819 Sarah Wilson:

Sarah Wilson:

Being a mother and working mother I think is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done and maybe will ever do. You feel guilty when you’re not with your kids or guilty when you’re not working. One thing that’s very really helped me, was to outsource the things that don’t need my touch.

Do I need to be the one doing the laundry? And even with my business, Can I find someone on my team to help with that?

I don’t think there’s anyone more effective with their time than a working mom, because when I am working, I’m working. I’m not chatting around in the break room. I have stuff to get done, and I schedule my time that way, and then when I’m with my kids, I’m with my kids.

Ask any woman who has built a fast-scaling business while raising young kids and she’ll likely be making an understatement when she tells you, “it wasn’t easy”. And yet odds are it’s forced her to overcome perfectionism, learn how to delegate, and understand the scaling principles of leverage.  Take it from mom of four Sarah Wilson who started building her fast-scaling cookie company the moment her first was born.

MELINDA

Hi, I’m Melinda Wittstock and welcome to Wings of Inspired Business, where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m a 5-time serial entrepreneur and the CEO and founder of Podopolo, the interactive app revolutionizing podcast discovery and discussion and making podcasting profitable for creators. I’d like to invite you to take a minute, download Podopolo from either app store, listen to the rest of this episode there, and join the conversation with your questions, perspectives, experiences, and advice … Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together.

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who turned her pregnancy cravings for the perfect warm chocolate chip cookie into a fast growing business.

Sarah Wilson is the co-founder of Chip Cookies, where she balances being a mom of four young kids with everything marketing, brand, social media, and events. Today Sarah shares why keeping it simple and putting the customer first is the secret of her success.

Sarah will be here in a moment, and first,

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The best businesses are laser focused on the specific needs of a specific customer. And they start with a relentless focus on keeping it simple and getting it right.

When Sarah Wilson was pregnant with the first of her four children, she had irrepressible cravings for chocolate chip cookies. But back then there was no Door Dash delivery option. So, what if many other women like her had the same cravings? It was a question that began with deep market research and testing out her idea on a very small scale. Turns out her first market was a two hour flight from where she lived, and today Sarah shares how she and her husband built Chip Cookies from its first rented pop up in Utah to a fast growing online and storefront business, now expanding into franchising.

We talk the principles of lean startup, how to de-risk your startup investment, and what it takes to balance fast business growth with motherhood.

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Sarah Wilson and be sure to download the podcast app Podopolo so we can keep the conversation going after the episode.

Melinda Wittstock:

Sarah, welcome to Wings.

Sarah Wilson:

Thanks for having me. This is awesome, I love to be on.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m excited to talk to you. You have four kids, and you built a seven figure business in seven years, and it’s growing so fast. What’s your secret?

Sarah Wilson:

Just embrace the chaos, right? You have to with four little kids and a business, but it’s been a lot of fun, and I think a lot of it for me is just, we’re called Chips, so we love to kind of have a near swear with that, I say, “It’s just making Chip happen.” It’s putting in the time and every day just believing in your brand and your product, and it gets you to where you want to be. And so, we’ve had a lot of fun doing it. It’s been a lot of work, but just so excited about the growth of Chip. And you know, as an entrepreneur, it’s riding that rollercoaster and really believing in what you’re doing and staying on that rollercoaster, and putting in the time every day.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s right. Yeah, staying on the rollercoaster, because sometimes the rollercoaster can be up and down and jerking you all around minute by minute, like hour by hour.

Sarah Wilson:

100%, and you’re writing alone sometimes. But that’s what I love about these podcasts is talking to other folks that have been on this journey, and know that it’s-

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s harder than it looks, right?

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, yeah. Especially cookies, right? People think my life is just so sugary, and not too many puns, but it’s like this easy, fun thing, we just sell cookies. Which it is, right? We’re so fortunate to be in the space that we are, but at the end of the day, it’s a business and it’s a lot of work, and definitely a journey, but incredibly rewarding, and love talking about it.

Melinda Wittstock:

So what inspired you to co-found Chip? What was the impetus? One day you were just like, “Okay, I’m going to make a cookie company.”

Sarah Wilson:

Exactly. Well, it actually started because of pregnancy cravings. I was pregnant with my daughter who actually just turned eight last week, and we were living in Los Angeles, and that first pregnancy, I’m sure you’ve been there, I had these cravings, and it was chocolate chip cookies for me, that was my number one craving.

