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Marquita and Deven Carter Founders of Blanket Pancakes & Syrup On Black Business & Entrepreneurship
Jul 7, 2022
Entrepreneurs Marquita and Deven Carter turned a tough situation into a booming new business. The owners of Blanket Pancakes & Syrup stopped by Sway In The Morning to talk about how their business came about and where to purchase.
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Marquita and Deven Carter Founders of Blanket Pancakes & Syrup On Black Business & Entrepreneurship
https://youtu.be/FVecqviRNHc
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0:00
citizens this way in the morning that um
0:03
clip right there you're hearing the
0:04
voices of marquita and devin carter it's
0:07
funny because tracy g and mike muse and
0:10
myself were just talking about
0:12
you know how we came to know
0:15
these two beautiful people and it
0:17
started here with a platform that in the
0:20
segment that we do with sway chats
0:23
and people would call up and say hey i
0:25
have an idea or hey i think this is a
0:28
great idea i have a company or business
0:30
and there was a young man that called
0:31
i'll never forget he was from north
0:32
carolina
0:34
and he was like y'all need to know about
0:35
blanket pancakes we were like are you
0:37
saying blake what are you talking about
0:40
blanket blanket like a blanket y'all
0:41
need to know about blanket pancakes
0:43
they're down here it's healthy um i
0:46
think we were talking about high
0:47
fructose corn syrup and i started
0:49
talking about my dad and his experience
0:51
with diabetes ultimately losing my dad
0:54
um due to his experience with diabetes
0:56
and all the things that i found out what
0:58
causes it um the foods that we eat what
1:01
to read on different labels and so
1:04
your product came up and we started
1:06
following you we started talking about
1:08
you we reached out to you all the
1:10
different things
1:12
it reminds me though after talking to
1:14
mike and tracy a little while ago
1:17
as i was saying it how we met you guys i
1:19
thought about god i thought about
1:21
how sometimes you could just randomly be
1:24
home in your house or something may
1:26
happen to you and your family that's a
1:27
tragedy almost or could start to be a
1:30
tragedy and something beautiful will
1:32
come out of it you know you may get a
1:34
health scare you may
1:36
lose somebody due to some something and
1:38
in the midst of all of those ashes if
1:41
you will there's something beautiful
1:43
that god can put in your spirit and if
1:45
you are obedient and if you are
1:48
disciplined
1:49
it's the miracle is like right there and
1:53
i'm like my goodness we have never
1:56
physically laid eyes on these people
1:57
this started from a guy
2:00
randomly calling this show i don't think
2:02
people realize how hard it is to get
2:05
into a radio show for people to answer
2:07
your call
2:08
it so many things have to align with you
2:11
during the course of the day from the
2:13
time you wake up
2:15
brush your teeth stop maybe answer
2:16
another call to even turn the radio on
2:19
to hear a segment then you take a chance
2:21
and dial it could be busy maybe you call
2:24
back you get the call then if you look
2:26
at this phone board somebody now has to
2:29
pick and decide which call they're gonna
2:30
take
2:31
the odds of that happening slim to none
2:34
i'm not even kidding you
2:36
so when i sit here today and see the two
2:38
of y'all i see nothing but god
2:41
god's miracle because it's unbelievable
2:43
that this started with a phone call
2:45
somebody's saying y'all need to know
2:47
about blanket pancakes fast forward we
2:50
are in 500
2:53
full lion stores damn it don't tell me
2:56
god ain't real show's over tone show's
2:58
over
2:59
welcome to the show marquita and devon
3:03
carter man round of applause
3:06
yes
3:07
that was great yeah and necessary and
3:10
accurate
3:11
that sums up exactly
3:14
what devin and i have honestly been
3:17
and we really do call our business a god
3:19
business like he's literally
3:22
pa painting our path yeah um so well
3:25
first and foremost glory be to god amen
3:28
because he's brought us on his platform
3:29
you know be able to share our story we
3:31
give all honor to him you know the way
3:33
we refer to our business is god's
3:34
business he just gave us stewardship
3:36
over his work
3:37
because really you know we just stepped
3:39
out on faith
3:40
you know i remember telling you before
3:41
about how our story started marquita you
3:44
know going through health complications
3:45
before she was pregnant with our second
3:46
son gave us the motivation of starting
3:48
the business and to me that is like
3:51
things don't line up this perfect
3:54
just out of happiness you know this
3:56
isn't this isn't a luck thing you know
3:58
god or preordain us to have this
4:00
business
4:01
even the situation with her having her
4:03
complicated having hypertension
4:04
preeclampsia you know pregnant on a
4:06
second son but giving her the motivation
4:08
to step out and start a business she had
4:10
her spirit for years
4:12
but you know it seemed like there was
4:14
never a good enough time you know i was
4:15
kind of starting the business kind of
4:17
like having kids you're never going to
4:18
be ready
4:19
how much you prepare you'll never be
4:20
fully ready to take on that work and
4:23
being able to
4:25
you know just tell my wife you know
4:27
don't worry about going back to work you
4:30
know when you don't want maternity leave
4:31
just take off and just start the
4:32
business
4:33
start your goal we'll we'll figure it
4:35
out and i would tell you that was faith
4:38
oh yeah because we went from two income
4:41
