Episode 32: How One Entrepreneur Turned Challenges Into Sweet Success

In this inspiring episode of Main Street Success Stories, Jennifer Kok sits down with Scott Vogel, owner of Nothing Bundt Cakes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scott shares his remarkable journey of transitioning from corporate America to entrepreneurship and the challenges, failures, and victories along the way. From depleting savings to building a thriving, community-focused business, Scott's story is a masterclass in grit, resilience, and giving back.

Scott opens up about the realities of running a franchise, the lessons he learned in adapting a proven business model to fit his unique community, and how he and his wife used generosity and perseverance to turn a struggling business into a local favorite. This episode is packed with valuable insights for anyone dreaming of starting a business or navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

• Why having a focus on one exceptional product or service can set you apart.
• The power of giving back to your community to build relationships and long-term success.
• The importance of resilience and showing up daily, even when the odds feel stacked against you.
• Strategies to balance business profitability with community impact.

Don’t miss this heartfelt conversation packed with actionable advice and motivation to keep 

"Everyone has their own story and path to success — no two paths are the same. But what’s universal is showing up and doing the work every day." ~Scott, Nothing Bundt Cakes

Meet Our Guest: 

Scott and Christine Vogel are the owners of Nothing Bundt Cakes West Michigan and the first location of this national franchise in Michigan. We opened the 1st bakery in 2017 to fulfill our dream of becoming entrepreneurs and bringing joy to our community. We offer delicious and handcrafted cakes for all occasions, made with high-quality ingredients and a touch of love.

Our bakery has been recognized with the Corporate Kindness Award and the Michigan Top 50 Companies to Watch for our charitable goodwill and business growth. We are proud to support local residents, businesses, and nonprofits with our products and services, and to create a positive impact in the community we love. Since opening our doors in 2017 we've been able to donate over $500,000 in cake and financial contributions to West Michigan non-profit organizations.

Connect with Scott:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottmvogel/

Meet Your Host: 

Jennifer Kok has been a business owner for over 25 years and now is a business coach.

She turned her first business into a franchise and successfully sold it 20 years later.  She was passionate about building a business and a family at the same time.

Today she works with creative business owners who are tired of not getting paid enough for their hard work.  She walks them through the 3-step process she developed to allow them to Create More…Earn More…Stress Less.

Get your free guide to grow your business

https://nextwavebusinesscoaching.com/3-steps-to-be-instantly-referable/

Connect with Jen:  https://nextwavebusinesscoaching.com/

Transcript

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Jennifer Kok: Hey, Scott, I am so excited to have you on today.

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Scott Vogel: No, so glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

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Jennifer Kok: So, Scott, I've been following you. I've been stalking you and your wife, Christine

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Jennifer Kok: in for a while on Linkedin. You know you and I are both in the same community. We're here in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I used to own a bakery, and you are the owner of nothing bunt cakes. Here in Grand Rapids you opened the 1st location in West Michigan, correct.

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Scott Vogel: Yeah, actually, the 1st location in all of Michigan. And and I always joke. You know Grand Rapids, the smallest big town you'll ever live in. So we cross paths a lot actually, over over the last couple of years.

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Jennifer Kok: We did, and I am a big fan of nothing bunt cakes, let me tell you. Even you know. Well, I'm a big fan of any sweets when you own a bakery. Right? But what you guys are producing is amazing.

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Scott Vogel: Well, and we kind of joke about it. And I think you'll fully appreciate this is that if it wasn't good we'd be in a lot of trouble. It's not like we have a lot of fallback plans. The suites have to be amazing. So that and all we do is bunk cakes. So we do one thing and one thing exceptionally well.

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Jennifer Kok: Well, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in that. And that could actually be a topic for a podcast in itself. But today I want to kind of dive into just a little bit, I mean, I guess. 1st of all, take us up to speed and give us the short version of your journey, of how you started and became an entrepreneur.

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Scott Vogel: Yeah, you know. So I almost feel like I've been an entrepreneur my entire life, and I think all of us will appreciate this. We get typecasted in our career journeys unless you're switching every couple of years. And for me, I was in product development and innovation, which is truly, I feel like the entrepreneurial spirit. And so my world was small kitchen household appliances. So think George Foreman Grill.

