Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Stephanie Stuckey.
The chair of Stuckey’s, a historic snack and candy company. She shares her journey of revitalizing the brand, her family’s legacy, and the importance of entrepreneurship and branding.
🔑 Key Themes & Highlights
-
Reviving an American Icon
- Stephanie took over Stuckey’s in 2019, aiming to restore its legacy.
- She discusses the challenges of rebuilding a brand that had lost its original assets.
-
The History of Stuckey’s
- Founded by her grandfather during the Great Depression in 1937.
- Grew into a nationwide chain with 370 stores across 40 states.
-
The Importance of Branding & Social Media
- Stephanie leveraged LinkedIn and other platforms to rebuild brand awareness.
- She emphasizes authenticity and storytelling in marketing.
-
Business Strategy & Growth
- Transitioned from outsourcing products to owning a manufacturing facility.
- Expanded retail presence from 200 to 5,000 stores, including Hobby Lobby and Food Lion.
-
Lessons in Entrepreneurship
- Discusses the importance of adaptability, partnerships, and strategic decision-making.
- Shares insights on overcoming setbacks and scaling a business.
📘 About Stephanie Stuckey
Stephanie Stuckey is an entrepreneur, author, and advocate for brand revitalization. She is dedicated to restoring Stuckey’s as a leading snack brand while preserving its rich history.
#STRAW
#BEST
#SHMS
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Rashan McDonald hosts this weekly money Making Conversation master
Class show. The interviews and information that this show provides
off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
success stories and start living your own. My guess is
the chair of Stuckies and you Can Snack and candy
company based in Georgia. She's also the author of Unstuck,
(00:21):
Reviving an American Icon. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation
Master Class. Stephanie Stucky. Stephanie, How you doing it?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me
super excited.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Great. I'm sitting in my optometry get my eyes checked. Okay.
I looked out on the table. You own the front
cover of what was it a firm job.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The Georgia Farm Bureau magazine.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And looking good with your Stucky hat on. Oh my godness,
Cal I got and you answered, and now you're on
my show. We're being interviewed about your brand because I
think we met like in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was just starting out. I mean, I look back
on when I first talked to you and WHOA, I
was really new.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you took over the control of the brand in
twenty nineteen. That's right, we talked about this brand right here. Yeah,
these are the cookies that the Pecans that changed my day.
And sometimes we used to always tend them to me
in buy them on line. I go stop stop because
they're addictive.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right, No, don't stop, don't stop. Yeah, you want them
to be delicious. Yeah, yeah, that's the whole point is
that you have to buy them.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, Stuckies had been in my family. I'm originally
from Houston, Texas. Yeah, and my family is back. We
grew up in h Streetport Louisiana. So we was always
drive from Houston to Streetport, Louisiana, and you know, in
the sixties, kid, and we always felt welcome at the
Stucky brand, and it was like that what that's what
(01:52):
we stopped get our pecan log. I had to get
that pecan log thing happening. And so so just just
the nature of your grandfather, he created give us backstories
so as we evolved, because you became a chairman of
twenty and eighteen, but it started way before that, way
before tell us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, started doing the Great Depression nineteen thirty seven and
there were no jobs to be had, and my grandfather,
like you, and me. He was an entrepreneur and there
were no jobs, so he made his own job, right,
That's what entrepreneurs do. And one thing that was plentiful
and middle Georgia even during the depression with pecans. Wow,
(02:29):
you know we are the number one state.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So it's a Georgia business.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. We've been in Georgia for almost
ninety years. Yeah, and one hundred percent Georgia grown. That's
why I was on the cover of the Farm Bureau magazine.
We are at our core, we are a farm brand.
Everything is sourced from Georgia farmers, right. Yeah. So he
started selling pecans out the side of the road and
then people would pull over and they'd say, where can
(02:56):
I get gas? Where can I get a quick block meal?
Where can I use the rest? Right? Like what do
you want when you're traveling? So this was before there
was Ta or Loves or BUCkies, you know, Stuckies was
the first, absolutely and he was solving problems that people have.
That's what we do as entrepreneurs. And he thought, okay,
well people need a place to pull over. So he
(03:16):
worked for a couple of years and saved up his
money and had that first store and grew into at
his peak, three hundred and seventy stores and forty states. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
You know when you think about that, you know that
first of all, it's courageous, you know, and then you
talk about longevity, and that's the whole run because it's
his vision. And then he has a son. And so
what happened to the brand? That did they veer off?
You know, because you know, you basically revitalizing the Stuckies brand,
(03:46):
and we're going to get to that. But the fact
that I experienced it as a kid, I have so
such a positive memory. I remember when I posted about
this on my social media, everybody was just talking about
when I grew up, where I grew up. I grew up,
grew up stucky, Stucky, Stucky Stucky. So it's iconic, especially
in the African American community. And so, but what made
(04:07):
a dip? And then what was happening when it was
just sitting out there?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, I do want to add because you said especially
in the African American community, and I love one part
of our story in particular is that Stuckies was never segregated,
and so my grandfather had the saying, every traveler is
a friend and that went well beyond just road tripping
and pulling over and being treated well. He wanted everyone
to feel like they belonged, and we did stores and
(04:34):
so that was not just a saying for him, it
was how he lived his life. And so that is
why I wanted to revive this company is because of
all the stories.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I add that to the back there, because this was
stopping in the first class facility, you know, clean restrooms,
walking in, feeling comfortable, so like a hole in the wall,
that's right. So the gas, everything was right. And so
I want to thank your grandfather for that experience because
(05:06):
it's real positive to me. And uh, it became a
number one stop for my family. We made the trails
from Houston to Streetport, Louisiana everybody two or three times
a year or whenever we did long trips. So his
vision still has made a positive impression on me. And uh,
and I'm a fan of the food today.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and did you get some fun souvenirs like we had,
you know, whoopee cushions.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Everything so much so because not too many because I
come from a big family, six and two brothers.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You get one logroll and you got to slice it
up yeah, continued, but oh, I do want to say,
speaking of Stuckies in Texas, we still have a dozen
stores original stuck He's still operating. And you know who
stopped at the Stuckies in Orange, Texas, which isn't too
far from Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Shaquille O'Neill, big Shan.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Stopped the Stuckies and this que little boy ask him
for a photo and he posed for it and Stuckies
is in the background. You can see the Stucky sign.
That was a good day.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
A lot of the lawschises.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, so it's licensed. So all right, So what happened
to our brand? My grandfather sold the company?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, cool?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
He made a lot of money, right, He sold it
before I was born, actually a year before I was born.
