080 – Energy Marshmallows? Yes and More! with Amy of Marshmallow MBA

Gift biz unwrapped,

episode 80.

I want this to be a silver bullet.

I want this to change my life.

Hi, this is John Lee,

Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to gifted biz unwrapped.

And now it's time to like Welcome to gift bears on

wrapped your source for industry specific insights and advice to develop

and grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Mona height.

Hi there.

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

Whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are just getting started,

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

business. And today I have joining us Amy trout,

hues of marshmallow MBA.

Marshmallow MBA was born over a bottle of wine when a

friend asked her why she wasn't selling her holiday handmade confections

after some kitchen burns and several more bottles of wine.

roommate from Penn state.

So for those of you who are listening to the podcast

live, that was just earlier this year.

Amy invites you to forget everything you think you know about

marshmallows. Marshmallow MBA offers more than 75 flavors and are available

for shipping.

Nationwide products include traditional marshmallows in gourmet flavors,

craft marshmallows based on cocktail and liquor flavors,

gamers, edge,

energy, marshmallows,

and athletic edge recovery marshmallows.

Amy May very well be the only person who left a

consulting career for candy making.

Now she's paying back her MBA loans,

one dozen marshmallows at a time.

Oh my gosh.

Between them wine and the marshmallows,

Amy, you are a girl after my own heart and welcome

to the show.

Thanks so much for having me Sue and we get that

response a lot with the wine and marshmallows.

So it's a good combo.

Okay. So Amy,

I like to start off our conversations by having you describe

yourself in a little bit of a creative way.

And that is by having you tell us what your ideal

motivational candle would look like.

So if you would let us know what the color and

the quote would be on your motivational candle.

Well, when you asked me this in the original interview,

prep, that the first thing that struck me as being colorblind,

my candle is probably going to be gray.

I'm good with that reminds me of a lot of things,

but Sandra,

my business partner is in charge of all of our color

combinations for a very,

very good reason.

As In get contested with the colors then does she she's

Really, if she tells me no,

these two don't go together or this color does not look

appetizing, I'm like,

okay. And that's the trust that comes from a 30 year

friendship. My motivational quote actually comes from the priest at my

church. I started going back about five years ago and the

second sermon I ever heard from him,

the theme of the sermon was what would you do if

you knew you couldn't fail?

And that really hit me like a ton of bricks,

because I was at a point where I was really questioning

a lot of things that were happening.

You know,

I think you hit 40 and you start asking questions.

You weren't asking earlier,

you know,

not midlife crisis necessarily,

but certainly,

Hey, what else can I do?

Is this all there is Reba McEntire has that song.

Is there life out there?

And I think it's a legitimate question,

but asking it,

framing it in the words,

what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail,

makes it so much more actionable.

It eliminates Those possibility brackets.

Somehow we fit ourselves into these little brackets and we can

only look at the space in between and your quote,

kind of reminding you,

you're pulling away those brackets.

And literally if you go against that mindset,

anything is achievable.

What would that be for you?

Where is your passion?

Right? So where my passion lies even was lying five years

ago, I knew I was burned out doing the same thing

every day as a government consultant,

I took a leap of faith and went to business school.

I am math phobic.

So when friends and family found out I was going to

business school,

their first reaction was,

are you kidding?

Which is very supportive.

And you know,

they also asked us the question,

our first residency of business school,

what do you want this degree to be for you?

And I remember very clearly saying,

I want this to be a silver bullet.

I want this to change my life.

Lucky for me,

I committed,

I committed a hundred percent,

some days more than that,

accounting. Yeah,

the accounting classes,

but got through them.

And you know,

you get back.

What you put in.

I say business school was one of the best decisions I've

made as an adult.

And it allowed me to learn so much more about myself

and recognize opportunities that I wouldn't have seen otherwise.

And so being able to take my interest in food,

food has always been a type of ministry for me.

You know,

that's how I give back to my community.

But taking that and looking at a candy in a different

way, the whole thing I started,

it sounds like from this quote,

in terms of what could you do?