And it was typically late at night, I’d roll over to my husband and say, “Okay, I have to get a cookie.” And being that first pregnancy, I almost felt like the cravings were medical meat. I kind of convinced him, “If I don’t get this cookie, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me or your baby. We need a cookie.” And so this is eight years ago. And so there really weren’t a lot of food delivery options, you know DoorDash, Uber Eats, all of that. You could get pizza delivered, but there was definitely nothing cookie related or dessert related that could be delivered warm and fresh to your door.

And so he found himself running all around LA looking for options. He’d bring me back like Oreos, I’m like, “No, I want a warm chocolate chip cookie. Go make me cookies.” And he’s like, “You really want me to go get the sugar out and the butter make you cookies?” And it’s funny because he did a couple times, and I think I was asleep by the time they were baked, but we just saw this gap in the market.

And again, it’s crazy because so much of our idea was built around pregnant women. Around that time we wrote a business plan, thought about it, kept thinking about it, our daughter was born, and it didn’t leave our mind, we kept feeling this need. We’d talked to friends and we’d say, “If you could get warm cookies delivered to your door, would you do it?” And so around that time we found out about a rental kitchen in Provo, Utah, which is where we both went to undergrad, and we knew Utah had a lot of pregnant women, and we’re like, “Let’s try this. Let’s test the idea.”

We had no idea what the response would be. It was really a lean startup model where we could rent this kitchen by the hour, which is all we needed. We needed a place to make cookies and bake them and then deliver them to people’s doors, so didn’t really need a storefront. Open our doors 2016, and pretty quickly started having lines out the door, and we’re like, “We just deliver. You’re going to have to go across the street, order online, and we’ll bring the cookies to your door.” But the response was just amazing.

And people, I think cookies had been around a long time, but the way that we had built our business was so unique to people. This idea that… And we just sold one product. It was just chocolate chip cookies, it was just a box of four. You had to buy four because we felt like we can’t just deliver one cookie to your door, right? But that’s all we sold, we kept it simple, and people were just in shock that they could have this warm, fresh cookie delivered to their door.

And I think the kicker too was that we put a lot of work in the product. We wanted it to be the best cookie you’ve ever had, and people were just blown away. And so obviously since we’ve grown and we have 11 corporate locations, and we started franchising last year is when we announced franchising. And so to be able to bring Chip to people nationwide and to get our product in this service, it’s just exciting. And it’s crazy to think that it all came from this pregnancy craving, but luckily more than just pregnant women want cookies. So we’ve been fortunate that we have a larger customer base than that. So yeah, it’s been exciting.

Melinda Wittstock:

About that though, the businesses that are born of personal experiences, they’re just more authentic, and you know your market. And I love the lean startup approach, and also the fact that you had a very narrow focus on who exactly your customers were, your early customers.

Sarah Wilson:

Very narrow.

Melinda Wittstock:

… down the market for it. I mean, this is something that is so elemental to startups succeeding, and yet it’s the one thing that so many startups miss. The folks that say, “Oh, we’re for everybody,” or not really getting into what do their customers really need, you know?

Sarah Wilson:

For sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

So tell me about that market testing phase where you’re literally going around saying, “Hey, would you like a warm chocolate chip cookie delivered to you? What would that be like? How much would you pay?” That kind of thing.

Sarah Wilson:

Exactly. We did a lot of testing. We actually would go up to, we’d fly up… I mean our business, when we think about the startup, it’s so fun because we were living in LA, we’d fly up, we were just open Fridays and Saturdays at night.

So we would come up a day early, we’d go up to campus to the colleges, and we had a survey and it was, what’s your favorite kind of cookie? Obviously chocolate chip won. What kind of milk do you like? Do you like drinking milk with cookies? When do you crave cookies? We just did a ton of research to learn about our customer, and that really dictated so much of our business, and it’s still what we do. We’re always listening to our customer, I think social media allows you to have that direct communication so easily now, and we’re listening, we pivot quickly when our customers want something, but we also stay very true to our values.

And so that research portion dictated so much. I mean, for instance, like I said, we had one product on the menu. We just serve chocolate chip cookies, we wanted to keep it simple. We love the idea of being this concept that was just so good at one thing. You knew you could come to Chip and get the best chocolate chip cookie you’ve ever had. But we also wanted it to be, we called it the Chip and Chill. The idea was late at night, you’re in your bed eating warm cookies, what’s better?

