March 4, 2026 • 51 mins
What's the secret to building a successful food business from scratch? Charleston, South Carolina's Carrie Morey founded Callie's Hot Little Biscuit in 2005 with the goal of making her mother's made-by-hand buttery biscuits accessible across the country. Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit is recognized as an iconic Southern brand with a loyal following nationwide. Carrie discusses her road to success, her cookbook, “Hot Little Suppers,” and PBS culinary docu-series, “How She Rolls”
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Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:21):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young. Today is December fifteenth, twenty twenty one. I
hope you're all planning a great holiday. I am in
the Deep South, and I'm really excited because my guest
today is from the Deep South. We have a lot
in common and I'm really excited to have her on.
(00:59):
I've known her for a number of years because she's
also a fellow member of La don Di'scaffier leading Women
with Fine Food and Beverage as I am, but a
different chapter. And she also lives in one of my
favorite cities in the United States of America. Charleston, South Carolina. First,
just a reminder who I am and why I do
this show now when it's eighth year. I love supporting
(01:21):
women entrepreneurs, and I also want to help women lead
their best life on their terms and in good health.
I have a soft spot for women who've overcome the IDEs,
who bootstrap their way to success, and who are willing
to share what they've learned and how they've done it
(01:41):
all in their own way, on their own terms, with
my audience like you. The show is live on the
Women for Women Network and you can hear it anytime
on your favorite podcast platform. I think there's over thirty
in all anytime anywhere. So my guest is Carrie Morey
is an entrepreneur and you may not know her name,
(02:02):
but you may know her biscuits. They're called Calli's Hot
Little Biscuits. Callie's Hot Little Biscuits is a widely recognized
as an iconic Southern brand with national retail exposure. I
know my local Hoble Foods carries them and they are awesome.
Carrie Moray founded her handmade biscuit business in two thousand
(02:23):
and five with the goal of making these tender, buttery
made behind biscuits that are her mother's recipe, accessible off
across the country. So this is a mother daughter success story.
And she is based in Charleston. Her Callie's Hot Little
Biscuits are sole nationwide. She actually has I learned to
(02:44):
pop up or a little not a pop up. It's
actually a permanent place to grab and go in Charleston,
one of my favorite cities. And she's written a couple
of cookbooks. The latest one is called Hot Little Suppers
Simple Recipes to Feed family and friends. Carrie, Welcome to
Fearless Fabulous You.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh thank you, Melanie. Thanks for having me. What a
lovely introduction.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, I have followed your career. I love your biscuits.
I'm really excited that you're going to be starring. And
I also want to know a culinary docuseries. I love
that culinary docusaries how she rolls about biscuits, business and
balance in her life. It'll be on PBS. It's going
to be Spring twenty twenty one. But I love those
kind of shows. I think they're just awesome. So I
(03:28):
have a question, are you born and bred from Charleston
or did you grow up somewhere else?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I was born and bred right here. There aren't many
of us left. Charleston has grown so much and we've
had so many amazing people move here. But I've been
here my whole life and have loved having this be
a a part of my heritage.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You're so lucky. I actually considered moving to Charleston when
I graduated college Tulane and interviewed for some jobs there
and public relations. I ended up elsewhere, Atlanta, but I
love visiting Charleston and the surrounding area. It just holds
a very special place in my heart. Just the hospitality,
the beauty of the city, the setting on the water,
(04:12):
and of course you know, it's got one of the
great dining cultures historically and intotemporary speak as well, great restaurants,
great traditions. You're so lucky. So this is kind of
a silly question to ask, but what are some of
your earliest food memories growing up?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, yeah, I definitely always gravitate to biscuits. My grandmother
on my father's side, I spent a lot of time
with her and my parents got divorced when I was
really young, and I can just remember following her around
the kitchen she put on her house coat early in
the morning and didn't take it off until the evening.
And biscuits were always a part of every meal for
(04:57):
different reasons, mainly because they were they had humble means,
and she used angel biscuits, which are a little different
than the biscuits I make.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But her angel.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Biscuits were used obviously for love and comfort, but mostly
for sustenance because you know, biscuits fill you up and
they are or can be inexpensive to make. So we
had them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, and that
was always a part of every meal. That and rice
(05:28):
always on the stove, and she never measured and they
were just delicious.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So definitely biscuits.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
But I think I it's been innate in me cooking
and entertaining and just the art of being a Southern
provider of food for people. And you know, I know
that started at a very early age with her and
my other grandmother and mother and really my father.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So you know, my dad always said.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know, you wanted to be an education and teacher,
but I knew that you needed to be ensued because
I would sneak out of my room at age five
and butter saltines and serve them on the platter to
their friends that were over for the evening.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
So he said he saw it at a very early
age what I did not see.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So it's so funny to talk to him about that.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh, you know, butter saltine. Just think about, you know,
warm butter on saltines kind of makes my mouth water.
That's like something that I think the Piedmont Driving Club
land is known for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yes they are, they are, And there's just not much
better than salty butter on a warm saltine.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I may do that for Christmas. That sounds like a
really inexpensive So yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And you like warm them and then put them in
a night like crisp linen and a silver tray and
people will go crazy. Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
For our friend Carolyn O'Neil always talks about him in
the holidays, and I'm like, I never thought about Yeah,
but I remember living Atlanta and going, you know, and
having occasionally and they really are special. So did you
have another career before you started your business?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, you know, I after I graduated from college, I
went to work for a startup company a female entrepreneur
and was a salesperson for her in the coupon book business.
But the main thing that I did was call on
schools to do fundraisers, and I created the coupon book,
(07:28):
and I called on restaurants. So, you know, I think
that working for a startup, working for a female entrepreneur,
seeing her take major risks and you know, really go
for her passion, was instrumental and helping me figure out
what I wanted to do when I moved back home
(07:50):
to Charleston after I got married.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So and I.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Actually was an education major in college, which I have
built to this day and output to use other than
raising my our three girls.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I went to the University of South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I think I have a cousin who has attended or
graduate University of South Carolina. Interestingly enough, so you actually
started Calli's Hot Little Biscuits in two thousand and it's
two thousand, is the two thousand and five?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Five?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yeah, sure, my first daughter was born.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, it's amazing, So I have to be you know,
I've written a lot about biscuits. Every sell owner has
a biscuit memory. I wrote an article called Biscuits Diary
Documentary my attempt to recreate the biscuit memory of my
childhood and went through a lot of renditions. Your biscuits
are very interesting because I mean there's a whole there's
a whole craft and art of making a biscuit. What
(08:46):
was interesting about there is a biscuit recipe in you know,
hot little suppers, as well as what to do with
steale biscuits, which we'll talk about later. But what was
interesting is you use cream cheese. We all know there's
a shortage of cream cheese right now. You use cream
cheese and your biscuits in addition to buttermilk and butter,
so it's butter, cream cheese and buttermilk, which is why
(09:07):
they're very rich tasting. Tell us about that. What does
the cream cheese do well?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
My mom always added cream cheese, and this was her
brain child, and you know, doubled the fat, double the deliciousness.
But she added the cream cheese because it was this
decadent extra layer that works so well with the buttermilk
and the tanginess of that.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Those two just kind of are magical together.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, yeah, you know, I've never other than my grandmother's
Y's biscuits, I've never had, you know, growing up that
was the only biscuit I'd ever had, so I didn't
know any difference, and we definitely have made a go
of it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
It's interesting and you don't use baking soda or baking
powder for rising. I noticed that as well. Some people
do well.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
We use self rising flour self rest.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, my grandmother used all purpose flour and I've tried
it a thousand ways, and I just you know, there's
something about the quality of the flour we use.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
We we love, but.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The inclusion of the leavening so that you don't taste
the leavening is super important to us. And we feel
very very loyal to our flower and specifically the self
rising version of it because of that. I want to
taste butter and buttermilk and that teny cream cheese that
I don't want to taste the leavening in the flour,
(10:37):
And so that's why.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We use Which flower do you use?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
White?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Really?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Me too?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You know, they sent me the world's biggest rolling pin
after my article. They're so amazing White Lilia some Tennessee product,
love them, love them, And this is me. You know
something I learned. You know, you don't handle the dough
too much. You talk about getting attacked and sticky, and
I'm taken a lot of biscul looses, but a lot
of people don't know the secret to making them stand tall.
(11:05):
And you have a whole little thing called be a biscuit,
which you were con talking about. Is they got to
nestle close together. And that you're common about having the
two biscuits go together, they rise higher. Reminds me of
Natalie de preeze pork chop theory with the two pork chops.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Oh oh, I love well, I love that theory and
I absolutely adore Natalie the original the og biscuit Queen
for sure.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, because you know when.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You when you stand closer to people, you rise taller
and they make you know, they help you with your confidence,
and I mean just it's always good to be close
to people because they make you feel better.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And it's a it's a biscuits or a metaphor for life.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Well that's the introduction to your cookbook, Caught Little Suppers.
It says, be a biscuit, And I just love this
rice tall, be warm and buttery on the inside, and
be open to anyone's jam. And I just thought that
was great.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
It's a great way to celebrate life.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It is, it isn't you know. I'm always thinking about
as I'm you know, growing a company and I'm the leader,
and I'm I'm very mindful of the fact that i
am being looked to to set the tone for the
culture and our company, and I'm also doing that at home,
you know. I mean, it's it's it's what I'm Any
(12:24):
family raising children is doing the same thing, and so
it's it's fascinating to me how my life, my two
jobs parallel and those that those words have never been
truer for anybody. They work for teach raising children, they
work for uh, creating good culture within a company, and
(12:45):
they're just it's like the golden rule, you know, be kind,
be confident, be open to anyone. And if we could
all live that way, and it's a daily practice. It's
it's not exact, and it's hard to do sometimes, and
you know, we all we'd all be better off.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So yeah, and you have you have three daughters, right?
How old are they have?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I have three daughters.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
We have a thirteen year old, a fourteen year old,
and a seventeen year old.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Do they like to cook with you.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
They do like to cook.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I've got some that love to cook and one that
really loves to bake. But we definitely have the kitchen
as the center of our universe, and family suppers are
super important and it's a family affair, and you know,
the supper table is utmost important to all of us.
(13:38):
So I feel really grateful to have that with them,
and hopefully they will carry that on when when they
leave us.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Well, you know, I think that's the whole premise of
Hot Little Suppers, because you have the book divided by seasons,
but also by meals and weekday week nine. Of course,
these days blurs day is the common day of the week.