It was out of our family hands for decades and
frankly just lost its mojo under outside hands. My dad
did get it back in the mid eighties. This is
where it gets a little murky. My father was running
his own company. He ran Interstate Dairy Queen Company, a
company he founded. He had the exclusive franchise rights to
(06:39):
Dairy Queen stores on the Interstate highway system. And that's
a great I mean, talk about a great business. We're
talking about hundreds and hundreds of dairy Queen stores all
over the country, and he franchised them. He had the
exclusive franchise rights. So when he acquired Stuckies, he was
already running that and he basically just piggybacked Stuckies onto
(07:02):
what he was already doing. So the stores from that
era would be a dairy Queen with a stucky section.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, so stand that and he.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Said, and I remember fighting with him on this in
a loving way. I was in college and I said, well,
why aren't you leading with the Stuckies brand. He said, no,
it's dairy queen. Dairy Queen's what it's about. And so
Stuckies was sort of on the somewhat marginalized. But having
said that, he saved the company from completely. It would
have gone under completely. My dad gets a lot of
(07:32):
credit for what he and his team did. But they
sold their dairy queen business, okay, and twenty twelve to
Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway and then that whole infrastructure that
was supporting what was left of Stuckies was gone. Wow.
And so fast forward to twenty nineteen, it is just
a dumpster fire and the investors, which included my father,
(07:56):
but he had like seven investors and they were all
ready to sell their like, is losing money? We were
six figures in debt and.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Were they were? They were? They would say losing money?
Were they losing money on the licensing side or the
product side? What was the Give me the feel of
what Stuckies looked like at that period.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yes, So everything my grandfather owned was gone. The candy
plant was gone, the distribution center was gone. He had
a billboard company that was gone, trucking company gone. All
those assets were gone. All the candy was outsourced. Okay, okay,
So we had third party manufacturers, which, frankly, you know
their pros and cons to having someone else make your product.
(08:34):
I thought the quality really suffered and it's harder to
control not only quality, but your margin structure, right because
you have to pay someone else and you have to
ship it to your distribution facility, then you mark it
up and then you So it was really hard to
make those numbers work. So they were operating out of
a rented warehouse right in Eastman, Georgia. That was and
the only physical assets were it was inventory, and a
(08:59):
lot of it was really usty, Like I had six
cases of Britney Bitch t shirts. Okay, right, Like, thank
god Britney Spears made me come back. I got to
sell those out a profit. I had cases of slap bracelets,
high school musical slap bracelets and had a moment like
when a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Nostalgy That's what I had.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All this crap. I had all this crap and this
outsourced stuff, and the pecans were being sourced in part
from Mexico.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's the version we have right now, not this.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So I was like, what do I do? This is
a hot mess. That's about when I met you. I
was like, I bought basically a brand. I bought the
trademark those stores not to get into it. They were
out of legal compliance with franchise loss. I had to
transition them to a licensing deal. A lot of them
looked really bad, so some of them I had to debrand.
So that was just a mess to clean up, and
(09:54):
I had to figure out how am I going to
make a profit. And you have to pivot. You have
to embrace change, right, That's something you talk about.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A lot, Well, I think about it. I'd always talk
about that because a lot of people. That's that fear
factor because of the fact that the question that comes
into when you were stuck here, you fought with your father, Yeah,
stuck you right, And that's a positive because you saw
a vision, he saw business. That's two different things. And
you had emotion he had. He had a calculator. And
so when you're dealing with that, people start questioning your decisions.
(10:25):
But now, when I met you, you know, you were
a dreamer. Ye didn't have a plan yet, not just
going to all of the shows selling your product. Letting
if you had the caps, you have, the stools, you
the online You was really pushing that aspect because that's
all you had.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
And we still weren't making our product right, we're still outsourcing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So that's when Rashaan met you. You know, I would
use the word bright eyed but energetic, because that's your
beautiful quality. You know, you understood one thing social media.
I love that about you. Your LinkedIn hout was on
fire because that's how I really found you. I was like,
how does she get all this engagement on LinkedIn? Talk
(11:07):
about the power of social media kind of like bringing
this brand back.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, well, social media is how any of us. It's
like the great equalizer, right, it is how people with
hustle and no budget or limited budget, you can just
get out there and you can sell your story. But
it's all about authenticity and storytelling and it's got to
come from a place of reality.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Because now we're talking about brand ladies and gentlemen. So
I'm talking about and it's great having a person who's
tied to a brand that respects the brand. Every picture
she took it it was either stuck in the background,
I'm just being real with y'all, stuck in the background.
She had the stuck your handle turned to the angle angle.
(11:54):
It was like it was like it was fascinating watching
a person whether you understood brand and not use branding
to your benefit, and everybody engaged with you because they
saw a genuine excitement about what you were doing here.
Now you were talking about ground zero here, and let's
talk about that initial hustle because I know, going out
(12:16):
there telling people buy stuckies. You tell I'm just trying
to get on shelves. I just want people to just
start respect. I just want to create relationships. That's why
I met you. Let's start the story.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, Oh so the other thing about LinkedIn. This
is borderline stalking LinkedIn. Yes, we're telling a story, we're branding,
but we're also trying to get sales, right, we're also
trying to get on shelves to your point, And so
I started following the CEOs, the category managers, the buyers,
(12:47):
the marketing directors for the businesses that I wanted to
start selling Stucky's products. So yeah, I'm stalking cases Walmart, sheets,
Thornton's wah wah, grocery store chains, Kroger right now, ingles
like so you just start kind of borderline stock them.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And that's what you're talking about right here. You said
the growth in our partnership over five thousand retailers. Now
you have five thousand, did not? So that just shows
you one und you know, five thousand retailers nationwide including
hobby lobby bales. Yeah, ingles wah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Wah, Yeah, well we are we're actually so woaha is
a learning lesson.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
We can get to that, okay. And then the Travel
Centers of America and others sell out delicious pecau and
snacks and candles. Wow, yeah, from two hundred to five thousand.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, and it's because we got a manufacturing facility, and
I got a business partner who had manufacturing acumen and
knew a lot more about finances than I did. It
was a chartnership.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Are you saying you're the face of the brand and.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
The face of the brand, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Okay, because that's what I saw. But I saw you
know it's like, you know, you sit down and talk
about braining all the time, talk about marketing all the time.
And it's so great to have you on my show.
