.

So, Dr.

Ray, we have a lot of people on the show who

are just thinking now of starting a business.

They might be in the sweets industry,

they might be jewelry makers,

or they might be knitters or all different types of people.

And they listen because they're trying to understand what those first

steps are.

They have this idea just like you did,

you know,

well, maybe I'll just go ahead and start doing this.

What are the first steps that you took to actually formalize

and get started in a real business?

So let's make the assumption that you already have figured out

what you're really good at.

It's gotta be something that you're really good at.

So once you've got that figured out,

you just kind of jump in.

I figured out that need to be registered with the state

of Illinois for sales tax purposes.

You have to have your federal employer,

the employer identification number,

and incorporated as I did an LLC and I just use

legal zoom.

So really I did it very low budget,

very low budget.

I needed a website and I went to Squarespace for that.

It's a very user-friendly site that you can build on your

own. I had a friend who's tech savvy helped me,

but it is easily done by an amateur without a tech

background. And so then you've got your website up,

you've got online shopping store set and ready to go.

You're set up as a legal structure.

You file your sales tax reports and you're basically ready to

go and you've got to keep good records.

And I will admit,

I have a box that has all my receipts and expenses

in and at the end of the year,

I camp out for several days and organize it.

So the advice,

you know,

do, as I say,

not as I do stay organized,

and then you can save yourself a lot of time at

the end of the year,

have a good accountant So that you can focus on your

product. That's right.

And figure out your marketing,

get your Facebook page.

I also did Facebook ads that were not successful for me.

I don't think I got any business from Facebook ads,

even having tried it and boosted the ad and all that

stuff. Any kind of Facebook business that comes through it is

a result of Facebook friends and just staying in front of

their eyes.

For me,

those Facebook ads were a waste of money.

Yeah. You know,

a lot of people,

Facebook is a whole other topic,

but I have also heard and just give biz listeners as

you're listening.

And Ray is pretty much underlying here.

Boosting of Facebook ads does not seem to be the way

to go.

If you start targeting specifically.

I know a lot of people who have used Facebook ads

successfully, but doing the boost from what I'm hearing and,

and Ray is saying just isn't the way to go necessarily

if you're looking to get business.

Yeah. I guess it depends on the product service and your

skill and targeting,

but for me it just wasn't worth it.

What you did was boost your Facebook posts.

That's what you did,

right. Created,

well, I did that as well.

That's that's a good point.

I did that as well.

Okay. Okay.

At what point in the business cycle,

did you do that right when you were just getting started

or recently,

or When I first got started and into the first year,

year and a half,

I'd say it would be periodic and I,

I haven't done it in a while.

All right.

I'm going to get back to this in a second,

the whole advertising and getting in business.

But I just want to summarize what you talked about again,

for people who are just getting started.

Dr. Ray's talking about the first thing you should do is

take care of all your legal stuff.

Get registered,

make sure that you structure yourself as a legal business,

be collecting receipts,

et cetera.

And then also put up your website right away.

Because even if you are a local business home-based,

or let's say you start directly into a brick and mortar,

whatever, you still want to have a website associated with your

business. And then also marketing you can't just assume that because

you have a website or,

you know,

you're up for business that people are going to know about

you, you have to bring people and attract people towards you.

And that is by reaching out to them so that they

know you're there.

Yes. Okay.

So people who are in consumables may have some questions for

you also about your commercial space.

How did you go about identifying what was going to work

for you and talk through that a little bit for us?

Well, like I say,

to be legit,

you know,

food service business,

you have to have a commercial licensed kitchen,

but for a beginner,

someone's just starting out.

That's a huge investment to do that.

And there's a whole community of shared use kitchens everywhere because

it's very popular because a lot of people want to start

a business and be entrepreneurs and follow their dreams.

So I started visiting some of the shared use kitchens in

and around Chicago,

but I don't live in the city.

So that wasn't particularly convenient nor economical with some of the

prices. And then I found United kitchen,

which is in the Grange,

which is like eight minutes from my house.

So it was,

yeah, it was could not be more convenient and very economical,

very reasonably priced.

And so I rent the kitchen by the hour.

There's a nice community,

Bridget Conlin.

Who's the relatively new owners she's had this store for over

a year now has done a great job of building this

community among them cooks.