Is I never know what day it is anymore, so
every day is a week day for me. But they're
very approachable. I want to start with I think this
(14:06):
is interesting because I love making biscuits, as I said,
But one of the problems is they always like after
a day they're done their hardest rocks. And you you
actually have ways to repurpose biscuits. Talk about some of
those creative ways.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Well, I just never want to throw away a biscuit,
So we talk about ways to use leftover dough.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
That's too tough to make into a biscuit.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I think that's an important thing to talk about, because
you don't want to roll it out too many times
because then the dough is just too tough. So we
make things like biscuit crackers and biscuit bowls, but with
leftover cooked biscuits, you know, it's bread. So we make creutons,
we make bread crumbs, we make like this time of
year dressing or a lot of people call it stuffing
(14:51):
biscuit casse roles. And you know, I just think that
people have to be a little bit more open minded
about Discuits are the bread of not just the South,
but of our country. So anything you would do with
a piece of bread.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
You should do with a biscuit.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And more trifles, sweet creutons topped with on Sundays. I mean,
there's just pie crust. The possibilities are truly endless.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, you should never you know. Yeah, it's really not
about breakfast. Yeah, and it's not just about breakfast, you know.
I think that's important too. I mean, I happen to
like the savory Southern biscuit casserole looks really good.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I love that one, and I love the sweet one too.
We do a cinnamon maple. But you know, it's so
funny growing up biscuits for us, we serve them all
the time, but my memories are mostly about biscuits around
the supper table, Whereas I feel like America today thinks
biscuits are breakfast. And I'm not a huge breakfast theater,
which is kind of funny because I own many breakfast restaurants,
(15:57):
but I like, I like to eat in the evening,
so I like a basket of warm biscuits with butter,
and I like, you know, pour tinderlines.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Tucked inside biscuits. I like, you know state I'm a
savory person too, So.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I just really want people to realize that it's not
just about the fast food biscuits. Breakfast biscuits are for
They're the bread of our country, you know, they're they're
one of the first bread.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I completely agree. It was Michael Tweety said they're
good sopping. They're good for sopping with anything, very good
for stopping. Yeah, sopping that soup and stew. I'm I'm
I'm a big believer that you should never corner or
pigeonhole any food into one meal. Like you know, you
can have eggs whenever you want. You can have bacon
whenever you want. Why do I I like to have
(16:47):
salad for breakfast? You know? I think you know, you
got to eat eat what you want when you want it,
as long as it's good for you and taste good
and isn't junk. I think that's important. So how did
the biscuit recipe become the company it is today? That's
a that's a long I mean two thousand and five,
it is twenty twenty one, So you've got some you've
(17:08):
got some legs there. But how did it all start
in terms of building a business?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know? It started? Well, first of all, I never
in a million years thought we'd be where we are today.
It's just I'm not one. That wasn't my original plan.
My original plan was, you know, my husband and I
moved back.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
I moved back from New.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
York, I you know, left for a few years, and
we moved back to Charleston and had our first child.
And I really thought I was going to be a
stay at home mom and quickly realized that I had
a ton of energy and I really just needed a
creative outlet. And I knew two things. I knew that
I wanted our girls to be raised by me, and
I wanted to be a huge part of that, and
(17:51):
I didn't want them to, you know, be at home
with nanny's or being in childcare. But I also knew
that I am just by nature, I'm super driven. I'm
a worker bee, but not just to work. I needed
to figure out, within my passion what could I do.
And you know, I'd always wanted to open a restaurant,
(18:12):
even without any formal culinary training, but knew that that
wasn't conducive to what my priority was, which was raising
our daughter. So you know, when you start to dream
on about what you can do in between nap times
and feedings of you know, being a stay at home mom,
you I just I said, I know, I want to
do something in food. My heritage is Southern mom and
(18:33):
I talked about doing a business together, but it was
more of like a Dean and Jelusa grab and go thing.
But we didn't want to brick and mortar. And I
just moved on from Newark, where I've worked in the
internet space, and I knew that there was something there
that was bigger than any of us knew. And I said,
you know, we should try to take your best product
from your catering business and package it and sell it.
(18:54):
And that was, you know, when I knew.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It was the biscuit.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
But here's the irony in that I started a business
with my mom's country ham biscuit recipe and it never
occurred to me that I should maybe have a vegetarian
option another flavor. I truly started Callie's Biscuits with the
country ham biscuit, truly because that was what was her bestseller,
(19:19):
and I was passionate about it, and I loved it,
and I grew up eating it. And I always tell people,
if I can start a country ham mail order only
handmade biscuit in two thousand and five, when no one
was buying food over the internet, you, my friend, could
do anything, you know. It just it's crazy to think
back that we had. We've survived, but it wasn't about,
(19:43):
you know, selling tons of biscuits and making tons of money.
I had my priority of raising my children, and I
worked when I could, and it was a passion project
for me. So it was super slow and purposefully more
about my lifestyle than the business, and the business came
second to raising my children. But it was great because
(20:04):
you know, I never missed out on raising my children,
and the business just.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Grew at a pace that was perfectly fine for me.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
I wasn't trying to impress anybody. I just knew that
we had a great product and when the time was right,
the right people would get it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
So a couple of things. Your mom had a catering business.
You mentioned me your mom's k does she have a
catering business? When she was making the hand biscuits, she
was kind.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Of winding down, and I mean she didn't have a
full on I mean she did parties for very you know,
it was word of mouth and she only took twenty
parties a year. But she was well known in Charleston
for being the best caterer without having a full blown business.
And the thing is is that she didn't just make
Southern food. She makes she's an incredible cook. She cooks
(20:51):
you know, Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican, Southern, Italian everything. But everybody
always asked for the country hand biscuits as a starter,
and I found that.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
To be so interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So we'd serve you know, port uh spring rolls with
you know, fish sauce, and they would start out with
the country ham biscuit.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
So I knew that there was something so magical about
these biscuits and that and I used.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
To put them in my suitcase when I lived in
New York, and I would have I would keep them
in my freezer. And when I was trying to get
a new client, I would keep them, package them in full,
have a handwritten note, and I'd have them courier it
over to whoever I was trying to impress. And it
wasn't a Southern people, it wasn't a Southern thing. People
that weren't Southern loved them too, So I knew there
(21:36):
was something to this to the biscuit.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So you were in New York City working in use
of the technology space and up there hand biscuits are
unique because they're not really something you eat up there,
and no one can get a decent biscuit in New
York City. I'm going to say that right now, I'm
not yet because the weed they don't use the same way, whatever,
the water, what, it's a combination of everything. So when
(22:01):
did you decide to take the ham out of the biscuit?
And then now I was I think I told you
before we went on air. I went to the Whole
Foods and you've got buttermilk, and you've got up how
many different kinds of biscuits do you have now? And
did you do away with the hamd biscuit altogether?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
No, we still have the ham biscuit.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh it's what God is there and it is okay,
it is very popular, but it's regionally and seasonally popular.
It's not it's not a popular biscuit. We have so
many flavors, I couldn't even tell you. We have buttermilk,
cheese and chive, sharp cheddar, cinnamon shortcake, blueberry, we had
(22:39):
a pumpkin spice. We do you know, like some seasonal flavors.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, yeah, just like we'll we'll make you know, a
few thousand and and and you know, just have fun
surprise like flavors. So uh yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Maybe my Whole food had shuddar and chi so I
mean chad nouga right now. Maybe different you know elsewhere,
But that's that's interesting. Do you do you come up
with I mean, do you do you think you will
keep coming up with new flavors or extensions of of
Calli's Hot Little Biscuits.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, I definitely think that we will continue.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I have a long list.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It's more about keeping not coming out with too many.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Exactly, we just lotch.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
We just launched a sausage biscuit.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
That is, we can't keep it in stock, so that
is that is keeping us very busy. And it's been
fun because, you know, when we started to do the research,
one of my one of the only things I would
ever eat growing up is a sausage biscuit, like a
good old rot Guta sausage biscuit from Hearty's or McDonald's. Like,
(23:48):
oh my gosh, my mouth waters just talking about it.
So but you know, there's no there's no all natural
sausage biscuits that.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I know of that can be purchased. So this was
super important to me.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, I'm going to feed my children. I want
them to have the best.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So I just started.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Streaming about a partnership with a great sausage company that
can provide us with, you know, a clean sausage. And
we found a great partner and we launched the sausage
biscuit and actually in How She Rolls, you see the
whole process of the testing of the sausage and the
biscuit and the ratio of the biscuit to the sausage
and vice versa. And you know, because a lot of
(24:28):
people say, you know, how do you come up with
new ideas and how.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Do you test it? And what's your r and D?
And it's very, very elementary, but it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
So you see that in How She Rolls the docuseries,
you know, pack everything from the case testing to you know,
the going back and forth to different renditions, to the
packaging portion, which is kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
How many shows are in this series? How many shows
are in the series How She Rolls?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
There's ten in the first set them and there are
ten thirty minute episodes and then we're filming right now
for see them two.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So what is the premise of the ten series? I mean,
what will want viewers experience.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
You're going to see everything from my crazy life running
and growing a business, to balancing three daughters who and
have incredibly business lives, to a little bit of the
business side of it, and some cooking and how we
eat and how it all folds in together. You see
(25:29):
my Thanksgiving supper, you see our company.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Retreat, you see.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
I'm trying to think of what else is in there
right now, because it's been.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
A while since I've watched it.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
You see my struggles of growing the business. You see
us getting a big grocery store chain, working really hard
to make the order because we literally make every biscuit
by hand, there's no machines in the process. Then having
the grocery store cut the store and count down unbelievably small,
and me fighting to get it to come back up.
(26:02):
You see us launching a food truck. You see us
launching a new hot, little biscuit store that starts out great,
and you see the whole pandemic and how that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know, worked for us. So it's an interesting show.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It is interesting, and you know, I want to give
back to the entrepreneurial journey because it is hard to
get into supermarket super hard. What were the challenges when
you got into this. First of all, did you have
a business plan? Did you work with business partners? That's
the first question because a lot of people women may say, well,
(26:38):
did you have been you know, partners and investors, or
you do it all herself.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I never had a business plan.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
My business plan was how do we not lose money?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
That was my business plan.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
But don't take advice from me. And I've never had
an investor, No, I haven't, and you know, I think
it's it's to the individual. And that's not to say
I won't ever, but you you know, it has been.
