Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Sawyer Hemsley - COO of Crumbl Cookie

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

Welcome back to The Radcast! This week Ryan interviews founder and COO of Crumbl Cookies, Sawyer Hemsley! Sawyer talks us through Crumbl's history, his goals for the company, and his current favorite ...cookie flavor.  Be sure to follow Crumbl on all social media platforms  @Crumbl Cookies  and follow Sawyer  @Sawyer Hemsley  To find a Cumbl near you visit www.crumblcookies.com or download the Crumbl App! If you enjoyed this episode of The Radcast, let us know by visiting our website www.theradcast.com. Check out www.theradicalformula.com. Like, Share and Subscribe to our YouTube channel, or leave us a review on Apple Podcast. Be sure to keep up with all that’s radical from @ryanalford @radical_results @the.rad.cast. If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn more, join Ryan’s newsletter https://ryanalford.com/newsletter/ to get Ferrari level advice daily for FREE.  Learn how to build a 7 figure business from your personal brand by signing up for a FREE introduction to personal branding https://ryanalford.com/personalbranding.  Learn more by visiting our website at www.ryanisright.comSubscribe to our YouTube channel  www.youtube.com/@RightAboutNowwithRyanAlford. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is the story of the one. As a maintenance supervisor at a manufacturing facility, he knows keeping the line up and running is a top priority. That's why he chooses Granger. Because when a drive belt gets damaged, Granger makes it easy to find the exact specs for the replacement product he needs. And next day delivery helps ensure he'll have everything in place and running like clockwork. Call 1-800 Granger, clickgranger.com or just stop by.
Starting point is 00:00:25 Granger, for the ones who get it done. No, no setup, no anything. Why do those cookies taste so damn good? Yeah. So honestly, Crumble started out as a side hustle. Never anticipated ever being a career. It's Instagramable. Like, people want to take pictures of it.
Starting point is 00:00:43 And sometimes people just show up so they can see that they went to crumble and they posted that way. And again, we didn't know what we were doing in those early days. So we just networked and connected with other food professionals. We watched YouTube, read books. Like, this is 101 marketing, brother. Like this is like the the 22 guidebook for how to crush a brand by Sagar Hemsley. You're listening to the Radcast.
Starting point is 00:01:09 If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. I'm Ryan Alford, your host. We're talking cookies today, my friend. One of my favorite subject. ever. As someone that doesn't even eat sweets really that often, if there's a damn cookie on the table,
Starting point is 00:01:33 and especially this kind of cookie, I'm getting in. It's Sawyer Hemsley, co-founder of Crumble Cookies. What's up, brother? What's up, man? Happy to be here. Thanks for the invite. Hey, man. My team reached out, said, hey, you want to talk to the founder of Crumbull cookies? I was like, is the sky blue? Hell yeah. Those pink boxes get in our, come in our office anymore. I'm going to wait 300, pounds. That's right. Delicious. No, it's all good. I'm glad you could join this man. I want to get into your story and talk all things cookies. Damn, I mean, I'm just going to, you know, I'm going to break, you know, all the ice right here. No, no setup, no anything. Why do those cookies
Starting point is 00:02:16 taste so damn good? A bunch of love we put in there and lots of sugar. No, I'm just kidding. Honestly, we go through a rigorous process to make these cookies awesome. And we, we, we go through a rigorous process to make these cookies awesome and we get a lot of customer feedback and we don't put them on the menu until they're perfect. There you go. Practice makes perfect. Fresh makes perfect. We're going to get to all that.
Starting point is 00:02:38 Sawyer, let's, and, you know, if you're watching the video at home, it's an afternoon record for us. It's supposed to be on vacation. I'm told sorry of this. So your host is having a beer. It's called the Radcast, you know, so I get used to it. So Sawyer, talk to me. Okay. I know you weren't.
Starting point is 00:02:54 We talked pre-up. episode. I read a lot about your story. Not originally a chef, a cookie master or whatever, but let's talk about a little bit of that professional journey and what led you to Crumble. Yeah. So honestly, Crumble started out as a side hustle. Never anticipated ever being a career. I was in my last year at college up at Utah State University in Logan, Utah, very rural community compared to the rest of the nation. And just needed something to do. do on the side. I was studying 15 credits, busy college student. And I was researching things that I could do. And I saw that there were bakeries and cookie concepts out there. But it was at the height of
Starting point is 00:03:38 when DoorDash and Grubhub and the delivery services were coming out. And so I connected with my cousin, Jason, and I said, we should totally deliver warm cookies to people's doorsteps. And that was the main focus. Like aside from culinary and knowing all about food science and all that, we just said, let's just make grandma's mom's recipe and deliver it by using technology so people could stay at home in their pajamas or for girls night or date night, whatever. The convenience was there, less mess. And you get warm cookies just as you would making them yourself. So that was really the focus in the early beginning. And then everything just unfolded from there. So was it truly a family, the first recipe?
