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The Truth About Addiction
Dr. Samantha Harte is a speaker, best selling author, coach and sober mom of two. She is here to tell the truth about her life, which requires telling the truth about her addiction: how it presents, how it manifests, and how it shows up again and again in her recovery. This podcast is one giant deep dive into the truth about ALL TYPES OF addiction (and living sober) to dispel the myths, expose the truths, and create a community experience of worthiness, understanding and compassion.
If you are a mompreneur and are looking for a community of like-minded women who are breaking all cycles of dysfunction and thriving in business, family, body image and spiritual well-being, join the waitlist below!
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The Truth About Addiction
Ashley Rogers discusses Overcoming Trauma & Refusing To Quit
Ashley Rogers, a trailblazing entrepreneur and CEO of Sprinkles CPG, invites us into her world filled with the triumphs and challenges that come with building successful businesses. From her early life shaped by the dual influences of a father with a strong entrepreneurial spirit and a mother battling addiction, Ashley's journey is a testament to resilience. Sharing personal stories of overcoming adversity, she paints a vivid picture of how her past molded her into the powerhouse she is today. Her experiences offer listeners invaluable insights into processing trauma and leveraging it for growth.
A life-changing trip to Europe becomes a turning point for Ashley, sparking her entrepreneurial drive. Her story unfolds with the founding of a meal prep company, the seeds of which were sown amid inspiration and self-discovery during her travels. As Ashley shares how she transitioned from hospitality to owning her business, she emphasizes the importance of intuition and spotting market opportunities. Her journey from meal prep to Buff Bake highlights the power of innovation and community engagement in creating a brand that resonates with consumers.
Ashley’s candid reflections on balancing motherhood with career ambitions shine a light on the pressures women face when pursuing personal and professional fulfillment. Her experiences with Spudsy, achieving $40 million in sales, underscore a strong financial mindset and the ability to excel amid challenges. She advocates for women to embrace their dreams alongside motherhood, redefining success in their terms and setting empowering examples for the next generation. Join us as Ashley Rogers shares a story of personal growth, self-compassion, and the courage to pursue a life of freedom and independence.
For more on Ashley:
www.iamashleyrogers.com
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Welcome back everybody to the truth about addiction. Today's episode is amazing. I cannot wait for you to learn from this woman. I'm going to jump right into her bio. It's pretty darn impressive. In 2013, ashley Rogers founded a company called Buff Bake, a protein cookie that quickly muscled its way into major health stores like Vitamin Shoppe, gnc, 24 Hour Fitness and Whole Foods nationwide. After exiting Buff Bake, she launched Spudsy in 2018, transforming ugly sweet potatoes into a snacking sensation. Ugly sweet potatoes into a snacking sensation. Today, spudsy is available in over 20,000 retail doors across the country, including Whole Foods, kroger, costco, walmart and Target. Currently, ashley serves as the CEO of Sprinkles CPG, a sister company to the iconic Sprinkles cupcakes. She spearheaded the creation of their cupcake flavored chocolate, including the innovative Cupcake Cup, which has rapidly expanded to 4,000 Walmart and 2,000 Target stores in just one year. Walmart and 2,000 Target stores in just one year.
Speaker 2:Let's go people Time to listen and learn. Good enough is leaving me for dead. But perfection's just a game of make-believe. Hey, gotta break the pattern, find a new reprieve welcome back everybody to the truth about addiction.
Speaker 1:I am so excited for this conversation because the woman that is here today is a new friend, a fast new friend and what happened is I saw a little snippet of her on Dan Fleischman's podcast, who I'm coaching with, who's a friend of mine, and in the very short clip I saw I was like who's a friend of mine? And in the very short clip I saw I was like what on earth is this woman doing to create the type of success that she has already experienced at the tender age of 36? And I immediately cold DM'd her. I was like I just saw you on this clip. You're amazing. I would love to connect with you with absolutely no intention other than to learn about her. And now there's a lot more to the story and I was just in Newport on her podcast and today she's on mine. Ashley, welcome to the show.
Speaker 4:You're the best. I love you. Thank you for having me. It's weird because, like, I really do feel like we've known each other like forever, and like one week, two week, three week, however long it's been, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:It is and actually what's what's funny is when we connected outside of Instagram and before I went on your podcast, it's, it's going to be so fascinating to see the way this plays out today in our talk. But when we were like, okay, you go, like tell me, tell me about you, right? And when you went, you gave me this very succinct, bullet, pointed trajectory of a little bit of your personal life but a lot of your professional life and sort of you know, growing and selling and growing and scaling and selling multiple businesses to take you to where you are today. And when I went, I was documenting sort of the trauma stories and how I've overcome them and how that has led me to doing the work in the world that I'm doing today, and it was like the way we chose to share our stories.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's so different and yet we have so much in common. So can you tell the listeners a little bit about your childhood, to the extent that you're comfortable sharing it, just sort of give us a glimpse into your life as a young girl?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I was. I raised by an entrepreneur, my dad, which is one of the reasons why I feel like I am the way that I am. But I mean, I also feel like you either are an entrepreneur or not. It's instilled within your blood. But I had a really traumatic psycho childhood. Um, if you've ever seen the movie casino with, like Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone, like that was my life. So my dad owned a bunch of bars and casinos in Vegas.