you know a two-income household
4:43
with two babies with two babies
4:46
and he was a full-time student and any
4:48
residual from the complications you were
4:50
dealing with from the pregnancy health
4:52
you know
4:53
yes
4:54
it was 100
4:56
when you when you when they say faith
4:59
walking it out believing in god and and
5:02
just really just looking first at
5:04
kingdom and just really believing in
5:05
what he told you
5:07
is so true and that's honestly yeah
5:10
wow
5:12
888-742-3345 we have the owners of
5:15
blanket pancakes here any questions you
5:17
may want to ask them citizens they are
5:19
here and some of you may remember you
5:21
know that call when when that corner
5:23
citizen called in and said y'all need to
5:25
know about blanket pancakes i'll never
5:27
forget it tracy g well the first
5:29
question is why pancakes like what is
5:31
your earliest memory of pancakes that
5:33
made this the centerpiece of this
5:35
business yes so
5:36
when i was going through my health com
5:38
complications you know my husband he was
5:40
a full-time student as i said before and
5:44
having a busy lifestyle you have to have
5:46
something really quick and easy and my
5:48
doctor pretty much gave me a choice he
5:49
said listen you have a choice because
5:51
you you you know you're we we can try to
5:54
do this holistically where you can
5:56
change your diet or i can give you these
5:58
pills or whatever the case may be
6:00
or you could stay on bed rest and i said
6:02
you know i had to ask god i said okay i
6:04
know i have to change something and what
6:07
i'm going to try to do is um change
6:09
holistically first so my husband had to
6:12
be the one to kind of take that that
6:16
not you
6:18
you're hearing db's voice from you from
6:20
the phone okay
6:22
hold on okay so my husband had to
6:24
basically take on that that that just
6:27
cooking i'm cooking and he's not a
6:28
cooker like he could
6:30
but like going in the kitchen like
6:32
heather b we watch you and it's like no
6:40
[Laughter]
6:42
so we had to we had to you know honestly
6:45
just getting in the kitchen i had the
6:46
one number one going to the grocery
6:48
store that was my first option yeah when
6:49
we went through the growth to the
6:50
grocery store it was not like the
6:53
preservatives everything all the
6:54
additives for quick and easy foods
6:57
it was just not something that we could
6:59
i think for me personally pancakes and
7:01
syrup has just always been our go-to
7:03
breakfast meal yeah you know it's always
7:05
you know something you can you know whip
7:06
up really quick you know give the kids
7:08
usually no complaints you just give them
7:09
a bunch of syrup and they'll be fine
7:11
right so you know we really just wanted
7:13
to make sure that um you know as we
7:16
embarked on kind of this whole lifestyle
7:18
change
7:19
find ways to make it so it wasn't you
7:21
know
7:22
overly difficult yes to you know to go
7:24
through this this lifestyle change so
7:26
you know take your favorite meal first
7:28
something quick and easy and then see if
7:31
we can divert that and then soon after
7:33
that we started working on pretty much
7:35
all of our recipes so we converted
7:37
everything to all natural
7:38
but
7:39
the pancake dessert was something that
7:41
was really a big hit with our family and
7:42
friends
7:43
you know and they were like i got
7:44
something you should really do something
7:45
with this so we started going to farmers
7:47
markets um at first we had just the
7:50
cereal products yeah so we went to our
7:51
local farmer's markets and let people
7:53
taste the products and you know got some
7:55
reviews and we started playing with some
7:56
flavors tweaking it and then we're like
7:58
all right well let's go do the pancake
7:59
mix and see how other people think about
8:01
that
8:02
so we end up with
8:04
you know the three pancake syrups and
8:06
then we did the four mixes where we had
8:08
three mixes originally but everybody
8:10
started asking for vegans so yeah you
8:12
know it's like okay well now we get some
8:13
traction
8:14
and
8:15
that gave us kind of the inspiration
8:17
motivation the you know
8:19
the design of the practice the lay of
8:20
everything like you know based on just
8:22
the feedback we were getting and you
8:23
know just the energy just going with it
8:25
and good for y'all for really taking
8:27
that feedback because
8:29
a lot of times folks can forget that
8:31
your customers or potential customers
8:33
are also your teammates and you know
8:35
when you first get into business
8:37
sometimes you're very like sensitive
8:38
because it's like all right if people
8:40
gonna like this you're really just
8:41
looking for
8:42
positive feedback in a way that says
8:44
everything you're doing is perfect but
8:46
you guys having the humility to be like
8:48
no really what do you want and knowing
8:50
that that's a win for y'all as well
8:52
because then you can tweet come back
8:54
it's gonna be like there it is perfect i
8:56
think it's such a great lesson thank you
8:58
absolutely see i always say a failure is
9:00
never a failure it's an opportunity
9:02
so you know that gives us a chance to
9:04
learn and grow from that yes so we've
9:06
had plenty of ups and downs you know
9:09
the business but with every opportunity
9:11
we had to you know we took a step back
9:13
you know had some introspection and i
9:14
said okay let's do this differently next
9:17
time you know let's see how we can get
9:19
more excellent yeah you know and that
9:21
that's just that's the thing that's the
9:23
word that we use for our business it's
9:24
excellent
9:25
we don't want to release anything that's
9:27
not excellent if we didn't put our whole
9:29
heart and soul in it if we didn't really