So every now and then we have meetings where we get

to meet each other and really share ideas.

And sometimes they're common topics.

That's the focus of the meeting because otherwise you rarely cross

other vendors unless you're crossing time in the kitchen.

Right. So the shared use kitchen has been the way to

go to get started.

Yeah. So it sounds like not only you're renting.

Yes. But there are other opportunities in terms of business growth

and knowledge that you're getting from that association.

I've learned so much from some of the other vendors,

the other cooks in there who have more experience than I

do in some of the aspects of the food business,

because I don't have the formal training and food science or

culinary school.

I just know one,

one thing.

And that's tophi.

Did you go about the name of your product is your

name, but how did you go about deciding on some of

that in terms of what the product name was going to

be, what your logo was going to look like?

That kind of thing.

I figured if I was going to leave public education,

I could still use my degree.

The name.

Absolutely. It's funny because when I do these markets,

I'm, face-to-face with customers.

They see,

Oh, Dr.

Is tophi and they ask,

what kind of doctor are you?

Or are you a real?

Oh, right.

And so of course they're assuming some kind of like physician

kind of doctor.

So the joke is that it's it's,

I only do it with some people who look like they

want to play because I'll say,

well, if you want to tell me what hurts I'll listen,

if you want to show me something,

I'll look and not judge,

but in the end,

you'll be just fine.

You talk,

You'll be fine to me when I met you.

Yeah. That's funny.

I love that.

So your logo in your name,

you just did.

Did you have,

did you have someone created for you?

Did you like in terms of the artwork and all of

that, or how did you go about getting that taken care

of? Yeah,

that's a good point.

I completely glossed over there.

I missed that part about the getting started because that's an

important point.

And I had a designer that I had worked with in

the past and some other projects.

I came up with the name because we wanted to use

the doctor raised coffee,

but then I worked with a designer,

gave her some concepts,

you know,

the kind of look and feel that I was after that

I liked.

And then she took it from there.

She came back with a variety of ideas.

We went back and forth on some iterations until I really

found the one that I liked.

And I think that's an important one because you really need

to like you,

no, you need to love your logo because once you settle

on it,

you're going to live with it because it becomes your brand.

What, how people identify you and you can find people fairly

reasonably, you can look locally or overseas and you find those

people doing freelance projects.

So getting a professional design,

isn't terribly expensive.

And you also want to do it for publication and also

for internet quality for your website too,

because they're not always the same.

And so you need someone who has some knowledge about it,

Good point.

So you take the same logo and then you get different

versions of it.

So a website logo is a lot lighter of a file

if you will,

because you want that.

So that it loads,

pages really easily.

So really important.

So gift biz listeners,

I want to stress this with the logo.

And I love what Dr.

Ray is saying,

because I cringe when I see people who use stock photography

as their logo,

because you're not separating yourself.

You're not really customizing it to be your business.

Stock photos are so easy to see.

So you're talking about how it can be really easy right

in your neighborhood.

Or you can find somebody online.

It doesn't need to be a major investment,

but you absolutely should make a logo that's yours.

And that resonates with you.

That is colors that you like or colors that are appropriate

to your brand.

You know,

your product,

whatever you're doing,

Dr. Ray's logo is no surprise colors of English,

toppy, but you know,

in terms of even like the font styles,

all of that type of thing,

you really want to customize and make your own.

And also when you get some samples,

when it gets some ideas,

some concepts back show people,

show your family,

show your friends and you don't,

they don't get to vote.

You're the only one who gets to vote,

but it's good to get feedback because they may see something

that you don't see.

They may feel something that you don't feel it's good to

get that,

you know,

little focus group response with my logo.

My designer actually took some of my handwriting where I wrote

out Dr.

Ray's toffee.

Then she combined it and integrated it with some letters.

So that's what I'm looking at your logo right now.

So that's what the tophi is.

Is your own handwriting.

That's correct.

Right. Right.

Very interesting.

Kind of breaks up instead of just having block letters,

it breaks up the logo and I think it makes it

a little more eye catching that way.

It absolutely does.

So. Okay.

So Dr.

Ray, you have been making toffee almost.

Let's just call it forever.

