Founder's Story - Global Leader Created New Passion During a Pivot | Ep. 31 with Andrea Herrera Founder of Boxperience

Episode Date: August 8, 2020

Today's episode is sponsored by USUAL WINES. Use code: KATEHANCOCK for $8 dollars off your first order. Andrea Herrera is founder and president of Amazing Edibles Catering, an award winning catering company that fosters relationship building at bread... --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ibhshow/supportOur Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation, and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs, and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur, and named one of the most influential Filipina in the world, Kate Hancock. Today's episode is sponsored by Usual Wines. I would love to drink more wine, but I'm worried about the sugar content. That is why I really love this wine. But don't grapes contain sugar? To clarify, all Usual Wines are produced using natural, sustainable grapes harvested every fall. These grapes are picked at optimal ripeness to ensure all sugar will be fermented completely

until the wines are dry with no residual sugar. I do love the fact that it is single serve. I waste so much wine because I can't finish it in one sitting. Go check out the website at www.usualwine.com and use my discount code, Kate Hancock, for $8 off your first order and try your first glass on us we are live hi everyone this is kate and today i have andrea herrera hi everyone andrea is the founder and president of Amazing Edibles Catering. It's an award-winning catering company that fosters relationship building at bread-breaking events.

Now, she's also a proud global leader in an entrepreneur's organization. It's a global organization of 15,000 members. I'm part of it, and we talk a lot about it in this podcast. And also Andrea has been profiled in Hispanic Living Magazine, CNN Money, MSNBC, Chicago Tribune, and one of our favorite client, Oprah Winfrey, which, you know, love their grilled vegetables. Andrea, that's amazing. Thank you so much for having me, Kate. You're very kind. Yeah. So I know you're pivoting right now. You're creating this new company, Box Experience. Can you tell me more about that? Sure. I'm super excited. I have owned a catering company for the last 25 years. And it's about relationship building at bread breaking events.

And today events are not a big thing, because people can't get together. And so our parties are mostly 50 to 500 people. And so I tried to look at the world and find a problem that I could solve. And I think it's connection, which I think is one of my gifts. And so I think that today, CEOs, salespeople who have really valuable relationships with clients can't take them out to lunch or take them to dinner or take them to a game or meet for coffee, fly across the country and hang out because all of that has stopped for a time. And so I have created a box experience, which includes curated, for instance, the coffee box has some wonderful coffee, a French press that's monogrammed with your client's name in a cool wood crate with their name on it,

a message to connect. They open a box. Their name is on the inside of the box. There's coffee, there's chocolates, everything that you need for your coffee date, and a video card from you, the owner of the company or salesperson, inviting your client to connect over zoom or over the phone. And my premise is that this will surprise and delight your clients so much that they will call you the salesperson instead of you, the salesperson having to call your client. And I think that there's a need for this in the world. And we are launching Monday. So I decided to do this three weeks ago. And so we are in the midst of a really fast pivot. And I'm working with two amazing women of EO leaders, Deb Venable and Fran Biederman-Gross, who are helping me pull it all together to launch really, really fast, as well as all of my EO community who have been available on calls and for ideas. So I'm super excited about it. And we're moving at about 1000 miles per hour. I could just imagine. And isn't it amazing when crisis

like this happen, you just forced to be creative. And that's such a great idea. Thank you. I'm really hoping so. No, I think we need that. And, you know, I think one of the things too that I was, one of the things we did in the Orange County chapter, we actually did a virtual wine tasting. So they sent us this kit with books and quarantine glass. And that was really, I feel like I was doing it, you know, just like a regular

virtual tasting with everybody. Yeah. Yes. I think that connection is really important to all of us. And I think that this pandemic, one of the biggest casualties is that we don't get to connect. My son is 24 years old, and he lives on his own. And so while I've seen him a few times, I don't get to hug him or kind of be close. And so I think that's hard in personal relationships, but I think it's also hard in the workplace. Our company is still open. The catering company is doing first responder meals and family meal delivery service at a very, very little, little tiny bit of work. But we are kind of trying to stay open while in a soft mode. And I think people miss connection. So I think giving people opportunities to connect, whether it's a virtual wine tasting,