9:31
do the due diligence to make sure it
9:32
worked right just don't do it yeah
9:34
because god is excellent
9:36
the way he deals with us is excellent
9:37
and if we're going to represent him we
9:39
need to make sure we're showing the true
9:40
image of christ i love it amen
9:42
888-742-3345
9:45
marquita and devin carter are here
9:47
owners of blanket pancakes if you have
9:48
any questions call us up mike muse
9:50
yeah fantastic story i'm curious we have
9:52
a lot of listeners who listen to show
9:54
who possibly are ideating on a food
9:57
product
9:58
and i'm always curious when i talk with
9:59
entrepreneurs who are food based uh
10:02
about scale right so can you talk to us
10:05
in in terms of those individuals who are
10:06
out there who have a product they're
10:08
thinking about their ideating on
10:10
how do you scale that so how do you go
10:11
from ideation to a product right if you
10:15
can just talk to a little bit about that
10:16
sure i can speak to that i will say
10:19
the word
10:20
that always sticks out to me is to be
10:21
intentional
10:23
so
10:24
there are opportunities where you know
10:25
someone may give you an opportunity to
10:27
say get in a big box grocery store but
10:29
are you really prepared to handle that
10:31
you know
10:32
yep you know do you have the inventory
10:34
in hand what does your logistics look
10:35
like so you should have a full thorough
10:37
plan behind that before you really start
10:39
introducing your brand to the public you
10:41
know we took about a whole year
10:44
yeah to really scale up and ramp up to
10:45
the point where we could be a customer
10:47
you know a vendor to grocery stores um
10:50
our e-commerce business complete
10:51
separate we could do everything pretty
10:52
much in-house you know we kept a small
10:54
team costs were very low so you know we
10:56
did really great in that market but as
10:59
we started looking to branch out we need
11:01
to make sure we had several partners
11:03
lined up in terms of manufacturing our
11:05
products you know how do you you know
11:08
ship your products to your customer
11:10
it takes a lot of time on the back end
11:12
to really work through it and there's a
11:13
lot of paperwork involved with that
11:14
and you know we didn't have anyone to
11:16
show us that path unfortunately
11:19
so we've always tried to leverage our
11:21
skills and our experiences to help us
11:22
others you know coming up and who has a
11:24
food business we've always made
11:26
ourselves available to anyone you know
11:28
who's had a question about you know what
11:30
it's like
11:31
because that process just took so long
11:33
for us to get we really had to find
11:34
everything out the hard way one more
11:36
question without giving away any
11:37
proprietary information but when it
11:38
comes to like your ingredients right
11:40
like can you talk to us a little bit
11:41
about that did you have a test kitchen
11:43
you know were you doing this inside your
11:44
own home like how did you play with the
11:46
bulk and ingredients to make the
11:49
packaging don't do anything proprietary
11:50
but just you know individuals who are
11:52
thinking about making the sauce or yeah
11:54
that's all you know i i i would honestly
11:57
say start from home first
11:59
you know you get in the kitchen you you
12:02
basically test what you have and that's
12:04
what i did and i basically used
12:06
ingredients that i knew my body can
12:08
understand because going back to the
12:10
reasoning why we created it you know we
12:12
created it to be clean simple
12:15
easy to cook but still good wholesome
12:17
ingredients that your body can recognize
12:20
so
12:21
when you create a product if you're
12:22
thinking about creating a sauce or
12:25
in our case a syrup or whatever the case
12:27
may be you have to really think about
12:29
the reasoning first and when you get
12:31
that reasoning you begin to do you know
12:34
find the ingredients that match with
12:35
that reasoning to create hear me i'm
12:38
going to see one of the packages so i
12:40
could uh speak to the citizens directly
12:42
about it that you guys have four flavors
12:44
now speak on that devin we have our
12:47
buttermilk our chocolate chip our honey
12:49
butter which is my favorite and we have
12:51
a vegan pancake mix every single one of
12:53
their flavors is my favorite i i hit
12:55
them up randomly i'm like yo what up
12:58
okay i need something this because when
12:59
i make them i'll do like mike muse knows
13:01
um i'll do like an event or something at
13:04
my place and sometimes we're doing
13:07
breakfast dinners and it's it's all
13:09
themed out fish and grits pancakes and
13:11
sausages waffles and what and you guys
13:14
everybody has really really flipped out
13:16
over your product especially having a
13:18
vegan option you know with people now in
13:20
health i literally just did a show
13:22
yesterday um hb live about learning how
13:25
to read labels i don't think people are
13:27
properly reading food labels they don't
13:29
understand it it's not designed for us
13:31
to really understand so when i turn this
13:33
over and sugar is the main thing that
13:36
people do not pay attention to it's what
13:38
causes so many of these the health
13:41
crisis that we're dealing with in our
13:43
community um total carbohydrates people
13:46
can figure that out but when it says
13:48
total sugars six grams included two
13:52
grams of added sugar that's it
13:55
that's it a lot of times people see
13:57
sugar and is 18 grams but you're not
14:00
paying attention to the added grams and
14:02
then it's 34
14:04
or 34 grams before that's a lot of sugar
14:07
you don't have to worry about that with
14:09