Right? And so you really had the skill down,

Pat. You knew how to make the product,

maybe not in mass like you're doing now,

but it's just been recently that you've turned it into a

business. Is there some struggle or something that you weren't anticipating

that challenged you as you were getting started with the company

that you could share?

This was just taking it from an individual,

doing a five courts pot and going to some kind of

a semi mass production,

because the key with tophi is constant stirring.

You have to stir constantly and just do a,

like a Dutch oven type pot.

It would require about an hour of stirring for every single

batch of toffee.

And that just took forever.

When I was doing my brother's orders at Christmas,

it would be weeks because I can only last so long

during, before my arm gives out and Massage appointments or something

Just insanity,

you know?

And then I considered,

well, what if I hire people just to stand there and

stir? And that wasn't very economical,

especially in the early starting stages.

And then I found this professional tophi making machinery,

and while that's fine,

except it cost $10,000

again, ridiculously out of price.

And then I found automatic stirs from Norway that costs like

$60 shipped.

It's this sort of thing that has a bracket and arm

that sits on top of the pot.

It's adjustable.

I was able to triple the size of my pot,

get a bigger pot because it needed to be deeper.

So my quantity also was tripled instantly.

I found this online,

I didn't know,

coming from Europe,

whether I'd ever actually see it.

So I ordered one and figured if I never see it,

then, you know,

it was a $60 investment that just didn't pan off,

but it arrived promptly and it works great.

I, of course I had to get electrical adapter because it

has one of those outlets for they use in Europe to

recharge the batteries.

So I got that.

And then I immediately turned around in order like six more,

because that is the only way that I'd be able to

create this much volume of tophi in a short period of

time. And now what would take me,

you know,

it would take,

gosh, it might,

might've taken me a week or longer to do a hundred

pounds of toffee.

I can do that at a night.

You discover these techniques,

the strategies that will help you increase and overcome these obstacles

and really increase your output.

And that's the fun thing about being an entrepreneur.

You come across these little challenges and then you're being creative

in terms of how you're going to solve these problems.

That's the thing that I love about being an entrepreneur and

being around other entrepreneurs.

There's just this eternal optimism.

There is no problem that we can't solve.

Don't only see that frankly,

when I'm working in schools.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. That's why It's so refreshing being an entrepreneur.

And that's another thing too,

that I would suggest to people when you're getting started in

a business,

there are all sorts of entrepreneurial groups.

There are meetup groups that are there everywhere,

find them and connect with them because there's a lot of

sharing within this entrepreneurial community.

There's a lot of just good,

positive energy in that community.

I love that you put words to it because as I

was listening to you,

you know,

you used the power of the internet.

I don't know what terms you Googled,

but you found the solution to your problem.

And I often say the most important thing that an entrepreneur

needs is resourcefulness not going and saying,

Oh no,

stopping you in your tracks because this is a problem.

Like what if you got in huge orders and there is

no way you could fulfill everything you anticipated that you found

a solution.

And then you take pride in the fact that look,

I didn't have to buy this $10,000

machine, 60 bucks,

yes. From Europe,

but I've got my solution.

And it's those types of things.

You know,

those challenges when you overcome those,

those are hurdles that where a lot of people fall off,

they get to the point and they say like,

I can't do it.

I can't possibly produce this much.

And then they're done the business closes or they limit themselves.

And your story is a perfect example of how you can

be successful because you overcome these challenges,

figure it out,

you figure it out.

Okay. We were talking about Facebook and that it was less

than what you had anticipated.

Let's put it that way.

What are you doing now that is helping you bring in

business? Two things,

two strategies that have worked well,

I do a number of events where I give the toffee

away. And I did that,

especially at the beginning stages.

So donating to charitable organizations when they're having raffles and things

like that,

stopping by businesses and dropping off samples,

I gave away a ton of samples,

but really the thing.

So the thing with,

with tophi,

and maybe it's true with just any kind of food item

is people need to taste it.

And when they taste it,

they buy it.

So that's maybe why the Facebook advertising wasn't really working out

too well because I do so well at face-to-face events.

So I do a lot of markets.

One of the most successful that's got me going and really

launched me forward quickly was doing the Williams-Sonoma artists and markets

in Oak Brook,

Illinois. I heard about it.

