September 4, 2025 • 27 mins
The Return of Marketing Media and Cupcakes: COVID, Struggles, and Resilience
On February 8th, 2021, John and Angel Ondo's podcast 'Marketing Media and Cupcakes' vanished, with no explanation. Returning after four years and seven months, the couple reveals the real story behind their hiatus. Following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, Angel experienced health challenges that deeply impacted their life and small business. Angel talks about her devastating loss of taste and smell, which halted her cupcake business, while John shares how they adapted amidst personal and professional hurdles. They reflect on lessons learned, the shift in their business models, and plans for their three 'postseason' episodes as they reconnect with their audience. Join them as they explain their journey and share insights on resilience, marketing, and the impacts of COVID-19. If you're glad to see this podcast return, please let us know at john@ondomedia.com and like and subscribe.
00:00 The Mysterious Disappearance
01:07 The Last Episode and COVID Strikes
01:55 The Long Hiatus Explained
02:41 The Impact on Angel's Cupcake Business
04:00 The Struggles with COVID Symptoms
09:40 Vaccination and New Challenges
13:10 Struggles with Smell and Taste Post-COVID
14:07 Current State of Smell and Taste
15:57 Resuming Baking and Business Adjustments
16:48 New Business Model and Lessons Learned
21:50 Family and Work-Life Balance
23:14 Podcast Revival and Future Plans
Marketing Media and Cupcakes is back after a four-and-a-half-year hiatus. We are producing three new episodes in the fall of 2025, but having been gone for so long, we want to know if you want us to continue. Please like, share, and subscribe, or send us a note at john@ondomedia.com that you are listening!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker (00:01):
On February 8th, 2021, John and Angel Ono's podcast
disappeared from the planet.
All traces of their growingsmall business podcast vanished.
What conspiracy took them down?
Was there a government coverup?
Did they flee the country?
(00:22):
Today, for the first time infour years and seven months, the
answers will be exposed to.
Announcer (00:35):
This is the Small business podcast that is sweeter
than all the rest marketingmedia and cupcakes.
John (00:41):
Hello and welcome to episode 77 of Marketing Media
and Cupcakes.
My name is John Ando.
Along with me is my beautifulwife, angel.
Hi there.
And we would just like to saythe rumors of our deaths were
greatly exaggerated.
100%.
In case you're finding thispodcast for the first time I'll
explain.
This was a podcast that we had76 episodes.
Yes, we did.
(01:01):
Until February 8th, 2021.
Dun Dun.
The ep.
Last episode we did was thesuper Game episode.
Immediately following the SuperBowl of 2021.
I don't even remember who wonthat one.
Angel (01:16):
Couldn't tell you.
John (01:17):
It was a great episode.
Matter of fact, still gets playsall the time and we had no
intention of stopping.
No intention of quitting, nointention of having a 1700 day
break.
But right after we finished thatprogram, I had a sore throat.
And they said, Hey John, youhave COVID.
(01:37):
You have to, you know,quarantine.
Quarantine.
And I had to quarantine myselfthat week.
Yep.
And that began the process ofwhy we haven't done a show for
over 1700 days or since.
February 8th, 2021.
Angel (01:54):
Been a process.
John (01:55):
So for those of you who maybe found us again and said,
oh yeah, I remember thispodcast.
Thank you so much, because thewebsite is gone.
The email domain is gone.
We shut that all down like twoyears ago.
We, we kind of gave up, so we'regonna explain what happened.
And why?
The, why we suddenly ended theepisodes.
We didn't get divorced.
(02:16):
We didn't kill each other.
Which would've been more likely,I suppose.
Angel (02:19):
I don't think so.
No.
John (02:20):
We had some things happen and so I've always felt for the
past 1700 days, yes, he has.
We needed to come back and atleast.
Finish the podcast.
If we were not gonna do itanymore, at least bookend it and
say, Hey, we're back and this iswhy and this is what happened.
But for those of you who arejoining us for the first time
and wondering what the heck isthis about?
(02:41):
We are a small business podcastand as I said, we said 76
episodes and we talked abouteverything from marketing and
media strategies and cupcakesbecause my beautiful wife, angel
here not only works at a Fortune500 company and she does
impressive work with customerservice.
Everything related to that.
But she has a side hustle ofdoing cupcakes.
Angel (03:02):
Yes.
John (03:03):
Angels Custom cupcakes.com.
Angel (03:04):
Thank you.
That domain is still inexistence.
John (03:07):
Domain is still in existence.
Although it almost went down.
Angel (03:09):
It did almost go down.
But thank you COVID for all of
John (03:13):
that.
And I am a film director, mediaconsultant, and I have been very
busy.
And that's ondomedia.com andwe've been cranking along, but
the podcast came to an abruptthen.
Almost five years ago.
We are going to do threeepisodes in this, this little,
this little postseasonapocalyptic, yeah.
(03:34):
Postseason of,, marketing mediacupcakes.
We kind of wanna see ifeverybody's, uh, you know, at
least they could feel like, hey,they're still alive, and that's
great.
Maybe we'll come back and dosome more, but we thought let's
just do three episodes.
There's some interesting thingsgoing on.
We'll talk about that at the endof the program, what we're gonna
do.
But, uh, we, we kinda like tosee if any of you are still out
there and if you just, are youthere?
(03:54):
Are you still there?
And you came and you found us.
And this is a podcast that, uh,we do talk about small business.
But today.
We're gonna talk a little bit ofwhat happened to us and how
COVID really screwed us over.
It certainly didn't help.
It did not. (04:08):
This was 2021, we had had an administration change
by this point.
Uh, president Biden was inoffice, not blaming him, that
happened and we had the SuperBowl and boom, I got a sore
throat from my daughter who atthat time I think was what, in
10th?
You know, ninth, 10th grade,maybe ninth grade?
I don't remember.
I don't remember either.
She's in college now.
That's how long it's been.
(04:29):
It's been a minute.
She's a freshman at the OhioState University now, but back
then I think she was in likeeighth grade.
Angel (04:36):
I don't know.
I think it would've beensophomore.
John (04:38):
I was told there'd be no math.
Angel (04:40):
She was still playing volleyball.
Yeah.
And she had just come back froma tournament.
Yes.
And you picked her up from saidtournament and, and she said, I
have a sore throat.
Sore throat.
And we all said, yeah, it'sprobably COVID.
John (04:51):
Yeah.
Angel (04:51):
But you didn't.
John (04:52):
She tested negative.
She did.
And I went a lot my business andyou know, what I do for a living
requires me to talk.
And we were doing this podcast,,my throat got sore right after
we did the little Super Bowlshow.
Went to some clinic down theroad and Yeah, you got COVID.
And I said, I don't really feellike I have COVID.
I feel like I have a sorethroat.
And they said, well, that'sCOVID.
(05:12):
I will, I won't get into thepolitics of this whole thing.
No, but
Angel (05:16):
you.
Pretty quickly didn't feel goodat all.
I did have COVID.
You had COVID But he was notWell, I quarantined him to the
basement.
Yes.
Which we had.
I would bring
John (05:25):
him food.
We had just remodeled thebasement that we're recording in
right now.
We had just moved it around inanticipation of doing even more
episodes of Marketing MeCupcakes.
