24: Building Tasty Partnerships - Grayson Hogard

Grayson Hogard, founder of Grove Cookie Company, joins Sam and Jason to share his journey of starting a cookie business and building partnerships in the B2B space. 

He emphasizes the value of building relationships and how cookies can enhance the gifting experience. 

Grayson discusses the impact of partnerships with platforms like Postal and Sendoso, and the importance of maintaining authenticity while scaling his business. He also talks about his joy and passion for his work and how cookies can be a powerful tool for opening doors and establishing relationships.

**Key Takeaways:**

- Building relationships and partnerships can change the trajectory of a small business.
- Cookies can be more than just a delicious treat; they can enhance the gifting experience and foster relationships.
- Authenticity and providing value are crucial in maintaining partnerships and scaling a business.
- Direct mail and personalized messages can be effective in building relationships and driving business growth.

**Quotes:**

- "Cookies are a relationship enhancer." - Grayson Hogard
- "The box of cookies reminded the CRO to get back to the account executive and led to a 40X deal." - Grayson Hogard
- "I would love to send a box of cookies to Elon Musk. I think that would just be... That would be hilarious." - Grayson Hogard

******************Chapters:******************
00:11 Introduction and Welcome
00:40 Personal Updates and New Job Announcement
01:37 Introducing the Episode's Theme: Tasty Partnerships
01:47 The Story of Grove Cookie Company
02:06 The Power of Building Relationships in Business
03:45 Interview with Grayson Hogart, the Cookie Man
06:20 The Birth of Grove Cookie Company
15:44 The Role of Partnerships in Grove Cookie Company's Success
22:15 The Power of Direct Mail and Cold Calling
23:45 The Importance of Partnerships
24:11 The Power of Reciprocity in Partnerships
24:32 The Impact of a Strong Partnership
25:05 The Role of Fun in Business Relationships
26:13 The Value of Gifting in Business
27:07 The Concept of Cookies as a Service
28:56 Building Relationships through LinkedIn
35:45 The Challenges of Scaling a Business
40:57 Balancing Work and Personal Life
46:04 The Power of Cookies in Building Relationships

Transcript

0:11

Welcome to the Friends with Benefits podcast, a business podcast about revenue generating partnerships, not a podcast about business time with friends. We're your co hosting couple. I'm Jason. And I'm Sam. Welcome to the show, friends.

Jason Yarborough: 0:26

Welcome back to the show, friends. We are so excited to be back. I sometimes wish that we could say that more frequently than once a week, but you know, we, we do what we can do with the time that we have. Sometimes a lot of things just happen throughout the course of a week. Like you just got a new job.

Sam Yarborough: 0:43

I did not spend in process for more than a week, but

Jason Yarborough: 0:46

yes, I did. A little bit over a week as those things go. I was having a conversation with somebody this morning that, uh, companies love to drag out the job recruiting process, but yours was pretty quick.

Sam Yarborough: 0:57

It was pretty quick. Um, three weeks. This is week three.

Jason Yarborough: 1:01

Whew. Well, congratulations. Who, where, where are you at?

Sam Yarborough: 1:04

I am at a new company called Invisory. Hmm. Sounds fancy. Very fancy. Um, we help partners get the most out of marketplaces. So... Azure, AWS, GCP, but I specifically focus on, you want to guess?

Jason Yarborough: 1:26

Probably a little shop called Salesforce. Yep. The blue cloud. Yeah. You're the, you're the girl with cloud. If you didn't see the LinkedIn post to that, that probably doesn't make sense. But however. We're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about probably our most tasty episode to date. It was pretty sweet. Yes. Uh, pretty excited about this one. Actually. Uh, we had Grayson from the most beloved of all internet treats. Grove cookie company. You may have seen their posts on LinkedIn.

Sam Yarborough: 1:56

And if you haven't had a grove cookie, do whatever you have to do to get one. Yeah.

Jason Yarborough: 2:00

Slide up into our DMs and see what we can do to hook you up with that and change that, but my God, they're so good. Here's what I love about this, this interview. Grace and I jumped on a call to, to kind of meet each other and chat. He started telling me his story and I was like, this is so good that I want to record this on the podcast and share it with our friends. And you, you took some good, some good value away from it as well, right?

Sam Yarborough: 2:21

Yeah. I love this conversation. I mean, what I learned from this, what I took away from this was. I feel like everybody apart, approaches partnerships that you have to have a big strategy. You have to have a team to do this and Grayson proves us all wrong. And I think he really showcased how building relationships can change the trajectory of your small business and it can start from a very grassroots place and you just have to start putting yourself out there, asking the right people and partnerships will change the

Jason Yarborough: 2:55

game. And, you know, if not cookies always help, he called them a relationship enhancer and I couldn't agree more. So, uh, this is more of a, how I built this episode around how you build partnership, build your business with partnerships. And I think it was pretty fascinating. Uh, one thing to call out that I did, uh, do some sleuthing on the internet on, he said he does 125, 000 cookies. Uh, a year. That's what he's on, that's what he's projecting for this year. That's a lot of cookies. And that's a hell of a lot more cookies than the average boutique bakery does in a year. I would guess that's true. That's pretty freaking incredible for a guy that doesn't even have a storefront and just ships through his partners. So without that, grab a glass of milk and buckle up for this Grove Cookie Company interview. If you give a friend a cookie. Oh boy. Ha! Grayson Hogart, the self proclaimed cookie man. Welcome to the podcast, my friend.

Grayson Hogard: 3:50

Well, hi, Jason. Hi, Sam. Thanks for having me.

Sam Yarborough: 3:54

Man, I'm so excited. Like, we both come from the gifting space. We'll get into this a little bit more, but we've been lucky enough to have been gifted some of your cookies, and words don't do them justice.

Jason Yarborough: 4:08

no, not, not at all like for those listening to home, uh, Grayson here, grove cookie company, right? Give us a little, you know, tell us a little about grove cookie company real quick,

Grayson Hogard: 4:19

Yeah, uh, well, Grove Cookie Company, we're a cookie company that really is, um, tailored and specialized for the B2B community, and really... Enhancing the gifting, uh, experience and relationship for our users.