Starting point is 00:04:25 Was it chocolate chip cookies? It has to be, right? Like, that's where it all starts, right? Absolutely. Family recipe, we actually mixed and blended, you know, my grandmas, some of Jason's, my cousin's family side, and we just test it. We just tried different brands of chocolate chips, of sugar, of flour, techniques. And again, we didn't know what we were doing in those early days.
Starting point is 00:04:47 So we just networked and connected with other food professionals. watched YouTube, read books, read cookbooks, you name it. We just were hungry to be that entrepreneur and to make something successful.
Starting point is 00:04:59 And then we just went for it. Well, I'd say things are working out. We're approaching 300 stores in less than four years or at four years. Actually, we could have to 500 plus now.
Starting point is 00:05:11 Oh, my God. You've, it's like 500 plus. I can't even keep up with the numbers. You guys just opened five stores where we've been sitting here, didn't you? We actually opened around
Starting point is 00:05:21 five to 12 a week right now. See, that's what I'm saying. Geez. Just all they all franchises? They are. So that is our model. Again, never anticipated to make this a franchise model. But a lot of friends and family wanted to be involved because they saw the early success
Starting point is 00:05:37 and they saw how much energy was behind, you know, the cookies. And so my parents actually approached us and said, can we open a store? Can we be involved? And we said, sure, why don't you open your own store? And so we went through the legal paperwork, set it up as a franchise. And then it started out as my parents, you know, my college roommate, my sister. And then word of mouth just started to spread across Utah and the surrounding stage. And now the nation.
Starting point is 00:06:02 And we've never actively sold a franchise. Everyone's always come to us to say, we want to be involved in going to open a store and own a business. And that's kind of how it unfolded there. Yeah. Well, I want to back up a little bit. So we jumped, you know, I'm jumping all around because I'm, you know, thinking about cookies. and it makes me happy. But Crumble cookies, that is.
Starting point is 00:06:23 Talking with co-founder of Crumble cookies, Sawyer-Himsley. So Sawyer, talk to me about the brand. So we're a marketing agency first. Now we have a beast of a podcast. But we are marketers. And from the get-go, the marketing impressed me with you guys.
Starting point is 00:06:40 I actually admired you from afar with the marketing. Before I even tried your cookies, I was like, okay, this is a company who knows what they're doing. And then I had the, cookies. I was like, holy shit, and this is all coming together while they're both working so well. So talk to me about the brand. Yeah. So my background is in branding, advertising. My cousin's background is in technology and, you know, paid ads, things like that. So together, I think, first of all, we have an amazing partnership where our skills helped each other. How the marketing
Starting point is 00:07:14 started is it all came down to the packaging and the experience of what our product was, you know, placed in. And that was our pink boxes, which you referred to just in the short time that we've been talking. And that's memorable. It's something that's energized. You can connect with that. It's a soft color and it attracts our target audience, which is our soccer moms, right? And so naturally, they were pulled to our packaging. And from there, we just knew we had to capitalize on Instagram because TikTok wasn't a thing back then. And so we were really engaged on Instagram. We would run paid ads on Facebook and we would try our best to respond and answer every single message or comment on these two platforms. And it just really helped our advantage to the
Starting point is 00:08:00 point where people were just tagging their friends and doing the marketing for us organically. And so that's really how the marketing started. And then now with time as we've built out our team, we put a lot of paid ads into TikTok and Instagram and Facebook and Pinterest and Twitter But again, organic for us has been huge. It's been crazy because people love the product. And when you love a product so much, you want to organically promote that to your inner circle. So lots of micro-influencing going on. Yeah, for sure.
Starting point is 00:08:32 And it helps. I mean, you know, it's still, there's some brilliance in the marketing and the branding. I see it. I saw it from a get-go. But then it's helped when the core of what you're selling, the cookies are so darn good. and the evolving menu of flavors and all that. So talk to me about that process. We go from family, delicious, chocolate chip cookie recipe, blended together, testing, first number one hit.
