September 3, 2024 • 36 mins
Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald, interviewed Stephanie Stuckey. The Chair of Stuckey’s. A pecan snack and candy company based in Wrens, GA. She is also the author of “Unstuck: Reviving an American Icon.” Stuckey’s growth lies in their partnership with almost 5,000 retailers nationwide that sell their delicious pecan snacks and candies.
Questions About the Company’s History and Legacy:
- Stuckey's has such a rich history. Can you share what initially inspired the rebirth of the brand after all these years?
- How does social media on LinkedIn work?
- The Power of Marketing and Branding.
- What strategies did you implement to turn Stuckey’s around and bring it back to the forefront of the market?
- Acquiring a pecan manufacturing facility was a major step. How has owning this facility impacted your product offerings and business growth?
- What role does innovation play in the resurgence of Stuckey’s, especially in terms of product development and marketing?
Questions About Branding and Marketing:
- Stuckey’s is known for its nostalgic appeal. How do you balance honoring that nostalgia while also appealing to modern consumers?
- How important has social media and digital marketing been in the rebirth of Stuckey’s?
Questions About Leadership and Vision:
- What’s your long-term vision for Stuckey’s, and how do you plan to continue the momentum you’ve built?
- What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs wanting to start their own business?
Questions About Partnerships and Community:
- How have partnerships with retailers and other brands contributed to the comeback of Stuckey’s?
- Stuckey’s has deep roots in Georgia. How important has the local community been in your company’s resurgence?
- Can you share any upcoming collaborations or new product launches that will be part of Stuckey’s comeback story?
It all started with a borrowed Model A Ford and a $35 loan
With that, W.S. “Sylvester” Stuckey, Sr. founded Stuckey’s as a roadside pecan stand along Highway 23 in Eastman, GA in 1937. With that Ford that he retrofitted to haul pecans and the loan (from his grandmother), W.S. drove around the countryside and bought pecans from local farmers to sell at his stand, along with local honey and souvenirs. His wife, Ethel, added her delicious homemade candies – southern delicacies like pralines, Divinities, and our iconic Pecan Log Rolls.
Through grit and determination, the Stuckeys grew the stores from these humble beginnings to a roadside empire. At its peak in the 1960s, the little pecan company had become an integral part of the American road trip. It boasted 368 stores in over 30 states, each offering kitschy souvenirs, clean restrooms, Texaco gas, and of course, our famous candies.
Stuckey’s also owned a candy plant in Eastman to allow for larger production of sweet treats, a trucking company, and a sign company that produced the 4,000 Stuckey’s billboards that dotted America’s highways. Stuckey’s merged with Pet Milk Co. in 1964 to add capacity and capital for the company to grow.
Decline and Rebound
W.S. Stuckey, Sr. died in 1977, the same year that Illinois Central Industries, a Chicago conglomerate, bought Pet Milk Co., and they began to close Stuckey’s stores across the country. Stuckey’s fell into a decline until 1984 when W.S. “Billy” Stuckey, Jr., son of the founder and a five-term Congressman from the 8th District of Georgia, acquired Stuckey’s and began to turn the company around.
Under Billy’s helm, the Stuckey’s Express concept – or a store within a store – was launched, and the company expanded to over 115 franchises in 17 states. The Eastman candy plant continued operations by a third-party contractor but was shuttered in 2009 during the Recession, although Stuckey’s branded candies continued to be produced by outside vendors.
In November of 2019, Ethel “Stephanie” Stuckey, Billy’s daughter, took over as CEO of Stuckey’s. In August of 2020, Stuckey’s acquired Front Porch Pecans, a pecan snack company that sells to domestic and foreign markets, including grocery channels in the Southeast U.S. With this merger, Stuckey’s gained management support with R.G. Lamar as new President to run Stuckey’s with Stephanie.
In January of 2021, Stephanie and R.G. acquired a pecan manufacturing facility in Wrens, Georgia to drive growth of the company through snack and candy making. Later that year, they added a third equity owner, Ted Wright, a marketing professional based in Atlanta.
Today, Stuckey’s is making a comeback, thanks to reinventing the brand as a pecan snack and candy company. They are once again making the d
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show. I'm Rashan McDonald, the host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald host 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
(00:47):
your own. My guest is the chair of Stuckies It
you can snack and candy company based in Georgia. She's
also the author of Unstuck, Reviving an American Icon. Please
welcome to Mighty Making Conversation Master Class. Stephanie Stucky Stephanie,
how you doing it?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
I'm super excited.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
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 jump from.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The Georgia Farm Bureau magazine and looking.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Good which is Stucky Hat.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh my god, this is my car.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I got that 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 2 (01:32):
I was just starting out. I mean I look back
on when I first talked to you, and whoa, I
was really new.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, you took over the control of the brand in twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Nineteen, that's right, end of twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You were talking about this brand right here. Yeah, these
are the cookies that the cons that changed my day
song and sometimes we used to always tell them to
me and buy them online. I go, stop, stop because
they're addictive, right.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
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 1 (02:07):
You know, Stuckys has been in our family. I'm originally
from Houston, Texas. Yeah, and my family is back. We
grew up in 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's what we stopped. Get our pecan
(02:28):
log I had to get that pecan law thing happening.
