309 – How to Have a Successful Handmade Business with Cassie Menchhofer of Cassie’s Country Cupboard

Gift biz unwrapped episode 309,

any sort of Convenience foods that I maybe would Have had

in the pantry that I ran out of.

I'm like,

well, maybe I can just make it myself Attention.

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Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.

Hi there.

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Cassie, our guest today exhibited at the show last December.

You'll hear her experience with the show,

but we're going to start way back before that.

Cassie's going to share with you the development of her business

from the very beginning,

you'll hear a perfect example of taking the right steps in

the right order to start and grow a business and dramatic

pause all this while working a full-time job outside the home

and raising two children,

it is inspiring and it is motivating.

Let's do this Today.

I am so excited to introduce you to Cassie mento over

Cassie is the owner of Cassie's country cupboard,

a small food manufacturing company based in rural West central Ohio.

Cassie has loved hooking from young age and has held a

variety of positions in the food world,

including short order cook quality assurance inspector at a rice cake

factory. And as a summer camp cook assistant Cassie's country cupboard

has grown into a commercial business serving customers nationwide with the

help of Kasey's husband,

Kurt and her two sons aged nine and 12,

along with creating pantry items,

such as soup starters,

baking mixes and spice blends.

Cassie also offers co-packing services to small companies who want to

expand without investing in huge amounts of product.

And I am going to attest that her mixes spice blends

and everything that she makes is absolutely fabulously,

super yummy Cassie,

welcome to the gift biz on wrapped podcast.

Thanks for having me Sue.

I'm so excited.

You're here.

And I was telling you already in the pre chat that

when I told my husband that we were going to be

talking this morning,

he's like,

Oh, the garlic beer bread.

And I have to order that in multiples these days,

as you know,

yes, it sounds like I'm going to have to keep our

pantry always stocked with that.

Yeah. And I'm just glad that I can finally find flower

it was a little difficult there for a little bit.

Oh my gosh.

I bet.

I bet.

That's true.

Well, let me start off as we always do,

which is by having you describe yourself in a creative,

traditional way that has come with a show and that is

through a motivational candle.

So if you were to share with us a little bit

more about you by making your own motivational candle,

what would it look like by color and quote?

Well, I actually have the candle that I'm going to describe

on my bathroom counter right now.

And it's white with shells in the wax.

So you can see the shells all the time.

And the white is because I love white Sandy beaches far

more than I love the white snowy background that I have

right now.

But white is pretty even when it's snow,

but white Sandy beaches is where my heart goes whenever I

want to think about relaxing.

And so for the quote on the candle,

I am a frugal person,

both in words and in money and just my life in

general. So I have two very short quotes that I would

put on there,

do no harm and love thy neighbor.

And that comes into my life and on a personal level,

because going back to that beach,

if I take my family to the beach,

I don't want our footprint to last.

So if we bring stuff there and needs to be taken

back with us and I try and teach our children,

that when we leave,

we also need to pick up anything that we see someone

may have left behind as well.

So that's how we're loving our neighbor is by making our

time there at the beach.

So that even people that come after us don't have to

see what was left behind.

And then as far as with the business.

So I have no harmful ingredients,

so that's my do no harm.

And then I love my neighbor by sharing gift baskets for

raffles. And I'm always available for recipe help and inspiration of

somebody. Who's like,

I don't know what to do.

Even if it's not one of my products,

I love to help people come up with recipes that fit

their life.

These are beautiful statements and messages.

And it sounds to me that they're clearly a core values

that you take into your business.

Yes. So I love it.

Well, talk to me about how Cassie's country cupboard got started.

What was the pre-story right before that?

And how did you decide you were going to get into

this? Right.

So we live out in the sticks in Ohio,

that's at least a 20 minute drive to a grocery store.

And I was pregnant with my second child at the time.

And with one kid,

it's one thing.

But when you start throwing another kid into the mix,

going to the grocery store is not something that you're going

to do if you don't have to.

And any sort of convenience foods that I maybe would have

had in the pantry that I ran out of,

I'm like,

well, maybe I can just make it myself.

So think about your hamburger helpers and your Betty Crocker,

different types of mixes like those.

And I thought,

well, the internet,

I can find recipes for all of those.

And as I developed these recipes for these convenience foods,

I thought,

well, I don't have to use a lot of the ingredients

that I'm finding on the ingredient labels from the store shelves.

I thought,

well, maybe there's other people that would like that same product

as well,

very simple convenience items that don't have the ingredients that nobody

wants to see in their pantry.

So from there I thought,

well, I'll try it out at a farmer's market.

since. Wow.

So you were making them for yourself.

And so were you having to test and tweak and adjust

like every night,

would you try a different little twist to it until you

got things just right?

Yeah. I mean,

a lot of things were very simple.

It was just flour,

sugar, baking powder and a few other ingredients.

And it was very simple.

I'm like,

well, why do we have to add all of the other

preservatives and artificial flavors and artificial colors that tastes the same

or better without those added ingredients?

So what is shelf life on most of your products?

You give them a nine to 12 month shelf life.

Most of them would be fine for two years or more

if you store it correctly.

But I am always assuming that the consumer isn't going to

store it as I would recommend in a dark cool place.

So that's why I go for the nine months typically just

to prevent something from happening because of how a consumer would

use my product.

Well, I can attest that if anyone tries your product,

it is not going to be sitting on the shelf for

that long.

For sure.

Thank you.

So give his listeners,

can you tell him a huge fan?