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Scott Vogel: Think about the keurig single serve brewer also, shark, ninja, those infomercials that are at night, and you have to buy that vacuum because it's going to change your life.

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Scott Vogel: That was my world, and it led me across the country, and then we moved from Boston to Grand Rapids and Bissell. Was this amazing company needed help in their deep cleaning carpet cleaning division, and we moved to West Michigan. Never been here before.

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Scott Vogel: But we've I've always been steeped in like the innovation side of things where you're trying to be either 3 to 5 years ahead of everyone else with that next big thing that drive the revenue for a company, or you're gonna run in the opposite direction of everyone. And do something different, but be obviously best in class. And so

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Scott Vogel: it throughout my whole career. It's just always been driving towards something that has been new, innovative, and exciting. And I've just I absolutely loved it from my background.

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Jennifer Kok: You know you're right. You hit the nail on the head with the DNA of an entrepreneur. They're either always very super curious, and want to see how they can make something better, or they see something a problem that needs to be solved. So for you, it sounds like it was fueled by. Let's be unique, different innovation. So you came here for a corporate job.

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Scott Vogel: Correct.

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Jennifer Kok: Okay.

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Scott Vogel: And so coming to West Michigan, was never on our radar screen. My wife was from Chicago, and she vacationed up in Michigan, and and the way Chicago works with vacationing is that there's like this imaginary halfway point. If you're north of that halfway point, you go to Wisconsin, if you're south

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Scott Vogel: you go to the Michigan. So when I said, Listen, there's this amazing company in Grand Rapids, my wife said, Well, that feels like a second home to me. Let's go check it out. So it it naturally kind of worked into something that oh, gosh! This could be a good fit for my family, and I.

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Jennifer Kok: Well, our community is very thankful that you guys made that choice because you have made a big impact on our community since you guys opened. So you're at Bessell, which small story 2 of my daughters work at Bessell.

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Scott Vogel: Really again, West Michigan, the smallest big town you'll ever live in. There's a connection to everything.

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Jennifer Kok: Connection to everything, and they love it. Great company. So you're there for a while, and you just had this bug obviously to be an entrepreneur. What fueled you to say? You know what, Christine? Let's do this because you guys did this together right when you jumped in. You didn't have a second career income coming into your family when you.

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Scott Vogel: And I wouldn't necessarily fully recommend doing what we did.

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Jennifer Kok: It's what happened.

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Scott Vogel: So for the absolute record, Bissell Phenomenal company, phenomenal family, multi-generational family driving a company that is steeped in great values. I did have the entrepreneurial itch. But also, I guess I was moving every 5 to 7 years for positive reasons for that next big job. And

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Scott Vogel: you know the writings on the wall. At a certain point you get really expensive. You start moving up, and I believe that this could have been a place for me to retire. But actually I was interviewing someone for a position who invented the Miller lite vortex bottle, and I don't know who remembers that. But it was a little grooved neck of the bottle.

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Scott Vogel: and the guy had lost his job and was looking to stay closer to West Michigan with his family, and he was a little bit older, and I was Gung ho! To add him to the team. But my team kind of pushed back. It was very younger and couldn't understand why this individual wanted to live closer to home.

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Scott Vogel: and it just hit me over. The head of this could be me

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Scott Vogel: in, say, 10 or 15 years, and while I joke about this with my wife, there are less risky endeavors to make West Michigan our forever home, we said, Listen, why don't we go out on our own or think about it? And I posed that question, and it was kind of funny. Nothing bunt cakes is a franchise, and what's very different about it is that you do all the baking and frosting by hand. It's not like this

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Scott Vogel: where you know, halfway baked, you know, this baked cake comes in through the back door. And this magic lever. No, it's just old school baking and frosting, great recipes, great brand name and we kept people kept bringing it to us.

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Scott Vogel: And so my wife actually studied to be a pastry chef for just a short period of time. And so when I turned to her at a celebration in Chicago with her family. I go, you know this is a franchise, and she goes no way. And I said, Well, what do you think if we did this? And I was kind of joking, and she goes sure.

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Scott Vogel: And so.

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Jennifer Kok: Oh!

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Scott Vogel: So, and I give context to my wife, saying, sure that her brother is an entrepreneur, he he started Cooper's Hawk, Winery, and restaurants, and still the CEO of it, which is this huge organization. And then her dad started a gas station concept and has grown at the 34 locations. And so for her the entrepreneurial spirit is not a scary thing.