So it opened up the possibilities of doing something different and

doing something for yourself and not staying in a career that

might've served you well for a long time.

But you knew there was something else that you wanted to

do. Absolutely.

I'm loving what you talked about in your intro.

So I want you to go there.

I want to be at that table with you when you

were talking with your friend Through,

talk through What ha and is this the friend who's now

your business partner?

It is not.

Okay. So tell us how this whole idea came about.

So I have made handmade gifts,

food gifts for friends and family for 20 years.

If not,

what about 20 years?

Let's not date me entirely.

Yeah. And whether it was jams,

whether it was candy,

cookies, bread,

whatever it was,

the Christmas baking and Christmas food prep for me was always

something I did.

It was a great gift because even for picky people,

everybody eats a cookie.

Now my grandmother,

who you need to know is in a lot of ways,

my mother,

the joke in our family,

which I never took as a joke is you are your

grandmother's daughter.

So our generations are mixed.

My grandmother had an incredible sweet tooth.

She always had candy around.

She used to level off ice cream.

No, no,

I'm just evening it up.

Nice. I like that strategy.

Even as she got older,

when she lost her appetite for other things,

she could always eat candy.

She could always eat sweets.

And when I would travel to see her at the holidays,

I would always bring an extra suitcase.

And so,

and then we'd put things in the freezer and we put

things, you know,

we vacuum seal things.

So she had it.

Then she and my grandfather boat,

I lost her two years ago.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's a,

it's still painful,

but she,

marshmallows were a candy,

white marshmallows and fudge.

I can't make fudge.

Fudge is one of those things.

I hear you.

There's all these easy ways and all these great,

no fudge.

And I are never going to be friends.

If you're making fudge,

please keep making it because it's but I'll never forget.

The last Christmas I flew out.

I didn't make marshmallows that year.

And the look on her face devastated me.

Oh, you didn't bring marshmallows.

Yeah, No,

I didn't.

Oh no.

I bet you followed up with Selma a month later.

Or so with some yes.

She always,

she always got them.

So how did the idea,

like, let's go to this table where you're sitting with your

friend. Was it like this revelation all of a sudden,

or how did it happen?

We're sitting,

we're sitting on the couch,

he's finishing up a box from his Hanukkah package.

And like we said,

we were drinking wine and Keith says to me,

I don't know why you're not selling these things.

You could be the marshmallow MBA.

He even gave you the name he gave us.

He gave,

he gave me all of this.

All right.

So did you pull up a napkin and start writing the

plan right then?

And there You didn't.

I looked at him and I started laughing.

I'm like,

Oh, ha ha.

Isn't that funny?

Another bottle of wine.

Okay. If you can find somebody that'll buy these things,

let's try it.

Let's see what happens.

And this was just before day.

And he did,

he found some folks that were interested in buying them.

So I made them,

we sold them.

And then I was talking to Sandra who became my business

partner in this.

And she's like,

well, how hard are they to make?

And I said,

well, I'm not going to tell you they're easy to make.

But she said,

well, show me.

And like me at,

at a point where we were looking for something different,

then what was going on in our lives.

So we went into the kitchen and we tossed up a

batch of marshmallows.

And she looked at me and said,

if you do this,

I'm in,

Wow. I want to stop you right here for just a

second. Amy gift biz listeners,

listen to how this idea formed.

It was a random moment,

nothing to do with business.

Amy, did I sit down and say,

okay, I want to start a business.

What is it going to be?

The idea just naturally came about in her normal course of

life. I'm going to pretend like normal is always sitting around

with wine and marshmallows,

but it goes,

it goes for me,

it works for me.

But so I want you guys to all think about that

too. If you're out there and you're thinking about,

well, what kind of business do I want to do?

Or let's say you have a product and you're looking for

a name for a product or that kind of thing.

Get outside of your regular business environment and be open and

receptive to ideas because that's where the best and most creative

ideas arise.

All right.

So we are now back,

you two are getting ready and you've decided,

she says,

she's in and you are ready to start the business.

What happens next?

Next thing,

we do register the website.

So you grabbed your name,

you grabbed your domain.