Thank you for Cheffan you're coming on the show because
a lot of people need to understand that they We
used the word hustle and sometimes it sounds negative, but
that's what you were doing. He was hustling physically, going
(14:16):
to convention shows, putting your products out there. You was
hustling socially by tagging and posting and on LinkedIn and
things like that. But TikTok to right TikTok, And the
beauty of it was that the engagement. I'm gonna tell
you something on LinkedIn. You know LinkedIn is LinkedIn. You
(14:38):
know you can see that type of engagement on Twitter.
You can see that type of engagement on Instagram. But you
was getting thousands of used thousands of likes? What was
one in through your mind?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Just? It was encouraging. It's really really encouraging. And it's
also about having a conversation and a relationship. So it's
not just those likes. I mean, up are great, but
people call them vanity likes. What you really want is
a conversation. So I would urge people if you're trying
to up your LinkedIn game is pay attention to the comments.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Who comments on your posts?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And can you have a conversation with them and create
your post in a way that's going to invite a conversation.
What are things that I can do that will interest people?
You know, get a catchy headline and then end it
with what are some creative ideas you have for branding?
Or do you have some thoughts about ways I can
(15:36):
get my product to move off the shelves. People love
to be asked their opinion. What do you think people love?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I would tell because she's telling themselves. Short I post,
she writes a story. I mean it'd be like paragraph
I go, Wow, she's writing her story. You're telling your brand,
You're telling your emotions. What this means to you? That's
that's really compelling and I would never do that.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's also understanding the algorithm, okay, because LinkedIn rewards long
form narrative. That is their distinguishing factor, okay from Twitter,
for example, or TikTok. They want to have content that
is useful for their audience. They're the business community. So
if you are so good at this, if you say
(16:21):
three business takeaways on blah blah blah, you know, here's
some lessons on reinventing yourself, right right right, here's some
lessons on succeeding at any age, which is something I
love that you are so good at talking about and
so like take away lessons, Okay, LinkedIn's going to reward
you for that. So it's understanding the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Okay, that's important. So that's that's important to hearing that
on the show. Now, the fact that you have a product,
where was your product that when you took it over?
I'm talking as far as the sellable items that are edible.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, So the product that we were outsourcing at the
time was in those those stores that we licensed franchised
at the time, so they were about there were about
fifty licensed franchise stores at the time and we, like
I said, we debranded a bunch of them and then
just random mom and pop stores all over the place.
And so we had it, you know, maybe about two
hundred two hundred retail stores that were selling our product.
(17:17):
And we had an online site, and we bought a
manufacturing facility. So that was the big That was the
game changer, was to start manufacturing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Okay, cool, you don't grow like this alone. Talk about
the people you had to bring in to make this
mission grow, because this is about organizational structure.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Now that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You're the face, but you were willing to admit, ra Sean,
this is working. But how do I accelerate the relationship
the business side of it? Yeah? Honest, be honest.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Now, yeah, first I was the CEO because we didn't
have a CEO. Someone as well be me. We needed
someone and I was doing everything. And then I realized
if I wanted to scale, I can't do it alone.
I got a business partner who has a long standing
relationship with our family. He is the third generation pecan
farmer and his family managed his pecan business, manages our
(18:09):
pecan farm. Our This is not part of Stuckies, It's
just our family has a very small pecan farm and
his they managed that. So he's he's in the pecan business.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So he's business.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And he had a small pecan snack brand and he
was having trouble scale because it wasn't a name brand
like Stuckies. Yes, and he needed a brand. I had
a brand, but I needed expertise. And so we connect
as a marri we connected. You know, a business partnership
is a lot like a marriage. You have to choose wisely.
(18:39):
And I would say it's it's harder to get out
of than a marriage too. In most cases. Some people
made disagree with me, but you really have to choose
wisely going in. And boy did I hit.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
He had to be honest too. Product not moving. She
has a brand that is recognizable and good. By the way,
let's not forget the quality of the problem wasn't right.
But I'm telling you now fantastics.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
His name is Rgie Lamar, but cool, and.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So he came on board. Now, you know, here's the
thing about a relationship and something that like it's like
your child letting the coach take over your child and
teaching them and train them. What did you have to
give up? And was it hard to give up certain
lanes of responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh I gave up a lot. And for me, sharing
power is not giving up power, it's increasing power power.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean all of us want to train up people,
and not that I trained up RG because he came
to the table with a lot of skill sets. But
we are building a team and we really focus on
how all of our management team is supposed to be
training up the people under them to be leaders.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So I learned quickly what I was good at. I'm
good at being the face of the brand, which is
a lot of work. And I also do pitches, and
I work trade shows, and I do tastings, I do
marketing events, so it's a lot of hustle. So I'm
really good at that and that's a full time job.
And my business partner is really good at operations, innovation,
(20:35):
day to day running the company. We're equal and power
in my opinion. Although technically is chair of the board,
I could I could fire him Lee, I would like
be clinging onto his ankles, begging him not to leave
if he ever said he wanted. He's owner too, He's
we jointly own the company.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
But you're the majority because of the fact that you're women.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Are well, it's majority female. So if you have some
other women, so we have other investors.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Okay, cool, And.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So all the investment dollars combined majority female. And then
it's leadership. We haven't gotten the certification yet.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Okay, cool, you will, you will knock on fantastic yourself.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Here.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
The beauty of this conversation is, let's get to the products.
You were saying something about. You talked about trade shows,
and I was rather than off all these great stores
you're in hobby lobby, bills, ingles, travel Centers of America,
and I got to wah wah. You said that that was.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
A learning Yeah, that's a learning moment. That's a teachable moment.
So wah Wah was one I got through LinkedIn. I
did a post on how much I love wah Wah,
got the attention of their CEO, Chris Guyson's, and he said, well,
we'll give you a shot. We'll bring you into our Florida.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Barkh Where's wah located as far as the country.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, they're based in the northeast, Okay, but they have
stores in Florida and they're about to open their first
store in Georgia, Okay. And they have a cult like following.
They have amazing hogi and their coffee game is amazing,
and it's just a good brand. It's a really good brand,
and they treat their employees right and the stores just
look beautiful. So I wanted us to be part of that.