It's still there's enough of a shelf life and you're right

there. Isn't the reason then to put in those additives at

all. Right.

So that goes back to your,

do no harm and love your neighbor,

which is really love your customers by giving them something that's

healthy. I'm thinking about the mixes that I have from you.

It's so nice.

Do you know the company HelloFresh?

Yes. So we use hello fresh in our house for dinner,

which we just started really during COVID.

Cause that didn't require us then to go to the grocery

store. But what I've loved so much about that is I

don't need to have a whole cup of sour cream,

for example,

when I'm only gonna use one teaspoon in the whole month

or something like that.

Right, right.

Yeah. And that everything is measured out.

Like it's giving me exactly the right ingredients that I need

all of that.

Well, I'm going to say you were hello fresh before.

Hello, Fresh.

That's interesting.

But yeah,

In the mixes and all of that,

because it's so much easier not to have to measure for

someone like me.

I love being in the kitchen,

but I don't have a lot of time to be in

the kitchen.

It allows me to do something that's much more home cooked

than I would do,

because I'm not going to take the time to measure all

that stuff out or buy it,

probably because so much of it's going to go away.

Right. I've heard that a lot from a lot of people

that they don't want to have the different spices on hand

because they'll never use it again.

So by having it already in the mixes,

then they can just make that and come back again when

they want more.

Yeah. And they were assured that it's fresh and all of

that. Fabulous.

Okay. So talk to us a little bit about that first

show. So did you start a formal Business already or did

you go to the farmer's market just to see what would

happen? I'm can't remember for sure.

If I had my LLC already developed,

but I had a name and I had a Facebook page,

but it wasn't intense.

I didn't have a bank account and I didn't have an

accounting software or anything like that.

It was just,

yeah, let's see what happens.

And I was surprised at the outcome of that first farmer's

market, how interested everybody was in my products.

Were you seeing that certain products sold more than others?

Or like what were some of your other takeaways besides the

people were so interested?

Right. The spice blends were probably the easiest for people to

buy because it's the least scary,

I guess,

from a new producer,

I was new to the farmer's market.

They'd never met me before.

And spice blends are something that's simple for them to purchase.

They know that they're going to use them.

And they trusted me just by what I said there at

the farmer's market,

things that were a little bit harder sells were the baking

mixes, I guess,

because they were more expensive than what you would get on

the grocery store shelf.

But once they came and tried them,

then they did come back for more.

Got It.

And were there any surprises at that first Show that people

stopped to talk to me that was the biggest surprise positive

surprises, right.

Would it be Here?

It does say that you went in without expectations.

You were just going in and saying,

Hey, I made these mixes.

Let's just see what happens.

And either way it goes,

it'll be interesting.

But then you were obviously very pleasantly surprised.

Yeah. I didn't go in with the expectation of selling out

of anything.

And I did sell out of a few things.

I went into it with this type of business,

cause I thought about baking and I love to bake,

but if you don't sell it,

then you can't sell it the next week.

But these shelf stable products,

I knew if I didn't sell it that first week,

I bring it back the next and the next.

And that really helped me be secure in my belief that

the business could happen.

Okay. So when you signed up for that first farmer's market,

were you signing up really for the whole season or just

the one child?

I think I did the whole season.

That was a long time ago.

Yeah. I know.

I'm stretching your memory here a little bit,

but Hey,

now Cassie seriously?

That was 10 years.

Yes, that's right.

But a lot's happened for you in 10 years too,

without remembering whether you were already established or not yet in

terms of having your LLC,

what were your next steps?

Like once you saw affirmation that yeah,

people are interested and they're buying and they're coming back the

next week and probably buying too.

So you started building up your customer base.

What were the steps that you took to put more structure

to the business?

I guess I'd say.

And I'm asking that for people who are listening right now,

who are at that point where they're kind of thinking about

starting, I would say packaging would be where I focused.

A lot of my time in the years to come was

I just had an Avery labels slapped on there with the

words I had no logo,

anything like that.

So the logo work,

the packaging,

making sure that it was going to keep everything fresh.

Like it needed to those types of things is where I

went towards the,

I knew the product was good,

but it needed to be kept safe and it needed to

look good too,

because we all know that we eat with our eyes before

our tongues first.

Right. Well,

we make a first impression about the business overall with the

packaging, for sure.

Okay. So you went from an Avery label and what was

your container then at the time?

The very first shows I'm talking about in the very beginning

was even just as a black bag.

Really? It was ultimately,

it was a Ziploc bag.

It just wasn't the Ziploc brand.

And I also had the craft paper,

coffee bags,

like the tin tie that you fold down.

That was some of it too,

but they didn't keep things fresh because it wasn't sealed really

tightly when they were in those craft bags.

So I did move up to more plastic,

which we can talk about that later too,

by change from some of the plastics too,

And trying to make the point here for people who think

they have to have everything in place perfectly before they start.

And then they never do,

Oh yeah,

I have moved.

You are a good example.

Like you'll start see that there's a market and see that

people will buy.

And then of course you're making some money now too.

So you can invest that into upgrading your imagery,

your labels,

your packaging,

all of that.

So it's an evolution.

And I just want everyone to really understand that.

And you are talking about it's perfect.

I didn't know we were going to get into this,

but that's perfect.

Yeah. All right.

So I'm guessing you were making it all from your kitchen

at that point?

Yes. Because the Ohio cottage food laws allowed different dried baking

mixes to be sold under that law.

Okay. And how did this fit into your life at that

time? Were you mom with two kids?