Correct.
And other podcasts, otherthings.
'cause we had other clients thatwe were bringing here,
Angel (05:37):
but he was unwell.
John (05:39):
I was, I was downstairs sleeping on the couch.
Yep.
In, in my lovely basement office
Angel (05:43):
for five days.
And then on that Friday after hewas diagnosed, I was making a
cake for a friend, tasted myfrosting and said, why can't I
taste it?
And that let started my journeyinto COVID hell.
John (05:57):
So I got the COVID.
And I really thought, this isjust a joke.
Uh, I was doing Zoom calls.
I was still getting thingsproduced and stuff, but, but
when I realized something waswrong was I was working for one
of my clients and I had, uh, Iwas editing a podcast actually
for them, and I sent them thepodcast, did the edits, came
(06:18):
back and the guys, and he knew Ihad COVID.
He says, John, the, the podcastyou sent me.
It didn't have any edits, anyedits in it.
Everything was still like, like,huh.
And I checked and literallysomehow I felt like I had made
edits in it, but I apparentlyhadn't.
You had not.
So that COVID haze that peoplehad, I did have that.
Oh, you had a lot of the COVIDdays.
(06:39):
And I slept a lot, but it lastedlike three days So for the first
time in many, many weeks, we didnot do an episode, no.
That week.
'cause I had,'cause he
Angel (06:47):
couldn't talk without coughing.
John (06:49):
But I recovered.
I think by the following week Iwas back up and running, you
know, to a, to a degree.
But as you mentioned, Friday,Saturday of the week that I was
diagnosed, you went in and theysaid.
Angel (07:03):
I have COVID.
John (07:04):
Yes.
Angel (07:05):
My, I had no symptoms.
I had no sore throat.
I had no nothing except
John (07:08):
for
Angel (07:09):
you could, I couldn't taste, which is a small problem.
Suddenly I couldn't taste, solet me, and then I couldn't
smell.
And then I tried smelling myhand soap couldn't smell.
The next morning because we weretransitioning back into the
office.
I went to an urgent care andsaid, I need to know one way or
the other.
They said, assume you have it.
I said, well, I need to know.
And so they swabbed me and thewhole nine yards and they're
like, yes, you have COVID.
John (07:30):
When we talk about.
Angel's taste, which with theexception of her taste in her
current husband, is, is verysolid.
It used to be to when itrelates, when it relates to her
husband.
Angel (07:41):
Yeah.
John (07:42):
If you talk about dogs that can hear hypersonic things
and so forth.
She has like a hypersonic taste.
I
Angel (07:49):
did.
John (07:49):
She's the kind of person that she would come to me and
say, what does this taste like?
And my answers are, it's sweetor it's salty.
Yeah.
And that's about it.
That's it.
I don't have a whole lot more onmy little taster than that, but
you can say it's got vanilla,it's got extract, it's got
butter, it's got margarine.
Angel (08:07):
It was my superpower.
Yes.
To be able to take a taste ofanything.
Food cake doesn't matter andtell you exactly what was in it.
And I lost all of that.
John (08:17):
So for a painter, it would be like becoming colorblind.
For a musician it would be likelosing your hearing.
So for my beautiful wife who's amaster cupcake and cake creator,
and you might say, well, can'tyou just duplicate, you know the
recipes?
Well, you know, as you canexplain to people like me who
don't get it.
It doesn't work like that doesit?
Angel (08:37):
The custom part of Angel's Custom Cupcakes had to
come to a halt because peopleasking for specific flavor
combinations or a flavorprofile, I didn't feel, well, I
couldn't taste it.
Then I had to rely on neighbors,which meant I had to rely on
their palate to determine wasthat what we were going for.
John (08:56):
COVID had already impacted your small business because
nobody, nobody was really, in2020 was buying anything.
Graduations were canceled.
You did some I did small thingsfor friends, small things for
friends.
Yep.
You had some business.
But it was way down.
It was way down.
On my side of the fence, youwere ramped up.
I was, I was busy becauseeverybody was super duper.
(09:19):
We have to have videos, we haveto do fundraising for
nonprofits, which is one of thethings I do.
So, and, and, uh, the churches Iam involved with, Doubled
easily.
And I was doing a lot ofconsulting and, and beginning to
do a lot of work with, othercompanies.
So things were very busy for me.
And on the flip side, you werekind of shut down and shutting
down'cause you couldn't makecupcakes.
Angel (09:40):
I, again, we were getting better and then I had got
vaccinated.
As per requirement for where Iwork.
John (09:49):
Well, it was not only for your work that, um, but my
daughter was in the, uh,national Guard still is in the
National Guard, but this was herfirst year and she was going to
be graduating from bootcamp Yes.
In Oklahoma.
And we had plans to fly there.
Correct.
And if you recall, way back in2021.
You had to have the vaccinationsin order to fly on an airplane.
(10:10):
I chose to get the Johnson andJohnson one shot inoculations
because nobody seemed to thinkthey were any good, and I
thought, that's the one I wantyou went with.
Angel (10:20):
Pfizer, whatever it was.
Pfizer.
It doesn't matter.
John (10:21):
And then that's where the story takes another turn here
that we did not expect.
Angel (10:27):
Three weeks from the second vaccination booster, I
made a cup of coffee in themorning and said, why does this
smell weird?
And then I tasted it.
I'm like, why does this tasteweird?
And from that Monday morningforward, it got progressively
worse.
And when,
John (10:42):
And we had other friends that had this happen too.
The rotten egg sewage smell.
Mm-hmm.
A lot
Angel (10:48):
of people can relate to that.
John (10:50):
So again, you, you went from like no smell, starting to
get it back.
Yep.
We had to do the vaccinations inorder to get on airplanes and go
back to the offices.
Yep.
Thank you so much.
No political commentary here.
And then after you had yourvaccinations, it, it got rancid,
Angel (11:06):
Everything got bad.
Thanksgiving was probably one ofthe worst holidays of 2021
because everything smelledawful.
Those of you who cook know thejoyous smell of.
Butter and onion and, um, celeryand, you know, mi po in a pan,
you know, making your, um,stuff, I don't know what that
is, stuffing, but it all smellwonderful to me.
I don't know what I'm doing.
And it smelled like absolutegarbage.
(11:27):
Yeah.
It just, and Turkey smelled,everything.
Smelled and tasted awful.
And I literally, I had a, I hada, I call it a mild mental
breakdown.
John (11:37):
Let, let's talk about that because, we are a small business
podcast, but.
The thing we talk about is yourpassion is what makes your
business work.
Sure.
And that's my passion withstorytelling and media
production.
And yours was with doing thesecupcakes?
Yes.
And the joy people would seewhen you would make them a cool
cake or a cupcake thing.
(11:58):
Or a wedding cake.
It was huge.
And you loved doing it.
Mm-hmm.
You loved doing it, but you alsoloved just the baking.
Angel (12:05):
Mm-hmm.
John (12:06):
Tell me a little bit about how this shut you down, because
this is one of the reasons wedid not do a podcast for the
last four years.
Angel (12:13):
It was part, it was definitely part of the reason.
I mentioned earlier it was mysuperpower and now it was gone.
And so now what?
