The Entrepreneur DNA - What a D1 Athlete Learned About Courage, Identity, and Building Sweet Addison's | Addison Labonte

Episode Date: April 23, 2026

Sweet Addison's — Better-for-you, gourmet gluten-free and dairy-free desserts shipped nationwide. Get yours today! Go to - sweetaddisons.com In this episode, I sit down with Addison LaBonte — former Division I college soccer player, ultra marathoner, and the founder of Sweet Addison's — to unpack one of the most raw and relatable entrepreneurial journeys I've had the pleasure of sharing on the show. Addison walks us through the identity crisis she faced after leaving college athletics, the shocking medical diagnosis of compartment syndrome that threatened to end her running career, and how switching to a gluten-free diet healed her body in just three days — without surgery. What followed was an organic content brand that grew to over 288,000 Instagram followers, a pivot out of a corporate finance career she never loved, and ultimately the launch of Sweet Addison's in January 2024: a better-for-you dessert brand built on clean ingredients and relentless work ethic. She shares the dark reality of her first year — working in near isolation, going three straight days with zero orders, and questioning everything — as well as the mindset tools that kept her going: visualization, delayed gratification, a service-over-self mentality, and her Christian faith. We even do a live taste test on camera, and I have to say — these brownies are unreal. If you've ever felt like you didn't know who you were after a major life transition, or you're too scared to take the leap on something you believe in, this episode is the one to share with two friends. About Addison: Addison LaBonte is the founder and CEO of Sweet Addison's, a fast-growing better-for-you dessert brand based in Dallas, Texas, and the creator behind the gluten-free lifestyle platform Organically Addison. A former Division I soccer player at the University of Maine and an ultra marathoner (50K finisher), Addison is the rare combination of elite athlete and self-made entrepreneur. After graduating, Addison was diagnosed with compartment syndrome and told she'd need surgery or would have to quit running forever. Instead, she adopted a gluten-free lifestyle, reversed her symptoms in three days, and channeled that experience into a content platform that grew to over 1.7 million followers across social media and 1 million+ monthly blog pageviews. She spent several years in corporate finance before launching Sweet Addison's in January 2024 — a brand of grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, refined sugar-free, seed oil-free cookies and brownies made with almond flour and organic coconut sugar. In under two years, she has scaled to multi-seven-figure revenue, operates in 30–35 retail locations, ships to all 50 states, and has been featured in TODAY, OK! Magazine, NBC Dallas Fort Worth, and more. She is also the host of the Organically Addison Podcast. Connect with Addison: Instagram (Personal Brand) @organicallyaddison Instagram (Sweet Addison's) @sweet.addisons Website (Blog) organicallyaddison.com LinkedIn Addison LaBonte About Justin: Justin Colby is the host of The Entrepreneur DNA and The Science of Flipping podcasts and a best-selling author. He is a serial entrepreneur with over and a seasoned real estate investor with over 20 years of experience. Driven by a passion to help entrepreneurs thrive, Justin created the Entrepreneur DNA community to support business owners in building wealth, systems, and long-term freedom. Through his podcasts, books, education platforms, and hands-on mentorship, he continues to help entrepreneurs scale with clarity and confidence. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What is up? The Entrepreneur DNA family. We are back with another episode. As always, the community of the entrepreneur DNA community is out on school. SKOOL.com forward slash the entrepreneur where you get to talk to my guests each and every week as they come on live, teaching you their expertise. Now, today, I have a great guest here. She's a multi-seven figure founder in just under three years. She was an all-American student athlete. And she's an ultra-experate. a marathoner. So you don't have a whole lot on your plate, do you? Addison LeBonte is here. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Thank you for having me. I'm excited because first of all, we got to first promote. When I say multi-seven figure, I'm more interested in what she does. Sweet Addison's, you can go find her everywhere. I have a massive sweet tooth. So when you and I finally connected, I'm, I can't figure out whether I want the protein brownie, which is, feels like just gold or the protein cookie, 17 grams. So we'll promote this as much. as we can, but I really want people to hear