We grabbed our domain name.

Did you grab a bunch of them or did,

was it marshmallow MBA right away?

We had marshmallow MBA right away.

Now we grabbed a number of extensions on that,

but the name we grabbed right away.

Perfect. And,

huh, funny enough.

Nobody else had that name.

Lucky for me,

people are more creative in their,

in their naming.

The, I think this is pretty creative.

I got to tell you,

so you grabbed the domain,

grabbed The domain and then did You also go into all

of the social media sites and get all that too?

Right? We did.

Sandra jumped on that right away,

fall. Beautiful.

Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, Pinterest.

Those were the four we grabbed right away.

Okay. So heads up everybody,

the very first thing you do once,

you know,

and you're loving your name,

go get all of them.

The domain costs a little bit.

You can get a domain for under $20.

Absolutely. But you can get the year,

right? If you're for under $20.

Exactly. And all your other social media sites,

just go grab them.

If you're committed to your name,

just do it.

You don't even have to fill everything in right away.

Just get it.

Exactly. And we had placeholders set up for things and then

we knew that we were going to be selling online.

So the next step for us was looking at,

well, what vehicle are we going to use for sales?

So investigating Etsy,

investigating Amazon,

those were the first two that we looked at and then

looking at the percentages that they were taking and knowing that

we were starting very small.

We had no clue truly going into this in terms of

the online sales side.

We didn't know our audience demand.

We just knew,

okay. You know,

we had some folks buy in February.

Let's see what happens going forward and we'll build.

So we knew we wanted to limit our costs because working

capital is precious.

Our model was to go ahead and set up our store

on our own website.

So are you using a WordPress website or We're using a

GoDaddy website?

We're doing everything through GoDaddy and they've been very good to

us. I use them for my other business as well.

I was in it for a long time.

Oh, well you have an unfair advantage.

No, no,

no. This is where I'm going with this.

I was in it.

That does not mean I am qualified to do web design

or any of these other things.

So thank God for templates.

I guess my other tip trick for new business owners,

small business owners use the templates that have been already built

and customize them.

You can always get more sophisticated later,

but get something up first.

Exactly. So we stood our website up,

it took about a day to get the information we wanted

minimal information out there.

And that was here are our flavors.

Here's how much it costs.

Here's how you order.

Got it.

I have been waiting to get to this question.

So I'm just jumping it in right here.

The flavors.

How, tell us,

well, first off,

I'd love to know how you're making.

Are you using,

are you in a commercial kitchen?

You know,

what are you doing with that?

And then I want to get to flavor discovery with a

friend and a roommate from college had to be a blast.

Oh, great fun.

But start,

start with how,

how what's your production setup look like?

So our production setup,

we are working out of commercial kitchen space in order to

do sales,

we do have to be working through certified kitchen space.

So we are doing that.

Were you,

when you were looking for that space,

is there any advice or suggestions from what you've just recently

learned? Cause this is within the last six months or so

at this point,

in terms of finding a space,

any advice,

guidance there,

Things one do not automatically go with the first link you

find on Google for commercial kitchen space.

We deep dove and looked at multiple resources.

I mean,

it, I know time is the most precious commodity when you

own a small business when you own any business,

but particularly in a startup situation.

So it's often very easy to just click on that first

link and say,

okay, that's what I'm going to go with because it's the

first thing I see.

And I don't really have time to do a lot of

research. Take the time to do the research.

We investigated space through Craigslist.

We investigated space through our local chamber of commerce.

We also called the state.

The department of agriculture has a list.

And I think this is every state,

but particularly in Pennsylvania,

the Commonwealth has a list of certified kitchens and you can

give them a zip code and they will tell you if

they have kitchen certified space in that zip code or within

five miles,

10 miles,

and they'll help you with that.

You just have to be polite on the phone and don't

be afraid to pick up the phone.

Don't assume that your only resources are online.

I think it's really easy for us to do.

And so then did you go out and just like,

you would look for a space,

like a retail shop spaces.

Did you go out and then physically walk through all the

spaces? Exactly.