And so so just just the nature of your grandfather
he created give us backstories, so we as we evolved
because you became a chairman of twenty and eighteen. But
it started way before that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Way before tell us. Yeah, started during 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
(03:03):
with pecans. Wow, you know we are the number one
state business. 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.
(03:25):
So he started selling pecans out the side of the
road and then people would pull over, and they'd say,
where can I get gas? Where can I get a
quick clott meal? Where can I use the restroom? 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 he was solving
problems that people have. That's what we do as entrepreneurs.
(03:48):
And he thought, okay, well people need a place to
pull over. So he 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
stes and forty states.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Wow. 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 they made to
veer off? You know, because you know, you basically revitalizing
the Stuckies brand, and we're going to get to that.
(04:23):
But the fact that I experienced it as a kid,
I have so such 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. I grew up stucky, Stucky, Stucky Stucky.
So it's iconic, especially in the African American community. And
so but what made a dip and then what was
(04:45):
happening when it was just sitting out there?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
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 the stores
(05:09):
and 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 I.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Would say, that was just to add that to the
back there, because this was stopping in the first class facility,
you know, clean restrooms, walking in, feeling comfortable. So it
was like a hole in the wall, that's right, and
so the gas, everything was right. And so I want
to thank your grandfather for that experience because It's real
(05:42):
positive to me. And 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 2 (06:00):
Yeah, and did you get some fun souvenirs like we had,
you know, whoopee cushions.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Everything so much so because I come from a big family,
six brothers.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You get one log roll and you got to slice
it up.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But oh, I do want to say, speaking of Stuckies
in Texas, we still have a dozen stores original Stucky
still operating. And you know who just stopped at the
Stuckies in Orange, Texas, which isn't too far from Houston.
Shaquille O'Neill stopped the Stuckies and this cute little boy
asking for a photo and he posed for it and
(06:38):
Stuckies is in the background. You can see the Stucky son.
That was a good day.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
A lot of franchises.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, so it's licensed. So all right, So what happened
to our brand? My grandfather sold the company, okol He
made a lot of money. 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
(07:09):
own company. He ran Interstate Dairy Queen Company, a company
he founded. He had the exclusive franchise rights to 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
(07:29):
franchise rights. So when he acquired Stuckies, he was already
running that and he basically just piggybacked Stuckies onto what
he was already doing. So the stores from that era
would be a Dairy Queen with the Stucky section.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, okay, so understand that.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And he 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 marginal.
But having said that, he saved the company from completely
it would have gone under completely. My dad gets a
(08:07):
lot of credit for what he and his team did.
But they sold their dairy queen business okay, and twenty
twelve to Warren Buffett Borkshire Hathaway, and then that whole
infrastructure that was supporting what was left of Stuckies was gone.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And so fast forward to twenty nineteen, it is just
a dumpster fire. And the investors which included my father,
but he had like seven investors and they were all
ready to sell their like, this is losing money. We
were six figures in debt.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And were they were they when 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 2 (08:49):
Yeah, 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, so
we had third party manufacturers, which frankly, you know they're
pros and cons to having someone else make your product.
(09:09):
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
(09:34):
lot of it was really dusty. 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 1 (09:55):
So nostalgy, that's what I.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Had, All this crap at all this crap and this
outsourced stuff, and the pecans were being sourced in part
from Mexico.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That's the version we have right now. Not this okay cool?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
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, right, I thought
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.
(10:30):
And I had to figure out how am I going
to make a profit? Right, And you have to pivot.