not just about Sweet Addisons. Go look up Sweet Addison's and Addison Labonte all over social media, but I want to talk to you about your journey. You are a very special human that I think has a story that most people are going to resonate with. It's not going to be exact

to their story, but you had some very dark days that you were able to turn into the brightness that we see today. Walk us through your story of the dark days of being the athlete, being at the top of the top, literally like the prom queen, the, you know, the limelight of the campus to all of a sudden your identity is not that at all anymore. Complete shift, health issues,

like walk us through the identity shift that you went through from the dark days and how you found light. So growing up, sports was always a huge deal in our family and soccer was my sport of choice. And it totally became my identity. And then I was for. fortunate enough to play on a Division I college soccer scholarship at the University of Maine. Yeah. And had the best experience. Didn't have any injuries. Ended up playing a lot. Had great teammates, a wonderful coach, and was just riding that high for four years.

And then the second I graduated, it was like, now what? This was my whole identity. And even in college when I went up and introduced myself to people, it was, hi, I'm Madison. I'm on the soccer team. Yeah. And so when you take that whole identity away from someone, it's like, where do you go now? My entire life up to that point had been soccer player, athlete. It had been how I structured my days, how I stayed in shape, how I made new friends.

And to have all that gone in a second was honestly an identity crisis. So naturally being an athlete, I thought, let's start running marathons, right? I have all this competitive energy. I'm in the best shape of my life. And so right after I graduated, I started training for a half marathon first. And I noticed that like 30 minutes into each run, my legs would start to get like a tingly sensation, almost like your foot is falling asleep. Yeah. But it would start to get a tingly sensation.

And then if I kept running, my legs would lose all feeling. And I'd never really had a major injury growing up. So I was completely confused and went to see a few different doctors, a sports specialist. doctor and they all said you have what's called compartment syndrome. And so I had actually heard of it because my college soccer coach had it. And I didn't really know what the protocol was for how to fix something like this. But my doctor sat me down and he said you can either get surgery on each of your legs and be out for 12 months or you can quit running forever. But what you're doing is doing nerve damage and it's really not smart. So again, I was at a loss. I had to

no idea what to do, but I knew I wasn't getting surgery and I knew I was not going to quit running. So I was training with my aunt at the time, who's a really great marathon runner, and she's gluten-free. And she said, well, why don't you just try being gluten-free? Just see if you feel better. Maybe your headaches will go away. Maybe it'll help with your running. And so the following Monday, I quit gluten, cold turkey. Yeah. And for me, the difference was I was eating a very standard American diet. I was eating fast food, whatever was convenient, processed, very unhealthy. Right. And so now I had to read every ingredient label because I needed to see if there was gluten in it.

And I remember that first trip to the grocery store, I was shocked at what I had been putting in my body. Just so many ingredients that I didn't recognize. And I was completely ignorant to the diet in America today. So I went from one extreme to the next. And I really fell in love with health and wellness. but the biggest thing was within like three or four days, I could run normally again. Three or four days? Yes.

It was basically an overnight switch. So, and I know you're not a doctor, but I'm sure you went to enough of them to be able to talk on this episode about, like, I mean, how do you go from a doctor telling you you had nerve damage? You were creating actual nerve damage by running and being athlete and pushing your body and all these things to three days later because of your diet. I mean, talk us through, like, how that even can happen. The funny thing is my doctor never asked about any sort of diet, nutrition, none of that. It was, here's the issue, and this is how you solve it with medicine and with surgery. So I previously was never into the, like, holistic healing. And whenever I felt sick, I would take medicine.

And so being able to solve this naturally was like a big wake-up call for me. and it really showed me that I need to advocate for myself more. But I was pretty shocked when I could just run again. And so I vowed to never take running for granted. Like every single step is a blessing. And I know that's why I ran my first ultra marathon last year because I know someday I'm going to wake up on my deathbed and not be able to get out of bed

and what a blessing it is that I can run really far. How far is an ultramarathon? It was 31 miles, a 50K. And I joke. I say I'm an athlete, but then like thinking about doing that, I'm like, I am not an athlete. If that's the benchmarks for being an athlete, I'm like, yeah, I'm not an athlete. Listen, there's so much to unpack from that, right?