(22:11):
But here's where we went wrong. Two things. First, they
said we'll bring in one skew, one product, so just
this on a shelf is really hard to generate attention. Second,
their buyer wanted so their buyer wanted to go with
(22:32):
a different skew that wasn't our best seller, and we said, well,
we really think it should be kettle glazed. And their
buyer wanted maple, and so we went with maple. It's
not our best seller and it didn't perform well. And
then we had another shot where they said, well, we'll
let you bring in another skew, and we said the
kettle glazed. But here's the other thing with these big
(22:54):
chains is the dirty secret about retail if you're a
vendor trying to get on the shelves, you have to
pay slotting fees. Right, so it was forty K to
have one slot plus promotions. They want you to include
bake promotions into the pricing. So it's really hard to
make money sometimes. And these chains, and so when people
(23:14):
ask me, why aren't you in Walmart? Why aren't you
in some of these chains? And we want to be
in them, right, But the worst thing you can do
is to grow me. You know this. You count consult
with businesses all the time. Sometimes it's better like we're
in food line, we're in Ingles. I love those accounts.
They're in several states. Those are grocery chains, and the
(23:37):
vibe is good for us. We're in the Southeast. It's manageable.
We can fulfill production. They give us four skews. You know,
you've got to have more than one skew. So that's
the less. You gotta have more than one skew. And
don't not necessarily think being in those big national brands
are going to be the be all and all until
you're ready and.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Everybody, everybody wants to jump out there with these big brands.
But the food lines of the Krogers, the food lines
of the world. Come on now, Fresh Market of the world,
come on now. These are really really great, going do
your demos. The traffic flow, it feels friendly. The environment
of stores are smaller, Okay, so when you come in
(24:17):
you can see your customers coming through the front door.
You know what I'm saying. So this is such a
great conversation. So product wise, you know, I'm looking at
several products around and this is on audio, so I
want to make sure very visual when I'm talking. So
this is the number one brand toasted pecans.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
No, this is our newest flavor. It's called sweet and Salty, Okay,
And what I love about it is only three grams
of sugar. So the people, well people are trending to
more healthy options, but they still like their sweets. So
this is indulgent, but it's it's healthier for you, is what.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
The infamous bacon log is still out there right.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Oh my gosh, it's our number one best selling.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Now I've never had this. The Stuck gift Shop milk
chocolate pecans, the balls.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
We have milk chocolate, dark chocolate chocolate. Yeah, it looks
like the I know what you're talking about that's an
old school can come on, come on really go oh
my god. Yeah, they're really good if you put them
in popcorn. Yeah, protest little pro snacker tip. You get
that sweet, you get the salty, the crunchy. It's delish.
(25:29):
So we have a rover machine which is like a
chocolate water and you have chocolate. That's a turtle. A
turtle we call them gophers.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Right, which is very edible, Yes, very friendly to stomach. Yeah,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Those are our, Those are our. That's also trending is
the smaller pack sizes so people people still will indulge,
but they want a hundred calorie pack.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Give us a small client. That's what she does. A
little small cookies.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Little bite sized cookies and that way it's a it's
a indulgence, but it's not crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Now, what's the future, you know, because I was reading
in the magazine was projecting fifty million.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's our goal.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
This company can be a fifty million dollars year company.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Actually it's one hundred million is our goal. Now I
haven't set a date for that. But really there's no
reason why stuckies cannot be the go to pecan snack
in this country. So here's our value proposition. Right. If
you are coming out with a product, you want to
make sure that you have something special, unique that fills
(26:32):
avoid in the marketplace. All you got to offer something
different because why why would the consumer choose you if
they can already get something else that they're loyal to.
So you go to the nut aisle of America, any
any convenience store, any grocery store, your specialty shop, whatever.
What do you see? You see almonds, right, you see pistachios,
you see cashews, you see peanuts with all right, I'm
(26:54):
going to geek out. It's not a nut technically, it's
a lagoon. It's kind of an impost on the isle
said with love. I love. I love peanuts, an important
commodity in Georgia. So I love peanuts. But I'm just saying,
you see all these other nuts, right, yet the only
snack nut that is native to our country, right, the pecan.
(27:18):
Do you see it on the aisles? Do you see
a standalone pecan bag? What you see is the pecan
in a mixed nut bag fighting for space with the
brazil nut, right, or the or the hazel nut. Right.
Like You're like, where's the pecon where's the pecan? And
that to me, it is unpatriotic, It is Unamerican that
(27:42):
there is not a pecan bag stand alone on most
of the snack alls of America. And so we want
to be that. We want to be the next it nut.
Move over, pistachio. You have had your day. Pistachio has
been the it nut for like a decade. They do
so like sell. We just gotta sell more. We'll have
(28:03):
some cute commercials.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Too, you know. And I would tell you something the
I at home, I have a bag of becan half
your half from the South. Yeah, and I just love
them and I just get them off the baking aisle.
That's where I go get my nuts for bacon, because
they're on the baking aisle. And so because I know
you're absolutely right, because that's where I have to go,
I grab them when I wanted to watch a movie
(28:25):
and studying those peanuts, which will make you mad if
you know I was sitting and watching a movie eating
peanuts and not. So you know, my relationships view is
surely strong. But she's absolutely right. But again, you're branding
your story. This has been like a marketing and branding
one on one interview that I feel is going to
be so useful, not only just just people who want
(28:47):
to know where is Stucky, how I can get with
Stucky before we go online, talk about the Stuckies where
you can get your products and stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Stuckies dot com. That's the easiest stuck is with an right,
STUCKI is with an S or just google Stuckies. That
will come up and on that site you can see
where those few remaining licensed stores are if you if
you want to get that experience. And then we're working
on getting more up to date with all the different
chains that carry our product, but definitely in the Southeast,
(29:17):
Eagles Food, Lion Hobby Lobbies nationwide absolutely and so you
can at home is a nationwide chain.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
When you go to these stores Hobby Lobby Foods. Like
what products are in these.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Stores, it varies, but you'll see what we call our
core nine, our main products. So most of the stores
are going to carry the yellow bag of pecan snacks,
and they'll have the pocom log role and some of
them will also have pralines and the turtles, the milk
chocolate turtles. We also just got into Rural King and
(29:51):
we're in bomb Guar. So if your Midwest fans will
definitely recognize those brands, as are farm Hardware, which is
a really good chain for us. Like Farm Hardware is
our jam to kind of know your market right, know
who your audience is. Those folks love us. You saw
me on the farm Borough magazine cover, so go with it,
(30:12):
embrace it and we love that demographic.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I want to say thank you for coming on money
Making Conversation Masterclass, just to know when I first met
you and then the naggy is there, but you feel
more relaxed and the vision is a lot stronger the
fact that you were you had fourteen million. The goal
is one hundred million dollars annual growth revenue. That's what
money Making Conversation is all about. Yeah, you having a
good conversation with me right now.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. It's just been my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Thank you. This has been another edition of Money Making
Conversation Masterclass posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to
our guess on the show today and thank you listening
to the audience now. If you want to listen to
any episode, I want to be a guest on the show.
