Trading Secrets - Over 300M+ cupcakes sold! Baked by Melissa’s Melissa Ben-Ishay dives into the $ecrets behind turning a passion into a career, staying customer focused, and how being fired lead to her bite-sized cupcake empire

Episode Date: January 29, 2024

This week, Jason is joined by mother, baker, and founder of Baked by Melissa, Melissa Ben-Ishay! The New York City based entrepreneur’s brand became famous for its signature bite-sized cupcakes and treats starting back in 2008. Previously working in advertising, Melissa was unexpectedly fired and decided to reinvent herself based on her passion for baking after successfully selling her cupcakes through various catering based events. She opened her first retail store in 2009. Fast forward to today and Baked by Melissa now operates 14 total locations and delivers all across the US through her online marketplace. She has also partnered with organizations such as Make A Wish, Weight Watchers, Oatly and several other non-profit organizations all across the country. Melissa gives insight to what makes her bite-size cupcakes such a success in the baking industry, what goes into the product, what her first television spot was, how she was able to finance the company with human capital, where they do all the baking, what goes into the decision to collaborate with another brand, and how COVID impacted the business. Melissa also reveals how she keeps the customer in mind, what time is the busiest for the company, what she did on the day she was fired, why she was given the opportunity to write a cookbook, and why her food philosophy is. What is the core to her business? How did Baked by Melissa get into Madison Square Garden? Melissa reveals all that and so much more in another episode you can’t afford to miss!  Host: Jason Tartick Co-Host: David Arduin Audio: Declan O’Connell Guest: Baked by Melissa Stay connected with the Trading Secrets Podcast!  Instagram: @tradingsecretspodcast  Youtube: Trading Secrets Facebook: Join the Group All Access: Free 30-Day Trial Abilitie has published The 12-Week MBA, a mini MBA curriculum for aspiring and rising business leaders. Buy the book and enroll in the 12-week program using code TRADINGSECRETS for $200 off your tuition.  https://www.abilitie.com/12weekmba Robinhood: Now through April 30th, Robinhood is even boosting every single dollar you transfer in from other retirement accounts with a 3% Match.  Go to Robinhood.com/boost to get started!

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tardick, and welcome to the pre-market trading segment, where I tell you a little bit about what you can expect from our guests today, an update from the market, and some inside scoop on my personal life. Well, what can you expect today? we're back to business. We have had some reality TV star and pop culture tycoons on lately. I mean, last week was huge, the first time ever in Trading Secrets history that we released two episodes with Nick Vial and of course with Justin and Susie. Well, this episode, we said,

you know what? We've had some great guests with great pop culture backgrounds. Let's get back to business. So we have an absolutely unbelievable, incredible, incredible. resilient. I'm even going to use the word stern. Business owner, entrepreneur, creator, and New York Times bestseller with her latest cookbook that just came out. We have baked by Melissa on the podcast. Now, if you're in the New York area and I say baked by Melissa, it's a no-brainer. You know who she is. If I say baked by Melissa and you live anywhere in the United States, you probably now know who she is because over 300 million, million of her cupcakes have been sold. So you're going to hear how she started the business, the ins and outs of branding, you're going to hear how she leads

her team, what she calls her market and demographic, how much money she spent on consulting to learn one thing. You're going to learn all about it. So I also want to tell you, Valentine's Day is coming up. So of course, we are doing a giveaway. So if you want some free cupcakes and you want baked by Melissa's New York Times best selling cookbook, you're going to go to the Trading Secrets podcast Instagram and check out our post and enter the giveaway. And you might be the Valentine's Day winner. Now, in this episode, you'll see us chucking cupcakes back and forth doing some funny stuff that you can only catch by watching. So make sure you subscribe to our YouTube Trading Secrets podcast as well. But you're going to love this episode. You're going to love

Melissa. And I think even better yet, you're going to love following her because she is an incredible creator. Now, a little update from the market. Well, I'm going to give you an update from some numbers that connect to my new book. My new book is called Talk Money to Me. You can go pre-order it right now on Amazon. But here's some eye-opening stats. This comes from chapter two of my book. People deceive. Context changes. Story shift, but numbers don't lie. So let's put some numbers out there. 56% of married and cohabitating Americans feel comfortable talking to their partner about finances. The big question is, where does that leave the other 44%? So think about your situation with your partner if you're in a relationship. How comfortable do you feel?

Here are the breakdown of top five arguments as it relates to love and money. 36% argue over needs versus wants, 28% argue over spending priorities, 22% argue over large purchases without discussing them first, 21% argue over paying off debt, 19% argue over saving. And the reality is, 7 and 10 Americans living with their partner or spouse have had disagreements about finance. in the past year. Now, when I hear this, I get somewhat excited because if you're having

disagreements, you're talking about it. And step one is talking about it. So, if you are looking to talk money to your partner or to understand more about it yourself, you're looking how to create budget systems, how to actually invest, step by step, go pick up a book, talk money to me on Amazon, pre-order it now. And if business isn't your thing, Trust me, there's some great storytelling in here. And if sometimes you get confused by jargon or big words, don't worry, every business word that's in this book, every finance business word that's in this book is highlighted and in the glossary, it is explained in the back of a book and an easy way to understand.

Now, a little update for my personal life, a lot of action. Holy smokes, next two weeks are going to be crazy. A lot of traveling. We got Pebble Beach with the I-Heart crew. I have the vice president of rewired talent management company, Megan Waddell's wedding in Tampa Bay, Friday. Then I'm going to Beaver Creek, coming back to Nashville to head to Vegas for the Super Bowl.

We're doing a lot of work with rewired talent management, some exciting stuff coming there, and then to New York City. So the next two weeks are going to be absolutely mayhem, then back in Nashville for a little bit. So exciting stuff there. Thank you for listening to Trading Secrets, subscribing to all channels. Last week was our best week yet, and we can't wait to take the

momentum and move forward. And remember to tune into the recap, especially this one. David and I have a ton of fun talking all things Valentine's Day. Without further ado, let's ring in the bell with the one and only baked by Melissa. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today, I am joined by Mother Baker and founder of Baked by Melissa, Melissa Benesha. The New York City-based entrepreneurs brand became famous for its signature bite-sized cupcakes and treats starting back in 2008. Previously working in advertising, Melissa was unexpectedly fired and decided to reinvent herself based on her passion, baking. After successfully selling her cupcakes through various catering-based events, she opened her first retail store in 2009. Fast forward to today and

baked by Melissa now operates 14 total locations and delivers. all across the U.S. through her online marketplace, in addition to partnering with organizations such as Make a Wish, Weight Watchers, Oatley, and several nonprofit organizations across the country. Today we are going to pick the brain of a true entrepreneur, someone who had a massive restart and started a company from the ground up and turned it into a multi-million dollar company based on doing what she loves most. The baking game. Melissa, thank you so much for being on trading secrets. Thanks for having me. What an intro. Yeah, we got to get the intro going, see it, get the energy high here. But I mean, everything you've accomplished is incredible. And, you know,

what I thought about this interview, did some research about how many bakers there are in the world. Take a shot. How many bakers do you think there are in the entire world? At least according to the website, I looked at. I have no idea. Okay. It's at over 800,000. The industry employs over 800,000. And then the United States, it's at over 205,000. So then I was starting to do some thinking. And I'm like, all right, how do you become this big selling company? How do you differentiate so significantly? And then I went to Starbucks.