I mean, I think there's a lot of us, and, you know, even just the identity of who you are going through college, without the extreme of being a sports star and that being your identity, the identity of I leave college and now, what am I supposed to do? Just in a general sense, I think it is rampant in today's society. And I think most kids, right, because you're 22, I consider that a kid. Like, you actually don't know what the hell you're doing. You don't know where you're going. So let's walk through your identity shift in how that took shape into where we are today with sweet Addison's.

You leave college. You're no longer the soccer player. You're Addison who's a great human, but you're just Addison now. Right. You go into ultramarathoning. you have these health issues, you solve them yourself. What's the next step for you? So I was working in finance at the time, and I decided to do all this research about being gluten-free and compartment syndrome and running marathons.

And there was really nothing out there. And I thought, other people need to know about this because I had a doctor and a PT telling me to get surgery or you might not ever run again. And I was able to solve this. So I started my Instagram account organically Addison. And I started posting all these gluten-free recipes and gluten-free recommendations and pieces of advice. And that account just grew and grew. And I was following other influencers at the time. And I knew that you could make money from this and really make it a full-time income.

And at the time, was working in finance, did not. Well, maybe you go into finance, by the way. With my parents are in finance. That's a great answer. was not expecting. I thought that's actually what you, do you study it? I was a math major. So it leans into finance. Right. Math major, business minor, so very finance focused. I wanted something that was recession proof, would always have a steady income and live a comfortable, predictable life. So like so many that either go into medicine or like, your parents were, so you went.

Right. Right. And, but were you ever genuinely like, I'm fired up to be a, you know, financial analyst or any of these things? No, and I quickly realized that. And that was really hard for me because that soccer identity had been taken away from me. And then what I thought I wanted to do for the rest of my life was just not rewarding at all. And I thought, what's going to bring me joy? Yeah. Soccer's not here.

I'm now going to a 9 to 5 that I don't enjoy. And I'm like, is this real life? Like, is this what I'm supposed to do for the next 40 years, just be miserable so I can make a good paycheck? And so I started posting on this Instagram account. Let's check how many followers we have to. You don't have to tell me, but I know it's a lot. It's more than me. I love it.

And so I want to do this for you. Like, first of all, go follow organically Addison. I'm going to go on here. I love this. 263,000 Instagram followers. And you didn't make it about you. If you scroll through the whole social media platform, it's literally what you are baking,

the way these chocolate brownies with the peat just stop your mitt like i have to show my wife these all the time i'm like honey we can try this that recipe um but it wasn't your face you weren't selfie person the reason why i'm asking these and saying these there's so many people that i believe need to lean into social media and a personal brand but it doesn't have to be what we're also used to hey this is justin colby talking right right so i didn't really put my face on there for the first probably year or so and i didn't really tell a lot of my friends i just kind of did it on the side as something that I wanted to do. And then I remember like a year or so into posting, I'd hit my 10,000 followers, which at the time was a big deal. And I connected with another food

influencer. And she and I were on FaceTime. And she said, yeah, this is my full-time job. I said, what? How? So she explained that she has a blog and there's advertisements on the blog. It'll never forget. She said, I make $100,000 a year doing this. And I thought, bingo. My way out. That's my way out of finance. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to work extremely hard nights weekends when I'm not working my finance job, and I'll make this my full-time job.

So it was within probably four years or so starting that account that I was able to hit six figures in revenue from posting food videos online. Posting. It's crazy. I mean, it's crazy in the best way of crazy. You can say crazy, right? The reality is you did something that most people are unwilling to do. You worked nights and weekends. as a side hustle.

And you said, I'm going to work really hard to achieve this goal. Right. I worked all the time. But it didn't feel like work to me. It was my passion. It was a really fun. And especially when you create something from nothing and then you see it grow and grow, it's almost like an addiction. That's right.