But chocolate chip won, we also tested, do you like semi-sweet, milk chocolate? And so we really based everything off of this research we did. Even milk. It actually was a Chip and Chill was four chocolate chip cookies in a box and some milk. And so we asked people, “We’re only going to have one kind of milk. So do you like, is it 2%? Is it whole, we’re not going to do almond”… We’re just keeping it simple. And so 2% won. It was crazy, I was surprised, I think it was like 98% of people preferred 2% milk. So much of that research was core to starting what we did.

And we changed pretty quickly. We were just open Fridays and Saturdays from 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM which seems crazy, but that’s when my cravings were for cookies. But our customers were like, “Hey, we want cookies at 6:00,” or, “We went to cater your cookies for an office event at noon.” So that’s when we really moved quickly into opening our first storefront about six months later, where we could have people come and pick up cookies. And because we only delivered in a five-mile radius so that we could ensure that warm cookie experience, we needed to have that storefront to allow people to come pick up cookies. Because in this rental kitchen, we didn’t even have a POS. We’re like, you have to order it online, we don’t have change for anybody. So it was really listening to customers early on in that stage and learning who they were and what they want, and building our business around that.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s just such a lovely story. So where do you have the insights to do it this way? I mean, had you been thinking about or reading up on Lean Startup, or that kind of thing? Had you had experience in this area before you-

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, and sorry to interrupt you. My husband, so my husband’s my partner, we built this together. And he’s kind of a little bit of a serial entrepreneur as well, but I was always like, stay in the corporate world. I know that world very well, and so I was like, we’re not doing, you’re going to stay climbing this ladder. But he had some experience early on as a teenager during college he had actually opened up some shaved ice stands in Huntington Beach and had some experience on that. But we had read up on Lean Startups and how to do that and really about testing that idea, and so that’s really where we felt like… We had searched. Ghost kitchens and were kind of starting to pop up, and so we were like, that’s the best way to model this, right, is… Because it’s crazy to think now, I mean Chip really has started this kind of, we have a lot of competitors who have opened since and copied our business, and we really started this gourmet, warm cookie, four cookies in a box delivery industry.

But at the time we had no idea what the response would be. So signing a lease, typically landlords want 5 to 10 years, right? Signing a lease, all of that seemed really daunting to us before we really knew if we had a great idea or a business here. And so that testing phase was crucial, it’s actually how we opened up our second location. We had a lot of people driving up from Salt Lake City, which is about 45 minutes from Provo, and so we decided that’s where we would have our second location. But again thought, is this going to work in Salt Lake?

It’s a little bit different demographic. We found another rental kitchen, started getting lines out the door, and then signed a lease. So we actually did that model, our third location in Boise, Idaho, same model. We found a rental kitchen, tested the idea on Boise, lines out the door, signed a lease. So we kind of followed that model for those initial stores to make sure that we had people that wanted cookies. And again, it’s nice to know that we didn’t, again, we were kind of following this idea of pregnancy. Where are pregnant women? Where are they, how can we get to them? But we started to learn that our customer base was much more diverse than that.

Melinda Wittstock:

That is so important, just de-risking things. Because a lot of people think, oh-

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

… risky. It doesn’t have to be.

Sarah Wilson:

Yep, exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

If you do the work that you put into it, you have been de-risking it at every opportunity. And so you’ve got how many locations now? I know you’re, I want to talk about the franchising side as well, but how many of your own locations now?

Sarah Wilson:

We have 11 corporate locations, and then two franchise locations just opened in the past month, so we’re really starting to see these start to open, which is exciting.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. So tell me about the franchising and how that works, and how that fits with your model, and the type of franchisees you’re looking for.

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, of course. We really took our time to franchise. We had the demand very early on to franchise the concept, but really wanted to have the systems in place. So at about five years in, we started to consider it. We have really great advisors. Neal Courtney is our franchise developer, he’s the former CEO of Mrs. Fields, now owns a concept called Cookie Cutters, which is actually haircuts, not cookies, he can’t get away from cookies.