I looked at their model. One thing they do is they actually put more caffeine in their cups than anybody that sells coffee. So you almost get like a form of addiction. For your success, what do you think the secret sauce has been within the product, than marketing. The product, we made it just a bite. So when you eat a cupcake, it's amazing because it's your own personal cake, but you could still only have one. And for me, I could never decide which flavor I wanted when I would walk into the clover jelly, like on 34th Street across from my apartment. And like, how do I choose? So I would get two big cupcakes. So we solved for that.

And you could try every flavor without feeling bad about it. And the quality of our product is always top priority. Okay. And just not knowing much about the baking industry, what differentiates quality? Is it the ingredients that you select? It's like how do you actually make the product that much better and differentiate in that way? For us at Bake by Melissa, we make our product entirely by hand. We use the best ingredients like Oreo cookies and Hershey's Fudge and just the things we grew up eating as kids to truly trigger that nostalgia when you experience our product. And the quality and freshness is top of mind in everything that we do. Got it.

Like, I'm a crazy lady. Like, you know, there's a real Melissa who goes on the floor of the bakery and checks out how they're making the cupcakes, how they're icing, how they're topping the cupcakes. And I'm constantly giving feedback. And I think that really shows the product. Because there's that book, McDonald'sation of society. And they talk about like how McDonald's essentially could create something with the same quality and the same taste anywhere in the world. Was quality control an issue as you were scaling or how did you like scale to become the size you did and still be able to have that Melissa touch on each one of the pieces?

Well, when we started the company, I was baking every cupcake. So that was easy. And then when we opened our second retail location, we decided to move our baking in. to like a commissary, if you will. We leased 10,000 square feet, and we moved the bakery there. So we had one central baking location to control the quality of the product and then distribute to retail and ship from that one location. And we still have that model today.

We're vertically integrated. The product is our core business. If the quality isn't there, then nothing else matters. Yeah. When you look at the size and scale of what you guys have done, your story is incredible about, you know, how you were just having the conversation with your brother and decided to go to the grocery store and put your favorite flavors together and create this. The size of it and scale of it today, was that in the thought process then? Was it that forward thinking? Like, were you doing investments and decks? And did you see the retailing? And did you see the marketing and in MSG and things like that? Or was it a baby step? approach. So the vision was there. It wasn't mine. It was my brothers. I didn't believe it. I mean, we actually watched my first television spot today because we posted it to LinkedIn. It was the Today Show with Kathy Lee and Hoda. I was a child. My brother had the vision and he knew what it could be as far as a business plan goes. We had none. Like, that's funny. And not a single deck in those

early days. It was more about taking advantage of every opportunity, creating opportunities. And just continuing to get more people baked by Melissa. I love it. When you started it and your brother had the vision, did you at all have to give any equity to raise capital? Or did you guys do it all yourself and own the business as a whole? Human capital. Human capital.

I'm one of five co-founders. My brother and I, a childhood friend who my brother had been in business with. And then two others as we continued to build. And then we took on our first investment in 20, 2013. So that was five years after we founded the company. Five years. And with your first location, I think one thing, especially for people that are starting out and they want to get into retail, they don't know what the benchmark is to then scale to their second store. So for you guys, was it a profitability metric? Was it a certain dollar amount that you had like

you're giving us too much credit? No, I mean, the demand was there. When we opened, so our first retail location was just like this pickup window on spring and Broadway in Soho, which is like the highest foot trafficked corner of the earth, especially on the weekends with the right clientele, like fashion forward, like high society, yada, yada. And it was a pickup window. People lined up around the corner every weekend for our product. And we couldn't, I couldn't bake the product fast enough. So less than a year later, we opened our side. retail location, just, you know, a few blocks north in Union Square. And the thought was every neighborhood in Manhattan should have a baked by Melissa because we're your neighborhood

bakery. I like it. That is so cool. What does like rent, we've had people on, they talk about the rent in New York City. How it's gone up. But like in a commercial space like this, the rent New York's got to be wild for retail stores. How has it changed? And like on average, what do most people pay for retail outlets like this on a monthly basis? Well, we're very lucky because our footprint is very small. Since we're vertically integrated, we just have all of our baking in the one location, which is just outside of Manhattan. And then we deliver our cupcakes to each store on a daily basis. And so we can operate our retail locations out of as few as 300 square feet or as much as 600 square feet, but we don't need much.

Okay. Interesting. And would you say that the the online marketing and delivery service like Uber Eats and things like that, are you doing more through online e-commerce or more foot traffic in the stores? What a revenue basis? So as far as retail goes, third party delivery is great. Like that's when you go to Uber Eats or Greb Hub and you place your order. We also have what we call e-commerce at Bake by Melissa. You go to our website. You order. cupcakes to be shipped anywhere in the country. You could choose your arrival date guaranteed fresh. And you could also order for local delivery in Manhattan and free pickup. That's like our owned e-commerce channel that comes from baked by Melissa.com. And that's our core business. Got it. Okay. Pretty cool. You've done some good things I think that are just amazing to outside of just the retail stores. You now have this new partnership with Edmins and your launched a limited edition collection of the mini cupcakes and your, like I said, the foot traffic in MSG, from a marketing standpoint, how do those partnerships come about?

Those partnerships come about in so many different ways. I think we've been very fortunate because we have this incredible brand awareness, especially in this area of the country and France come to us all the time. With Entemans, I had actually started using Entemans cakes. Antimans is very nostalgic and I like make recipes on TikTok so I would do these like hacks and I would take like an entomins pound cake and turn it into like an awesome ice cream cake and they took notice and we kind of started our relationship with Entomans that way. And then as soon as I got somebody from Entomans, I was like, oh my God, like I want to do something great with you guys. And we wound up doing what we launched in July to celebrate Antimans, 120. 25th birthday, the best way anyone knows how, by sending baked by Melissa Cupcakes, of course.