I want to keep seeing this grow. And so it didn't feel like work to me. But I did spend a lot of my free time growing this account, growing my website. And again, I would just encourage people like, stop letting fear hold you back. Right. If I let fear hold me back, I'd still be. be in that cubicle. You know, not enjoying my life. I wouldn't be here on a podcast here in Miami. You know, none of this would have happened. And I'm so thankful that I chose courage and faith over

fear. But I get it. It's really scary to start. Well, you said something about, you know, you're willing to work, but you gave up time. I see all the time. And there's every saying you'll possibly think of sounds cliche. But the reality is if you want something bad enough, you're going to offer sacrifices. You have to take sacrifices. And then you have to decide what do you want more. So in your case, you were willing to sacrifice your weekends, your nights, things that personally you're like, oh, okay, I could be out with my girlfriends, I could be going on dates, I could doing all these things. But instead, I'm going to focus on building this.

Right. Walk us through the mindset of like, I wanted it bad enough to sacrifice. I had a vision and I knew that it could turn into what it has today. And so I don't know if this is from being an athlete my whole life or where this is, exactly comes from, but I'm really good with delayed gratification. I can work really, really hard knowing this isn't going to pay off for years down the road. And I think that's been instrumental in growing my brand is knowing that first year, it's going to be an absolute grind. And I mean, I was working at least 100 hours a week. I was exhausted. I was barely sleeping, barely functioning.

But that's what I had to do to grow a brand into what it is today. So having that sense of delayed gratification, I think is one of my contributing factors to success. People say, you know, they want something, but are they willing to put in 100 hours a week to go get it? Right. And you know, it's funny. And you were in the finance world. I see all my friends, and not all of them, but like growing up, I would see my friends kill themselves for their boss, whether they became a lawyer and work 100 hours a week. They're in the finance industry and working 100 hours a week.

And then they have an opportunity to create something on their own. And they're like, oh, I want to live a better lifestyle and have more time. I'm like, well, then you're going to make probably less than you're making for your boss. Because to create anything special, you got to make the time sacrifice that they're unwilling to make. Right. Do you have to work that hard now? I work way harder than I ever did in finance. I work way more hours.

I work way harder. But I'm building my dream, not somebody else's worth. So it's worth it to me. And it really is my passion. The other day I was filming some content and I was like pouring melted chocolate over a stack of brownies. And I thought, how in the world does this make me more money than a steady finance career? Like, it's crazy. Here I am playing with chocolate, right?

And I'm like, this is the coolest job ever. I'm so thankful. But then I realized, whoa, this started like seven or eight years ago when I started posting every day when what I was posting was cringeworthy and other people weren't doing it because that's weird and who does she think she is. And so now this is what it's turned into. And it really is my passion. And yes, it is work, but I feel so lucky to do what I do every day. I want everyone to hear what you're saying. Like this is, for the last year, I've been screaming this from the mountaintops is everyone has to lean into the brand of themselves.

I believe people are either going to go all in on AI and we already see a lot of these people doing that and or they need to go all in on themselves because at some level, the AI is very real and is going to sacrifice a lot of jobs. Like we're even talking like accounting jobs at this point. Like things that we all thought would never go anywhere. It's coming. Right. You are self-made. You are literally filming yourself making brownies or cookies showing the, I mean, I'm watching these thinking it's amazing. And it's not even you, but it's the brand of organically Addison or sweet Addison's that now has multiple seven figures of revenue.

Correct. Because of this. Right. So talk through what do you do? How do you post? When do you post? Why do you post? How do you know when to post? There's so many people that are like, I don't even know what I should be posting. Right. So when you're posting on social media, you have to realize it's not about you. It's not about creating content necessarily that I want to see. It's what's going to resonate most with my audience and my customers and what's going to go viral. I've gone viral a few times recently. It's been really fun. One of my brownie posts got over 8 million views. So now I'm creating all these different brownie recipes because that's what resonates.

In terms of when and how to post, just look at your analytics on Instagram, TikTok, whatever it is. TikTok for me does better late at night. Instagram, I always post in the morning. And so I would just say the biggest tip I have is consistency. You have to show up, especially with how many influencers there are these days. If you're not consistently showing up, someone else will and they'll take your spot. Talk about the mindset shift. The mindset shift you have to go.

