95: She Landed a Deal with Mr. Wonderful – Lessons from a Shark Tank Winner

Behind Their Success: Episode 95

Tracey: [00:00:00] just because you shake hands on the show

doesn't mean that the deal's gonna go through. And in fact, at that point in time, the statistics

were only 10% of the deals that were accepted on the show actually move forward. we were in

front of the sharks for about an hour. we had a, a viewership of eight to 10 million. You are going

to fail in front of eight to 10 million people. it was intense.

Paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I am Paden Squires, the

host, and today we have on Tracey Noonan. Tracey, is an entrepreneurial force and the founder

behind Wicked Good Cupcakes. You probably have heard of that from a BC Shark Tank where

she landed a deal with Kevin O'Leary that took her kitchen base hobby and turned it into a

multimillion dollar empire.

Tracey, good morning. Welcome on. Behind Their Success.

Tracey: Hey, Paden. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.

Paden: absolutely Tracey. So Shark Tank, obviously, [00:01:00] actually, you know, I remember

your story. I remember seeing your episode. very cool. So, you know, you and your daughter

started Wicked Good Cupcakes,

Tracey: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Paden: your kitchen, no college degrees, no formal training, no money, all those things, right?

So take us back to that time, like what, what specifically gave you guys the courage or the

motivation or whatnot to think, Hey, wow, we could actually pull this off.

Tracey: Oh, well thank you and great question. it's really funny, we. We as entrepreneurs had

none of the things a lot of people need to start a business. And it's actually sort of like my battle

cry for people who have startups or wanna start a business. Maybe they have a product or

service they wanna introduce, but they kind of put these little. I like to call them roadblocks in

front of themselves, and you name them. Really, like, I don't have any money. I'm not educated

enough. I don't have an MBA, I'm too old. That's [00:02:00] one I hear a lot. And another one,

which really is kind of funny, but I get it, I guess in a way. Um, I'm afraid people will laugh at me.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: And so, I do a lot of public speaking and I always address these because. It really kind

of breaks my heart in a way when people want to do something and yet they feel so inadequate

or insecure in their own knowledge and the things that they already know and can do and sort of

stop themselves or. Start a business and then get in and kind of, they're like a deer in the

headlights, right? They start spinning their wheels. They don't know how to move forward. So,

this is a great topic and yeah, let me share a little bit with you. Um. So I myself have always

been a serial entrepreneur. I never had the chance to go to college.

My father was like, Nope, you're not going. You're a girl. that was a huge, major disappointment

for [00:03:00] me.

but something that, you know, what, I either could have subscribed to it and said, all right, I'm

not worthy of college. What am I gonna do? I don't know. I'll get a job at. Name a place, make

minimum wage, and spend the rest of my life there till I get married and hopefully have a

husband who will support me.

Paden: All right.

Tracey: I could say, you know what? Screw that. I'm going to start a business and this is how

I'm going to do it. And so, from the age of. My mid twenties on, I was always self-employed and

was a commercial photographer in Boston, worked in advertising. I trained animals for television

and movies. I was a photo stylist.

I got my Mass brokers license. I invest in real estate now, like so many things. But Wiki good

was actually sort of, um. It was an unintentional business, right? I started it as a hobby to help

my [00:04:00] daughter, or Danny, my youngest daughter, figure out what she wanted to do,

because I didn't go to college.

It was really important for me to send her. And, she was kind of in a funk in a bad place for a

while. And, she dropped out with one class left to graduate. And so. Here she and I are, you

know, both of us. We have high school, uh, diplomas, no MBAs, certainly no culinary

experience. Just a literally a box full of recipes that my grandmother had. And we took a cake

decorating class together and posted on Facebook. This was in, this was in 2010, posted on

Facebook, and friends and family started. To request that we either bake cakes or cupcakes for

them. And it got to a point where we had, corporate orders starting to come in. And so here we

are, we have this wall oven and we can bake one, maybe two dozen at a time, and we're getting

two to 500 cupcakes.

So we [00:05:00] had to have the conversation right, the come to Jesus moment. Are we going

to, rein it in, keep it a hobby, or are we going to. Start a full fledged business. And

so

Paden: where it goes. Yeah.

Tracey: and that's what we did. And again, no money, no education, no formal training. I was 48

at the time and we started the business and. At that time I had been writing, so that was going to

be my career focus.

I'm gonna be a writer, and so I kind of shelved that and we started Wicked Good, opened the

shop. We got a loan for $30,000 from a family member, and it came with a condition.

This is it. No more money, just know that. and from that, we had to build out our space. We had

to buy equipment, we had to get our dry goods. there was no money to pay ourselves.

We actually didn't pay ourselves for the first year and a half that we were in business, almost

two years. And even then [00:06:00] we paid ourselves 50 bucks a week.

And so.