I didn't wanna rely on otherpeople to taste things.
I didn't wanna rely on anythingother than, because I knew my
own palate and it just wasreally hard.
So, but you didn't
John (12:32):
even enjoy it?
I could tell.
Oh, because I
Angel (12:34):
couldn't tell anything.
I couldn't tell if something wasin the oven, if it was baking,
if it was burning.
I couldn't, I couldn't doanything because it actually was
unpleasant.
And I went to an ENT and said,okay, is there something you can
do for me?
And that was in, um, early 22because I'd been told I just
needed to give it time, blah,blah, blah.
And he was basically like,there's, at this time, there are
(12:55):
no protocols to assist.
What they diagnosed me with issomething called Smia, I had an
altered sense of taste andsmell.
So things like things I used tolove.
The smell of an onion cookingwas great.
And now I still can barely takethe smell of an onion.
Certain things just were bad andso I basically gave up.
Baking altogether in all of2022?
(13:17):
Well, not just, and almost 23,
John (13:19):
not just baking.
You didn't wanna cook itkitchen.
Oh, I didn't wanna do
Angel (13:22):
anything.
I couldn't.
It was terrible.
John (13:24):
And, and when I, you know, I would go out and maybe
barbecue.
You, you couldn't take it.
I
Angel (13:27):
couldn't take the smell.
John (13:28):
I, so I can't, I can't completely explain if, unless
you've gone through this, tohave somebody who's passionate
about one thing and suddenlyhave it, not only lose the
passion, but it becomes almostlike painful.
Angel (13:43):
Oh, it was awful.
John (13:44):
And so for these reasons.
The podcast did not resume.
And it's not that we sat aroundgoing, when's it gonna get
better?
You tried the smelly perfumythings that people were every, I
tried every therapy, every snakeoil thing that was on the
internet.
We tried all of it because wehad one or two friends who were
struggling with a long term, butmost people got it back in a
(14:05):
month or two.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So let me just kind of dosomething we don't do in
storytelling.
I'm gonna jump ahead to today,please.
2025 is your smell back.
Angel (14:13):
Uh, not really.
I think we're at about, Ialways, people would give people
a percentage.
I'd say 70%.
And, and what I mean by that isI can smell certain things, but
I can't, for example, I can'treally smell gasoline.
John (14:27):
Yes.
I
Angel (14:27):
can't smell bleach.
John (14:28):
And that was something that happened to me.
I, when I had COVID, gasolinesmelled peppery to me.
Angel (14:34):
Mm-hmm.
John (14:35):
I wanna be clear or unclear about the fact we do not
know no and are not accusing thevaccines of doing this.
However, there is some evidenceand some people that the
vaccines did do things thatmessed up smell or other things
as, as
Angel (14:51):
it was explained to me when I said why now when I was
getting better.
Their comment was similar towhat happens to people who have.
Chickenpox and they hadchickenpox as a child and then
suddenly they get shingles.
That was me.
Mm-hmm.
And so what they believe, andthat's what the ENT and so did,
my physician said, the vaccinecreated or caused a waking up,
(15:16):
if you will, of the dormantvirus.
That was still within my bodyand it just.
Started the whole COVID processto a degree over again, but in a
different variation.
Mm-hmm.
So he said, we know that this isa thing.
Some people experience it.
I mean, mine was just taste andsmell.
I didn't have brain fog.
I don't have long COVID.
(15:36):
Yeah.
I don't have all these otherhorrible things that people are
still dealing with today.
But my, my taste, there arecertain things that came back
first.
I do believe God is real andgood'cause I can taste
chocolate.
Yay.
So praise his holy name on thatone.
Um, I can taste vanilla, butthere are things like cream
cheese, sour cream, taste rancidstill to this day.
I basically.
(15:57):
Resumed my baking.
But what I did was back off andthat was
John (16:01):
just in like 2020.
It was end of 24.
Angel (16:03):
Well, it was beginning of 24.
John (16:05):
Four.
Angel (16:05):
Yeah.
It was the beginning of 24.
Just a little
John (16:06):
over a year.
So you were dormant for abouttwo years?
Yes.
Angel (16:09):
I had almost, no, I did special orders and it, the
requirement was I would dovanilla only.
Yeah.
That was the only thing I woulddo because that was a tried and
true recipe and I was like, Iknow exactly how to make it.
And vanilla was a flavor thatwas coming back, but the, the
smells finally subsided fromthings smelling rancid.
John (16:27):
A good day for me is when we go somewhere and I'll say,
oh, do you smell that?
And she says, I smell something.
Yeah.
It's something what it is.
I don't know.
Many times it the, the typicalreaction for the past.
Three, four years has beeneither I don't smell it or that
smells horrible, what is it?
And I'm like, oh, that'scinnamon.
Mm-hmm.
Or something.
Yep.
yeah.
(16:47):
It was tough.
So you, so from a small businessperspective, it, you've started
the business back up.
Your passion for it is, hasn'tleft you, but at least your
disdain because of the smellhas, you've worked through that.
Angel (16:59):
I've gotten to the point where I now.
I do what I wanna do versus whatI have to do.
I've changed my model which wasI never said no to anybody for
about anything.
Yes.
Um, and thank you
John (17:12):
for doing that, by the way.
Yeah.
That
Angel (17:13):
was making him crazy, but it was more making me crazy and
I had a very good, you know, Idid have a therapist who said,
what is it about this that youdo enjoy?
What is it that you can find?
Is it the creativity?
Is it the baking?
Is it the, I said at the end ofthe day, it's the decorating
that I enjoy the most.
He's like, then can you findsomething else?
So I finally decided ifdecorating is what I enjoy, then
(17:35):
let the, let the baking be whatit is.
You can't do custom.
You'll just tell people, Idon't, can't do custom flavors.
These are the flavors I offer.
And then.
The rest of it is what I canfind joy in, which is the
decorating and the creatingversus the other stuff.
So it has come back, in thesense of a business perspective.
I do still enjoy doing it forpeople.
(17:56):
Um, but I still miss the factthat I can't, I can't smell my
cake if it's burning in the ovenand I can't, you know, smell
something, um, fresh cut grassor rain or yeah.
Things that I know exactly howit should smell and I still
can't smell it, but we'rebelieve it's gonna come back.
John (18:12):
We, we are,
Angel (18:12):
John is my believer.
I'm a realist.
It's been so long.
It's,
John (18:17):
it's always hard for the person going through it to say,
yeah, it's gonna ha I, so it's,it's, and she's, it's been four
years, she has been with me withdifferent things.
The believer on my stuff.
Yes.
And that's why, uh, that's whywe are still here and our rumors
of our death have been greatlyexaggerated.
That's why the podcast came toan abrupt end.
Yes.
On the week of February 8th,2021 because, we got COVID.
(18:42):
And, and it kicked us in thehead pretty bad.
Yes.
And so tell me a little bit moreabout what happened.
With your model because beforeAngel's custom cupcakes, and you
would have people who say, Iwould like a glider.
Angel (18:56):
Yes.
And I did that.
John (18:57):
And you would do that.
And I'd go, why are you doingthat?
Angel (18:59):
And I'd say, because I wanna try
John (19:00):
you kind of finally realized this isn't working and
you were putting in many, manymore hours.