this product which i think you guys did
14:10
a beautiful job with doing i think this
14:13
is unbelievable and it's helping out so
14:16
many of us in the community just in
14:17
terms of health real talk it's good and
14:20
it's great but the fact that you guys
14:22
took into consideration this sugar and
14:24
everything else unbelievable thank you
14:27
yeah the biggest thing is we wanted to
14:28
be health conscious because we know for
14:30
a lot of people just saying i'm going to
14:32
be
14:33
you know vegan or i'm going keto that's
14:35
not a reality for a lot of people
14:36
because not everyone can be that
14:38
diligent with their diet you know a lot
14:40
of people slip so we want to give people
14:41
a healthier alternative than what
14:43
they're accustomed to so you know as
14:45
you're transitioning you don't have to
14:47
feel like you're sacrificing your taste
14:49
you know or you know enjoying food in
14:52
the process which is why we have taste
14:55
good naturally on our products because
14:57
we want people to always know that you
14:58
don't have to sacrifice one for the
15:00
other absolutely agree 888
15:02
742-3345 got a lot of phone calls here
15:05
people want to talk to you start with ej
15:07
he's calling out of west virginia what
15:09
up e
15:10
what up good morning fam how you doing
15:12
sam how are we doing say hello to me yes
15:14
baby say hello to marquita and devin
15:18
marquita devin how we doing i wanted to
15:20
salute you guys because i was there on
15:23
the sway chats i've been a long time
15:25
listener um og citizen and i remember
15:28
catching that and just being from west
15:29
virginia it was like oh shoot they're
15:31
right outside of charlotte let me check
15:32
them out
15:33
so i did and i couldn't get anything at
15:35
the time but i just went online as soon
15:38
as i heard blanket pancakes i went
15:40
online scooped up the honey butter
15:42
scooped up the uh the og pancake mix as
15:45
well so i can't wait to get it in now
15:47
because it's just the power of
15:48
manifestation and sway in the morning
15:50
and what we're doing for good folks like
15:52
you guys salute to your that's very nice
15:54
to say ej you're gonna love it love it
15:57
love it love it and make sure you got yo
15:58
you guys still doing like the
16:00
vanilla and cinnamon the cinnamon syrup
16:02
and stuff absolutely man listen you
16:04
better add that in your cart ej stop
16:06
playing you're a citizen basically wait
16:08
a moment listen we got curtis on the
16:10
line calling in from maryland what up
16:12
kirk
16:13
what's going on family what's up baby
16:15
today good morning good morning i just
16:17
wanted to give you guys a a huge
16:19
congratulations and shout out um
16:23
much much much success to you guys yeah
16:26
and heather i needed this today um i
16:28
haven't been able to really listen to
16:30
you guys since the pandemic
16:32
um and i literally just pulled up to my
16:35
storage unit um i owned the gym i had to
16:37
close it due to covid
16:39
um
16:40
and i've been just toying with
16:42
persevering and like and so i have
16:44
literally
16:45
a 6 000 square foot gym that i'm about
16:48
to start unpacking and
16:51
i haven't literally listened to you guys
16:52
in probably
16:54
two years
16:55
and um i was like let me just put on
16:58
shade 45 because i'm in my wife's car
17:00
her um serious works it doesn't work in
17:03
my car and
17:04
um
17:06
to just hear what you were saying with
17:07
god and timing and
17:09
um as as i literally was about to put on
17:12
gloves to start unpacking all this stuff
17:14
and like you know and then to hear your
17:16
guys success um
17:18
you know i really needed that today you
17:21
know like
17:22
i'm about to get sweaty and do some real
17:24
grunt work but i i believe in health um
17:27
i believe that you know i've written a
17:29
book diabetes and and hey hey hey what's
17:32
the name let's give you some light kurt
17:34
what's the name of your book
17:36
um the book is called the itis revealed
17:38
the itis revealed is it on amazon
17:42
yes it is i'm actually in the in the
17:44
process of re of relaunching it but it's
17:47
a look at sugar's role through history
17:49
how it fueled the slave trade how it's
17:51
still enslaving us today and how we can
17:53
finally break free from its shackles wow
17:56
um so i'm a big pro believer in cutting
17:59
out sugar processed carbs i will be
18:01
buying your pancake mix i don't eat
18:03
pancakes because of that but i will now
18:05
so i'm really looking forward to hitting
18:07
my food lion and um i just want to big
18:09
all you guys up man
18:12
wild timing i mean i literally put the
18:14
car in park devon curtis
18:17
it's divine accept that confirmation
18:19
brother just accept it i used to try to
18:21
fight it to curtis you can't make this
18:23
up curtis you actually sent me this book
18:25
i believe did you i you know what i did
18:27
i said i sent you guys the book
18:30
literally as coveted hit yes so i don't
18:33
know if you got the copies i sent them
18:35
to all you guys i remember yes we got it
18:38
i got it yes yeah i ain't get mine
18:39
curtis let me go back in that office and
18:41
find out what's good
18:43
it was literally like as everything was
18:45
shutting down okay i would love to send
18:47
you guys another copy but hey i just
18:49
wanted to thank you i needed this thank
18:51
you congratulations amen god bless you
18:52
brother
18:53
god bless you you got this curtis for
18:55
sure quentin you're on the line calling
18:57
in from the shop what's your question
18:59
for marquita and devon what's going on
19:01
with you quentin first of all good
19:03
morning good morning flowers to to you
19:05
heather tracy db mike muse everybody and