One of them,

a baby,

of course.

Did you have another job?

Like how did this fit your overall?

I like to tell people when they're like,

how do you have time?

And I said,

well, something has to give.

And honestly,

housekeeping except for the kitchen was what had to give and

sleep. So you had an excuse.

That's good.

I like that.

Exactly. Yeah,

because working full time,

I had an hour and a half commute,

total, a day,

dropping kids off at daycare.

The kids got involved too.

They would help stir the bowls of different products and they

would help package as they got older.

My husband was a great help.

And when I was at the farmer's market,

the kids cleaned the house.

So it all worked together to make it happen.

Oh, that's beautiful.

And are you still working today?

The great,

The thing is that I have switched jobs to an eight

minute commute one way.

So that has changed things a lot for me.

And I can come home at lunch because I'm so close

to home.

And even my current employer is a great supporter.

They love to share my products with their other friends and

family as well.

Are they your testers?

Sometimes, sometimes they always complain when they see a recipe that

I haven't brought in to work Added perks for them.

Yeah. Oh gosh.

And what do you do?

What's your other job?

I work for,

For an agricultural sales and service company.

And I do a lot of the purchasing and I do

payroll it's since we're a small family owned business,

I do a lot of everything.

So those skills have also probably helped you with Cassie's country

cupboard. Oh,

absolutely. I never even touched QuickBooks before I went to that

business. And now QuickBooks is what I spend a lot of

my time in.

So I've decided to do QuickBooks for my business as well,

because I've learned it so well at my nine to five.

Yeah. Why would you not of course,

right. Yeah.

I find so often that when people start a business on

the side or decide they're going to merge into their own

business or because of different situations,

they find themselves out of a job.

So many of the skills that they have had before can

help them in some way and strengthen them within a current

business that they're trying to start.

So your model of that as well,

Cassie is great.

And I love that you're able to balance it.

Can you talk a little bit more about how that works

for you?

Are you working your nine to five,

five days a week?

Yes, I work Monday through Friday.

That's why I'm so sad that I miss out a lot

of your lunchtime,

Q and A's because the time difference doesn't match with my

lunchtimes. Right.

I hear a lot of people talk about balanced is really

a lie.

You just have to decide at any given time what it

is you need to focus on.

Sometimes it's family,

sometimes it's the business.

Sometimes it's relaxing.

You just have to make the choice of what is important

at that given moment.

Right. And I kind of feel like,

because I've done the same thing.

I have two businesses right now and I have to be

sometimes in one business or sometimes in another business.

And then even when my children were younger,

same thing,

what I always tried to do is just say,

this is my block of time.

And I'm single on that versus wishing I was everywhere else.

You know what I mean?

Just staying focused and being efficient probably too helps.

Yes. Share a little bit more about how the business evolves.

So take us back where at that first summer,

then you started adjusting your packaging as you've talked about,

how have things progressed since that?

A lot of my business really stemmed from the farmer's market

that may through September timeframe.

That was my busy time.

And when I was out of that season,

I really didn't have much business because I wasn't front-facing with

any customers.

I couldn't ship outside of the state lines.

I could ship within Ohio,

but nobody knew about me.

If they didn't know me from the farmer's market,

I spent a lot of time on Facebook sharing recipes,

which is what has helped me grow a lot is when

I share recipes,

people share that then because recipes are something that people love

to share.

It's not something that feels salesy is that those recipes,

the recipe development is something that I both love to do.

And it has really helped me as well.

And as I became more popular at the farmer's market,

I would eventually reach people who had other businesses,

where they wanted to bring my products.

In some people I had to turn down because of the

Ohio cottage food laws.

But then if they were restaurants or grocery stores in Ohio,

you can sell as a cottage food business.

So I started to making my way into different stores that

were able to sell,

and that just helps spread the word more,

get more customers.

And eventually my husband was like,

you need to stop complaining about where you can't go and

we need to get this building built for you because you

can't go any further than where you are now until we

can ship nationwide.

And so it was my husband that really pushed and said

any further without making this jump.

Okay. So I'm smiling because this is about the time that

our paths crossed.

And I got to know you because now you're mentioning the

building. So a lot of people here don't know what you're

talking about.

Share with us the details of the building.

Sure. In Ohio,

like I said,

with the cottage food laws,

you cannot ship out of state.

And that really is true for nearly every state.

It becomes an FDA concern when you want to ship out

of state and that requires moving away from your home kitchen.

There's really no way around that.

And since we're in a rural community,

that means there's a septic and there's also a well for

your water,

which is not all connected to the city.

And you have to do a lot of work to make

everything happy for the inspectors that are going to be part

of this process.

So it was a labor of love and tears,

for sure.

And in March,

2020, I did become certified with the FDA in the Ohio

department of ed.

And so you built a production facility?

Yeah. As a food manufacturing facility,

it is a step above a commercial kitchen.

Okay. And where is it?

It's on our property.

I love that To the variety of places that we could

have purchased and revamped,

but the ability to step outside my door and walk into

another building is so much better.

Again, it's 20 minutes to get anywhere from our home.

And then you're looking at basically an hour of travel time

when all I want to do is just go grab something

from the building to ship out the next day.

Well, yeah.

I mean,

efficiency-wise like your day,

you're not losing any time in commute.

Right. So that's perfect.

And I really love the idea that as you were getting

bigger, like this whole thing would have taken over your house,

forget the fact that you couldn't do it legally.