No investor would want to would have wanted to work
with me over the last sixteen years because I'm going
(27:12):
at my pace and my cape, I am very well aware,
is not the pace of an investor. So you know,
again my priority, my passion are leading my focus in
this business world.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
So you know, I want to.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Enjoy life, I want to not miss a moment with
my children, and I want to also grow a business.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So so what have been the challenges? What were the
some of the challenges that you faced, and how did
you overcome them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
It's so funny because it's easier to say what haven't
been the challenge?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Good for you?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Every single day it is, you know, everything from you know,
just growing and how do we fulfill this order to
staffing to not having the right person in the job,
to quality control to shipping issues. You you know, we
(28:10):
really want to grow this level, but we don't have
the money to do it, so we've got to wait
until we can afford a packing machine that would make
us more efficient, and then we save up the money
and buy it, and then it doesn't work, and then
we can't get our money back. I mean, there have
been so many mistakes and learnings of failures that we
call them learnings. But there's also been a ton of
(28:31):
successes too, and I think that it's been the best
MBA that anybody could ever.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Experience. It's just real life.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Experiences of what goes on in the day to day.
And you know, I walk in the door from work
every day and my husband goes, what happened today?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, I call it. Yeah, you can look at this
problem solve, problem solving or solution finding, and it's true.
And I think, you know, I think this is really
important for anyone's listening. You do not underscore, do not
have to have an MBA to launch a business. You
have to have a steel stomach and nerves, and you
(29:09):
have to have razor sharp vision of what you want
to do and a lot of dedication. I watched Shark
Tank a lot. I've actually learned a lot about business
wanting Shark Tank. And last night I saw two people
pitch and they made the fatal mistake of say, when
one of the sharks is what are you going to
do with a three hundred thousand that you want? They said, well,
we need to pay ourselves some money out of it,
(29:32):
because you're busy managing a family and doing side jac
and I was like, fatal mistake. You got to seek
it all back into the business. When you bring in
money through business, you put it back into the business.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Right, exactly right, that is one hundred percent. I've been
saying that for fifteen years. And you know, I'm not
doing this for money. I'm doing it because I want
to grow a business. I want to prove to myself
and in my family that I can do this. And
it's truly a dream and it's a it is it
is a child to me. It is I've grown it
from nothing and I want to see it through. And
(30:07):
you know, the money is secondary, but.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, you it is.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
If you start a business to make a lot of money,
and maybe if you have tons of investments investors behind you,
and just like you know, a crazy great idea, it's
just a hard thing to have that be your first priority,
I think, because there's going to be a lot of
times when that's not going to be you're not going
to be able to be successful if that's your main goal.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I agree, I completely agree with you, and and and
I experienced it my own when I started my own
agency at the time, and it was the goal of
just being on my own and calling my own shots
in terms of my time. I mean, that's a lot
of reasons. A lot of individuals, especially women, start their
own business because they want to be able to be
in control of their life and the and their family,
(30:57):
their business and et cetera. And not all companies open
to that. Now, this is interesting Carrie today Alpana Seeing,
who's a wonderful entrepreneur in Somier who owns restaurants, she
posted something that I thought was really interesting about you know,
it was hard for her, an Indian American woman, getting
(31:17):
a foot in the door building her business, and she's
very attractive, and so she had to deal with some
very aggressive sexual predator type people. The whole thing. It's
been well documented, but she said something that resonated, and
I talked to my husband David about it. She said,
no one ever asks men who run businesses, how do
you strike a balance? How do you manage it all
and strike a balance no, but they always ask women
(31:39):
that isn't that interesting?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
They do?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
They do, and you know, I think that is changing.
I think if you look back, you know, women didn't
really go into the workforce.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Until what was it the fifties.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
And then you know, it is raining, it is. It
is definitely changing. And I also think that women have
to you know, play a part in that and not
not even go there.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
You know, how do I do it?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
I do it just like everybody else does it. And
I you know, I have my priorities and I make
it work and be done with it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
And you know, I just.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Men don't have the guilt that women have. You know,
we've got guilt about breastfeeding and we've got guilty about working.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And it's awful.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, that's a that's a learned behavior.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I mean I have had I had both and I
still have it. And it's just one of those things that.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You know, at the end of the day, I say,
this makes you stronger, it makes you tougher, It makes
it easier to make decisions. And when you know what
is guiding you and what you're what you're beacon light
is and it makes it makes decisions really clear, you.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Know, Yeah, I mean I said, I said to myself,
I'll never ask some one how do you strike a
balance with it all? Again? You know, we all find
our ways, you know, we're all you know, it's all.
Life is about juggling. And if you're not, Wow, you
know you've streamlined your life pretty well. But most of
us are juggling. PARTICKI when you're an entrepreneur in any
kind of business and you're juggling a lot just there.
(33:19):
It has moving parts, and then you add in the family,
and then you add in the community in layers. Life
is about juggling, period. If you were, I want to
ask you a couple more things business and then go
back to the cookbook. If you were, I'm sure people
call you up and say, can I pick your brain?
They do with me all the time. Can I collaborate?
(33:41):
Pick your brain?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
First of all, what would you tell someone who says
to you, Wow, I want to start I have a
family recipe and I really think it could sell. What
would you tell them that they need to think about
with that recipe? And I've interviewed a lot of food
entrepreneurs with that family recipe. Not everybody makes it most
(34:02):
some of them did really well, like you and Sarah Beth.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
I think that the first thing I do get this.
I get calls a lot about.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
This, and you know, I say, well, what is your goal?
Speaker 4 (34:14):
What is your passion?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And what is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?
Speaker 4 (34:18):
And what is your.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Definition of success? You know, don't think about the beginning,
think about the end. And if your end goal is
to make a ton of money, and you want this
to be your like side hustle and you're going to
be doing other things and you better find some investors
and you may have a great product, but it takes
(34:42):
more than that, and this better be your passion.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Because it is.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It is unbelievably difficult.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It is so hard. It is so hard. It's it
is just like raising children. It is.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
There is a lot of amazing good and it and
the successes are amazing and they outweigh the stress and
the failures.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
But it's it is.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
It takes so much. It takes so much grit and
hard work and just make sure you're you know what
you're in goal with and there's so many different levels
of that.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
So people will say, well, I want it to be
on it in every grocery store in America, and I
want to be the next you know, Colonel Sanders, I
want to make the best bride chicken in the one
or you may say, I just want to make this
and I want to sell it at farmer's markets, and
I want to sell it for friends and family, and
that's okay too. You know, you've got to know what
(35:41):
it is that you want.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That's a sure that you want. That's a great point
because your mom was the local cater go to caterer,
and that was her success. She did great, and yeah,
she was a community success, not a national success of
communities is of course soon now.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
She has and you know we are early on separated
as business partnership because although it was her recipe, I
was so inspired by her food that it was my
passion and my dream to do this, and she had
no interest in it.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
She hated it.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
She's still today she's like, I don't know, I can't
believe people are buying the sisters.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I know you go to trade shows together and somebody,
you know, I just that's a very important point. Also, Carrie,
you know your dream is maybe not somebody else's dream.
So like I do work with my husband, but we
don't necessarily share the same vision and dream. And at
some point you have to say, Okay, maybe it's time
to divide and conquer or split and go your way
(36:40):
in my way, because not everybody shares that. And you
shouldn't drag people along in the process because they may
drag you back down. And you have to be willing
to let go of the people that are dragging you
down so you can continue to soar. And that takes up.
That takes Somebody once said ice in your veins. I
was actually that was some of the weirdest business advice
(37:02):
I was ever given. Carrie. It was like, you need
to have more ice in your veins. But and I thought,
that's so mean. But I get it now. I get
it now. You got to separate the emotion. And probably
some of the worst decisions I've ever made in my
own business life were emotional decisions, right types of emotion.
So you got to think that way. It's so interesting,
(37:23):
I would think, now you probably there's also factors, as
I call, out of your control. Let's talk about this.
There's a cream cheese shortage right now. I just read
the Philadelphia Cream cheese is paying people twenty five dollars
not to make cream juge not to make cheesecake for Christmas.
That's a great pr gimmick. But there's a cream cheese shortage.
There's a packaging shortage right now, there's a labor shortage.
(37:44):
I would think that this is impacting you when you
have a product where cream cheese is an essential ingredient it.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Is, it is definitely impacting us. And we are you know,
luckily for us, we do a ton of baking throughout
the year, and we've put up for holiday and so
you know, I would say eighty percent of our baking
has been done before September. But we have restaurants that
make biscuits fresh every day and they're struggling with that.
(38:14):
And so you know, there we have great partners with
our food service providers, and we're you know, always wheeling
and dealing and you know, at times getting it in
the car, getting in our delivery vehicle at three in
the morning and going to Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
To get you know, sixty cases of this, and you know.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Just all I always say that there needs to if
you're going to work with us, your mindset has to
be there's always a solution because these are just this
is a normal day for us. You know. When the
pandemic hit, of course it was incredibly stressful, but that
that we are ready for those kind of things because
(38:54):
growing a business, there's always a fire to put out
or a problem to solve, and the logistics piece of it,
as it gets bigger, just grows and grows and grows.
And you know, you just if your mindset.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Is there's always a solution, you will find it.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
There's never a Okay, we just have to give up
that close shop. We can't do it. No, you know what,
We're going to make these biscuits with half the amount
of cream cheese, or we're going to run a special
and do no cream cheese in these biscuits. And there's
always a solution. There's certain things that you just can't control,
so you can't you can't just give up.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
You say, look, this is the way we're going to
do it today.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
A good example of that is all of our friends
when the pandemic hit and the bar enders shut down.
You could either fret or you could figure it out.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So my one of my favorite business mentors is Marie Fourlio.
She runs b Skill and she says, everything is figure outable,
and that's not how I run my life. If I've
learned one thing out of the program that she taught,
it's that. And you know, people like Julie Reiner and
some of these wonderful bar owners, they started making to
go cocktails and that actually spurred an entire category. Now,
I mean the entire to go cocktail can cocktail industry
(40:03):
now taking off as a result. I mean it was
it was simmering in the back pre pandemic, but now
it's like front and center RTAD ready to drink. I mean,
it's unbelievable. So this too will pass, and in the meantime,
you come up with other solutions that can say in
your business and other alternatives. Now, are you going to
(40:25):
ever consider going beyond Cali's Little Biscuits into another area?