And that was very unique to like how we made it work with Entemans. With Weight Watchers, we also, I created like salad recipes for Weight Watchers. And we also created a Weight Watchers assortment of cupcakes. And that was that collaboration. I guess what I'm trying to say is it has to work for us as a brand. And it baked by Melissa the brand as the priority. over revenue or anything else when it comes to collaborating with another brand. And then if it's something that I think will work with our brand,

then it's understanding their goals and also what our goals are because it has to work for both sides for it to truly be successful. And when you analyze those, like, what are they looking, like, what is a goal for them? Do they have like in, we've had influencers come on and different brand partners and celebrities and they'll do these big deals with like, let's say, a Pepsi or COVID. Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola will tell them, we need you to create two million impressions. If you create two million impressions, for us, we got our ROI and it's worth the cost. What does success look like to you and then to though, like wait watchers and admins and those

collaborations? So it's either revenue or sessions and conversion on our site, which is also revenue, really. Yeah, so it just all comes down to the revenue. I think, well, I think with the collaborations more recently, we have this new product that we sell and its content. And we've always only sold this one product, which is the bite-sized cupcake, which is great and delicious. But now we have this incredible reach of like millions of people on social media that we've built organically. And we have this core business. So we don't need to pour ourselves out and just commit to like all these different paid opportunities to pay the bills.

No. And so most oftentimes for the other brands, they're looking for that brand awareness and for us to share whatever their message is in a very like genuine and authentic way, which is very much what I do on social media. For us, it's different always. Sometimes it's just because it's going to be really fun. For Entemans, I love Entemans. It just felt like such a cool opportunity. Like I grew up with the Entomins donut box. on the kitchen counter all the time or the soft fake chocolate chip cookies and how cool is it that we got to work with them and use their ingredients on our bite-sized cupcakes in celebration of their 125th birthday. Yeah, that's so cool. Yeah, especially when you think about just, you know, you bring it back to your childhood to where it is today and your name on that box and everything like that. It's fun. It's something to talk about. It's like exciting. The summer months are slower months for us. Like, we are like, you know, birthdays, big holidays, gifting all the time. And so why not? So from 2009 to 2023, how many total cupcakes have

you sold the date around? Give us an estimate. At least 300 million cupcake. I mean, that's like absolutely wild. Somebody should like figure out how many times around, do you think it goes around the world in cupcakes? Maybe like around Manhattan. We could get. Yeah, yeah, right around the world of Manhattan. I love that. Okay, so over 300 million cupcakes. We talked about a couple of your partnerships. I want to talk about, you know, the Rangers, Knicks fan, MSG. Your integration there is really, really impressive. I've always thought, like, even as a kid I thought about it, like where dipping dots were everywhere, or when I saw my best brand in a stadium, I always wondered how that worked. Is that a partnership where, like, you have to pay marketing dollars

to get in there? Is it a revenue share model? How do those business models. What a great question. So Madison Square Garden came to us and they really wanted baked by Melissa Presence at the garden. Super cool. I used to hand-deliver cupcakes to MSG when I was baking in my apartment to Susan Green. And it is a combination of marketing opportunities. So we pay a marketing fee, but we're also selling them our product. So it's profitable for us. They're buying our product and we're committing to marketing dollars. Like if we're the birthday sponsor. Okay. And so when you're sitting in the seats at MSG, you'll like see baked by, like I get a lot of friends send me pictures of like baked by Melissa. Messaging up on the big

screen, Jumbotron thing. Yeah. And then also they sell our cupcakes in the sweets. So if you're entertaining or you have a suite, you can choose that baked by Melissa. That's really cool. Okay. I'm glad I asked that because I didn't recognize that. When you, in a situation like that, because I got to imagine the other brands, like, let's say, GEICO is an MSG. I'm sure they're spending tons of money to get their name everywhere, right? But your model is interesting in the fact that when you're wholesaling, obviously, you have a ton of revenue coming in, but then you're paying marketing dollars.

Do you think it almost washes? For us, it doesn't. Okay. Because, like, we model out every new opportunity for growth and we make sure that. that it works for us financially. I do think, though, bigger brands with bigger marketing budgets go bigger. You know, like for like Geico, like that's, that's marketing. Those are ad dollars they're spending.

For us, we're in New York City, like, born and baked brand, you know? And so to be at the garden, that is good for them and for us. And they were really awesome in working with us to make sure it made sense for us financially. So cool. that is the model that way that is like one business model this whole show we've never talked about talked about some crazy ones last last couple weeks we had someone talk about those little mall kiosks you know where they're always coming at you when you walk in the mall and you're like they're trying to sell your lotion all the robots yeah all those things like the robots that move around

yeah the robots that move the kids toys whatever like i or the hair straighteners oh we have kiosks okay okay so we have two mall retail we have two mall locations they're like in the center of the aisle, you know, like... Yeah, yeah, in the center. That's what there's... But they were in like a hair straightener business. They were telling us that... And I have to imagine, this is not how your business operates,

but they had total flexibility in pricing. So they could come up to me and sell that straightener for $200. Yeah, no, that we don't do that. Yeah, that's what I feel like. I'm sorry, that's not weird. No, I think it's weird. I said it was weird. They took it as weird.

It's a wild, wild, wild world. All right, I want to talk about it. So we went to one of your stores. We got 25 of the mini cupcakes here. And I want to ask you first and foremost, what's your favorite flavor? Cookie dough. Buy a long shot. I used to always say it's peanut butter and jelly because it's phenomenal.

Okay. But then I found myself always reaching for cookie dough first. So it's like, you're shit. I think it's cookie dough. And for anyone that has... They're all great, honestly. They're all great. And they looks every bite.

Like, I haven't opened this yet, but I'm going to clobber all these. Every bite looks so enticing. Part of the design. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they're truly incredible. Every time, I've said this three times in like four days, which is weird. But like, every time I eat the cupcakes with my dad, we'll just like be shoving them in our mouths.

And they're just so good. Like, it's so crazy. Fifteen years later. And the quality of the product is still the same. And like, if you live in America, like, you know that is not possible. Like, find me another food in this country that has remained the same quality from 15 years ago. Literally the only one I could think of is like McDonald's like I brought up. Now, obviously you don't want to compare that.

I guarantee they've cut their costs. There you go. Like, there's no way. They probably put some chemical in there. You know what? The franchise aren't as long. Exactly.

