For many older people, the road trip wasn't complete without a stop at a Stuckey's Roadside store, which was a site used by the company. An essential part of this experience was enjoying their namesake pecan log and exploring a wholesale pecan candy business built around the iconic brand. The business continues to grow, focusing on its people, heritage, and delivering exceptional products. If you're seeking to offer a fantastic product or run a fundraiser, visit stuckeys.com and explore what they can do for you. It's a great story, sparking fascinating conversations about a remarkable turnaround. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
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GOLD NUGGETS:
(00:00) - Small Business Safari
(04:19) - Entrepreneurial Journey
(14:56) - The Journey of Stuckey’s Revival
(21:47) - Entrepreneurial Pivot to Success
(28:09) - Seasonal Business Marketing Strategies
(38:01) - Brand Revival Marketing Success Stories
(46:02) - Building Your Brand Tribe and Strategy
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Stephanie’s Links:
Website | https://stuckeys.com/
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniestuckey/
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Books Mentioned: Unstuck: Rebirth of an American Icon - Stephanie Stuckey
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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
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If You Loved This Episode Try These!
• Bark to Business! How Brady Foulk is Starting a Dog Training Business
• The Fighter for Truth and Finding the Good in Companies - Dale Cardwell
• AI Can Handle Your “Karen” Customer - Uzair Ahmed Is Transforming HVAC Customer Interaction
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
For many older people, the road trip wasn't complete without a stop at a Stuckey's Roadside store, which was a site used by the company. An essential part of this experience was enjoying their namesake pecan log and exploring a wholesale pecan candy business built around the iconic brand. The business continues to grow, focusing on its people, heritage, and delivering exceptional products. If you're seeking to offer a fantastic product or run a fundraiser, visit stuckeys.com and explore what they can do for you. It's a great story, sparking fascinating conversations about a remarkable turnaround. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!
-----
GOLD NUGGETS:
(00:00) - Small Business Safari
(04:19) - Entrepreneurial Journey
(14:56) - The Journey of Stuckey’s Revival
(21:47) - Entrepreneurial Pivot to Success
(28:09) - Seasonal Business Marketing Strategies
(38:01) - Brand Revival Marketing Success Stories
(46:02) - Building Your Brand Tribe and Strategy
-----
Stephanie’s Links:
Website | https://stuckeys.com/
LinkedIn | https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephaniestuckey/
-----
Books Mentioned: Unstuck: Rebirth of an American Icon - Stephanie Stuckey
-----
Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Dale Cardwell, Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!
-----
If You Loved This Episode Try These!
• Bark to Business! How Brady Foulk is Starting a Dog Training Business
• The Fighter for Truth and Finding the Good in Companies - Dale Cardwell
• AI Can Handle Your “Karen” Customer - Uzair Ahmed Is Transforming HVAC Customer Interaction
-----
Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!
I actually told my buddy in Dallas, texas. I said. I said your kids are going to be wearing my jeans. I said my jeans are my Hat. I said you like tough skins when I was a kid in Sears right, you're gonna have trusted toolbox. I said my, my grandiose vision of the trusted toolbox was so big that nobody could tell me was gonna be smaller. And here I am.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be wearing my jeans.
Speaker 1:I did. I swear to God told. I said your kids are gonna be wearing my jeans at 16 years.
Speaker 2:It hasn't happened yet, don't worry, I'm not getting up on that sucker.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Welcome to the small business safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of Small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop Of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Oh boy, I'm feeling nutty today. We're gonna have to rock and roll today, alan.
Speaker 2:It's exciting. I've never seen you this excited, and I was thinking about it on the way over. Of all the restraining orders Our guests have had to get against you, this one might be the most restrictive. I'm not gonna lie. You may not be able to be in the same state as her after this.
Speaker 3:I am a lawyer, by the way, just saying.
Speaker 1:I know. So I am officially a Stephanie's tucky stalker, I mean in the best possible way. I mean on all the instances, all the socials. Every day I follow everything. I'm like a little kid. I'm like, oh my god, where's she today? Oh, she's road tripping here. Oh my god, I've always wanted to go there. That's so cool. So we have Stephanie Stucky on the rebirth of the brand, the Stucky's pecan roll log. But we're gonna talk a lot more about just what she's doing.
Speaker 2:I mean this is, this is red-blooded American Southern royalty, yeah she's, she's American, she's American, she is American, she's the Americana.
Speaker 1:Oh gee, road stop. Yeah, I mean, there you go, bucky's don't have nothing on that man.
Speaker 3:No, oh, gee of the roadside I'm. American.
Speaker 1:Right. So it's exciting and of course you'll. We'll put this on YouTube and you will see that Stephanie is actually going under an assumed name right now If you see any of her tags on here. Because she was afraid that if she told everybody that she was coming on the show that there might be a bunch of people outside going. We want Stephanie, we want, but that was me.
Speaker 3:Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah, no, the reality is right. I've got a daughter who has hijacked my zoom account and put her name on it, and I I don't know how to fix it. That reminds me of she's on spring break right now, so she is not here to help me fix.
Speaker 1:That's the best reason to have kids is IT support, oh, I know, and they're the worst at it. Well, mine, mine are until I do something stupid on Insta, or, and they're like dad, do you got to take that down?
Speaker 3:or when that you ask them to help. They're like their fingers just start going and they're like there and I want them to teach me right. We did teach you.
Speaker 2:I was like no no, don't, don't give me the fish, I teach me how to fish.
Speaker 1:I am so thrilled that I can use two thumbs. When I watch these guys go and it's like thumbs fingers, I mean they're going all over the place. I'm like no, I didn't catch that. Or, or we're trying to search for like a Netflix show or something and I'm like a. They're like give me that.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm like, oh yeah, there it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I'm trying to get my daughter does all these videos on social media and I said Just show me how to edit, can you help me with it? No, no.
Speaker 1:Yeah that, yeah, I'm kills. I still feel like I'm. I'm young at heart. You are, I am at heart.
Speaker 3:So you see my TikTok videos. They are like 99% First takes and they're all unedited, like I don't know how to edit well, they're authentic, so isn't that the right there?