You mentioned other restaurants or something. Do you have other
restaurants or did I miss here that we have.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
We have two in Charleston and a construck and a
catering division. But we also have one in Atlanta that's
getting ready to celebrate at six year anniversary in the
virgin I.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Know about that. I know about that one in Atlanta
because I get to Atlanta more than you used to
come to Chattanooga.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I know, right well, you know, I definitely think there
that is a whole another business model that I definitely
want to explore. We're just with the state of our
country and labor shortages and everything rible. I don't think
the timing is right for us right now. But yeah,
I think that that has an entire a very strong
(41:16):
idea because people are always hungry for handmade discripts, so.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I contely agree. Yeah, but the labor shortage, you know,
it's it's a big problem. I want to talk about
the book a little bit more. I'm so before the
show was talking about how I'm probably going to have
to do a lot of cooking for Christmases. My mother
hates to cook. You do a lot of interesting things
with okra. I have said on the show many times,
I hate okra, but I'm starting to like it again.
You have a couple of dishes that look good. You
(41:42):
have Indian spiced roasted okra and tomatoes just looks fabous.
I love roasted vegetables. That just looks fabulous. I'm looking
at that, and then you do You said you grew
up with Okra rice. Do you use Carolina gold rice?
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I use whatever I have.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
I love Carolina goal rice. I use a lot of
Bob Madi rice.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Mean I've never met a rice I didn't love.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
It is my You.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Know, my husband's from Idaho. He loves potatoes. The poor
man never gets potatoes. Because I love unless of potato
is a French fry.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I'm always going to defer to rice. So I like both.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I was more of a potato person, but my husband
seems to be more of a rice person. So now
I've learned of like rice, I love, I love well.
We like both actually have different So I have a
weakness for French fries. We like both.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
I have weakness French.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And that's just kind of scary because that's probably one
of my downfalls in terms of keeping my weight down,
is I could just I can't stop eating French fries
and then cheese. I like the way the book is
divided seasonally, but also weekday, week night and suppers. Are
there some uh fan faves in the We say family
fan faves in the book that you enjoyed particular cooking
(43:00):
with your daughters.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Oh yeah, we have a lot. I mean everything in
there are favorites of theirs and that you know, they're
my first round of oh mom, this is not good
or yes, we love this again, so you know, and
I think my favorite thing about those all recipes and
cooking is that you know the stories that go along
with it.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
And that might be my.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Favorite part of the process of writing a cookbook is, uh,
you know, going back through and saying, oh, remember when
it snowed here and Charleston and my children didn't know
what Italian wedding soup was, and we created an entire
neighborhood wedding around the Italian wedding soup, and you know,
it was a family affair, and my middle child got
(43:44):
married to the five year old across the street, and
everybody dressed up in full glam to the floor dresses
and we had had a wedding with the neighbors and
and feasted on Italian wedding soup.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
And homemade cake. And my girls made invitations.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So you know, the memories that you create with the
food is just as important as the food. So last
night we had salmon with the nuns, and that was
inspired from a spring break vacation that we took together,
and you're just getting your children to eat things that
are a little bit out of the box is super
important to me. And a salmon salad with christy potatoes
(44:24):
and rants and a creamy dressing with pomegranate seeds and
avocado is always a good thing and certainly something that
they wouldn't normally.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
Eat, but they gobble it up.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
So yeah, everything in the cookbook is something that they
have put their stamp of approval on.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I love that. And the other thing is it's interesting
when you think about dishes. I have an elderly mother
who hates everything. Oh my god, so you have to
rethink every dish that comes your way. So she, her
mule delivery service, delivered this strange slice be I don't know,
maybe it was salads, very sick on the mashed potatoes
and vegetables, and she was like, I don't like it.
I'm not eating it, throwing away. So you know what
(45:07):
I did. I chopped up all the meat, I put
them chopped up, I chopped up all the vegetables. I
moushed it all up. I put it in a bowl, Okay,
a bowl, so it looks different. This is important. It
looked different. I put the mashed potatoes on top. No,
I put in a little Duke's mayonnaise into the because
it looked a little dry. So I put a little
Duke's mayonnaise in the mush with the the veggies and
(45:28):
the meat because I thought that would soften it and
give it, give it some texture.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I put the mashed potatoes on top of my mind you,
this is from a delivery thing in styrofoam. I shredded
cheddar cheese on top, right, and I put in a
microwaving for like two or three minutes, and she ate
the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
That is epic. That is the best story ever. I
love it.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
And I said, I said, I'm serving you Shepherd's pie
to night, and she'said, that's the best thing you've ever
cooked me. It was the same food repurposed and reorganized.
That great.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
I always say, you know, if my kids don't like something,
I fry fry anything, fry, a shallat fry, an onion fry,
a potato chip, anything fried. And you put it on
top of that and they're like, oh.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
That our drizzled maple syrup and cayene pepper like Brussels
sprounsy brustle struf, put a little met cayenne pepper, maple
syrup and and it becomes something completely different then then
regular steam Brussels sprouns. But you know the other thing is,
you know, somebody doesn't like salads, put everything in a
blunder with yogurt and make a savory smoothie, you know, soup.
(46:34):
So a lot of the recipes in here, like the
back to repurposing the biscuits. You don't like stale or
what you know, hard biscuits, don't throw them away, turn
them into biscuit balls, caught them up. You can take
you know, take the tuscan bread salad, but make it
bscuit bread.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Salad, right, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
I'm a big believer as you are, and you're very
clear and don't waste, repurpose, reuse, right. And I think
you have a lot of recipes in hot little suppers
that spot like that, and you can substitute, you know,
with all recipes, there's a way to subsetent you don't
like okra and you know, Brussels sprouts. You know, there's
(47:14):
ways to try things differently. And I think I think
that's a metaphor for life. There's no there's no straight arrow,
whether you're running a business, you know, taking care of
a family, there's no straight and narrow arrow. But I
always like to end the show with like a summary
of inspiration, and I think this one is yours is
be a biscuit. I love it again. We're going to
(47:36):
say it again. Be a biscuit. It says, be tall,
be warm and buttery on the inside, and be open
to anyone's jam. And if somebody thinks you're stale, you
show them how you can shine in other ways. Right,
love that?
Speaker 4 (47:52):
I love it? Yeah, totally, totally.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
You can always turn it around, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Can always spin it, spin your biscuit a new way
and make something really amazing out of it. And I
think that's really important in life. No matter what throws
your way, you've got to figure out the solution and
spin it around. And we're all learning to do that,
you know, pivots like the word of the moment, but
that's what you got to do.
Speaker 4 (48:15):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Well, I really enjoyed speaking with you again. My guest
today has been Carrie More, founder of Hot Little Biscuit
and the cookbook is Hot Little Supper, simple recipes. I
fee family and friends. You bet your biscuit. I'm going
to go out and get more biscuits, but I'm also
going to try the recipe because I actually like to
bake and I like to make this. It's fun. There's
(48:38):
like a rhythm to it.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I agree. It's very therapeutic, a good thing to do
when you need a little break from life and you
just your shoulders.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Go down and you.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
Sigh, and there's just something really magical about making biscuits.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
I agree. So thank you and thank you for joining
me today. I'm fearless, fabulous to you and for all
my guests. You know, what's your website? So I can
make sure everybody goes to your website?
Speaker 4 (49:03):
Carrie, Please yes.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Callibiscuits dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Okay, Callie's Hot Little Biscuits. And Callie was your mom?
Speaker 4 (49:10):
Right, Callie is my mom? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Yeah, I just want to give a shout out to mom.
That's where the namesake Callie's Hot Little Biscuits. Callie's Hot
Little Biscuits. Thank you, Carrie Morey, and to everybody out there,
say fearless and fabulous and remember this. You have the
choice in your life to live it on your terms
the way you want it. So go out and be
fearless and fabulous and show them what you can do.
Thank you very much, absolutely, thank you me. Bye.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
Hi. This is Melanie Young, host a fearless, fabulous you.
If you were a loved one has been diagnosed with
breast cancer, I urge you to read my book Getting
Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless
and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer. This is
a book I wish I'd had when I was diagnosed
with breast cancer in August two thousand and nine. In it,
(49:59):
I interviewed who provide valuable insights on what they learn
from going through breast cancer so they can help you
make informed decisions and confident choices. I also talk to
medical experts to learn the latest advancements on breast cancer treatment,
and I provide important health tips on what to eat
(50:22):
and how to care for yourself so you can stay
as healthy and strong as you can every day you're
through treatment. Getting Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's Guide
to Staying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast
Cancer is available on Amazon, and you can buy it
through my website Melanieong dot com and I'll send you
an autograph copy. I want you to stay healthy in
(50:45):
every aspect of your life, and especially if you're facing
a breast cancer diagnosis. So my message to you is
stay fearless and fabulous always and in good health.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
A part of my dess
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Mm hmm
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(00:21):
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Speaker 2 (00:36):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young. Today is December fifteenth, twenty twenty one. I
hope you're all planning a great holiday. I am in
the Deep South, and I'm really excited because my guest
today is from the Deep South. We have a lot
in common and I'm really excited to have her on.
(00:59):
I've known her for a number of years because she's
also a fellow member of La don Di'scaffier leading Women
with Fine Food and Beverage as I am, but a
different chapter. And she also lives in one of my
favorite cities in the United States of America. Charleston, South Carolina. First,
just a reminder who I am and why I do
this show now when it's eighth year. I love supporting
(01:21):
women entrepreneurs, and I also want to help women lead
their best life on their terms and in good health.
I have a soft spot for women who've overcome the IDEs,
who bootstrap their way to success, and who are willing
to share what they've learned and how they've done it
(01:41):
all in their own way, on their own terms, with
my audience like you. The show is live on the
Women for Women Network and you can hear it anytime
on your favorite podcast platform. I think there's over thirty
in all anytime anywhere. So my guest is Carrie Morey
is an entrepreneur and you may not know her name,
(02:02):
but you may know her biscuits. They're called Calli's Hot
Little Biscuits. Callie's Hot Little Biscuits is a widely recognized
as an iconic Southern brand with national retail exposure. I
know my local Hoble Foods carries them and they are awesome.