Paden: It's like, no,

Tracey: My daughter famously can tell you exactly what that worked out to. Um, with taxes

taken out,

Paden: you guys are making like 30

Tracey: 30, yeah, exactly. 36 bucks. Oh my God. It was brutal. Um, anyway, we started the

business and you know, there's a lot to be said for surrounding yourself with people who know

more than you, and that would be my first. My first sort of takeaway for people listening who are,

trying to do this and really are interested maybe in a service or business they don't know a ton

about or haven't gone to school for or whatever. surround yourself with people who know more

than you. my. Perfect example of that. I sat down, with our Cisco rep, our dry goods rep, uh, the

very first time to put my first order in for the shop.

And I'll never forget, he was sitting across from me and he said, so, uh, what do you need? And

I literally looked at him and said, I don't know. [00:07:00] What do I need? Like, like, can you

help me figure this out? And he started laughing and he was great. And you know, it was a lot of

trial and error. Took a couple months to get into a rhythm and figure out, okay, this is what we're

selling.

This isn't what we're selling. This is how much we had. We threw this much away. We needed

him to deliver more. And then we got into a place where, okay. Now we can put orders in pretty

confidently and it looks like we're going to be able to, to,

do this.

Paden: Yeah. Not waste a bunch or, or

Tracey: Oh, exactly. Well, again, number one cake is a perishable

product. So right there you run in danger of, you know, not selling up a case or, you know,

getting orders. but also your ingredients are gonna go bad. So it is. Invested money. It's money

on a shelf and, uh, you know, your inventory. So you have to really be,

be mindful. So, that was something that we learned on the fly. [00:08:00] And then just stupid

things like. We'd be in there at five 30 in the morning. We'd be baking, you know, obviously you

make a mess and don't ask me why, but we didn't have the presence of mind to like clean as we

go. Like we did little cleans, but not enough so that at seven or eight o'clock at night we're still

cleaning for the next day. So that was little things like dumb things like that. And

Paden: Yeah.

Tracey: then, you know, packaging. Where do I get packaging? So Google became my best

friend, Google and all of the other very, very kind people who took the time to mentor and to

teach and to, you know, really educate us as to how to grow this business. my ex-husband at

the time, uh, had an interactive agency and he built a website for us. And so, uh, we started.

Having people call us or email us and request that we ship our product to family and friends.

[00:09:00] And I was thinking, how do you ship cake? Like how do you ship a cupcake and have

it arrive so that it doesn't look like crap, right?

And

Paden: just all dried out.

Tracey: dry smashed, you name it.

Like how does one do that?

So I went online and I ordered from all of the big cupcake players at the time. At that time, like

cupcakes were really popular. It was Georgetown Cupcake and Sprinkles, and you name it. Like

they had either had TV shows or had a presence online. So I ordered from a bunch of different

places, smaller places as well.

And I have to say, I wasn't super impressed with how everything arrived. And for me, I know I

was spending. 70, 80, 90 bucks at a pop for a dozen cupcakes. And nor, and this would be a gift

I would be sending someone. So in good conscience, I couldn't really, I couldn't ship the way

[00:10:00] they were shipping, knowing I was taking someone's harder money and they were

expecting me to send a gift to someone that was going to arrive

Paden: Yeah.

Tracey: fresh, intact. Exactly. Um, I felt a little bit of an obligation, so. We kind of put the brakes

on, you know, this is, shipping is probably not gonna happen. We don't know. So again, my ex-

husband at the time, workaholic, he was up one night and the TV was on in the background and

I think the food was, the food network was on a food channel, whatever it was.

And, a woman was canning preserves. And so here she is with Mason Jaws and. He comes up

to bed and he wakes me up one in the morning and he is like, I have an idea. This is how you're

gonna ship your cupcakes. And I'm like, are you fucking kidding me, dude? Like, like, no, wake

me up again. I'm exhausted. You might lose your life. and so he kept badgering me and finally I

said, fine, fine. So I [00:11:00] contacted five friends and family members across the country and

all I said to them was. I'm sending you something, you need to tell me what you think of it.

Would you send it as a gift? How did it arrive? Please take pictures. Any other thoughts you

have?

Because, you know, close friends and family are going to be more than generous with their

feedback,

right?

Paden: yeah.

Tracey: So, we sent everything out. four of them absolutely loved it. Like great idea. Love it. My

friend who I sent it to was like, I don't get it. Like.

Paden: Cupcakes.

Tracey: it. And he laughed about it now.

Like he, he thinks it's the funniest thing. so, okay. Tiny proof of concept,

Paden: Yeah, you tested it, right? You, you went out there and tested before, like, you know,

and that's an a mistake entrepreneurs make, right? Like they, they jump into something without,

like, you can test things first without having to commit your whole

Tracey: Oh hundred percent. I highly, everyone listening, please, proof of concept. You

[00:12:00] really need to test what you're doing and see, you know. Know who your audience is.

That's

a big thing. Like what's your demographic? What's their age? What's their spending habit like,

what's their disposable income? All the things. So now we need to find packaging because we're

shipping in glass and we also have to have the product tested. So the product one, two,

Cornell's food safety lab to be tested for microbial growth, shelf life, all that good stuff. I found a

packaging company in Manchester, New Hampshire, reached out to them, took a drive.

they designed packaging for us. And so again, beta testing. We packaged up cupcake jars, went

to the top of our building, five, five stories up, and just threw, packaged it over the top of the

building

Paden: what FedEx can do to these things or.