Our good friend Terry DismoreYes.
Was very influential.
Helping you with kind of lookingat the numbers Correct.
So tell me about the modelchange with your new, with, uh,
Angel's Custom Cup Cupcakes 2.0.
Angel (19:19):
It essentially is I do cupcakes and I do standard cake,
meaning I will do a, a cake witha design, but I am not creating
a cake that looks like this orthat.
A cake that is in the shape of acar or a purse or something
crazy.
It is, as I refer to it,
John (19:40):
the Chipotle mindset.
You've got three meats and thenyou got the things, you got
three choices here.
And then by the end you have,you have a 73 combinations you
can make.
But basically it's three choicesat a time or five choices.
Angel (19:53):
It's, it's, here are my flavors, here are the frostings.
Do you want something?
And if you have a cake with adesign, then I will look at it
and determine is that somethingI am able to do or interested in
doing?
John (20:06):
Recently you had a cake actually for a family member
that was kind of enough to, tosend us some business and it was
it was a baby shower preview.
Oh.
It was called
Angel (20:13):
It was a sprinkle for, sprinkle those of you for, you
know, instead of a shower.
It's a sprinkle.
That's new.
Didn't know any of this.
I just learned about what asprinkle was as well.
John (20:21):
But it was a little, uh, it was called
Angel (20:22):
little cuties was the theme.
Little
John (20:24):
so little oranges on it.
So that's a custom.
You had a standard flavor andthen you had the little cuties
that you would cut out of vinylor whatever it is to make stuff
outta fondant.
Thank you.
And, uh, that's, uh, it, and itwas beautiful and they loved it.
Angel (20:37):
Choose what you're good at, choose what you enjoy, and
stay in it, and business willfind you.
And so I decided I didn't haveto say yes to everything.
I didn't have to accept, youknow, a, a mid product because I
wanted to say yes.
My cupcake business does notmake our mortgage payment.
It is more of a, you know, a joythat I have, and I'm trying to
(21:00):
find that joy again.
But the only way to have that ison my terms and my terms are,
send me what you want.
And if I can do it and I'mavailable, I will.
And if it's something that'soutside of my, uh, wheelhouse
I'm gonna tell them, no, I'msorry.
And, and you'll need to findsomeone else.
John (21:15):
I, I, I think if there's any lesson from the, The rumors
of our death would be greatlyexaggerated.
Is we've learned a coupledifferent lessons.
And yes, similarly on my side,my business has gotten really
busy and I, as anybody who knowsme, is I, if you need 10 yards,
I will go 20.
(21:35):
Because I work with amazingpeople, I work with mainly all
nonprofits.
We have a lot of new clients nowand they're all great and
they're doing amazing work.
So I typically always push alittle bit extra for all of'em
because they're all doing, youknow, the Lord's work
Angel (21:49):
for all of them all the time.
John (21:50):
And, but I've gotten to the point where I've realized,
especially now that my second,child has graduated from high
school now attending the OhioState University.
And I've got one left and the
Angel (22:01):
first one graduated.
John (22:02):
Yes.
The other one graduated, by theway, with her bachelor's degree
from the Bearcats of Cincinnati.
Yes.
And is now a second lieutenantin the National Guard.
Yes.
She
Angel (22:11):
commissioned as well.
So we call her
John (22:12):
Lieutenant Laney now.
Angel (22:14):
Yes.
John (22:14):
I've got one child left in high school and I'm like, what
has happened?
Angel (22:18):
Mm-hmm.
John (22:18):
And my lesson to that on my side of the fence has been,
I, I am, I've told a coupleclients, I've gotta roll back a
little bit.
I only have less than 12 monthswith my son before he goes to
college.
And I'm not saying I'm gonna belike sitting in the corner
crying when he is gone.
I just know this period of time,this season's gonna be over.
(22:39):
And I do not wanna sit back andsay, why was I working 40 hours
on a project that I should haveprobably said no and gave it to
somebody else.
Yep.
When I could have been spendingit with him.
Exactly.
Or looking at colleges or justwatching him and laughing.
'cause he's funny.
Yes.
I can't say this enough and Iknow that doesn't pay the bills
for everyone and we're veryblessed to be able to do what we
(22:59):
do, if you have a small sidehustle, Be passionate about it,
but don't let it take over yourlife.
Don't let it take over yourmarriage.
Don't let it take over yourfamily.
and that's, again, one of thereasons Marketing Media Cupcakes
has been gone since February8th, 2021.
Mm-hmm.
Is that we were going through alittle bit of a crisis and, and
then by the time we got back upand kinda running, we, we've
(23:21):
been doing some other greatthings.
And if you're familiar with thepodcast.
Tell us a good story with Stephand Kevin Mason.
They do their video podcastshere in the studio, and we've
loved working with them.
They're amazing folks.
Angel (23:33):
Awesome.
John (23:34):
And we've, uh, we've been working on their podcast and
finally I said, you know what,what happened to our podcast?
And I was like, oh,
Angel (23:41):
really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
John (23:43):
Angel's not quite as motivated for the podcast as I
am, but I really think she hasan amazing story.
And I think sharing what youshared today is gonna connect
with a lot of people.
Who still are dealing with COVIDyears later, and we just wanna
encourage you, don't give up onyour vision, don't give up on
your business.
You may have to readjust it, youmay have to reboot it.
And and so we have come back,1700 days later to try to tell
(24:08):
you what happened.
And then we're gonna do two moreepisodes after this, and then
we're gonna see what happens.
I'm not gonna sit back and say,we're not gonna do anymore.
We wanted to see how many of ourfriends came back and found the
podcast because the website'sgone and everything's gone.
We're now just on ondomedia.com.
Uh, we're gonna do two morepodcasts next week.
(24:28):
Our new podcast we are gonnatalk about.
Did you know that Cracker Barrelchanged your logo?
Oh my.
Had you heard that by chance?
Angel (24:34):
This is a hot topic for him, so it's, I know everybody's
probably gonna be sick of it bythe time we drop it,
John (24:38):
We need to talk about Cracker Barrel.
And even though we're a littlebehind the time, I've spent the
last month really organizing mythoughts.
Yes.
On this Cracker Barrel debacle.
And why it happened and how weas small business people or
large business people need tothink about things a little
better.
So our next show will be aboutCracker Barrel I don't know.
(24:59):
Get excited.
Yeah, get excited and we'll talkabout marketing and rebranding
and what, what to do and whatnot to do.
And then the third of our, ofour postseason episodes.
We are gonna discuss socialmedia and ai.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the term ai.
Angel (25:13):
I am so familiar.
John (25:15):
I'm ready to cancel all of my social media accounts, That's
what I feel like AI is soruining social media.
I don't even wanna see itanymore.
I looked at her like, can weretire?
Can we just shut it all down andgo to live with the Amish?
Yeah, I'm over it.
But I'm gonna talk about a,we're gonna talk about ai, could
this be?
The long awaited death of socialmedia is gonna be caused by ai.
(25:36):
I don't think so, but we'regonna talk about that in on the
third of our episodes coming uphere.
So again,, this is the key.
If you like what you heard oryou missed us.
You can drop us a line.