Carrie Moray founded her handmade biscuit business in two thousand
(02:23):
and five with the goal of making these tender, buttery
made behind biscuits that are her mother's recipe, accessible off
across the country. So this is a mother daughter success story.
And she is based in Charleston. Her Callie's Hot Little
Biscuits are sole nationwide. She actually has I learned to
(02:44):
pop up or a little not a pop up. It's
actually a permanent place to grab and go in Charleston,
one of my favorite cities. And she's written a couple
of cookbooks. The latest one is called Hot Little Suppers
Simple Recipes to Feed family and friends. Carrie, Welcome to
Fearless Fabulous You.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Oh thank you, Melanie. Thanks for having me. What a
lovely introduction.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, I have followed your career. I love your biscuits.
I'm really excited that you're going to be starring. And
I also want to know a culinary docuseries. I love
that culinary docusaries how she rolls about biscuits, business and
balance in her life. It'll be on PBS. It's going
to be Spring twenty twenty one. But I love those
kind of shows. I think they're just awesome. So I
(03:28):
have a question, are you born and bred from Charleston
or did you grow up somewhere else?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
I was born and bred right here. There aren't many
of us left. Charleston has grown so much and we've
had so many amazing people move here. But I've been
here my whole life and have loved having this be
a a part of my heritage.
Speaker 2 (03:49):
You're so lucky. I actually considered moving to Charleston when
I graduated college Tulane and interviewed for some jobs there
and public relations. I ended up elsewhere, Atlanta, but I
love visiting Charleston and the surrounding area. It just holds
a very special place in my heart. Just the hospitality,
the beauty of the city, the setting on the water,
(04:12):
and of course you know, it's got one of the
great dining cultures historically and intotemporary speak as well, great restaurants,
great traditions. You're so lucky. So this is kind of
a silly question to ask, but what are some of
your earliest food memories growing up?
Speaker 3 (04:33):
Well, yeah, I definitely always gravitate to biscuits. My grandmother
on my father's side, I spent a lot of time
with her and my parents got divorced when I was
really young, and I can just remember following her around
the kitchen she put on her house coat early in
the morning and didn't take it off until the evening.
And biscuits were always a part of every meal for
(04:57):
different reasons, mainly because they were they had humble means,
and she used angel biscuits, which are a little different
than the biscuits I make.
Speaker 4 (05:07):
But her angel.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Biscuits were used obviously for love and comfort, but mostly
for sustenance because you know, biscuits fill you up and
they are or can be inexpensive to make. So we
had them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert, and that
was always a part of every meal. That and rice
(05:28):
always on the stove, and she never measured and they
were just delicious.
Speaker 4 (05:34):
So definitely biscuits.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
But I think I it's been innate in me cooking
and entertaining and just the art of being a Southern
provider of food for people. And you know, I know
that started at a very early age with her and
my other grandmother and mother and really my father.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
So you know, my dad always said.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
You know, you wanted to be an education and teacher,
but I knew that you needed to be ensued because
I would sneak out of my room at age five
and butter saltines and serve them on the platter to
their friends that were over for the evening.
Speaker 4 (06:13):
So he said he saw it at a very early
age what I did not see.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
So it's so funny to talk to him about that.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Oh, you know, butter saltine. Just think about, you know,
warm butter on saltines kind of makes my mouth water.
That's like something that I think the Piedmont Driving Club
land is known for sure.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yes they are, they are, And there's just not much
better than salty butter on a warm saltine.
Speaker 4 (06:38):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I may do that for Christmas. That sounds like a
really inexpensive So yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
And you like warm them and then put them in
a night like crisp linen and a silver tray and
people will go crazy. Sure.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
For our friend Carolyn O'Neil always talks about him in
the holidays, and I'm like, I never thought about Yeah,
but I remember living Atlanta and going, you know, and
having occasionally and they really are special. So did you
have another career before you started your business?
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Well, you know, I after I graduated from college, I
went to work for a startup company a female entrepreneur
and was a salesperson for her in the coupon book business.
But the main thing that I did was call on
schools to do fundraisers, and I created the coupon book,
(07:28):
and I called on restaurants. So, you know, I think
that working for a startup, working for a female entrepreneur,
seeing her take major risks and you know, really go
for her passion, was instrumental and helping me figure out
what I wanted to do when I moved back home
(07:50):
to Charleston after I got married.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
So and I.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Actually was an education major in college, which I have
built to this day and output to use other than
raising my our three girls.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Where'd you go to college?
Speaker 3 (08:03):
I went to the University of South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I think I have a cousin who has attended or
graduate University of South Carolina. Interestingly enough, so you actually
started Calli's Hot Little Biscuits in two thousand and it's
two thousand, is the two thousand and five?
Speaker 4 (08:21):
Five?
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Yeah, sure, my first daughter was born.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Yeah, it's amazing, So I have to be you know,
I've written a lot about biscuits. Every sell owner has
a biscuit memory. I wrote an article called Biscuits Diary
Documentary my attempt to recreate the biscuit memory of my
childhood and went through a lot of renditions. Your biscuits
are very interesting because I mean there's a whole there's
a whole craft and art of making a biscuit. What
(08:46):
was interesting about there is a biscuit recipe in you know,
hot little suppers, as well as what to do with
steale biscuits, which we'll talk about later. But what was
interesting is you use cream cheese. We all know there's
a shortage of cream cheese right now. You use cream
cheese and your biscuits in addition to buttermilk and butter,
so it's butter, cream cheese and buttermilk, which is why
(09:07):
they're very rich tasting. Tell us about that. What does
the cream cheese do well?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
My mom always added cream cheese, and this was her
brain child, and you know, doubled the fat, double the deliciousness.
But she added the cream cheese because it was this
decadent extra layer that works so well with the buttermilk
and the tanginess of that.
Speaker 4 (09:27):
Those two just kind of are magical together.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Interesting.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So, yeah, you know, I've never other than my grandmother's
Y's biscuits, I've never had, you know, growing up that
was the only biscuit I'd ever had, so I didn't
know any difference, and we definitely have made a go
of it.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
For sure.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
It's interesting and you don't use baking soda or baking
powder for rising. I noticed that as well. Some people
do well.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
We use self rising flour self rest.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, my grandmother used all purpose flour and I've tried
it a thousand ways, and I just you know, there's
something about the quality of the flour we use.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
We we love, but.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
The inclusion of the leavening so that you don't taste
the leavening is super important to us. And we feel
very very loyal to our flower and specifically the self
rising version of it because of that. I want to
taste butter and buttermilk and that teny cream cheese that
I don't want to taste the leavening in the flour,
(10:37):
And so that's why.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
We use Which flower do you use?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
White?
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Really?
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Me too?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You know, they sent me the world's biggest rolling pin
after my article. They're so amazing White Lilia some Tennessee product,
love them, love them, And this is me. You know
something I learned. You know, you don't handle the dough
too much. You talk about getting attacked and sticky, and
I'm taken a lot of biscul looses, but a lot
of people don't know the secret to making them stand tall.
(11:05):
And you have a whole little thing called be a biscuit,
which you were con talking about. Is they got to
nestle close together. And that you're common about having the
two biscuits go together, they rise higher. Reminds me of
Natalie de preeze pork chop theory with the two pork chops.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
Oh oh, I love well, I love that theory and
I absolutely adore Natalie the original the og biscuit Queen
for sure.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Yeah, because you know when.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
You when you stand closer to people, you rise taller
and they make you know, they help you with your confidence,
and I mean just it's always good to be close
to people because they make you feel better.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
And it's a it's a biscuits or a metaphor for life.
Speaker 2 (11:43):
Well that's the introduction to your cookbook, Caught Little Suppers.
It says, be a biscuit, And I just love this
rice tall, be warm and buttery on the inside, and
be open to anyone's jam. And I just thought that
was great.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
It's a great way to celebrate life.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
It is, it isn't you know. I'm always thinking about
as I'm you know, growing a company and I'm the leader,
and I'm I'm very mindful of the fact that i
am being looked to to set the tone for the
culture and our company, and I'm also doing that at home,
you know. I mean, it's it's it's what I'm Any
(12:24):
family raising children is doing the same thing, and so
it's it's fascinating to me how my life, my two
jobs parallel and those that those words have never been
truer for anybody. They work for teach raising children, they
work for uh, creating good culture within a company, and
(12:45):
they're just it's like the golden rule, you know, be kind,
be confident, be open to anyone. And if we could
all live that way, and it's a daily practice. It's
it's not exact, and it's hard to do sometimes, and
you know, we all we'd all be better off.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So yeah, and you have you have three daughters, right?
How old are they have?
Speaker 4 (13:07):
I have three daughters.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
We have a thirteen year old, a fourteen year old,
and a seventeen year old.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Do they like to cook with you.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
They do like to cook.
Speaker 3 (13:17):
I've got some that love to cook and one that
really loves to bake. But we definitely have the kitchen
as the center of our universe, and family suppers are
super important and it's a family affair, and you know,
the supper table is utmost important to all of us.
(13:38):
So I feel really grateful to have that with them,
and hopefully they will carry that on when when they
leave us.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Well, you know, I think that's the whole premise of
Hot Little Suppers, because you have the book divided by seasons,
but also by meals and weekday week nine. Of course,
these days blurs day is the common day of the week.
Is I never know what day it is anymore, so
every day is a week day for me. But they're
very approachable. I want to start with I think this
(14:06):
is interesting because I love making biscuits, as I said,
But one of the problems is they always like after
a day they're done their hardest rocks. And you you
actually have ways to repurpose biscuits. Talk about some of
those creative ways.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Well, I just never want to throw away a biscuit,
So we talk about ways to use leftover dough.
Speaker 4 (14:26):
That's too tough to make into a biscuit.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
I think that's an important thing to talk about, because
you don't want to roll it out too many times
because then the dough is just too tough. So we
make things like biscuit crackers and biscuit bowls, but with
leftover cooked biscuits, you know, it's bread. So we make creutons,
we make bread crumbs, we make like this time of
year dressing or a lot of people call it stuffing
(14:51):
biscuit casse roles. And you know, I just think that
people have to be a little bit more open minded
about Discuits are the bread of not just the South,
but of our country. So anything you would do with
a piece of bread.