Tracey: short of them backing over something. Um, and yeah, like the packaging they designed.

[00:13:00] Nothing broke, so, okay. Looks like this is gonna work. And of course, over the years

we refined and retooled how we ship things, but we now had a way to ship. We knew the food

was gonna be safe. We knew what the shelf life was gonna be without added preservatives.

We're good to go. Our main goal was to sell $3,000 worth of these jars. month. and that would

pay our rent. 'cause our rent was three grand a month. We opened our shop in October of 2011,

put the cupcake Jazz online December of 2011. And it just so happened that, a student from

Salem State College ordered two jars for his teacher.

I took the order of the phone. I remember this like it was yesterday. He ordered a red velvet, and

a chocolate cupcake, and I hand wrote the note for his teacher. So she gets that and she's

traveling. So she takes the two jars. She goes to Logan Airport, they let her through. Oh,

cupcake's delicious.

Yeah. Yeah. [00:14:00] Go through. Well, she kept the red velvet jar and was taking that home

for the plane ride to eat on the plane. And at McCarran in Nevada, one of the TSA agents

stopped her and said, Nope, you can't take that through. And she's like, why? It's a cupcake.

And he said, the frosting. Is made of gelatinous substance that constitutes bomb making

material.

Paden: Nice. Perfect.

Tracey: What Danny

and I, Danny and I were considered, a national security threat,

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: literally deemed that by the TSA. And not only that, the Department of Homeland

Security was on our website that December 200 times.

Paden: Wow.

Tracey: Watching us. It was insane. And so the teacher who had an agenda, took a picture of

the TSH and holding the jar and sent it with an article to was a [00:15:00] communications

professor, to a website called Bo Boy, which I don't even know is if it's even still in existence.

And the story went viral.

Like crazy. We were getting calls from all across the world, like we wanna interview you. We had

Fox News in our, in our shop. Like it was stupid. And so the TSA caught so much flack that

January the next year, the head of the TSA went on television and said, we followed protocol

and I'm here to say we did the right thing.

And these were not your average run of the mill cupcake.

Paden: That was perfect.

Tracey: Oh yeah. Or sales. But Valentine's Day was quick, quickly approaching. We had

Christmas, now we have like serious proof of concept, right? So I'd always been a fan of Shark

Tank. I wanted to get on. Now the, you know, genie's out of the bottle. People can see that we're

doing this. There's no Pat patenting or [00:16:00] trademarking of this process. Anyone can do

it.

So I applied Shark Tank online, A, B, C at the time, this was for season four. they had three

questions you answered, and then the very next day I heard from casting,

Paden: Nice.

Tracey: And then, we went through the whole interview process, which was quite something

and signed a $5 million NDA, you can't tell anyone you're gonna be on the show.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: And July 7th of that year, which was my 50th birthday, they flew us out to the Sony

studios to film our segment. We were slotted in a very good spot. They put us in the break for

the sharks before lunch. So here we are with food. We're like doing our our segment. they film

you and we were in front of the sharks for about an hour. Some people go over, some people

need less time. They edit it down and they really do a great job of editing

down to like six or seven minutes and it was intense. [00:17:00] Like the questions and they all

talk at the same time, and you're trying not to make stupid faces or look like you're seriously

disappointed when they all start going out and you're like, oh boy. And you're crossing your

fingers that one of them doesn't eat it and spit it out and say, this is awful. All the things, right?

So we made it through Mark Cuban, ate four jars while we were filming. It was really funny. Um,

they all dropped out by Kevin

Paden: Yep.

Tracey: and Kevin decided to make an offer and I, accepted the very first royalty deal that was

accepted on the

show.

Paden: Tank. Yeah. And that's what he is known for now,

Tracey: Oh, that's what he wants. And the other thing too was Kevin, he would hate me for

saying this, but Kevin wasn't a super popular shark. Like not a lot of people took his deals

because he's very honest. Like there's no gray area with Kevin O'Leary. It's black and white,

Paden: course he's grown his brand. he's probably one of the most recognizable sharks at this

point, right.

Tracey: Hundred percent. [00:18:00] And like here we are, like this mother daughter who

needed help and he's gonna like lift us out of whatever he thought we were living in. Um, and

like.

Just

Paden: Cupcake poverty.

Tracey: cupcake. Yeah, abject, cupcake. poverty. And so he accepts the deal. We agree on it.

It's pretty much exactly the deal you see on tv.

Nothing has changed. and then now he and his team have to do their due diligence. So just

because you shake hands on the show

doesn't mean that the deal's gonna go through. And in fact, at that point in time, the statistics

were only 10% of the deals that were accepted on the show actually move forward. So, that was

pretty amazing in and of itself. fast forward, we air in April.

