To be a successful entrepreneur one must first create a new mindset—one with a set of values and perspectives that will carry through their business as they aim for greatness. It’s this different thinking that prepares the mind of the entrepreneur, allowing them to answer questions, overcome challenges, and live the 24/7 entrepreneurial lifestyle that’s required to be successful.
Today on ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ two different-thinking entrepreneurs created solutions to needs that were not available before: Jennifer Russell, co-founder of Treat House New York—a gourmet, dairy and gluten free-bakery delivery service, and Beau Lewis, the co-founder and VP for Product of GoldieBlox—an award‐winning company with the mission to “disrupt the pink aisle” with toys, games, and media for girls.
“The younger generations are expressing themselves so beautifully on YouTube.”
“I love the language of the internet. Emojis are even being used in the workplace to show expression.”
“My kids had a project to raise money so we decided to have a bake sale. We did Rice Krispie treats so we threw in different ingredients. We had lines down the street and raised $300.”
“There are already lots of cupcakes, lots of dessert concepts so we decided to call a pastry chef and get a second opinion. We did a survey of the parents as well and found an interest.”
“Our kids have been involved in every single moment of Treat House since its inception.”
“The office space my husband and I share is so small we touch elbows. Then we go home and are back together the whole time.”
“You agree and you disagree, but that’s what makes the challenge so wonderful. It takes a certain couple to work together.”
“Chris has a restaurant background. He does a lot of the operations. I have a teaching and social work background so I’m the face of the brand.”
“We intertwine our roles now.”
“We brought a great team together—an incredible pastry chef, the community, our kids. We were initially a small store. 600 sq. ft.”
“We were packing orders for Christmas for thousands and thousands of people. We had to put a divider so customers wouldn’t see the boxes to the ceiling.”
“We got a massive order for 100,000 treats after opening. We knew we needed a bigger kitchen so we got a 500,000 sq. ft kitchen.”
“We first started with experimenting with tons of flavors. Caramel sea salt, Cookies ‘n’ Cream, M&Ms are our best sellers.”
“Madison Square Garden orders from us now.”
“Companies use us all the time as thank you gifts. We do weddings, baby showers.”
“We have experimented with over 100 different flavors we’ve worked with. There are 8-12 that are fan favorites.”
“Our Nutella banana treat is still stuck. We want it to work but so far it hasn’t. Same with Lemon Zest.”
“Start off having an incredible relationship. If you go in rocky, you’re screwed.”
“What inspires me is giving back to the community. We donate treats, we partner with the Leukemia Society as well.”
“I’m a huge fan of YouTube and I’ve seen how YouTube has launched independent musicians. They’re using YouTube to reach a new audience.”
“We’re entrepreneurs, we’re talking about being innovative so selling Kobe’s air, I’m all behind it.”
“I get a text messages from my father that’s a bunch car emojis only. It’s such a genuine way of expression.”
“I’m lucky to have a lot of positive strong role models in my life—especially my wife, Debbie Sterling, my boss.”
“Engineering has a branding problem. Too many people think of trains.”
“Only 14% of engineers in the US are women. Is it something that’s socialized.”
“Girls start to lose interest in math and science by age 7.”
“Debbie took a walk into the ‘pink aisle’—a sea of princesses and ponies.”
“The problem with dolls and ponies becomes the norm of what girls have for role models as opposed to the boy aisle.”
“Boys start developing spatial skills while playing with these toys. Debbie’s hypothesis was this has to be affecting girls too.”
“In order to get girls interested we created a personal story in our construction toys.”
“You have to be crazy to run a business with your spouse. For Debbie and I we’re very fortunate because we compliment each other. She is absolutely the CEO.”
“Running a business together accelerates communication because we’re together 24/7. It’s been stronger for our marriage.”
“I ran operations and product and Debbie ran the vision, face and marketing of the brand. Now we overlap in the creative ideas.”
“Video has been a wonderful storytelling medium. We combine story with building in GoldieBlox so we do the same with marketing.”
“If you have the right message and get it into the right hands it can go viral.”
“Debbie created a prototype and we wondered how to get the story out there so we went to Kickstarter.”
“Our first video was Debbie’s very personal story.”
“Women in engineering make 33% more than women in other fields.”
“All of these influential people showed up to bat for us and our video went viral. We reached our goal in 4 days. Toys R Us called us.”
“The buyer at Toys R Us, who has daughters, called Debbie and asked for her help figuring out the problem.”
“Here we are, we have a tiny single product in a wall of pink. What can we do—we made another video.”
“We wanted to tell the story of girls who are powerful. We got the Marin Girls Choir to sing ‘We Are the Champions.’”
“We think you can be a princess, you just need to learn how to build your own castle.”
“We were the first small business to have an ad in the SuperBowl. A million views later, we had found our core strategy.”
“Small Business, Big Game was a competition to get an ad into the SuperBowl. We wanted to get our message out and try to win the competition.”
“We put together another campaign that showcased the creativity of engineering for girls and how the princess culture toys could be integrated.”
“The girls in the video were actual Kickstarter backers’ daughter building a Rube Goldberg machine out of stereotypical girl toys—strollers, baby dolls, etc.”
“We’re making things that are for 7 year old girls and we’re not 7 year old girls. Every week we have play days for the girls to show us what is terrible.”
“With GoldieBlox we’re construction toys with books, we’ve done apps, we’re working on cartoons.”
“We’re the alternative of what Disney’s done for the princess.”
“Believe in yourself. There will be plenty of reasons why things look like they’re impossible. Don’t listen to those things.”
“We make construction toys for girls and LEGOS makes the best construction toys in the world so we’re constantly playing with their toys to learn.”
Join ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ next Wednesday at 12pm ET when Erica Keswin joins the show to discuss how to translate motherhood skills to the boardroom for our Mother’s Day Special!! Only on SiriusXM Business Channel 111.
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