Speaker 4 (15:07):
You should do with a biscuit.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And more trifles, sweet creutons topped with on Sundays. I mean,
there's just pie crust. The possibilities are truly endless.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Yeah, you should never you know. Yeah, it's really not
about breakfast. Yeah, and it's not just about breakfast, you know.
I think that's important too. I mean, I happen to
like the savory Southern biscuit casserole looks really good.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I love that one, and I love the sweet one too.
We do a cinnamon maple. But you know, it's so
funny growing up biscuits for us, we serve them all
the time, but my memories are mostly about biscuits around
the supper table, Whereas I feel like America today thinks
biscuits are breakfast. And I'm not a huge breakfast theater,
which is kind of funny because I own many breakfast restaurants,
(15:57):
but I like, I like to eat in the evening,
so I like a basket of warm biscuits with butter,
and I like, you know, pour tinderlines.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Tucked inside biscuits. I like, you know state I'm a
savory person too, So.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
I just really want people to realize that it's not
just about the fast food biscuits. Breakfast biscuits are for
They're the bread of our country, you know, they're they're
one of the first bread.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
So I completely agree. It was Michael Tweety said they're
good sopping. They're good for sopping with anything, very good
for stopping. Yeah, sopping that soup and stew. I'm I'm
I'm a big believer that you should never corner or
pigeonhole any food into one meal. Like you know, you
can have eggs whenever you want. You can have bacon
whenever you want. Why do I I like to have
(16:47):
salad for breakfast? You know? I think you know, you
got to eat eat what you want when you want it,
as long as it's good for you and taste good
and isn't junk. I think that's important. So how did
the biscuit recipe become the company it is today? That's
a that's a long I mean two thousand and five,
it is twenty twenty one, So you've got some you've
(17:08):
got some legs there. But how did it all start
in terms of building a business?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
You know? It started? Well, first of all, I never
in a million years thought we'd be where we are today.
It's just I'm not one. That wasn't my original plan.
My original plan was, you know, my husband and I
moved back.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
I moved back from New.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
York, I you know, left for a few years, and
we moved back to Charleston and had our first child.
And I really thought I was going to be a
stay at home mom and quickly realized that I had
a ton of energy and I really just needed a
creative outlet. And I knew two things. I knew that
I wanted our girls to be raised by me, and
I wanted to be a huge part of that, and
(17:51):
I didn't want them to, you know, be at home
with nanny's or being in childcare. But I also knew
that I am just by nature, I'm super driven. I'm
a worker bee, but not just to work. I needed
to figure out, within my passion what could I do.
And you know, I'd always wanted to open a restaurant,
(18:12):
even without any formal culinary training, but knew that that
wasn't conducive to what my priority was, which was raising
our daughter. So you know, when you start to dream
on about what you can do in between nap times
and feedings of you know, being a stay at home mom,
you I just I said, I know, I want to
do something in food. My heritage is Southern mom and
(18:33):
I talked about doing a business together, but it was
more of like a Dean and Jelusa grab and go thing.
But we didn't want to brick and mortar. And I
just moved on from Newark, where I've worked in the
internet space, and I knew that there was something there
that was bigger than any of us knew. And I said,
you know, we should try to take your best product
from your catering business and package it and sell it.
(18:54):
And that was, you know, when I knew.
Speaker 4 (18:57):
It was the biscuit.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
But here's the irony in that I started a business
with my mom's country ham biscuit recipe and it never
occurred to me that I should maybe have a vegetarian
option another flavor. I truly started Callie's Biscuits with the
country ham biscuit, truly because that was what was her bestseller,
(19:19):
and I was passionate about it, and I loved it,
and I grew up eating it. And I always tell people,
if I can start a country ham mail order only
handmade biscuit in two thousand and five, when no one
was buying food over the internet, you, my friend, could
do anything, you know. It just it's crazy to think
back that we had. We've survived, but it wasn't about,
(19:43):
you know, selling tons of biscuits and making tons of money.
I had my priority of raising my children, and I
worked when I could, and it was a passion project
for me. So it was super slow and purposefully more
about my lifestyle than the business, and the business came
second to raising my children. But it was great because
(20:04):
you know, I never missed out on raising my children,
and the business just.
Speaker 4 (20:08):
Grew at a pace that was perfectly fine for me.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
I wasn't trying to impress anybody. I just knew that
we had a great product and when the time was right,
the right people would get it.
Speaker 2 (20:19):
So a couple of things. Your mom had a catering business.
You mentioned me your mom's k does she have a
catering business? When she was making the hand biscuits, she
was kind.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
Of winding down, and I mean she didn't have a
full on I mean she did parties for very you know,
it was word of mouth and she only took twenty
parties a year. But she was well known in Charleston
for being the best caterer without having a full blown business.
And the thing is is that she didn't just make
Southern food. She makes she's an incredible cook. She cooks
(20:51):
you know, Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican, Southern, Italian everything. But everybody
always asked for the country hand biscuits as a starter,
and I found that.
Speaker 4 (21:00):
To be so interesting.
Speaker 3 (21:01):
So we'd serve you know, port uh spring rolls with
you know, fish sauce, and they would start out with
the country ham biscuit.
Speaker 4 (21:09):
So I knew that there was something so magical about
these biscuits and that and I used.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
To put them in my suitcase when I lived in
New York, and I would have I would keep them
in my freezer. And when I was trying to get
a new client, I would keep them, package them in full,
have a handwritten note, and I'd have them courier it
over to whoever I was trying to impress. And it
wasn't a Southern people, it wasn't a Southern thing. People
that weren't Southern loved them too, So I knew there
(21:36):
was something to this to the biscuit.
Speaker 2 (21:38):
So you were in New York City working in use
of the technology space and up there hand biscuits are
unique because they're not really something you eat up there,
and no one can get a decent biscuit in New
York City. I'm going to say that right now, I'm
not yet because the weed they don't use the same way, whatever,
the water, what, it's a combination of everything. So when
(22:01):
did you decide to take the ham out of the biscuit?
And then now I was I think I told you
before we went on air. I went to the Whole
Foods and you've got buttermilk, and you've got up how
many different kinds of biscuits do you have now? And
did you do away with the hamd biscuit altogether?
Speaker 4 (22:17):
No, we still have the ham biscuit.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Oh it's what God is there and it is okay,
it is very popular, but it's regionally and seasonally popular.
It's not it's not a popular biscuit. We have so
many flavors, I couldn't even tell you. We have buttermilk,
cheese and chive, sharp cheddar, cinnamon shortcake, blueberry, we had
(22:39):
a pumpkin spice. We do you know, like some seasonal flavors.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 3 (22:45):
Yeah, yeah, just like we'll we'll make you know, a
few thousand and and and you know, just have fun
surprise like flavors. So uh yeah, so you know.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Maybe my Whole food had shuddar and chi so I
mean chad nouga right now. Maybe different you know elsewhere,
But that's that's interesting. Do you do you come up
with I mean, do you do you think you will
keep coming up with new flavors or extensions of of
Calli's Hot Little Biscuits.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Yeah, I definitely think that we will continue.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
I have a long list.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
It's more about keeping not coming out with too many.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Exactly, we just lotch.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
We just launched a sausage biscuit.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
That is, we can't keep it in stock, so that
is that is keeping us very busy. And it's been
fun because, you know, when we started to do the research,
one of my one of the only things I would
ever eat growing up is a sausage biscuit, like a
good old rot Guta sausage biscuit from Hearty's or McDonald's. Like,
(23:48):
oh my gosh, my mouth waters just talking about it.
So but you know, there's no there's no all natural
sausage biscuits that.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I know of that can be purchased. So this was
super important to me.
Speaker 3 (24:00):
You know, I'm going to feed my children. I want
them to have the best.
Speaker 4 (24:05):
So I just started.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Streaming about a partnership with a great sausage company that
can provide us with, you know, a clean sausage. And
we found a great partner and we launched the sausage
biscuit and actually in How She Rolls, you see the
whole process of the testing of the sausage and the
biscuit and the ratio of the biscuit to the sausage
and vice versa. And you know, because a lot of
(24:28):
people say, you know, how do you come up with
new ideas and how.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
Do you test it? And what's your r and D?
And it's very, very elementary, but it is what it is.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
So you see that in How She Rolls the docuseries,
you know, pack everything from the case testing to you know,
the going back and forth to different renditions, to the
packaging portion, which is kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
How many shows are in this series? How many shows
are in the series How She Rolls?
Speaker 3 (24:53):
There's ten in the first set them and there are
ten thirty minute episodes and then we're filming right now
for see them two.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
So what is the premise of the ten series? I mean,
what will want viewers experience.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
You're going to see everything from my crazy life running
and growing a business, to balancing three daughters who and
have incredibly business lives, to a little bit of the
business side of it, and some cooking and how we
eat and how it all folds in together. You see
(25:29):
my Thanksgiving supper, you see our company.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
Retreat, you see.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
I'm trying to think of what else is in there
right now, because it's been.
Speaker 4 (25:38):
A while since I've watched it.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
You see my struggles of growing the business. You see
us getting a big grocery store chain, working really hard
to make the order because we literally make every biscuit
by hand, there's no machines in the process. Then having
the grocery store cut the store and count down unbelievably small,
and me fighting to get it to come back up.
(26:02):
You see us launching a food truck. You see us
launching a new hot, little biscuit store that starts out great,
and you see the whole pandemic and how that.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
You know, worked for us. So it's an interesting show.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
It is interesting, and you know, I want to give
back to the entrepreneurial journey because it is hard to
get into supermarket super hard. What were the challenges when
you got into this. First of all, did you have
a business plan? Did you work with business partners? That's
the first question because a lot of people women may say, well,
(26:38):
did you have been you know, partners and investors, or
you do it all herself.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I never had a business plan.
Speaker 4 (26:46):
You know.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
My business plan was how do we not lose money?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
That was my business plan.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
But don't take advice from me. And I've never had
an investor, No, I haven't, and you know, I think
it's it's to the individual. And that's not to say
I won't ever, but you you know, it has been.
No investor would want to would have wanted to work
with me over the last sixteen years because I'm going
(27:12):
at my pace and my cape, I am very well aware,
is not the pace of an investor. So you know,
again my priority, my passion are leading my focus in
this business world.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
So you know, I want to.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Enjoy life, I want to not miss a moment with
my children, and I want to also grow a business.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
So so what have been the challenges? What were the
some of the challenges that you faced, and how did
you overcome them.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
It's so funny because it's easier to say what haven't
been the challenge?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Good for you?