Paden: Order start rolling in then, don't they?

Tracey: oh my God, oh my God, you have no idea. We were the first website not to crash

the night of airing,

Paden: I imagine you, the resources and thought you had to put into is like, okay, we gotta have

this website

Tracey: Oh, again, my ex-husband. Right. [00:19:00] A million servers lined up to spin

up if the traffic was Yeah, exactly. If we didn't have him it, it would've been a disaster, I'm sure.

Paden: And you would've, you would've lost that enormous opportunity, right?

Tracey: Oh.

Paden: you gotta be prepared for that day, that thing that TV show hits air, right?

Tracey: Absolutely, and think about this, we sold a quarter of a million dollars worth of product

that night.

We have a perishable product,

so it's not like we have shelves full of, I don't know, umbrellas like that. We're gonna

ship

Paden: Just ready to go. Yeah.

Tracey: No. And so we had found, a co-packer, which was really hard to do because not only

did I insist on baking from recipes and not from packaged cake mix, which the big boys, that's all

they'll do if you're not gonna subscribe to like, yeah, I'll use your chocolate mix or your vanilla

mix.

They're like, see ya.

We also had glass. And glass on a bakery floor is a [00:20:00] huge no-no.

So anyone who wanted to work with us had to have a separate packing area and like production

area. Oh, absolutely. It's like having a, a glass in a, in a pool yard, right? No. So. That was

challenging. And so we made it. We like got every jar at the door.

We did everything we were supposed to. And the one thing that we really fucked up on was we

expected emails. Like email, email, email. Well our phone rang off the

hook. We had one line, one line we didn't, didn't think to like, Hey, we might need more than one

line. So here you are on the phone and you can hear all these calls coming in behind.

And it was like, oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.

So we managed to get through that, and now we're on this trajectory. And you know what it was,

it was amazing. It was frightening, it was [00:21:00] exhausting. It was all kinds of things. And

Kevin was great because I did the royalty deal and this is what I was thinking. We were making

money. Our cupcake shop was making money, so Kevin got paid per jar and we landed on a

dollar jar till he was paid the 75,000, which we paid back in six weeks, done,

Paden: I,

Tracey: done, and then we dropped the amount that we paid him in perpetuity to 45 cents a jar.

By the time we were acquired, which was nine years later by Hickory Farms, we had paid Kevin

almost $1.5 million in royalties.

And the royalties kept him invested

because every time a job sold, he made money.

So it's not like taking equity, right. And you know, you hope someday that this business that you

took equity in sells, like there's a chance that it'll never sell. and you won't recognize your

investment. So [00:22:00] he got us on every television show that he possibly could.

I would send him pitches. He would take the pitches, he would go to the networks he would get

us on, and we did 2020, one fall. And after we aired on 2020, we did $400,000 in sales. And just

so happened that 2020. right before Thanksgiving and my ex-husband had built a calendar on

our website so you could order and then pick far out in the distance your ship date so people

could order and then pick

near Christmas and have everything sent.

So, you know, there was a lot that went behind the scenes to help us grow, but think about it.

Roadblock number one. I'm too old. I was 50 years old when

all this started. Roadblock number two. I don't have an MBA. Oh, who needs an MBA? We have

Google,

Paden: I have one. It's not that

I've learned way more doing business than I ever [00:23:00] learned in my years

Tracey: absolutely. Absolutely. Mentors and coaches.

Amazing. Um, three. I don't have any money. Get loan, get a

second job if you're Yeah, well exactly. Get a second job. Get an SBA loan. Go to score. Score

is a huge resource that a lot of people don't. Take enough advantage of and, they're invaluable

to point you in the direction of like an SBA loan or a bank that can help you. investors, family

and friends. The thing I will caution about family is have a silent family member, because once a

family member invests, sometimes they're a little too like, Hey, why don't you do it this way? And

I have an idea and yeah, no.

Paden: Like, no, you're a silent

Tracey: I'll take your money. I'll, yeah,

you're a silent partner. I'll take your money.

I'll pay you back with interest. But no,

Paden: Yeah. Stay outta here.

Tracey: yeah, exactly. and so basically that was, how wicked good, went down in a very

encapsulated way. we had lots of [00:24:00] fun things that happened. We had lots of ways to

give back. but it's interesting, like during my time there and even now, I had the chance to do a

lot of public speaking, which I love, still love to

do. had a lot of people reaching out, like, I wanna start a business, but I don't know how. I don't

know where to begin, like, what do I do? And so for a while I would like, feel failed all these

questions and try to help people as best I could, but my time is so limited. I decided to put

everything that I learned in one place, and honestly, the main impetus was to help people avoid

all the stupid shit that I did when starting a business.

And, it applies to every business across. The board. It's not just if you wanna have a bakery or

get into the food industry, gifting industry, whatever. It's really, there are a lot of basic principles

and there's terminology and there are things one needs to think about that they don't normally

think about because they're so overwhelmed.

Right. They're, they're [00:25:00] so like, oh, my logo, oh, my packaging. No, like.