You have to embrace change, right, That's something you talk
about a lot. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, hosted by
Rashan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, I think about it. I'd always talk about that
because a lot of people that's that fear factor because
and the fact that the question that comes into you
were stuck and you fought with your father. Yeah, stuck
you right, Well 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. But now,
(11:19):
when I met you, you know, you were a dreamer,
didn't have a plan yet 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, and we.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Still weren't making our product right, We're still outsourcing.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
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 loved that about you. Your LinkedIn account was on
fire because that's how I really found you. I was like,
how does she get all this engagement on LinkedIn? Talk
(11:59):
about the power of social media kind of like bringing
this brand back.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
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 1 (12:25):
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 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, turned
(12:46):
the angle. It was like it was like it was
fascinating watching a person, whether you understood branded or 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
(13:08):
going out there telling people buy Stuckies, you tell trying
to get on shelves. I just want people to just
starve respect. I just want to create relationships. That's why
I met you. Let's start the story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
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,
(13:40):
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, right, grocery store chains, Kroger, Eagles like,
so you just start kind of borderline stalk them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And that's what you're talking about right here. You said
the growth in our partnership over five thousand retailers. Now
eighteen you have five thousand. So that just shows you one,
you know, five thousand retailers nationwide including hobby lobby bales, Yeah, ingles, wah.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Wah, yeah, well we are we're actually so woaha. Is
a learning lesson.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
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 2 (14:32):
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. Was
a chartnership.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Are you saying you're the face of.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The brain and the face of the brand.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I'm okay with that, okay, because that's what I saw. Yeah,
but I saw you know. It's like, you know, you
sit down and I 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 coming on the show because a lot of people
need to understand that we used the word hustle and
sometimes it sounds negative, but that's what you were doing. Yeah,
(15:07):
he was hustling physically, going 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
(15:29):
know LinkedIn is LinkedIn. You know you can see that
type of engagement on Twitter. You can see that type
engagement on Instagram. But you was getting thousands of used,
thousands of likes. What was one it in your mind?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
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, the thumbs 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
(16:04):
the comments. Who comments on your posts? Okay, 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?
(16:25):
Or do you have some thoughts about ways I can
get my product to move off the shelves. People love
to be asked their opinion. What do you think people love?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I would 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 2 (16:53):
It's also understanding the algorithm. Okay, because LinkedIn rewards long
form narrative. That is their distinct pushing 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
(17:13):
say 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 takeaway lessons. Okay, LinkedIn's going to reward
you for that. So it's understanding the algorithm.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
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 2 (17:46):
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've, like
I said, debranded a bunch of them and then just
random mom and pop stores all over the place. And
so we had, you know, maybe about two hundred two
(18:08):
hundred retail stores that were selling our product, and we
had an online site. And our sales back when I
bought the company were a little over two million and
they're now at fourteen million.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, and I just knuckle knocked with audio wise.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And that's for our team too, because and we've grown
from When I bought the company, it was five, yeah,
five full time employees, and today we're about forty five.
We're hiring. We're hiring up right now at the Candy Plane.
And we bought a manufacturing facility. So that was the
big That was the game changer, was to start manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
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 2 (18:56):
Now, that's right, you're.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
The face, but you were willing name meet Rashan. This
is working. But how do I accelerate the relationship the
business side of it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
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 pecan farm.
(19:31):
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. So
he's in the business 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.
(19:53):
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. And I would say it's it's
harder to get out of than a marriage too. In
most cases. Some people may disagree with me, but you
really have to choose wisely going in. And boy did I.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I like the fact first you had to be honest too.
Product's not moving. She has a brand that's recognizable and good.
By the way, let's not forget the quality of the product. Right.
But I'm telling you now this is fantastics.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
His name is Argie Lamar.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But and 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 2 (20:48):
Oh? I gave up a lot and for me, sharing
power is not giving up power, it's increasing power power.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
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. And
in fact, just this morning and we were on our
(21:19):
weekly production call and two of our production workers at
the candy plant have been promoted a shift leader internally,
you know. So it's all about bringing that up. Please
don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
Rashaan MacDonald.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
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, right,
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,
(22:11):
day to day running the company right and so that's
what he does. And a year ago I sat down
with him. It was actually my idea, and I said,
you should be CEO. Wow, and I'll be. At first
I said, well, I'll be the chief branding officer. And
we were a little concerned that that didn't sound high
up enough. And also, we're frankly applying to be a
(22:32):
women owned brand, and so for women owned, the female
has to be the top. And so the chair of
the board has the authority to hire and fire everyone
right in the company, and so we had to have
that set forth so we would we're equal and power
in my opinion, although technically share of the board, I
(22:55):
could I could fire him. God Lee, I would like
be clinging on to his ankles begging him not to
leave if he ever said he wanted owner too. He's
we jointly owned the company.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But you but you're the majority because of the fact that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You're women, are well, it's majority female. So if you
have some other women, so we have other investors, okay, cool,
and so all the investment dollars combined majority female, and
then it's leadership. We haven't gotten the certification yet.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Okay, cool, you will you will knock on fantastic yourself.
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 rathering off all these great stories. You're
in hobby lobby bills, angles, travel Centers of America, and
I got to wah Wah. You said, that's that was
a learning Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
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 bark.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Where where's wah located as far as the country.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
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, and they have a cult like following.