Speaker 4:I grew up like in a wealthy household and, unfortunately, like I saw what money does to people when it comes to my mom, so money ruined. My mom, like my dad was always there, was the best dad ever. But my memories of my mom, like and them fighting is like that's all I remember of my childhood. Like, I mean, my first memory of my mom was her driving me to school with a red Dixie cup full of white Zinfandel and her red Jaguar to, like third grade. Uh, I remember my parents constantly fighting, screaming, cheating, like you name it just like very toxic and I knew, like at a young age that like it wasn't normal. Um, and I really do feel like I raised myself because my dad was busy running these businesses. Um, we had my grandma Joan that would come over his mom, which we might as well have just watched ourself, because she didn't do anything, and my mom was just always depressed or drunk or on drugs, like, she was addicted to meth for 20 years too. Um, it was just, it was very, it was very traumatic childhood, um, and although, like, yeah, I grew up like in a wealthy household, like to me, I, I don't know, I just I saw what that did to my mom and their relationship and it did something to me to make me the way that I am today. I don't, that's, that's pretty much the gist of it.
Speaker 4:You have siblings? Yeah, I have. So I have a half sister, that is, we have the same mom and different dads who's like the best human being on this planet, like best human being ever. And then I have a younger brother, um, who's a year and a half older than me, and it's interesting, cause, like the trauma affected me the most, it didn't really affect them. Like I don't talk to my mom cause my mom is still alive. Um, she's a very sick human, like mentally, but my brother and my sister still have a relationship with her brother and my sister still have a relationship with her, which is fine. I just I choose not to have a relationship with her because every time I let her back in my life it's the same cycle, the same patterns, the same disappointment, and she's just a toxic human and I feel like she triggers me when she comes into my life. But yeah, a younger brother and an older sister when she comes into my life.
Speaker 1:But yeah, a younger brother and an older sister. I'm so curious when you say money ruined your mom. What was her relationship with the money that?
Speaker 4:was coming in from your dad's success. Yeah, so I mean. Another early memory is my mom was addicted to gambling too, so she was just an addict all around, Like. So when I was, I guess I was around 10. So what is that? 26 years ago she would take us to Kmart in Las Vegas because they're slot machines and would give me and my brother 20 bucks at a time and she would sit at the slot machine for probably five to six hours gambling and we would be running around target, just buying stuff with $20 for her, $20 there, Like it. Just it made her sick and made her miserable, Like I don't know how to, I don't know how to describe it. It just I just saw it ruin her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes sense to me. I mean, obviously right, as a recovering addict, I think, uh, an an addict is an addict because they're empty on the inside for whatever reason, and they're filling that void with whatever they can. So if, if a lot of money's coming in, you're going to use it dangerously, forever, frivolously, you're going to use it. It's going to accelerate your addiction right, rather than take the edge off of it in any kind of healthy way. So that makes sense to me. It's just it doesn't matter what you put in front of an addict who isn't treated. They're just gonna abuse it to try to get a quick high.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and that's what I witnessed, is just constant abuse of money and, like I think, that's what ruined, well, contributed to her mental illness, was that so did you go to college?
Speaker 1:did you have no additional?
Speaker 4:okay. Nope, I barely graduated high school, okay, so then take me from.
Speaker 1:You're going through all this chaos. You're trying to get you know, make it through high school. What was your high school experience like? And then, what did you do when you were entering into young adulthood to kind of go I'm getting out of this, I don't want anything to do with this. This is sort of my first entrepreneurial endeavor. What did that?
Speaker 4:look like yeah. So my dad had my student council, bob Smythe's number saved in his phone and he would have to text Bob Smythe every morning and say is Ashley at school today, starting from freshman year on, cause I miss. Like there's 180 school days in a year, I miss 90. So I literally was only at school 50% of the time Cause I would ditch like, especially when I got a car. School just wasn't, it wasn't for me and I my parents got divorced when I was 14. So that was like rebel, rebel, rebel was pro, was 14 through 18 is when I would just rebel, won't come home at night, stole my parents car. Um was hanging out with the wrong people, just like was bad, right, right, got a tattoo, like I was just, I was, I was bad, I was out of control.
Speaker 4:So my dad sent me to a boarding school called Casa by the Sea in Ensenada, mexico, when I was 15 years old, a sophomore in high school, and it was literally a prison. So this contributes to more of my toxic upbringing. He drove me to Ensenada, mexico, to Casa by the Sea, and the second I saw the outside of this school I was like I'm fucked. So this building was surrounded by 40-foot walls. It was a jail. It was a jail. We pulled into these big gates and I saw all of these girls in uniforms, not talking, and I got out of the car. They brought me into a room. You always had to be with a third person because people would make runaway plans. It was me, my dad and two other Hispanic ladies. They brought me into a room. They're like say bye to your dad, you're not going to see him for a long time Brought me into another room, strip, searched me, took everything away from me and I literally like was in this solitary room for 48 hours. They leave you in there for two days Cause, like you're at, you're just crying and can't believe you're there. So they like, let you decompress.