Jason Yarborough: 4:34

enhancing the tastiness of gifting. Uh, if you've, if you're on, if you're on LinkedIn, no doubt, you've probably seen some grove cookie companies come across your feed. And, uh, like Sam said, we've been privy enough to have a few at our doorstep. Uh, so before we jump into, to all the, uh, the conversation here. I gotta know, man, like, what's your favorite flavor? What's your favorite cookie that you guys, uh, push out there? Who's your favorite kid?

Grayson Hogard: 4:59

Yeah, so... My favorite cookie is our snickerdoodle cookie, and we do not have it on the menu. So it's like secret

Jason Yarborough: 5:06

There's a snickerdoodle cookie?

Grayson Hogard: 5:07

Yep, yep. So, one, one day we'll bring it back. It's just, uh, it's a difficult cookie to ship because of all the sugar and cinnamon on it. So if you, you know, you've seen how we package our cookies. You put that in... With other cookies, they're just all going to be kind of that

Jason Yarborough: 5:22

Sam

Sam Yarborough: 5:23

you're breaking hearts here. That's Jason's love

Jason Yarborough: 5:25

That is my favorite cookie and there's not even a close second place.

Grayson Hogard: 5:29

Yeah, we need to, we need to change that. We'll probably change it. Don't worry. 20, 24.

Sam Yarborough: 5:37

on the side.

Grayson Hogard: 5:38

Oh,

Jason Yarborough: 5:38

Can you like...

Grayson Hogard: 5:39

Like a little packet.

Sam Yarborough: 5:41

Yeah, DIY.

Jason Yarborough: 5:42

cookie kit. Yeah. Man, put up a, uh... Put the cookie signal up when you release that cookie again to the wild because I will find a way to get some of those. Yes.

Sam Yarborough: 5:59

it's, it's so unique. It's like wildfire on the LinkedIn ecosystem in the gifting space. Like, if you've had a growth cookie, you understand what we're talking about. But even if you haven't, like, Grayson has done a phenomenal job of building kind of this following, this cult following for cookies, if I'll say, on LinkedIn. So, let's go back to the very beginning. Um, I've heard you talk a little bit about this and you said your wife, quote unquote, picked up baking during COVID. Um, I like baked some banana bread during COVID and I'm so far from having a banana bread company, so there's got to be more to it than that. What? Give us, give us the play by play.

Grayson Hogard: 6:44

Well, I'll try to keep it compact. Um, so yeah, so 2020, you know, everything's going on. My wife's working from home. I was still traveling, um, at my, uh, corporate job. And, uh, she just was like, I want like a side hustle, like to, you know, just kill time kind of deal between meetings. And, uh, well, she started with cupcakes, whatever. Um, and then she made, The cookies that we currently have, which, uh, one of them, but the first one was the Oreo cookie and, um, I just remember biting into it and I'm just a soft cookie fan and I was like, Ooh, these are really soft and, um, yeah, you know, just kind of led its way through the holidays of 2020 and then in 2021, right around the beginning of January, she was like, I think we should start selling these. And, uh, over the weekend we basically, you know, got a website. Right. EIN number for taxes, a separate bank account, you know, just kind of like this whole, like start a business, um, steps and, um, yeah, like I said, got our website domain and email and, uh, yeah, January 31st, we launched and really it was just like, I, yeah, I'll help you because, uh, that was just what I thought I should do

Jason Yarborough: 7:59

That's what a good spouse does,

Grayson Hogard: 8:00

That, you know, I like to say that and that's half the battle that I couldn't imagine saying, nah, I'm cool.

Sam Yarborough: 8:07

I'm gonna watch football

Grayson Hogard: 8:08

yeah, um, but yeah, I don't come from like a sales and marketing background. So it was kind of intriguing in that sense of like trying to like market cookies, you know, we're Instagram was kind of like that focal point at the very beginning. Um, but yeah, so,

Jason Yarborough: 8:26

That's

Sam Yarborough: 8:27

So, yeah, sorry, Jay, go ahead.

Jason Yarborough: 8:30

I was just gonna ask, where did the name Grove Cookie Company come from?

Grayson Hogard: 8:35

uh, it's my wife's maiden name. Marie Grove. So, yeah. So, yeah. No, I think it's great. I always like to say a Hogard cookie just doesn't, just doesn't have the ring, you know.

Jason Yarborough: 8:48

There.

Grayson Hogard: 8:49

yeah. Grove just sounds way better. Um, and, uh, yeah. Like the logo design and all that stuff. Like starting a business was so fun because we did it in like a day. We had everything done, like, by Saturday night. Started on Friday evening. Saturday night we were like, Alright, here we go, so yeah.

Jason Yarborough: 9:08

That's, that's incredible.

Sam Yarborough: 9:09

over it.

Grayson Hogard: 9:10

No, no,

Jason Yarborough: 9:12

It's also like one of those things that, like, Sam, you and I talk about this a lot, like, when you step into the path you're kind of supposed to be in, like, things just kind of line up and they're easier to take care of and get done. It's like the universe is like, alright, we've got all these things set up and prepared for you, you stepped into this plan, like, boom, here it is, go.

Grayson Hogard: 9:26

yeah. I agree.

Jason Yarborough: 9:29

for you guys, yeah, so for you guys it was, you know, getting this cookie thing going and, man, look at you now.

Grayson Hogard: 9:35

Yeah, um, it's been, it's been fun, so.

Jason Yarborough: 9:38

You, you and I were chatting the other day. And, uh, really, really enjoyed our conversation, which kind of led to this recording. I was like, man, we got to have this, you know, recorded. But really like something you said around, you know, cookies being more than just a delicious treat.