They have amazing hogis 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
looked beautiful. So I wanted us to be part of that.
(24:24):
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 and they wanted us. So their buyer wanted
to go with a different skew that wasn't our best seller,
(24:48):
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 chains is the dirty secret about retail.
(25:09):
If you're a vendor trying to get on the shelves,
you have to pay slotting fees. 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 ask me, why aren't you in Walmart? Why
(25:30):
aren't you in some of these chains, and we want
to be in them, but the worst thing you can
do is to grow.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know this because you count.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
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 are in several states. There's are grocery chains and
the 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.
(26:00):
So that's the lesson. You can 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 then
all until you're ready.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And everybody I wants to do that. Everybody wants to
jump out there with these big brands. And it's all
positive to say, I want to. I'm in Walmart, I'm
in Target. But the food lines of the Krogers, the
food lines of the world, come on now, fresh markets
of the world, come on now, these are really really great.
Going do your demos. The traffic flow, it feels friendly.
(26:29):
The environment of stores are smaller, Okay, so when you
come in 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 the cons No,
(26:50):
this is.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Our newest flavor. It's called sweet and Salty, okay, And
what I love about is only three grams of sugar.
So the true people, well people are trending to more
healthy options, but they still like their suites. So this
is indulgent, but it's it's healthier for you, is what
we like to see.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
The infamous pecan law is still out there right.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh my gosh, it's our number one best seller. It's
our signal bringing that to the house today because I'm
out of them. You got to come visit our you know, Rands, Georgia,
southside of Augusta. They have a little golf tournament.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
There and we are all the masters.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Right right, the masters there. We are about to get
online are our production for the pecan lag rolls at
a massive scale. So we've got a new machine that
will enable us to make ten times more than that. Really,
(27:54):
it's going to greatly expand our production capacity of the
log roll and Once we get that going, we'll be
able to start experimenting with the newgat So we're not
going to do the New Coke right debacle. Right, that
was a big mistake. We all learn from New Coke.
We're going to have the original pecan, We'll always always
sell that, but we're going to experiment.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Now, I've never had this. The stuck his gift shop
milk chocolate pecans. These balls.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
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 good. 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.
(28:44):
So we have a a Rover machine, which is like
a chocolate water. You have chocolate that's a turtle.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
A turtle.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We call them gopherst right, which is.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Very edible, Yes, very friendly to stomach. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Those are our, Those are our. That's also trending is
the smaller pack sizes. Yes, so people people still will indulge,
but they want a hundred calorie pack.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Give us a smaller client. That's what she does, A
little small cookies, little.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Bite sized cookies and that way, it's a it's an indulgence,
but it's not crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
You know, I want to talk about you brought something
from me to sample?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yes, I want your honest opinions.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Okay, this is a new product described to audience what
it is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So this is a collapse. So if any foody entrepreneurs
are listening, we are all about collapse. I think that's
the way you grow stronger together. Partnerships are very powerful.
So this is my friend Molly Blakelee and she goes
by molly Bees, molly Bee's cookies. She won the Golden
ticket for Walmart last year. She is rocking it and
she makes boozy cookies. Okay, and it's not boozy crazy flavors. Yes,
(29:50):
this is not. So. She and I started talking about
doing a peconlog roal cookie and we have pitched this
to convenience store chain and their innovation summit, and it
would be awesome if we get selected, we'll see, but
we are pitching it as an exclusive to them, so
if they pick that up, that will be the only
(30:11):
community store chain where you could buy that. And if
they don't pick it up, then we'll be selling it
all over.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
First of all, I'm gonna give my taste today, yes,
and then I'm going down to Rans Georgia to your
team can film they I should bring. I know Marcus,
you want to travel Marco, he's my number one eater.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He's okay, and we have a Marcus too.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
He's the number one eater right there. Now, I'll tell
you that Casey over there, he's fankey.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
All right, came on, came on. I want you to
all trying the product. But what you a taste test
I brought several.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Interview is over with. Now what's the future? You know,
because I was reading the magazine was projecting fifty million fourteen.
Now that this company can be a fifty million dollars
a year company.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
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 pecansnack 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 avoid
(31:20):
in the marketplace. It you got to offer something different
because 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 convenience store,
any grocery store, your specialty shop, whatever. What do you see?
You see almonds, you see pistachios, you see cashews, you
(31:40):
see peanuts. With all right, I'm going to geek out.
It's not a nut technically, it's a lagoon. It's kind
of an impostor on the nut aisle said with love,
I love I love peanuts, 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
(32:01):
is native to our country the pecan. Do you see
it on the aisles? Do you see a standalone pecanbag?