But really took the time to have the processes down, and decided to franchise, and it’s been an incredible experience. The trigger for us to franchise is finding the right partners. We have this brand that we believe in, it’s a very strong brand and it’s beloved and an incredible product, and finding the right partners that can believe in that and really can execute. It’s about great operators.

And so the process is fairly simple. The nice thing about our concept is that it is fairly simple. We sell cookies. And so our build-outs are a little more simple, the entry costs are a little lower than you would find at certain franchises, but it’s a simple process. You apply to open a franchise, and then we go through the selection process and find a territory that’s open and available, and if it’s the right match, we move forward. And so we’re really taking the time to grow in a strategic way, in a smart way, but also fast.

We believe that there’s a demand for this out there, and folks are ready to get the original, and so our goal is to partner with the right people and operators, and get Chip all nationwide. So the ideal candidate for us is preferably someone local who wants to bring cookies to their city. And mostly multi-unit operators at this point so that they can own a territory. And it’s about, again, that mentality of “Making Chip happen,” and having that entrepreneurial spirit. I don’t think it’s for everybody.

I think sometimes it seems glamorous, cookies, and it’s so fun, and there definitely is that aspect, it’s so rewarding bringing really good cookies to your community, but it also is work and a process and an investment. But the nice thing, I think it’s kind of… I see it, it’s interesting being a franchisee, right? Because you’re buying into a business that’s already established, but you still need to be an entrepreneur, right? You still are a small business owner, and having that entrepreneur spirit and excitement is so important. What we give is the strong brand, a great product, the systems that we have in place and the processes, and then it’s really up to the franchisee to execute on that. And so far, it really has been such a great experience.

And the excitement around our product, we just opened in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, which is, it’s this small town in northern Idaho, and it was really cool. I mean the grand opening lines out the door for hours, but we would hear people say, “Oh, I’m so glad we finally have a Chip.”

And so, surprisingly there’s this brand recognition for Chip. We started in Provo, Utah, but it’s really this melting pot of people that kind of come from all over to go to BYU. And we have another one opening in Florida, and the same response. We had someone message us on Instagram saying, “I went to school in Provo, it’s like my dream to have a Chip opening in my town.” So it’s been exciting getting the response we’ve had, and franchisees have just been excited to open and get Chip to everybody. So it’s been a wonderful process for us, we have such a great team behind us, and our excited about the growth of Chip through franchising.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s just a wonderful story. I love that you started.

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, I’m just going to say that. That’s really wonderful hearing that story, and it can’t have been easy though. What were some of the biggest challenges or any unexpected things that came up? Because you’ve got, not only you making the cookies and you did all the research for that, but you got a whole bunch of… So that is so inspiring, Sarah, and I can’t imagine there weren’t some challenges, unexpected things that came along the way. What were some of the biggest?

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, for sure. I mean, like we said in the beginning, it’s a rollercoaster, right? So there’s definitely those lows. I mean, I would say one challenge for us is that we are in food and beverage, so it’s a different beast than maybe what we were used to being in the business world. And so our product, we can have the best recipes and great branding and beautiful build outs in stores, but at the end of the day, we rely so much on our team and our employees to kind of finish it off, right? To make sure those cookies look great and that they’re baked properly, and that the customer is there. And so I think to me that’s been one of the biggest challenges is scaling where, we can’t be at every location, right? I mean, ideally we’re the one serving the cookies, but that’s probably been the biggest challenge, is making sure that our teams are trained and that they can really fulfill that chip vision that we have.

And when you start to scale at such a large rate and having the number of stores that we have, that can get difficult. And that’s actually a big trigger for us with franchising was knowing that we have all of these local operators or people that care and financially invested in the success of this location, and they’re there and they’re making sure that we have great customer service. And so much data around customer experience, I mean, 30% of people expect to have a great experience, and that’s why they decide, it dictates their decisions on where they’re eating. And so we want to make sure that that customer experience is incredible for people. And most of the time it is, we sell cookies, people are coming in and they’re happy and excited.

But that last mile there I think has been a challenge for us as we grow, that we can’t be in every store, and I didn’t really anticipate that. And when you’re hiring maybe teenagers, 16 year olds, it’s their first job, I think there’s a learning curve. And so we’ve really, in the last few years, buttoned up our training and making sure that our franchisees know how to train and have a good experience. So that’s probably been one of the biggest challenges is finding good people. I think that’s probably something most business owners would rant about.