Paden: Yeah. Yeah. They're focusing on the wrong things or like, not, not maybe the stuff that

really, really

Tracey: and I did the same thing. Like, you get excited, this is your baby. It's like buying baby

clothes for a newborn. Like, Hey, look what I have. But no, you need to, you need to like start

thinking about some of these other things which are actually going to make you money.

And so I put everything in writing.

I created this online course, and. I think it's helpful and inspiring. And I had a lot of friends who

are wonderful business owners who sat down with me and we did these videos and just had a

conversation like you and I are

having now, and talked about, you know, what, what was it like for you? what was your thought

process?

What, what were your challenges? What do you enjoy? What do you hate? What needs to be

improved upon? Like what are your plans? How are you gonna grow? Like what's scaling

looking like for you? So all these things that can be answered. And then the other thing that I

started doing, [00:26:00] which I absolutely love, is I was asked to sit on a board this year of a

nonprofit called Build and Build has a chapter in Boston, but also build is a national build.org is a

national, nonprofit.

And what we do is we mentor, inner city high school kids. Who have the entrepreneurial bug and

who wanna start a business and wanna learn. And the thing that I really love about BUILD is it's

not your average, like everyone gets a trophy. Like no. Like you have to create a business and

have a solid plan and be able to answer questions. Because at the end of the year, each BUILD

chapter has what they call Build Fest, and it's an actual pitch fest. And we have guest judges. I

was one this year. Um, one of the New England Patriots was one. and there was some other

entrepreneurs also, and you ask tough questions and these are, kids are like ninth grade, 10th

grade, 11th grade, [00:27:00] 12th grade. And they literally have like prototypes made and they

got themselves funded and like they have their numbers and how they're gonna market. It's

really impressive. But also. Like a great skill. Like they learn how to dress, they learn how to

address people, look

Paden: Just talk to an adult.

Tracey: Well ex Yeah, exactly. And, and be articulate and be able to describe like that elevator

pitch.

Like, what is your product? Tell me 90 seconds, like, what are you selling? You know, one of the,

one of the chapters or modules, if you will, in my online course is know what you're Selling. Be

able to not only explain to a customer, but also your employees or your coworkers. Nine times

out of 10, your coworkers are the front face of your business.

Not everyone's going to meet or see you, so you need people who are really well educated and

can speak for you in a manner that you want them to. To [00:28:00] discuss your product as

service. So it's a lot of valuable information and, and Build is always looking for volunteers to

help. I, again, strongly recommend anyone who kind of wants to dabble in that and work with

some kids and see how amazing they are.

Like, go to build.org, find your local chapter and sign up to volunteer. It's, it's really rewarding

and just a great place to be.

Paden: Yeah. so you know what Tracey, I'm in and I'm in like a mastermind group myself and,

and, and it's one that is, uh, very focused on family and whatnot. And, so we were in the

Dominican a couple weeks ago, and so we, I mean, it was like 40 entrepreneurs and we all

brought our young kids, you know, kids anywhere from five to.

15 or whatever. But, um, the really cool thing is we, we set up things like that for them to do. So

they do all week there, entrepreneur type stuff. Like my, my 7-year-old daughter had to go up to

like hotel staff and ask 'em questions and like, you know, how many guests are here and, you

know, all that kind of stuff.

And it's, yeah. And it's just [00:29:00] teaching 'em those concepts of just, business and how to

think through and how to give value to people. And, um. Just entrepreneurship in general, which

is, which is really cool. And, you know, we talk a lot about legacy and legacy. Legacy isn't really

the money or the assets or whatever, because you see that through plenty of examples as the,

the money usually doesn't go through generations very well unless you implement, you know,

the, the principles and the values and the stuff and that, that's really, you know, what you need

to implement.

If you're, worried about legacy because of the money. I mean, that doesn't make it through

generations very often if, if the principals aren't taught behind it.

Tracey: Exactly. Exactly. And you know, one of the other things that's really important to think

about with. The creation of a business and, and especially now, like when we're talking about,

I'm too old.

A lot of people are forced to reinvent themselves

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: somewhere later on down the line in life. And this is a skill for life.

So if you've been, let's say, either [00:30:00] divorced and you weren't the breadwinner, and now

you don't know what to do, but you have a talent, start a business like. Figure it out. Like I, I, I'm

such a proponent of being self-sufficient is huge.

Another thing is, you know what? You are sitting around, you're not doing anything. Like, why

not earn some extra money?

And the thing that's really important, and I've always sort of considered myself an underdog

because I never had the chance to go to college.

Paden: You had a chip on your shoulder, right? Yeah,

Tracey: Well, yes, and there are a lot of people who are underdogs out there, and by definition

an underdog is someone who is, you know, not considered to be the winner and who is going to

be the winner of a fight. Right?

Paden: on paper, yeah.

Tracey: Like take a chance it, as long as it's not gonna kill you.