Speaker 1:baby. Right there, you're authentic. She is. That's becoming overused, but I like to think we're authentic too. So let's get into this, let's get rock and roll, and Stephanie, we are thrilled to have you on. She's in Atlanta. She's in a Georgia native not in Atlanta native, though, but she lives in Atlanta now. Stephanie, I know you've got such a great story, but one of the things I really am Excited about now and I are both. I started my own business at 37. I felt like I was a little late to the game and I took that leap right, so I'm out there.
Speaker 1:I'm working for. Yes, looking back on it now we really want to know. But you know, I left the, the big bank. I was at Sun Trust vice president, senior vice president. You know big, we had the parking thing, that that I had all this money. I said, no, I'm gonna start my own business. And everybody says man, you must have a lot of guts. And I'm like, no, I just didn't know what I was getting into. But I had a business plan. I had a on this. Here's your deal, your 50 years old, 50 plus, not today. Yeah, throw the age out, I mean just, but she's part of.
Speaker 3:He said he got it right. He said 50 plus 50 ish.
Speaker 1:I just I'm 50 and holding right so, and so you have this great brand name and it's stuckies, but you weren't doing anything with it. I mean you were, you were working in environmental law, you were a lawyer. You're making yeah, I mean again lawyers aka big bucks right, I would think so. Yeah, I mean rolling it in Atlanta. So I roll it and you said now screw this, I'm gonna do this on my own. What the hell were you thinking?
Speaker 3:Well, it wasn't a Decision that I sat down and made. It was an unexpected opportunity. I literally was mining my own business and my green world, wearing my Birkenstocks, drinking oat milk latte and hanging out at my fair trade co-op talking about saving the world with my buddies. My green buddies and I get a phone call from one of the owners of stockies and there had been decades of the company having different owners and it was for sale and they were dialing for dollars. They were dialing for people with the last name Stucky.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh. So we've talked about this a lot on our podcast as we talk about entrepreneurs. I'm sure, wannabes, it doesn't it's in something that you actually thoughtfully planned out from the time you were six years old. No, it's usually something that's just thrown at you, you get forced into it. In your case, they're dialing for dollars. You're like, oh, that's so sweet. They're calling me because I'm stuck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was like.
Speaker 3:And then I realized like all my grandfather's other grandchildren had passed on the opportunity.
Speaker 2:You were the last on the list. Is that what you're saying? They?
Speaker 3:didn't even go from the oldest to the youngest, like they'd ask everyone else before me, like I was the last stop on the road trip to finding financing. You know, and I Said yes, because I was clueless.
Speaker 2:I was thinking about that on the way over and we've talked about this a lot, stephanie. I mean entrepreneurs, or either people who wanted to do this their whole life or they were forced into it. You're the first one of all the guests we've had who Just had this opportunity fall on their lap and they made a, I guess, a noble decision to save the family name, because your background, I mean you know you were a lawyer, you Worked for the city sustainability.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was had a sustainability for Atlanta, you served as a state representative for 14 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah it's like, okay, I guess I'll save the family business. I Mean it's that simple, right. You went from oat, milk and Birkenstocks to major capitalist overnight.
Speaker 3:I am not a major capitalist. I am a Little engine that could small business that's trying to make it. That's that's well, what we are is not me, it's a team. But yeah, that's that's what happened. And this is my assistant. She appears on all of my videos. Her name is smokey. I should name her Stucky because she's on every single video. She's like our, our mascot.
Speaker 1:And she had the dancing, the dance, yeah, I just had this opportunity and I I went for it.
Speaker 3:Really, I Think more than anything. Yes, there was wanting to save the family brand, but I loved my grandfather.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I loved him and I Didn't want what he had spent his whole life building up, becoming what had happened to a lot of the former Stucky stores. They were strip clubs and trucker bars and nothing going with that. But that was not our brand and that's not what he wanted our legacy to be, and so I just wanted to. I just wanted to prove that what he did was really worth saving and introduce it to another generation of Americans, because we are lacking in Just this road trip experience and it's starting to come back. So I'm really excited about that. I bought the company right before COVID hit, and people did start to rediscover the road trip during COVID, and so it is starting to see a resurgence. It's unfortunate that it came about because of a real tragic situation, but people are rediscovering the road trip and so I I like to think we're really Tripp, and so I I like to think we're part of that journey of Creating it to begin with, you know we were the.
Speaker 3:We were the first road trip brand, and so I want to be part of the resurgence.
Speaker 1:We're definitely the seasoned road trip brand.
Speaker 2:I spent many a long night in a Stucky's before okay so and it wasn't this drip club. I mean it was. It was the good, old-fashioned, just cup of coffee and there's a handful still around.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah, then me too. Whoops, no, I, I want to go away. So from that first phone call to the day you said I'm out of here, lawyer, and I'm gonna start the Stucky's brand I don't know what's that.
Speaker 3:It was about six weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Speaker 3:I was waiting for a year.
Speaker 2:That really was no, and I mean I can't wait to hear about this turnaround because it sounds like it was pretty quick.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry for this background noise. Okay, that's gone. I don't live right down the street from an ambulance, so normally it's not so bad. I'm sorry. Yeah, it was about six weeks. I called and got some advice from some financial advisors and people who I respected who had careers in business, and I went to three financial advisors One because it's good advice to get three opinions, but it took three to get the answer I wanted. And the first who said this is a really bad decision, finances are bad and this is a dusty brand, and who's heard of it and you know it was a lot of sobering reality talk. And then the third person said pretty much the same thing, but he had a butt, it's like.
Speaker 1:But there's something not on the balance sheet, and that's the balance brand, and the goodwill, and so that's where something. She is an entrepreneur, you are. Yes, I mean, that's one of the major characteristics of an entrepreneur, right, we don't see, but we've solved the problem.
Speaker 2:We persevere, we go through it and you ignore all the sage advice and the wise counsel and you go. But there's this little, tiny bit of hope and you go for it.