The finance girl. Addison, the entrepreneur, Addison. How do we help people bridge the gap of the mindset you need? It's completely different. And I think I naturally bridged that gap when I realized I was building my dream and not somebody else's. The other thing about being an entrepreneur is if you don't put in the time and the work, you don't get paid. This isn't an every other Friday paycheck. There's no 401K or health insurance.

Like, you've got to make it happen. Yeah. So to me, that lit a fire under me. when I was building up organically Addison, still working in finance, and I had the idea for Sweet Addisons, I still had that steady income from my finance job. And I was actually laid off very unexpectedly. And so suddenly for the first time it was like, I have nothing to fall back on. Like I had this job and the health insurance and all the added benefits and that steady income. But then I realized like, okay, there might not be a ground beneath my feet, but there's no ceiling above me either.

So for me, the first few months, I kind of felt like I was floating in this weird space. I'm like, there's nothing below me, but there's nothing above me. And so I could be, you know, an epic failure or a smashing success, depending on how hard that I work. So it's much like running. Like you got to put in the reps, you got to put in the time. But it's really cool being an entrepreneur because there is no glass ceiling there. It's how big do you want to make this thing? How important is your belief system?

Oh, huge. I'm a Christian. my faith is super, super important to me. So just always knowing that God has had a plan for my life has been instrumental. But you also have to have belief in yourself and that you're on the right path. And when I started Sweet Addison's, it was very, honestly, it was tough for me mentally because I had come from a finance background. And I thought, now I'm baking cookies in my apartment for who knows who's going to buy these.

And I was like, what am I doing? I wasted my degree. And what path is my life going on? And that whole first year was just a huge mental challenge for me. First of all, it's extremely isolating a lot of times when you start a business, especially if you're a solo founder like I am. So there's so much time alone realizing I'm not doing anything like my family and friends ever did. But I had that vision and that belief in myself that, yes, I am the person to lead this business.

And this is what it can become if I continue to work really hard. And someday I'm going to walk into Whole Foods and see my cookie there. Hasn't happened yet. It will. Whole foods. If you're listening or watching, we got to get in front of Addison. So I've always had that sense of visualization of this is what it can turn into. And again, that delayed gratification.

I'm working extremely hard right now because I know someday what this could turn into. When you're starting, how does your belief system, your behaviors, how do you get through those dark days of not really seeing results, questioning yourself every single day? Am I doing the right thing? Am I going down the right path? Is this meant for me? should I be doing this? And you're doing it, but you're not really seeing any results. How do you get through those dark days?

Visualization. I always thought, five years down the road, what is this going to look like? Someday I'll have employees and will be on the shelves of all my favorite grocery stores. And so that's what I would come back to. And there's so many similarities between sports and entrepreneurship. So many. So for instance, when I trained and ran my ultramarathon last year, each training run, literally I'm running and, you know, it's hours out of time and I'm thinking what is it going to feel like when I cross the finish line of a 50k race?

Who's going to be there? What's the picture going to look like? What's my post on Instagram going like? How am I going to feel when I've accomplished something that big? So I've always had that sense of visualization. And then when I went to college and played soccer, I didn't play my whole first year. Like I sat at the bench. And I thought I'm going to work extremely hard because I can visualize what it's going to feel like when I'm on that field someday. And I'm playing and I'm starting and I'm leading the team. So I would just say visualization is is really, really big. I saw Tom Brady put a, I don't know what you would call it. It was a post, but basically he was being interviewed for the Hall of Fame, right? And it was about this. Most people aren't special.

They do what most people aren't willing to do, which is put in the hard work. Right. So anyone at the top of their game typically aren't inherently that special. Those are the individuals that have the hard work, the work ethic, the mindset, the willingness to bend but not brave. Did you ever find yourself ready to call it today and just say, I'm going to choose a different path? There were times in the beginning of starting this business where I really questioned if this was the right move for me. About two months into the business, there was a three-day stretch. It was March of 2024. I started in January, 2024.