Speaker 3 (27:49):
Every single day it is, you know, everything from you know,
just growing and how do we fulfill this order to
staffing to not having the right person in the job,
to quality control to shipping issues. You you know, we
(28:10):
really want to grow this level, but we don't have
the money to do it, so we've got to wait
until we can afford a packing machine that would make
us more efficient, and then we save up the money
and buy it, and then it doesn't work, and then
we can't get our money back. I mean, there have
been so many mistakes and learnings of failures that we
call them learnings. But there's also been a ton of
(28:31):
successes too, and I think that it's been the best
MBA that anybody could ever.
Speaker 4 (28:37):
Experience. It's just real life.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Experiences of what goes on in the day to day.
And you know, I walk in the door from work
every day and my husband goes, what happened today?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, I call it. Yeah, you can look at this
problem solve, problem solving or solution finding, and it's true.
And I think, you know, I think this is really
important for anyone's listening. You do not underscore, do not
have to have an MBA to launch a business. You
have to have a steel stomach and nerves, and you
(29:09):
have to have razor sharp vision of what you want
to do and a lot of dedication. I watched Shark
Tank a lot. I've actually learned a lot about business
wanting Shark Tank. And last night I saw two people
pitch and they made the fatal mistake of say, when
one of the sharks is what are you going to
do with a three hundred thousand that you want? They said, well,
we need to pay ourselves some money out of it,
(29:32):
because you're busy managing a family and doing side jac
and I was like, fatal mistake. You got to seek
it all back into the business. When you bring in
money through business, you put it back into the business.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Right, exactly right, that is one hundred percent. I've been
saying that for fifteen years. And you know, I'm not
doing this for money. I'm doing it because I want
to grow a business. I want to prove to myself
and in my family that I can do this. And
it's truly a dream and it's a it is it
is a child to me. It is I've grown it
from nothing and I want to see it through. And
(30:07):
you know, the money is secondary, but.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yeah, you it is.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
If you start a business to make a lot of money,
and maybe if you have tons of investments investors behind you,
and just like you know, a crazy great idea, it's
just a hard thing to have that be your first priority,
I think, because there's going to be a lot of
times when that's not going to be you're not going
to be able to be successful if that's your main goal.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I agree, I completely agree with you, and and and
I experienced it my own when I started my own
agency at the time, and it was the goal of
just being on my own and calling my own shots
in terms of my time. I mean, that's a lot
of reasons. A lot of individuals, especially women, start their
own business because they want to be able to be
in control of their life and the and their family,
(30:57):
their business and et cetera. And not all companies open
to that. Now, this is interesting Carrie today Alpana Seeing,
who's a wonderful entrepreneur in Somier who owns restaurants, she
posted something that I thought was really interesting about you know,
it was hard for her, an Indian American woman, getting
(31:17):
a foot in the door building her business, and she's
very attractive, and so she had to deal with some
very aggressive sexual predator type people. The whole thing. It's
been well documented, but she said something that resonated, and
I talked to my husband David about it. She said,
no one ever asks men who run businesses, how do
you strike a balance? How do you manage it all
and strike a balance no, but they always ask women
(31:39):
that isn't that interesting?
Speaker 4 (31:41):
They do?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
They do, and you know, I think that is changing.
I think if you look back, you know, women didn't
really go into the workforce.
Speaker 4 (31:51):
Until what was it the fifties.
Speaker 3 (31:53):
And then you know, it is raining, it is. It
is definitely changing. And I also think that women have
to you know, play a part in that and not
not even go there.
Speaker 4 (32:08):
You know, how do I do it?
Speaker 3 (32:10):
I do it just like everybody else does it. And
I you know, I have my priorities and I make
it work and be done with it.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
And you know, I just.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Men don't have the guilt that women have. You know,
we've got guilt about breastfeeding and we've got guilty about working.
Speaker 4 (32:30):
And it's awful.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Yeah, that's a that's a learned behavior.
Speaker 4 (32:36):
I guess.
Speaker 3 (32:37):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
I mean I have had I had both and I
still have it. And it's just one of those things that.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
You know, at the end of the day, I say,
this makes you stronger, it makes you tougher, It makes
it easier to make decisions. And when you know what
is guiding you and what you're what you're beacon light
is and it makes it makes decisions really clear, you.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Know, Yeah, I mean I said, I said to myself,
I'll never ask some one how do you strike a
balance with it all? Again? You know, we all find
our ways, you know, we're all you know, it's all.
Life is about juggling. And if you're not, Wow, you
know you've streamlined your life pretty well. But most of
us are juggling. PARTICKI when you're an entrepreneur in any
kind of business and you're juggling a lot just there.
(33:19):
It has moving parts, and then you add in the family,
and then you add in the community in layers. Life
is about juggling, period. If you were, I want to
ask you a couple more things business and then go
back to the cookbook. If you were, I'm sure people
call you up and say, can I pick your brain?
They do with me all the time. Can I collaborate?
(33:41):
Pick your brain?
Speaker 3 (33:42):
Uh?
Speaker 2 (33:42):
First of all, what would you tell someone who says
to you, Wow, I want to start I have a
family recipe and I really think it could sell. What
would you tell them that they need to think about
with that recipe? And I've interviewed a lot of food
entrepreneurs with that family recipe. Not everybody makes it most
(34:02):
some of them did really well, like you and Sarah Beth.
Speaker 4 (34:06):
I think that the first thing I do get this.
I get calls a lot about.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
This, and you know, I say, well, what is your goal?
Speaker 4 (34:14):
What is your passion?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
And what is your goal? What are you trying to accomplish?
Speaker 4 (34:18):
And what is your.
Speaker 3 (34:19):
Definition of success? You know, don't think about the beginning,
think about the end. And if your end goal is
to make a ton of money, and you want this
to be your like side hustle and you're going to
be doing other things and you better find some investors
and you may have a great product, but it takes
(34:42):
more than that, and this better be your passion.
Speaker 4 (34:46):
Because it is.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
It is unbelievably difficult.
Speaker 4 (34:51):
It is so hard. It is so hard. It's it
is just like raising children. It is.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
There is a lot of amazing good and it and
the successes are amazing and they outweigh the stress and
the failures.
Speaker 4 (35:06):
But it's it is.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
It takes so much. It takes so much grit and
hard work and just make sure you're you know what
you're in goal with and there's so many different levels
of that.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
So people will say, well, I want it to be
on it in every grocery store in America, and I
want to be the next you know, Colonel Sanders, I
want to make the best bride chicken in the one
or you may say, I just want to make this
and I want to sell it at farmer's markets, and
I want to sell it for friends and family, and
that's okay too. You know, you've got to know what
(35:41):
it is that you want.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That's a sure that you want. That's a great point
because your mom was the local cater go to caterer,
and that was her success. She did great, and yeah,
she was a community success, not a national success of
communities is of course soon now.
Speaker 3 (35:57):
She has and you know we are early on separated
as business partnership because although it was her recipe, I
was so inspired by her food that it was my
passion and my dream to do this, and she had
no interest in it.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
She hated it.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
She's still today she's like, I don't know, I can't
believe people are buying the sisters.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I know you go to trade shows together and somebody,
you know, I just that's a very important point. Also, Carrie,
you know your dream is maybe not somebody else's dream.
So like I do work with my husband, but we
don't necessarily share the same vision and dream. And at
some point you have to say, Okay, maybe it's time
to divide and conquer or split and go your way
(36:40):
in my way, because not everybody shares that. And you
shouldn't drag people along in the process because they may
drag you back down. And you have to be willing
to let go of the people that are dragging you
down so you can continue to soar. And that takes up.
That takes Somebody once said ice in your veins. I
was actually that was some of the weirdest business advice
(37:02):
I was ever given. Carrie. It was like, you need
to have more ice in your veins. But and I thought,
that's so mean. But I get it now. I get
it now. You got to separate the emotion. And probably
some of the worst decisions I've ever made in my
own business life were emotional decisions, right types of emotion.
So you got to think that way. It's so interesting,
(37:23):
I would think, now you probably there's also factors, as
I call, out of your control. Let's talk about this.
There's a cream cheese shortage right now. I just read
the Philadelphia Cream cheese is paying people twenty five dollars
not to make cream juge not to make cheesecake for Christmas.
That's a great pr gimmick. But there's a cream cheese shortage.
There's a packaging shortage right now, there's a labor shortage.
(37:44):
I would think that this is impacting you when you
have a product where cream cheese is an essential ingredient it.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
Is, it is definitely impacting us. And we are you know,
luckily for us, we do a ton of baking throughout
the year, and we've put up for holiday and so
you know, I would say eighty percent of our baking
has been done before September. But we have restaurants that
make biscuits fresh every day and they're struggling with that.
(38:14):
And so you know, there we have great partners with
our food service providers, and we're you know, always wheeling
and dealing and you know, at times getting it in
the car, getting in our delivery vehicle at three in
the morning and going to Atlanta.
Speaker 4 (38:29):
To get you know, sixty cases of this, and you know.
Speaker 3 (38:33):
Just all I always say that there needs to if
you're going to work with us, your mindset has to
be there's always a solution because these are just this
is a normal day for us. You know. When the
pandemic hit, of course it was incredibly stressful, but that
that we are ready for those kind of things because
(38:54):
growing a business, there's always a fire to put out
or a problem to solve, and the logistics piece of it,
as it gets bigger, just grows and grows and grows.
And you know, you just if your mindset.
Speaker 4 (39:06):
Is there's always a solution, you will find it.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
There's never a Okay, we just have to give up
that close shop. We can't do it. No, you know what,
We're going to make these biscuits with half the amount
of cream cheese, or we're going to run a special
and do no cream cheese in these biscuits. And there's
always a solution. There's certain things that you just can't control,
so you can't you can't just give up.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
You say, look, this is the way we're going to
do it today.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
A good example of that is all of our friends
when the pandemic hit and the bar enders shut down.
You could either fret or you could figure it out.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (39:40):
So my one of my favorite business mentors is Marie Fourlio.