19:10
congratulations to marquita and devin
19:12
yeah so i'm in the process of doing the
19:14
same thing i want to scale my business
19:16
to the point where i can be in stores so
19:19
my question for marquita and devin is
19:21
what was the biggest hurdle that you had
19:23
to overcome to get there
19:27
wow because
19:28
it's a it's a lot
19:30
i think the biggest
19:32
be real about it i think the the biggest
19:34
is what um my husband said earlier you
19:37
know you really do have to plan for it
19:38
and i know that's like such a huge
19:41
gap for what
19:43
you know i'm trying to say for me the
19:44
best because you know the finance stuff
19:46
yeah the biggest hurdle was really just
19:48
making sure that your forecasts were
19:49
right you understood what the demand was
19:51
from you know looking for the stores so
19:53
if you're looking at a specific store
19:54
let's say
19:56
a local grocer find out what the total
19:58
store account is then ask yourself
20:00
if you're going to propose you know
20:02
having your products into the store how
20:04
many of those stores can use can you
20:06
really service and then you know
20:07
regionalize if it's a nationwide store
20:09
chain regionalize that initial ask make
20:12
it very realistic to them
20:14
um
20:15
so did you guys start with one store or
20:17
was it automatically like all the food
20:19
lines in in virginia
20:21
so we started with just local and all
20:23
the food alliance in north carolina so
20:25
that's about 500 stars in the
20:26
devastation wow but we only started with
20:29
two products
20:30
because we didn't want to
20:32
overwhelm ourselves either that was
20:34
something about a lot more manageable
20:36
for us we could manage the distribution
20:38
on those orders you know it was
20:40
something we could do with our smaller
20:41
team
20:42
but for the next girl round we made sure
20:44
that you know we were positioned to do
20:45
at least four skus so the next store we
20:48
entered into was actually i'm sorry i
20:50
forgot to tell you but we're in world
20:51
market as well so we'll nationwide
20:55
also in walmart as well walmart and
20:58
world market yes nice
20:59
walmart we said nope let's keep it local
21:02
let's keep it small right now the
21:04
walmart's a giant so we focus primarily
21:06
on just the carolinas to get started
21:09
and then our next phase of pushing is
21:11
going to be strictly just the northeast
21:14
you know we're going to stay on the east
21:16
coast because that helps us manage our
21:18
distribution yeah
21:19
so you know really um it's always great
21:21
to be ambitious and have faith but also
21:23
write your vision down to make it plain
21:25
and make sure it's realistic because the
21:27
retailers want to make sure you have a
21:29
plan for success well that's one of
21:31
their main questions when you meet with
21:33
a retailer they will ask you what can
21:35
you handle
21:36
where do you see your products and how
21:39
do you know how well do you see your
21:40
products being in a particular location
21:42
so that's why i said the biggest thing
21:44
is is planning but it's it's really
21:48
it all works together the planning the
21:51
finances
21:52
and really your distribution so and know
21:54
your worth too so you know you have to
21:56
have a conversation and you're not vegas
21:58
someone to get on the shelf you want to
21:59
make sure your products are successful
22:00
when you get on the shelf so you ask
22:02
them questions about you know what
22:03
programs do they have to help you market
22:05
your products yeah and make sure you
22:06
have awareness to your brand when you
22:08
get it in the stores because it doesn't
22:10
do any good just to say it's there and
22:11
you're not selling or you're not getting
22:12
reorders yep
22:14
so really make sure that you have that
22:15
conversation with your buyer knowing who
22:17
your buying team is and really do your
22:19
research on whatever retailer you're
22:21
trying to enter into
22:22
and and again to to what devon is saying
22:25
quentin um
22:26
placement that placement in the store i
22:28
you know when my dad
22:30
he dealt in food for so many years and
22:33
he was like
22:35
i can put you in any store and you're
22:36
going to find intimates
22:38
no matter what store you go to you're
22:40
going to find intimates because it is at
22:42
the end of the aisle
22:43
they pay for that space
22:45
it's never you got to go down all nine
22:48
and dig in the middle you're gonna know
22:49
what intimans is it's a reason for that
22:52
you're gonna know where the english
22:53
muffins it's a reason that they have
22:55
that placement in here that all plays a
22:57
part
22:58
with who's in front of the store who's
23:00
in back of the store like you don't
23:02
think about that as the shopper because
23:04
you're just going along but as soon as i
23:06
say it it's like oh snap it is always at
23:09
the end of the hour i never thought
23:11
about that reason and placement i am so
23:13
glad that you brought that up because
23:15
now i'm i'm gonna also go back to the
23:18
original question that you asked and i
23:20
would say
23:21
you know if your product is already out
23:23
on market it's so important to have the
23:26
people to even just if it's the small
23:28
community on facebook or instagram to
23:31
have the people there to support and
23:33
know about your brand because the word
23:34
of mouth is honestly what got us through
23:36
the doors that first conversation that
23:38
first phone call from this show got us
23:41
through the doors because they heard
23:42
about our brand before we met with any
23:45
buyer so i think it's really key you
23:47
know when you're dealing with grocery
23:48