Speaker 3:But there's this tiny you know, like here's all the things that can go wrong and then like, oh, but you can, people still remember the brand and and you probably didn't do this. But I did this Because I couldn't say the word.
Speaker 1:I'm like, yeah, but I'm really smart. I mean, I got a Masters in Mechanical Engineering. I'm way smart here. Look where I am at the back. You know what this is a can't miss opportunity. Go start a handyman company. Oh yeah, go do that. Actually, everybody kept saying that to me, except one guy who said, no, that's a really dumb idea. I'm like God you don't just knock it up. I got a business plan. I don't know. I'm way smarter. How fast are you going to break even? 16 months, starting 2008,. They're going to recession. How long did it take you? Three years, anyway. Breaking even, that's good. Yeah, well, that's good. Well, it's 13 years, I mean.
Speaker 3:I've been reading about so many businesses and I really like business biographies. I like the story of the person.
Speaker 3:Me too Amen Like the Walmart story I've read Sam Walton's Made in America and he had a mortgage his house Like he was barely making it and struggling for a long time, like what he was doing was capital intensive and took a lot of work. And he had to get loans from his in-laws and his brother was tragically killed young but his brother was very involved and loaning in money and helping him build the business. Like this stuff is hard. Growing a business is really tough and getting that capital and getting profitable you got to put up with some tough times and make some hard decisions and not every day is going to be whoop-dee-doo.
Speaker 3:It's a slog Slog she said it and it's like all of a sudden you've turned a corner. It's more of this slow, just trudging up that mountain that's my favorite word right there.
Speaker 1:It is a slog. There's no other way. It's a slog. I'm in the quagmire, I'm up to my waist, sometimes in my ears, and you're just slogging. You're like, yeah, but, chris, look at all those trips you go on. Hey, look at you. Oh, big daddy's doing all this, and I know that's what you called your grandfather. But we do it all the time. Everybody looks at you from the outside going, man, you're done it. Oh, you're making all this money. Oh, band, life is so easy. You didn't see me at 3.30 this morning.
Speaker 1:No, because you have to pretend Because it's hard.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's a fine balance. Like you don't want to say like, oh my God, our financials suck or whatever, like not that I would say that or that that's accurate, but there are times when the finances could be better. There are some days that are better than others, and you don't want to put out there something that's dishonest, but you also don't want to be gloomy. So I think you can share your story in an authentic way and so it's a slog, and that doesn't mean we're not going to make it or we're not making it or we're not having these wins, but it's. You have to put in a lot of time and you've got to have a resilient mindset and you've got to be OK with having some hard days, because there were 100% be hard days, but the thing that we both have, chris because I can tell just talking to you is passion.
Speaker 2:So if you are really passionate, even if people are saying this is a crazy idea.
Speaker 3:or why are you leaving finance, Like if you've got the passion that's going to get you through it and when you have a rough month and you're not profitable and you got to figure out how you're going to pay your note?
Speaker 1:or pay roll. That's always a free one. Yeah Right, hit and payroll.
Speaker 2:All right. So I got to ask I mean, you've been so accomplished your whole life, been successful at everything you've done. I didn't see anything in your bio of any kind of a business background. None, yeah. So you jump. In sure, I'm going to buy this company that needs a lot of help. You must have had this. Oh my God, what have I done moment after you did it? And what did you see at first? And I've got so many questions. You must have had amazing advisors, obviously excellent instincts. So talk about that first.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, moment that you had I just surround myself with smart people, but I absolutely had a lot of crap moments and I would say, even as hard as I've had some. There have been some rough days. I mean I had one day where I pulled up to an old Stuckey's and just high level. I don't want to. I'm happy to get in the weeds if you want, but the way we've been able to turn the company around we do not owner operate any of the Stuckey stores that still remain and there's only a handful of them. But initially I thought, oh, I can do something with these stores. They were franchised at the time. They're now licensed. But I was determined like I'm going to revive the stores. And I went to this one store and the roof was falling in. It looked so bad. And I was on this road trip with my son visiting these stores that were still around, and I saw that store and I just started crying. I was bawling and he said mom, this is what she did with my inheritance. This is it.
Speaker 2:Do better, mom Do better. I'm here messing my game. Hey, trust me, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I walk in that store, and the store did look like crap on the inside too, so there was that. But they had people in the store and they were buying stuff. So that was my moment. I saw a guy in line and he was buying a pecan log roll and I thought, even though this store looks like crap, he's still buying stuff. And I asked him why was he in the store? I was like the store looks terrible, the roof is falling in. Why are you here? Great, question.
Speaker 3:He said Maybe Stuckey's is a fixer upper, but so am I. He was really funny he's like, so am I.
Speaker 1:So am I.
Speaker 3:I remember what this place was like when I was a kid and he told me a story about taking a road trip across the country with his buddy and he always stopped at Stuckey's and I realized our brand still had some power. So there was that. It gave me a little bit of hope. But the other thing was he was buying product and I thought, all right, we can do that, I can start making this again. And my grandfather's candy plant had been shuttered for 20 years and was in complete disarray and I had no money, and so I was able to get the financing together through a SBA loan and I got a business partner and we bought a candy plant that was already operating and we were able to turn things around that way, and we're still turning it around. It's up.
Speaker 1:You mean, it doesn't happen overnight for you? Oh wow, yeah because, it did.
Speaker 2:No, it didn't for me yeah, still 16 years into it, I've got a really important question because she just said a word and you've got a really fun Twitter feed or X or whatever you call it today. I mean for our listeners. You got to check it out and my favorite one was your audiobook company, because you just wrote a book and you said how do you pronounce, how do you want us to pronounce, the?
Speaker 1:P word. Yeah, what is? How do you say? P word, what do you call it? How do you say it?
Speaker 3:How do you say it?
Speaker 2:I grew up saying pecan, but in the South I hear pecan. I still say pecan.
Speaker 1:I'm from Michigan, I know and I say pecan.
Speaker 2:You said pecan, okay, there we go. And is that a personal story? I say whatever the people I'm talking to says so when you're.
Speaker 1:South.