And it never is warm anymore. All right. So 25, I buy this. First of all, for anyone that hasn't had baked by Melissa, definitely check it out. We're going to do a giveaway for a gift card. So give us five stars in their views. However, I want to just give you an idea. Packaging here is premium.

Yeah, throw me it. I think, I mean, let's, let's do it just for the cameras. Look at that. Boom, nice catch. That is premium premium packaging. Perfectly intact. Yeah, perfectly intact. Chuck it back.

There are no issues. So it definitely got through that. So the price point on this was all in about $42. And I was, I said at first, I was like a little stuff. I was like, that's a lot. But then I was like, wait a second. Look at this. And then I got to taste some.

Those are obviously open. I'm like, okay, damn, that is that good. Talk to me about how you come up with pricing. You guys had a lot of models. You've talked about your thought process. Obviously, very thoughtful business. But what are some of the steps in determining what you price things? And any advice you might have to anyone out there that's trying to price something.

Hire yourself a great CFO. I mean, my CFO is my partner in the business. I couldn't, he's the best. And, I mean, you have to have a healthy margin. You have to look at your costs of goods and labor and make sure. sure, it works for your business. So that's what we do. And unfortunately, the cost of goods continue to go up minimum wage. And like, we never pay minimum wage, but like the cost of labor and good labor continues to go up. And we've got to stay in business. We have to pay our bills.

It's as simple as that we didn't raise our prices or change our prices for the first 10 years we were in business. And we, you know, I wish we never did. But I mean, inflation is real. It's a real thing. It's like, what can you do about it? And I will say, say our product quality has not changed. I will not let it change. So I hope that we continue to make a product that appeals to everyone, which I know it does because it's so fucking delicious. And yeah. There we go. During the pandemic at all with retail closing, especially here in New York for quite some time, did your online sales make up for that? Or was that a big hit to the growth in which you guys were on? So COVID was like crazy, obviously. And,

And we started to feel the impact of COVID before it was even declared a global pandemic because people were stocking up on toilet paper and canceling their plans. And I guess the first week of March, I just like, I brought my team into the conference room, my creative and marketing team. And I'm like, dude, like, what, what's the plan for newsletters that are going out next week? Like, what's our campaign? And it was like, you know, like, yeah, like celebrate birthdays. And like, we have to change our messaging.

Like, I'm very big on our customer. Like, her name is Jordan. We've named her. Like, you know, we have to connect with Jordan. We have to, like, I am my customer, too. I understand her. And giving her a reason and, like, telling her how we add value to her life is really how we win. And so we changed our marketing message to, if you can't celebrate in person, send cupcakes.

And stock up on cupcakes because everyone was stocking up on toilet paper. and like, that's like what the news was talking about. It was such a weird time. And anyway, like, people just froze. So we did have a few weeks that were really scary. We were looking at cash flow and seeing how long we could stay in business. We decided to close all of our retail locations because first and foremost, like, human safety is like, no matter what. Like, we keep people safe.

No leadership in the country was even, like, giving any guidance. So I said, you know what? Like, if baked by Melissa could have a positive impact. and, like, impact, like, any other businesses doing the right thing, then let's be that. And we closed all of our retail locations. We focused on marketing. And, you know, after a few weeks, people started ordering cupcakes and shipping them everywhere. We really solved a problem, you know?

People still had birthdays that they needed to celebrate. We got so many messages that were so, like, they still make me emotional to, like, think about, like, oh, my 98-year-old mother. is in a nursing home. I haven't been able to see her in months and it's her birthday. And here's a picture that like the AIDS sent us. And my mom looks happy for the first time like in so long. And she's still talking about your cupcakes like months later. And it was just so cool to have an opportunity to be like a smile and like a little slice of joy in such a crazy, scary, terrible time. And ECOM really carried us through. ECOM. And I just think, too, it's pretty cool when you're doing something that's putting so many smiles on people's faces in weird times like that, but in celebration of birthdays and seasons and things like that. And it had me thinking, you talked about this summer being just a little bit slower. What season is your busiest time? When are you selling the most cupcakes? Is it summer? December time frame?

Holiday and Valentine's Day and Mother's Day and Halloween and Thanksgiving and birthday. We celebrate so. many birthdays. We are the go-to birthday gift for so many people. But birthdays are, you know, spread throughout the year. This is just like, especially with the packaging, so scalable. Are you guys in big box retailers right now? And have you thought about that? Is it on the horizon? Like, I could see these in Target just flying off the shell. We are not in big box retail right now. It feels like there's a story here. Target sells 12 cupcakes for six. dollars and their shelf stable and the quality is different but you know anything is possible i guess we'll see i will tell when you look at what's next 14 locations every year you guys have

been growing and moving and making new business moves and the timing seems perfect what is the trajectory look like five years 10 years is it their goal to be a franchise you want to be in every state like what does it look like i know you're selling e-commerce in every state but what does it look like like as you're leading the ship here. Yes. Well, you know, our goal is to continue to sell more cupcakes and make people happy with our product

that is just, you know, whatever I keep saying. I don't want to make it sound inauthentic, but it's truly the best. So yeah, we do plan to continue to expand our footprint. So we have the awareness that we have here with all of our retail locations.

And tune in for more. Sounds like something fun. might be coming. I will see what that looks like to say. I'm going to do something. I like to just do it. Yeah. Okay. So it's coming. Proof is in the pudding. Like literally, proof is in there. I want to ask a couple questions outside of the cupcake business and just the ability you had to restart and pivot the way you did. I mean, just even pivoting in that marketing direction is a huge pivot. But with your whole career, there's a lot of people that listen to this show that are lost. They're in their job. They're currently miserable in their job. They're not engaged. They're not getting paid

what they want. They don't feel any impact. They don't feel people smiling from the work they're doing. And they have no idea how to hit the restart bite. What advice do you have for them, someone who's done it at the level you have? Get another job. Okay. Well, like, I, I just have very, like, you're in control of yourself and like your future and your destiny. And if you don't like your job, then apply for other jobs. Go get another job. And if you're working from home, you really have no excuse because you could be doing that while you are actually doing the job that you hate so much that I'm sure you're not spending like all day every day doing. Was there any setbacks for you? Like obviously that was something you did. You got another job. You made your own

job. Were there any setbacks in that process? I went home and I baked cupcakes and like the introduction you give is so nice and I struggle with like whenever I do these things because you make it sounds like I did it by myself, which I didn't. You know, like it's all through rose colored glasses, which I so appreciate. But I mean, it's hard as hell. When I was fired for my job, I went home I baked my cupcakes and we almost immediately knew there was opportunity to really build this company, which is incredible and not normal. But I was also meeting with a recruiter and going on interviews for like these stupid jobs that I don't like because what were the chances? And you know what? I still even think, I don't know. I guess it's just I'm such a doer and like you

have to be proactive and I went home and baked cupcakes today. I was fired. It would have been much easier to complain and cry and feel sorry for myself, but that's not who I am. And my attitude is that I see every challenge as an opportunity to learn and grow. And if I'm not happy, then it's up to me to change that and to do something about it. The only thing I can control in this entire world is my response to the things that happen that are completely outside of my control. So like, you know, like man up and like do it. Like do whatever you want to do. And it's not overnight success, even though we make it sound like that on these interviews. It took time.