Right. But now there's like a mental switch to probably when

you go into the manufacturing building versus your home.

Yes. For sure.

It was taking over even just under the cottage food laws,

the amount of inventory that I had,

we were building shelves and where I have,

I call it our music room because I have a piano

in there.

So there were shelves of product in the music room,

let alone in the kitchen.

It was crazy.

Yeah. I mean that can work out for a short time,

but not long that's for sure.

Definitely. So are you able to call the boys and sometimes

and say,

Hey, come and just help me for half an hour?

Yep. They'll do some mopping.

They will unload product that comes.

Amazon likes to visit our house on the daily.

They'll bring in packages,

they'll unbox things.

There are a big help.

And when I need them to be That's wonderful.

And I just think on the financial end too,

it's gotta be so great for you because you're not leasing

from anybody.

I mean,

there's costs to maintaining the building and of course constructing it

and to start with,

right. But after that,

you're not leasing.

So in terms of overhead versus renting out someone else's facility,

you're in a much better position there as well.

And as with many businesses,

I have low months and I have high months,

you can't base that on cashflow.

When you're leasing,

it's just,

you're going to lease whether it's a high month or a

low month.

And I can absorb that this way,

Everything is working out pretty well.

Cassie, pretty perfect.

I remember the photo it's in my mind's eye right now

of the day that you announced it on social media,

you were standing right in front of the buildings and like

it's a professional building until I found out that it was

on your property.

I didn't know that.

Yeah. Yeah.

I was standing at my home just outside that building.

Like you moved into that facility,

I'm sure you had plans that were way different than what

ended up happening.

Definitely. I had so many shows that canceled,

which didn't affect my new opportunities with being able to ship,

but it really did affect it,

I guess,

because people would come to those shows and say,

Hey, can I ship it to my niece in Nebraska?

Well, I didn't have those shows to talk to those people.

So that did affect things.

Thankfully, our farmer's market went so strong.

We were delayed a week,

but man,

our public came and they supported us this past summer.

Like I've never seen before.

So that was an incredible opportunity.

Again, I'm still in the farmer's market,

which I could have done just staying in my kitchen,

but the opportunities that came from the farmer's market,

then I was able to keep going with the business shipping

people decided to purchase things online.

Even if they were going to pick up at the farmer's

market to allow for less contact,

they didn't have to pay me cash.

They didn't have to handle credit cards.

They already had it paid off.

And I just had a bag that I handed to them.

So it all worked out except for those extra shows,

especially in the busy holiday season,

they got kid That's old.

Yeah. So probably,

I mean your business isn't growing as fast as it would

but you were still moving forward.

Yes. Where does the farmer's market sit in terms of your

plan for this year?

I am so excited for may to come and we get

that back up and running because I miss my customers that

I met there and it's going to be a huge part

of my business yet this year as well.

And what about the face-to-face shows So far?

Nobody's really even talking about them.

I have applied for one in person show that is supposed

to happen in November.

but at a very reduced number of people coming in to

the show.

So I'm hoping that these different shows that got canceled will

come back,

but I'm not holding my breath.

And what types of shows are they Just different local craft

shows for the most part.

So there's still direct to consumer shows.

Yes. Got it.

Well, I could see them coming back.

I mean,

now I usually for my other business,

the ribbon print company,

we go to the bigger trade shows and the Philly candy

show is up and running for September already.

Good. They usually do two shows.

They usually do a February show,

but this one will bump in that's up and I've heard

of other people,

even now Midland,

I had a big show.

So I'm optimistic that you'll see some of those shows popping

up. Good.

I just hope to see that the customers come back as

well, just because the show is there doesn't mean the customers

will be there.

So that's my concern.

Yeah, It's true.

You know,

what we found last summer was,

and this was more fine art shows and obviously it was

outside that even though there were fewer customers,

the customers who were coming were just passing through for a

Saturday afternoon activity,

they were intentionally coming to buy.

Yes. I have seen that too.

Yes. So it'll be interesting to see,

but you already have a plan in case none of that

happens. So that's good.

I think this would be an interesting conversation for people who

are listening.

Can you describe to us a little bit,

your show set up?

So if people come to the farmer's market or the other

show, I'm thinking that your set up might be similar.

What is your table or your booth look like?

I just have the simple white folding tables that I've covered

with tablecloth in the farmer's market.

It's just a tan,

more homelike tablecloth.

And then for the shows,

I typically have the floor to table black fitted tablecloths for

those. And I've got some different racking that I use to

bring some height to the tables,

with the different products showing on those different racks.

And I just definitely try to have different levels,

but still I have level I've noticed when I have it

just on the table.

People then have to bend over and it's just so much

better to have it at eye level as possible.

What about signage stating pricing or what the products are?

I have all of my prices directly on the package because

if they have to ask what the price is,

they might not ask and they might just walk away because

they're afraid of what the price is.

Even if the price is higher than what they want to

pay, they at least know what it is.

And they can think about it without having to ask what

the price is.

I have a large banner behind me with my logo,

and then I also have a little bit of signage throughout

my booth explaining that I don't have any artificial colors,

artificial flavors,

or preservatives or MSG,

that type of information in case I'm with another customer.

Then they can see that without having to talk to me

about it.

Do you do any special,

smaller sized packaging for shows?

Like if someone just wanted to grab one as a sampler,

I didn't do any samples this year because of trying to

keep hands off of my products that weren't going to be

purchasing something.

And then if you have a communal sample type thing where

people would grab it from then you're risking issues with that.