Yeah, because we wanted to see it in some spaces,

we're going to be better suited than others.

We don't need demo kitchen space.

We don't need ovens.

Our manufacturing process requires heat and flat surfaces.

The refrigeration of very limited.

We do have a selection that we do that uses milk.

It's evaporated milk,

you know,

so we're not dealing with a lot of the challenges that

a Baker might have or another type of food,

product producer.

So that made our requirements somewhat easier.

The other tip I might offer is if you are looking

for kitchen space and you know,

restaurant owners,

don't be afraid to ask,

what do you do with your facilities during off hours?

Oh, what a good idea are you willing to rent out

that space?

Some of them will say no,

be prepared for that.

But what I like about this community,

the food community,

collaboration is not foreign and people are very willing to offer

support. If you're willing to ask for help.

That's something that is such a refreshing change from the environment

I spent so much of my life in.

Yeah. I'm not afraid to ask the question if you're not

afraid to tell me.

Yeah. Yeah.

The worst video I'm going to say is no.

And then you have,

haven't lost ground,

but you have huge opportunities to advance if they say yes.

Right? Exactly.

Okay. And so now the flavors,

how do you do that?

So flavors come in a lot of different ways.

We started out thinking of traditional candy flavors and flavors that

infused well into sugar.

The great thing about a marshmallow is it will take just

about any flavor you can imagine.

Sondra definitely focuses on the non booze flavors.

Yeah. And I tend to veer a little less family-friendly if

that's the best way of putting it,

but we will be inspired by,

we bet.

For example,

we have an entire line that is based on teas,

black teas,

green teas,

different tea,

blends. Those all come from Sondra.

That was all out of her great creative brain.

So how do you do that?

You make a batch,

but you make sure you've written down,

you know,

the proportions and all of that.

And then you taste it and make adjustments and keep writing

and adjusting until you land it.

Right? Yeah.

For example,

our bourbon marshmallow,

which is one of our top five sellers,

I'm a bourbon girl.

It is my drink of choice.

I don't care what time of year it is.

But when we first did the bourbon marshmallows,

perhaps I got a little heavy handed with them.

Perhaps They weren't as firm as a marshmallow.

Oh my bourbon.

Marshmallow pudding.

Yeah. That is because there are different flavor profiles depending on

the ingredient that you're using to flavor the marshmallow.

So like with bourbon,

some is sweeter.

Some is dryer,

some as a stronger smokey taste,

we tested it out with different brands.

Oh, what a shame I had to buy multiple bottles of

bourbon. We tested it out with different flavors and different brands

to be able to see which one worked best because you're

talking about a sugar base and that sweet can be,

even after you beat Aaron to it,

sweet can be a really intense flavor.

And I would imagine you're liking bourbon a lot.

The intense bourbon flavor may not be best for the audience,

you know,

when you want to extend it beyond.

So you have to find that sweet spot too,

in terms of how intense to the flavors be.

Exactly. And Sandra is more sensitive to that flavor.

So she has no problem saying to me,

Oh no,

that is way too boozy.

We also do one.

Are you said you liked wine.

We have a box wine marshmallow,

and we're doing that in a red version and a white

version. Oh,

that sounds yummy.

I like bourbon too,

by the way.

Oh, good.

Well, you know,

make sure we have that address and we'll make sure you

get that.

Okay. All right.

Let's move on and talk a little bit more about product

development and pricing.

How did you decide where your price was?

We started out with a pricing model looking at competitive products

and we compared our product to a gourmet boxed chocolate,

a truffle type of product.

And then as we've been modifying our products,

pricing changes depending on,

for example,

an add in a,

if we're adding a second flavor to the marshmallow,

for example,

if we're adding a special type of coating,

but we stay pretty standard in our pricing between 10 and

$15 a box.

And we sell by the dozen,

not by the pound selling marshmallows by the pound is really

a losing proposition.

Yeah. There's a lot of air in there.

There's a lot Of air.

That's what we say.

Our first ingredient is air.

And our second ingredient is sarcasm.

I'm kind of getting that vibe here little bit.

So you're taking into account the ingredients that you're using.