Speaker 2:Georgia, it's pecan.
Speaker 1:Pecan, pecan, all right, pecan South.
Speaker 3:Georgia. It is all about meeting people where they are.
Speaker 1:Hey, you said my sales line first. We use that all the time in our sales process. We're modelers in the handyman. You got to meet them where they're at. Homeowners don't know where they're going. You just said it like that as well. So pecan, pecan. I love that, but I want to go back to it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just pitching a potential account and the guy who owns this retail chain has a very southern accent and I just found myself like, yeah, you should carry out the log rolls, I love doing it.
Speaker 1:Where did that come from? How did that?
Speaker 3:come out of my mouth Like I wasn't even aware until it came out of my mouth and I was like oh. I sound like I've been in Southern Alabama for a month or something, but you do that and I think you do if you're an empathetic person Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You want to connect with people. I want to go back to it.
Speaker 2:I don't advise you, chris, putting on a fake Southern accent. Come on, he at least has the route no, no, no, you're a good out of any from the north, that's right yeah.
Speaker 3:Like if I've been talking to a British person. I could not have carried it off. There you go, Like it wouldn't have been authentic. But for me it was authentic because I am from the South and whenever I go to South Georgia to a family reunion, like my accent just becomes Southern again.
Speaker 1:And actually I just got accused of being a Canadian again. Because I was talking to a guy from Michigan and went to school in the way up north. So I can definitely turn on the Uper, but I cannot turn on. I can hold my own with Southern. But remember when we had Troy Truin on from Australia, I tried to go Australia. That was terrible, yeah that was terrible.
Speaker 1:All right, I want to go back. So six weeks you do this. Tell me you didn't have this mental image, because I'm with you in the passion. But you thought you were Ray Kroc and you were going to have 500 McDonald's in it short, in like five weeks. You thought you were going to revive the entire Stuckey brand Stuckeys everywhere. Is that what you were thinking when you said I'm going to do this?
Speaker 3:I just thought I can do better. I don't know. I had read Grinding it Out already. The book that Ray Kroc story is the founder of the movie is based on Grinding it Out, although they take a lot of liberties with the story yeah, yeah, yeah, If you read the book, it didn't happen for Ray Kroc overnight Ray Kroc.
Speaker 3:so actually I got a lot of inspiration from Ray Kroc because I read that book again. I had read it before. I've always been fascinated by entrepreneurs and their stories, Even though I hadn't been in business. I think entrepreneurs are everywhere. You can be an entrepreneur and a lawyer, right, you can be an entrepreneur and a politician. So that mindset I'd always had. Anyway, one of the things I loved about Ray Kroc story is and now I'm going to just reveal my age when I bought the company, and then you could probably do the math, but he was 53 when he bought the McDonald's franchise and I was 53 when I bought Stuckeys. He did it at age 53 and he'd spent his whole life listening to these self-help motivational tapes and selling the Instamix mixer. He was selling the equipment for the milkshakes.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, the milkshake mixers, I'm not forgetting the name.
Speaker 3:It's like the Instamix or the Instacart or something, but it had a funky name. He was a traveling salesman selling these mixers and the McDonald's brothers ordered like a dozen of them or something and he's like who are these people and why are they ordering all these and what are they doing? And he studied their business model and it's like so you didn't have that.
Speaker 1:I'm going to breathe. It be the Stuckey, yeah, but it took him years.
Speaker 3:I said I'm going to trust the toolbox.
Speaker 1:I said, man, I'm going nationwide. I actually told my buddy in Dallas, texas. I said I said your kids are going to be wearing my jeans. I said my jeans are my hat. I said do you like tough skins? When I was a kid in Sears, right, you're going to have trusted toolbox. I said my, my grandiose vision of the trusted toolbox was so big that nobody could tell me it was going to be smaller. And here I am. Kids are going to be wearing my jeans. I did too, I swear to God. I told her. I said your kids are going to be wearing my jeans.
Speaker 1:I said it hasn't happened yet, Don't worry.
Speaker 3:I'm not giving up on that sucker.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, there's a chance, all right. So you you mentioned something in here, and I think that's another key thing for any entrepreneurs you had an idea and you had one idea wherever you were going with it, but you pivoted. You pivoted in a very seminal moment, where you're crying which, by the way, I'm not above it. I've cried a lot.
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm a big believer in that.
Speaker 1:I could cry sometimes, this big Italian, he could cry a lot, don't worry about it. So you had a pivot moment and you said, hey, I'm going to go. Consumer brand, I'm going to go. That's a totally different marketing and a business play. Tell us how you got there. No-transcript.
Speaker 3:I had to be profitable. Like that's really what it comes down to. You can be super passionate about, oh I'd love to have these stores. Well, I didn't have the money to rebuild those stores and I couldn't get the financing for the stores. It's hard to get financing for convenience stores with gas Like that. I mean you have a financial background. Getting the financing for that was really hard. At that point I had invested all my cash into buying Stuckeys.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:I couldn't get a loan to buy Stuckeys. It was not profitable, so the SBA loan came only for the candy.
Speaker 1:So that was what the partner, the SBA loan, came on hard property and a growing concern then yeah, so I'm sorry I didn't entirely hear you because of the ambulance. Oh, not here, Not for me, at least the ambulance. It's not coming for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I didn't. It's good buy.
Speaker 1:So when you bought it, you bought Stuckeys without financing. You got the SBA loan later and that was because it was a candy. It was actually a going concern that you were able to get the funding.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was a going concern and we bought the asset, so it's asset purchase. But we also bought their book of business. So this company had been around since 1935 and they had a whole book of business. Yeah, they had done business with my grandfather.
Speaker 1:Holy cow.
Speaker 3:It started as a Baccon shelling operation and went into Baccon shelling and candies and snacks and really it was a pivot. But I'm not an expert on pivots but I do think for pivots to work if it's a total pivot is hard. Ours was really getting back literally to our roots, so it was changing how things had been done at Stuckeys in the last couple of decades, but it wasn't working anymore. We didn't have the infrastructure. The model that was in place when I bought the company was not a bad model If you had the capital and the infrastructure to run a franchise program. But I didn't have that capital, infrastructure and I couldn't find. I spent a year trying to find partners who were interested in that and I couldn't find them, and so I realized that I could probably get financing, and by this point COVID had hit right, and so the government is interested in investing and manufacturing for food in America.