Yeah, no,

I was assuming that you wouldn't have given samples for people

to taste like,

would you normally do that pre COVID?

Yes I would have.

And that would have helped sales as well at the couple

of shows that I did or at the farmer's market,

if I would have been able to sample,

I think that that helps sales with food tremendously.

Yeah. That's a good practice for sure.

But what about a smaller package of what you already create

that someone could pick up for $2 or something like just,

just old,

single serving little something.

Do you have anything like that?

I have a range of product pricing,

anything from $3 up to about 10 or $12.

So if people wanted to try just my brand,

there are options that are in the three to $4 range.

If they wanted to try it that way,

most of my products require a certain amount.

Like they need an entire egg.

So for me to drop the amount of product in the

package to tell them to use half of an egg would

probably be difficult for most people.

That makes sense.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

I was asking because I've talked with people before and I've

seen this at shows too,

where people make,

let's eat these big size cookies and they'll give away those

huge cookies when really your intent is they only need a

sample because then you want them to buy once they've had

a big cookie,

they don't need it anymore.

Okay. I would love to talk a little bit about another

thing you integrated into your sales strategy this past year,

you were one of our,

I'm going to call you a founding member of the ad

home craft and gift show.

This was the first time last that I partnered with Robert

and Holly.

And we did this show for the holiday season.

And I was so excited Cassie,

when you decided to come in and do the show,

because I just knew your product would be so perfect.

I'm so glad that you made that opportunity available to us.

I was nervous.

I really was.

And we had that discussion that I just wasn't sure that

it was really how I wanted to spend my dollars,

but I'm so glad that I took the leap,

especially after you gave me more information,

the fact that it was going all the way through December,

rather than just those couple of days that we were going

to be online.

That was a huge push that if someone couldn't make it

to the show on those days that we were live,

at least they could shop later in the month as well.

Well, not only that,

but if they were there when you were live and then

they got your product and then saw how great it was,

they could still buy for gifts for the holidays.

Yes. And I did have a customer that came back for

more after having purchased the first one.

I am not surprised at all the other thing,

I don't know if we had this conversation or not Cassie,

but for you too,

in this situation where most of your audience has always been

local, you had a whole national audience at your disposal.

Yes. The East coast was my friend for this show,

for sure.

I never talked to anyone from New Jersey.

I don't think in my life.

And on that day that we had the show,

I was talking to people from New York and New Jersey

the entire day,

The show is coming up again.

We're doing one in April and one in December.

I want to just talk through a little bit more of

your experience for some listeners who are possibly out there,

who are thinking about the show.

Sure. You decided that you would do it and invest some

money. Of course,

because number one,

it's at another sale opportunity when face-to-face shows weren't happening and

national audience and that it extended for a longer period of

time. So were there any other overriding reasons why you joined

or additional things you were considering?

You'll hear more about Cassie's experience with the at-home craft and

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I really felt like Getting in on the ground floor of

this sort of amazing event was the right direction to go.

Because if I didn't try it this past December,

would I try it again?

So I wanted to get in and try it out in

2020 when I knew that it was going to be a

little shaky because people weren't used to the idea,

but I thought if I can do it now,

then I'll be set up for the future because I'm sure

that this is the way things will continue to go.

Yeah. And you're right.

There were quite a few people within the gift biz breeze

community. So listeners,

that's my Facebook group that I often talk about.

So just for someone who's new to the show who might

not know yet,

but there were a lot of people who decided they wanted

to sit back for a minute and just watch it run

and attended it as just a consumer,

the visitor versus actually doing the exhibit.

So I'm glad that you stepped up and did it first

off. I always find that when you are one of the

first you're much farther along than anybody else,

because you started sooner,

right? But you also get price cuts because existing customer loyalty

I'll have the work in setting up my booth again,

because thankfully Holly and Robert have made that an easy,

to use my 20,

20 booth and just update it as needed.

And I won't spend near the time.

Think about when you go to an in-person show,

you have to load up,

you have to unload.

When you get there,

you have to set it all up.

Then you have to load it back up and come back

home and unload.

And I don't have any of that to do None of

it. Yeah,

it's true.

I think I just redid my booth for April to just

updated. I think it took me 15 minutes.

I just switched out a product that I wanted to promote.

Just clean some things up,

perfected how it looks a little bit and that was it.

I'm ready.

Right. I highly recommend everybody.

If they're thinking about joining to listen to your podcasts that

had Robert on there talking about things.

Cause I learned even from that podcast about what I could

Ooh, like what?

Making my product selection smaller,

really hitting the best sellers.

Because once somebody clicks on that,

it takes them to your website and they'll see everything,

but don't put everything from your website onto the booth because

it might overwhelm someone and they might not see the thing

that is your best seller that they would have otherwise seen.

Right. That's a good point because one of the things that

the platform allows you to do is actually bring in a

lot of your products.

I think even from Shopify or somewhere else,

like you might be showing 50,

60 products there and you're right.

Just people just aren't going to lock.

Yeah. So the best sellers are what you need to have

front and center.

And I need to change that around.

And then the nice thing is it goes through your normal

payment program,

right? So if someone clicks on one of those things,

that's your best seller.

It jumps them over to your website,

shopping cart.

So your behind the scenes just stay the same.

Yes. It's so simple.

Yeah. It's really great.

Anything else that you're thinking of upgrading or adjusting for this

year? Hopefully getting some new videos posted from my YouTube channel.