You've marked a spot in pricing land of the truffles,

you know,

like a box of truffles because you're certainly a gourmet product.

You're not going to compare yourself with a bag of marshmallows.

Obviously. What about time in terms of the amount of production

time it takes,

does that,

is that included in the equation?

It is included.

So it's going to be any of the raw materials.

So the sugar,

the gelatin and the flavorings it'll include the packaging.

So depending on whether we're packaging in our traditional packaging,

which is a candy box,

a bag,

some tissue,

and then we'll also account for if we're doing it for

a special event.

So we've done a few weddings and we will package those

products on gift trays.

We'll package them on candy plates with different wrap,

different ribbons,

that'll change pricing as well.

If we have a specific add in to the flavor,

for example,

our traditional bourbon,

one of our craft mellows,

we've priced that at $12 a box for a dozen,

we also do a bourbon bacon,

marshmallow, anything that's got bacon in it that automatically is at

a premium for us.

And that's because of the time,

as much as it is for the additional material.

So It's materials traditional production time,

for sure.

Exactly. So we have factored in the time as well as

the packaging and the raw materials.

Okay. So someone who's doing this,

let's say they have a product marshmallows chocolate fudge because they

can supply you the fudge since you don't make the fudge.

Right. How do you start working on labeling specifically with ingredients?

What are the rules around that Rules around that?

And this is strictly Commonwealth of Pennsylvania rules.

So again,

state by state,

please, if you're in food,

make sure you are paying attention to your department of ag

rules and not only in your state,

but also in your locality.

Sometimes there are differences depending on whether the city is licensing

and tracking or your municipalities licensing or tracking versus what your

state's doing,

make sure you're reading,

Right? So make sure you're educated and knowledgeable about what your

local vicinity requires.

Exactly. Exactly.

So for us,

because of where we are in terms of amount of goods

sold, there are limited ingredient description requirements.

Now we have them available upon request,

but we are not required to list every item in specific

detail. Oh,

lucky you.

Yes, very lucky.

And I mean,

for us,

it's a limited list of ingredients.

We're under five ingredients in every flavor,

but you know,

we listed by percentage within the product now for our energy

marshmallows. And you mentioned those at the top.

So our gamers edge,

energy marshmallows,

do you have caffeine and some additional energy products in them.

So for those,

we include labeling related to the caffeine.

The other information that we will include in our labeling is

an allergen information statement.

Even though our product doesn't contain egg,

even though most our products do not contain dairy,

none of our products contain soy or nuts because they are

handled in a facility where other products may come into contact.

We do have a cross-contamination statement on there for folks who

are severely,

you know,

who have severe allergies.

Yeah. Cause you might assume that you're okay with marshmallows,

but you're right.

If you're in a commercial kitchen,

you don't know who else is working in that space.

And you know,

even though it's certainly,

health-wise just fine.

That's really wise.

I appreciate you bringing that up.

Very, very important.

Let's round this portion of the conversation out Amy,

but any specific,

additional advice that you can think of for someone who's looking

at starting in some type of a consumable product,

are there any other learnings that you've had possibly and let's

go here?

What about something that was really challenging for you as you

were starting up,

something maybe you weren't expecting or that you saw was more

of a struggle to put in place?

I think the struggle for us initially and continuing social media

is a challenge for me.

It may be a generational thing.

I don't immediately think that if something happens,

that is interesting enough to put on Twitter,

I don't immediately think,

Oh, that's a beautiful tray of marshmallows.

That's a beautiful box of marshmallows.

Let me snap a picture of it and put it on

Instagram. Social media is my constant constant challenge remembering to do

it. So marketing would be the big umbrella there.

The other challenge for us is that our products have a

shelf life.

What is the shelf?

Life, the shelf,

life on it.

According to all of our guidelines minimum of a month.

Now I can tell you,

we've never had a box of marshmallows last more last a

month, but the shelf life on it is a month.

You know,

I'm going to tell people they're best eaten within two weeks

flavors. Fate,

not everyone's keeping them in the same situation that I'm keeping

them in.