We have a little cool littledrop us a line thing if you're
listening to us on Buzz Sprout,that you can actually send us a
text line on that.
Otherwise, my email address isjohn@ondomedia.com.
(26:00):
Find us on all the podcastformats.
Let us know that you like theshow and that you found us
again, and you're glad.
And tell Angel, thanks forsharing your story.
Or if you've gone through somethings like Angel did, write us
a note.
I've got the link in the thingand the ble boop and so forth,
and we'll go from there.
So again.
Thank you for joining us.
We're not dead, and we'll beback next week with actually a
new episode.
It's number 78 on MarketingMedia and Cupcakes.
Announcer (26:23):
Connect with John and Angel via Facebook and Instagram
and let us know your thoughts.
Marketing Media and Cupcakes isa production of Ondo Media.
On February 8th, 2021, John and Angel Ono's podcast
disappeared from the planet.
All traces of their growingsmall business podcast vanished.
What conspiracy took them down?
Was there a government coverup?
Did they flee the country?
(00:22):
Today, for the first time infour years and seven months, the
answers will be exposed to.
Announcer (00:35):
This is the Small business podcast that is sweeter
than all the rest marketingmedia and cupcakes.
John (00:41):
Hello and welcome to episode 77 of Marketing Media
and Cupcakes.
My name is John Ando.
Along with me is my beautifulwife, angel.
Hi there.
And we would just like to saythe rumors of our deaths were
greatly exaggerated.
100%.
In case you're finding thispodcast for the first time I'll
explain.
This was a podcast that we had76 episodes.
Yes, we did.
(01:01):
Until February 8th, 2021.
Dun Dun.
The ep.
Last episode we did was thesuper Game episode.
Immediately following the SuperBowl of 2021.
I don't even remember who wonthat one.
Angel (01:16):
Couldn't tell you.
John (01:17):
It was a great episode.
Matter of fact, still gets playsall the time and we had no
intention of stopping.
No intention of quitting, nointention of having a 1700 day
break.
But right after we finished thatprogram, I had a sore throat.
And they said, Hey John, youhave COVID.
(01:37):
You have to, you know,quarantine.
Quarantine.
And I had to quarantine myselfthat week.
Yep.
And that began the process ofwhy we haven't done a show for
over 1700 days or since.
February 8th, 2021.
Angel (01:54):
Been a process.
John (01:55):
So for those of you who maybe found us again and said,
oh yeah, I remember thispodcast.
Thank you so much, because thewebsite is gone.
The email domain is gone.
We shut that all down like twoyears ago.
We, we kind of gave up, so we'regonna explain what happened.
And why?
The, why we suddenly ended theepisodes.
We didn't get divorced.
(02:16):
We didn't kill each other.
Which would've been more likely,I suppose.
Angel (02:19):
I don't think so.
No.
John (02:20):
We had some things happen and so I've always felt for the
past 1700 days, yes, he has.
We needed to come back and atleast.
Finish the podcast.
If we were not gonna do itanymore, at least bookend it and
say, Hey, we're back and this iswhy and this is what happened.
But for those of you who arejoining us for the first time
and wondering what the heck isthis about?
(02:41):
We are a small business podcastand as I said, we said 76
episodes and we talked abouteverything from marketing and
media strategies and cupcakesbecause my beautiful wife, angel
here not only works at a Fortune500 company and she does
impressive work with customerservice.
Everything related to that.
But she has a side hustle ofdoing cupcakes.
Angel (03:02):
Yes.
John (03:03):
Angels Custom cupcakes.com.
Angel (03:04):
Thank you.
That domain is still inexistence.
John (03:07):
Domain is still in existence.
Although it almost went down.
Angel (03:09):
It did almost go down.
But thank you COVID for all of
John (03:13):
that.
And I am a film director, mediaconsultant, and I have been very
busy.
And that's ondomedia.com andwe've been cranking along, but
the podcast came to an abruptthen.
Almost five years ago.
We are going to do threeepisodes in this, this little,
this little postseasonapocalyptic, yeah.
(03:34):
Postseason of,, marketing mediacupcakes.
We kind of wanna see ifeverybody's, uh, you know, at
least they could feel like, hey,they're still alive, and that's
great.
Maybe we'll come back and dosome more, but we thought let's
just do three episodes.
There's some interesting thingsgoing on.
We'll talk about that at the endof the program, what we're gonna
do.
But, uh, we, we kinda like tosee if any of you are still out
there and if you just, are youthere?
(03:54):
Are you still there?
And you came and you found us.
And this is a podcast that, uh,we do talk about small business.
But today.
We're gonna talk a little bit ofwhat happened to us and how
COVID really screwed us over.
It certainly didn't help.
It did not. (04:08):
This was 2021, we had had an administration change
by this point.
Uh, president Biden was inoffice, not blaming him, that
happened and we had the SuperBowl and boom, I got a sore
throat from my daughter who atthat time I think was what, in
10th?
You know, ninth, 10th grade,maybe ninth grade?
I don't remember.
I don't remember either.
She's in college now.
That's how long it's been.
(04:29):
It's been a minute.
She's a freshman at the OhioState University now, but back
then I think she was in likeeighth grade.
Angel (04:36):
I don't know.
I think it would've beensophomore.
John (04:38):
I was told there'd be no math.
Angel (04:40):
She was still playing volleyball.
Yeah.
And she had just come back froma tournament.
Yes.
And you picked her up from saidtournament and, and she said, I
have a sore throat.
Sore throat.
And we all said, yeah, it'sprobably COVID.
John (04:51):
Yeah.
Angel (04:51):
But you didn't.
John (04:52):
She tested negative.
She did.
And I went a lot my business andyou know, what I do for a living
requires me to talk.
And we were doing this podcast,,my throat got sore right after
we did the little Super Bowlshow.
Went to some clinic down theroad and Yeah, you got COVID.
And I said, I don't really feellike I have COVID.
I feel like I have a sorethroat.
And they said, well, that'sCOVID.
(05:12):
I will, I won't get into thepolitics of this whole thing.
No, but
Angel (05:16):
you.
Pretty quickly didn't feel goodat all.
I did have COVID.
You had COVID But he was notWell, I quarantined him to the
basement.
Yes.
Which we had.
I would bring
John (05:25):
him food.
We had just remodeled thebasement that we're recording in
right now.
We had just moved it around inanticipation of doing even more
episodes of Marketing MeCupcakes.
Correct.
And other podcasts, otherthings.
'cause we had other clients thatwe were bringing here,
Angel (05:37):
but he was unwell.
John (05:39):
I was, I was downstairs sleeping on the couch.
Yep.
In, in my lovely basement office
Angel (05:43):
for five days.
And then on that Friday after hewas diagnosed, I was making a
cake for a friend, tasted myfrosting and said, why can't I
taste it?
And that let started my journeyinto COVID hell.
John (05:57):
So I got the COVID.
And I really thought, this isjust a joke.
Uh, I was doing Zoom calls.
I was still getting thingsproduced and stuff, but, but
when I realized something waswrong was I was working for one
of my clients and I had, uh, Iwas editing a podcast actually
for them, and I sent them thepodcast, did the edits, came
(06:18):
back and the guys, and he knew Ihad COVID.