I really think that that helps even if they don't want

to chat with you because I'm sure I had some visitors

that were shy about doing the chat function.

They can watch my personality through those videos.

Right? So gift biz listeners,

again, you might not know that one of the things that

really sets this show aside,

it's direct to consumer.

So it's not a wholesale trade show.

This is direct to consumer.

And one of the things that you're able to do if

you're exhibiting is you have a live screen and there's a

couple of times during the show.

So it's not like you have to be live for like

weeks at a time or something.

Right. But there's a couple hour segments where like you could

talk to Cassie.

So everyone,

you guys are going to have to go to the show

and see if she can see stuff like,

that's just a requirement I'm telling you all here.

But when she is available,

you could just click in and Cassie can chat with you

about the products and answer questions.

Or you might just want to pop in and say hi

and tell her how much you're enjoying the soup that you

made for lunch or,

you know,

whatever. So it's as close to a personal in-person show as

you can possibly get.

Yes. But I think you're right.

I mean,

that's one of the things that we learned and because this

is unique to the at home show and not available with

other virtual consumer shows.

I mean,

a lot of people just threw something up quickly.

And I think it's great that they did because they couldn't

do a face-to-face show and now they're abandoning it.

And having the face-to-face shows as they come back at home

events is going to continue to be virtual shows.

And the more people come,

the more they're going to understand that they can do that

live portion.

Right. So you'll do videos.

Have you thought of doing like a demo live with people

who come and see you there?

I've thought about it.

I'm not sure how I'm going to pull it off yet.

There's the dog,

there's the kid's phone could be ringing.

And I know that people maybe would find that great that

it would feel great to see me as a real person

in my home kitchen.

I don't have wifi out in the manufacturing facility,

so I couldn't do it.

There, all those metal pieces of siding and things would keep

me from being able to do it there.

But it is something that Holly has tagged me that maybe

that would be something I could do.

So we'll have to come up with something.

Well, just think about it,

you know,

and that's too bad.

Cause I was just thinking to myself,

forget even the demos,

if you already have the videos,

but it would be so cool to do it.

Let's do a behind the scenes of our production facility.

Let me just show you where everything is done.

I'm wondering if you could just do a video on your

phone and then play it during your live.

Like even if it's five minutes or so you'd still be

live. Sure.

Yeah. That's an option.

I don't know.

Functionality wise,

if you can do that,

We'll have to make it happen.

Oh, I love that spirit because I'd be really curious,

you know,

like I could so see you,

you don't have to show your home,

but like walking from your house to like the last few

steps right now,

here I am going in and then showing a little bit

of the equipment or the production or like,

I think that'd be really cool.

Yeah. I think so too.

Yeah. And the whole point is to get people over,

to see you at a certain period of time so that

then they'll interact with you and then they'll buy.

Cause you've talked with them,

right? That is always the goal.

Is it now?

Oh my gosh.

So you're doing the two shows this year.

Love, love of that.

We've talked about some of the things that you'll change.

Let's go back to the one that you've done.

So you have one under your belt because that's all we've

had so far.

Right. Were there any surprises with the show positive or negative?

We want to be truthful here.

It was a great experience.

I went in kind of like I did that very first

farmer's market,

if it does great,

wonderful. If it doesn't,

I'm out the money,

but that's in the time,

but I'm going to reach at least one more customer.

My email list grew dramatically because of the giveaway.

That was part of the show.

And I gained at least one customer.

And I know that I gained far more than that when

I went into it with that,

I don't want to say low expectation,

but just the attitude that it's going to be okay.

One way or the other it's going to be okay.

And I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people that

came in to visit.

And Holly and Robert were so available.

Whenever you had a question,

I could not believe how available they were for helping whenever

you had questions.

Oh yeah,

because it was such a new thing that we had no

idea what we were doing.

And they were great to get us to where we needed

to be had great tips,

the video opportunities that they had for us to come on

and ask questions before the show.

It was incredible.

And it was well worth.

Every penny.

That's one of the reasons why I was really attracted and

decided to partner with them is they really do care.

They really do.

And I think it's okay for me to say this,

but they are turning in some of the questions that all

of you had into videos.

So Robert's making some on-demand videos.

So if there was something let's say this was your first

time coming in,

you wouldn't have to wait for those nighttime Q and A's.

You could go in and just,

if you had a question of one thing or another,

they're still going to do the Q and A's too.

But a lot of it will already be self-serve so that

you can work on your time.

Not theirs too.

Yeah. I do recommend that if people get the opportunity to

attend those Q and A's assuming that they're still going to

have those,

it's great.

Because like at a in-person show,

you get to meet the different vendors.

Well, this is an opportunity to still meet all of those

vendors. And I made relationships from those opportunities that we had

as a group.

Yeah. That's a good point too KSA.

I didn't think about that.

I also want to just make one point that you didn't

attach an emotional meaning to your result.

Right? You went into it as you did with the farmer's

seeing what happens,

right. Versus being all emotional about,

Oh, I didn't get enough customers.

I didn't sell anything.

Whatever, which wasn't the case for you.

But that's something that every time you guys,

we try something new is consciously in your mind,

separate the Results from who you are and who your business

is. Absolutely.

You'll learn from it.

But it's when we make those emotional connections,

like, look,

let's say you didn't even sell anything.

You just talked about new email potential you have,

right, right.

Something brand new that might pay out down the road.

Absolutely. Did you say that you were seeing sales before the

show even started?

I did not from this show because I think that when

we first became live,

that was both the live chat and the ability for people

to shop.