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Scott Vogel: And when I said to my parents, Hey, I'm going to quit my corporate job, and I'm going to open up a bakery. It was almost like there was a death in the family, because no one on my side was an entrepreneur like I was like I had health benefits, a 401 k. And stable employment.

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Scott Vogel: You. What are you doing? And so that's why my wife could easily and quickly. Just go, sure, let's do this, and then, before you know it, if you raise your hand, you look at yourself and say, Holy crap! We just agreed to this. We're doing this.

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Jennifer Kok: Turning back.

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Scott Vogel: No turning back like we signed the paperwork, and so we literally quit our jobs. With 3 young children, and we went for it, which is completely insane, because usually with a franchise, you need multiple locations to be able to turn off enough turnover enough revenue to be able to support a family. So yeah, it's I. I think we ignorance is bliss. Right?

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Jennifer Kok: Totally. And I think I just love your guys entrepreneurial story, because you know, a lot of us didn't jump into entrepreneurship with entrepreneur background. So that was nice. Your wife had that perspective. And so often I can remember when I jumped in and left a corporate career, too, you get that look of like almost deer in headlights when you tell people who don't quite get the way we roll your family members, and they look at you like, what are you doing like? Is this really going to happen? But you know what here we are, and thank goodness, we have.

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Scott Vogel: Yeah.

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Jennifer Kok: That are willing to jump in and take that leap of faith.

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Scott Vogel: Well, it is. It is funny when we just we've been in West Michigan about 2, 2 and a half years. We knew a few people, but not a lot of people. It's a close knit community. And we started to tell people, wait a second. We're going to open a bakery. It's the 1st nothing bunt cakes in West Michigan, in Michigan altogether, so no one knew what it was. And then you say, Hey, we're opening a bakery. All it does is bunt cake.

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Scott Vogel: and then they kind of lean in. They look at you, and they give you this midwest nice look, and then in their mind. Is this tape rolling that goes, man, I don't know if they're going to keep their home like it literally. It's it's the truth. They thought we were crazy. And then, when I told Bissell I was leaving, I think that they they weren't ready for a response to that, because they're like, Wait, you're you're leaving, not for another Houseware company. You're opening a bakery that just says, bunt cake

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Scott Vogel: like, what are you doing? And and IA lot of people actually came back and admitted that to me, who I work with at at Thistle in a nice way with the great people.

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Jennifer Kok: Right. Well, you know what I think a lot of people can resonate with your story, because a lot of us hear that from outsiders, but then also sometimes say that to ourselves after we've jumped in. So you jump in. You guys are all in. You're going to do nothing bunt cakes literally. And then what? How did you start to find your way? Because I think you said something really pivotal about the fact that you didn't have a huge support network, and a lot of times when we start businesses, we rely on family and friends to be our

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Jennifer Kok: free employees, so to speak, and to get the word out, and we can make connections. You know that guerrilla marketing that has to happen when you 1st launch. So here you guys are doing that with very little support. So you had to get once again creative. So tell us kind of what you did to help get your name out there in our community.

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Scott Vogel: I I definitely wanna, you know, to share that we were an epic failure at the beginning. If no one I mean, no one was coming into our building.

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Scott Vogel: and I think there's a couple of things is one West Michigan to its benefit, not its detriment is so close knit, and they want to support people, but if they don't know you, you're just another brick and mortar that just opened their doors is just trying to take our money.

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Scott Vogel: and it all they do is bunk. Hey, what are these people doing? And so it started off extremely slow.

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Scott Vogel: And so it was rough, and there was this bullheadedness with me, and I was very careful how we capitalized the business. My wife and I were the only investors. We set it up that way. So we could make decisions when we needed to. And just that we didn't have outside noise, right? Wrong or indifferent. And so we capitalized very conservative, saying, Okay, if everything goes wrong.

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Scott Vogel: we're gonna be okay. We're gonna keep our house.

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Scott Vogel: So everything does go wrong. And then you find yourself taking money out of savings more to help prop up the business, and then your son gets sick, and medical bills start coming in, and you still don't lay off your team because you're too. Bull headed. What we did during that time, interestingly enough, led to our success was, we kept baking. We kept frosting, and we kept giving.