Speaker 1:All right, come on, americana coming back.
Speaker 3:There were dollars available for rural investments and so we took advantage of financing government financing. So my background as a lawyer, my background as a state representative like I understood government financing and I'd worked for the city of Atlanta and I applied for federal grants and so I was not unfamiliar, even though I'd never really done the business side. Like a grant application with the EPA is not unlike an SBA application, oh yeah kind of like that.
Speaker 3:So I did like the whole initial packet and at that point I'd been bringing on a business partner and we merged during that SBA process and then we also got a SBA loan processor, which you really do have to get because you have to navigate the entire process. It's hard, but-.
Speaker 1:That's a great point. Too Long story short.
Speaker 3:It took us a year to get that financing A year.
Speaker 2:How many people are employed in the candy factory?
Speaker 3:It's about 40.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah, that's a big thing, so let's get into that. So how many-.
Speaker 3:I wish it were more.
Speaker 1:It will be, it will be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've had more.
Speaker 3:It's just been hard because we're a seasonal business and so peak season, we'll pick up the numbers. Our dream is to be able to be consistent with our sales year-round, and it's just hard when you have a seasonal business, and so we're trying to be creative and figure out because pecans are seasonal.
Speaker 1:Seasonal harvesting, but it's not seasonal sales. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Americans eat sugar year-round, 24, 7, 3, 5.
Speaker 3:24 though, yes, they eat sugar year-round. Good point the candy business is very much occasion-driven, right, and so you've got Valentine's Day and we're less of a Valentine's Day brand, but we definitely get a pickup for Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2:But you've got Valentine's Day Art-shaped pecan log.
Speaker 3:Got Mother's Day, father's Day, easter, so those are like the big occasions, and I'm on the National Confectioners Association Board, so shout out to our trade association.
Speaker 1:Whoa hang on.
Speaker 3:They have created June as National Candy Month, and it's for that very reason because we're trying to pick up those sales and then really after Easter it's typically kind of this long stretch to get to Halloween, you know.
Speaker 1:But we're not really a.
Speaker 3:Halloween candy.
Speaker 1:No, oh, you know what we got an idea. Oh, we can do that. Come on, let's spitball that sucker right now. Right, pecan bites, pecan bites Pecan bites.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we thought about that, but we've got to get the machinery and we got to get the packaging and we got to ramp it up and then we got to market ourselves. So, yes, I want us to be a Halloween brand, but we're not quite there yet, Okay because Halloween, I think Halloween is Christmas, Christmas I know where.
Speaker 1:So your big season is Christmas.
Speaker 3:Christmas Boy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow.
Speaker 3:Gift hands, comfort, nostalgia.
Speaker 2:See, and I would have thought especially back in the day when there were so many roadside places, it would be a summertime business because you had all the tourists, and so that's changed.
Speaker 3:Well, and we are selling. So when we did the pivot, we started selling our product to other convenience stores.
Speaker 1:Right. So this is what I want to, because I mean number one I'm a Stephanie Stuckey stalker. I'm going to go back on record saying that, yeah.
Speaker 2:But the best possible way.
Speaker 1:But no, I love the way you built the brand. Brand Docker, yeah, but I love the way you built the brand. I've taken a lot of tips off. What you've done is because by posting out to social media, it's a very inexpensive way to get your brand out there. And I've heard that you said, hey, I'm getting my brand out there and I'm doing, you know, end caps or store fronts and I'm getting into convenience stores. So I would have thought that, no way, that was a seasonal business. When I was listening to her, I was like, oh my God, because my business is seasonal, right.
Speaker 2:It'll be less seasonal the more retail presence she gets.
Speaker 3:I think yeah, and we're getting there, like I don't want it to seem like we're all just sitting there like looking at our watch till it gets to be like. September. All right, crank up the machines, let's get the chocolate gun, you know, and just roll out the log rolls.
Speaker 2:It's September, you know we are Roll out the pecans Right.
Speaker 3:By the way, we just I'm so excited about this. I am chomping at the bit to be able to film this, and my business partner's like it's not ready yet. It's not ready yet for a prime time, but we have a machine that is made just for us. It's been a year in the works and it is a pecan log roll machine.
Speaker 1:Can't film. It's the only one of its kind. We're breaking that we have inside.
Speaker 3:It makes pecan log rolls so we can go from like don't? These numbers may be slightly off, so my business partner.
Speaker 2:Are they handmade?
Speaker 3:now Checking me, but like 10. Embellished 10 log rolls a minute to 100 log rolls a minute, like it's going to be just rolling them out, and they do this giant extruder and then they coat the caramel and then they roll it in the pecans and then they cut it and then they put it through the flow wrapper and you get this and it's like bam.
Speaker 2:And right now it's like roll. So you're doing it by hand now.
Speaker 3:A lot of it.
Speaker 2:Really A lot of it, man, I got.
Speaker 1:I got I love Lucy's Big kid. Yeah, that's right. As soon as she started talking about, I got I'm going from 10 to 100. I got, I got Lucy, I got this trying to remember that, oh yeah, yeah, we have that machine at our candy plant, by the way.
Speaker 3:It's a chocolate and roving machine and it literally is a waterfall of chocolate that comes down, and so you'll, you'll line up on the conveyor belt you can put. This is the fun thing about it in a rover is you can really put anything in an a rover, so you could do like I could stick my head in there, or pretzels, or. Oreo cookies, but you could do, gummy bears, you could do. Oh, I want to do a chocolate covered potato chip, which sounds strangely good.
Speaker 1:Right, right oh.
Speaker 3:And then you just run it through the conveyor belt.
Speaker 1:It's a better, and then it goes through the cooling chamber.