Starting point is 00:09:05 Then now we've got albums full of them. So like, what was that process and journey of flavor discovery? Well, that's a good question. One thing I wanted to mention to you about the pink box before we move on is it's Instagramable. Like people want to take pictures of it. And sometimes people just show up so they can say that they went to crumble and they post about it, you know, which is awesome. Like that's unheard of sometimes. You don't go to McDonald's or, you know, Chick-fil-A and post about it and say, I went to Chick-fil-A today.
Starting point is 00:09:33 Maybe you do. Not as often. Not as often. Right. So anyway, we opened that first franchise and we finally started to listen to some of our customers. And they said, we want more flavors. We want more cookies or more options. And so we had a couple of cookies that just included, you know, some mix-ins, nothing special.
Starting point is 00:09:55 And we tried to do like eight or nine at a time. And we just got burnt out. We couldn't do it. We couldn't keep up. We were constantly battling for inventory levels. People would come and get upset. So we put our heads together and we said, we have to adapt, but we're going to die, right? We have to innovate because our volume was just too high.
Starting point is 00:10:12 And so we said, let's just choose four unique flavors every week and let's rotate those out. So one, it keeps the energy there, but also the scarcity of those flavors that people want again and again. And so that's how we started. And then we always had our chocolate chip and chilled sugar making a total of six cookies. And that model has just been awesome for us because it's like Christmas every Sunday night when we post about our new flavors because we're getting a return. rate of once to two times weekly from our customers. So it's been great. All right.
Starting point is 00:10:49 For everyone listening at home, we're going to do a little marketing 101 that, Sawyer has hit on like so many variables here. We're not going to let them go. Number one, choosing the brand, creating something memorable with the pink box, Instagramable and social sharing from the get-go, creating a model of scarcity with flavors that don't repeat as often,
Starting point is 00:11:11 so they drive demand through scarcity. Like this is 101 marketing, brother. Like, this is like the, the 22 guidebook for how to crush a brand by Sagar Hemsley. I love that. No, it's true, man. You're hitting on everything. It's like, you know, we try to counsel clients on all this stuff all the time. And you guys are just like knocking it out of the park.
Starting point is 00:11:33 But 500 stores later, you know, we see the results. But where do you get your ideas for, we're going to keep hitting on that? because I know we're going to build even more. But talk to me about the flavor, like, ideas. Because, I mean, some of them seem like, okay, low-hanging fruit, but then some of them are like, dang, that's, you know, out there. But delicious. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:11:55 I love this question. You know, we have a large audience. It used to just be soccer moms. Now it ranges from children to senior citizens and anything in between. And the thing that we found more successful is what flavors are relatable to our consumers. So you think back to your childhood, you know, did you grow up eating cinnamon rolls or cosmic brownies or, you know, did you love the icy flavors from the gas station? What can you pull a story from and put into a cookie? We look at cakes, cupcakes, hard candies, candy bars,
Starting point is 00:12:30 you know, drinks, you name it. We're going to try to make it into a cookie and a damn good cookie at that, you know, so people will buy it. And so anything can be meaning into a cookie and we pull our inspiration from everywhere. I know that's pretty vague, but really, we're always looking for new ideas, and we actually accept customer feedback constantly on what they want to see. They're the ones that keep us in business, and our communication with our customers since the very beginning, like I mentioned before, is still just as good. We respond and comment and communicate with them on a regular basis day to day.
Starting point is 00:13:03 How many cookie flavors do we go through that never see the light of day? Is it more or less than you would think? You know, it's actually less because we've now developed a testing program where they have to meet a set of guidelines and then they go out to about 25 to 30 testing sites across the nation. And then we utilize data. And so customers can come into these testing sites, purchase the cookies, get a card from our bakers, fill out a survey and let us know, like, would they promote that cookie? Do they like the taste, the texture, the appearance? And if that cookie tanks, it's never going on the menu. It's going straight to the graveyard.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Or it's getting redeveloped and we're trying again. Yeah. Right. There's a few that have actually passed that have just not done very well in the market and on the menu. One of those being bubble gum. We thought that would be a stellar hit with children and, you know, people that like bubblegum ice cream and things like that. But it just did not do well. And so it's in the graveyard and it's not coming back out.