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Scott Vogel: and we kept engaging. If there was a meeting anywhere in the community we showed up, we showed up with cake. We would stand on street corners, handing out samples of cake and coupons, and we we gave away hundreds of thousands of buntlets our personal size bunk cakes. We just kept emptying our refrigerator over

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Scott Vogel: and over and over again. And literally, I was like, I got this team baking and frosting, and we did set up the business like we want to give back. And we want to support a team. And we want to do things differently. We want to have you know, people and purpose before profit. We're going to do that. And clearly at the beginning, people and purpose was way before profit, because nothing was coming in.

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Scott Vogel: and we hemorrhage cash to the point where you know, we were playing the shell game of like. Well, this bill's coming in. We got payroll. If I just delay this one bill by a couple of days. I think I'm gonna make it. And leading up to that point, if someone came in and said.

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Scott Vogel: My child's doing a lemonade stand to raise money to buy a bicycle for themselves. I was like, great. Give them cake. We're going to support it. It was just we have it. It's gonna go. It's gonna go bad.

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Scott Vogel: We supported all these organizations of if they had a charity event where they were doing a fundraiser, they need dessert. We gave them the dessert, and then they, we told them, take the money and move it over to their to their core purpose, that what they were going to spend on it, and then they would ask us in silly me! I would always answer it this way, and glad I did. But I realized I missed. Opportunity was, so what do you want in return for it? Nothing.

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Scott Vogel: And so they said, Okay, and there were. There was an interesting point. There were some nonprofits in there that were like holy cow. They said nothing. They're kind of looked at me funny, but they were like, I want you to succeed. And the others were like, Okay, that was easy. And they walked away.

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Scott Vogel: And what we found at the very last responsible moment was all those people we said yes, to was building a community, all those street corners. We stood on, every one of those networking meetings where you look around. And there are 2 people, and you're one of them. And you're like, I don't think I grew the business today, and you know it is. And I kept faithfully showing up to every single thing.

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Scott Vogel: and we were working ourselves to the bone. And at that last responsible moment, all of a sudden people started coming in. They were like, Oh, you're that

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Scott Vogel: company that supported us for this. I want to support you. How things going. And I got honest that boy because we're I thought, well, we're gonna we might lose the house or something to happen. And it's not going so good. And I was open and honest, because as a business owner, you're always like, it's like, live television, because I would do things on Qvc. And you would see just you would be selling this product, and everything looks perfect. But behind that camera there's like 5 buyers in the sprinklers going off

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Scott Vogel: you as a business owner, almost that person on live television. Someone asks you, and they go, how's things going? It's going great thanks. So much for coming in. But I reached that point where I was just. And I knew these people. We were building relationships. So I said, It's not going so well.

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Scott Vogel: And they they leaned in. They said, How can we help?

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Scott Vogel: And that's where the flywheel started turning.

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Jennifer Kok: Wow, Scott, what a story! I mean! You said you were so bullheaded you weren't going to give in. But give us some context. How long did it take of this giving, giving, giving where you could finally start to see the light where you were possibly going to at least break even for a month, and be able to pay your bills and not dip into your savings.

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Scott Vogel: Well, we had to almost dip into savings immediately, because things were going so bad. We burned through our $200,000 in in backup, probably within 6 months, and then after that we were like trying to hold on to every dollar that came in, and then we would

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Scott Vogel: re, you know. Then we bring in some money from our savings until our savings were depleted to our personal side. And then it took 18 months for us really to start turning an operating profit. It.

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Jennifer Kok: It's just.

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Scott Vogel: Extremely hard. And and, by the way, there were probably a lot of bad decisions I made in there amongst some good ones. That's the hard learning curve and and frankly, things that had worked in the franchise that we would. Leverage didn't work in Grand Rapids.

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Scott Vogel: and when and it was funny at the moment we ran out of money, and this is not a slight to the franchise. It just means that the playbook that you buy into May or may not work. It's proven to work, but some elements don't. The thing that worked was have people try the cake. That piece does work. It's a phenomenal product. But almost all the other tactics came up short.

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Scott Vogel: and it was funny at the moment where I thought we were going to fail coming out Christmas that was gonna be so big right? That wasn't And you're sitting in January when it's New Year new, you and no one's coming in because they're they're at the gym.