Grayson Hogard: 9:55

Yeah, um,

Jason Yarborough: 9:56

perspective, like break that down for me. Like, yes, I do freaking love myself a snickerdoodle cookie. The, the cake cookie or whatever you guys send out. Like I will, you know, stop everything I'm doing just for that. But, you know, what you're delivering in market, like. What does that mean to you, Grayson Hogart, as cookie being more than a delicious treat?

Grayson Hogard: 10:14

yeah, well, I really look at, look at cookies. especially ours as a relationship enhancer Um, meaning and reason for that is, you know, Jason, you kind of just confessed your love of cookies while sharing that same love of cookies, say with Sam or a colleague or a prospect or a client, um, and then being able to kind of like bond over that, like, Hey, which one was your favorite cookie or just the simple touch point of the cookies and the thoughtfulness behind it. Um, it really just. In the digital world, especially, you know, everyone's remote or however that kind of lays out for most people. Um, it just adds that little, little nice touch of just relationships. So,

Jason Yarborough: 11:05

And,

Sam Yarborough: 11:06

memorable and thoughtful and, and all of the above.

Grayson Hogard: 11:09

yeah, you

Jason Yarborough: 11:10

it kind of reminds me, Sam, of that, the Heath Brothers book, uh, Moments, something about moments.

Sam Yarborough: 11:15

of moments.

Jason Yarborough: 11:16

Power of a moment, yeah. And cookies, like, as you see on LinkedIn, and as I was first introduced to them, like, it was a moment in someone's day. Right, and they posted it, which created a moment in someone else's day. And so, like, you got these, these little moment makers. That's also shareable, as well as eatable.

Grayson Hogard: 11:35

yeah. No, that's exactly right. It's, um, you know, I always rag on the, um, The 25 gift card, but really a 25 gift card is just a forgettable bookmark. Um, whereas a box of cookies, you know, I'm going to see that box of cookies and I know it has a shelf life and I know I'm going to eat them. And I know I have a higher likelihood of responding to the person that sent them to me versus the forgettable gift card. So,

Sam Yarborough: 12:03

Okay, so I want to go down this path for a minute because this, we went from your wife wanting to, Make cookies

Grayson Hogard: 12:10

yes,

Sam Yarborough: 12:11

taking the B2B space by storm and now being almost a crucial part to prospecting and outreach from a guy who knew nothing about cold calling or marketing. So can you walk us through that journey of how we went from, let's start a cookie company to now we're part of a sales funnel.

Grayson Hogard: 12:33

Yeah, um, well, uh, I kind of touched on it when we launched in January of 2021. We like really had this thought of like, yeah, we'll post photos on Instagram and people will love it and come to our townhouse and buy them. You know, you just realize that's just not going to happen. And, um, my background's in logistics and warehousing. And, um, my buddy, who, him and his dad have a financial firm. Uh, wealth advisory practice, I should say. Um, Have the cookies and we're like, Hey, we need like new client gifts. I'm tired of sending like boxes of chocolates and 15 Starbucks gift cards. Can you ship these cookies? And, uh, I was like, of course, you know, I'm a little confident in my shipping and packaging abilities. And so yeah, shipped him cookies the next day he got them. He's like, Hey, they didn't break and they're still soft. We want to, you know, start using these for our client birthday. So half his clients, um, it was like a list of 500 clients that were starting to get boxes of grove cookies. So you're just like in your mind, you're like, boom, you know, you're like 500 clients, just like that from one. Contact, obviously it's my buddy. So fairly, uh, fairly simple transaction in that idea. Um, so we were rolling with them. They're still our longest client. Let's just say that we still work with them every week. Um, but for six months, um, we were just working with them and then just kind of fielding like square orders. You know, people would order pickup from our townhouse. And, uh. My same buddy was like dude, why don't you call other wealth advisors and see like what they're doing for client gifting We all do the same thing. It's like in our like doctrine client marketing like we need referrals Like how do you stay on top, you know top of mind with them? and so, you know, there's all tips and tricks and stuff and so yeah, well I picked up the phone because that's what all my buddies and Sass sales did, you know, while we were growing up, and I heard all the stories, the war stories. And, um, yeah, and I started calling, and it's pretty simple because every office of a wealth advisor has a front desk person who answers the phone, and nine times out of ten, that front office person handles all the gifting. So... Um, it just, it kind of built up its own confidence, right? Like, if I was getting yelled at or, I don't know, I'm talking about cookies and I really lead off with that. So most people kind of like guard down.

Jason Yarborough: 14:55

Like, ah,

Grayson Hogard: 14:57

it makes, it just makes the whole, it makes the whole calling experience pretty easy. I couldn't imagine calling someone about data enrichment. I call people about...

Sam Yarborough: 15:05

No offense to

Grayson Hogard: 15:06

yeah, I call you about soft and delicious cookies. You want to try a sample box? Like, I mean, really, who's going to be mad about that? Um, so yeah, so

Jason Yarborough: 15:17

I'd return that, I'd return that voicemail.

Grayson Hogard: 15:20

yeah, well, thank you. I've, I've had a few return voicemails. So, um, that, that's kind of how it like snowballed at the beginning. And that was kind of our run through 2021, uh, leading into 2022, which was kind of where things changed to where we are now, but I'll stop there.

Jason Yarborough: 15:39

No, it's, I think it's great. Let's, let's, let's go to, to where you are now. Right. So let's, let's talk a little bit about, about partnerships and, you know, obviously Sam and I are both come from the partnership world. Uh, you've got some pretty great partnerships in the space. So like how, how did that start off getting into, you know, postal and Sindoso and you know, how did that, how'd that begin? And what have you learned from that?