stores and placement you also have to
23:51
know you know that people what you're
23:53
looking for is looking for get and start
23:55
going to your stores even if you don't
23:57
think you know it's not there hey do you
23:59
guys have blanket pancakes
24:03
mean um requests come back send your
24:05
girlfriend in five yeah
24:07
like what the hell is this blanket
24:08
pancakes i had 10 people coming i'm
24:10
telling you my father broke down the
24:12
whole game to me about food years ago i
24:15
didn't really understand it because you
24:17
know it started at age 11. so to
24:19
understand exactly how it works quitting
24:22
ask those questions and send people in
24:23
there looking for your product before it
24:25
even hit the shelf we love you well
24:27
heather you know about heather you
24:28
already know about my product
24:30
what's your product
24:32
struggle beer bakery the cookies
24:34
oh we all ate yo we ate your cookies
24:37
quinn we ate yo
24:39
really good cookies brothers
24:41
wait a minute so you guys
24:43
you guys got the new cookies that i sent
24:45
yeah we got them and we ate them in the
24:46
same day tone ate them
24:49
you wanted us to save them
24:53
i wanted you to make sure suede got one
24:55
what's what sway was here sway was here
24:58
for those
24:58
cookies them up in a pack yeah we was
25:00
here yeah people should follow you give
25:02
out your social media you make
25:04
incredible cookies give it out
25:06
so it's struggle beard bakery as in
25:09
struggle be you know my beard doesn't
25:10
quite fill in on uh instagram on
25:14
facebook on twitter it is the real sb
25:17
bakery and the website is
25:19
www.strugglebeardbakery.com
25:21
he makes me a favorite incredible
25:23
cookies you go ahead devin yeah go ahead
25:24
add us on um on instagram i already did
25:28
as soon as i heard y'all that was the
25:29
first thing i did yeah
25:31
the community here is awesome
25:33
yeah beautiful i appreciate that
25:36
y'all thanks for taking my call and and
25:39
answering my questions i'll be hitting
25:41
you guys up soon and buying your product
25:43
man god bless quinton appreciate you
25:46
brother i love you um i'm gonna let mike
25:48
views jump in right after i take this
25:50
call from somebody from y'all
25:51
home state of north carolina liz what
25:53
you want to say to your people what up
25:55
liz liz
25:57
what
25:58
first of all i'm not gonna say anything
25:59
that nobody else has said thanks be to
26:02
god because this is divinity the fact
26:04
that i'm in my car and hear it and that
26:06
y'all are my neighbors what's up fam
26:09
i really really appreciate what you're
26:11
doing and heather b i thank you for
26:13
highlighting this because it is so so
26:16
important that we take back ownership of
26:19
what we put into our bodies with all of
26:22
the disease that's going on and all of
26:24
the stuff we don't know what we're
26:26
eating and we're losing control of that
26:29
and i just really thank you guys i'm
26:31
actually on my way to elizabeth city
26:33
food line right now and they better have
26:35
these pancakes
26:38
so i really appreciate that
26:41
and if they don't list blow them up and
26:43
tell them they all know what they doing
26:44
they better get that blanket
26:47
all right love you ladies and gentlemen
26:49
i love you too say i really want to let
26:51
you know i'm speaking it into existence
26:53
and i might owe you some royalties the
26:55
past couple like a month ago you were
26:57
heavy on that yolanda adams on that
26:59
thankful thursday i was in my bathtub
27:02
and i started a company without my first
27:05
chicken victory pasture i have locked in
27:08
that name i am starting pasteurized
27:11
chickens because i want all natural
27:14
antibiotic hormone free food for my
27:18
children i'm going to call you in a year
27:20
heather and i'm gonna be sending you
27:21
some of the best chicken you've ever had
27:23
in your life
27:25
you better go ahead and say it hey liz
27:28
i'm on instagram at the happy hour whb
27:31
follow me let's communicate girl let's
27:33
talk all right the happy hour
27:35
thank you
27:36
i love you guys thank you
27:39
go ahead mike you guys are so great uh
27:42
as you can see we have a lot of
27:43
listeners who are interested in trying
27:44
their own business particularly around
27:45
food so if you don't mind keep leaning
27:47
into this just a little bit because well
27:48
i'm just so proud of you too right and i
27:50
think just here will be a teachable
27:53
moment it's almost like a workshop for a
27:54
citizen so if i lean in just a little
27:56
bit to the business that's exactly where
27:57
it's coming from i just want to double
27:59
down i love if i talk about manage
28:00
expectations about the inventory and
28:02
keeping up with what is possible in
28:03
order to fulfill the orders for the rest
28:06
for the for the supermarkets and the
28:07
relationship and the management of that
28:09
again just managing expectations is so
28:11
key and clutch
28:13
for those who are interested i mean you
28:14
guys are crushing it walmart world
28:17
market right the food lions how can some
28:20
of our listeners like liz and the
28:22
struggle beard right how do they get
28:23
into like these places are there
28:25
incubators you can talk about right are
28:27
there apprenticeship programs are there
28:30
um cohorts and fellowships and if you
28:32
can kind of give us a little bit insight
28:34
of that
28:34
so some of our listeners can like know
28:36
where to go because everybody just can't
28:38
walk up into walmart
28:40
you know
28:41
i noticed that you know in north
28:43
carolina we we have a lot of different
28:45
um
28:46
different ways to like um what is it
28:49
that the main one i would say so the