It took a really, like a lot of hard work, a ton of tears. Like I am steel now because I went through the fire. And I think that you got to go through it to truly appreciate being on the other side of it. And I still deal with shit every single day. And I think it takes like a really positive attitude to be able to smile through all of it. A little tough love, little grit, but honesty. I mean, that's raw, that's real. That's through the rose-colored lens of like,

eat your ass up and get going. Yeah, go to the gym at 5 a.m. every morning if you need to. That's what I do because I just, I need to smile and like, you know, have that attitude no matter what because I'm the leader. Yeah, and I mean, this podcast is called Trading Secrets. And I do think everyone's looking for that training secret. They're always looking for that little shortcut. And I think we're hearing from you, there isn't that.

If it was easy, everyone would do it. Yeah, we've got to like hear my dad saying that. But it's so true. And even my friends, like, wake up. Yeah, it's what I say. I mean, like, and I don't have all the answers at all. And sometimes my husband is that person to me when I need to hear it. For sure.

A little tough love. And another thing I noticed amongst my friends and people we've had in the show is don't let patterns keep repeating. Like if you keep doing the same shit, you're going to get the same results and you've got to power through and change what you're doing. I want to ask you a little bit before we get your training secret about the whole cookbook world, right? So you wrote your first book in 2017 titled Takes by Melissa. I'm writing now my second book. I know you have your second book called Come Hungry. It's actually with Harper Collins.

That's who mine's with. I've talked in depth about the book world. Everything from getting on the list to advances to how you're paid to ghostwriters, the photographers, like you name it about the book. We've shared it on this podcast. But my conclusion with the book is the book's not going to make you rich. make a couple bucks. It's a big pain in the ass. It's a nice marketing tool. But you got to have some type of deeper reason to do it. Otherwise, you're not going to keep doing it. What has been like your just business strategy and sentiment when you think about the books and the book that's coming out? So the reason I was given the opportunity to write a cookbook about salads and produce essentially is because I posted a video to TikTok that went like crazy.

viral and I continued to do that. And from a business perspective, if we're going to start there, I posted a salad to TikTok, it went viral. And I saw, when we started baked by Melissa, I didn't get the opportunity. Like, I didn't have that vision. I didn't see it. When I started posting salads and recipes to TikTok, I could not have seen it clearer. Holy shit. These people are giving me the opportunity to create a community and just can continue to deliver high-quality, consistent content. Like, I just want to, like, build the relationship with these people. So they know to come here for something.

And I had a lot of conversations with multiple people on my team that thought I was absolutely crazy. And I would always ask two questions. Like, what is more important posting videos about cupcakes or building a community of people who come to you for something? B. The latter. Great.

So I'm going to post. salads. Like, I don't know where, I don't know. But I'm in such a unique position where, like, my name's on the door. Like, it's, we did market research in 2017 and, like, we spent all this money and they literally came back and said, Melissa is the soul of the brand and whatever is inside of Melissa. So, like, I had that. Like, I believed it. Can I ask a question? Yeah. How much does that market research cost? Like, like, $80,000. It's like ridiculous. I, but you know what? It was actually worth it. Interesting. I didn't have that confidence in myself.

I'll never forget the moment they delivered that. I'm sitting in the conference room, and I was like, I needed to hear that. Yeah, interesting. And as much as, like, there's a perception of me, like, the reality is so much different. And we all go through challenges. I've gone through my own and building my confidence through my experiences with Baked by Melissa has taken, like, it's been a trip. So that was great. That gave me the confidence to really see the opportunity with, like,

recipes. And then, like, everyone just wants a cookbook. And I have my relationship with Harper Collins. And I love Lisa Sharkey, who I worked with. Like, I just love her so much. We work so well together. And so I actually was approached by a couple of publishers. And I was like, oh, crap. Like, I think, like, I have to go to Harper Collins. And so they were like, yes, let's do it. So Come Hungry is the name of the book. It's called Come Hungry because, like, growing up, like if we were going to my grandparents or people were coming to my house and ask what they could bring.

My mom, my grandma, don't bring anything, just come hungry. So like, you know, and everyone knows to come hungry to my house. My food philosophy is that if you get your nourishment and fulfillment from meal time, you could absolutely indulge in dessert every day, just like I do. I do work out, but like I just know a lot about food and like I get my nourishment from whole ingredients and vegetables.

and I eat cupcakes every damn day. And the cookbook is really just like a ton of recipes, mostly salads and toasts and of course desserts. It's how I eat. And I highly recommend it because it's so damn good and good for you. I love it. I think it's so cool. You could get it where books are sold.

Check it all out. I think also I want to just put out there like a trading secret I'm getting from your message. is you're going to stay true to your own colors. You're going to do it your way. But you're also going to be very thoughtful in the approach that you can bring to that. Like, yes, I'm going to do the salads. That's what I'm going to do. It's how I'm going to do it. But also, like you said, let's be real. You have your salads. You can have your dessert. You can do it every day. Yeah. By the way, like our core business is cupcakes. But I think that continuing to build out

the brand story of who I am and who baked by Melissa is has been incredibly beneficial to my company as a whole. I love it. I think it's awesome. It's so cool to see your success from where you were to where you are. Yes, there's a whole lot we don't see, but to hear even a little bit of it. I do think give some insight to people that are trying to do the same. But we got to end with one secret. So trading secret is something can't learn from a professor. You can't get into textbook or Google. Someone can only learn it from baked by bullet. So one, given your experience, one trading secret that can help people as they're trying to navigate their life, navigate their financials, whatever it may be. What can you leave us with? That you can do anything? Truly.