we just did a theater production Sunday night for Mother's Day. And we delivered dinners to 40 different clients who had theater tickets, so they could all have dinner together and watch the show together. So we're trying to find ways to kind of create the feeling of togetherness while apart. That's really wonderful. I really love this pivot, Andrea. Now, Andrea, I know you built this multimillion dollar business. Can you tell me where did you grow up? Sure. So I still live in Chicago. I grew up in Chicago, right downtown in the big bad city in Lincoln Park, DePaul area. And we lived in a lot of different apartments,

but went to kind of small private schools, Montessori type schools, and I got my community mostly from school. Um, so went to one school for almost 10 years, um, and just developed amazing friendships and relationships. But I mean, took two trains and a bus to school when I was five years old. It's so funny because when my son was 12, my, my mother was afraid of him taking one bus to school a block from our house. And like, I took two trains and a bus to another city and it was okay when I was five, but somehow, but anyway, it was a different time. I'm very old. So it was a different time when people got around.

But yeah, grew up right in the inner city. Wow. Now, what is the best memory of your childhood and what was worst? You know, I was thinking, I'm pretty blessed, and I really try to live in gratitude. One of my favorite memories is, I love the water. So my mother, who worked during the week, my sister and I were latchkey kids when come home after school, on a Saturday took us to the beach, and she doesn't swim. So she'd sit on a blanket in the sand, and we would play in the water. And it she'd sit on a blanket in the sand and we would play in the water. And it was about four o'clock in the afternoon and it was getting a

little bit gray. And we begged her to come in and we begged her and begged her and begged her. And finally she came in and just kind of played in the water with us and threw us around and we just played. And it was so much fun. And I just, that memory of just kind of playing in the water with my mom and my sister stays with me forever. It was just a lovely day. That's wonderful. Now, Andrea, what was your journey like to get where you are? Long journey. So I started working in restaurants when I was about 13 at a restaurant called D.B. Kaplan's. It was a deli and water tower place. So I worked in restaurants by the time I was, you know, in college. I was waitressing, doing some other jobs, got out of school, got a job in restaurant management, was with the Levy organization, which now does skybox catering at big stadiums all over the country. But at that

time ran about 30 restaurants in Chicago. And I had been married and was divorced. And at 28 years old was riding an escalator up to work in a restaurant every morning in tears. And I was burned out. And so I went into my boss one day and said, I was giving notice. He asked where I was going. And I said, I don't know. I just need to do something else. So I quit my job. I rode a motorcycle cross country. I sat by the pool for the summer and decided that if I was going to work as hard as I was in this industry, that I should start my own company. And so I started Amazing Edibles 25 years ago. And it's been an amazing trip. So many great chefs. I'm not a chef. I play one on TV, but I'm not a chef. So I've always had wonderful chefs that have worked with me.

Amazing team members. Our values are hardworking and thoughtful and problem solving and team. And so, you know, we've gone far together. We worked and worked and worked. About 12 years ago, I got to a point where I realized I needed to grow and I didn't know what else to do in my head. I had done everything that I think I knew. And so I was invited to an event by this organization called EO for their accelerator program and showed up at a fancy, fancy private club. And it was like all these young guys in suits. And I was like, what am I doing here? But what they talked about was exactly what I needed. I joined our accelerator program, which was for companies under a million dollars. And in about 18 months had accelerated my growth,

kind of doubled our company size and graduated into EO and took over the program and kind of my leadership journey in EO began. It was amazing. I've traveled the world with EO. I've been involved at the chapter level. My company kept growing. At that time that I joined EO, I also moved from a small thousand square foot storefront to a 5,000 square foot commercial kitchen that I had built out, which was super exciting. And this was in the fall of 2008. Wow. A really hard time to triple your overhead. Yes. And so that was really scary. For about six months, it was a little bit dicey. And then through an introduction, we had the opportunity to do a presentation at Harpo Studios for Oprah Winfrey. And she loved our food and service. And so we started catering for Oprah. And it was an incredibly pivotal time for me. Because I had kind