Melinda Wittstock:

Every business owner has that, and it gets into kind of really knowing what you want, and being able to create the systems, and being able to make those easily replicable.

Sarah Wilson:

Exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

Right, I know, it’s so true. And especially at a time when a lot of people, a lot of the workforce doesn’t really want to have to go to work. They-

Sarah Wilson:

100%. Oh, yep, that. They’re like, “Is this a remote job?” We’re like, “I don’t know how you’re going to make cookies remote, but let’s figure something out.”

Melinda Wittstock:

I know, right? It’s a big issue and such. So has your menu expanded? I know you were really big on keeping it simple which is really critical at the beginning, and you were just chocolate chips and 2% milk, but has the menu expanded?

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah. Yeah. Great question. So yes, pretty early on we started to introduce a chip of the month, we’d call it. Our first one was Reese’s one around Halloween. We were like, how good would it be if we’ve made a Reese’s cookie for Halloween, like Reese’s Pieces? So then we introduced a cadbury cookie around Easter. So we started to slowly introduce variety, and then we’ve moved… We do it in a simple way though, and in a quality way, most importantly. One of our mottos is quality over quantity.

But recently we actually launched what we call the Chip Cookie Bar. And so it’s basically a customization bar where people can come and actually create their own flavor. So it’s a way for us to have really quality toppings and ingredients and then wonderful basis of cookies, and then you can come and create the cookie of your dreams.

So there’s this demand for variety, but we wanted to do it in a way that was still quality, still simple for operators, but would allow the customer to really be able to customize it however they want. So people come in, they can choose from our standard cookies. We have the chocolate chip we call The OG. We have a biscoff which is always on the menu. At [inaudible 00:22:04], we would call the SW and sugar cookie. And then we have other bases. So there’s a cocoa base, and then there’s one, we love it, it’s a blonde base, but we call it boneless because it doesn’t have any chocolate chips in it.

And then they can customize it. So we have, for instance, chocolate drizzles, and they can infuse the cookie, which is one of my favorite steps in the process where you can kind of infuse it with salted caramel or sweet condensed milk, and then you can top it with some of our house-made frosty things. And then as you move along this cookie bar, you can add chocolate chips on top or M&Ms or crushed Oreos. And then we call it finishers, so we can top it with powdered sugar or Maldon sea salt. And it’s really this incredible way to add variety to our concept, but in a way that’s scalable, and also allows us to ensure that quality every single time someone buys a cookie. So definitely changed from just the chocolate chip.

Melinda Wittstock:

You’re making me hungry. You don’t have enough-

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, I know. We should do this over cookies. That would be a lot more-

Melinda Wittstock:

You don’t have another location in Santa Monica, do you?

Sarah Wilson:

We’re coming, we are. We have two locations opening in the LA area, so we’ll be there. I didn’t know you were in Santa Monica.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sarah Wilson:

We were living in Westwood when this idea was born. We were living in Westwood.

Melinda Wittstock:

Okay. Well I just want to say, Montana Avenue, I was just going to put that in there.

Sarah Wilson:

Yes. I love, we’ve looked at spaces there, so stay tuned. Oh, I love that you’re in Santa-

Melinda Wittstock:

Like I’m right there.

Sarah Wilson:

Yes, perfect.

Melinda Wittstock:

I wanted to ask you about what this has been like. I mean, you launched the business basically with your first child. I launched my first business, gosh, by the time… I was doing all the prep work for it, all the research, quite similar to what you described and got pregnant during that period, kind of unexpectedly, and launched. [inaudible 00:23:58] right? So it’s all, because she’s 20 now. So it’s taking me a little bit back in time, but you’ve got four. And so how have you managed that? What have been some of the challenges there?

Sarah Wilson:

You know, it’s a Chip show. It is definitely, there’s a lot going on, but it’s also so rewarding. I think for me, and I’m sure, I should ask you advice. I mean, being a mother and working mother I think is probably one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done and maybe will ever do. There’s so much guilt involved, you feel guilty when you’re not with your kids or guilty when you’re not working. And so I’ve really worked through a lot of that. It’s taken me a lot of time and I still have moments, but one thing that’s very really helped me, and it was a piece of advice I got early on, was to outsource the things that don’t need my touch. And so I’ve really taken that to heart with my business and with my children is, what are the things that don’t need my touch?