Speaker 3:But what they were doing afterwards, when it came out of their little conveyor belt, I mean out of the waterfall, they were wrapping it by hand and we're putting it in a little you know sleeve.
Speaker 2:To seal it.
Speaker 3:And they weren't keeping up.
Speaker 1:Oh boy, oh my gosh. All right, let's break that. We have that same machine. We're going from 10 to 100 logs. You have got to eat my stuff when you come by, all right. So my biggest question is we? But we all road tripped. We're seasoning ourselves here and I don't know if you're marketing to us or you're marketing to the younger generation. But what was the car Everyone? What was the car you road tripped in as a kid?
Speaker 2:Oh, what was the?
Speaker 1:car. I what, what car did you guys road tripping? When your dad said we're going, it was a station wagon.
Speaker 3:It was a Ford station wagon.
Speaker 2:Ford Country Squire, it's a.
Speaker 3:Ford Country Squire station wagon. I have a picture of the in it.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, I was in an O's Mobile 88. Oh, you had luxury. I was luxury you were a world-class style, but it was that. But we all had that one right, don't make me pull this car over. So I grew up in Michigan. My grandparents moved to Florida because that was what every Italian did when they retired, and so my dad would say we're going to Florida, I'm like awesome, here we go from Michigan. So it's a 20 plus hour trip to Fort Myers.
Speaker 3:Fun.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're going to Fort Myers, fort Myers is so much fun.
Speaker 1:It was so now, but it was a death march because that's the only way my dad knew how to do it. So we would hump it and stop right north of Atlanta and he'd wake us up at 4 AM and we would start saying can we stop? So we knew we got to the South when we saw Stuckies yeah, yes, hell, yeah, yes and so we'd say can we stop? And he'd be like no, I make a good time. I had that dad. Of course. I took it.
Speaker 3:We loved moms, because the moms would be like now. We got to pull over.
Speaker 1:And my mother was a huge sweet freak, so she's like Sam, pull over, we need to stop. So we did. We did the Stuckies thing. So today you are building your story brand around road tripping and promoting your product. Again, I just think what you're doing is it looks like you're doing a bootstrap marketing budget, which I love, but here you know, anyway you can do it right. You could go out there and buy every billboard in the world. You could go out there and spend millions and millions. We don't have that money. I don't got that money, man. So you're doing it. So your road trip is done. My billboard cost. So what are you driving in now?
Speaker 3:I drive a company car, so it's a company. It's a Chevy Expedition.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Is it wrapped? Is it wrapped with Stuckey's logos?
Speaker 3:It's just got a one of those magnetic signs.
Speaker 2:Oh, come on, man. No, we got a rabbit. You could wrap it in a. Make it a pecan log. Dude, I want I would wrap it Rolling pecan log.
Speaker 1:You could have that, that little log on the top. We're going to start marketing for you. We got this. We're going to put a log on top of the thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like the Oscar Meyer hot dog. You know, there is a guy in.
Speaker 3:That's what I was looking for.
Speaker 1:I thought you'd say the log mobile.
Speaker 3:There's a guy in Delaware who is a huge Stuckey's fanboy and he got an old crossley station wagon and he put a giant pecan log roll looks just like this on top of it and he drove it all up and down the Eastern Shore this past summer. He was not officially representing Stuckey's right, but he reached out to me about it. He's like hey, can I put a giant log roll on top of my car?
Speaker 1:And I'm like so the lawyer said said well, no, there's but the entrepreneur. And you said Well, hell yeah.
Speaker 3:I was like what if he's a total cook? What if he's a pedophile?
Speaker 2:You know who did.
Speaker 3:I just say could do this Right, but he turned out not to be a cook or pedophile, thank God, just a super enthusiastic car guy and he likes retro and he likes Stuckeys and he stopped as a kid and so we did send him cases. Throughout the summer I'd send him, you know, like he let me know when he was out and I'd send him cases of log roll. So he would pass out log rolls. And the cool thing is he found out where the Oscar Meyer Wiener mobile was going to be and he parked the log roll mobile right next to the Wiener mobile Outstanding, and he's got a picture of the two next to one another In the Johns Creek days remember the parades we used to have.
Speaker 1:I made sure that I got my trusted toolbox fan right behind the wheel when it showed up and I got pictures to this day. I got pictures of me and my son.
Speaker 1:They're going oh love it Oscar and the trusted toolbox we are Americana. You can do this All right, stephanie, as you've done that and you've in your growing the business. Things have gone well right. I mean, everything can always go better, but you've gone really well. What was one of the best marketing things you did to help grow that brand? If you went, man, that was you know what. That one was good.
Speaker 2:I saw it move the needle Yep.
Speaker 3:I know there was a pivotal moment where, when I first bought the brand, it was a couple months in and I was posting on social media every day and I was watching all these Gary V videos on punch punch, punch, punch, punch, jab right, or maybe it's jab jab, jab punch. But what you know like, you're basically out there posting every single day on every single social media channel. He says like five or six times a day. I couldn't keep up with that, but I did post every day on most of the social media channels.
Speaker 3:I have not been very good on Pinterest, but you know I put myself out there on TikTok and everything. So I was doing all that and then the jab is like you know, then every six posts is something that salesy. But otherwise you're just trying to tell a story and create a brand story and interest in what you're doing and engaging people. And I really wasn't succeeding at it and I think part of it was. I was just trying to be super upbeat and I'm bringing this brand back. Woo who's with me, and you know it was. I was trying to be something that we really. I mean, I was trying to bring the brand back but I there wasn't a lot of reality in there because it was we were not doing well and so I wasn't showing that more honest, vulnerable side.
Speaker 3:So I pulled over at this old Stucky store and they still had the roof and they actually even had the Stucky sign, but it wasn't a Stuckies anymore, it was. It was someone else, some other name. They changed the name and they changed. They put a different sign out front but it looked like a Stuckies and it had the. It had the Stucky sign out front. So I took a photo and it looked really pathetic and I just I posted something very vulnerable and real and said I have been driving the back roads of America in search of my family's brand and and and I keep finding lost old Stuckies and, despite the hard times that everyone's going through, because it was right during COVID, I said I am working hard and I'm committed to reviving this country and reviving Stuckies, because I believe in both of us.