She runs b Skill and she says, everything is figure outable,
and that's not how I run my life. If I've
learned one thing out of the program that she taught,
it's that. And you know, people like Julie Reiner and
some of these wonderful bar owners, they started making to
go cocktails and that actually spurred an entire category. Now,
I mean the entire to go cocktail can cocktail industry
(40:03):
now taking off as a result. I mean it was
it was simmering in the back pre pandemic, but now
it's like front and center RTAD ready to drink. I mean,
it's unbelievable. So this too will pass, and in the meantime,
you come up with other solutions that can say in
your business and other alternatives. Now, are you going to
(40:25):
ever consider going beyond Cali's Little Biscuits into another area?
You mentioned other restaurants or something. Do you have other
restaurants or did I miss here that we have.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
We have two in Charleston and a construck and a
catering division. But we also have one in Atlanta that's
getting ready to celebrate at six year anniversary in the
virgin I.
Speaker 2 (40:46):
Know about that. I know about that one in Atlanta
because I get to Atlanta more than you used to
come to Chattanooga.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
I know, right well, you know, I definitely think there
that is a whole another business model that I definitely
want to explore. We're just with the state of our
country and labor shortages and everything rible. I don't think
the timing is right for us right now. But yeah,
I think that that has an entire a very strong
(41:16):
idea because people are always hungry for handmade discripts, so.
Speaker 2 (41:22):
I contely agree. Yeah, but the labor shortage, you know,
it's it's a big problem. I want to talk about
the book a little bit more. I'm so before the
show was talking about how I'm probably going to have
to do a lot of cooking for Christmases. My mother
hates to cook. You do a lot of interesting things
with okra. I have said on the show many times,
I hate okra, but I'm starting to like it again.
You have a couple of dishes that look good. You
(41:42):
have Indian spiced roasted okra and tomatoes just looks fabous.
I love roasted vegetables. That just looks fabulous. I'm looking
at that, and then you do You said you grew
up with Okra rice. Do you use Carolina gold rice?
Speaker 4 (41:58):
I use whatever I have.
Speaker 3 (42:00):
I love Carolina goal rice. I use a lot of
Bob Madi rice.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 4 (42:05):
But yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
Mean I've never met a rice I didn't love.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
It is my You.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
Know, my husband's from Idaho. He loves potatoes. The poor
man never gets potatoes. Because I love unless of potato
is a French fry.
Speaker 4 (42:19):
I'm always going to defer to rice. So I like both.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
I was more of a potato person, but my husband
seems to be more of a rice person. So now
I've learned of like rice, I love, I love well.
We like both actually have different So I have a
weakness for French fries. We like both.
Speaker 4 (42:36):
I have weakness French.
Speaker 3 (42:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:38):
And that's just kind of scary because that's probably one
of my downfalls in terms of keeping my weight down,
is I could just I can't stop eating French fries
and then cheese. I like the way the book is
divided seasonally, but also weekday, week night and suppers. Are
there some uh fan faves in the We say family
fan faves in the book that you enjoyed particular cooking
(43:00):
with your daughters.
Speaker 3 (43:02):
Oh yeah, we have a lot. I mean everything in
there are favorites of theirs and that you know, they're
my first round of oh mom, this is not good
or yes, we love this again, so you know, and
I think my favorite thing about those all recipes and
cooking is that you know the stories that go along
with it.
Speaker 4 (43:22):
And that might be my.
Speaker 3 (43:23):
Favorite part of the process of writing a cookbook is, uh,
you know, going back through and saying, oh, remember when
it snowed here and Charleston and my children didn't know
what Italian wedding soup was, and we created an entire
neighborhood wedding around the Italian wedding soup, and you know,
it was a family affair, and my middle child got
(43:44):
married to the five year old across the street, and
everybody dressed up in full glam to the floor dresses
and we had had a wedding with the neighbors and
and feasted on Italian wedding soup.
Speaker 4 (43:56):
And homemade cake. And my girls made invitations.
Speaker 3 (43:59):
So you know, the memories that you create with the
food is just as important as the food. So last
night we had salmon with the nuns, and that was
inspired from a spring break vacation that we took together,
and you're just getting your children to eat things that
are a little bit out of the box is super
important to me. And a salmon salad with christy potatoes
(44:24):
and rants and a creamy dressing with pomegranate seeds and
avocado is always a good thing and certainly something that
they wouldn't normally.
Speaker 4 (44:34):
Eat, but they gobble it up.
Speaker 3 (44:35):
So yeah, everything in the cookbook is something that they
have put their stamp of approval on.
Speaker 4 (44:43):
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 2 (44:45):
I love that. And the other thing is it's interesting
when you think about dishes. I have an elderly mother
who hates everything. Oh my god, so you have to
rethink every dish that comes your way. So she, her
mule delivery service, delivered this strange slice be I don't know,
maybe it was salads, very sick on the mashed potatoes
and vegetables, and she was like, I don't like it.
I'm not eating it, throwing away. So you know what
(45:07):
I did. I chopped up all the meat, I put
them chopped up, I chopped up all the vegetables. I
moushed it all up. I put it in a bowl, Okay,
a bowl, so it looks different. This is important. It
looked different. I put the mashed potatoes on top. No,
I put in a little Duke's mayonnaise into the because
it looked a little dry. So I put a little
Duke's mayonnaise in the mush with the the veggies and
(45:28):
the meat because I thought that would soften it and
give it, give it some texture.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (45:33):
I put the mashed potatoes on top of my mind you,
this is from a delivery thing in styrofoam. I shredded
cheddar cheese on top, right, and I put in a
microwaving for like two or three minutes, and she ate
the whole thing.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
That is epic. That is the best story ever. I
love it.
Speaker 2 (45:49):
And I said, I said, I'm serving you Shepherd's pie
to night, and she'said, that's the best thing you've ever
cooked me. It was the same food repurposed and reorganized.
That great.
Speaker 4 (45:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
I always say, you know, if my kids don't like something,
I fry fry anything, fry, a shallat fry, an onion fry,
a potato chip, anything fried. And you put it on
top of that and they're like, oh.
Speaker 2 (46:11):
That our drizzled maple syrup and cayene pepper like Brussels
sprounsy brustle struf, put a little met cayenne pepper, maple
syrup and and it becomes something completely different then then
regular steam Brussels sprouns. But you know the other thing is,
you know, somebody doesn't like salads, put everything in a
blunder with yogurt and make a savory smoothie, you know, soup.
(46:34):
So a lot of the recipes in here, like the
back to repurposing the biscuits. You don't like stale or
what you know, hard biscuits, don't throw them away, turn
them into biscuit balls, caught them up. You can take
you know, take the tuscan bread salad, but make it
bscuit bread.
Speaker 3 (46:49):
Salad, right, exactly exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:53):
I'm a big believer as you are, and you're very
clear and don't waste, repurpose, reuse, right. And I think
you have a lot of recipes in hot little suppers
that spot like that, and you can substitute, you know,
with all recipes, there's a way to subsetent you don't
like okra and you know, Brussels sprouts. You know, there's
(47:14):
ways to try things differently. And I think I think
that's a metaphor for life. There's no there's no straight arrow,
whether you're running a business, you know, taking care of
a family, there's no straight and narrow arrow. But I
always like to end the show with like a summary
of inspiration, and I think this one is yours is
be a biscuit. I love it again. We're going to
(47:36):
say it again. Be a biscuit. It says, be tall,
be warm and buttery on the inside, and be open
to anyone's jam. And if somebody thinks you're stale, you
show them how you can shine in other ways. Right,
love that?
Speaker 4 (47:52):
I love it? Yeah, totally, totally.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
You can always turn it around, you know, you.
Speaker 2 (47:58):
Can always spin it, spin your biscuit a new way
and make something really amazing out of it. And I
think that's really important in life. No matter what throws
your way, you've got to figure out the solution and
spin it around. And we're all learning to do that,
you know, pivots like the word of the moment, but
that's what you got to do.
Speaker 4 (48:15):
Yeah, totally.
Speaker 2 (48:17):
Well, I really enjoyed speaking with you again. My guest
today has been Carrie More, founder of Hot Little Biscuit
and the cookbook is Hot Little Supper, simple recipes. I
fee family and friends. You bet your biscuit. I'm going
to go out and get more biscuits, but I'm also
going to try the recipe because I actually like to
bake and I like to make this. It's fun. There's
(48:38):
like a rhythm to it.
Speaker 4 (48:39):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
I agree. It's very therapeutic, a good thing to do
when you need a little break from life and you
just your shoulders.
Speaker 4 (48:47):
Go down and you.
Speaker 3 (48:49):
Sigh, and there's just something really magical about making biscuits.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
I agree. So thank you and thank you for joining
me today. I'm fearless, fabulous to you and for all
my guests. You know, what's your website? So I can
make sure everybody goes to your website?
Speaker 4 (49:03):
Carrie, Please yes.
Speaker 3 (49:04):
Callibiscuits dot com.
Speaker 2 (49:07):
Okay, Callie's Hot Little Biscuits. And Callie was your mom?
Speaker 4 (49:10):
Right, Callie is my mom? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (49:12):
Yeah, I just want to give a shout out to mom.
That's where the namesake Callie's Hot Little Biscuits. Callie's Hot
Little Biscuits. Thank you, Carrie Morey, and to everybody out there,
say fearless and fabulous and remember this. You have the
choice in your life to live it on your terms
the way you want it. So go out and be
fearless and fabulous and show them what you can do.
Thank you very much, absolutely, thank you me. Bye.
Speaker 5 (49:37):
Hi. This is Melanie Young, host a fearless, fabulous you.
If you were a loved one has been diagnosed with
breast cancer, I urge you to read my book Getting
Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless
and Fabulous in the Face of Breast Cancer. This is
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with breast cancer in August two thousand and nine. In it,
(49:59):
I interviewed who provide valuable insights on what they learn
from going through breast cancer so they can help you
make informed decisions and confident choices. I also talk to
medical experts to learn the latest advancements on breast cancer treatment,
and I provide important health tips on what to eat
(50:22):
and how to care for yourself so you can stay
as healthy and strong as you can every day you're
through treatment. Getting Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's Guide
to Staying Fearless and Fabulous in the Face of Breast
Cancer is available on Amazon, and you can buy it
through my website Melanieong dot com and I'll send you
an autograph copy. I want you to stay healthy in
(50:45):
every aspect of your life, and especially if you're facing
a breast cancer diagnosis. So my message to you is
stay fearless and fabulous always and in good health.
Speaker 2 (51:00):
A part of my dess
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Mm hmm
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