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
(32:22):
the pecon? Where's the pecan? And and that to me
is all right. So I'm going to try not to
be too on a political rant this political season. Everyone's
very divisive, but like it is unpatriotic it is un
American that there is not a pecan bag stand alone
(32:43):
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 got to sell more.
We'll have some cue commercials too, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And I will 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 Bacan 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 and studying those peanuts,
(33:23):
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 to people who want to know where
(33:44):
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 2 (33:51):
Stuckies dot com. That's the easiest. Stuckies with an S,
right Stuckies with an S or just google Stuckies that
will come up and on that site you can see
where those few remaining license 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,
(34:13):
Engles Food Lion Hobby Lobby is nationwide absolutely, and so
you can at home is the nationwide chain.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
When you go to these stores Hobby Lobby Foods. Like
what products are in these.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
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 pocan 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
(34:47):
we're in Bombguar, So if your Midwest fans will definitely
recognize those brands this are Farm Hardware, which is a
really good chain for us, Like Farm Hardware is our jam.
I just got back from the Ace Hardware Show and
then I'm headed to True Value and do it best
to kind of know your market right know who your
audience is. Those folks love us. You saw me on
(35:10):
the farm Borough magazine cover, so go with it, embrace
it and we love that demographic.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I want to say thank you for coming on Money
Making Conversation Masterclass, just to know when I first met
you and then the nGy is there, but you feel
more relaxed and the vision is a lot stronger. The
fact that you were you had fourteen million the goals
one hundred million dollars annual growth revenue. That's what money
Making Conversation is all about. Yeah, you're having a good
conversation with me right now.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. It's just been my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
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. I'll
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 Conversations. Join us next week and
(36:01):
remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
Welcome to the show. I'm Rashan McDonald, the host of
Money Making Conversations Masterclass, where we encourage people to stop
reading other people's success stories and start planning their own.
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making
(00:25):
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I'm Rashan McDonald host 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
(00:47):
your own. My guest is the chair of Stuckies It
you can snack and candy company based in Georgia. She's
also the author of Unstuck, Reviving an American Icon. Please
welcome to Mighty Making Conversation Master Class. Stephanie Stucky Stephanie,
how you doing it?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me.
I'm super excited.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
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 jump from.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
The Georgia Farm Bureau magazine and looking.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Good which is Stucky Hat.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
Oh my god, this is my car.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I got that 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 2 (01:32):
I was just starting out. I mean I look back
on when I first talked to you, and whoa, I
was really new.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
Well, you took over the control of the brand in twenty.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Nineteen, that's right, end of twenty nine.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
You were talking about this brand right here. Yeah, these
are the cookies that the cons that changed my day
song and sometimes we used to always tell them to
me and buy them online. I go, stop, stop because
they're addictive, right.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
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 1 (02:07):
You know, Stuckys has been in our family. I'm originally
from Houston, Texas. Yeah, and my family is back. We
grew up in 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's what we stopped. Get our pecan
(02:28):
log I had to get that pecan law thing happening.
And so so just just the nature of your grandfather
he created give us backstories, so we as we evolved
because you became a chairman of twenty and eighteen. But
it started way before that.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
Way before tell us. Yeah, started during 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
(03:03):
with pecans. Wow, you know we are the number one
state business. 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.
(03:25):
So he started selling pecans out the side of the
road and then people would pull over, and they'd say,
where can I get gas? Where can I get a
quick clott meal? Where can I use the restroom? 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 he was solving
problems that people have. That's what we do as entrepreneurs.
(03:48):
And he thought, okay, well people need a place to
pull over. So he 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
stes and forty states.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Wow. 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 they made to
veer off? You know, because you know, you basically revitalizing
the Stuckies brand, and we're going to get to that.
(04:23):
But the fact that I experienced it as a kid,
I have so such 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. I grew up stucky, Stucky, Stucky Stucky.
So it's iconic, especially in the African American community. And
so but what made a dip and then what was
(04:45):
happening when it was just sitting out there?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
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 the stores
(05:09):
and 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 I.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Would say, that was just to add that to the
back there, because this was stopping in the first class facility,
you know, clean restrooms, walking in, feeling comfortable. So it
was like a hole in the wall, that's right, and
so the gas, everything was right. And so I want
to thank your grandfather for that experience because It's real
(05:42):
positive to me. And 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 2 (06:00):
Yeah, and did you get some fun souvenirs like we had,
you know, whoopee cushions.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Everything so much so because I come from a big family,
six brothers.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
You get one log roll and you got to slice
it up.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
But oh, I do want to say, speaking of Stuckies
in Texas, we still have a dozen stores original Stucky
still operating. And you know who just stopped at the
Stuckies in Orange, Texas, which isn't too far from Houston.