March of 2024, there were three straight days I didn't get a single order online. And I thought, what am I doing? No one wants these cookies that I'm baking. like why am I doing this? I could go make so much more money in corporate America right now and have that comfortability, right? I think being an entrepreneur is the most uncomfortable thing I've ever done. For sure.

And being able to live outside of your comfort zone for so many months at a time is a real challenge. And I'm so thankful that I was able to push through all those times. Again, just visualizing what the future looks like and what would happen if I did continue. And also being a little bit stubborn, right? Right. Like I didn't start this two months ago just to quit after two months. I'm not a quitter. I'm going to see this through. But it's definitely, I think back to 2024 and I mostly see darkness. Not just because it was such a challenging time, but because it was actual darkness. I would get up early. Eventually when I moved into a commercial kitchen, I'd be there all day. I'd leave after sunset. I didn't see the sun for months at a time. I was by myself. It's really hard. But now it's in a place where I can. and travel and do things that I love to do and connect with other business owners. And it's been

incredibly worth it. But that whole first year was like, it was very difficult. So how do you go three days not make a sale? Again, I think a lot of this, I think 99% of most success is mindset and belief. Yes. Right? And so that's why I keep leaning into this with you is because you're unique in your own story, you're not unique in terms of entrepreneurship. We all have these dark days. I will only say 2024 because you had the uprising of Sweet Addison's in 2024. That was actually the most financially challenging year in my entrepreneurship in 20 years, right? So it doesn't matter where you're at.

I'm 20 years in the game. You're just starting. This is your hockey stick right. This is almost like the whatever pitfall down left for me. But it doesn't change the mindset of being able to go win. right because where you are today like what is three million dollars versus 300 million three million feels heavy now but when you have 300 million it doesn't feel like much right right so there's always going to be these challenges and you're going to go through more hopefully

not too big but you'll have challenges whether it be financial or you know whatever that case may be the mindset to be able to power through those things will lead you to the promised land but the one thing that again, using the Tom Brady analogy that I found, how do you see your fortitude to push forward? Do you need to be creative to push forward? Or do you feel like if I just keep going, it's just a matter of time? If I keep going, it's just a matter of time. And something in the early days that really helped is every time I got a positive review or a positive comment, I would take a screenshot on my phone and put them in a folder and I'd come back to that. And then a really big mental shift for me, especially during that first year, was realizing that this business isn't about me. It's about my customers. It's about the people that I'm inspiring along the way.

And I think if you think about unhappiness, it's mostly selfishness. Oh, 100%. So every time that I face some sort of struggle, I would think it's not about me, right? God has a plan. It's not about me. Who am I serving? Who am I helping? Who am I inspiring along the way?

I've had people tell me, oh, you've inspired me to start a business. And I thought, really? Wow. That's really cool. Yeah. So at the end of the day, even if this didn't work out or I didn't make a single dollar, if I impacted people's lives in a positive way, then it's worth it for me. So that was a really big mental unlock for me. How many people could you impact in the financial business versus what you do today? Honestly, I was impacting businesses, not even people. So, and I felt zero fulfillment from doing that.

Correct. I feel so much fulfillment every single day from doing what I do now. And it's, it's so. it's worth the challenges to have that sense of fulfillment. And that's, I really have not been this fulfilled since I was playing college soccer. And to be quite honest with you, I don't think I was, I don't think I've been this happy since I was in college. And the last, just the last year or so has been incredibly, I've just been incredibly fulfilling.

Yeah. And I really feel so much joy in my life now. And because I feel like I'm living out the purpose for my life and I'm doing something I'm passionate about and something I'm super grateful for. And again, I really hadn't felt that since college. And when I graduated college and soccer was taken away from me, I didn't know if I'd ever feel that again. Really? I really didn't know. And here we are. Two years into this bit. So sweet Addison's again, go everywhere online, organically Addison. But I'm, I've never done taste test live. So you ask me what are my two favorite sweets. One is chocolate chip cookies, the other is brownies.