Visit Moneymaking conversations dot com. Our social media handle is
money Making Conversation next week and remember to always leave
(31:01):
with your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Mm hmmm
Hi.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
I'm Rashan McDonald hosts this weekly money Making Conversation master
Class show. The interviews and information that this show provides
off for everyone. It's time to stop reading other people's
success stories and start living your own. My guess is
the chair of Stuckies and you Can Snack and candy
company based in Georgia. She's also the author of Unstuck,
(00:21):
Reviving an American Icon. Please welcome to Money Making Conversation
Master Class. Stephanie Stucky. Stephanie, How you doing it?
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me
super excited.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Great. I'm sitting in my optometry get my eyes checked. Okay.
I looked out on the table. You own the front
cover of what was it a firm job.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
The Georgia Farm Bureau magazine.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
And looking good with your Stucky hat on. Oh my godness,
Cal I got and you answered, and now you're on
my show. We're being interviewed about your brand because I
think we met like in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was just starting out. I mean, I look back
on when I first talked to you and WHOA, I
was really new.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Well, you took over the control of the brand in
twenty nineteen. That's right, we talked about this brand right here. Yeah,
these are the cookies that the Pecans that changed my day.
And sometimes we used to always tend them to me
in buy them on line. I go stop stop because
they're addictive.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right, No, don't stop, don't stop. Yeah, you want them
to be delicious. Yeah, yeah, that's the whole point is
that you have to buy them.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
You know, Stuckies had been in my family. I'm originally
from Houston, Texas. Yeah, and my family is back. We
grew up in h Streetport Louisiana. So we was always
drive from Houston to Streetport, Louisiana, and you know, in
the sixties, kid, and we always felt welcome at the
Stucky brand, and it was like that what that's what
(01:52):
we stopped get our pecan log. I had to get
that pecan log thing happening. And so so just just
the nature of your grandfather, he created give us backstories
so as we evolved, because you became a chairman of
twenty and eighteen, but it started way before that, way
before tell us.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, started doing the Great Depression nineteen thirty seven and
there were no jobs to be had, and my grandfather,
like you, and me. He was an entrepreneur and there
were no jobs, so he made his own job, right,
That's what entrepreneurs do. And one thing that was plentiful
and middle Georgia even during the depression with pecans. Wow,
(02:29):
you know we are the number one state.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So it's a Georgia business.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh yeah, oh yeah. We've been in Georgia for almost
ninety years. Yeah, and one hundred percent Georgia grown. That's
why I was on the cover of the Farm Bureau magazine.
We are at our core, we are a farm brand.
Everything is sourced from Georgia farmers, right. Yeah. So he
started selling pecans out the side of the road and
then people would pull over and they'd say, where can
(02:56):
I get gas? Where can I get a quick block meal?
Where can I use the rest? Right? Like what do
you want when you're traveling? So this was before there
was Ta or Loves or BUCkies, you know, Stuckies was
the first, absolutely and he was solving problems that people have.
That's what we do as entrepreneurs. And he thought, okay,
well people need a place to pull over. So he
(03:16):
worked for a couple of years and saved up his
money and had that first store and grew into at
his peak, three hundred and seventy stores and forty states. Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
You know when you think about that, you know that
first of all, it's courageous, you know, and then you
talk about longevity, and that's the whole run because it's
his vision. And then he has a son. And so
what happened to the brand? That did they veer off?
You know, because you know, you basically revitalizing the Stuckies brand,
(03:46):
and we're going to get to that. But the fact
that I experienced it as a kid, I have so
such a positive memory. I remember when I posted about
this on my social media, everybody was just talking about
when I grew up, where I grew up. I grew up,
grew up stucky, Stucky, Stucky Stucky. So it's iconic, especially
in the African American community. And so, but what made
(04:07):
a dip? And then what was happening when it was
just sitting out there?
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Yeah, I do want to add because you said especially
in the African American community, and I love one part
of our story in particular is that Stuckies was never segregated,
and so my grandfather had the saying, every traveler is
a friend and that went well beyond just road tripping
and pulling over and being treated well. He wanted everyone
to feel like they belonged, and we did stores and
(04:34):
so that was not just a saying for him, it
was how he lived his life. And so that is
why I wanted to revive this company is because of
all the stories.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
I add that to the back there, because this was
stopping in the first class facility, you know, clean restrooms,
walking in, feeling comfortable, so like a hole in the wall,
that's right. So the gas, everything was right. And so
I want to thank your grandfather for that experience because
(05:06):
it's real positive to me. And uh, it became a
number one stop for my family. We made the trails
from Houston to Streetport, Louisiana everybody two or three times
a year or whenever we did long trips. So his
vision still has made a positive impression on me. And uh,
and I'm a fan of the food today.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Yeah, and did you get some fun souvenirs like we had,
you know, whoopee cushions.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Everything so much so because not too many because I
come from a big family, six and two brothers.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
You get one logroll and you got to slice it
up yeah, continued, but oh, I do want to say,
speaking of Stuckies in Texas, we still have a dozen
stores original stuck He's still operating. And you know who
stopped at the Stuckies in Orange, Texas, which isn't too
far from Houston.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Shaquille O'Neill, big Shan.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Stopped the Stuckies and this que little boy ask him
for a photo and he posed for it and Stuckies
is in the background. You can see the Stucky sign.
That was a good day.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
A lot of the lawschises.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Yeah, so it's licensed. So all right, So what happened
to our brand? My grandfather sold the company?
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Okay, cool?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
He made a lot of money, right, He sold it
before I was born, actually a year before I was born.
It was out of our family hands for decades and
frankly just lost its mojo under outside hands. My dad
did get it back in the mid eighties. This is
where it gets a little murky. My father was running
his own company. He ran Interstate Dairy Queen Company, a
company he founded. He had the exclusive franchise rights to
(06:39):
Dairy Queen stores on the Interstate highway system. And that's
a great I mean, talk about a great business. We're
talking about hundreds and hundreds of dairy Queen stores all
over the country, and he franchised them. He had the
exclusive franchise rights. So when he acquired Stuckies, he was
already running that and he basically just piggybacked Stuckies onto
(07:02):
what he was already doing. So the stores from that
era would be a dairy Queen with a stucky section.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Okay, so stand that and he.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
Said, and I remember fighting with him on this in
a loving way. I was in college and I said, well,
why aren't you leading with the Stuckies brand. He said, no,
it's dairy queen. Dairy Queen's what it's about. And so
Stuckies was sort of on the somewhat marginalized. But having
said that, he saved the company from completely. It would
have gone under completely. My dad gets a lot of
(07:32):
credit for what he and his team did. But they
sold their dairy queen business, okay, and twenty twelve to
Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway and then that whole infrastructure that
was supporting what was left of Stuckies was gone. Wow.