I think that happened at the same time.

So I did not see anything ahead of time now.

Okay. Okay.

And then during the show,

and then you were able to equate sales throughout the rest

of the month until the show shut down formally,

you were able to equate those back to them For the

most part,

because especially if they were out of state and I'd never

heard their name,

I never saw them as part of my social media or

anything like that,

that they must have been from that show because I don't

know where else they would have found me because they don't

just look up Cassie's country covered without having met me in

one way or another.

Okay. All right.

That makes sense.

And I love that you were tracking it.

I mean,

you're for you then naturally it was kind of easy to

track because if they were out of state,

then it just seemed to be a link.

Right. And let's say a couple of those weren't you still

have a good feel for how many people who came in,

who were Right.

And the best part was when you finished chatting with someone

and then your phone told you that you had an order,

and that was the same name as the person who just

chatted with.

You knew that the chat function worked that because they got

to meet you.

That was why they purchased.

Oh, that's good.

That is really good.

What types of questions would people come in and ask?

A lot of,

it was about the ingredients,

which I love to talk to people because of that whole

do no harm.

I am very confident in my ingredients.

However, they might have certain dietary concerns.

And so we would talk through gluten-free salt or sodium levels

to make sure that what I said about the different ingredients,

there is no artificial colors or artificial flavors.

I would read them the ingredient label from what I had

behind me in my display.

I love that connection too.

Don't you?

That you're actually able to see some of your potential customers

and you feel like,

you know them better because you're able to talk to them

face to face.

Right. And like all of us know zoom now.

So even though it's not the zoom functionality,

everyone's comfortable with it.

I think some people like have ODed on zoom,

but as we get to a new normal,

that comfort level with that will remain.

So that's going to be great.

So, well,

good luck with this upcoming show.

Thank you.

I'm very excited.

And obviously I'm part of it.

Be there.

We'll be talking and I see you in the Brizo.

All of that is great.

I am so happy that you took the leap of faith,

started with the first one sausage great Results and myself,

Robert and Holly obviously are here to support you throughout all

the shows.

So that goes without saying probably Yes.

And we all appreciate it.

It was a great experience for sure.

So let's jump over just for a minute or two about

social media and the role that,

that plays in your business.

Sure. What platforms are you on?

Instagram and Facebook.

Facebook being my main platform.

Okay. And how did you choose those Facebook?

Cause I was already on there and Instagram came several years

later before I really got into that.

I didn't understand it.

And I still don't know that I really do.

The only reason I post on there is because Facebook and

Instagram are now combined.

And so when I post a Facebook,

it automatically puts it over an Instagram.

I'm still playing around with hashtags.

So I can't wait to purchase your other opportunity where we

can learn more about what to post and how to use

hashtags and all that.

Oh, well,

definitely do.

Definitely do because I mean,

it's a big one and I've already heard from people and

the only way you can get it is through content Fort

makers. It's the only way you can get it.

So give biz unwrapped.com

forward slash content for makers.

I'm going to put a plug in there because like,

seriously, I'm not talking to you right now,

Cassie. I'm talking to everybody else.

You got to get it.

Okay. So have you done any Facebook lives?

I have only done it a couple times.

Again, living out in this rural area,

it's wifi and internet connection in general can be a little

bit spotty.

So that's my excuse.

But that's what it is.

It's an excuse.

I need to just do it more.

I like to do videos,

but I record them and then post them as available.

That's fine too.

I mean,

live is best because they just get you naturally.

Right, right.

But are you putting your videos on IETV?

I've never even tried that God,

all those videos you got to just upload them there.

All right.

Well, I'm making a note right now.

That is so easy and you don't have to get on

live. You don't have to rerecord anything.

You've got it.

It's over.

Sounds good.

I'm going to be watching for those.

Okay. How do you,

You feel about social media overall?

So you're on Facebook and Instagram,

which I love.

And that's such a perfect combination for the reasons you just

said. They naturally merge in with each other.

It's the same parent company.

Love, hate relationship with Zuckerberg,

maybe continual because things keep changing.

Right? I have a hard time believing that my business could

be where it's at without social media.

Again, because of the pictures and the recipes that I'm able

to share with customers nationwide,

that opportunity would not be there.

If I could only advertise in my local yellow pages in

my local newspaper,

I would not reach nearly as many people that way.

And you can't have the pictures of the mail that you

just made using your products.

That's not something that you would put in your advertisement.

So I don't do any Facebook ads.

It's all organic.

And people share my products that way.

And the stuff you put up is unbelievable.

Like you see my comments.

I'm always like,

yum, you got to try this.

Oh my God.

I'm just always.

So how often are you posting?

How do you fit that into your business life?

I typically post once a day,

I use the scheduling through Facebook,

the business suite.

And it's pretty easy for me cause I have a meatless

Monday, a tip Tuesday or taco Tuesday,

I switched up wacky Wednesday,

thirsty Thursday or thankful Thursday freezer.

Friday is always popular.

Freezer meals are my go-to all the time.

Sweet Saturday and slow cooker Sunday or that's typically.

So I have that theme every week and it's pretty easy

to post something every day.

Yeah. Because you already know approximately what the topic's going to

be. Right.

So that's fabulous.

And so you just take your picture and actually create the

post each and every day.

You don't have it already figured out or scheduled for the

week. I try to schedule on Sunday nights for the entire

week, but maybe there's a recipe I still plan to make

for dinner that week that I'll share that in a day

or two.