I was invited to participate there and it's been probably a

good 18 months that I've been coming every month.

Now they invite local vendors in,

and a lot of the Williams Sonoma's do that.

They invite local vendors to come in and do a sampling,

sell their product there.

And so is that right in their store?

Yup. Right in their story.

And it's something that many of the Williams Sonoma's do.

I mean,

you just have to go in and talk to the manager

and see if they're doing it and how you can get

involved in that.

And it's a great way because it creates sort of a

buzz for them in the store,

keeps people in the store.

And it's a great opportunity for us as a local vendor.

And then when I'm there every single month,

people come back looking for it,

looking for me,

looking for it.

Sure. So I saw you,

like I had said earlier at the America's bacon and sweet

show and people were buying the toffee.

No question about it.

So I know that it was happening there.

I got to add one thing because before we get off

that topic,

because that also is another key learning for me is that

you may be at certain events that,

you know,

regardless of whatever the event is,

you never know where it's going to lead to because it

only takes one person with the right connection to open up

other doors.

And so,

yeah, you know,

we, we go to these markets and we sell the tophi,

but get one person who walks up to you and says,

Hmm, this is good.

I'm a buyer for X,

Y, Z store.

And that leads now is,

is leading to very likely being in hurt chain of 10

stores in Chicago,

that I didn't even know that she had 10.

I thought she had one,

you know,

just one thing leads to another.

And that's just the thing you never know.

Who's gonna walk into your business,

who's going to walk into your life like that.

And it could really change things.

That's awesome.

I love that.

You talk about that with the shows.

It also shows how you want to make sure that you're

talking and treating every single person.

If you're at a show,

as you would want to be treated,

you know,

don't ever discount anybody.

I've heard stories before of someone who will come to me

later and talk about,

Oh yeah,

I went up to that booth and you know,

they didn't have the time of day for me,

something like that.

And they could have missed a great opportunity such as the

one that you clearly have encountered.

That's right.

The poor people who are in the booths next to me,

like I do Randolph street market every month in Chicago.

They've heard my pitch thousands of times.

And each time you got to try to make it fresh

and unique for the person standing in front of you.

So it's not that you're,

you're not on a loop where you just keep repeating,

repeating, repeating,

but trying to treat that customer as this is the first

time you're ever telling this story,

The, your excitement will equate and transfer over to them.

Being excited Earlier about what do people need to do to

get started in the business.

I keep thinking of these other ideas.

And the other thing that's really important is understand your story,

have your story,

to tell people,

you know,

in talking about an elevator pitches and all that.

And that's true,

but I understand why you're doing it and what it's all

about. Because when I tell the story about the tophi,

it's not just,

here's some coffee,

eat it.

Do you like it?

Buy it.

And sometimes they specifically come up and say,

so what's your story.

So why is this better?

Why is it different?

That's all part of your story.

It's your brand.

And you just need to be prepared to answer that question.

And so how do you answer that question?

I Tell them that I've been making this toffee for 36

years tends to be thinner and softer than a lot of

the others.

And so people who like their teeth as well as their

tophi like this,

and that's of course that cuts across every demographic because it's

not just the seniors,

it's everyone kind of cause they lost a lot of times,

people walk up and they see tophi and they're afraid of

it because it has a reputation of being rock hard.

And the other reason too,

that I say that is because the big name and toffee

in Chicago,

the competition,

the one who owns the toffee market in Chicago,

he has like 30 different varieties.

And it's very thick,

typically hard like that.

And so I'm pointing out the distinction of how mine is

different. And I also say,

I only do one flavor of the traditional almonds.

This is really important too,

because you are niche down.

Your product is it's still taught you.

So it's in the same category,

but you are different.

And there are going to be loyalists to you just because

of what you do.

And I point this out that more,

isn't always better,

you know,

more choices to people isn't always better.

People sometimes really struggled making choices.

So in that way,

that could lead really well to your advantage.

And the other thing that stands out that makes people,

some people make the decision to buy is that they like

seeing the face of the business.

And so I said,

I've been making this toffee for 36 years and they say,

Oh, you've you make the toffee?

And I say,

yes, I do all the cooking.

I've got some help with the packaging.

I've gotten away from some of that part.

I'm the only one that does the cooking and people like

that interaction with a person behind the brand.