Starting point is 00:14:06 Yeah, I might have helped you all. that one. Double gumming cookies. Come on now. Yeah. But you know what's weird is those cookies actually drive the most engagement on social media. Yeah. So sometimes I see that as an eye-catching tool for people to be like, wait, what are they doing or what did they make into a cookie? And so it just keeps us top of mind sometimes as well. I love it. Talk to me about the, you know, as you've grown, the retail approach. I'd love to hear like the typical mix of like, you know, deliveries or order sales versus like in store.
Starting point is 00:14:46 I'm just fascinated by all those kind of details. I think most people are too because it's such a unique experience going to the store. You've got 30 people are working. I'm like, how are, how are these? I mean, I do the math and I'm like, they're selling some damn cookies in here. I've got 30 people working. Yeah. Honestly, the concept looks easy from the outside.
Starting point is 00:15:05 but when you're in the nitty gritty, that's a lot of work to make a product fresh. You know, I'm sure you've been in the kitchen and you've burnt brownies or left something in the oven too long or mismeasured. And we're dealing with young adults trying to, you know, execute. And that's hard. We have to train on a new menu every week. But talking about kind of the services that we provide, early on it was just delivery. Like I mentioned, DoorDash, Grubhub, was at the height when we started. And then we actually saw a trend where people want to.
Starting point is 00:15:35 the experience of coming in the store, smelling the aroma of the cookies, watching us crack the eggs and pour the flour and, you know, ball the dough and dress the toppings on the cookies. And that started to become even bigger than delivery, which was a huge shock to us. And so we capitalized on that. And we said, how can we even make this more of a show, you know, a stage where people can bring their kids or people that are visiting from out of town and making an event and experience? And so we, made our stores almost the Apple store of cookies and we integrated technology so that their experience was flawless and smooth. And so we have in store, we had delivery. Then we also integrated pickup
Starting point is 00:16:20 and curbside with COVID. And we build all of our technology in-house. So we don't use any third-party software as we have a full team of engineers. And something that really shocks a lot of people is we're not just a bakery or a tech-driven bakery. So we only only... the technology and we can adapt on a dime because we can build tools and resources to make these services easier, not only for our internal staff, but for our customers. So lots going on. We have catering as well involved there. And then some of our stores even have drive-thrus. So the biggest, you know, hardship for us is just keeping cookies in stock, really, because we have cookies flying out the windows, the doors, you know, from the counter. It's crazy sometimes. Oh, yeah. I can
Starting point is 00:17:04 vouch for that. I'm in there watching that thing go down. I'm like going, I better get one of those special edition cookies over there. Is that the last one? No, no. I love it. So talk to you about this. I hear people, you know, talk to, you know, famous founders and people that have been really successful a lot. And I always like to ask the chicken of the egg question. So you've been highly successful. Obviously, you've got your super smart guy. Got a lot of things right, right place, the right time, delicious product, great branding. You talk about the engineering and doing everything yourselves, and I always am fascinated by,
Starting point is 00:17:43 did your success allow you to then do everything custom because your concept took off so much? You had success, dollars coming in the door, so suddenly you can, you know, and you've got a tech guy with your partner or Jason, is, you know, chicken to the egg. Would you all have always been custom anyway, or did the money and the success facilitate that approach?
Starting point is 00:18:08 Yeah, that's a good question. So I would say from the get-go without a question, it was custom from the beginning because Jason, my cousin, was a product developer. He worked in tech. He worked for Nintendo, Facebook. We actually brought our first engineer on from Facebook, recently worked at Snapchat prior to that time.
Starting point is 00:18:25 And we just knew we were going to integrate technology because not a whole lot of food and beverage concepts were utilizing technology. And so we wanted to use it as a powerhouse to make our concept unique and different. We always live by the motto, what's going to be different, better, and special? And we felt technology was going to be another powerhouse
Starting point is 00:18:43 aside from our rotating menu, our unique novelty flavors, and just the overall concept in general. So from the get-co, customized, and then we started recruiting people from all of these other tech giants to build out a team. So we talk,
Starting point is 00:19:00 could we see all the success. I like to always bring it back to earth and like, you know, what, what's been the biggest pain points or learning, you know, as you've gone on this journey, you know, you're a young guy, but you've been successful. You had a great idea, great execution. But talk about, you know, that entrepreneurial journey, you know, maybe the, not the dark side, but the learning side, you know, like, everybody got to understand it isn't all perfect all the time, right?