Grayson Hogard: 16:05

Yeah. Um, well, the, our, our first partnership experience was, was Postal, um, two of my other buddies who work in SAS. Um, their company at the time was using Postal and they wanted to start sending cookies. Um, They're like, well, we have a gifting platform. Get on the gifting platform. It just makes it easier from an accounting standpoint. And, uh, Postal was very kind and just led us on to the platform. I don't know what I said, did, or whatever, but they were like, yeah, we'd love to have you. Just send us your product. We'll make sure it, you know, kind of lives up to the shipping and presentation standards they had. And, um, of course we did it and they loved it and we were onboarded. Um, that was our first partnership and like within two weeks, I was like, whoa, this is amazing. Cause, uh, you know, Postal has its own client base. So now you get, you know, companies worth tens of millions of dollars with their own employees who have their own prospects and accounts to target are now, you know, being funneled through our storefront, Shopify storefront. And I was like, wow, that's amazing. And it's way easier than cold calling wealth advisors. And, um,

Jason Yarborough: 17:17

in that first two weeks, did you start to see like an immediate pickup or traffic? Like what were you seeing?

Grayson Hogard: 17:22

Yeah. So it was an immediate pickup. So, um, within that first month, we had a hundred orders come in from postal. So typical like wealth advisor firm, if you get a big one is like 25 orders. Well, postal did a hundred. And so you're just like,

Sam Yarborough: 17:39

that hard for you guys to scale with like were you prepped for that? What was

Grayson Hogard: 17:45

well, we live in a 1500 square foot townhome. So no, we were not, but we made it work. Um,

Sam Yarborough: 17:51

you at least have a double oven?

Grayson Hogard: 17:53

no. Oh my gosh. You know, it's so funny not to go down that sidetrack, but when we were looking for a

Jason Yarborough: 17:58

Let's do it.

Grayson Hogard: 17:59

uh, we were like, we need to have a double oven because we need more space for cookies. And that was like our biggest, like hold up from buying a house. So any. We never eventually bought a house because we couldn't find one with like the double oven in the price

Jason Yarborough: 18:11

Couldn't find the oven.

Grayson Hogard: 18:12

couldn't find the oven space, but, um, so when you, when you deal with that influx, you're just like, all right, well, the family rooms is going to be the shipping and distribution area. And so you can imagine we just. You know, the kitchen was the bakery, the family room was the distribution shipping station, and we just kind of made it work. Um, yeah, and so, you know, month two, we saw like 125, and then month three, it was like 230. And at this same point, we were, we were already, like, made the determination we need to get out of the house. Um, prior to postal, we, just because you're not supposed to be shipping. Products out of your

Sam Yarborough: 18:54

There's probably some laws around that

Jason Yarborough: 18:56

probably.

Grayson Hogard: 18:57

yeah, Oregon has some interesting laws where you could sell them at a farmer's market. You just can't ship them nationwide without being in a registered facility. Um, we found that out. We honestly did not know that. And, um, so we were already kind of being pushed to get a bakery. But it just so happened that, you know, we hopped on to Postal. So it made the whole bakery expansion idea like, Ooh, this won't be as scary, potentially, right? Because you just don't know. You don't know how these things are going to work. And, um, so yeah, so we rolled through the summer, um, just on Postal. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it was, it was great. Um, once I kind of figured out what Postal did, and I figured out there's, you know, there's similar. Competitors, I guess you would call them that do the similar thing with their own clients. I was like, yeah, I should apply, uh, to them. And so Sindoso's is the biggest one, uh, that I, I believe, but yes, they seem to be the biggest one. Um, there you go. Uh, um, yeah, I, I remember applying and they were like, ah, we're, we're, you know, we're tapped out of vendors, you know, we don't, yeah, you know, and I totally get it. Like, honestly. Yeah, we're, we're commodities. So, um, that's where I kind of learned marketing, um, and how to differentiate yourself in a commoditized, um, category. Right. So, um, and that's where LinkedIn, uh, really flourished because

Jason Yarborough: 20:26

What were some of the things you began to do at that point to really differentiate yourself?

Grayson Hogard: 20:31

Yeah. So kind of that same point we hopped on a postal, um, I had always been sending out samples, free samples. That's like been our biggest. Marketing strategy, right? Like who's going to buy cookies off the internet from a stranger without trying them and then send them to their clients. So I was like, yo, this makes cold calling easier and everything else in my life easier just by sending you a sample. I'll take the hit even if you don't buy it. Um, so yeah, so just kind of. Sending samples without any ask. I literally never asked anyone for anything. I was just sending samples and people were posting photos of like, Hey, you can get these cookies on postal now. They're so good. They're so soft. You know, kind of just that feedback. Um, and I started noticing that trend and you know, I think people started seeing it enough. And then, you know, the people at Sindoso started seeing it and then that's where, um, my application got brought up again. And they asked if we wanted to be on their platform. Yeah, so they asked if we wanted to be on their platform, and of course I said, Yes, please! Um, you know, we were just about to move into our shop, and so I, It was just a perfect partnership opportunity at that point. And, you know, I'm not going to say no, and love to, to work with them, and Yeah, we're still partners on there, and That, that was my first, uh, like, light bulb of like, Oh, this is marketing.

Jason Yarborough: 21:52

Yeah.

Grayson Hogard: 21:53

this is how you differentiate yourself. You just. Continue, you know, marketing and thinking outside the box and thinking of new ways to like bypass every other vendor who's just going to go to the submit, you know, submit a vendor, uh, form. I'll just go the social media route and get eyeballs on my product. So that's kind of how we did that one.

Jason Yarborough: 22:14

So

Sam Yarborough: 22:15

So are you still cold calling?

Grayson Hogard: 22:17

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I have it. I did yesterday. Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Yarborough: 22:21

are you like has your Quick, like, has your ideal customer changed? Like, are you cold calling now other vendors or are you still cold calling like individual companies to sell

Grayson Hogard: 22:36

yes.

Sam Yarborough: 22:36

your cookies?

Grayson Hogard: 22:37

So, um, my, my strategy is very funny. So, um, I still cold call wealth advisors, but I do it a little different. I utilize direct mail, our own product. I'll send it to

Sam Yarborough: 22:52

Mm hmm.

Grayson Hogard: 22:53

office first. Right. Cause at the end of the day, I'm going to call them. They're going to get a sample box for having to deal with me. Um, I've found it's very effective to send them a box of cookies and then call them after they receive it. You know, the next day after I get notified and they're like, wow, we love the cookies. How do we intertwine these into our client

Jason Yarborough: 23:11

Gotta get more!