Shaquille O'Neill stopped the Stuckies and this cute little boy
asking for a photo and he posed for it and
(06:38):
Stuckies is in the background. You can see the Stucky son.
That was a good day.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
A lot of franchises.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Yeah, so it's licensed. So all right, So what happened
to our brand? My grandfather sold the company, okol He
made a lot of money. 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
(07:09):
own company. He ran Interstate Dairy Queen Company, a company
he founded. He had the exclusive franchise rights to 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
(07:29):
franchise rights. So when he acquired Stuckies, he was already
running that and he basically just piggybacked Stuckies onto what
he was already doing. So the stores from that era
would be a Dairy Queen with the Stucky section.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Okay, okay, so understand that.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
And he 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 marginal.
But having said that, he saved the company from completely
it would have gone under completely. My dad gets a
(08:07):
lot of credit for what he and his team did.
But they sold their dairy queen business okay, and twenty
twelve to Warren Buffett Borkshire Hathaway, and then that whole
infrastructure that was supporting what was left of Stuckies was gone.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
And so fast forward to twenty nineteen, it is just
a dumpster fire. And the investors which included my father,
but he had like seven investors and they were all
ready to sell their like, this is losing money. We
were six figures in debt.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
And were they were they when 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 2 (08:49):
Yeah, 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, so
we had third party manufacturers, which frankly, you know they're
pros and cons to having someone else make your product.
(09:09):
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
(09:34):
lot of it was really dusty. 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 1 (09:55):
So nostalgy, that's what I.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
Had, All this crap at all this crap and this
outsourced stuff, and the pecans were being sourced in part
from Mexico.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
That's the version we have right now. Not this okay cool?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
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, right, I thought
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.
(10:30):
And I had to figure out how am I going
to make a profit? Right, And you have to pivot.
You have to embrace change, right, That's something you talk
about a lot. Please don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, hosted by
Rashan McDonald.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Well, I think about it. I'd always talk about that
because a lot of people that's that fear factor because
and the fact that the question that comes into you
were stuck and you fought with your father. Yeah, stuck
you right, Well 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. But now,
(11:19):
when I met you, you know, you were a dreamer,
didn't have a plan yet 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, and we.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
Still weren't making our product right, We're still outsourcing.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
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 loved that about you. Your LinkedIn account was on
fire because that's how I really found you. I was like,
how does she get all this engagement on LinkedIn? Talk
(11:59):
about the power of social media kind of like bringing
this brand back.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
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 1 (12:25):
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 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, turned
(12:46):
the angle. It was like it was like it was
fascinating watching a person, whether you understood branded or 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
(13:08):
going out there telling people buy Stuckies, you tell trying
to get on shelves. I just want people to just
starve respect. I just want to create relationships. That's why
I met you. Let's start the story.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
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,
(13:40):
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, right, grocery store chains, Kroger, Eagles like,
so you just start kind of borderline stalk them.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
And that's what you're talking about right here. You said
the growth in our partnership over five thousand retailers. Now
eighteen you have five thousand. So that just shows you one,
you know, five thousand retailers nationwide including hobby lobby bales, Yeah, ingles, wah.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
Wah, yeah, well we are we're actually so woaha. Is
a learning lesson.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
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 2 (14:32):
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. Was
a chartnership.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Are you saying you're the face of.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The brain and the face of the brand.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
I'm okay with that, okay, because that's what I saw. Yeah,
but I saw you know. It's like, you know, you
sit down and I 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 coming on the show because a lot of people
need to understand that we used the word hustle and
sometimes it sounds negative, but that's what you were doing. Yeah,
(15:07):
he was hustling physically, going 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
(15:29):
know LinkedIn is LinkedIn. You know you can see that
type of engagement on Twitter. You can see that type
engagement on Instagram. But you was getting thousands of used,
thousands of likes. What was one it in your mind?
Speaker 2 (15:43):
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, the thumbs 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
(16:04):
the comments. Who comments on your posts? Okay, 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?
(16:25):
Or do you have some thoughts about ways I can
get my product to move off the shelves. People love
to be asked their opinion. What do you think people love?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I would 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 2 (16:53):
It's also understanding the algorithm. Okay, because LinkedIn rewards long
form narrative. That is their distinct pushing 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
(17:13):
say 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 takeaway lessons. Okay, LinkedIn's going to reward
you for that. So it's understanding the algorithm.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
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 2 (17:46):
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've, like
I said, debranded a bunch of them and then just
random mom and pop stores all over the place. And
so we had, you know, maybe about two hundred two
(18:08):
hundred retail stores that were selling our product, and we
had an online site. And our sales back when I
bought the company were a little over two million and
they're now at fourteen million.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Yeah, and I just knuckle knocked with audio wise.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
And that's for our team too, because and we've grown
from When I bought the company, it was five, yeah,
five full time employees, and today we're about forty five.