of in my head, I was this little caterer doing little parties. And all of a sudden, we were good enough for Oprah Winfrey. And it opened tremendous doors and gave me great confidence. And at the same time, I was kind of moving around in the EO world. And I saw all these people doing incredible things. And I went from kind of having the Sheryl Sandberg faux, what am I doing here? Someone's going to discover me and figure out what did they do letting me in to being asked to be president of the chapter. And it felt like it was an incredible experience. And so I kept working. I learned to work on my business instead of in my business. I started traveling and not working 18 hours a day and really got to kind of expand my world. My company is very local. It's a catering company. So we're kind of

hyper local. But through EO, I got to develop my leadership and develop relationships in all sorts of different industries. And so that journey kind of wove me here. And so as we hit this pandemic, I reached out to some of my brilliant EO and non-EO friends saying, okay, I need some help here. What am I supposed to do? And threw out some ideas and kind of fine-tuned it. And my friends, Laura and Alex from EO Tampa helped me come up with this idea. And then we refined it. And a month later, I'm opening a new company. That's exciting. It is. Really exciting. Now, Andrea, can you tell me what is that like,

the first year of you running your company? What are the headaches? What are the challenges? Old company, new company. The old company. Old company. Well, I had me and a chef. So the chef cooked, and I shopped, and I advertised I advertised and I delivered the food and I made the menus and I sent the bills and I did everything, which was

great because I got to learn everything. But I was working from six in the morning until 10 or 11 at night and just going as fast as I can, trying to keep up with things. So it was scary. I think in a lot of ways, I was not like a lot of entrepreneurs today. I didn't have a business plan. I didn't have VC money. So I really just kind of chose a direction and went a hundred miles an hour in it. It was hard, but it was also really exciting. Because I got to make mistakes, but I got to learn from them and move forward. So I had such incredible support from my community and my family, that I just kind of knew that it had to work. So I made it work. Yeah, yeah. No, I love how, like, we just gotta be a resource for what we have. Right. Right. Yeah. So what did you learn going from that a thousand square foot to like,

what are the, you know, things that if you, if you know what you know now, what could have you done differently? So I think I probably would have tried to put a little more of a business plan in place other than my expenses are going to triple. So I will triple my revenue. I didn't really have a plan on how to triple my revenue. I just thought that I should. So I think I probably would have been a little more strategic in having a plan to work. I think for a long time, I didn't establish goals. And I think that was something to protect myself because if I didn't have a goal, I couldn't fail because I wouldn't miss it if I didn't have it. And so one of the things I learned in EO was have a goal. Like I had a goal of a million dollars and then we got there. It like it almost was that simple.

Like there were course corrections and things I had to do. But I think having a lot of clarity around that, I think. I've heard a lot of people talk about being accidental entrepreneurs. I don't think I was an accidental entrepreneur. I had my first companies as small companies as a teenager and in my early 20s. But I do think I left a lot to chance. And so I think being a little bit more strategic, intentionally strategic with my resources, having firm plans that I'm following, and going forward, I think probably would have been smart. Having more people, kind of a board of advisors working with me. We have forum groups.

We have tight friends who also own companies who also have challenges and can share with us. I think for a long time, I was in my own little silo. And I made my I had my own successes, but I also made my own mistakes. And I don't think I needed to learn all of them myself. Absolutely. Yeah, I could totally relate to that. I kind of the same like you didn't have any business plan. I just work on what I have. And I could have saved a lot of headache, having a plan and knowing that you need to have a working capital to scale. And I didn't. I've never had that. And I was using my own money. And, you know, it is, it is a big lesson, but like, dang,

but you know what, we made it right. We made it work. Yes. It's it's, we just laugh about it. Looking back. Yes. Hey, we have to do what we have to do at that moment. Exactly. Yeah. So Andrea, what do you think you were doing differently for you to reach the level of success you have in terms of your catering business. I know your culture is in place. I love that. So tell me. That was really important. And again, as you just said, and I've watched a number of your episodes, there's a lot of EO in my life. And so years ago, I started hearing more about vision and values and culture and purpose. And I think a lot of it I had going on, but it was not as structured, not as clear to everyone else.