Speaker 4:Um, I slept in a room with like 28 girls but double bunk beds. It was you couldn't walk or you couldn't walk, you couldn't talk. So I was in there for four months. Thank God I wasn't in there for longer, but the reason why I got out is it was shut down by the American government. So I woke up one morning. There were all these American cops and firefighters and I knew that I was going home that day.
Speaker 4:I won't drive go into more detail about that, but I mean, when I was there a girl killed herself by drinking cleaning solution. One of the girls scaled the wall. They called her Spider-Man. She landed on the other side, shattered both her hips and was paralyzed from the waist down. So, like I truly was in a prison, I would write my parents a letter this big or this long and they would send them maybe two sentences because they would take everything bad out, like our hair was falling out, they weren't feeding us and I mean thank god I was never like sexually or mentally or physically abused in any way. But most of the girls that were there for I would say six months on, were Um.
Speaker 4:So the longer you were there, the worse your experience was, and like even then, at 15 years old, I could tell how that affected these, these girls. So I got out of there, I was 15. I got home I was a little bit worse and then I'm actually I actually feel lucky because I got it all out of my system. So from 14 to 16, I was a little bit worse and then I'm actually I actually feel lucky because I got it all out of my system. So from 14 to 16, I was my worst Um.
Speaker 4:I then got a job. I saved my money when I was 18. I went on to a on a 30 day um trip around Europe with my cousin and I came home and I was like I'm going to, I want to, I want to work for myself. I was a server for a little while um with other like cocktail server, with other like in shape girls, and then that kind of brought me to starting my first company, which was a meal prep company where I made myself and these other girls healthy meals, and that was my first business. There's there's a lot to unpack there, cause I went from here to here, so I'll let you ask me whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well. Well, I'm actually curious, you know, it seems like your relationship with your dad was pretty intact, even though he wasn't around a lot, especially in comparison to your mom.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:He's also the one that drove you to this place, so was there issue between the two of you when you got back?
Speaker 4:Not, not really, because I mean my dad told me he's like if I didn't send you there, you would you'd be dead. And I mean he's probably right, I probably would have ended up dead, and I recognize that. So I know one. He didn't know what was happening there, you know. Yeah, so I know he sent me there because he's like he truly was like I don't know what to do with her Right and like maybe there was probably a period when I got back where I had animosity towards him, but now me being from like 21 on, when I started to get it more like I had less resentment towards him.
Speaker 1:For that, yeah, so, yeah, you go and you go to Europe. Was there something that happened on that trip where you were like I will never work for somebody else? That's a really young age. Yeah, you had so many options and the majority of your life was surrounded by so much chaos you could have easily kept going down a destructive path, right? So? So a lot of people hit some kind of bottom or have such a level of pain before they get to this place of certainty where they're going to start the change process, whatever that is, whether it's this beginning of like, I will not work for anyone else.
Speaker 1:I'm going to forge the change process, whatever that is, whether it's this beginning of like, I will not work for anyone else. I'm going to forge my own path. But to go from, you know, growing up the way you did and then sort of harming yourself by what you put in your body or who you surrounded yourself with which is a very typical response, not just in teenage years period, but if you've grown up around addiction and chaos, it's like there's such a void and you're filling it right and you're in yourself with what you learned to be normal, even though it isn't. And then a series of things happens where we get sort of face down in a pit of despair.
Speaker 1:Clearly that prison experience that whatever you want to call it school that is not a school could have been that moment of circuit breaker of like oh my God, I I don't ever want to be in a situation like this ever again. But it's. You said it got worse for a little longer when you got back. So take me from you're still acting out to. I'm gonna go to Europe and see the world with some of the money I saved? Were you going with an intent to find yourself to like how do you jump from I'm making my life's going in a bad direction to I'm going to make one decision that moves the needle in a better direction.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean there was more of a time gap there then. So I would say around and I was inaccurate on my time so I would say around 18 is when I got it all in my system. 17, 18. So 15 to 17 is when I was my worst. Um that then I got a job right. That's when I started saving money and, like I would say I was then kind of on the right path, like I was over going out, I was over. I found a new group of friends Like I knew I wanted to get out of Vegas and I always have like been a free spirit.
Speaker 4:Free spirit Like I love traveling, I love trying new things, and I have a cousin who is the same age as me. So I think both of us and she had a very traumatic childhood too, like even more so than mine, if you can even comprehend that Um. So I, we just wanted to get out, we wanted to, we wanted to go. So we both like had this plan to save this money and go on this trip. And that's what we did. And I would say like so before I left to Europe, there, a flip already switched in my head where it's like I don't want to be this person. But then I go to and you're right, like a lot of people can keep going down that path, like I have friends every single year. Since I was probably 18 years old, somebody dies from a heroin overdose or something like.
Speaker 4:From the group that I once associated myself with because they never got out of those cycles, yep, um, but went to in Europe, saw, I mean we were like the South of France and Italy, like we went all over and I just saw like a different culture and the way people lived and a slower pace of life, and I'm just like I like more of a freeness, like people were free there, and I'm like I want this and in order to have this and like come back here and travel when I want and be like I need to figure out how to do my own thing. So that was kind of like my shift in my head. And then that, with having already seen my dad do it, in a sense right Cause he owns his own business and he has this financial freedom is what led me down the path of like okay, like how can I figure this out for myself? And I don't want to waste my time working for somebody else um building somebody else's dream when I need to start building mine?