Speaker 2:And people reacted.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, it was crazy. It went like within a day and had like 250,000 likes or something.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:And people were just like oh my God, I remember Stuckies and I love that you're trying to bring the brand back. And so not only did that one post take off, and I've yet to have one that I think is just like oh, I went viral, you know like a million or anything. But I think there's a lot of value in these that do better than you expected or perform really well. And then you realize, well, what was it? What was it about this that worked, and how can I do more of that? In a way that's different, you know, because you don't want to just regurgitate the same content. Yeah, so that just really got me more on a storytelling path and on a more of a sharing path. And then I also learned the important thing is not just to post and get a bunch of thumbs up. You want engagement and it's not enough that people just comment, but you should be commenting back. If someone takes the time to comment on your post, you need to comment back. And then here's the other level that I didn't learn until more recently stupid me really pay attention to who is commenting. So I'll give you a great example Do I have the coat? I have the coat, All right, I love stories of brands that have made it or not made it, and I tell those stories Like I wrote an obit when the last Howard Johnson's restaurant died last year.
Speaker 3:That was really a. That was a sad day for me, that was a crying in my coffee day. But I also really miss Kmart and there's only like five Kmarts left. They're almost all gone. So I'm in Carrollton, Georgia, and I see a big K sign. So the Kmart is gone but the sign is there and I'm like, oh my God, there's a sign. Like the sign is still there, Like that's awesome. So I pull over and I take a photo of the sign and I just posted this last week and that one got a ton of engagement and so you can find it on my feed on LinkedIn pretty regularly.
Speaker 1:So I'm wearing this shirt right, the Pigley Wiggly baby yeah.
Speaker 3:And here's one of the things I love to do. It's a little subtle. I don't want to be like in your face with it.
Speaker 3:but brands that carry our product. They're really our partners, and so I feel like I need to be out there promoting Hobby Lobby and Pigley Wiggly and Food Lion and Ingalls. Like anyone who carries a Stuckey's product. I want to be out there saying I love Pigley Wiggly. Go stop at your Pigley Wiggly, Go stop at your Food Lion, because they are helping us make it, and so I'm wearing this little Pigley Wiggly, you know. So I make sure I got the Pigley Wiggly in there.
Speaker 3:We got to get you the shirt that says I picked a pig and this woman says nice Pigley Wiggly shirt or something like that, right, and so I was like cool, and I actually got quite a few like that. Well, this woman I looked at well, what's her name, what's she do? She's head of buying for Pigley Wiggly for the Midwest.
Speaker 2:Nice, oh, good job.
Speaker 3:Got you Messaged her. Oh, my God, I'm so excited that you notice my Pigley Wiggly shirt. You know I love Pigley Wiggly and we're in Pigley Wiggly in Alabama. Why are we in Pigley Wiggly? You know, we would just love to be in Pigley Wiggly in the Midwest. So I connected her with my buyer and so it's still in the works but, like Nice. So that just shows you. Now it hasn't happened yet. I hope it comes forward. Miss Pigley Wiggly, I can't believe I'm forgetting your name, lady, but it was a lovely exchange.
Speaker 1:Don't worry, we're actually tagging. I dig the pig. Yeah, we got that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let me, I'll look up her name, we'll get you there it was a very nice exchange and I really appreciated her making that comment and that sort of started everything going.
Speaker 2:Are you seeing?
Speaker 3:Pay attention to who comments on your posts, because it could be a potential business opportunity.
Speaker 2:That's a great golden nugget. Are you actually seeing? So? I saw the video you did and you were showing the socks and all the bins of socks and things like that. I mean, are you starting to see a direct correlation with posting that video and suddenly your online merch sales spike?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it does help. It does help One of the things I'll do when I'm at the candy plant especially and I'm not there as much as I would like to be because I've got a lot of speeches I'm giving these days but when I'm at the candy plant I'll just I'll do a post on social media, like, if you order a pecan log roll today, I am going to personally sign the box. And it's kind of silly that orders pick up, and I'll film me signing the pecan log rolls.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So I've got a question. I know you were very close with your grandfather and he's the one who founded Stuckeys. Do you remember him talking about the business? No, you don't. So when you're thinking about your grandfather, as you're, you know, I'm sure at some point I wonder what he would have thought of this. I mean, do you have those kinds of thoughts?
Speaker 3:I always think about what he would have thought. I think about it every day and I wish I knew.
Speaker 2:Well, I guarantee he'd be super proud of what you're doing.
Speaker 3:You know, I don't know I. He was my grandfather and he had sold the company before I would. He sold the company a year before I was born and he died a week after my 12th birthday, and so I wish I'd known him better. My dad says he would be proud and my aunt says he would be proud. He had two children and they're still living, and so they're still living.
Speaker 1:You're trying to make me cry on the podcast. I just made you cry a little bit, you did. I know I'm actually tearing up over here. Yeah, because I think about my grandparents two Italian grandparents, and my grandmother actually had her own business. How about being avant-garde, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, what was her business?
Speaker 1:So she made gowns and she also. They're called Infants of Prague. It's a very long story. Short is it's a Catholic thing, and they dress up the baby Jesus and put him in. Put him in seasonally, right, I mean seasonal.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So she made seasonal dresses and what was cool was she did it from Buffalo, New York, and I was down in Charlotte, North Carolina later in life and my daughter was getting her. We did the her first communion there and they had one of my grandmother's dresses there. Wow, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, that's so cool.
Speaker 1:I went down so anyway, but but it's not about me. Back to Stephanie, cause we're running out of time. Great on the social media, love that, like I said, big Stephanie stalker. But I want to know, like one of the things I thought you've done a really good job of is finding your tribe, finding that network, because for you to push to get your product out there it's convenient sore owners how have you found your tribe and how have you networked to help do that for our listeners?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm a big fan of Seth Godin. He talks a lot about finding your tribe, so hold on just one second. Excuse me, I'm recording a video. I'd love to say we're gonna edit that out.