Paden: Yeah. You know, Tracey, you made the comment earlier about, you [00:31:00] know,

people say, uh, you know, people will laugh at me, right? Like, you know, people aren't really

afraid of failure, just generally speaking, and in my opinion, they're, they're more afraid of people

seeing them. That, that is the scary thing because like, you think about it, like you play like a

video game or something, like you fail at that all day long.

You don't care. Like, but it's like, you know, when, when you put yourself out there, um, you're,

you're way more concerned about what other people think, not necessarily about you not

accomplishing what, what you are. And it's just, it's trying to get yourself internally and identity

shifts and whatnot into, uh, you know, I am an entrepreneur and, and.

Being brave enough to put yourself out there. Like it's, it's a scary thing. Massive scary thing for

most people. but once they actually pull off the bandaid, you're like, oh, okay. Well, most people

don't even care what I'm doing anyway, so like, it doesn't even matter.

Tracey: Oh, please. So when we pitched here we are talk about stupid, we have cake in a jar.

Like, come on, we're standing up in front of these people who have built like[00:32:00]

Paden: Yeah.

Tracey: empires and real estate empires and, and they're like, hi. Um, so there was that and we

were in front of, certainly. Thank God you're not seeing them.

But we had a, a viewership of eight to 10 million. You are going to fail in front of eight to 10

million people. If one of these shocks is like, ugh.

Paden: Yeah.

Tracey: not like the entire hour we were in front of 'em. I, I had that in my mind and I had said to

Danielle when we were waiting to walk out onto the carpet and stand there and wait, I said. We

have to handle ourselves with class and dignity. If we don't get a deal, we say thank you, we

smile, we leave, and we're just grateful. We have this opportunity.

A hundred thousand people apply, 80 go to air. Let's think about it. They pick 180 go to air. So

just doing that, we've accomplished something really big and let's like be okay with that. And if

anything happens. [00:33:00] Yippy, that's great. But to your point, that's exactly right. People

don't want, especially if they've been talking up their business and they have friends and family

who are jabbing them or don't understand or think it's dumb, like those are the people they don't

wanna fail in front of because those are the ones who are gonna razz like for years to come.

Thanksgiving dinner, Hey, remember that idea? You had that stupid idea.

Paden: Yeah.

Tracey: Or like name it.

Paden: And Go ahead.

Yeah, but like, and the people that Yeah, but like you Exactly. You have a product cupcake and a

jar who's laughing out, right. Like, but like It's those people that are, you know, maybe in your life

or the edges of your life that you know are already there to criticize you.

Like it, that just says everything about them and nothing about you. Right? Like the people that

come into your life that may criticize you trying [00:34:00] to get better or start a business or

grow in any significant way. Like it's the people that are behind you or aren't brave enough to do

that themselves, that will criticize you.

Like people in front of you that have already built a big business like that, or, or say you're

starting to work out and they're like a really good in shape person. Those people are the ones

that are gonna be cheering you on and be like, hell yeah. Get into the gym, man, this is

awesome. You, I see you're way overweight, but you're trying to make a, you know what I

mean?

The people in front of you are the ones that generally cheer you on. It's the people that are

beside you or behind you, that you make feel bad are the ones that aren't cheering you on.

Tracey: Look, at the end of the day, when you stand in front of an investor, all they give a shit

about is, am I gonna get my money back?

And then some, you could be selling dog poop in a bag. They don't care. They don't care. So I

think once you kind of get over that hump and you thicken your skin a little bit. I saw a really

great meme and I saved it. I love it. And it says something to the effect of, don't call me

[00:35:00] lucky. I have failed more times than you have even tried. And really, that says it all.

That says it all. And yeah, maybe you do have an idea that's not gonna be viable.

here's my advice. When we went on Shark Tank and I would go, say, I'd give a keynote and I'd

have people waiting to talk to me after. I would have someone say, oh my God, I love Shark

Tank. I have to invent something amazing to get on the show. No, no. Look around. You pick a

commodity.

Paden: Yes, please.

Tracey: Everybody has something that they've used

at some point in their life that they've said, Hey, I have this mug. For example, I love this mug,

but you know what would make this better? X, Y, and ZI guarantee you, if someone else has that

mug, they've thought the same thing.

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: Only you be the one to do X, Y, and Z. Usually it's [00:36:00] the second or third

iteration of a product that's the most successful. And sells the most.

So don't feel like, oh my God, someone already invented fire. I need something bigger than that.

No, we had a cupcake. All we did was we changed the delivery method. We took the wrapper off

and we put it in a jar.

Paden: Yep.

Tracey: That was

it.

Paden: Nothing like really groundbreaking there or anything where you're like, oh

Tracey: Now I like to think, yeah,

Paden: Yeah. But like, I mean, you know what I think about it practically where you're just like.

Well, why does, I mean that, you know, it doesn't seem like on paper that's some major thing,

right?

Tracey: Take a commodity. You're surrounded by them and there you go.

Paden: That's the one thing that really I think drives me nuts.