Grayson Hogard: 23:13

Yeah. Well, it's a big thing. I, LinkedIn profile. I'm like, yo, just fricking send it and forget it. Um, you know, once they get it. So, um, yeah, that, that's how my, uh, outreach strategy has been on our own. And then, you know, obviously there's people that utilize the Sendozos, the Postals, the Alice, you know, Reach Desk and Zest, um, platforms that we're partners on. And those people kind of define me naturally, if you will, on LinkedIn. You know, I give, I give those companies, I give our partners shout outs all the time. And I feel like that's like, the definition of being a strong partner, is marketing your partners. So, you know, we're small. We're a, we're a small little minnow, but I like to think it's fun to, to um, support one another. And that's my ethos on partnerships 101, right there.

Jason Yarborough: 24:07

I think you got it pretty nailed. I would

Grayson Hogard: 24:09

Oh, thank you. Ha,

Jason Yarborough: 24:11

really great partner if it's, uh, if the, if the sharing and the value is reciprocal in the partnerships and like that makes a great partnership. Right? And we know for a fact, we've got the product to prove it, that you're providing a ton of value to the Sendosos, Postals, uh, Alice's of the world. Because like you're, they're that we probably see more of your product shared around than just about anything that these gifting platforms are sent. And there's massive value in that from a partnership perspective. When your partner's product is being shared, you know, just about more than anyone's, that shows them they've got a, a great, you know, opportunity to do more with that partner.

Grayson Hogard: 24:53

Yeah. Um, you know, it's, it's just, uh, it's a, it's a batch made in heaven that was going to come out regardless. Um, that was going to come out regardless. I'm sorry.

Jason Yarborough: 25:03

Oh boy.

Grayson Hogard: 25:06

um, you know, it's, uh, it's, it's just like, it's like a fun deal. And like, I, we talked on our call, Jason, I like talk about our partnerships a lot because, um, they make it. Our job really fun and engaging. Um, because I, uh, us personally here at grove cookie company, we like, take it like to heart that we're helping, you know, the CSMs, you know, at the Sandosas, the postals, wherever, um, accomplished their mission because, you know, they have clients that they're servicing and whatever we can do as their partner to be faster, more efficient, better product. Uh, over the top, like, customer service to them. I know it, like, uh, vibrates down to their clients because, well, reality is when they need a quick hit from a vendor, they're going to think of Grove Cookie Company because

Sam Yarborough: 26:00

Yeah,

Grayson Hogard: 26:01

our relationships with them and how hard we work for them really comes back at the end of the day. I, I believe. Again, we've only been doing this for a year, but,

Sam Yarborough: 26:11

well, yeah, to Jason's point, I do think you have it nailed. I mean, I think I overheard him talking to you, but we both come from the gifting space from another vendor called PFL, um, very similar concept. And when you're gifting, there's a lot of things at play here. You're selling the conversion rate on the other end of that gift. But that conversion rate only happens if everything you just talked about is table stakes. So the partner delivers, the product is great, it's a really good experience, um, and That's the value you can bring to your partners. And I love that because it's a little bit different than the typical SAS play of like customer list and shared ACV. And it's like, Nope, we're going to deliver a great experience every time. And that's worth so much to the end user and to the company.

Jason Yarborough: 27:08

uh, for those that are not watching on YouTube, Grayson has on a great shirt, C A A S, obviously which would be, Cookies as a Service, right? I love that. Uh, and I've worked with a lot of services partners, been in the SaaS space for a while, and what I love about Cookies as a Service and Sam, what you just mentioned is that you're delivering a service that is, you know, Um, well received and wanted and desired. And it's, it's not something that is directly reflected in like ARR or upsell or retention and stuff like that. But you're delivering like a surprise and delight motion for your, your partners, for those CSMs and account managers, and that's a probably got, it's gotta be one of the most utilized, uh, arrows in their quiver to deliver success and value to their customers.

Grayson Hogard: 28:05

Yeah. I, I definitely agree with that. For sure.

Jason Yarborough: 28:10

Right. Um, so that, you know, all that to wrap up is that, you know, instead of looking at your typical service providers from like, Hey, who can help our customers be more successful? Look at your, your partner service providers as how they, how can they surprise and delight?

Grayson Hogard: 28:26

Ooh. I like that.

Sam Yarborough: 28:31

you've, I've heard you say when you stay active on LinkedIn, weird. Weird doors open for you. Um, and we've kind of just talked about how You know, you're you're putting your foot forward And things are just happening for you And I first of all props to you because you're putting your foot forward which most people don't do so taking action breeds results But how are you personally learning to? Build relationships and network, um, through these cookies via LinkedIn. Like how much time are you spending on that? And what strategies are you implementing?

Grayson Hogard: 29:07

Gosh. That's a great question. Um, my strategy, I, I really, um, it, it seems, it seems to be more is coming our way. Um, than me having to kind of like generate it as of late, like really the last, like Eight months. It's been kind of that way. Um, but I really, yeah, it was so bad to say, I really don't have like a big strategy. Like I don't have like a target list and I'm like going after it and hitting it hard every day. It's like, I literally just have fun on my LinkedIn. I post goofy memes. Um,

Sam Yarborough: 29:47

that's a strategy.

Grayson Hogard: 29:48

I do think it's a strategy, believe it or not. Like, uh, do you guys listen to Chris Walker or do you know who that is? Yeah,

Jason Yarborough: 29:54

I do. Yep.

Grayson Hogard: 29:55

yeah, yeah. Um, he just talks, he just talks about how, like, he's seen his clients have seen success with memes on like Reddit and it's just funny to hear like someone of his like stature to go. Yeah, I've seen memes like work from like an advertising and from a memory, you know, kind of driving, uh, opportunities. So, um, my strategy really just involves, yeah, Really kind of getting a better understanding of like who our customers are. So that's your sales, really your revenue professional and really what's helping them, uh, be more successful. And I really find that all through LinkedIn.