I knew what was important to me, but I don't know that everybody heard it from my mouth in a way that was clear and replicable for them. So I think in the last few years, getting better about having structure and processes. As entrepreneurs, many of us don't want to do it the way corporate did it, right? I worked for a big corporation. I'm not doing that. I'm going to break the mold and do it my own way. Well, there's a reason that they're big and successful, right? They have plans, they have structure, people follow things. And so about four years ago, I started working with Kevin Hundle, who is an EO member here in Chicago, implemented EOS, which is the Entrepreneurial Operating System. I've worked. I've done a lot of leadership training in EO. I'm a member of the Global Leadership Committee and was a subcommittee chair. And so learning more about making sure I'm doing things in alignment with my value and vision and purpose

is really important. A month or six weeks ago, when I kind of finally realized that catering was going to be a very, very different proposition for the next year, that I couldn't just wait it out. The first couple of weeks of this pandemic, I kind of thought, you know, okay, hold your breath and it's going to be okay in a few weeks. At about the three week mark, I realized it wasn't going to be. Events, food service was going to be really hard. And I'm like, okay, I won't swear since we're on TV, but I need to, I need to figure something else out. And people were like, okay, make sure you do something that's in alignment with your purpose and your values.

And I'm like, I don't give a flip. I just need something that'll make money. And people would be like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, and let me rant a little bit. And I then talked to enough brilliant friends who reminded me that I needed to do something that was in alignment with my values and my purpose in life. And I think my purpose in life is to foster connection to create community. And so this works. As I looked at different ideas of

what to do, well, okay, I can do this. I can do video gambling. Oh wait, no, I'm in the Chicago city limits. I can't do video gambling. I can do, you know, and it's like, I can't do those things. Like I need to do something that's going to be important to me. Um, and so I think learning how to align with what's most important to you with people that are in alignment, you know, having your world all fit. A lot of that I've learned from Warren Rustan. I know some of the things we talk about are leadership and mentors and just kind of getting really clear on those sorts of things.

Wow. Now, Andrea, what is, what was one of your deepest motivation in life? So last summer, we were in Boca Tech, Colombia for the Women of EO Summit. And I was one of our TED style talk speakers and did my first TED talk and really thought a lot about our theme was transformation and what I wanted to talk about. And when I was three years old, my mother had a terrible accident and was almost burned to death. And so she dropped me off at school that morning and then I didn't see her for almost a year until she healed and got out of the hospital. And I've done a lot of work on this over the last 40 years. I had a lot of feelings of abandonment. And it certainly wasn't intentional on her part. But she was gone, she was in a hospital. And the theme of my talk was that our biggest pain creates our greatest gift. And we have to be able to embrace both. And so I think

that that little girl who was afraid of being left and who was abandoned in a way, really grew to embrace connection to communities, to people. And so I think that connection is my greatest gift. And it's how I move around in the world. It's important in my company. I serve on charitable boards. I'm close to my son and his friends and his friends' friends. I have friends all over the world through EO. And lots of us have different gifts. But for me, I think the motivation is kind of to always connect. And so the tagline of my new company is let's connect. And it feels right, like it just so yeah, so connection. Sorry, that. You know, there's the positive and negative of

feeling that abandonment because it forced you to be independent, but like that I can totally relate to that. So thank you for sharing. Yeah. Now, what is your greatest fear and how do you manage fear, Andrea? So greatest fear right now in this pandemic is losing everything. My business is down about 95%. And the reality is we are doing a little bit of catering, as I mentioned, but not enough. And I am not one of those entrepreneurs that has a year's worth of reserves sitting anywhere. And so I could lose everything. I could lose everything. And that's really scary. My son is grown. But I, you know, my house and my commercial kitchen and what I've done for the last 25 years is all tied together. And so this is really scary. And so