He says, John, the, the podcastyou sent me.
It didn't have any edits, anyedits in it.
Everything was still like, like,huh.
And I checked and literallysomehow I felt like I had made
edits in it, but I apparentlyhadn't.
You had not.
So that COVID haze that peoplehad, I did have that.
Oh, you had a lot of the COVIDdays.
(06:39):
And I slept a lot, but it lastedlike three days So for the first
time in many, many weeks, we didnot do an episode, no.
That week.
'cause I had,'cause he
Angel (06:47):
couldn't talk without coughing.
John (06:49):
But I recovered.
I think by the following week Iwas back up and running, you
know, to a, to a degree.
But as you mentioned, Friday,Saturday of the week that I was
diagnosed, you went in and theysaid.
Angel (07:03):
I have COVID.
John (07:04):
Yes.
Angel (07:05):
My, I had no symptoms.
I had no sore throat.
I had no nothing except
John (07:08):
for
Angel (07:09):
you could, I couldn't taste, which is a small problem.
Suddenly I couldn't taste, solet me, and then I couldn't
smell.
And then I tried smelling myhand soap couldn't smell.
The next morning because we weretransitioning back into the
office.
I went to an urgent care andsaid, I need to know one way or
the other.
They said, assume you have it.
I said, well, I need to know.
And so they swabbed me and thewhole nine yards and they're
like, yes, you have COVID.
John (07:30):
When we talk about.
Angel's taste, which with theexception of her taste in her
current husband, is, is verysolid.
It used to be to when itrelates, when it relates to her
husband.
Angel (07:41):
Yeah.
John (07:42):
If you talk about dogs that can hear hypersonic things
and so forth.
She has like a hypersonic taste.
I
Angel (07:49):
did.
John (07:49):
She's the kind of person that she would come to me and
say, what does this taste like?
And my answers are, it's sweetor it's salty.
Yeah.
And that's about it.
That's it.
I don't have a whole lot more onmy little taster than that, but
you can say it's got vanilla,it's got extract, it's got
butter, it's got margarine.
Angel (08:07):
It was my superpower.
Yes.
To be able to take a taste ofanything.
Food cake doesn't matter andtell you exactly what was in it.
And I lost all of that.
John (08:17):
So for a painter, it would be like becoming colorblind.
For a musician it would be likelosing your hearing.
So for my beautiful wife who's amaster cupcake and cake creator,
and you might say, well, can'tyou just duplicate, you know the
recipes?
Well, you know, as you canexplain to people like me who
don't get it.
It doesn't work like that doesit?
Angel (08:37):
The custom part of Angel's Custom Cupcakes had to
come to a halt because peopleasking for specific flavor
combinations or a flavorprofile, I didn't feel, well, I
couldn't taste it.
Then I had to rely on neighbors,which meant I had to rely on
their palate to determine wasthat what we were going for.
John (08:56):
COVID had already impacted your small business because
nobody, nobody was really, in2020 was buying anything.
Graduations were canceled.
You did some I did small thingsfor friends, small things for
friends.
Yep.
You had some business.
But it was way down.
It was way down.
On my side of the fence, youwere ramped up.
I was, I was busy becauseeverybody was super duper.
(09:19):
We have to have videos, we haveto do fundraising for
nonprofits, which is one of thethings I do.
So, and, and, uh, the churches Iam involved with, Doubled
easily.
And I was doing a lot ofconsulting and, and beginning to
do a lot of work with, othercompanies.
So things were very busy for me.
And on the flip side, you werekind of shut down and shutting
down'cause you couldn't makecupcakes.
Angel (09:40):
I, again, we were getting better and then I had got
vaccinated.
As per requirement for where Iwork.
John (09:49):
Well, it was not only for your work that, um, but my
daughter was in the, uh,national Guard still is in the
National Guard, but this was herfirst year and she was going to
be graduating from bootcamp Yes.
In Oklahoma.
And we had plans to fly there.
Correct.
And if you recall, way back in2021.
You had to have the vaccinationsin order to fly on an airplane.
(10:10):
I chose to get the Johnson andJohnson one shot inoculations
because nobody seemed to thinkthey were any good, and I
thought, that's the one I wantyou went with.
Angel (10:20):
Pfizer, whatever it was.
Pfizer.
It doesn't matter.
John (10:21):
And then that's where the story takes another turn here
that we did not expect.
Angel (10:27):
Three weeks from the second vaccination booster, I
made a cup of coffee in themorning and said, why does this
smell weird?
And then I tasted it.
I'm like, why does this tasteweird?
And from that Monday morningforward, it got progressively
worse.
And when,
John (10:42):
And we had other friends that had this happen too.
The rotten egg sewage smell.
Mm-hmm.
A lot
Angel (10:48):
of people can relate to that.
John (10:50):
So again, you, you went from like no smell, starting to
get it back.
Yep.
We had to do the vaccinations inorder to get on airplanes and go
back to the offices.
Yep.
Thank you so much.
No political commentary here.
And then after you had yourvaccinations, it, it got rancid,
Angel (11:06):
Everything got bad.
Thanksgiving was probably one ofthe worst holidays of 2021
because everything smelledawful.
Those of you who cook know thejoyous smell of.
Butter and onion and, um, celeryand, you know, mi po in a pan,
you know, making your, um,stuff, I don't know what that
is, stuffing, but it all smellwonderful to me.
I don't know what I'm doing.
And it smelled like absolutegarbage.
(11:27):
Yeah.
It just, and Turkey smelled,everything.
Smelled and tasted awful.
And I literally, I had a, I hada, I call it a mild mental
breakdown.
John (11:37):
Let, let's talk about that because, we are a small business
podcast, but.
The thing we talk about is yourpassion is what makes your
business work.
Sure.
And that's my passion withstorytelling and media
production.
And yours was with doing thesecupcakes?
Yes.
And the joy people would seewhen you would make them a cool
cake or a cupcake thing.
(11:58):
Or a wedding cake.
It was huge.
And you loved doing it.
Mm-hmm.
You loved doing it, but you alsoloved just the baking.
Angel (12:05):
Mm-hmm.
John (12:06):
Tell me a little bit about how this shut you down, because
this is one of the reasons wedid not do a podcast for the
last four years.
Angel (12:13):
It was part, it was definitely part of the reason.
I mentioned earlier it was mysuperpower and now it was gone.
And so now what?
I didn't wanna rely on otherpeople to taste things.
I didn't wanna rely on anythingother than, because I knew my
own palate and it just wasreally hard.
So, but you didn't
John (12:32):
even enjoy it?
I could tell.
Oh, because I
Angel (12:34):
couldn't tell anything.
I couldn't tell if something wasin the oven, if it was baking,
if it was burning.
I couldn't, I couldn't doanything because it actually was
unpleasant.
And I went to an ENT and said,okay, is there something you can
do for me?
And that was in, um, early 22because I'd been told I just
needed to give it time, blah,blah, blah.
And he was basically like,there's, at this time, there are
(12:55):
no protocols to assist.
What they diagnosed me with issomething called Smia, I had an
altered sense of taste andsmell.
So things like things I used tolove.
The smell of an onion cookingwas great.
And now I still can barely takethe smell of an onion.