Do I need to be the one doing the laundry? Is that something I can outsource? Can I afford to outsource that? Thinking through those things. And even with my business, I think when you’re an entrepreneur that business is a baby. Chip is very much like a, it’s like twins. They’re like twins, sometimes triplets. But it’s a lot, but what doesn’t need my touch? Do I really need to be doing this? Can I outsource that? Can I find someone on my team to help with that? And so that has really helped me to work on the things that are important to me. And I loved what you said when we were chatting earlier, and I believe that is true, is that I find that I’m very effective with my time.

I don’t think there’s anyone more effective with their time than a working mom, because when I am working, I’m working. I’m not chatting around in the break room. I have stuff to get done, and I schedule my time that way, and then when I’m with my kids, I’m with my kids. And so, is it ever perfect-

Melinda Wittstock:

… only way, it’s the only to do it. Because I see a lot of women get torqued around by this kind of mom guilt, and underlying that is this sense that we have to be doing everything ourselves. And there’s no leverage in that. There’s like, men have succeeded in business because they profoundly don’t do that. They’re really good at delegating, they’re really good at receiving, they don’t think they have to do it all, right?

Sarah Wilson:

And they don’t feel the guilt. It’s different. Because my husband’s my partner, and sometimes we’ll kind of drive away to go do a meeting or something and I think, I’ll kind of feel emotional about something and I’m like, “Do you feel anything? Is there anything going on there? Are you feeling this?” And it’s not, it’s just different for them. It’s very different.

Melinda Wittstock:

I think they can compartmentalize better.

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, that must be what it is, yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. But I also think that we, on top of all of that, sort of chocolate chip on top is that we tend to be perfectionist as well as thinking we have to do everything. And so by the end of the day, I mean there’s so many women that talk about, they feel so depleted, there’s nothing left. They’re they not prioritizing their own self-care, for instance or such. And it leads to a lot of burnout among female founders that can sometimes start to manifest into really odd health issues, late forties and fifties and whatnot, because of just that high sustained level of cortisol that comes with that. And so do you have time to be able to prioritize your self-care, as well, in the midst of everything?

Sarah Wilson:

Well now I need to, right? Now that I hear that, I’ve got to start doing that. I’m not very good at prioritizing myself. I just-

Melinda Wittstock:

I don’t think any woman is.

Sarah Wilson:

… gym membership because I was like, “I haven’t been and when am I going to have time?” So I think it’s just such a busy time of my life with little kids, my kids are very young. I have 8, 5, 3, and 1, so they’re very young, very hands-on right now. And so I’m just embracing that phase of life. And I try to get things in where I can, like let’s go on a walk so I can at least get some steps in. I think I try to do that, and I really embrace different phases of life. And I know that there will be a phase when they’re in school more and I can maybe do more self-care, but I know it’s an area I’m very weak on, and I should prioritize it more. I think I’m just trying to embrace certain phases, and-

Melinda Wittstock:

It’s so hard.

Sarah Wilson:

… but I should do better.

Melinda Wittstock:

I learned the hard way, because I think I, literally about nine months after Sydney was born, I just found myself with pneumonia or whatever, because I was just doing everything. It was insane. And at that point I was like, okay, I’m putting in my calendar workouts. I actually got a personal trainer just because I knew I wouldn’t do it unless I was obliged to somebody else to show up, right.

Sarah Wilson:

So true though, it’s so true.

Melinda Wittstock:

… myself.

Sarah Wilson:

You’re going to get in trouble.

Melinda Wittstock:

Exactly. Because we’re so hardwired to put other people ahead of ourselves, right?

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

So I had to do all of these kind of like Jedi mind tricks on myself to be able to do that, right?

Sarah Wilson:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

Just even to the point of putting meditation in my schedule, right?

Sarah Wilson:

Wow, yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

And to think about the bus… Like not be in the business, but be working on the business. And that would never happen, it’s just so easily end up on some sort of task treadmill, not necessarily going in the right direction, and all the busy work that you need time to actually sit and think and, often the best ideas come to you when you’re not working.