Do you think anything's at us? Like there's nothing that you can't do? Like, don't jump out the window and think you're going to fly. But like as a woman and as like a little like a 24 year old girl going to my cubicle at Deutsche advertising as an assistant media planner every day who was like, I fucking hate this job. I'm not passionate about it. I just want to find something that's fulfilling at the end of every day that like helps me sleep at night so I don't feel like I need to go out. Like I didn't like know that. But what I've learned, like my biggest learning through this experience with Bake by Melissa is that I am just like you. Like the only difference is that I have a really positive attitude. I truly see every challenge as an opportunity to

learn and grow because I know I can actually do whatever I set out to accomplish. And if I don't know how all I do is ask somebody that I think might, that I can. That I can. trust. I have built a team around me that is smarter and more capable and better at the jobs that they do than I could ever be. And I build trust. And then I ask, like, we work together. But like, if you have a goal for yourself, if you want to lose 20 pounds, you know, figure out a way to work out. Like, I wake up at 4 o'clock in the morning so I could work out every day. And I, that happened because I looked at a picture of myself and I was like, oh, like, I need to get back into shape. And so I set the goal and I do it and it has like paid off in every way, like mentally.

So yeah, you could do anything. Yeah. You say some of it, like, even though that, everything you just said there, you say it as a matter of fact, but I think you also say it like implied. There are gems you're throwing out there. I think a lot of people get so stuck in the navigation of hearing all this advice out there and just not hearing it from someone that's like, just go do it. Just go find people. Go ask them questions. stop going out, get focus on what you want to do. And I think while that seems like 101 advice, I think that honestly is going to wake some people up that need to be woken up.

I also see a future career move for you. You ready for it? I think if you would accept the role at some point, you would be a hell of a shark on Shark Tank. Thanks. You exit this business, you go on Shark Tank and you're going to be that like when Simon Cowell meets Shark Tank. All right, Shark Tank.

Anyone who works at Shark Tank listening to this? Give me a call. I'm here. I'm ready now. Because I don't think she'll ever take a deal from a shark. That's for sure. All right. Well, thank you so much for being on this episode of Training Secrets. Where can people find more baked by Melissa and everything you have going on? Baked by Melissa. Go there, make people happy with our delicious product and check us out on social media at Baked by Melissa. In the recap, we are going to review some of these cupcakes. So stay tuned for that. We have a gift card

to give away. Just give us five stars and let us know what your biggest takeaway is in the reviews. for being on sharing secrets. Thank you for having me. Ding, ding, ding! We're closing in the bell on the Baked by Melissa episode. Now, we have been coming in hot lately with pop culture galore. We have had some unbelievable guests on. We said, you know what? We just put out two episodes last week, Nick Vial, and of course, Justin and Susie exclusive. Let's get back to basics a little bit because we have so many more reality TV stars and pop culture legends in the queue. But let's get back to basics because baked by Melissa is that. She's getting into the pop culture world. She is becoming a social media star, but on top of

it, a brilliant business entrepreneur, owner, strategist. It is growing by the second. So David, we're back to basics here with Trading Secrets, baked by Melissa, and a very special Valentine's Day special here. What are you thinking? Well, I'm thinking a lot of things. One, I could just just hear the ding, ding, ding, ding, and your voice sounds like a two episode a week type of ding, ding, ding, ding. You're coming off a big week. We're coming off a big week. Two awesome guests.

And I like what you said, Jay, getting back to basics with Big Bye Belissa is a homegrown, started out of nothing, a massive, massive business that we're going to get into. But yes, Valentine's Day, let's talk about it really quick. Valentine's Day looking a little different for you this year. Overall, are you a big Valentine's Day guy or not? You know what I've learned? I've learned. I looked up some stats. It's about 20 billion bucks we spend on this holiday. On average, for the individual that celebrates, they spend about $140 per person. So there's some big bucks behind this holiday. And I immediately wanted to like jump in and be that guy that's like, Valentine's Day so stupid, just a commercial holiday. Like I wanted to do that. And I took a couple steps back. I said, you know what? Listen, every, excuse my language, fucking holiday. Almost everything we do is a commercial transaction. You know, football's on.

Everything's been branded for football. Pisa's half off. Billions are spent. So let's just like acknowledge that everything is a marketing commercial scheme, holidays or not. And we have to say, how do we prioritize it? I think it's a nice day to make things special. Do I think you need to literally go all out on Valentine's Day?

No. Should you do something to just, you know, acknowledge a special people in your life? Whether it's a value of $0 by just calling them and writing a card or something like a nice bouquet of flowers, sure. That's my take you. Yeah, I think that you're bang on there. I think baked by Belissa would agree, as she said, holidays are always her biggest days. To be honest, Jay, a quick little story. I was never, I was that person.

It's such a commercial holiday. And I've been very upfront with everybody that I've been with it. I'm not just like, don't expect a bunch from me on Valentine's Day. I remember my first Valentine's Day with Ashley. I made this very clear to her. I came home from coaching the game. It was a Sunday. It was 3 p.m.

And I didn't have flowers. And she looked at me in the eye and she goes, I don't care if you don't like Valentine's Day. I do. I want flowers. Go get me flowers. Jay, I went to 15 stores.

I went to 15 stores to look for flowers at like 4.30 p.m. on Valentine's Day. I went to Wegman's. I went to every florist. Everyone was sold out. I had to get flowers from like a gas station. They were the worst flowers in the history of flowers. And I will never make the mistake.

So if you're listening, if you're one of our 10% male audience at home who's listening, take my advice, get the damn flowers, you'll thank yourself later. Exactly. And I think even better yet, what I loved kind of goes to the book, Talk Money to me. You guys can go pre-order it on Amazon now. But what I love is that you had a conversation to say, hey, you know, what does it mean to you? Even though it was a little backdoor conversation that you're told, but like, now you know, right? So I think that's what Valentine says. That's my, like, as someone who's in the personal finance space, what I would tell you is see what the priority of Valentine's Day is to you

and your significant other and adjust accordingly because there's a million days, there's a million places. But if it's important to you, then celebrate it. Live it up, do it. Now, for me, David, it's going to be a little different this year. You know, I'll call mom, you know, maybe write mom a card, but, you know, grandma, step grandma Liz. But other than that, man, it's going to just be chill. I'm not like, as a guy who's single, I'm not going on a date on Valentine's Day. That's for sure. You're not going on your first, like, let's grab a drink or cup of coffee date on February 14th. I'll tell you that much. No, you just got to find your other single guy friends and just go over for some drinks and revel and where you guys are at. That's all you got to do.

You can write me a card if you want. So, you know, happy Valentine's Day to you, happy Valentine's Day to everyone else out there. Yeah. And you know what? You talked about single. Being single is expensive. Oh, gosh. It's exhausting, too, by the way. Like having to socialize. Then you gotta go here, you know, let's go do that. Let's go do that. I'm like, oh my God, I liked being in a relationship where I could just, you know, go to bed at 9 p.m. and wake up with a person at 8 a.m. and repeat it over and over. I'm exhausted.