Certain things just were bad andso I basically gave up.
Baking altogether in all of2022?
(13:17):
Well, not just, and almost 23,
John (13:19):
not just baking.
You didn't wanna cook itkitchen.
Oh, I didn't wanna do
Angel (13:22):
anything.
I couldn't.
It was terrible.
John (13:24):
And, and when I, you know, I would go out and maybe
barbecue.
You, you couldn't take it.
I
Angel (13:27):
couldn't take the smell.
John (13:28):
I, so I can't, I can't completely explain if, unless
you've gone through this, tohave somebody who's passionate
about one thing and suddenlyhave it, not only lose the
passion, but it becomes almostlike painful.
Angel (13:43):
Oh, it was awful.
John (13:44):
And so for these reasons.
The podcast did not resume.
And it's not that we sat aroundgoing, when's it gonna get
better?
You tried the smelly perfumythings that people were every, I
tried every therapy, every snakeoil thing that was on the
internet.
We tried all of it because wehad one or two friends who were
struggling with a long term, butmost people got it back in a
(14:05):
month or two.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
So let me just kind of dosomething we don't do in
storytelling.
I'm gonna jump ahead to today,please.
2025 is your smell back.
Angel (14:13):
Uh, not really.
I think we're at about, Ialways, people would give people
a percentage.
I'd say 70%.
And, and what I mean by that isI can smell certain things, but
I can't, for example, I can'treally smell gasoline.
John (14:27):
Yes.
I
Angel (14:27):
can't smell bleach.
John (14:28):
And that was something that happened to me.
I, when I had COVID, gasolinesmelled peppery to me.
Angel (14:34):
Mm-hmm.
John (14:35):
I wanna be clear or unclear about the fact we do not
know no and are not accusing thevaccines of doing this.
However, there is some evidenceand some people that the
vaccines did do things thatmessed up smell or other things
as, as
Angel (14:51):
it was explained to me when I said why now when I was
getting better.
Their comment was similar towhat happens to people who have.
Chickenpox and they hadchickenpox as a child and then
suddenly they get shingles.
That was me.
Mm-hmm.
And so what they believe, andthat's what the ENT and so did,
my physician said, the vaccinecreated or caused a waking up,
(15:16):
if you will, of the dormantvirus.
That was still within my bodyand it just.
Started the whole COVID processto a degree over again, but in a
different variation.
Mm-hmm.
So he said, we know that this isa thing.
Some people experience it.
I mean, mine was just taste andsmell.
I didn't have brain fog.
I don't have long COVID.
(15:36):
Yeah.
I don't have all these otherhorrible things that people are
still dealing with today.
But my, my taste, there arecertain things that came back
first.
I do believe God is real andgood'cause I can taste
chocolate.
Yay.
So praise his holy name on thatone.
Um, I can taste vanilla, butthere are things like cream
cheese, sour cream, taste rancidstill to this day.
I basically.
(15:57):
Resumed my baking.
But what I did was back off andthat was
John (16:01):
just in like 2020.
It was end of 24.
Angel (16:03):
Well, it was beginning of 24.
John (16:05):
Four.
Angel (16:05):
Yeah.
It was the beginning of 24.
Just a little
John (16:06):
over a year.
So you were dormant for abouttwo years?
Yes.
Angel (16:09):
I had almost, no, I did special orders and it, the
requirement was I would dovanilla only.
Yeah.
That was the only thing I woulddo because that was a tried and
true recipe and I was like, Iknow exactly how to make it.
And vanilla was a flavor thatwas coming back, but the, the
smells finally subsided fromthings smelling rancid.
John (16:27):
A good day for me is when we go somewhere and I'll say,
oh, do you smell that?
And she says, I smell something.
Yeah.
It's something what it is.
I don't know.
Many times it the, the typicalreaction for the past.
Three, four years has beeneither I don't smell it or that
smells horrible, what is it?
And I'm like, oh, that'scinnamon.
Mm-hmm.
Or something.
Yep.
yeah.
(16:47):
It was tough.
So you, so from a small businessperspective, it, you've started
the business back up.
Your passion for it is, hasn'tleft you, but at least your
disdain because of the smellhas, you've worked through that.
Angel (16:59):
I've gotten to the point where I now.
I do what I wanna do versus whatI have to do.
I've changed my model which wasI never said no to anybody for
about anything.
Yes.
Um, and thank you
John (17:12):
for doing that, by the way.
Yeah.
That
Angel (17:13):
was making him crazy, but it was more making me crazy and
I had a very good, you know, Idid have a therapist who said,
what is it about this that youdo enjoy?
What is it that you can find?
Is it the creativity?
Is it the baking?
Is it the, I said at the end ofthe day, it's the decorating
that I enjoy the most.
He's like, then can you findsomething else?
So I finally decided ifdecorating is what I enjoy, then
(17:35):
let the, let the baking be whatit is.
You can't do custom.
You'll just tell people, Idon't, can't do custom flavors.
These are the flavors I offer.
And then.
The rest of it is what I canfind joy in, which is the
decorating and the creatingversus the other stuff.
So it has come back, in thesense of a business perspective.
I do still enjoy doing it forpeople.
(17:56):
Um, but I still miss the factthat I can't, I can't smell my
cake if it's burning in the ovenand I can't, you know, smell
something, um, fresh cut grassor rain or yeah.
Things that I know exactly howit should smell and I still
can't smell it, but we'rebelieve it's gonna come back.
John (18:12):
We, we are,
Angel (18:12):
John is my believer.
I'm a realist.
It's been so long.
It's,
John (18:17):
it's always hard for the person going through it to say,
yeah, it's gonna ha I, so it's,it's, and she's, it's been four
years, she has been with me withdifferent things.
The believer on my stuff.
Yes.
And that's why, uh, that's whywe are still here and our rumors
of our death have been greatlyexaggerated.
That's why the podcast came toan abrupt end.
Yes.
On the week of February 8th,2021 because, we got COVID.
(18:42):
And, and it kicked us in thehead pretty bad.
Yes.
And so tell me a little bit moreabout what happened.
With your model because beforeAngel's custom cupcakes, and you
would have people who say, Iwould like a glider.
Angel (18:56):
Yes.
And I did that.
John (18:57):
And you would do that.
And I'd go, why are you doingthat?
Angel (18:59):
And I'd say, because I wanna try
John (19:00):
you kind of finally realized this isn't working and
you were putting in many, manymore hours.
Our good friend Terry DismoreYes.
Was very influential.
Helping you with kind of lookingat the numbers Correct.
So tell me about the modelchange with your new, with, uh,
Angel's Custom Cup Cupcakes 2.0.
Angel (19:19):
It essentially is I do cupcakes and I do standard cake,
meaning I will do a, a cake witha design, but I am not creating
a cake that looks like this orthat.
A cake that is in the shape of acar or a purse or something
crazy.
It is, as I refer to it,
John (19:40):
the Chipotle mindset.
You've got three meats and thenyou got the things, you got
three choices here.
And then by the end you have,you have a 73 combinations you
can make.
But basically it's three choicesat a time or five choices.
Angel (19:53):
It's, it's, here are my flavors, here are the frostings.
Do you want something?