And so fast forward to twenty nineteen, it is just
a dumpster fire and the investors, which included my father,
(07:56):
but he had like seven investors and they were all
ready to sell their like, is losing money? We were
six figures in debt and.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Were they were? They were? They would say losing money?
Were they losing money on the licensing side or the
product side? What was the Give me the feel of
what Stuckies looked like at that period.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
Yes, So everything my grandfather owned was gone. The candy
plant was gone, the distribution center was gone. He had
a billboard company that was gone, trucking company gone. All
those assets were gone. All the candy was outsourced. Okay, okay,
So we had third party manufacturers, which, frankly, you know
their pros and cons to having someone else make your product.
(08:34):
I thought the quality really suffered and it's harder to
control not only quality, but your margin structure, right because
you have to pay someone else and you have to
ship it to your distribution facility, then you mark it
up and then you So it was really hard to
make those numbers work. So they were operating out of
a rented warehouse right in Eastman, Georgia. That was and
the only physical assets were it was inventory, and a
(08:59):
lot of it was really usty, Like I had six
cases of Britney Bitch t shirts. Okay, right, Like, thank
god Britney Spears made me come back. I got to
sell those out a profit. I had cases of slap bracelets,
high school musical slap bracelets and had a moment like
when a decade ago.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Nostalgy That's what I had.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
All this crap. I had all this crap and this
outsourced stuff, and the pecans were being sourced in part
from Mexico.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
That's the version we have right now, not this.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So I was like, what do I do? This is
a hot mess. That's about when I met you. I
was like, I bought basically a brand. I bought the
trademark those stores not to get into it. They were
out of legal compliance with franchise loss. I had to
transition them to a licensing deal. A lot of them
looked really bad, so some of them I had to debrand.
So that was just a mess to clean up, and
(09:54):
I had to figure out how am I going to
make a profit. And you have to pivot. You have
to embrace change, right, That's something you talk about.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
A lot, Well, I think about it. I'd always talk
about that because a lot of people. That's that fear
factor because of the fact that the question that comes
into when you were stuck here, you fought with your father, Yeah,
stuck you right, And that's a positive because you saw
a vision, he saw business. That's two different things. And
you had emotion he had. He had a calculator. And
so when you're dealing with that, people start questioning your decisions.
(10:25):
But now, when I met you, you know, you were
a dreamer. Ye didn't have a plan yet, not just
going to all of the shows selling your product. Letting
if you had the caps, you have, the stools, you
the online You was really pushing that aspect because that's
all you had.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
And we still weren't making our product right, we're still outsourcing.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
So that's when Rashaan met you. You know, I would
use the word bright eyed but energetic, because that's your
beautiful quality. You know, you understood one thing social media.
I love that about you. Your LinkedIn hout was on
fire because that's how I really found you. I was like,
how does she get all this engagement on LinkedIn? Talk
(11:07):
about the power of social media kind of like bringing
this brand back.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Yeah, well, social media is how any of us. It's
like the great equalizer, right, it is how people with
hustle and no budget or limited budget, you can just
get out there and you can sell your story. But
it's all about authenticity and storytelling and it's got to
come from a place of reality.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Because now we're talking about brand ladies and gentlemen. So
I'm talking about and it's great having a person who's
tied to a brand that respects the brand. Every picture
she took it it was either stuck in the background,
I'm just being real with y'all, stuck in the background.
She had the stuck your handle turned to the angle angle.
(11:54):
It was like it was like it was fascinating watching
a person whether you understood brand and not use branding
to your benefit, and everybody engaged with you because they
saw a genuine excitement about what you were doing here.
Now you were talking about ground zero here, and let's
talk about that initial hustle because I know, going out
(12:16):
there telling people buy stuckies. You tell I'm just trying
to get on shelves. I just want people to just
start respect. I just want to create relationships. That's why
I met you. Let's start the story.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, yeah, Oh so the other thing about LinkedIn. This
is borderline stalking LinkedIn. Yes, we're telling a story, we're branding,
but we're also trying to get sales, right, we're also
trying to get on shelves to your point, And so
I started following the CEOs, the category managers, the buyers,
(12:47):
the marketing directors for the businesses that I wanted to
start selling Stucky's products. So yeah, I'm stalking cases Walmart, sheets,
Thornton's wah wah, grocery store chains, Kroger right now, ingles
like so you just start kind of borderline stock them.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And that's what you're talking about right here. You said
the growth in our partnership over five thousand retailers. Now
you have five thousand, did not? So that just shows
you one und you know, five thousand retailers nationwide including
hobby lobby bales. Yeah, ingles wah.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Wah, Yeah, well we are we're actually so woaha is
a learning lesson.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
We can get to that, okay. And then the Travel
Centers of America and others sell out delicious pecau and
snacks and candles. Wow, yeah, from two hundred to five thousand.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, and it's because we got a manufacturing facility, and
I got a business partner who had manufacturing acumen and
knew a lot more about finances than I did. It
was a chartnership.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Are you saying you're the face of the brand and.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
The face of the brand, I'm okay with that.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Okay, because that's what I saw. But I saw you
know it's like, you know, you sit down and talk
about braining all the time, talk about marketing all the time.
And it's so great to have you on my show.
Thank you for Cheffan you're coming on the show because
a lot of people need to understand that they We
used the word hustle and sometimes it sounds negative, but
that's what you were doing. He was hustling physically, going
(14:16):
to convention shows, putting your products out there. You was
hustling socially by tagging and posting and on LinkedIn and
things like that. But TikTok to right TikTok, And the
beauty of it was that the engagement. I'm gonna tell
you something on LinkedIn. You know LinkedIn is LinkedIn. You
(14:38):
know you can see that type of engagement on Twitter.
You can see that type of engagement on Instagram. But you
was getting thousands of used thousands of likes? What was
one in through your mind?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Just? It was encouraging. It's really really encouraging. And it's
also about having a conversation and a relationship. So it's
not just those likes. I mean, up are great, but
people call them vanity likes. What you really want is
a conversation. So I would urge people if you're trying
to up your LinkedIn game is pay attention to the comments.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:13):
Who comments on your posts?