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, that's super helpful. I mean, I remember in my story, you know, there was this moment I was young, with the guy I was dating, who's now my husband, where we would party pretty hard together and for and you know, the sun was coming up, we were just a disaster. Moms were pushing their babies in the strollers and we were, you know, coming down from a massive cocaine high and he looked at me and was like I don't ever want to do this again. And that was a real split in our relationship because internally I said, well, that sucks, cause I'm just getting started. So then every time I partied I was keeping it a secret from him and you know the lies and the deceit, just sort of.
Speaker 4:Yeah, accelerated his last time that he did that Like was. Did he stay true?
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so you know there are people who have that experience. But he had a moment, you know, moment for me me getting sober or changing the trajectory of my life. It was like a lot of slow core beliefs collapsing, so core beliefs collapsing. So I don't think there's any one way that we make the first huge step towards change. But I'm always interested in how people do it. Like for me, you know, my overdose scared me enough to go to a meeting, but that wasn't enough to make me really change. So I've still. And then, when my boyfriend was going to leave me, that scared me enough to make me really change. So I was still. And then, when my boyfriend was going to leave me, that scared me enough to go back.
Speaker 1:There was this moment in sobriety where I was, I think, just six months, sober, very early in and very angry that I was sober and wasn't doing anything internally to change my experience in the role. And we went on this vacation to a place we had always gone, where I was always drinking, and now I was sober and I had time to be with myself. And when I tell you the amount of anxiety and self-ridicule that was nonstop for those five or six days I'm talking like a voice in my head that was just like oh my God, you look so fat in your bathing suit. You need to get to the fucking gym. You have so much to do when you get back you should.
Speaker 1:But it was just psychotic, existing in my own body and I didn't share any of it with him because he had suffered so much with who I had been on in my addiction that I kept it in. And I remember going to New York raising my hand in a meeting and just sobbing because I was like I understood, at least for the first time, why I was anesthetizing. It was like a big wake up call. But then again it would take so many things for me to be like okay, I'm really ready to change now, right, so when you say you know, you you kind of already felt like a switch had flipped or you went away to Europe and then the Europe stuff solidified it, was there ever a moment for you of like the last time you partied, or sort of a bad situation where you were in, where you were like I don't want to do this, like I do not want to be this person, I do not want to end up like my mother. I do not like. Was there a moment of clarity?
Speaker 4:Yeah, no, I would say that I would say it was a buildup of multiple things, yeah, and it was more.
Speaker 4:It wasn't like him, like a light bulb go off and then been in a car and like I'm never doing it, cold turkey cut. You know, it was more of just like a multitude of like different events happening over and over and like me getting sick of tired, of like being sick and tired. You know like I was just I was over it and I knew I've always believed in myself. You know like I've always believed in myself. You know like I've always known who I am and like the power that I have, like that I know without a doubt about me. You know like I will fucking figure it out. I don't care what it is like, that's just, that's always been instilled in me and I knew that I was like more than this. You know that. So I always had, I would say, that power. So that was like always like this beam, like shining in me, that like just kept getting bigger and bigger until I was like, okay, I'm on my own, you know.
Speaker 1:Yep, yeah, and that's really helpful for the people listening. And I, you know, some of us, I think have that innate resilience I well, I think we all do when we're, when we come out, and then there's a lot of things in life that can put that fire out or dim the light, and it's sort of our responsibility at some point to clear that away so that the light be very, very bright again. And for some of us it's easier than others, so it's nice to hear that. So when you decide you're like, okay, I'm going to start my first thing, my meal plan, yep, business, tell me about that. Tell me the things that you were like I got to figure out how to do this. I got to figure out how to do that and when did it start doing well, or did it do well? And then what were the next steps from there? What were you learning along the way as an early entrepreneur?
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it was a meal prep company. So I like have always been into health and fitness, um, and I always like made myself healthy meals and brought them to work with me. And I worked with, like cocktail servers on the strip, like girls that had to wear bathing suits or very little clothing, right, so I ended up prepping them their meals and I was at one point I was prepping food for like 200 of these industry workers on the strip. It was easy to start, so I started it out in my house, because it's like you're only cooking people food, so you just go to the store, you buy the food and you buy the meal prep containers, you make it, you put it in there and you deliver, right.
Speaker 4:And then I got to the point where I was like, okay, I'm not growing my kit, my own kitchen I need which I shouldn't have been doing, but I was I need to move to a restaurant.
Speaker 4:So I had a friend that owned a restaurant and I was like, hey, can I borrow your kitchen after hours and I'll pay you X amount of dollars. So then it turned into that and then, yeah, I mean, eventually I did it for two years. I it taught me a lot about like working with other people, um, relying on other people, hiring my first employee, like just the baby steps of like owning a business, saving money, like doing the taxes, and then I one of my employees, or one of my employees, one of my customers who I was making food for ended up buying the business from me. And that's like then, what gave me the money to be able to move to California. Cause, like my whole process, like since I before Europe, was like I want to get out of Las Vegas and so, after selling that meal prep company, that's like when I took the next step to leaving Las Vegas and moving to California.