Speaker 1:We're just not doing that. That was just super cool, Cause she just told somebody else I'm way more important over here. Let's keep going. Seth Godin, find your tribe.
Speaker 3:I want to hear how you do that, yeah, so he talks a lot about that. So I think first of all you have to define your brand identity right. And so what is your brand really about? So I have two business partners RG Lamar, who runs the day-to-day operations of the company. He's the CEO. Actually, I started as CEO and we transitioned. So he now runs day-to-day candy operations distribution center. He runs all of that. I'm the face of the brand. And then our third partner, Ted Wright, runs a marketing firm. So Stuckies is like his side hustle and so Ted really helped me sit down and helped us, our team, define.
Speaker 3:So what is the brand? We created this brand diamond, and we came up with what are the attributes that our brand is about? So nostalgia and American, American and road trips and freedom and fun and independence. So we sort of put together like what we think our brand represents. And so then you step back once you kind of figure out what is your brand identity. So who would relate to that? So we step back and then we thought, okay, road trippers. So who road trips? So teenager people out of college, right, and you see, America, that's a big time. So we got that demographic and families, road trip and people finding themselves later in life RVers, road trip campers and glampers. So we just kind of kept figuring out the different demographics and then we also thought about well, what are the occasions that we can help celebrate the road tripper? So a lot of our marketing is around the road trip because you don't want to be all things to all people, right. So that's the other thing.
Speaker 3:Like I've talked to people, who are like I don't like pecans, or I don't like road tripping and I'm like okay, you're not in our tribe, that's okay, you're dead to me, as Chris would say. You're not our tribe.
Speaker 3:You know, it's like people and maybe someday we'll do this, but they're always like well, when are you gonna make sugar-free stuff? Well we're not right now and it's not in the foreseeable future. Not that I don't think that's awesome, but we don't have the capacity to be all things to all people right now, so our lane is sugar.
Speaker 1:That's right, you're in the sugar lane. You're in the sugar lane. You know what? That lane ain't gonna stop anytime soon my friend no. Back to McDonald's. Hey, I got a tip.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we do, we do some raw pecans so you can buy raw pecans from us, but really like we are in the candy lane, we're not trying to be something, we're not so kind of know who your peeps are. And then we built out a content calendar based on that and so I travel a lot for my job and whenever I go anywhere I refer to the content calendar and I think, all right, what sort of images do I need? What sort of storytelling do I need to be telling that this place could help me tell? So here's a good example NASCAR fans, that's our base Like we're Americans of country music and NASCAR, that those are our peeps. And so when I was in Daytona for a speech, I took all these photos of me in front of the NASCAR. You know Daytona 500 and there's a NASCAR museum and there's a statue of the founders, and so I did all that and I saved all that collateral design collateral for a couple of weeks ago, when Daytona 500 came out. I'm like here I am at Daytona 500.
Speaker 3:Well, I wasn't there. I had a commitment in Atlanta.
Speaker 1:but you doped me All right. Well, we're gonna talk about this. Yeah, so it's just you gotta. But a lot of this stuff takes planning.
Speaker 3:I know people in NASCAR, we can do this it may look spontaneous, or it may look like I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go to Daytona 500. Well, I wish I could. I couldn't be there, but I could be there earlier this year as I took photos. So just plan it out. It takes a lot of strategy. There's, as my business partner likes to say, there's a lot of strategy behind what we do.
Speaker 1:Strategy. One of my favorite words I was just actually ahead of my notes was to talk about the strategy around your brand. So you find the confectioners. You're doing that. You're obviously getting your name out there. We're running out of time and I know I gotta get you back to get those pecan logs rolled. Yeah, yes, all right, so I know we can find another. Socials. We'll push all that stuff out there. That book Unstuck Rebirth of an American. Finish it partner. What was the Unstuck Rebirth of an American? Unstuck?
Speaker 3:Rebirth of an American icon. It is available for pre-sale on everycom online bookstore. From Amazon to Books-a-Million to Barnes Noble, you can find pre-sale right now and then, starting April 2nd, we will be landing in stores and the book launch is at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library on-.
Speaker 1:Oh, very cool in Atlanta, nice poll, good for you.
Speaker 3:We were invited 7pm.
Speaker 1:When 7pm.
Speaker 3:April 1st is not an April Fool's Day joke. That is just the only date that works with everyone.
Speaker 1:I was like oh my gosh, she threw me off. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:Because another restraining order.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my lawyers. Yeah, listen guys, I'm not that bad. No, I'm kidding, all right.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I'm gonna be doing a little fireside chat with a local Atlanta journalist and author, Mike Jordan, who I was so excited when he said yes, he writes a lot about culture in Atlanta, and so I'm super excited.
Speaker 2:Will you do a reading?
Speaker 3:We're gonna do a fireside chat format and talk about the book, and the Carter Center is doing an exhibit of the Green Book, which was the African-American travel guide during the era of racial segregation, and so I think that's a really nice tie-in with Stuckys and the road trip and Stuckys was never segregated, so we tie in really well with the Green Book. We were even in the movie the Green Book. There's a whole scene at a Stuckys no kidding.
Speaker 1:Man, I miss that. Yep, stephanie, this has been awesome, but we're gonna let you go. You gotta get back and do your thing. Guys, you've been listening. If you hung with us, you've got an amazing story. There are so many other things that you could learn about what Stucky and the brand is, but what Stephanie has done to re-birth that brand has been amazing. I'm a big fan. I've said that throughout the thing. That's a service to the country.
Speaker 2:I really appreciate it, I love it.
Speaker 1:And this sucker's not going away, man, it's definitely going big time. So we love it. We gotta do this. Remember, man, you're out there. You were slogging through it. She said that word slogging through it. Let's get up that mountain top. Let's make it happen, get up that mountain top. We got success. It's in our rear view mirror?
Speaker 3:No, it's in our front we're slogging the logs right.
Speaker 2:Get them going. We're out of here. Cheers everybody. Thanks, stephanie.
Speaker 3:Bye.