We're hiring. We're hiring up right now at the Candy Plane.
And we bought a manufacturing facility. So that was the
big That was the game changer, was to start manufacturing.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
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 2 (18:56):
Now, that's right, you're.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
The face, but you were willing name meet Rashan. This
is working. But how do I accelerate the relationship the
business side of it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
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 pecan farm.
(19:31):
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. So
he's in the business 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.
(19:53):
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. And I would say it's it's
harder to get out of than a marriage too. In
most cases. Some people may disagree with me, but you
really have to choose wisely going in. And boy did I.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
I like the fact first you had to be honest too.
Product's not moving. She has a brand that's recognizable and good.
By the way, let's not forget the quality of the product. Right.
But I'm telling you now this is fantastics.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
His name is Argie Lamar.
Speaker 1 (20:29):
But and 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 2 (20:48):
Oh? I gave up a lot and for me, sharing
power is not giving up power, it's increasing power power.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
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. And
in fact, just this morning and we were on our
(21:19):
weekly production call and two of our production workers at
the candy plant have been promoted a shift leader internally,
you know. So it's all about bringing that up. Please
don't go anywhere.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
We'll be right back with more Money Making Conversations Masterclass.
Welcome back to the Money Making Conversations Masterclass hosted by
Rashaan MacDonald.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
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, right,
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,
(22:11):
day to day running the company right and so that's
what he does. And a year ago I sat down
with him. It was actually my idea, and I said,
you should be CEO. Wow, and I'll be. At first
I said, well, I'll be the chief branding officer. And
we were a little concerned that that didn't sound high
up enough. And also, we're frankly applying to be a
(22:32):
women owned brand, and so for women owned, the female
has to be the top. And so the chair of
the board has the authority to hire and fire everyone
right in the company, and so we had to have
that set forth so we would we're equal and power
in my opinion, although technically share of the board, I
(22:55):
could I could fire him. God Lee, I would like
be clinging on to his ankles begging him not to
leave if he ever said he wanted owner too. He's
we jointly owned the company.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
But you but you're the majority because of the fact that.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
You're women, are well, it's majority female. So if you
have some other women, so we have other investors, okay, cool,
and so all the investment dollars combined majority female, and
then it's leadership. We haven't gotten the certification yet.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Okay, cool, you will you will knock on fantastic yourself.
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 rathering off all these great stories. You're
in hobby lobby bills, angles, travel Centers of America, and
I got to wah Wah. You said, that's that was
a learning Yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
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 bark.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Where where's wah located as far as the country.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
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, and they have a cult like following.
They have amazing hogis 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
looked beautiful. So I wanted us to be part of that.
(24:24):
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 and they wanted us. So their buyer wanted
to go with a different skew that wasn't our best seller,
(24:48):
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 chains is the dirty secret about retail.
(25:09):
If you're a vendor trying to get on the shelves,
you have to pay slotting fees. 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 ask me, why aren't you in Walmart? Why
(25:30):
aren't you in some of these chains, and we want
to be in them, but the worst thing you can
do is to grow.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
You know this because you count.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
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 are in several states. There's are grocery chains and
the 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.
(26:00):
So that's the lesson. You can 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 then
all until you're ready.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
And everybody I wants to do that. Everybody wants to
jump out there with these big brands. And it's all
positive to say, I want to. I'm in Walmart, I'm
in Target. But the food lines of the Krogers, the
food lines of the world, come on now, fresh markets
of the world, come on now, these are really really great.
Going do your demos. The traffic flow, it feels friendly.
(26:29):
The environment of stores are smaller, Okay, so when you
come in 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 the cons No,
(26:50):
this is.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Our newest flavor. It's called sweet and Salty, okay, And
what I love about is only three grams of sugar.
So the true people, well people are trending to more
healthy options, but they still like their suites. So this
is indulgent, but it's it's healthier for you, is what
we like to see.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
The infamous pecan law is still out there right.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
Oh my gosh, it's our number one best seller. It's
our signal bringing that to the house today because I'm
out of them. You got to come visit our you know, Rands, Georgia,
southside of Augusta. They have a little golf tournament.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
There and we are all the masters.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Right right, the masters there. We are about to get
online are our production for the pecan lag rolls at
a massive scale. So we've got a new machine that
will enable us to make ten times more than that. Really,
(27:54):
it's going to greatly expand our production capacity of the
log roll and Once we get that going, we'll be
able to start experimenting with the newgat So we're not
going to do the New Coke right debacle. Right, that
was a big mistake. We all learn from New Coke.