I can vacuum seal when we make our batches,

we make them cool them and vacuum seal the slabs,

but fully 80% of our products are made to order.

We get the order.

We send the note back,

we received your order and you'll receive it within three to

five days.

And I Think you need to do that with that kind

of a shelf life.

Yes, absolutely.

Now we've had,

I think our biggest,

I won't call it a setback,

but perhaps speed bump that we had recently was a festival

that we did,

which the anticipated number was around 45,000

people. So we prepared for a significant amount of sales over

a three-day period.

And they had fewer than half that in attendance,

fewer than half of their estimated attendance actually was at the

event, which left us with a lot of product.

Oh my gosh,

what'd you do?

We did a couple of things.

One, we had a fire sale online and told people,

we're offering discounts on our cases of different products.

We also made donations.

We donated to multiple and multiple youth groups.

And then we are lucky enough to have colleagues in the

community who have retail outlets,

who were like,

well, let me put some in the store and see how

I can do with these.

Let me see if I can resell them in the store.

So we discounted and said,

let us know what happens.

We're open to wholesale purchases,

you know,

and we can price at wholesale pricing.

If you're interested in keystoning them,

we're certainly open to that.

But it was,

it was an ego blow as much as it was a

bit of a financial setback.

Again, going back to that idea of working capital and what

we had invested both in actual dollars and the time value

of dollars in preparation time.

But you know,

Amy, I mean,

it's such a new business yet.

Oh my goodness.

I find this all the time.

Events will over promote attendance.

Even if they have attendees who are people who are saying,

they're going to come.

A lot of people last minute something comes up or,

you know,

they're just not coming.

And some of that is living and learning.

I Had a trifecta situation here of bad weather for the

entire weekend.

They had a storm system stall.

And then what we're also noticing is with it being an

election year,

people are not necessarily saying,

Oh, I've got all kinds of disposable income.

Let me buy gourmet marshmallows with it.

$12 for bourbon marshmallows.

I would buy all day.

But now I want you to pull up and we didn't

talk about this.

I wasn't recording when we talked about this a little bit

earlier, but I want you to pull out that other quote,

my affirmation,

your affirmation.

Let's talk about that right here.

Sure. I was on a flight to the West coast,

actually out to see my,

my grandmother and I was in the only row on the

plane with another woman making the same trip.

Obviously we were on the only road that had an empty

middle seat Love when that happens.

Yes. And we were talking about being small business owners.

She owned a business at the time.

We both went to the same business school at George Washington

university. It's amazing.

The coincidence is that happened.

And I have friends who say,

there's no such thing as a coincidence.

And she said,

you know,

I've been working with my small business for a long time.

And she said the best thought that I get in my

head every morning and the driver for me and the motivation

for me.

So I take this from Candace fear is a liar.

I think we all have that voice in the back of

our head that says to us,

what are you thinking?

Little girl,

you can't do this.

This is not something that you can make happen and be

successful at.

That's not a voice of reason.

That's not a voice of support and generosity.

It's a voice we need to quit listening to.

Absolutely. So give biz listeners fear is a liar.

Remember that when you're starting out,

when you're looking at doing something and that voice inside you

is says,

well, how,

why is it that you think that you can do don't

listen, shut the door on that thinking and move forward.

One question before we move on here,

that I would love to know what type of feedback have

you gotten from the retailers where you were able to place

your product.

We've gotten good feedback on the gamers edge,

marshmallow, and that's our energy marshmallow.

And essentially with that,

we removed the carbonated water out of an energy drink and

then played around a little bit.

I'm a caffeine addict.

So I like bourbon and I like caffeine.

Okay. There are my two vices,

but I have friends who can't drink anything carbonated.

We were at a Comicon earlier this year and noticed a

lot of the folks who are gamers,

who are playing board games or online games that are in

these tournament's play for five,

six, eight,

10 hours at a time.

And they drink a lot of energy drinks.

But if you drink an energy drink at some point in

the middle of your eight hour game,

you need to get up and use the facilities.

I was exactly.

I was just thinking that,

Oh my gosh,

The marshmallow,

we take the water out.