Speaker 1:When you were bringing your own meals into work, were the girls going? I want that.
Speaker 4:Yes, I want that. Will you make those for me? Can I pay you? So that's how it started.
Speaker 1:When, when your friend was like I want to buy this from you, what was? Was that shocking to you? Did you see that coming? Did you have in your mind, like I'm making a business that one day I can sell?
Speaker 4:No, I, I. What was in my mind was like I'm going to start this, this is going to be a business, cause I had enough girls asking me, cause we would all be in the break room together. So it wasn't just one, it was like one who brought it up and 10 saying I want them to you know. So I was like, okay, like I'm just going to go do this, and I literally I don't even think I put my two weeks in. I'm really bad at that. Like I never put my two weeks in. I just would leave and never come back. I did that with a couple jobs in my younger years. But yeah, I just I left and I started making these meals for these girls, and I didn't think that, I didn't think it was going to ever turn into this big thing, but I knew it was like the first step on this path that's going to lead me to figuring out my next thing.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. So it's interesting, right as an entrepreneur myself, when I think about starting Strong Heart Fitness, which, at the time right, was really attention to a need that wasn't being met, and then, with enough sort of intuitive clarity and push, I was like I'm going to be the one to fill that need, which I think is a hallmark of an entrepreneur and, at the same time, there's something to be said for what you're saying, which is I'm just doing something. That I need to be said for what you're saying, which is I'm just doing something that I need, and it turns out that just by showing up with this thing that I knew I needed, other people were like hey, I need that too, Right. So what's your feeling as an entrepreneur? Somebody listening, who's wanting to start something new? How important is it to assess the industry that they want to go into and fill the white space, versus just get really clear on who they are in that space and what they provide and then show up with that and and have other people go oh, I want what you provide.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Like a chicken and egg thing. Yeah, I mean, I think my biggest like. I mean there's a couple of things that I just say nonstop, and this is one of the things that I say nonstop. Like I personally believe that, like, finding a white space and being innovative and doing something new and different and not being a Me Too product is like business wise, like what wins, you know. So that's that's my opinion is like I feel like it's really important to like, if you do want to start a business, like and it is like, and let's, we'll use food as an example Like what is somebody not making that you can make? Or if it's in healthcare, like what is someone not offering that you could offer? Or there are the instances where you're like okay, I love what this person's doing, but how can I make a 2.0 version and differentiate myself and make that even better? So I feel like, in order to be I don't want to say in order to get into became more about innovation.
Speaker 4:I think it was more accidental, but hindsight I realized that is what I was doing. So I don't think I was consciously doing it at the time, but at the time, like no one was doing meal prep. Like no one was doing meal prep. Now there's all these companies that ship meals nationwide. You know like this was when I was 21. So however many years ago that was now 15 years ago Um, so yeah, no one was really doing it. So, hindsight, like I was being innovative with, like it kind of just falling in my lap and happening, Okay, so take me to the next jumping off point.
Speaker 1:So you're, you get bought out, you have money, a little cushion now to start something new.
Speaker 4:Yep, yeah, and I mean this was a very small buyout. This was like a little taste of like me having enough money to leave and start a new business, right. So I my cousin, who I went to Europe with moved with me to California and our whole plan. Our dads are business partners, our dads are twin brothers and business partners and so we've just we're always close and it's hard to move alone. So she came with me and we're like we're moving to California and we're starting a business.
Speaker 4:So, me being in food, this was 2014. Now, me being in food, I was like, let's do a food product. So we created a new company called buff bake um, which is protein muffins and protein net butters. And in California it was easy to create because there's all these farmers markets. There's like 14 farmers markets within like 10 miles of us right Living in Orange County, california. So that's what we did. We started making the food in our kitchen again and then we graduated to a commercial kitchen and then we would do these farmers markets basically all week long.
Speaker 4:This was like at the start of Instagram. So like an influencer wasn't even a thing yet. You send people product, they organically post for $0 and you just have thousands of dollars in sales Like these were back in those days if you were ever selling anything on Instagram. These were back in those days if you were ever selling anything on Instagram, and that's kind of how it started. And then, from posting on Instagram, vitamin Shop which it was like 800 stores at the time took in the product and that was like kind of our first big nationwide retailer.
Speaker 1:And then yeah, did they reach out to you. Yeah, on Instagram they found us, so when you were bringing your product to a farmer's market, were you renting a booth? Is that how it works?
Speaker 4:yes. Well, you buy a pop-up tent and you show up with your pop-up tent and you give samples to people so they can try it or not necessarily you sample and they buy physical product, you know yep, and then it was a matter of okay.
Speaker 1:You're getting out into the community like you're doing it like a matter of okay. You're getting out into the community Like you're doing it like the old fashioned way, right? You're like we have a product, we're going to invest a little bit of money for this pop-up tent, we're going to let you try it If you like it, buy it If you really like it. Amazing, like you're just going to naturally let people know about it because the product is that good. So it's just a very essentially right. You're making a product that people want it and clearly need it. So what made you decide to make this?