We're going to have the original pecan, We'll always always
sell that, but we're going to experiment.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Now, I've never had this. The stuck his gift shop
milk chocolate pecans. These balls.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
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 good. 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.
(28:44):
So we have a a Rover machine, which is like
a chocolate water. You have chocolate that's a turtle.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
A turtle.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We call them gopherst right, which is.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Very edible, Yes, very friendly to stomach. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Those are our, Those are our. That's also trending is
the smaller pack sizes. Yes, so people people still will indulge,
but they want a hundred calorie pack.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Give us a smaller client. That's what she does, A
little small cookies, little.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Bite sized cookies and that way, it's a it's an indulgence,
but it's not crazy.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
You know, I want to talk about you brought something
from me to sample?
Speaker 2 (29:20):
Yes, I want your honest opinions.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Okay, this is a new product described to audience what
it is.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
So this is a collapse. So if any foody entrepreneurs
are listening, we are all about collapse. I think that's
the way you grow stronger together. Partnerships are very powerful.
So this is my friend Molly Blakelee and she goes
by molly Bees, molly Bee's cookies. She won the Golden
ticket for Walmart last year. She is rocking it and
she makes boozy cookies. Okay, and it's not boozy crazy flavors. Yes,
(29:50):
this is not. So. She and I started talking about
doing a peconlog roal cookie and we have pitched this
to convenience store chain and their innovation summit, and it
would be awesome if we get selected, we'll see, but
we are pitching it as an exclusive to them, so
if they pick that up, that will be the only
(30:11):
community store chain where you could buy that. And if
they don't pick it up, then we'll be selling it
all over.
Speaker 1 (30:18):
First of all, I'm gonna give my taste today, yes,
and then I'm going down to Rans Georgia to your
team can film they I should bring. I know Marcus,
you want to travel Marco, he's my number one eater.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
He's okay, and we have a Marcus too.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
He's the number one eater right there. Now, I'll tell
you that Casey over there, he's fankey.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
All right, came on, came on. I want you to
all trying the product. But what you a taste test
I brought several.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Interview is over with. Now what's the future? You know,
because I was reading the magazine was projecting fifty million fourteen.
Now that this company can be a fifty million dollars
a year company.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
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 pecansnack 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 avoid
(31:20):
in the marketplace. It you got to offer something different
because 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 convenience store,
any grocery store, your specialty shop, whatever. What do you see?
You see almonds, you see pistachios, you see cashews, you
(31:40):
see peanuts. With all right, I'm going to geek out.
It's not a nut technically, it's a lagoon. It's kind
of an impostor on the nut aisle said with love,
I love I love peanuts, 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
(32:01):
is native to our country the pecan. Do you see
it on the aisles? Do you see a standalone pecanbag?
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
(32:22):
the pecon? Where's the pecan? And and that to me
is all right. So I'm going to try not to
be too on a political rant this political season. Everyone's
very divisive, but like it is unpatriotic it is un
American that there is not a pecan bag stand alone
(32:43):
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 got to sell more.
We'll have some cue commercials too, you know.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And I will 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 Bacan 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 and studying those peanuts,
(33:23):
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 to people who want to know where
(33:44):
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 2 (33:51):
Stuckies dot com. That's the easiest. Stuckies with an S,
right Stuckies with an S or just google Stuckies that
will come up and on that site you can see
where those few remaining license 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,
(34:13):
Engles Food Lion Hobby Lobby is nationwide absolutely, and so
you can at home is the nationwide chain.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
When you go to these stores Hobby Lobby Foods. Like
what products are in these.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
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 pocan 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
(34:47):
we're in Bombguar, So if your Midwest fans will definitely
recognize those brands this are Farm Hardware, which is a
really good chain for us, Like Farm Hardware is our jam.
I just got back from the Ace Hardware Show and
then I'm headed to True Value and do it best
to kind of know your market right know who your
audience is. Those folks love us. You saw me on
(35:10):
the farm Borough magazine cover, so go with it, embrace
it and we love that demographic.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I want to say thank you for coming on Money
Making Conversation Masterclass, just to know when I first met
you and then the nGy is there, but you feel
more relaxed and the vision is a lot stronger. The
fact that you were you had fourteen million the goals
one hundred million dollars annual growth revenue. That's what money
Making Conversation is all about. Yeah, you're having a good
conversation with me right now.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Yeah, well, thank you so much. It's just been my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (35:40):
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. I'll
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 Conversations. Join us next week and
(36:01):
remember to always leave with your gifts. Keep winning.
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