So the response to that has been really good.

We have a couple of comic bookstore owners we've been talking

to about that.

They got good feedback.

We use them actually as a test market group,

people who have gaming nights at their store.

And so they have repeat business,

they were willing to share the product with their customers.

And we got good feedback on that in terms of flavor,

in terms of the actual energy boost and what the product

did with the athlete's edge,

marshmallow, which is essentially gamers edge minus the caffeine.

My husband is a coach for team and training with the

leukemia and lymphoma society and has a lot of friends who

were runners.

And so marshmallows for runners have been catching on.

What we did is we've taken a Brown rice syrup,

which is the preferred energy source of a number of performance

athletes. We've worked that into our formula.

So you're not just getting a straight cane sugar or a

corn syrup boost,

but this is a longer term complex carbohydrate boost with the

Ragnar race that was just completed here last weekend,

we met some friends and my sister-in-law there and this is

a long relay race.

Over two days with teams,

she had friends who couldn't eat what was provided at the

end of the race,

just because they were exhausted.

They were like,

no, I can't eat pizza.

I can't even smell it.

I'm just so tired.

But they were able to eat the marshmallow cause it has

flavor, but it's not a heavy flavor.

It's not oily.

It's not fatty.

It's not something that was going to mess with your stomach

if you're tired and because there's protein in it,

it's a great recovery tool.

Particularly for women.

You want the protein,

you want a little bit of sugar after you've been in

an athletic situation or a gym work.

That is so interesting.

And I love this story because you took what could be

perceived as a failure in terms of not selling all the

product and then turning it around and making it a positive

because you're putting it in places where people can try it

and just counting because you don't want,

you know,

you want to minimize your losses,

but in the end it can be a huge reward because

you're exposing your product to people who might not have seen

it just in the normal course of how you'd been doing

business before.

Exactly. So turning a negative into a positive lemons into lemonade.

However you say that,

right. Always my strong suit,

but we said,

you know,

we're not going to let this stop us.

And again,

to your point,

it's a young business.

Yeah. And you know,

you're always going to be learning,

adjusting, making things better.

You don't always land it perfectly.

The first time you celebrate the wins and then you take

those less than wins.

I'll just say and figure out how to make them better.

Yeah. And if you're not learning,

you're not earning.

If you're not Learning,

you're not earning love it.

All right,

Amy, we're going to circle now into our reflection section.

These are just some really quick answers to some questions about

how you have made yourself successful.

What is one natural trait that you call upon regularly that

has helped you with Marsh?

I can talk to anybody and I have leveraged that in

ways that I didn't for a long time.

My preference is frequently not to tell my story,

but just to do my work and let the work shine

for itself with marshmallow MBA,

I've been forced to tell the story and you know,

that's okay.

Yeah. Just like you're doing here today.

Right? Quitting,

quitting, you know,

stopping, hiding my light under the bushel and just getting out

there and talking to people and telling people about the product,

telling people about what we're doing.

You know,

we've got nine products in R and D right now,

in addition to just the traditional marshmallow.

So we've got nowhere to go,

but up.

Yeah, for sure.

Let me continue on here.

What tool do you regularly use during your day to help

you keep productive and in control of all that's going on

as a developing business prayer,

there is nothing wrong with that.

That's for sure Both are good bookends for small business owners

At the same time.

Right. But I think if we're talking specific tools,

learn Quicken,

learn it,

live, it,

love it.

Oh, that's what you're using for your accounting.

Yep. For accounting And it's,

you know,

so, so that,

why do You use that over some of the other options

that are out There because it does interface so easily with

so many other products import our bank account statements directly in

PayPal interfaces really cleanly as well.

That's how we do our invoicing for example.

And I use Trello.

I don't know if your listeners are familiar with Trello.

It's an online time and task management tool.

I make lists like a crazy woman and Trello lets me

take the crazy lists and put them in some semblance of

actionable order Or a book that you've read lately that you

think our listeners could find value.

I do read,

that's a thing from business school.

I learned to skim in business school.

So I skim a lot of things.

Probably the most recent ones.