Speaker 4:product. So no one was making a protein muffin. That was like the main thing that um started this journey is no one was making a protein muffin. We called them buffins. Um, I had a lot of um and no one was really doing protein nut butters at the time either. So like infusing whey protein in the nut butter, uh, and I and I recognized that, so that's why we started it. And then there was a lot of learning lessons. We ended up moving away from the buffins because they had a short shelf life, like a 14 day shelf life, so product would start going moldy on us. We had to make it constantly. So we we switched to a longer protein or longer shelf life product, which was a protein cookie that had like a nine month shelf life.
Speaker 4:And tell me what happened that's what ended up going into vitamin shop was those protein cookies, and then from there we got into 24 hour fitness nationwide, we got into GNC nationwide, we got into some regions of whole foods. So I would say we probably entered like 6,000 doors um 6,000 different retailers or doors, points of distribution, and that was like that was my college experience. So BuffBake was my college experience. I did BuffBake from 2014 to 2018. It taught me how to have business partners, which is really hard. It taught me sales and marketing and distribution and manufacturing and logistics and that's like really where I would say I got my like college degree and whatever life starting a business through those real world experiences.
Speaker 1:When you got into vitamin shop, you said they found you right. So that's, that's incredible. Was that the jumping off point for all these other retailers to find you? Yes, so you weren't. You weren't pitching your product to try to have it placed.
Speaker 4:We we were pitching our product to try to have a place but because we were successful in vitamin shop, it gave us the data story that we needed to be able to prove thesis to all these other retailers that we were reaching out to.
Speaker 1:So then, once you had that, like that feels like a unicorn opportunity that that happened, but also because you did everything leading up to it, for you to have the visibility for vitamin shop, to even know you existed, right. So, if you have the data points, how much then, from that point on, when you got into GNC and whole foods, how much of that was you going? Well, god, if we can do this with vitamin shop and we can present the story of why this is clearly going to be a success in their store, yeah, much of it was you going out and sending those emails and making those pitches versus them finding you percentage wise.
Speaker 4:It was probably 80% of us going out there and seeking the opportunities and 20% of people coming to us, because I mean, once you get in these like high profile accounts like Vitamin Shoppe or Whole Foods or K profile accounts like vitamin shop or whole foods or Kroger, like other buyers constantly audit those stores. So you will have like organic inbound interest, but a lot of it is you seeking the opportunity. So I would say like 80, 20. And nowadays, if you were to ask me now, I would say it's like 99% of me reaching out and 1% of people coming to us.
Speaker 1:So take me through the evolution of that business into the next one.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, like I said, buffbake taught me my. It was like my college experience taught me everything. Um, I started it with five other business partners, which I don't recommend doing, especially when you're all cooking. So, um, thank God, I was the only one that got out with the fricking dollar in my pocket. So I mean this. I don't like when I say this sometimes I feel like it comes off like stuck up a little, but like I was the magic in that business. So I left. My partners bought me out, right, the only one that got out was me, and because I wanted to go do something on my own and there were too many cooks on the kitchen where it was like toxic, right, so I went and started Spudsy and the Buff Bake unfortunately went out of business like a year later. So Spudsy is what I started in 2018 on my own, by myself, no business partners.
Speaker 1:What made you start that?
Speaker 4:I I always am thinking of my next thing, right, and I'm always like trying to spot the white spaces, um, and whatever it is I'm doing, whether I'm having a baby and what baby products are missing that I need to invent, or I'm in a grocery store or wherever Right, Like I always, I just look for those.
Speaker 4:Not that I look for those things, I just like they come to me. So in buff bake, I again was still eating healthy and all my diet and meal prepping my food. A sweet potato was always a big part of my diet and I saw, like hippies that revolved or it's a, that's a healthy puff that revolves around chickpeas. And I saw brands popping up that revolved around cauliflower and Siete, which is like a grain free brand, and I'm like why isn't anyone doing anything that revolves around sweet potato? Like you go to any restaurant in America, they have sweet potato fries. I feel like it's something that most people like and love, right, and no one was creating a platform brand that revolved around the sweet potato. So that was how Spudsy was invented.
Speaker 1:So that was how Spudsy was invented. So at this point, when you're about to get into this new venture, financially, are you comfortable? Yes, okay. So, given what you grew up around with money, what was your relationship to the money? You were making.
Speaker 4:I think I could be worth $100 million and I would still think I was broke is just my mentality. I that's just like I don't know, like the the nothing's ever enough mentality. I don't know if it's like a blessing or a curse or what it is, but like I definitely have a relationship with money. That's not normal, right? So I don't know if it's the way that I was raised. It obviously I think like has something to do with that. But yeah, I could have all the money in the world and I would think I have none still.