Jason Yarborough: 30:34

Love it.

Grayson Hogard: 30:35

I just do like people send it to me. People will send me like their win loss report or how growth cookie company. Opened, uh, opened the door to a stalled deal that was like 90 percent there. And, you know, it just, it leads to, yeah, some kid, a gentleman sent me, uh, an update on his, he was going to get one account, uh, prior to sending this guy a box of cookies. And he sent, um, a box of cookies to this gentleman and it turned into a 40 X deal. The biggest deal in this company's history. They deal with,

Jason Yarborough: 31:11

Wow.

Grayson Hogard: 31:12

uh, apartment complex, like technology. So, um, you know, uh, really the product they're selling works, but the box of cookies kind of added that extra little cookie on top, cherry on top, if you will,

Jason Yarborough: 31:27

Yeah. Little sugar, little sugar and cinnamon on

Grayson Hogard: 31:30

Yeah, there you go. So,

Sam Yarborough: 31:33

I think that don't, it doesn't sound like you are, but don't take this for granted because those types of like success stories and case studies. Oh my God. Any marketer would kill to

Grayson Hogard: 31:43

I know,

Sam Yarborough: 31:45

like ending up in your DMS.

Grayson Hogard: 31:47

in my DMs. Yeah, there is, um, One that came in the other day was like a, was a slack update, like saying CRO got back to me after I sent them a box of grove cookie company cookies. Um, they're going to, they're going to up their, uh, what do they call that? Their contract to add like six more seats to like their, you know, I'm just, you know, it's just the box of cookies reminded the CRO to get back to the account executive and there you go. They got six more seats to their contract. So, you know. 25

Jason Yarborough: 32:19

Is that the

Grayson Hogard: 32:20

to

Jason Yarborough: 32:23

Is that the end user that's sending that to you? Like the customer or is that Sendozo Postal? Is somebody sharing that

Grayson Hogard: 32:28

No, that's, um, that's an end user. So someone, I don't even know if they use a gifting platform, but he just sent me it. And it was just a screenshot from the Slack channel, just like, here's what I did. Here's how it happened. Here's what I did to move it over the line, or, you know, they're just upselling someone, so. I'm still learning all this stuff, to be honest with you. You know I'm

Jason Yarborough: 32:48

it. How are you... I don't think you got it. How do you, how do you expand on those relationships? Like once they reach out to you, like how do you begin to develop that relationship, build community with them, and kind of go further down the road?

Grayson Hogard: 33:04

Well, I send them a box of cookies.

Jason Yarborough: 33:06

Nice. Cookies, baguette cookies.

Sam Yarborough: 33:11

It's the

Grayson Hogard: 33:11

the funniest thing. I know it was the funniest thing. I go. Yo, this is freaking awesome. Here's a box of cookies. Thanks for that. Or, you know, um, I, you know, I don't really do the best job of like, Intentionally fostering the relationship. I think people kind of just get into the grace and ecosystem of linkedin. And, you know, we just, we just comment and like each other's stuff and, you know, there's not too much of like a, I don't know, I don't want to call it a checklist, but it's, you know, there's not a checklist of how Grayson's going to foster this relationship. It just happens, like people get it, um, that see it work, right?

Jason Yarborough: 33:55

Well, thank you. We're recent followers of each other on LinkedIn. You do a really good job of engaging and creating community around your product and around your brand. And if you think about in the context of relationships, like, I don't go down the street with a checklist of people that I want to like, I want to meet this guy, here's the checklist of things that I want to do. It's like, you kind of let it happen organically, and you work with what you got and you You know, you share the value within that relationship. And I think that's, that's key and crucial to anything. And I think there's a lot to be learned here from sales teams. Right. And you know, how, how you approach it and, you know, build it organically and you really support one another, provide value and work with what you've got.

Grayson Hogard: 34:33

Yeah. Well, um, thank you. And I agree a hundred percent. I just feel also I learned through LinkedIn is a lot of companies have checklists of how they want people to do certain things. So I just assume

Sam Yarborough: 34:44

Mm hmm,

Grayson Hogard: 34:46

here's a relationship checklist. Make sure you're doing it with all our clients. And it's like, geez, Louise, people are having, you just act natural and send them cookies.

Jason Yarborough: 34:54

you work from a checklist, you're going to feel like you're being worked from a checklist.

Sam Yarborough: 34:57

Yeah.

Grayson Hogard: 34:58

so, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Sam Yarborough: 35:02

So I want to go into this too, cause this kind of leads into where I was thinking next, like

Grayson Hogard: 35:07

numbers are so

Sam Yarborough: 35:09

organically and authentically building these relationships, like similarly, somebody posted, um, some, some Grove cookies, I commented on it and immediately you inbox being like, and it was great. It was a great experience. And I was like. That's awesome. Um, and so you guys have seen like you post these numbers in your bio on LinkedIn if my math's correct from 2021 to 2022 you grew by 240 percent in terms of cookies you sent which is Insane. Um, so like how are you planning for growth and scaling while still maintaining this? Authenticity and like the love of the cookie

Grayson Hogard: 36:01

you brought that up. So that 2022 number, I think it was like 55, 000 or something, something like that. 55, 000 cookies delivered. Yeah. Well, through Q1 to this Q3, we're already at 123, 000 cookies delivered. So, we still have

Sam Yarborough: 36:17

well, dang

Grayson Hogard: 36:19

Well, dang. So, we still have Q4.

Jason Yarborough: 36:21

got to the holidays yet.