28:50
food innovation i saw nc state sponsors
28:53
the food innovation lab which is a kind
28:55
of a cohort of a lot of different
28:57
universities um north carolina state
28:59
universities that get together to help
29:01
you know start businesses in the state
29:03
you know around agriculture and food so
29:05
that's a really good place to start um
29:08
the state itself north carolina is a
29:09
great state for starting a food business
29:11
because it is a huge agricultural state
29:13
there's grants and there's a lot of
29:14
opportunities for developing and that um
29:18
really we did a lot of personal research
29:20
so yeah you know one of the first things
29:21
marquita had to find out i mean she
29:23
became her own food scientist and found
29:25
out okay what is water activity what are
29:27
what are the things that you need to
29:28
have a source or a cereal-based product
29:30
you know googling it following up um
29:34
reaching out to different universities
29:35
who can actually do that process oh wow
29:38
um and getting you certified and that's
29:40
what i was going to say um because in
29:42
north carolina we're really keen in that
29:43
because that's where we're from but most
29:45
universities have and we found out the
29:47
hard way we found out the hard way so
29:49
i'm glad that we're here today to be
29:51
able to talk to other people if you're
29:52
in the process of starting a food
29:54
company most universities have um
29:57
programs food science programs and that
30:00
can help you you know and when you call
30:02
them you you basically let them know
30:04
what you're trying to do
30:06
especially like in the food nutrition
30:08
food science nutrition area most
30:10
university if they have the program
30:12
that's the first question do you have a
30:13
program for food science if they do they
30:15
work with outside public you would think
30:17
that it's just for the university but
30:19
it's for the outside public yeah and if
30:21
they don't do it directly they can give
30:22
you more resources in your state to help
30:24
you with that because if you go to an
30:25
outside company you know there's
30:27
companies will do everything for you in
30:29
terms of getting your product you know
30:30
from you know concept to you know a
30:32
bottle finished product but you're going
30:34
to pay a lot of money for that as well
30:36
you know they're they they charge you a
30:37
premium for that so there are a lot of
30:39
free or
30:41
affordable solutions out there i think
30:43
the next thing would be to definitely
30:46
definitely definitely
30:47
just get community support i can't
30:50
stress that out enough i really can't
30:52
because the more we have you know you
30:54
guys backing us the more we have you
30:58
guys really you know echoing we need
31:00
this brand or for instance if it's your
31:03
brand that you're trying to put out the
31:04
more you have people supporting you
31:06
saying we need your brand it's the more
31:08
that the big box offices will pay
31:10
attention and say okay hold on i i keep
31:12
hearing this knock
31:14
let's open the door right you know right
31:16
let's talk a little bit about product
31:18
names and trademarking yeah absolutely
31:20
because earlier in celebrity wow we were
31:22
talking about um kim kardashian skincare
31:25
line that's dropping later this month
31:27
and how the name is very similar to lori
31:29
harvey's they're both called skin kim
31:32
kardashian's got two k's in it lori
31:34
harvey just got 1k meanwhile there's a
31:36
whole other black woman who's owned it
31:38
since 2018.
31:40
so can you guys share
31:42
the origin story behind the name blanket
31:45
and just like walk us through it might
31:46
be obvious to some people but maybe it's
31:48
not so obvious just the steps you went
31:50
and researching to make sure that the
31:52
name wasn't taken and the trademark
31:54
process that is such a good question um
31:56
because the name as you can as you said
31:59
far as with blanket it's so simple
32:02
so devin and i we really did do the
32:04
research on our own we didn't have money
32:06
to go to a lawyer we didn't have it so
32:09
we had to kind of do the research and
32:10
use google i know people tell you stay
32:12
away from google but hey you use the
32:13
tools that you have to get to the next
32:15
step to open the door for the real you
32:18
know the i'm going to say the real stuff
32:19
so we kind of walked our way so we could
32:22
get it pretty much um but the blanket
32:25
came from um honestly
32:28
me being an education made you know um
32:31
well i was a special education teacher
32:33
prior to the food business and i noticed
32:36
that a lot of you know the children that
32:38
i worked with some of them not you know
32:40
they would have different
32:42
coping mannerisms you know yeah the
32:44
coping mechanism was like yeah somehow
32:45
security blankets somehow like a toy
32:48
help them you know feel reassuring
32:50
stressed out even when i was a kid i had
32:52
a little blinky yeah
32:52
[Music]
32:54
you know and that's really the name
32:56
behind blanket cave from that
32:58
understanding of we want this to be
33:00
experienced that people you know we want
33:01
to use a name that people can trust so
33:03
when you think about a blanket thinking
33:05
about comfort about warmth security
33:08
reliability
33:09
so we wanted people to feel those same
33:11
emotions when they thought about our
33:12
products so that's really where the name
33:15
blakey came from and then also it's kind
33:17
of a player on words because when you
33:18
pour the syrup on your pancake we say
33:20
you're blanking
33:22
yeah
33:23
and when we called actually we had
33:25
called a um a labyrinth who was who we