I love how you said being single is exhausting. And then you immediately correlated exhausting to socializing. I got to socialize. It's exhausting. That's just a funny, funny take, funny perspective of everything. but speaking of perspectives and like you said back to basics Melissa gave us tons of information about her industry obviously a crazy success and I'm going to really lean into the back to basics like you said because you know the voice of the viewer the curious Canadian he's here for the people

and if I don't know something that's in the episode and I need something that's kind of explained I need to ask you so you can you can educate me and everyone else so I got two things for you before we get into any other details or numbers in the episode if you're good with that Two things. David, it's good that the curious Canadian is staying curious. So my man, you fire away. What do you got? So one thing that she mentioned was talking about vertically integrated. And she basically said when you were bringing up her rent in New York City, which I was really curious about, she said, we're really lucky because we're vertically integrated. We can operate at a 300 square foot, 600 square foot, et cetera, et cetera. So what does vertically integrated mean? Is it a money term? Is it a money term? Is it a production term? What does it mean? So the big thing behind vertical integration, a lot of these business words, you can just break them down by what that kind of sounds like. So vertical, obviously, just think of like a straight line, vertical, and then integration,

putting things together. So the idea is when you have a straight line of vertical integration in business, essentially what it allows you to do is accelerate what you're doing and how you're doing it in the most efficient way because you have this vertical line, this streamline, if you will, to do it yourself without outsourcing it to other contractors, suppliers, et cetera. So I'll give you the most basic example. Imagine you're a contractor. So every day you're building homes, right? You know how to build homes. And you're building your own home. That's vertical integration. You don't need a contractor. You don't need other people to help you. You don't need suppliers. Like you have it all

within your realm. That's like a very, very basic example. Does that kind of make sense? It makes perfect sense. And it was opposite of what I was kind of thinking. So I like this. like that example. Good to get back to our roots there and get a little educated here. Yeah. Like if you take about like the, just think like basic raw material in her example, like they have the basic raw materials. They have the one manufacturing plant that they use. They have the final assembly and distribution. And then they have the stores in which they sell and online. So like they control the process literally from start to finish as a result of that when there's all these changes in supply and demand and all these things. They're not as impacted

because they have full control over each of it. It's not like one person goes out. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. And see, you're telling me it's more a production process term. I didn't know if it was a finance term. So there we go. That's why we do the recap.

I'm going to go 201. For my listeners, I got that next level, business acumen. When I used to analyze companies to look at the strength of companies, there's two things I used to do, I look at, well, there's a lot of things, but I would look at AR and AP. AR is accounts receivable. So where is money coming in from? Okay. AP is who are they paying? They're vendors. So in this example, if they were paying a vendor a very large amount and they had a high concentration in payables, it would raise a bit of a red flag to me because if that vendor went out of business,

then their business is screwed up. For example, suppose I am a paper company and I sell colored paper, tie-dye paper, it's special paper. But the basic white paper I get only comes from one vendor. And you could see I'm paying that vendor. And I only have one vendor that operates my whole company. If that vendor goes out of business, there's no more paper for me to sell. So when you're talking about vertical integration too, like looking at accounts payable is really big to see what concentration of payments do they have with certain vendors and how critical are those vendors to dictating the success of their business? I think that was 2001 version instead of the 201 version because I was a little bit way over my head, but I liked it.

I also can see exactly why you got out of that industry because that sounds like the boringest possible job that I could ever think of. Congratulations on that. That's why I was passing out of bathroom floor is miserable. Got it. Exactly. I love it. So the next quick question, and like you said, sometimes you just got to word it out and I think I know exactly what this is, but I'm going to put it up. out there. You talked about if they raised any capital. She said they got their first investment in

2013, five years after they opened. But they said that they used a lot of human capital. Can I just guess it or do you want to explain it? Or don't you guess what human capital is? I think human capital is just like blood sweat and tears. Like we just used all, like we had the five co-founders kind of live it and we just drained all of our human resources in human capital into the product. Exactly. It's literally, it's precise. I mean, that's like the, that's That's the very curious Canadian definition, but it's like, if you think about the human capital you have, like the human capital you and I have for trading secrets, it's the knowledge, it's the skills, it's your sense of humor, it's all the things that, you know, we invest and accumulate

through education and experiences in our lives, and then we're able to bring them as productive people to this business, right? So human capital is exactly what you said. Well, that makes a lot of sense then. Proud of me for that. Checkmark for that. Couple things that I have to mention in this one, I've never had a baked by Melissa Cupcake, so shame on me. You think that I'd be one of the 300 million cupcakes that they've sold. But I got to say, baked by Melissa is a masterclass in confidence because I don't think anyone is more sure of anything in the entire world than she is of how good her cupcakes

are. So have you tried one? Have you not tried one? If not, do we need to do a review? Maybe put on our IG, what's your take on this? I actually, let's talk about this for a second. kind of love Melissa's confidence. Like, oh my God.

Like, it was, it's, it's an attractive quality. Like, she just steps to the room. It's like, she's got, Melissa, if you're listening to this, this is, I can say this. And I mean it the, like, literally the most complimentary way ever, but she's got the, like, I don't give a fuck energy. Oh, big time. Dude, I couldn't, I listened to the episode and I couldn't see the video. And I pictured when I was listening to the episode, I'm like, she's definitely lean back in the chair, in the coach.

feet are probably on the table, like in Jay's face, and she's just spitting straight confidence in what her product is and her brand is. And it was incredible. Like, it was, it was incredible to, like, try and picture the confidence that she exuded. Yeah. She left. She left. I said, Evan, I'm like, she's a boss. Like, complete boss. But we're doing a giveaway right now on Instagram, right? So go to Trading Secrets Podcast, Instagram right now, and go enter the giveaway post. So it's a little Valentine's Day, Cupcake, Cookbook, all the good stuff. She's a New York Times best seller for a cookbook, huge big deal. Go enter that giveaway.

So, David, go enter it. But they're under like these little cupcakes, okay? And they have all different flavors. And the packaging, as you heard and saw on YouTube, us chuck in the packaging. If you haven't subscribed to YouTube, go check out our YouTube channel and go watch us. Chuck the packaging. It's hilarious. They are unbelievable, David.

And I know everyone hates the word moist. That's not a good word here. But just... It is in the cupcake world. In the cupcake world, it is. Like, every bite was like, juicy. It was unbelievable. I'm going to go on the record.