I'm in a, I'm in a college town in Columbia, Missouri, so huge. There's a bunch of major colleges

here, but like, there's always entrepreneur and pitch contests and all kinds of stuff, and what

drives me nuts about that, it's like, it's always. A student pitching some weird [00:37:00] product

they made up and they're there and there's nothing wrong with that.

But don't, you know, there's nothing wrong with that, but like, you don't have to come up with

some like gimmicky product or, or whatever to start a business. Like, you know, the easiest thing

to do in the world is to like find a business that everybody uses, say lawn mowing. And just do a

little bit better.

You know, provide a little better service, communicate a little better. Like, it doesn't, you don't

have to reinvent anything. Just go copy what somebody else is doing successfully and put your

own little twist on it and do a little bit better, right? you don't have to like, invent a product all

these different things.

You need to learn how to run a business is what you need to do.

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Tracey: Here's a perfect example. I haven't had a bike for a while. I really wanted a bike. I was

willing to spend up to a thousand dollars for a bike. Not that that's a lot, but I'm Don't

race ride. It was just a bike.

Paden: Yeah. Nice bike. Yeah.[00:39:00]

Tracey: So my boyfriend and I went to a bike shop. We walked in, no one greeted us. We

walked around the shop, we looked at bikes. No one talked to us, no one came over, and I said,

I would never buy a thing here. And we left.

We went to bike shop number two, weed by three people. When we walked in, someone came

over and immediately started educating me on what bikes they had. I walk the bike there and

just went back and bought another bike.

Paden: Yeah. And now you're a huge fan.

Tracey: Oh, a thousand percent.

A little bit of customer service these days goes a long way because

Paden: is really low.

Tracey: there is, someone says hi to you and you're like, yes, I'll buy from you. Um, it, it's

honestly. Astounding to me that people don't teach their coworkers the value of customer

service. And when you [00:40:00] go out somewhere and you have someone who's good, you're

like, oh my God,

Paden: A

rockstar.

Tracey: leader in the world.

Like you asked me if I wanted ice, like.

to your point, yeah, like do something that you love and treat people like they're valuable

because they're, they're the ones who have the money. And you know what? Everybody loves to

have someone. I have a great car guy. Use my car

guy. I have a great landscaper. You should use my landscaper. our product basically sold itself.

because it arrived great. People loved it. And you know what? When they had to send a gift,

guess who they used? And because we had amazing customer service. Our customer service

people were phenomenal, and trust me, it's not easy on the flip side, being in customer service

and we, we,

Paden: problems.

Tracey: yeah, we offered a great product and so the combination of the two created a [00:41:00]

successful business.

So again, to your point, yeah, just be nice and, and treat your customer with respect and value

them.

There's a lot in that value proposition that is super important, so

Paden: So, you know, on, on this podcast we talk a lot about, you know, trying to make healthy,

wealthy and wise entrepreneurs. you know, for the person right now who feels stuck or is just

kind of starting or staring down all the kind of obstacles they have in front of 'em, what piece of

advice would, you know, practical action, would you just kind of give them.

Or piece of advice, you know, like I said, they're, they're, they're maybe looking to start their

business or they're just like, you know, they're in the middle of the crap, uh, right now and see

10 million problems. What, you know, what piece of advice would you leave for them?

Tracey: One problem at a time. Stop overwhelming yourself. People do this all the time. They

look at everything instead of. Prioritizing. I'm a [00:42:00] huge proponent of journaling and

making lists.

Huge. I think it's the writer in me. I just pen to paper, let's work it. Do not overwhelm yourself and

make a list and, try to do it in order of importance.

Sometimes those shift and something else becomes more important, but please, please, please.

Make a list. And then if you have someone who's a, a business owner or you know, who's been

successful in any type of business, get a fresh set of eyes on your problem. Because a lot of

people, and I've done it myself and, and I've learned they keep coming out something the same

way, even though they know that same way isn't working

Paden: Mm-hmm.

Tracey: sometimes all it takes is someone to walk up and say, yeah, why don't you try this?

Paden: Why don't you go this way?

Tracey: And you're like, what? And you realize that, oh my God, I'm so stupid. Like. I didn't think

outside the box. I didn't, I didn't [00:43:00] investigate other avenues. I, you know, get someone,

get a mentor, get a coach, get a friend, someone you trust who you know has some business

savvy, or understand the entrepreneurial spirit, mind, whatever, and have them

help. But stop overwhelming yourself because if you do that, you will never stop, I guarantee

you, a thousand percent. Or you'll quit.

Paden: Yeah.

Yeah,

Tracey: Or you'll quit because it's just too hard.

Paden: yeah. quit trying to do this in isolation, right? Like, you've made the comment there, find

a mentor or whatever. It's like, find. Yeah, find other people that have done what you've done or

maybe even a, you know, ideally there are a few or 10 steps ahead of you, right?

Because like it's so easy for them to just point back and like, Hey, you need to do A, B, C in that

order, and that'll solve your problem. Because they, they've done it, they've diagnosis, they have

way better perspective. They're like, this is what you need to solve first. And, it's having people

like that in your life that can help you just skip.