Speaker 4:Like I'm very like conservative when it comes to money. Like I don't like spending money on a ton of things. Was your dad like that? Yeah, my dad. My dad was very conservative with money too. Like my dad never spoiled us, which is also, I feel like it. I could have been different had my dad given me everything that I wanted and turned me into a spoiled brat. But my dad's mentality with us was always like go figure it out for yourself and go do the work and earn it. So he that was instilled in me at a young age as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge, right, because there's so many tales of people coming into money and just blowing it, especially if you know, if some of what you learned on the side of your exposure to your mother had taken precedent over what you learned from your father, right, you could have. You could have had a completely different relationship with money by the time you were successful and just blown it all.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, okay, that's really, that's really interesting and good to know. So there's that part of all of this right Whoever's listening getting your relationship right with money. If the goal is to be an entrepreneur, be careful if it's not in a good place on your way to the top, because it's transient. You know, money comes and money goes constantly. So if your relationship isn't in a healthy alignment, you might find yourself face down in a pit of despair even at the height of your success. And there's also so many people who have all the money in the world and, on a spiritual level, are deeply unfulfilled, right, which is sort of another conversation.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, at this point you're wanting to start Spudsy and you've had experience now with two different things. So was it a little more natural for you to be like okay, here we go again. We're going to start to make a product, we're going to test it out, we're going to. Did you bring it to a farmer's market again? Were you able to put it right into the retailer stores because you had relationships with them? Like, what did it look like this time?
Speaker 4:around. So this time around it was actually completely different. But again, like I knew I was going to figure it out. So what? I? I, I I had to have a manufacturer, because you can't physically extrude a puff because my first product was sweet potato puffs out of your kitchen, like, you have to have like a million dollar piece of equipment to do the extrusion for you. So I was like, okay, I need to find a manufacturer. So I started looking and I was like who's making hippies? I like just Googled it and it actually came up this manufacturer. It was a company called wine dot, so they were located in Ohio. So I I sent them an email. I said, hey, here's my idea. I put together a little deck because I knew how to do that from buff bake. Here's my idea. Here's what I want to create. This is why you need to make my product. Um, no one else is doing it. Here's my experience. I'm going to get us into all these doors right.
Speaker 4:Within a day I had a response and a week later I was sitting in a boardroom with the CEO of Wyandotte, who this guy was. He really fucking believed in me. This guy, his name was Rob and he's like I don't want to just make your product. He's like I want to invest in you. He's like I'm going to give you $700,000. I'll give you a hundred grand cash and $600,000 in free product and I'm going to start making your product. He's like go sell. And so that was my. That's was my first experience with Spudsy. That's when I was like, hey, I can fucking do this on my own Like. And I got, I mean fast forward to. I mean I just exited Spudsy in 2024, october, so three months ago. Um, I did close to $40 million in sales in five years. I got us in 20,000 doors nationwide. I raised $9 million and created all these products.
Speaker 1:And also during that time you've had two babies.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:So tell me what that's like. You know you're. You're balancing motherhood with some wild financial success and entrepreneurial success, all the ups and downs that come with that, all the hours in the day that that requires of your time. How are you balancing all of that and what? What has been some of the hardest stuff that's come up with? Motherhood? Yeah, career woman, because so many of us are both.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I can handle a lot like I can. I can, just I can handle a lot. I don't know what other way to put it like. And I feel like when I actually don't have a lot on me is when I'm like more panicked than when I do. I don't know. I just I feel like I can handle a lot.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, balancing being a mom, obviously, because there's guilt and shame and all the shit that comes along with that when you're not focused on your kids 24 hours a day, right, especially like at these young ages of their life. Kids 24 hours a day, right, especially like at these young ages of their life. But I obviously being a mom is my number one priority. I love my kids more than anyone in the world, right, but I wasn't put on this planet to be a mom. I was put on this planet to be me and build and create, and I recognize that about myself. So I mean it's important for me to do those things because if I can do that, then I'm going to be a better mom. Yep, I'm curious. I don't feel bad saying that Like. I feel like some people are put like my sister, are put on this planet to be a mom and like they, that's day night, all day long. Mom I, I just couldn't do it like. Being a mom is fucking hard no, it's hard.
Speaker 1:I'm the same as you. I I have to. I have so many gifts I feel like I need to be sharing with, with the world. And even though motherhood is at the front of everything and the greatest joy of my life, it's not my ultimate purpose, right For me, it's to be a cycle breaker and to share how I, how I got to that place with the world and help other people.
Speaker 4:So I actually feel like that's important to talk about too, cause I feel like not enough people talk about that, like where they're almost shamed for like I mean, we're humans, right, we're our own people, like we should be doing the things that we want to do, and I feel like there's like the stigma, almost like when you become a mom, your life stops and you need to be a mom. But like that, you need to be a mom, but like that's not the case and like that's not the world that I will ever live in is. I'm going to do me and I'm going to do what makes me happy while being a mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think to your point, like that's so culturally ingrained in us, yeah, and it's just a belief system, I mean, like everything else, and once we realize that and that we have agency to shatter that belief and make a new one, everything opens up, which I think is a lot of what we're talking about today, like there's. There are these things we learn, a lot of which, when we're younger, are completely out of our control and at some point usually from a painful place, not always we wake up and go wait a minute. I learned all these things, so I'm now behaving in these ways.
Speaker 1:But if there's another way to do life, to do motherhood, to do entrepreneurship, what is it? And and and? Do I have the courage to dream it up and then and then take the action? And motherhood is no different right, like I? I unequivocally agree with you and I think the great, you know, the greatest gift I'm giving to my children is showing them the woman I continue to become, because it gives them permission to do the same Right. So if I was a mom who had hopes and dreams that I let go to die somewhere, to just be in service only of my children, because that's what the world wants me to do, then they're going to watch a mother who let her dreams die.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And where will they be able to give themselves permission to live a big, bold life. So in my mind it's it's really taking so many conditioned beliefs and just turning them on their heads, Cause for the most part, the beliefs we have are just things that kind of keep us small and in good meat order for a functioning society. And I think it's our job as like the free spirits, the high souls, the entrepreneurs, to just kind of go whose idea is that? Because it's not mine, yeah. And if it's not mine, what is my idea? And if I can think of the idea, then what action steps do I need to take to get closer to that idea becoming my reality? To get closer to that idea becoming my reality?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm fully in the camp of, you know, women, If women fully stepped into their power. I think we're doing more of that now than we have been.