in doing this business pivot, it's really exciting and it feels in alignment. But if I'm wrong, I don't have a whole lot of shots to take. So I'm really hoping I'm right. But fear is losing everything. I know I will be okay. I don't mean to not sound grateful. I have a house. I have food. I have people around me. I have tons and tons of support. But a lot of my identity has been built up in this company I've built. And my resources are tied up in this company. So if all of a sudden this company ceases to exist, my life looks really different. And I try every day to remind myself that things work out the way they're supposed to, that there is a gift in every challenge, opportunity in every crisis. And I really do believe it. Sometimes it feels hard,

because it's not always clear right now what that silver lining is, or that gift is. So I'm, I'm working really hard to save my company to move us forward. But I also realized that that the future is going to unfold and that I need to be ready to step into it and accept whatever happens. Yeah. Yeah. I love your strength though. It's very difficult in this time. It is for a lot of people, for a lot of people. I mean, for some people it's health issues that are really affecting them now for others it's business. I mean, some are just afraid of what's going on. So the uncertainty is really hard. Yeah, it's very difficult.

Well, you know, I feel you and I'm in that same boat and it's hard. Like you're thinking what's going to happen. You're going to lose the company. You work so hard. You know, really, like you said, it's connected to your identity. Yeah. Yeah. But you know what?

We'll always figure it out. Yes. And that's just it. We will. Like, I know we will not easily, but we will. So I have lots of, I, I do, I write gratitudes every morning because I know that I'm in a better place if I start from a place of gratitude. Yeah. Now, Andrea, can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Yep. And I am not the only one on your show who's named him, but I'm going to anyway. Warren Rustan. I met him about eight years ago.

He's the dean of EO's Leadership Academy and just one of the kindest, most generous, most thoughtful humans on earth. When I first met him, he was a very traditional conservative man standing up on stage talking about leadership ideals. But there was something that was also very warm and emotional connection about him. And a few years later, I was president of the chapter and went to our Global Leadership Academy and it transformed my life and made me want to be a different person and made me want to be a different person and made me want to be my best self. And in that ensuing time, I chaired a regional leadership

event for EO, which he spoke at and was incredible. And I'm part of a small group of 15 amazing women from around the world that get together with him one week every year and work on living our values and being great servant, well, being servant leaders. Great servant leader sounds obnoxious, doesn't it? But being servant leaders and really serving our communities and our families and our companies and the world at the best of our level, like to give what we can. So he has changed my life. Yeah. He's such an amazing person. And the fact that he's so real and so all together, it's really hard to describe, but it's like, it's like one of a few human being that exists like him. He relates to everybody. And in this pandemic, he is talking to hundreds of people a week of entrepreneurs all over the world who are

seeking his guidance, who are seeking his wisdom. And he is generously doing webinars and, and presentations and conversations. And I just, he really is the epitome of servant leader. He puts his family first, but gives all that he can um yeah he's he's amazing yeah you know a lot of times when i'm so down i would listen to his talk he has his page is warren warren rockman and it just for some reason it just all of a sudden the mental shift of like it's gonna be okay we're gonna figure it out and I just need to listen to his voice and his wisdom and it helps you how much totally yeah now Andrea um what do you see as your place or purpose in life I'm sorry what do you see or place as your place or purpose in life? What is your purpose in life? Sure. I would say it's to foster connection, to create community. Schools have always,

learning environments have always been really important to me. And so for years, it was my high school and then my college. I served on my college board for years. I now sit on a theater board. I've sat on a board for children who were AIDS affected and afflicted. Communities where I can feel I can make an impact, that I can make a difference, that I can support people. My son went to a very small school and I brought lunch twice a week to the whole school. So the whole school knew who I am he was like mom you're always like the food mom I'm like look I have a catering company you're right I am but I got to know them and see them and watch them grow up um EO has been that kind of community in a place where I can do my best to make a difference that