Years of struggle, because they can just give you the answers and you don't have to [00:44:00]

figure 'em out yourself.

Tracey: Yeah, talk to this idiot who like made every mistake known to man. Like, and

she will help you figure out like

what you're doing. Right?

Because

Paden: wasted a lot of years myself for sure.

Tracey: I can't even tell you the dumb things I've done. Oh, we don't have enough time. But

yeah, enlist the help of someone and, and please just write everything down. There's something

about like. Separating it from yourself and

Paden: Yeah, it gets it outta your head. Yeah.

Tracey: yeah.

exactly. And now it's there. Like don't carry that around with you. Put it there.

Keep a journal with you at all times. All times. Because you're either gonna think of a great

business name, a tagline, anything, and I guarantee you a thousand percent you'll not

remember it. And its original purist. Best form. Even if you think, oh, it's only five minutes till I get

a piece of paper. Uh, no, write it down now because you will not remember it and you will kick

yourself.

And that mistake, I, [00:45:00] I still do it and I still get so angry with myself because I know what

I'm doing.

Paden: Yeah, I do that, I do, I do that myself. Or I'll wake up in the middle of the night and I'll

open up the phone and like draft an email to myself so it's there in the morning.

Tracey: Yeah,

notes the notes section on your phone. Just put it in there. Like I find that

Paden: you can talk into your phone all the time now. Like if that's, you know what I mean?

There's a million ways to do it,

Tracey: exactly way back when I used to call my daughter and say, write this down, like if I was

writing a book

or writing something and I needed like this exact line of dialogue exactly how I thought

Paden: Well, yeah. You got a moment of inspiration. You're like, okay, this is it.

Tracey: When you relax, like

falling asleep

in the shower, like all the times when you're kind of not

obsessing. Exactly. And manifestation is another big thing. Like I'm a huge believer in

manifesting like visualize you're falling asleep, visualize your business, visualize your [00:46:00]

customers, visualize that you're making money.

Like it is amazing what that will do.

Paden: yeah, for sure. It begins to shift. The, you know, your identity internally of like, Hey, I am

a person that does this. I am an entrepreneur. I am a person that makes a million dollars a year,

or what, you know, whatever that is. Right? and it's not something that happens overnight, right?

Like at beginning it's gonna feel really fake because it kind of is, you are kind of lying yourself or

whatever, right?

Like you're beginning to plant the seeds. and if you begin to plant the seeds through, you know,

visualization or journaling and all those things, and, you know, speaking. affirmation to yourself.

Then as you actually begin to do a little bit of the actions, then it becomes this real positive

feedback loop, right?

Because the actions make you wanna manifest more and the manifest and makes you more

excited to do the actions, and you get this amazing, positive thing going on. Um, but you gotta

com you know, you gotta combine the actions with manifestation and, you know, some people

try to say you can just kind of speak things and, and, and not follow the actions.

And that's [00:47:00] obviously silly as well.

Tracey: No, and here's the word you used, so excellent point. Like you have to believe what

you're manifesting. And like you said, if it hasn't happened, it's hard to believe you just say one

word when you're falling asleep, you just repeat the word wealth.

Paden: Yeah,

Tracey: and over and over because there's no action associated with that.

It's a word.

And because there's no action, it's a very powerful word to use as you're falling asleep. And that

would be my my recommendation. 'cause it is hard when you're struggling for money and you're

like, oh, I'm a millionaire. And you're trying to say that.

Paden: Wealthiest person.

Yeah.

Tracey: No, just say wealth and just repeat it over and over and over and huge believer. Listen

to everything that's happening around you. Look for little signs. Be aware. Just be aware of the

opportunity that's starting to work its way into your life. And then you'll end up on podcasts like

this, and you'll have a million [00:48:00] people throwing money at you and it

will be fabulous.

Paden: Yeah. That's awesome. Tracey, I appreciate, appreciate you so much for coming on the

show and sharing your story. you talked about your, uh, course you have out there, um, now, like

what, what's the best way people can follow you, get to know more about you? Your course,

your work, everything you

Tracey: sure. sure. So the course has a website. It's the cupcake. analogy.com, and it's again,

not for bakers or specifically for, uh, food industry. It's for everyone who wants to start a

business or might feel a little bit stuck. the best email to reach me at is author A-U-T-H-O-R,

Tracey, T-R-A-C-E-Y. gmail.com. And if you email me, I'll get back to you and I'd love to help you

answer a question. I'm available for mentoring, coaching, whatever. if you're stuck, don't try to

do it alone. Find someone to help you reach out to me. you just have to believe and know it

takes time.

You [00:49:00] are not gonna be a millionaire overnight,

but if you work hard, you'll, you'll be successful.

Paden: Tracey, thank you very much. Appreciate you and, uh, listeners, we'll catch you next

time.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. If you found it valuable, please rate,

review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more people as we're

trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise entrepreneurs.

You can follow us on social media by searching for me Paden Squires.

Or going to padensquires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.