I'm going to actually do this. And this is not because I know baked by Melissa, or she was a guest. Best cupcake I ever had. 100%, seriously. It's January 28th. Can I get sent somewhere, or maybe I just got to look to buy some either or I'm totally fine. It's January 28th.

Let's do her a review. Let's put it on our IG on, on, on, Valentine's Day of us reviewing and scoring baked by Melissa cupcakes. How does that sound? Yeah, it sounds amazing. I also like a little inside scoop for my money mafia back there. A little trading secrets behind the scenes. I didn't know baked by Melissa. Now, I want to say that I am one of the very few people that don't know her, right? Like everyone I talked to when they, when baked by Melissa came up as a guest, everyone's like, of course, duh, you know, my brother. Yeah, I've had a million of a cupcakes like no brainer. Everyone knows it, right? I am convinced the sole reason that Evan was like,

we have to have baked by Melissa on is so Evan can get free cupcakes to bring back to Betsy to his wife because I'm telling you, David, this episode, she brought us all these cupcakes. And Evan was like literally stealing a ball. I'm like, dude, some of those for me, he brought back like 50,000 to his wife and him. And I'm like, I'm pretty sure we had this episode. episode for you. Like only you. I'm glad we did. She's amazing. I watch everything she does. Now, she does this cooking shit on Instagram. Her food's amazing. Her entrepreneurship. Now I'm so glad, but I'm pretty sure it was for the three cupcakes. That's why Evan booked her. I wouldn't, I wouldn't slide it past Evan. Look, he's the master of booking guests. And a lot of it,

you know, if 99% of the reasons for trading secrets, it 1% for Evan and Betsy at home, you know, then we're good. Little cupcakes in the cupboard. Never heard anybody. And he nailed it. Now, David, I know the recap is usually your thing, but I got a question for. For you. One thing I really like, they talked about how much money they spent on marketing consulting, only to learn that she is the product. But the other thing she talked about is when she was beating up to her team up a little bit. She's like, guys, we have to reinvent ourselves. We can't just step and repeat. We have to think differently. We're in this pandemic. We have to adjust. And she said, what would Jordan do? And she referred to what her customer base is as Jordan. And I was thinking,

we obviously have the money mafia as our community, but like, what's the name of our listener? Yeah, it's not Karen. Fuck, no. And I, you know, I feel, don't you sometimes feel bad for people named Karen? Because there's a lot of great Karens. Yeah, it's like, it's like I feel bad for guys named Brad and Chad, too. Same thing. Yeah, but, yeah.

So here's what I'll say. Let's think about it. Go give us five stars in Apple right now and just put literally one name. What is the name of our viewing audience? Let's see what people come up with. We'll read that list next week. I like that. David, what else you got as we wrap this episode?

Well, I also don't hate Jordan because it's girl and guy, too. You can be used for a girl. It can't use for a guy. So I actually don't hate Jordan as the person. But can't steal that for baked by Melissa. I think the last thing that I got is this. She talked about TikTok and how she got the N-Men's brand deal, Weight Watchers, cupcakes, salad that she was doing went viral and got her the book

that ultimately led to the book deal through Harper's Collins. She has an Instagram following it's 850K. She didn't go on a TV show. She doesn't go on the shopping network. She never been on Shark Tank. I just talk really quickly and wrap this up of how hard is it to organically create an Instagram following of 850K with a food product and just overall bring the media empire that she has on top of the food empire that she started.

It's so hard. I mean, it's so hard, right? Like, think about, go look at all the business owners out there, like the people that are really well-known business owners, like even the Sharks from Shark think they've done a really good job growing their social in the last couple years. But like a Michael Rubin, like some of the people that Mark Lorry, a lot of these people that are only known for business leadership, but to also grow social media as a creator is so hard. And the other thing that I talk about is it just takes so much time and effort and

consistency. So if you're actually operating a 300 million cupcakes serving company and then still have the ability to create some of the killer content, which she does, it's extremely, extremely impressive. Do you think that if you were baked by Melissa, she says she eats cupcakes every damn day, do you think if you owned a cupcake company that you could eat a cupcake every day or do you think you get sick of them? Well, the best part about these days is they're like, it's perfect with these little like quarter size bites. So you know when you finish a meal and you don't want to go for like the full bowl of ice cream or something, you just want like a little pitch of a little sweet tooth. Like you take a little piece of that chocolate.

That's what it's like. So very, very doable. Love it. Well, overall, an amazing episode, you know, she, there was really some great takeaways on there. I can't wait. I'm like salivating, wanting to eat a cupcake. So go on the Instagram, enter the, enter the giveaway. Jay, let's get some baked by Melissa cupcakes. February, we'll put on our trading secrets, IG. We'll review them all for you guys and announce winners of the sweet takes there. That is a beautiful thing. David, last week was an epic week for our podcast. Two episodes for the first time ever went out. Both of them were some of the most downloaded episodes that we've had in quite some time. YouTube is off the

chains right now. So if you are on here listening to us, please also go to YouTube and subscribe to us. The podcast is moving. Two episodes a week are going to come. Now, last week we're two episodes with a guest. We're not going to do that. We're going to have another episode. It's coming soon. And it's going to be Q&A. We want to bring you guys on. You guys come on for five, ten minutes. You trade your secrets and it's going to be a little bit more trading secrets, loving money, if you will, right? We'll still talk money. But I think we're to talk a little love and life as well. So that's coming. We just know that once we go live with it, there's no turning back. So you know that with us. We're consistent. We've been doing it for

three years and we say we're going to do something. We do it. We do it full speed. So that is coming. Be prepared for the launch and when it comes, it will be here to stay. And the last thing I got to tell you, David, one of the things you wanted to make sure we did this year is get merch. I got news for you. We got merch. The hat that I wear day in and day out, the T.S. logo, we're going to do other designs, other colors, probably even signature hats with other creators. But if you want the first ever limited edition, the first OG limited edition, they will be on sale in the next week. We have our supplier, we have the website design, we have pricing, it'll be live in the next week. So go check it out on my website, jason tarduk.com, or go to the

link in the Trading Secrets Bio and you could find it. David, you got anything else before we wrap? No, fired up for that. Another great episode. Another great episode. And for my business people, I hope you enjoyed this entrepreneur. And for my pop culture people, holy hell, we got a list of people coming up. Kit Keenan is on the radar. Jacks Taylor. We got Angelina from Jersey Shore, Hannah Godwin. We have so many more. Francesca Farago. I mean, it's packed, David. It is jam packed. You got anything? No, wrap it up.

Thank you for tuning into another episode of Trague Secrets. One, it couldn't afford to miss.