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Okay?
Speaker 1 (15:15):
And can you have a conversation with them and create
your post in a way that's going to invite a conversation.
What are things that I can do that will interest people?
You know, get a catchy headline and then end it
with what are some creative ideas you have for branding?
Or do you have some thoughts about ways I can
(15:36):
get my product to move off the shelves. People love
to be asked their opinion. What do you think people love?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
I would tell because she's telling themselves. Short I post,
she writes a story. I mean it'd be like paragraph
I go, Wow, she's writing her story. You're telling your brand,
You're telling your emotions. What this means to you? That's
that's really compelling and I would never do that.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
It's also understanding the algorithm, okay, because LinkedIn rewards long
form narrative. That is their distinguishing factor, okay from Twitter,
for example, or TikTok. They want to have content that
is useful for their audience. They're the business community. So
if you are so good at this, if you say
(16:21):
three business takeaways on blah blah blah, you know, here's
some lessons on reinventing yourself, right right right, here's some
lessons on succeeding at any age, which is something I
love that you are so good at talking about and
so like take away lessons, Okay, LinkedIn's going to reward
you for that. So it's understanding the algorithm.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Okay, that's important. So that's that's important to hearing that
on the show. Now, the fact that you have a product,
where was your product that when you took it over?
I'm talking as far as the sellable items that are edible.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Yeah, So the product that we were outsourcing at the
time was in those those stores that we licensed franchised
at the time, so they were about there were about
fifty licensed franchise stores at the time and we, like
I said, we debranded a bunch of them and then
just random mom and pop stores all over the place.
And so we had it, you know, maybe about two
hundred two hundred retail stores that were selling our product.
(17:17):
And we had an online site, and we bought a
manufacturing facility. So that was the big That was the
game changer, was to start manufacturing.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Okay, cool, you don't grow like this alone. Talk about
the people you had to bring in to make this
mission grow, because this is about organizational structure.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
Now that's right.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You're the face, but you were willing to admit, ra Sean,
this is working. But how do I accelerate the relationship
the business side of it? Yeah? Honest, be honest.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Now, yeah, first I was the CEO because we didn't
have a CEO. Someone as well be me. We needed
someone and I was doing everything. And then I realized
if I wanted to scale, I can't do it alone.
I got a business partner who has a long standing
relationship with our family. He is the third generation pecan
farmer and his family managed his pecan business, manages our
(18:09):
pecan farm. Our This is not part of Stuckies, It's
just our family has a very small pecan farm and
his they managed that. So he's he's in the pecan business.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
So he's business.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
And he had a small pecan snack brand and he
was having trouble scale because it wasn't a name brand
like Stuckies. Yes, and he needed a brand. I had
a brand, but I needed expertise. And so we connect
as a marri we connected. You know, a business partnership
is a lot like a marriage. You have to choose wisely.
(18:39):
And I would say it's it's harder to get out
of than a marriage too. In most cases. Some people
made disagree with me, but you really have to choose
wisely going in. And boy did I hit.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
He had to be honest too. Product not moving. She
has a brand that is recognizable and good. By the way,
let's not forget the quality of the problem wasn't right.
But I'm telling you now fantastics.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
His name is Rgie Lamar, but cool, and.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
So he came on board. Now, you know, here's the
thing about a relationship and something that like it's like
your child letting the coach take over your child and
teaching them and train them. What did you have to
give up? And was it hard to give up certain
lanes of responsibilities.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Oh I gave up a lot. And for me, sharing
power is not giving up power, it's increasing power power.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
I mean all of us want to train up people,
and not that I trained up RG because he came
to the table with a lot of skill sets. But
we are building a team and we really focus on
how all of our management team is supposed to be
training up the people under them to be leaders.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Please don't go anywhere, We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass hosted by Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (20:11):
So I learned quickly what I was good at. I'm
good at being the face of the brand, which is
a lot of work. And I also do pitches, and
I work trade shows, and I do tastings, I do
marketing events, so it's a lot of hustle. So I'm
really good at that and that's a full time job.
And my business partner is really good at operations, innovation,
(20:35):
day to day running the company. We're equal and power
in my opinion. Although technically is chair of the board,
I could I could fire him Lee, I would like
be clinging onto his ankles, begging him not to leave
if he ever said he wanted. He's owner too, He's
we jointly own the company.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
But you're the majority because of the fact that you're women.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Are well, it's majority female. So if you have some
other women, so we have other investors.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Okay, cool, And.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
So all the investment dollars combined majority female. And then
it's leadership. We haven't gotten the certification yet.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
Okay, cool, you will, you will knock on fantastic yourself.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Here.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
The beauty of this conversation is, let's get to the products.
You were saying something about. You talked about trade shows,
and I was rather than off all these great stores
you're in hobby lobby, bills, ingles, travel Centers of America,
and I got to wah wah. You said that that was.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
A learning Yeah, that's a learning moment. That's a teachable moment.
So wah Wah was one I got through LinkedIn. I
did a post on how much I love wah Wah,
got the attention of their CEO, Chris Guyson's, and he said, well,
we'll give you a shot. We'll bring you into our Florida.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Barkh Where's wah located as far as the country.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Well, they're based in the northeast, Okay, but they have
stores in Florida and they're about to open their first
store in Georgia, Okay. And they have a cult like following.
They have amazing hogi and their coffee game is amazing,
and it's just a good brand. It's a really good brand,
and they treat their employees right and the stores just
look beautiful. So I wanted us to be part of that.
(22:11):
But here's where we went wrong. Two things. First, they
said we'll bring in one skew, one product, so just
this on a shelf is really hard to generate attention. Second,
their buyer wanted so their buyer wanted to go with
(22:32):
a different skew that wasn't our best seller, and we said, well,
we really think it should be kettle glazed. And their
buyer wanted maple, and so we went with maple. It's
not our best seller and it didn't perform well. And
then we had another shot where they said, well, we'll
let you bring in another skew, and we said the
kettle glazed. But here's the other thing with these big
(22:54):
chains is the dirty secret about retail if you're a
vendor trying to get on the shelves, you have to
pay slotting fees. Right, so it was forty K to
have one slot plus promotions. They want you to include
bake promotions into the pricing. So it's really hard to
make money sometimes. And these chains, and so when people
(23:14):
ask me, why aren't you in Walmart? Why aren't you
in some of these chains? And we want to be
in them, right, But the worst thing you can do
is to grow me. You know this. You count consult
with businesses all the time. Sometimes it's better like we're
in food line, we're in Ingles. I love those accounts.