But for the most part,

I try and schedule at least several days,

if not the entire week.

Perfect. That just makes it so much easier.

Yes. Especially with your time of the other job too.

Right. And I'll be honest.

I have limited my screen time.

I love how my iPhone allows me to do that per

app. And I have really trunked down the amount of time

I'm allowed to be on Instagram and Facebook to keep me

from having that time suck of scrolling.

So it's good for me to be able to just post

them and to schedule them out in that way.

I don't spend my limited screen time doing that.

Yeah. That makes a lot of sense.

And people who are on clubhouse need to be doing that

too. I'm saying that to everybody,

but I'm really saying it to myself.

I try to do that.

I limit my time there as well.

I don't limit my time as much on social media,

especially in the breeze.

Cause you guys are my community there.

Right. So I want to be there.

I need to be there.

And you all make me smile so much with all the

things that you create.

I'm like so serious.

When I say that,

it's just my happy place online.

I do a great job of leading us through great conversations.

Oh, thank you.

I appreciate that.

So as you move forward,

what are you thinking for Cassie's country cupboard?

Are you looking at adding in new lines or like even

just take us through like the next year?

What are you thinking with your plan in there?

Sure. I do have a couple of new products that I

plan to get out there in the next year.

Whether it's a few throughout the year or if I just

put them all out at once,

we'll see how it all goes.

But I do want to approach the wholesale side a little

bit more because that's a heck of a lot easier to

sell cases of product versus just the individual ones direct to

consumer. And it seems to me,

you can correct me if I'm wrong,

but you are set up for growth.

Like assuming you're staying with your nine to five,

like your isn't changing,

but if you get more business and this is a common

problem for people who make their product is the more business

they get,

the more work they've just created for themselves.

But with this new facility that you have,

you could ramp it up without affecting the time that you

put into your business.

Absolutely. Yeah.

If I could definitely hire people to do the work for

me, I do have,

as the kids are getting older,

whether they help or they just need me less for their

daily needs,

they can get their own food.

They can clean the house.

When I asked them to,

they can do their chores without me having the oversight.

So I can spend more time out there or I can

hire absolutely Lots of options.

I remember when I had my gift basket business,

my daughter was still in high school and around the holidays.

Well, and my girlfriends I'd bring into,

but not for some of the intricate things that I had

to do or my designers had to do,

but shipping labels or boxing or bow making sometimes like different

things like that.

Well, with my girlfriends,

they got rewarded coming over to my house and having dinner

and drinking wine.

Right. But my daughter's friends got money like $25 for several

hours in the afternoon for fun.

Right. And they got to chat while they were doing It.

Yeah. Cell phones aside though,

because when you're working,

you've got to work,

but they were all together.

So the people they would be calling are right there.

Right. We did that a couple of times.

But the nice thing about that,

like friends and family helping is you can ramp it up

and pull it back as you need to.

Right. They don't depend on you for their paycheck.

Right. Oh my gosh,

Cassie, I am first off.

I love your products.

So thank you for sharing them with the world because they

are a yummy,

as I said in the beginning,

that's the only word I have for them.

Like seriously,

I should have asked my husband what his single adjective would

be and see what he would have said.

I'll tell you on the side,

hopefully a good one.

Oh, for sure.

Not even a question.

I'll ask him and then let you know on the side,

Cassie, what his word is.

I love what you've done in terms of setting up your

company. Because in every way you are positioned for growth in

a way that fits in your life,

which is such a fabulous demonstration.

If someone wants to take a look at your products,

where would you send them online?

Definitely www dot Cassie's country,

cupboard.com. And if you ever want to just see different inspiration

for the different products,

Facebook or Instagram would be the place to go.

Perfect. And you probably have links over there on your website

to how to link over.

Is it Cassie's country cupboard everywhere.

Yes. Again,

a business best practice.

Why am I not surprised With my name?

I'm not.

Cassie is common,

but it's not super common like Sue.

Right? But having the same name all over it makes it

so much easier.

And so perfect for your brand.

Cassie, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

No problem.

I'm so glad you got to hear Cassie story.

It demonstrates what's achievable for each and every one of you

think about it.

She came up with the idea,

tested it out first with people she knew.

And then with those,

she didn't at her first craft show that gave her validation

that our product was one that people would buy from there.

She continued to grow her business by perfecting the labeling,

starting a website,

all the things that you want to put in place when

your product is no longer a hobby,

but a business.

This is possible for you to remember the order idea,

test the market,

then build the business in that order.

If you want to know more about the at-home craft and

gift show,

Cassie talked about your in luck because there's still time to

register for the April show.

Go over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash at home booth.

And remember to enter in the code gift vis 10,

to get an additional 10% off.

If you're a first time exhibitor,

I'll make sure to connect all of this in the show

notes for your easy reference to as always,

thanks for spending time with me today.

If you'd like to show support for the podcast,

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review? That means so much to me and helps the show

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It's a great way to pay it forward.

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That way you don't miss a single thing.

Not sure exactly how to subscribe.

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And I'll see you next week on the gift biz unwrapped

pod Cast.

I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook

group called gift is breeze.

It's a place where we all gather and our community to

support each other.

Got a really fun post in there.

That's my favorite of the week.

I have to say where I invite all of you to

share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,

to show what you're working on for the week to get

reaction from other people and just for fun,

because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody

in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,

without doubt.

Wait, what,

aren't you part of the group already,

if not make sure to jump over to Facebook and search

for the group gift biz breeze don't delay.