33:28
called the library we went to the
33:29
library yeah and she said well that name
33:32
that well that name blanket is too
33:34
simple you're not going to be able to
33:36
trademark that name and things of that
33:37
so but when we began to research it i
33:39
said okay no
33:40
devin and i we went and read the fine
33:43
print yeah hey we can rese we can
33:45
trademark this or whatever the case may
33:47
be i wouldn't suggest for you to just go
33:49
out and do the way we did because we
33:51
learned and fell in some fell down a
33:53
little bit
33:54
yeah yeah what was this process it's the
33:56
process yes yes but we um ultimately got
33:59
it trademarked perfect so yeah
34:03
what mike views one last question this
34:05
is a comment okay i think all the calls
34:07
i'm sure calling up that was a great
34:08
question tracy g when i'm the takeaway
34:11
for me is you guys have done the work
34:13
yeah and that's what guys have
34:19
up or success me up with a dm everybody
34:21
wants a magic answer yeah everybody
34:23
wants that one bullet what was that one
34:25
obstacle you went through so that i
34:26
could overcome it and i'm gonna be rich
34:28
and walmart and world market but that's
34:29
not how it works yeah listening to your
34:31
story heather b have you listened to
34:33
them you don't know
34:35
i mean i'm just bringing you in like the
34:37
work y'all have done even you just
34:39
saying you went to the library it's
34:41
amazing how people have ideas they call
34:44
up here they dm us with all these great
34:46
ideas and don't do the work and they
34:48
expect us to take them before they
34:50
believe themselves yeah audience if
34:52
you're listening youtube when you when
34:54
you watch this back listen to how much
34:57
work they put into it the library
35:00
calling up your local universities
35:02
looking at the science learning the
35:04
ingredients figuring out the ingredients
35:07
knocking on the doors it takes work
35:10
you can't sit on the couch and just do
35:12
instagram
35:13
and think that's going to be the answer
35:15
no salute to you guys who are doing the
35:17
work and that's why you have the success
35:19
yeah if you don't have success for
35:20
anything yes way in the morning people
35:22
caught all that well that came after
35:24
exactly it was ready you were ready and
35:26
then and that's the work it's not about
35:29
y'all getting on here that made that
35:31
happen i mean everything works in
35:33
amplified right right
35:35
he did the work and and the frustration
35:37
you you're hearing slightly from mike is
35:40
because
35:41
he's right we have people call up here
35:43
with great ideas sometimes and we'll say
35:46
what's your social media create your
35:48
website i'm low-key i i ain't doing that
35:51
right now you know what we have to hang
35:53
up
35:54
it's no disrespect to anybody but you
35:56
can't tell me you've been sitting around
35:58
and dreaming and having his vision and
36:00
his vision board and writing in your
36:02
journal and praying and asking god to
36:04
bless you with this and then you get
36:06
this opportunity and you don't have a
36:08
website i can't talk to you right you
36:10
don't have no
36:12
you in the rubber band business i'm
36:14
trying to buy rubber bands you tell me
36:16
your product is not ready come on i'm
36:17
going on to the next
36:19
caller and don't give me a coming soon
36:21
coming soon when you go to their website
36:22
you click on that coming soon coming
36:24
soon construction
36:26
i'm not coming back to you no more no
36:28
one shot i have to give my wife credit
36:30
for this because my wife marquita
36:32
she is the hardest working person i know
36:34
so she gets at 5 30 in the morning just
36:36
starts working on new recipes like
36:38
there's we have probably about 20
36:39
different recipes that we haven't
36:40
released yet because it's a time and
36:42
thing for most things yeah but you know
36:44
we just built out in our warehouse a new
36:46
studio for her where it's a creative
36:48
space so she can just go do her thing
36:50
and just work and just focus and
36:52
meditate and hear from god and just
36:53
start working on new ingredients wow
36:56
it's you know even when it comes to like
36:58
just creating a new pancake recipe it's
37:00
what percentage of chocolate chips that
37:02
i put in
37:03
how much butternut do we have yes you
37:05
know it's those little minute things
37:07
that people really don't take the time
37:09
to you know
37:10
every little bit it's all intentional
37:13
it's all it is it's all very intentional
37:15
so so happy for y'all really happy for
37:18
you guys thank you so much so much it is
37:20
real y'all they are here look them up
37:22
yourself marquita and devin carter it's
37:24
blanket pancakes you will not be
37:26
disappointed i promise y'all y'all know
37:28
how funny style i am about food support
37:32
pancakes i don't i don't like it i tell
37:34
them hey man need you should go back and
37:36
go figure it out but yo i wave y'all
37:39
flag every chance i get because blanket
37:41
pancakes is the truth thank you all so
37:44
much for joining and continue the
37:45
success i don't know why when i was
37:47
talking i just kind of see y'all on
37:49
television so maybe there's something
37:51
that's coming you know your way so you
37:53
know whether it's an interview
37:55
robin roberts somebody something today
37:58
yeah one of those kind of things very
38:00
soon for you guys so stay prepared stay
38:02
prepared you know yeah man for sure for
38:05
sure for sure thank y'all and get that
38:07
blanket pancakes for sure we got more
38:09
sway in the morning though you guys
38:12
[Music]
38:22
[Music]
38:24
you
#Arts & Entertainment