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Jennifer Kok: Yeah, right.

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Scott Vogel: I just said to to my wife, I go. Listen. You know. I guess if we're gonna go down with the ship.

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Scott Vogel: let's do it our way, and I said, I don't know what that means yet, but here we are. We have nothing to lose, and my brother-in-law, who started Cooper's Hawk, Winery and Restaurant said to us for advice when we entered this, he goes.

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Scott Vogel: Scott, you know, if if you fail, you're gonna lose everything, and you're probably gonna have to live in someone's basement. But it's gonna be okay.

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Jennifer Kok: For the inspiration. Thanks.

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Scott Vogel: Thanks, Tim, and he said with a smile, and I looked at Tim, and I go. Well, Tim, you have a really nice basement, and then he, his smile almost shut down because he realized

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Scott Vogel: I may have a family of 5 living in my basement here, and how many months all getting aside. It's true. It's you have to face that reality of you could do everything right, and you could still have to call someone and say, I may need to go to your basement.

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Jennifer Kok: So there's so much to unpack in your 18 month journey of when.

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Scott Vogel: Yeah.

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Jennifer Kok: And it's easy to look at it now with some levity and say, Okay, wow! We made it. And what an incredible story! And you mentioned bullheaded, but there had to have been a couple other things that like what kept you going every day, because, you know, I see that a lot with entrepreneurs, and you know the statistics aren't great, and I always say a lot of times we quit before we fail, because getting up every day

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Jennifer Kok: in doing what you guys did for 18 months. I mean.

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Jennifer Kok: just faith, leap of faith, belief in yourself and each other. I mean, how did you keep showing up every day.

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Scott Vogel: I think it's it's faith. Obviously, Faith plays a role in it. It depends on what your DNA is. There's a spiritual side to it. I think there's also a drive of okay out of necessity. I've got 3 young kids, one kid with medical issues like my choice is to make this work or make this work. And you know we've talked about this before every year. There's a freshman class of entrepreneurs

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Scott Vogel: in the freshman class that we started out with. And and I'm sure there were definitely more than this group that I was aware of were the only ones who are still standing.

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Scott Vogel: But the reality was, it's like I have to make this work and the the thing where you say, well, how do you keep it going? And you know, when you're running out of money, I give the analogy of a toothpaste tube.

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Scott Vogel: When you have a full tube of toothpaste, I'm pretty sure we're putting too much toothpaste on the toothbrush when you're running out of toothbrush, because for some reason, the human nature is, you don't want to open up a new tube yet you squeeze out every little bit, and that little bit at the end can last you what feels like a month right

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Scott Vogel: when you're pushed up against the corner or against the wall, you'll find that toothpaste bottle, and it's amazing what you can live with and what you can live without at home and in your in your business.

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Scott Vogel: and I think that mentality of we can find a way. And, by the way, each month that we were doing it while we were tanking. There were little glimmers of hope in little wins, micro winds like that worked, and you have to go. Listen! That didn't work. Don't do that again, or if you do that again, you better completely do that differently.

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Scott Vogel: but still show up. I guess that's the biggest thing. It's a grind. You just gotta do the grind.

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Jennifer Kok: You just gotta do the grind, grit and resiliency. You hear it over and over, and obviously it worked. Cause this was back in 2,017 when you opened correct.

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Scott Vogel: Yep.

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Jennifer Kok: And so here we are, 2025 things are really well, you have multiple locations which we'll get into. But what I really want to dive in with you, and I know one time you had said to me, having a strong business for you as a three-legged stool.

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Jennifer Kok: and if you're missing one of those pieces. Your stool is gonna obviously tip over and you're gonna fall.

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Scott Vogel: Do you hear?

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Jennifer Kok: And for you that was obviously an awesome product which we've had your product. It is awesome. And, like you said, it's not arriving frozen in a truck, you

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Jennifer Kok: baking it, frosting it, which is why it's so awesome, and you have to have amazing service which you and your wife

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Jennifer Kok: led with that, you know, taught and trained your employees with that, and then community. So you started out by giving, giving, giving, giving, and that has so been just really a pillar of your business, and we see it. I see you on lots of boards in the Grand Rapids area. I see your cakes everywhere. I see you getting mentioned everywhere. So for you, that really kind of was your marketing strategy.