And if you have a cake with adesign, then I will look at it
and determine is that somethingI am able to do or interested in
doing?
John (20:06):
Recently you had a cake actually for a family member
that was kind of enough to, tosend us some business and it was
it was a baby shower preview.
Oh.
It was called
Angel (20:13):
It was a sprinkle for, sprinkle those of you for, you
know, instead of a shower.
It's a sprinkle.
That's new.
Didn't know any of this.
I just learned about what asprinkle was as well.
John (20:21):
But it was a little, uh, it was called
Angel (20:22):
little cuties was the theme.
Little
John (20:24):
so little oranges on it.
So that's a custom.
You had a standard flavor andthen you had the little cuties
that you would cut out of vinylor whatever it is to make stuff
outta fondant.
Thank you.
And, uh, that's, uh, it, and itwas beautiful and they loved it.
Angel (20:37):
Choose what you're good at, choose what you enjoy, and
stay in it, and business willfind you.
And so I decided I didn't haveto say yes to everything.
I didn't have to accept, youknow, a, a mid product because I
wanted to say yes.
My cupcake business does notmake our mortgage payment.
It is more of a, you know, a joythat I have, and I'm trying to
(21:00):
find that joy again.
But the only way to have that ison my terms and my terms are,
send me what you want.
And if I can do it and I'mavailable, I will.
And if it's something that'soutside of my, uh, wheelhouse
I'm gonna tell them, no, I'msorry.
And, and you'll need to findsomeone else.
John (21:15):
I, I, I think if there's any lesson from the, The rumors
of our death would be greatlyexaggerated.
Is we've learned a coupledifferent lessons.
And yes, similarly on my side,my business has gotten really
busy and I, as anybody who knowsme, is I, if you need 10 yards,
I will go 20.
(21:35):
Because I work with amazingpeople, I work with mainly all
nonprofits.
We have a lot of new clients nowand they're all great and
they're doing amazing work.
So I typically always push alittle bit extra for all of'em
because they're all doing, youknow, the Lord's work
Angel (21:49):
for all of them all the time.
John (21:50):
And, but I've gotten to the point where I've realized,
especially now that my second,child has graduated from high
school now attending the OhioState University.
And I've got one left and the
Angel (22:01):
first one graduated.
John (22:02):
Yes.
The other one graduated, by theway, with her bachelor's degree
from the Bearcats of Cincinnati.
Yes.
And is now a second lieutenantin the National Guard.
Yes.
She
Angel (22:11):
commissioned as well.
So we call her
John (22:12):
Lieutenant Laney now.
Angel (22:14):
Yes.
John (22:14):
I've got one child left in high school and I'm like, what
has happened?
Angel (22:18):
Mm-hmm.
John (22:18):
And my lesson to that on my side of the fence has been,
I, I am, I've told a coupleclients, I've gotta roll back a
little bit.
I only have less than 12 monthswith my son before he goes to
college.
And I'm not saying I'm gonna belike sitting in the corner
crying when he is gone.
I just know this period of time,this season's gonna be over.
(22:39):
And I do not wanna sit back andsay, why was I working 40 hours
on a project that I should haveprobably said no and gave it to
somebody else.
Yep.
When I could have been spendingit with him.
Exactly.
Or looking at colleges or justwatching him and laughing.
'cause he's funny.
Yes.
I can't say this enough and Iknow that doesn't pay the bills
for everyone and we're veryblessed to be able to do what we
(22:59):
do, if you have a small sidehustle, Be passionate about it,
but don't let it take over yourlife.
Don't let it take over yourmarriage.
Don't let it take over yourfamily.
and that's, again, one of thereasons Marketing Media Cupcakes
has been gone since February8th, 2021.
Mm-hmm.
Is that we were going through alittle bit of a crisis and, and
then by the time we got back upand kinda running, we, we've
(23:21):
been doing some other greatthings.
And if you're familiar with thepodcast.
Tell us a good story with Stephand Kevin Mason.
They do their video podcastshere in the studio, and we've
loved working with them.
They're amazing folks.
Angel (23:33):
Awesome.
John (23:34):
And we've, uh, we've been working on their podcast and
finally I said, you know what,what happened to our podcast?
And I was like, oh,
Angel (23:41):
really?
Yeah.
Yeah.
John (23:43):
Angel's not quite as motivated for the podcast as I
am, but I really think she hasan amazing story.
And I think sharing what youshared today is gonna connect
with a lot of people.
Who still are dealing with COVIDyears later, and we just wanna
encourage you, don't give up onyour vision, don't give up on
your business.
You may have to readjust it, youmay have to reboot it.
And and so we have come back,1700 days later to try to tell
(24:08):
you what happened.
And then we're gonna do two moreepisodes after this, and then
we're gonna see what happens.
I'm not gonna sit back and say,we're not gonna do anymore.
We wanted to see how many of ourfriends came back and found the
podcast because the website'sgone and everything's gone.
We're now just on ondomedia.com.
Uh, we're gonna do two morepodcasts next week.
(24:28):
Our new podcast we are gonnatalk about.
Did you know that Cracker Barrelchanged your logo?
Oh my.
Had you heard that by chance?
Angel (24:34):
This is a hot topic for him, so it's, I know everybody's
probably gonna be sick of it bythe time we drop it,
John (24:38):
We need to talk about Cracker Barrel.
And even though we're a littlebehind the time, I've spent the
last month really organizing mythoughts.
Yes.
On this Cracker Barrel debacle.
And why it happened and how weas small business people or
large business people need tothink about things a little
better.
So our next show will be aboutCracker Barrel I don't know.
(24:59):
Get excited.
Yeah, get excited and we'll talkabout marketing and rebranding
and what, what to do and whatnot to do.
And then the third of our, ofour postseason episodes.
We are gonna discuss socialmedia and ai.
I don't know if you're familiarwith the term ai.
Angel (25:13):
I am so familiar.
John (25:15):
I'm ready to cancel all of my social media accounts, That's
what I feel like AI is soruining social media.
I don't even wanna see itanymore.
I looked at her like, can weretire?
Can we just shut it all down andgo to live with the Amish?
Yeah, I'm over it.
But I'm gonna talk about a,we're gonna talk about ai, could
this be?
The long awaited death of socialmedia is gonna be caused by ai.
(25:36):
I don't think so, but we'regonna talk about that in on the
third of our episodes coming uphere.
So again,, this is the key.
If you like what you heard oryou missed us.
You can drop us a line.
We have a little cool littledrop us a line thing if you're
listening to us on Buzz Sprout,that you can actually send us a
text line on that.
Otherwise, my email address isjohn@ondomedia.com.
(26:00):
Find us on all the podcastformats.
Let us know that you like theshow and that you found us
again, and you're glad.
And tell Angel, thanks forsharing your story.
Or if you've gone through somethings like Angel did, write us
a note.
I've got the link in the thingand the ble boop and so forth,
and we'll go from there.
So again.
Thank you for joining us.
We're not dead, and we'll beback next week with actually a
new episode.
It's number 78 on MarketingMedia and Cupcakes.
Announcer (26:23):
Connect with John and Angel via Facebook and Instagram
and let us know your thoughts.
Marketing Media and Cupcakes isa production of Ondo Media.
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