Starting point is 00:19:27 Oh, it's not. Like building the brand is not. kicks and giggles. It's hard. It's lonely. There's a lot of days that you're just working your guts out and you're making it work and you have a lot of people counting on you and you just have to make it work, right? Something that's been really tricky is I've been young and so it's hard to earn respect in an industry where people are older than I am. And so it's important for me to be knowledgeable and be educated on the product. I'm not afraid to get in there and work the kitchen and know every aspect of the concept
Starting point is 00:20:01 because I need to be able to speak towards that. And so just being young in the industry and being a leader there, that's a hardship. Second thing is having so many locations and youthful staff and employees, consistency is key. You can't build a brand if one store is different than the other, you know, from California to North Carolina,
Starting point is 00:20:24 it's got to be the same. And so you've got to be the mean guy sometimes. You've got to put your foot down and say, we've got to have you improve or you got to issue more policy or training or say no. I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. I wish I could pinpoint something directly, but it's not. We can't be burning to cookies in Charlotte if they taste so good in Greenville, right? Absolutely. So, you know, with time, though, we've been able to build out a corporate team and divvy out these responsibilities into marketing and quality and testing and research and devs.
Starting point is 00:20:58 and with good leaders comes, you know, great process. And so just relying on a team and trusting them, it's been a really good opportunity to grow this business. And we're not stopping here, you know. We're going to open our first store in Canada. And then we hope to go over into the UK in the following year. International expansion. Heard at first here on the Radcast for Crumble Cookies.
Starting point is 00:21:22 Before I want to talk a little bit about social content approach, TikTok and all that, before we go there, it's you know when I hear you talk and I think this is a good learning lesson we have a lot of business people entrepreneurs that listen to the show um you know learning lessons and all that what I'm hearing from you is a lot of this is not by accident like yes you had a great concept and yes you took off but I'm hearing a lot of structure a lot of process a lot of systems a lot of embracing technology I think that sounds to me like becoming some of the secret to the success yeah and not being being afraid to just try things, like not being afraid to fail and fail fast and fail heart.
Starting point is 00:22:02 Because if you fail fast, you quickly adapt or you build new technology or you hire that other person that you need and you're just moving on. You know, I think a lot of people have a mindset that puts them back and they shy away from trying things. And that's how you win is if you are able to adapt and be innovative and flow with the ever-changing market in the audience. Yeah. Change is your friend, my friend.
Starting point is 00:22:27 as I like to say, hey, talk to me about social. TikTok's blowing up. Yeah, some X million followers there and on Instagram. You know, we talked about some of the beauties of the concept of the scarcity, new flavors. So you've got new things that could be the content. But what's been the, you know, kind of the growth, the strategy and the content and those kind of things on, you know, both Instagram and TikTok? Yeah. So it started out with Instagram.
Starting point is 00:22:57 I go back to that organic, you know, micro-influencing because people would tag people when the rotating menu would be launched every Sunday. And they would say, hey, so-and-so, we need to go get these cookies or let's drive to this nearest location. That's an hour or two away. And then it started to build hype slowly in these circles. And then as we started to open up more franchises, people would tag people in the communities in which these stores would open. And then this huge giant web and maze of inter-tagging on Instagram really helped hype up the brand on Instagram. And it was amazing. And our weekly drop was our most highly engaged piece of content that we could ever had put out there.
Starting point is 00:23:43 TikTok is a whole other story. I mean, we jumped on right at the right time when it was hot. I remember it being last year, you know, during March. and we call it the TikTok boom of 2021. We weren't afraid to go after it. We weren't afraid to spend money on, you know, high level video and photography. And we started posting. We started using ads.
Starting point is 00:24:06 We started connecting with our TikTok reps, asking what's the best, you know, strategy here? And we started posting on a regular basis, not just once a week or twice a week. We posted every day. And it just expanded like crazy in our, our stores just flooded our volume just went up even more. So, you know, our socials, I feel like we've been semi-lucky because people just love the product again. And they come back to it and they just want to know what we're doing.
Starting point is 00:24:35 They're interested, intrigued. Yep. And I mean, there are a few things there to unpack. It's like, this is what I tell people all the time. It's like social media is about compounding interest. And when you have a product, they get shared, you compound the interest because of all of the shared. value of those inputs and things that happen and it snowballs. And then your weekly menu, the new items, you have some things that allow you.