Grayson Hogard: 36:22

Yeah, we haven't gotten to the holidays. So, it's crazy when you think about it like that because I forgot about that 2022 number. Now, I'm thinking about it. I'm like, oh my gosh. So, um, well, we're fortunate to have a team. So, um, we have a, you know, we moved out of the house, we have our own bakery, um, and really scale from a physical product standpoint, it really comes down to your operations, um, especially when you have, when you're on these gifting platforms, right? Like, it'd be a little different story if I was having to stand up my own sales org and own marketing department. It's like, you know, at the moment. I can kind of do most of it. We do have a front office coordinator who helps with the more B to C side, social media, Instagram, Facebook. Um, but to scale, um, really keeping our focus on what we believe the most, to be the most important. Part of the cookie package sent by Grove Cookie Company, which is that GIF message with your logo on it, if you add it. Um, that has been, well, I think about it quite often, is like how does that scale to when you're doing like a thousand orders a day, right? So, you know, that's not all computer generated, I mean it is copy and paste, but it's a lot of work, and then a lot of, Uh, you know, collaborating it to the right shipping label, to the right packing slip, to, you know, all those operational things that I don't know if a lot of people are like aware. I don't, you know, in the technology space, it flows a lot cleaner than, um, in the manufacturing space. Um, it seems like there's a tool for everything. In manufacturing, it's a little, it's, it's human tools, right? Like, in the sense of like, we're using our hands, you gotta, you know, making sure things are correct. So. When I think of scale, I think, I really just go to the operations side of things, of like, how do I, how do we as a company continue to deliver what is expected of us? And what we've already set the bar to, right? Because the last thing you want to do is start lowering your bar. You want to maintain the bar. And everyone else is down here because they send, you know, a gif message on a packing slip in size 4 font. Most

Jason Yarborough: 38:38

Right, that you never

Grayson Hogard: 38:38

sent it. That you never read. You know, um, that, that, um, is always top of mind for me. So, um, that's, that's when I think of scale, that's how I go. I literally think about that gift message and how do I make that more efficient, um, from a growth standpoint

Jason Yarborough: 38:58

Uh, how, to kind of the point Sam's making is like, how do you maintain that authenticity as you scale? So that's exactly kind of the vein you're in and, you know, I almost wonder if like any of these, imagine some of these partners out there can help you maintain some of that authenticity, as much value as you provide to them. And so therefore there's the value in the partnerships yet again. Thank you.

Sam Yarborough: 39:26

because that's what we did. We were a direct mail company and exactly what you're talking about. It's not, it's not fully automated SAS. There is absolutely a human element. And, um, you know, I think you, you talked about how you, your background, um, is in shipping and logistics warehousing. Like I'm going to make a, an assumption and assume that. This is not how you thought you would use that knowledge, but it's probably coming in handy now for you.

Grayson Hogard: 39:54

Yeah, I mean, I, I said it back in 2021 when I shipped my first box of cookies to my buddy. And I was, I remember saying it to me, I'm like, wow, I'm glad I spent the last 10 years in the warehouse and logistics. Cause that was really easy to package a box of cookies. I couldn't imagine, you know, trying to start a shipping company without that background.

Sam Yarborough: 40:16

Yeah,

Grayson Hogard: 40:17

the operations. To shipping and ensuring, you know, product leaves your facility in one piece and arrives at the end destination in one piece is its own, um, labor intensive process. That's not easily transferable. Of course, you can hire it out and find someone that knows that stuff. But, um, it definitely helped us through those early, early

Jason Yarborough: 40:43

I've seen it, I've seen it way too many times where like it didn't arrive in one piece and it creates a worse experience if it's your

Sam Yarborough: 40:47

not Grove.

Jason Yarborough: 40:48

it does a good experience. No, never. The cookies always arrive intact and soft. But, uh, you're right, man.

Grayson Hogard: 40:55

Yeah. No, that's great.

Jason Yarborough: 40:57

as you're growing at a click of 240 percent to over 300 percent a year, how are you and the, uh, and Mrs. Hogard, you know, balancing this, this work life relationship and Setting goals to keep this challenging, but also like not burn out as you both manage full time careers.

Grayson Hogard: 41:17

Geez. Um, well, it, it helps to have a team that's number

Sam Yarborough: 41:22

Wait, and hold on, you also have a new baby.

Grayson Hogard: 41:26

yeah.

Jason Yarborough: 41:27

there's that.

Grayson Hogard: 41:28

yeah. And,

Sam Yarborough: 41:28

let's add that into the mix.

Grayson Hogard: 41:31

Yeah. Um. You know, you try to have fun, and you, you know, partnerships, husband and wife, as you both know, um, is all about, kind of like divide and conquer, um, and that's what we've, we've worked to do, um, obviously, like, yeah, it's just hard to juggle everything, let's just be real, um,

Jason Yarborough: 41:57

Right,

Grayson Hogard: 41:58

and, um, yeah, so, like, trying to stay sane, um, Uh, through all of this is its own work constantly, you know, daily. Um, but just getting to a spot where, you know, you don't have to rely on the corporate jobs to sustain. It's not so much a lifestyle, but you know, you want what's best for Raymond, our son. And, um, yeah, so that, that's how we like really focus it. That's like our mission is like. Grayson needs to leave his corporate job. Um, and getting to that point. So that's how we mute the uh, the level of effort we're putting in, right? Weekly. Um, because we know the end goal or at least the intermediate goal is is, you know, for myself to leave. So,

Jason Yarborough: 42:51

love that.

Grayson Hogard: 42:51

how we juggle it. If that answers.

Sam Yarborough: 42:55

you had to like, you know, we had a lot of conversations with other founders or you know, really successful executives and like time blocking is something that they use like I know Jason and I We, we've gotten a little away from this, but we try to have like a date night a week or something to like step away from all of this. Is there anything like that that you all do?

Grayson Hogard: 43:21

well, you know, um, for a while there when we were at the house the whole time it was not, uh, it was harder to do like the date nights, um, but I mean we do a good job, uh, of really like, I believe it really boils down to the communication side of things, um, we definitely do, I don't, we're not too, like, Steady with the daily or the weekly, uh, going out for like a date night type deal. But we definitely go out to dinner and we, you know, spend time together and juggling the new child is it's its

Sam Yarborough: 43:59

A thing.

Grayson Hogard: 44:00

it's its own thing, you know? Um, but no, we, we find the time, like, by just like acknowledging and being like, okay, here's how we're dividing and conquering this together. And that seems to be working. Um, for both of us.