You're on a brownie kick. So we're going to start with. Brownie. And I can already tell that this thing, and I don't have any napkins, so we're going to have to figure that part out later. But I can already tell this thing is exactly the chewy, soft, the thing about it. Oh, yeah. Oh, look at that. If you guys can see that on camera. Just dark and good and chewy and soft. All right, live on camera. I'm excited. So they're grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, seed-oil-free, refined sugar-free, soy-free, preservative-free. Like, why wouldn't everything just be this? Right.

The first ingredient we use is almond flour. Why wouldn't anything just be this? And I say that because that is probably one of the best brownies I've ever had, and it had none of the things that I'm used to eating. I love that is so good. Thank you. So I'm a chocolate as I'm drinking my coffee. I'm a chocolate and coffee guy. Okay.

So like this I'm going to have to order dozens. We're going to go in. So the ingredients on that or what? So we start with almond flour. We use olive oil instead of any seed oils. Just show them how thick that is. Dude, it's so good. This is the chocolate chip cookie.

So I can't see if like can you guys see this. This is the chewiness. Just stop. This is incredible. And by the way, 17 grams of protein. Yeah. Love to eat sweets. Chocolate has always been my favorite food.

And so creating a brand where I can merge my two interests, which is fitness and food, and have it be something that tastes good and is good for you, that was always my. These are incredible. Thank you. Like, I now know why your business has existed. exploded into multiple seven figures. Thank you. These are phenomenal.

Thank you so much. I feel like what's that kid on Instagram that he walks around trying everyone's food and he has like seven million followers? I feel like that guy right now. Guys, everyone needs to go to Sweet Addison's. Follow Addison herself. What do you see is like the next voyage? What is the next place that we see Sweet Edison's going? What are you focusing on?

Into a national retailer. So I am very interested in getting into sprouts. I personally am a sprout shopper. I love sprouts. And I've talked to their team a little bit here and there. And then Whole Foods is also a big one for me. But I also love, we're in like probably 30 to 35 different independent, just small stores right now. Coffee shops, little grocery stores.

When you travel, do you take time to like, hey, where can I go meet the founder, meet the person? Do you do that? I know you're in Miami right in my studio and you're from Dallas, Texas, but like did you say, hey, who should I go meet here? Like Milams is here. That would have been a great one, I think. Okay. Not that I have any connections for you in the grocery store world. I'll just walk in there and introduce myself. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I'm totally willing to put myself out there. And that's been great in New York City. I've done that a few times. In Dallas, I've done that. But the goal for 2026 is to get into a national retailer. I want people to be able to go into their grocery store. and buy these.

I mean, that would be ideal for me because I would probably even lose a couple pounds eating sweet stuff without having any sugar and bad oils and all the gluten and all the other stuff. So how long do these last? About 30 days at room temperature. And they stay that soft. So the ones I brought you baked about two weeks ago. No kidding. And they flew with me on the airplane.

And yeah. I would have thought like you made these. I know you didn't because you're here, but I would have said you probably made these last night because they're so soft, so moist. They didn't dry out. And that was my goal. I've been gluten-free for almost 10 years now. And when I first became gluten-free, everything tasted like cardboard. It was awful.

Yeah, no. I mean, my aunt is, so when I was growing up, I had a gluten-free aunt. She'd always order gluten-free pizza and gluten-free crap. And I was like, these are all just terrible. Right. Like, there's no world that I eat what you eat. Right. Right.

Like, but nowadays, obviously there is, right? Right. So when I became gluten-free, because everything on the market was so terrible, I baked at home. And so that's how I learned how to become a gluten-free baker. And so these recipes are, I mean, years in the making. They took me months and months to perfect when it came time to lunch. I can only imagine how frustrating how tedious it is to develop an actual recipe. The first few came out like pancakes.

They just spread everywhere. And then some came out like hockey pucks. They didn't spread at all. So it was playing around with different ingredients and different ratios. And I kept a spreadsheet, basically, of all the different iterations that I had. And the chocolate chip one took me 20. six different tries. But that was a really fun experiment because I was eating all these different types of cookies.