Starting point is 00:25:00 And then you guys haven't been afraid to what I call like, you know, borrowed interest from things like stranger things, like one of your posts, like playing with stuff that has interest, their circles this big and your circle's this big. And you pull from their share to yours because you borrow that interest for them. And I see you guys testing and doing a lot of stuff for your social media, which is super smart. Yeah. partnerships yep i would also add that in partnerships we've been very lucky to partner with big brands like oreo twicks um sour patch we're doing a minions week um for the children coming up and just
Starting point is 00:25:35 launch their new video their movie so partnerships have been huge for us and and they've actually started to come to us now and we're not going to them anymore yeah so it's been good how many uh how many u.s stores are we uh we're i don't know that you know the there's what how many subways in the That's like 10,000. Like, how many crowbo cookies can we have? Yeah, we're thinking we're probably going to be around three to 30, three to 3500 stores. Okay.
Starting point is 00:26:02 I mean, let alone in California, you're going to have like 350. We want to learn from subway and not have a crumble on every corner. And we have the data to back up where we're selecting each location and we're being really smart and strategic about where we're placing these crumbles. But, yeah, we're focused on A plus. locations and we're now starting to see competition creep in. They're seeing our success and they're wanting to jump on the ship. Yeah. So it's been fun. And we welcome it. I think competition is healthy. Yeah. How's a what's the e-com strategy? I know you can order online and do certain things like that.
Starting point is 00:26:37 What's what's been the thought process there? And I guess as you have more stores, you can, the local stores can supply. I mean, talk to me about that approach. So are you asking just like ordering online and things like that? Like is it all tied? I mean, purely to, this is where my knowledge, my knowledge is purely where I can get a crumble cookie in Greenville, South Carolina, because I'm selfish on my cookies. But if I'm ordering with you guys, like, can you order anywhere in the country and you'll ship anywhere? Or is it purely local?
Starting point is 00:27:09 Yeah. So we have a mile radius around each store. Okay. And so if you are located within like a two to five mile radius, your order is going from that store. Does that make sense? Yep. And then if you want to order shipping cookies, you can. They just come a couple days later.
Starting point is 00:27:25 But those are more for gifts or, you know, surgeries or birthdays or something like that. So those come from the home ship there in Utah or? Yep, they come. We have a big warehouse here in Utah and then we, we ship it two day to any location. But now with DoorDash, we've actually expanded that two mile radius around the store to 10 miles. So if we are utilizing DoorDash, it can go 10 miles from that store. Okay. That's pretty big.
Starting point is 00:27:49 It does. How big is the e-com portion of your business? It's huge. I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but I would say it's now our biggest right now. And it's been crazy how many people want to ship the cookies. So you sell more cookies on your website than your retail stores? No, I don't want to say that much.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Yeah, okay. But our retail stores are the gold. That's where people come in and buy the cookies. Our app, it's so easy to use. A lot of people are using our app now more than any time in the business history. Because actually our app's been placed in top seven, you know, up by McDonald's, Starbucks, Chick-fil-A, even DoorDash. Just because it's so easy and we're trying to make it even easier. But our shipping, aside from our store and our app, it's probably about the same volume as like six stores combined.
Starting point is 00:28:46 So to us, it's hot. Yeah. But I would say we're up there with the big cookie shippers in the nation. So I am listening to this going, not only am I getting hungry for a cookie, but I'm going, this sounds like a really good investment opportunity. What can you share at least via the podcast? I may there might be more details once you get into some relationship things and all that. But what can we share for someone that's listening to this like to get them excited about a,
Starting point is 00:29:18 a crumble franchise. I mean, like any numbers or anything that you could share as far as the potential? This is a great question. A lot of people have been
Starting point is 00:29:27 interested in opening a franchise. And many of our franchise owners currently want to open more. So if that's anything in itself, is having a good experience. They're liking what they're seeing financially and just the overall experience.
Starting point is 00:29:43 But to open a store, it depends on your area, you know, building out something in California, versus in Idaho or Utah is way different. It depends on, you know, minimum wage, taxes, what things are going for. So right now on average, it's anywhere between 350 to 500K to build out a store and to, you know, come on board. Yep.
Starting point is 00:30:03 And then you just have to be able to have that financing available. And then you fill out an application on our website if you're interested. Many of our states are already sold out, honestly. Yeah. But you can easily view that online. It's South Carolina sold out. That's all we want to know here in South Carolina. That's a great question. I wish I did. There could be a couple more spots.