Well screw it.

Let's do it.

If you haven't read Richard Branson's book and it's short,

it's not even 150 pages.

Richard, Branson's one of my heroes.

I think his life story is fascinating.

And what he's been able to do is just amazing.

I don't know that I could work for him,

but I love to get a day with him.

I think that would be great.

So he's got a book screw it.

Let's do it.

That's how he signs off on any project that he funds.

And then tactically,

there's a really great book called 15 hand-picked unique suppliers for

handmade businesses.

And it's by a woman named Renee,

Christine. She has a lot of online resources as well as

this book,

which I it's an E publication.

So it's available for the Kindle.

It was actually free on Amazon,

about six weeks ago.

This book,

her 15,

it's 15 on top of 15 on top of 15,

on top of 15,

there is so much in there.

I got more out of that than I've gotten out of

the classroom sessions.

This is strictly on handmade businesses.

So if you're doing crafts,

if you are making food products,

if you're working on Etsy,

she's got a lot of information about that as a resource.

And then for me,

her packaging resources were fantastic.

That sounds so interesting for almost the majority of our listeners

here. So excellent.

We'll have to check that out.

Okay. All right.

Gift biz listeners,

just as you're listening to the podcast today,

you can also pick up audio books.

Now. I'm not sure this 15 handpicked is an audio book,

but I bet you screw.

It led to do it might just be Let's do it

is an audio book.

Okay. Well,

I have teamed up with audible for you to be able

to get an audio book,

just like screw it.

Let's do it.

I just like saying that and you can get one for

free on me.

If you haven't already,

all you need to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection.

Okay. Now,

as all of you know,

but if you're new to my podcast,

there will be a show notes page accompanying this episode.

It will have a lot of the information in terms of

direct links to our conversation here.

If you're looking for something specific that we were talking about,

I'll also have links to Amy's website.

So you guys can go look at these delicious,

yummy marshmallows,

possibly order some,

I think I'm going to be doing that social media sites

and also the links to these two books.

So if you didn't capture them,

you're out walking your dog or straightening stock in your shop,

something like that.

Don't worry.

I've got you covered.

Just go check out the show notes page.

And that of course is at gift biz,

unwrapped.com. And now Amy,

I'd like to invite 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.

So 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 Is an email and or phone

call. Preferably a phone call from Howard Schultz,

the CEO of Starbucks.

Ooh. And what is he going to be calling you about?

He's going to call me and say,

I've heard about marshmallow MBA.

I'd like to try your products.

We'd like to put them in the stores.

All right.

And then what are you going to say?

Sure. Yes,

sir. How many zeros are on that check?

Okay. Well,

I have to tell you one of the things I like

about this,

and you alluded to it a little bit earlier,

when you were saying one of your friends thinks or says

that there are no coincidences.

I like to do this dare to dream question.

Cause I feel like just verbalizing things like this,

put it out in the environment and I love your answer,

Amy. Cause I could so see your product in Starbucks.

I really could.

Can we,

so can we,

and we talk about it on a daily basis.

I think about it every time I walk in and order

a venti,

There you go.

Well, Starbucks is my choice too.

I probably own half the company at this point.

So I am right with you with that wish.

And I want to give you that box in that present

for sure.

Well, I appreciate it.

And being able to put it out in the universe,

I mean,

how do you make it more real than that?

How do you,

how do you put it on the business path?

If you don't put it out there?

Exactly. You're right.

You have to define it first and then attracted in Amy.

This has been fabulous.

I really appreciate,

I know you're a new business,

but it's wonderful.

Cause to be able to get you right in the start

as your company is growing,

you sharing all of the things that you have in terms

of how to develop a product right from the start has

been so valuable.

I really appreciate your time.

And may your candle always burn bright.

Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

There's some marshmallows.

Oh yay.

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 set up for success.

Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,

access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y

slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by 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,

looking for a new income source for your gift business.

Customization is more popular now than ever grant your products of

your logo for kinda happy birthday,

Jessica bourbon,

to add to a gift right at checkout,

it's all done right in your shop or across in second

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