Okay. This brings up two questions that I have to ask

you first off,

just more from a business standpoint,

again, you're talking about the fact that you've given samples away.

Not only it shows,

but it would walk into some businesses and give samples.

Did you see that that did transition into sales for you?

Yeah. It's not an overnight process by any means,

but it is a slow and gradual process as part of

the process of just getting out there.

So you'll see your business grow exponentially.

Once you start getting out there.

I mean my biggest customer now,

my biggest Christmas order of 120 pounds of toffee came from

the recipient of one of my brothers client gifts.

So my brother gave this client of his toffee and he

liked it so much that client now turns around and gives

it to his clients and is like I say,

it's an even bigger order than,

than my brother's original order.

So it just tends to grow exponentially.

Exactly. Exactly.

Okay. And so since you are the single manufacturer of your

tophi, what's the growth plan?

Well, that's an interesting question because there's two other aspects of

growing the business that I've kind of been dragging my feet

on. Moving ahead.

Now slowly you need your UPC codes,

the bar codes,

if you're going to be in any kind of a large

store and you also need the nutritional analysis for a food

product, which I have those,

but most of my stores I'm in about a dozen stores

are relatively small neighborhood specialty stores.

So they haven't required.

They don't have their,

they're not so large that they need the UPC codes and

all that.

But now the example that I gave you of the individual

who has really 10 stores that may very well be carrying

the talkie next needs the nutritional analysis and the UPC codes.

And so I'm in the process now of taking that next

step. And actually when I do that,

then I will be able to make my pitch to a

Mariano's or to a Juul or to any other larger store

that requires that if I get to that point,

that means I'm going to have to spend some more time

doing the cooking or cooking a whole lot more.

And that's when I'll have to make the decision of,

do I make that jump on my able to make a

jump and do full-time at some point in the near future?

Or do I bring in people and train people to do

the cooking,

frankly, that's one of the things that I'm not comfortable with.

I mean,

I have wonderful people,

but the whole issue of trade secrets and how I make

that toffee is all I've got.

And so if someone's able to replicate it and do it

all other than theirs,

you know,

what's the difference.

Then you get into confidentiality agreements and they all,

I mean,

you'd have to,

that's a whole thing,

but you know,

and nothing says that so many people think success is you

just get bigger and you get bigger and you get bigger.

That doesn't need to be the sign of success either.

Maybe you decide,

you know,

this is what I want.

I'm going to stay smaller.

You know,

I'm not going to go through those chains.

And nothing says that you're not as successful a business.

If you decide that that's not what you want.

Yes. With growth comes new challenges.

I mean,

a great example of that is when I was having one

of those flights of fantasy and calling Costco,

cause everyone wants,

you know,

everyone wants to be in Pasco,

probably TRIBE.

Right? Well,

this is how I was thinking.

And I was talking to the buyer for candies and she

listed some of the requirements that they have,

which are just enormous requirements.

And she said,

besides that you don't want to be at Costco.

She said,

we at the stage that I'm at,

she said we would bankrupt you just because of all the

requirements that,

that they place,

you really have to be bigger.

So you're right.

Going big.

Isn't always the panacea.

That's the dream.

Yeah. I mean,

it sounds good.

And it's nice to say,

but then the reality of having to actually do it,

it's a whole different ball game in terms of how you're

conducting your business,

your ability to be part of the business.

And if you were really enjoying what we talked about in

the very beginning,

being able to produce the tophi in a quiet environment,

it's peaceful.

It's probably a little meditational.

If you will,

you know,

you would lose touch with that.

Right. Right.

And so many people say,

Oh, are you ready to go on shark tank and get

all that publicity?

And I say,

no, no.

That would be the last thing I'd want.

I do like watching that show.

That's actually,

there's another piece of advice to people.

Watch the show because if you listen to the questions,

those are important questions that every entrepreneur should be able to

answer for themselves.

The numbers,

the accounting,

the business,

all that.

But a,

I wouldn't want somebody else because if you want to shark

tank, they take a piece of the action.

Right. They buy into it,

but they take a piece of the action.

It's my action.

I don't want to share my action just yet or at

all. And to be taking orders from someone else.

That's why I'm being an entrepreneur.

Absolutely agree.