Sarah Wilson:

Exactly. Couldn’t be more true. Yeah, I think, I love, I think it’s true, is just like compartmentalizing your day. I do think a lot of women think, “Okay, I can get my workout in and be with my kids, and maybe take this call at the same time.” But I really think that you have to say, “Here is my time,” even with work, right? Here’s my time for strategy, here’s my time for busy work, here’s my time that I’m… And if you can find time in your day to do those things, and there’s not a perfect day out there, but that has really helped me.

Because I thought for a while when I started early on that with little babies, “Okay, this is fine.” I’m going to take this call while they’re playing with some toys and it’ll be fine. And then they come in with poop on their hands. Like no joke, has happened many times. There’s just always something, and I’ve realized, I have to have scheduled time for work and for kids, and that’s really helped me to find time for everything. Except for myself. That part I need to work on more.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%. Oh my goodness. So what’s your big vision for this business? Is this a business that ultimately you’re going to sell, or are you going to move into other countries? I mean, what are some of the next things?

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, we have big plans. We actually just had a call today about opening a store in India. We’d love to go international. We just believe so much in our product, and in the demand for it, and we believe that we can execute the right way, that this can be a global brand.

Right now it’s definitely focused on growing nationwide right now, and so I think with the right partners we see… I mean, I see myself here for a long time. I definitely, as you know, the one thing you know as entrepreneurs, you don’t know anything about the future of your business. And so I have really just taken the approach of riding the wave, and I want to be here, I believe… It’s kind of like I said, a baby, and so I want to see it grow and be around for that, but I don’t know what the future holds. But really just believe in the growth, and want to be there to be a part of it and make it happen. And so, we’re excited, I mean, I guess people in India really like cookies, so who knows?

I told my husband, I’m like, “Maybe we just go and open a bunch of chips in Spain or something, and we have our kids there.” So I don’t know. Who knows? But right now, really the growth is focused on growing nationwide and establishing really deep roots in communities, and seeing where it goes from there. So we’ll see.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, congratulations on all your success. It’s very inspiring. I want to make sure people know how, if they’re interested in becoming a Chip franchisee how to go do that, and how to get in touch with you, and follow you on all the socials, and follow you on all the socials and such. What’s the best way?

Sarah Wilson:

Love it. Yes. So you can, to apply for a franchise, we have a really simple application. Just go on our website, chipcookies, all one word, C-H-I-P cookies.co. We have a franchise page there, and then follow us on social, we’re on basically everything. We actually recently started doing more on TikTok, we’re chipcookiesco, all one word on all socials, Twitter, everything. And we start, it’s been fun. We’ve been having a little more fun on TikTok. I feel like we’re too old for TikTok, but having a lot of fun on there. And we’ve just had one, I think yesterday go kind of viral, so it’s been fun to get on there.

So follow us along, I mean, the nice thing is we have such a photogenic product, so we love having people follow us on social, and we’re always announcing new flavors and store location openings, so it’s definitely fun to follow along there. So just @chipcookiesco on pretty much any platform.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. And I have one last question that just occurred to me. How do you keep your kids from like being a permanent sugar rush? I mean-

Sarah Wilson:

It’s one of those things, I’m sure you’ve probably seen this as a mom, but it’s like if it’s around, it’s not as tempting for them. Do you know what I mean?

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, it’s interesting. Yeah, because there’s no scarcity of it, it’s abundant.

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah, there’s no scarcity at all, sadly. They’ve definitely had cookies for breakfast, unfortunately. So there’s no scarcity for them, and so I think tolerance is pretty high. But it’s fun because they’ll have friends over and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, cookies.” And I’m like, oh yeah, there is this excitement with kids around, but my kids are like, “Another cookie?” I’m like, “Try this flavor.” So, they’ve become a little jaded with cookies, but. They’re like, “Feed us some broccoli, mom. Give us something healthy.” They have to like actually ask me, you know?

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s hilarious. That’s hilarious, that’s the way to do it is just have all this stuff around so-

Sarah Wilson:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Oh, man, that’s funny. Well anyway, Sarah, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.

Sarah Wilson:

Thank you. This has been such a pleasure. Now I’ve just got to make sure we get cookies to you in Santa Monica. I need to make sure we look at Montana.

Melinda Wittstock:

Montana Avenue.

Sarah Wilson:

Get them right next to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yep.

Sarah Wilson:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

100%.

Sarah Wilson:

Love it.

Melinda Wittstock:

Thank you.

Sarah Wilson:

Thank you.