And I do want to mention we only sweetened with organic coconut sugar. So I personally don't eat any processed or refined sugars. So having a dessert that won't spike your blood sugar like a normal gluten-free cookie would was super important to me. I want to lean into something you just talked about, and I didn't even think about it when going to this interview, for you to refine recipes and for you to get the perfection of a single recipe, right, that we have here today, which are perfect. Thank you.

You had to go through iterations. You had to go through 25 failures to find the 26 perfect recipe. And you had to track your progress. Entrepreneurship is directly relatable to what we were just talking about. You did it with recipes. I would say everyone in business needs to be doing the same thing, understanding their iterations, the innovations, the ideations of what they're doing to find perfect. and then track it.

Right. I mean, in every single one of these, do you lean into like, I need to know exactly what I've done? Like if you use X oil versus Y oil, you need to know that one variant is the only thing different, and this is the difference it shaped up to be? Absolutely. I tracked everything. And with recipes I had previously at home just baked with, like, using cups and spoons and spoons and But with precision baking like this, you need to use a scale.

So everything came down to each gram. So it's very precise. And so I do see my math major background coming into play some days for sure. But yeah, I'm kind of a perfectionist. So I wasn't going to launch a business until I was absolutely obsessed with the products. And I am obsessed with the products. I want every single night. As you should be, these are phenomenal.

I would keep eating except for I want to keep this podcast going. Do you track your business? business in the same way? How many sales? What location? Where did they find me? All these different KPIs? As much as I can. Yeah. Yeah. I check my analytics multiple times a day. I'm on the Shopify app, like all the time, which is really, which is really fun. But I also realize that with business, you cannot be a perfectionist, right? Because if I waited until everything was perfect, I would have never started. I needed to make sure the recipes were perfect because I don't think you get necessarily a second chance at a first impression when it comes to food.

Of course. But for instance, my website could have used some updates. My email marketing could have used some updates. My social media account. But I knew that I had the product there. And so my first iteration of packaging was like horrible. My website was very, very basic. But again, I wanted to get the product out there, receive feedback from customers and other people, and then grow from there.

Where can everyone go buy these delicious desserts? It's sweet addisons.com and we ship to all 50 states nationwide shipping every single day. And follow you for just to see what she's putting out. Make sure you go to Organically Addison on Instagram. Give her a follow immediately. I'd like you to offer a last word to someone who might be like, I got to figure out my life. I need to figure out who am I? What am I doing?

Offer a last word on your journey and how you could help them. kind of take the leap of faith and go find it. I think something that separates me from the average person. Again, I don't think I'm special. But I have what I call the deathbed mentality. And every single day of my life, I think, who am I going to be on my deathbed? Hopefully I'm in my hundreds. And I can look back and think, I've lived this really cool life.

And maybe I was a huge success. Maybe I failed along the way. But I have these stories to tell. and the biggest thing is I don't want to look back and regret not doing something or trying something. So my encouragement to people is we're all going to be on our deathbed someday, right? We're all going to be dying. And do you want to look back on your life and think, I didn't go for it? I let fear hold me back.

I cared what other people thought. I worked this job that I didn't like for so many years. Are you going to look back and say, wow, I did it all? I tried it. I traveled. I launched this business. I did this. I did that and really have a cool story to tell.

When I was home for Christmas break this year, I went to visit my grandparents at their nursing home. And I just, I thought, I'm going to be here before I know it. And what do I want to look back on my life and think about? And what stories do I want to tell when my grandchildren are coming in to visit me? And, you know, I really want to enjoy my life. And I want to have a big, extraordinary life. I don't want to play it safe or play it small.

And so just stop letting fear hold you back. life is too short. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. So stop working that job that you don't like or not traveling or or being too scared to do something and put yourself out there and do it. Life is too short. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Addison Labonte. I am Justin Colby. This is the entrepreneur DNA. Please go follow her. What a great episode this was. Make sure you get yourself some brownies and cookies and everything you have. I'm going to go buy them all. So if this was helpful, you feel like you need to share some of these delicious desserts or even the message Addison was sharing. Please share this with two of your friends and we'll see you on the next episode.