They're in several states. Those are grocery chains, and the
(23:37):
vibe is good for us. We're in the Southeast. It's manageable.
We can fulfill production. They give us four skews. You know,
you've got to have more than one skew. So that's
the less. You gotta have more than one skew. And
don't not necessarily think being in those big national brands
are going to be the be all and all until
you're ready and.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Everybody, everybody wants to jump out there with these big brands.
But the food lines of the Krogers, the food lines
of the world. Come on now, Fresh Market of the world,
come on now. These are really really great, going do
your demos. The traffic flow, it feels friendly. The environment
of stores are smaller, Okay, so when you come in
(24:17):
you can see your customers coming through the front door.
You know what I'm saying. So this is such a
great conversation. So product wise, you know, I'm looking at
several products around and this is on audio, so I
want to make sure very visual when I'm talking. So
this is the number one brand toasted pecans.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
No, this is our newest flavor. It's called sweet and Salty, Okay,
And what I love about it is only three grams
of sugar. So the people, well people are trending to
more healthy options, but they still like their sweets. So
this is indulgent, but it's it's healthier for you, is what.
Speaker 2 (24:55):
The infamous bacon log is still out there right.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Oh my gosh, it's our number one best selling.
Speaker 2 (25:01):
Now I've never had this. The Stuck gift Shop milk
chocolate pecans, the balls.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
We have milk chocolate, dark chocolate chocolate. Yeah, it looks
like the I know what you're talking about that's an
old school can come on, come on really go oh
my god. Yeah, they're really good if you put them
in popcorn. Yeah, protest little pro snacker tip. You get
that sweet, you get the salty, the crunchy. It's delish.
(25:29):
So we have a rover machine which is like a
chocolate water and you have chocolate. That's a turtle. A
turtle we call them gophers.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
Right, which is very edible, Yes, very friendly to stomach. Yeah,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (25:43):
Those are our, Those are our. That's also trending is
the smaller pack sizes so people people still will indulge,
but they want a hundred calorie pack.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
Give us a small client. That's what she does. A
little small cookies.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Little bite sized cookies and that way it's a it's
a indulgence, but it's not crazy.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
Now, what's the future, you know, because I was reading
in the magazine was projecting fifty million.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
That's our goal.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
This company can be a fifty million dollars year company.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
Actually it's one hundred million is our goal. Now I
haven't set a date for that. But really there's no
reason why stuckies cannot be the go to pecan snack
in this country. So here's our value proposition. Right. If
you are coming out with a product, you want to
make sure that you have something special, unique that fills
(26:32):
avoid in the marketplace. All you got to offer something
different because why why would the consumer choose you if
they can already get something else that they're loyal to.
So you go to the nut aisle of America, any
any convenience store, any grocery store, your specialty shop, whatever.
What do you see? You see almonds, right, you see pistachios,
you see cashews, you see peanuts with all right, I'm
(26:54):
going to geek out. It's not a nut technically, it's
a lagoon. It's kind of an impost on the isle
said with love. I love. I love peanuts, an important
commodity in Georgia. So I love peanuts. But I'm just saying,
you see all these other nuts, right, yet the only
snack nut that is native to our country, right, the pecan.
(27:18):
Do you see it on the aisles? Do you see
a standalone pecan bag? What you see is the pecan
in a mixed nut bag fighting for space with the
brazil nut, right, or the or the hazel nut. Right.
Like You're like, where's the pecon where's the pecan? And
that to me, it is unpatriotic, It is Unamerican that
(27:42):
there is not a pecan bag stand alone on most
of the snack alls of America. And so we want
to be that. We want to be the next it nut.
Move over, pistachio. You have had your day. Pistachio has
been the it nut for like a decade. They do
so like sell. We just gotta sell more. We'll have
(28:03):
some cute commercials.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Too, you know. And I would tell you something the
I at home, I have a bag of becan half
your half from the South. Yeah, and I just love
them and I just get them off the baking aisle.
That's where I go get my nuts for bacon, because
they're on the baking aisle. And so because I know
you're absolutely right, because that's where I have to go,
I grab them when I wanted to watch a movie
(28:25):
and studying those peanuts, which will make you mad if
you know I was sitting and watching a movie eating
peanuts and not. So you know, my relationships view is
surely strong. But she's absolutely right. But again, you're branding
your story. This has been like a marketing and branding
one on one interview that I feel is going to
be so useful, not only just just people who want
(28:47):
to know where is Stucky, how I can get with
Stucky before we go online, talk about the Stuckies where
you can get your products and stuff.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Stuckies dot com. That's the easiest stuck is with an right,
STUCKI is with an S or just google Stuckies. That
will come up and on that site you can see
where those few remaining licensed stores are if you if
you want to get that experience. And then we're working
on getting more up to date with all the different
chains that carry our product, but definitely in the Southeast,
(29:17):
Eagles Food, Lion Hobby Lobbies nationwide absolutely and so you
can at home is a nationwide chain.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
When you go to these stores Hobby Lobby Foods. Like
what products are in these.
Speaker 1 (29:31):
Stores, it varies, but you'll see what we call our
core nine, our main products. So most of the stores
are going to carry the yellow bag of pecan snacks,
and they'll have the pocom log role and some of
them will also have pralines and the turtles, the milk
chocolate turtles. We also just got into Rural King and
(29:51):
we're in bomb Guar. So if your Midwest fans will
definitely recognize those brands, as are farm Hardware, which is
a really good chain for us. Like Farm Hardware is
our jam to kind of know your market right, know
who your audience is. Those folks love us. You saw
me on the farm Borough magazine cover, so go with it,
(30:12):
embrace it and we love that demographic.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
I want to say thank you for coming on money
Making Conversation Masterclass, just to know when I first met
you and then the naggy is there, but you feel
more relaxed and the vision is a lot stronger the
fact that you were you had fourteen million. The goal
is one hundred million dollars annual growth revenue. That's what
money Making Conversation is all about. Yeah, you having a
good conversation with me right now.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. It's just been my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
Thank you. This has been another edition of Money Making
Conversation Masterclass posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to
our guess on the show today and thank you listening
to the audience now. If you want to listen to
any episode, I want to be a guest on the show.
Visit Moneymaking conversations dot com. Our social media handle is
money Making Conversation next week and remember to always leave
(31:01):
with your gifts. Keep winning.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
Mm hmmm
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.