Speaker 4:I think it's kind of like watch out world. I still think there's a lack of people talking about it, and I feel like the reason why people don't, though, is because they don't want to be met with like the criticism that you know cause, like the mom topic and the way you raise your kids and the do this, not that, or you're like there's there's a big opinion there with those things, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I well, I think we we only talk about things to the extent with which we've healed our own guilt and shame around them, like, if I still feel guilty that I'm an entrepreneur, I'm not going to want to share it. Yep, right, because if someone criticizes me, it's going to exacerbate my own shame and my own guilt. If I'm completely comfortable and I know, this is literally what's right and what's destined for me.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Other people can criticize me all they want, but it isn't going to hurt, it isn't going to change my trajectory, because I'm super, super clear that I deserve to live this way and make these decisions Right.
Speaker 1:So at the end of the day, you know, there's always going to be always the critics who are on the outskirts, who are not, you know, in the arena. Fighting and getting bloody and living a life that that's filled with meaning and purpose is going to be the people out there that are just yelling from the stands telling you to do it differently, or shame on you, and it only matters if it triggers something unhealed in you. But if you're clear and you're confident, you're good. You're good, I agree. So we're going to wrap up in the next couple of minutes. Take me to where you are today.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So, like I said, I raised $9 million in Spudsy. It was from my partners and investors. They're a PE fund called Carp Riley, a group called Carp Riley and they own Sprinkles Cupcakes. So Sprinkles Cupcakes has 40 bakeries across the country. We have cupcake vending machines in a lot of airports and cupcake ATMs, like around the country as well.
Speaker 4:And like, let's see, a year and a half ago now, so when I was still in Spudsy, like full bore in Spudsy, my lead investor came to me and he's like hey, I want you to start sprinkle CPG for me. And he's like here's my idea. It's a cupcake flavored chocolate bar on a piece of paper. Bring it to life. And I said, okay. So I took this idea and I was like okay, I'm going to make your chocolate cupcake flavored chocolate bar. But I feel like that's not cool enough. We need to make something else. And that's when I created the cupcake cup. So it's basically like a peanut butter cup with cupcake frosting inside instead of nut butter. And we launched in 4,000 Walmarts nationwide, which is like probably one of the hardest retailers to get into and then 2,000 targets nationwide in June of 24. And then, going into 2025, we're launching into Albertsons, kroger Nationwide, costco, whole Foods, basically everywhere. So we're going from zero to a hundred really quick and I'm running the whole sprinkle CPG arm.
Speaker 1:Are you able to go into that many more places in 2025 because of how well it's already doing?
Speaker 4:of how well it's already doing. So it yes and yes yeah. So I am a big believer in like go slow, right, go slow and dive deep and figure out what's working and then start replicating into other doors. I think that sprinkles is an anomaly. So Sprinkles is a 20-year-old brand. There's a lot of brand awareness around the brand, which makes it easier to do this. If this was like a startup company like Spudsy, I would have never taken this path to market. But because people know who Sprinkles is, it's easier to do that with Sprinkles.
Speaker 1:That makes sense, yeah, so I'd love to just ask you one more thing before we wrap up, which is where you are today in your life sitting, where you are speaking to me. What would you want angsty, rebellious teenager Ashley to know? Rebellious teenager.
Speaker 4:Ashley, to know To be patient, like I, to cause I'm always like trying to get ahead of myself and it's like I almost want to see into the future. You know, like I've always wanted to do that, like I want to know what's going to happen down the path, and I guess that would be the biggest thing is to like be patient and know that like I'm going to get there and the timing that is meant to be in plan for my life.
Speaker 1:Hmm, I love that. Yeah, thank you so much waking up.
Speaker 2:I hear the desperation call. I turn my back and hit my head against the wall to meet a crucifix, to take me to my knees, whipping my mistakes, to jump over the grief, breaking the circuit, making it worth it. Sick and tired of the voice inside my head, never good enough is leaving me for dead. But perfection's just a game of make-believe. Hey Gotta break the pattern, find a new reprieve.
Speaker 3:Breaking the circuit, making it worth it all. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got left aside.
Speaker 2:I can be brave and afraid at the same time. Practice self-compassion, start to calm my mind, taking tiny steps to loving all of me. Just the process, cause it's gonna set me free, breaking the circuit, making it worth it.
Speaker 3:Free breaking the circuit, making it worth it all. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got the life Deep inside. All I got Left to find Gotta gotta gotta break it or fake it till we make it. Gotta gotta gotta break it. Come on, one, two, three. I am ready To make a change. Come on, I got to live this life. I am ready to make a change. I am bigger than my pain. There's no deep inside. I got to live this life.