Jason Yarborough: 44:17

So for for Sam and I, Being that we're married both in partnerships, a lot of our conversation at night, dinner table dates, sometimes, you know, revolves around like the work we're doing in partnerships. How often are you guys, you know, talking about the business and the work you're doing with some of your partners or new cookies and stuff like that? Yeah. That's

Grayson Hogard: 44:42

She'll stop and go, is this about cookies? Cause I'll just start talking. And like, she won't even be ready to listen. And I'll just be talking about the business. And so, you know, it's um, It's a lot. It's a lot of cookies. I like the cookies. I like, yeah, I'm constantly bombarded with it, uh, because of LinkedIn and because of the feedback we get and because of, um, I mean, I, I just believe the impact we're having, um, with them and for people that utilize our product. I mean, people are excited, like they're in disbelief that, whoa, the box of cookies did this. And

Jason Yarborough: 45:22

Can make that big of a difference.

Grayson Hogard: 45:24

can make that big of a difference. Like, um, it's, it's fun. So like, I don't look at it again. You find something that you're really passionate about and love. You don't really care about working Saturday and Sunday

Jason Yarborough: 45:37

Yep, absolutely. Yep,

Sam Yarborough: 45:41

and do marketing and all of that. Like,

Grayson Hogard: 45:44

Yeah, of course, and it's like, you know, I didn't sit there, you know, when I first picked up the phone, I didn't go, this is going to be, you know, what it is today. Um, you know, and just again was like, well, let's help Marie and see where we can go with this and, you know, see if we can make it fun. And that's it. And that's what we did. And that's what we've been doing. So.

Jason Yarborough: 46:04

I love that you led off by calling, you know, Cookies the relationship enhancer, obviously. And I think that's just the perfect way to put it. And, you know, in my opinion, to make it, you know, Contextually relevant to the podcast, you're the, you're the, uh, friend with the ultimate benefit, right? The partner with the ultimate benefit and a cookie can open any door. We used to always joke when we were in the gifting platform and you have it on your, your bio that, you know, direct mail and cookies in general get 100 percent open rate, right? So you can, you can help anyone get in any door and get any conversation started. You know, getting a relationship established and going so like you're always looking for those relationship enhancers or things to improve relationships, communication, et cetera, in and out of the business context. So I think this has been a fascinating conversation, you know, around what cookies, something as simple as cookies can provide. to relationships to people in business, et cetera. And, you know, to the tune of, you know, 10 months in 125, 000 cookies a year. So good on you guys for building something spectacular.

Grayson Hogard: 47:10

Thank you. Really appreciate it.

Jason Yarborough: 47:13

we'll wrap this up. And, uh, I know we spoke the other day about you being a big, you know, golfer loving golf. I don't know if you're a big follower, but my, my final question to you, Grayson is if you could send me Your cookies, to anyone, dead or alive, could be a famous golfer, celebrity, author, whatever, president. To anyone dead or alive, who would you want to send a box of grove cookies to?

Grayson Hogard: 47:40

A golfer, you

Jason Yarborough: 47:41

Anybody, any, any famous celebrity,

Grayson Hogard: 47:45

My head went to golfers.

Jason Yarborough: 47:46

golfer.

Grayson Hogard: 47:47

Ha ha ha ha.

Jason Yarborough: 47:49

If you saw one person with a box of grove cookies eating a snickerdoodle that doesn't exist, who, who would that person be?

Grayson Hogard: 47:55

I would love to send a box of cookies to Elon Musk. I think that would just be... That would be hilarious.

Sam Yarborough: 48:01

First cookies on the moon.

Grayson Hogard: 48:05

Yeah, I mean I'm sure Yeah, I don't know if the cookies would make it through the the interview. 10 layers of executive assistant staff he probably has. But, um, to get, you know, to get the feedback from him would be really funny. Um, and then a good, a cool experience for sure. So. Ha,

Jason Yarborough: 48:27

get some cookies to Elon.

Grayson Hogard: 48:29

ha, ha, ha.

Sam Yarborough: 48:30

the

Grayson Hogard: 48:30

be great. Where's the network?

Jason Yarborough: 48:33

Man, this has been a wonderful conversation. Thanks for hanging out and chatting with us today. Hopefully all of our guests are now fiending for some cookies and going to their gift mail provider of choice and getting that order put in.

Grayson Hogard: 48:47

Yeah, and you can always go to our website too, grovecookiecompany. com, so.

Jason Yarborough: 48:52

there you go. Go get them, y'all. Thanks

Sam Yarborough: 48:55

Hey, wait. Actually,

Jason Yarborough: 48:57

Oh,

Sam Yarborough: 48:57

hold up. I just remembered something. We had to do our... Jason, you didn't remember this either. We did our baby announcement virtually, um, in 2020.

Jason Yarborough: 49:12

yes.

Sam Yarborough: 49:13

And I'm pretty sure we used Grove Cookies. Because Sendoza, yeah,

Jason Yarborough: 49:18

Did we?

Grayson Hogard: 49:19

Did you?

Sam Yarborough: 49:20

yes, we sent Grove Cookies to Jason's family, uh, and they joined our baby shower virtually. And we wanted to send them like a gift. And we used Grove Cookies.

Grayson Hogard: 49:31

Whoa.

Jason Yarborough: 49:33

That was, uh, that was for Nora. Yeah.

Grayson Hogard: 49:36

Oh, that's

Sam Yarborough: 49:37

Yeah. So 2021. Yep.

Grayson Hogard: 49:40

That's amazing. No way.

Sam Yarborough: 49:42

case for you. Virtual baby

Grayson Hogard: 49:44

There we go. There we go. There's another use case. Let's explore that market.

Jason Yarborough: 49:49

Yeah. Announcements. Awesome.

Grayson Hogard: 49:53

we go.

Jason Yarborough: 49:54

Well, that's all for this week, friends. Thanks so much for joining us. See y'all next time.