I can try to make this experience better for others. I'm very involved in the Women of EO group, which is a global group. And we've had five summits and our fifth summit was to be in Bali this summer and has been postponed till next year. But I get so much energy out of that group that the time and energy I put in mentoring younger women and members into leadership. I've been involved in leadership in EO for the last four or five years. And we quadrupled the number of women in regional and global leadership. And I'm so proud of that, because I think it's important that women's voices be heard and seen. I chair a women's theater group and our theater company. And our goal is to advance lives of women through art. And so anything I can do to help people have a voice, to give people a

platform to be themselves, to grow, to thrive, rocks my world. That's amazing. I, I, the first time I met you, I think I was texting you about that. I think it was like a cooking class in Greece and I missed because I stayed, I mean, there's something about my flight, but I know, thank you for being an active, you know, leader in a women of VO. It's been helping me tremendously. So I appreciate your work and dedication to that. Now, Andrea, what advice would you give to an aspiring entrepreneur? Sure. I have sat on a couple boards of organizations and worked with our accelerator programs. And so they're usually already an entrepreneur. But when I speak with high school kids and college kids, I generally suggest to them, and they hate this, but go work for somebody else. Go learn on someone else's dime. You want to own a catering company,

go work for a catering company. Figure out what works and what doesn't work. Figure out what part of it you love or you can fix or the problem you see in the world that you can address. I think very often entrepreneurship is very sexy these days. I mean, entrepreneur was not a word 10 years ago. Nobody even knew what it was. I think very often, especially young people who want to be entrepreneurs, kind of leap. And I think that there's some of that, like I left without resources, without a business plan. So I don't tell people not to, but I think there's easier ways. I also had 10 years of working in catering in a corporate environment as experience when I

went off on my own. So I think there's amazing resources. 10 years ago, 15 years ago, there weren't that many accelerator programs. Now there are. You can learn in school about entrepreneurship. Take the stupid accounting class. Get that number stuff down. That's usually where most entrepreneurs fail. But I would tell people, find people to learn from and listen and sit with them, follow them, learn, and then take your brilliant idea and go let your light shine in the world. But I think sometimes people rush into, I make the very best lemon pie, so I'm going to have a lemon pie company. Yeah, I have no idea about hiring employees or having the right certifications or how to sell them. They just know they make really great lemon pie. So I'd say go learn, go learn on someone else's dime and then

dive in. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for that. That's a great advice. They think it's just so easy, right? Yeah. And I mean, you know, people, if someone had told me, I don't know that I wouldn't have listened. So I think those of us who don't listen, we leave, that's okay, too. But yeah, get some experience first. Thank you for that. Now, Andrea north star so i want to create joy in the world i want my son to think about the amazing experiences we had in italy and in our backyard i want my friends to think about the times that we drank champagne and we walked on the beach and we shared like that precious,

sorry, my hands, I talk with my hands and I can't see them. And then we shared those precious experiences together. I would love to be known for bringing joy to people, joy to the world. That's beautiful. Now, Andrea, where can they find, what's your website for the box experience? It's boxperience.net. It's actually in its final stages, so it will be up Monday, but yes, boxperience.net. And super, super exciting. And you're welcome to reach out. I don't

know if through the podcast, Andrea at boxperience.net or text, send a note on the blog and I'm happy to share, but it's super exciting. We're launching Monday and I can't wait. I'm wishing you the best luck and I would love to support your box experience. Anything I can't wait. I'm wishing you the best luck and I would love to support your box experience. Anything I can help for you. You've been helping us tremendously tremendously and me myself too, for creating this beautiful experience through the women of EO events. So I would like to really help. I will send you one that you can open during one of your podcasts.

Yes, I can do live unboxing. We can talk about it. Exactly. I'll come back for a five-minute visit. That sounds perfect. Yes, yes. Andrea, thank you so much. And I appreciate your time.

Like I said, I want to support you. Guys, if you could go to boxexperience.net, we can help Andrea. You know, she deserves all the help in the world. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate the way that you are profiling so many amazing, inspiring women. So many of the women that you've been profiling have inspired me and touched my life that I appreciate the way that you are sharing their stories. So thank you. You are also an inspiring woman, Kate. So thanks for having me. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Bye. woman Kate so thanks for having me thank you so much have a good day bye

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