All right,

Dr. Ray,

we're going to move now into the reflection section.

And these are just some short answers from you as to

other things about you that have helped you to be successful.

Okay. Is there a natural trait that you call upon regularly?

That's helped you to succeed?

I think as an entrepreneur,

it's actually a lesson that I learned as a first year

teacher when I was teaching in Kingsville school district in Illinois,

in Roselle,

Maxine, G Martin was my reading specialist,

the reading director and come to her and say,

well, there's this,

kid's not reading.

And she'd say,

well, what have you tried?

And what have you tried next?

Plenty. Have you tried after that?

And so the point was,

you just never give up ever.

You just keep,

if you've got,

when you've got a challenge or problem,

you figure out a solution.

And if it takes a hundred efforts and those hundred aren't

successful, you just keep at it,

that's it.

And so just learning,

never give up just Like with your mixer,

right? You figure it out,

figure it out,

you figure it out.

What tool do you use regularly to help you keep productive?

I would recommend to their sister publications,

fast company magazine,

which is an amazing magazine for entrepreneurs,

kind of gives a,

you know,

the social entrepreneurship,

the visionary aspects of entrepreneurship.

I find it very inspirational.

And it's sister publication,

Inc magazine,

Inc, which is more the nuts and bolts of running a

business, the accounting,

the marketing,

very hands-on kinds of things.

So those two publications,

I think,

are some of the best tools that I've got.

Perfect and continuing on with education and keeping us informed.

Have you read a book lately that you think our listeners

could find value in The book that I always recommend?

I've given this book away to friends.

It's never eat alone.

That's by Keith Ferazi and it's basically a book about networking

and getting out there Beautiful and give his listeners.

Since you're listening to this podcast today,

you can also listen to audio books with ease,

and I know that never eat alone has been out for

awhile. So it's possible that it is an audio book already,

but I've teamed up with audible.

And if you haven't already taken me up on this offer,

you can get a free audible book on me.

All you need to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection.

Okay. Dr.

Ray, I want to invite you now to my favorite part

of the podcast,

and that is for you 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.

This is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable Heights

that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

Okay. The dream that I've had is that I want to

get to the point where I can retire from public education,

which is between now and three years probably,

but have a thriving toffee business and a thriving speaking business

as well.

Because I also do speaking on the side on entrepreneurship and

educational topics too,

and live in Chicago because Chicago is one of the most

beautiful cities in the world.

Live in Chicago from roughly May 1st through Christmas because it's,

I knew the snow.

I knew it.

I knew this was coming December 26th.

I fly to Rio de Janeiro and spend that time from,

from December 26th through April in Rio,

because I'm a permanent resident of Brazil.

So I do go back frequently,

but I would love to spend my time split my time,

that way and come back forth to do speeches because I

just love doing that part too.

And then of course I will have trained someone to make

the toffee.

Obviously I was just going to do that,

figured that out.

I love your answer because it's so detailed and you know,

so often we'll go and just carry on and live our

day and live our day and not really think about and

define what the future is.

And you've got a plan.

So I think this is easily going to be achieved for

you in a few years.

Not right away,

Right. There are a few things that have to fall into

place, but we'll,

we'll figure it out Right.

There you go.

All right.

If our listeners are out and about right now and not

near a computer,

because everyone,

you all know,

there's a show notes page where you'll be able to see

all of Dr.

Ray's information websites,

social media sites,

all of that.

But if someone's out and about just listening to this,

is there a single place you would direct them to to

get more information about you and your product?

Sure. Thank you.

Go to the website,

which is Dr.

Ray's tophi.com.

Thank you so much,

Dr. Ray.

I really appreciate all the information that you've given us.

I love the structure,

no surprise with all your degrees,

that you're very structured and organized,

but in terms of all the information of how to start

a business,

really great information on ways you're able to capture customers and

bring them in your plan for growth.

All of that has been so informative.

I so appreciate your spending the time in sharing all that

you have and may your candles,

Where are you in your business building journey,

whether you're just starting out or already running a business,

and you want to know your setup for success.

Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,

access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y

slash a gift biz quiz or from your phone like texting

gift biz quiz to four four,

two, two,

two. Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for

the next episode.

Today's show is sponsored by the ribbon print company,

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