Starting point is 00:30:23 I don't know. We'll share some deeds after this. Now, can you share any like revenue, average revenue for a store or anything like that? No, I wish I could. Legally, I can't. Yeah. It's financially profitable. Can you say that? People want more stores. Yeah. We'll leave it at that, folks. Hint, hint, get on board. Fast, fast, fast. How involved are you? I mean, what's a day in the life of Sawyer these days?
Starting point is 00:30:54 Yeah. So I'm pretty involved right now. We're working on hiring, higher up executives. We're bootstrapped, so we don't, you know, we don't have to listen to a board of trustees or anything like that. We're all self-funded. We're not in debt, which is awesome. But day to day, I run many different teams. I'm the CEO of Crumble and I run all the day-to-the-operations.
Starting point is 00:31:16 I also oversee the branding and advertising. and all socials. I see testing, R&D, training, and then resource and success coaching to all of our stores. So a lot goes into it. Right now I'm just in meetings all the time and I'm visiting stores and making sure that our brand is being successful and that we have a good foundation that's going to carry us into the next five to 10 years. Hey, ma'am. Sounds like you're on the right track. I mean, we are looking for the official cookie sponsor of the Radcast. So, you know, just saying, saying, you know.
Starting point is 00:31:50 I love it. I love it. I will talk about it. What else should anybody know about Sawyer and how to keep up with you? And, you know, where's this all going? Where's this rocket ship landing? I mean, you know, what's the, I know, like you strike me as you got a plan.
Starting point is 00:32:06 What's the, where's this all headed? Well, you know, we just want to compete with the best. In our eyes, you know, that is the cinnibuns, the Dunkin' Donuts, the crispy creams. We feel like they've made it. it and we want to be up there with them competing not only here in the u.s but internationally as well as i described earlier we want to be a national international home name that people love and and um that's our goal we're here to build it's it's more about building something awesome
Starting point is 00:32:36 versus just profiting from it and we love it and so that's the overall goal and to complete our mission of bringing people together in this crazy chaotic you know negative world over a pink box of delicious cookies. I think you're all in your way. And I will say it does bring people together. There's nothing that brings this office together more than a pink box on the table, which is everyone's surrounded, fighting over my favorite key lime pie.
Starting point is 00:33:07 Get your hands off of my key lime pie cookie. It's coming back soon. Give it a couple weeks. Well, I don't think this cookie's going to crumble. I had to say it. You had to use that pun. How does everybody keep up with you? Sawyer, if they want to follow along, let's plug the social channels for you and, of course,
Starting point is 00:33:23 the company. Yes, so all things crumble is just crumble cookies, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, you name it, at crumble cookies. If you want to follow my journey, I'm regularly posting on LinkedIn, business advice, business spells, just Sawyer-Hemsley. And I'm also an avid TikToker. I'm trying to be cool, you know, like the cool kids. And so TikTok, Soir Hemsley, and Instagram, Soir Hemsley.
Starting point is 00:33:48 if you want some insider scoop into crumble or just business strategy for me. Final question. What's your favorite cookie? Oh, this is a hard one. I love so many of the cookies, and I know that's cliche, but I had to nail down one right now that I'm absolutely loving. And it's the Kentucky buttercake. Oh. I come to it.
Starting point is 00:34:07 I love the butter notes. I think it's simple, yet intriguing. And I love it. I've seen that. I've got it. It sounds delicious. I can never seem to fall on that week. Have you ever had a butter cake?
Starting point is 00:34:18 Oh, yeah. Dude, are you kidding me? You've got to try it when it comes out. Oh, I don't even tell me that. The Radcast can find out here we're going to make a raspberry buttercake, which has not been able. Oh, my God. And I think a lot of people will actually love it. The buttercake is one of our most popular cookies, and this raspberry on top is going to take it to the next level. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:34:39 Christina and Nick, our producers, two of our producers and co-hosts about melted into the floor when you said that. So, yeah. We'll send you guys some more cookies. Sweet. Well, Sawyer, it's been a pleasure, man. I really appreciate the time. I hope everyone, I know they will continue to buy lots of damn cookies and keep up with you. Really appreciate you coming on.
Starting point is 00:35:02 Yeah, thanks for the invite. Best of luck with everything. Hey, guys, you know where to find us, the radcast.com. You can search for all the content today. We'll have highlight clips. Search for damn butter cookies. You'll find everything you want. And more.
Starting point is 00:35:15 You know where I'm at. I'm at Ryan Offrode on all the platforms. TikTok, Instagram. You know where to find me. See you next time. The Radcast.

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