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Jennifer Kok: And I think we want to be careful here as we unpack this, that you can't do this if you're not genuine with it. If it's not really who you are, you know I don't want someone to hear this and say, Oh, there's a marketing tactic, just like I got to post on social 3 times a week. I have to go, Donate. That's not

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Jennifer Kok: right.

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Jennifer Kok: You have to show up authentically, and your heart has to be in it so for you. Where did that, I mean? I know you said it came from out of just necessity. What else are we going to do? So you give your every year in your business, you have giving goals correct.

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Scott Vogel: We do.

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Jennifer Kok: Take us through. How you kind of manage this piece of the business.

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Scott Vogel: You know, I think our necessity. When we saw how much cake we were giving away in that first, st the 1st couple of years we realized, my goodness, we get, we get and still do, 2 to 3 requests a day. We have to prioritize. You can't say yes to everything, because it will be to your detriment in business if you truly want to give back. You've got to have longevity. You can't be a flash in the pan so quickly was like, we have to create a budget

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Scott Vogel: and we need to track this. And we need to be. We need to set goals with that if that goal doesn't mean that like how much visibility are you gonna get out of it? But you have to balance being a profitable busy business in order to be able, because at the end of the day I have a responsibility to my 3 kids at home that they still have a roof on their head, and we're achieving Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

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Scott Vogel: And then we also, we've got now 35 associates that rely on us to be able to pay for their necessities. So we had to create a budget structure around it. And I would say, also, we had to look at it and say, How does this make sense to the business of what we're trying to accomplish? We have a goal of delivering happiness to the community. We love one bite at a time.

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Scott Vogel: But how does each one of these initiatives? How can it transcend just being a donation of cake? But it's truly helping certain organizations grow and achieve core goals in the community that are serving a huge impact for problems in our community. So it required us to dive deeper with the nonprofits and understand who they are, and there's so many great ones.

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Scott Vogel: and each one of us is wired with some passion points right? Ours can be like, because my son and his health issues. Helen Devos, Children's Hospital became an area. We leaned in just a little bit more, and I could give you 6 others. You know that we start to. So we started leaning in deeper and broader, with certain organizations.

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Scott Vogel: We also found, which was really interesting, was that we could do pop up sales events where we would break even at hospitals, and since we were engaged in the medical realm, we would set up a pop up where we sell our buntlets, and essentially we would break even, but we would raise money for the hospital's foundation by partnering with the gift shop.

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Scott Vogel: But what it did for us? Is it created a reoccurring revenue stream, meaning that I may not be profitable, but it kept my team fully busy and engaged where money was coming in to cover the cost. So imagine every business has seasonality. Yes, you have to do that. Pop up event once a month, sometimes during the month of May, where you're at capacity.

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Scott Vogel: but you find a way to do it, because then that takes you through January, February March, when it's really light, takes you through the summer months. And then there's this weird West Michigan thing. At least we've experienced that when people come back from the with the thousands of lakes in our, in our state, where everyone vacations, you have to reintroduce yourself to them when they get back, because they've forgotten who you.

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Jennifer Kok: Oh, yeah, short term memory. We have.

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Scott Vogel: It does so it takes us September, October to get them fully back engaged to remember us. Hi!

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Jennifer Kok: Yeah.

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Scott Vogel: Would love for you to come at the bakery.

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Jennifer Kok: So being consistent for you was key, obviously. And that's a great point about these pop-up sales. And you know I feel like, no matter what product you sell or service you sell. There's probably a way you could incorporate that into your business, giving model.

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Scott Vogel: There is and the giving model. It's it's amazing. It helps both the organization and like I shared. It helps you and something I've learned, no matter what your business is, the more reoccurring revenue streams that you can count on every month the better, because sometimes things happen. Now all bets are off if you have a pandemic. Right? Yes, I said it. The overused word and covid-nineteen.

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Scott Vogel: But the the reality is is that's gonna happen very rarely. But you are going to have troughs in your business, where you people slow down spending, or what have you? But at least you have the reoccurring revenue stream may not bring in as much revenue, but at least you can count on it when things are a little tougher, because it will happen.

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Jennifer Kok: I always say reoccurring revenue is how you sleep at night. There's a little bit of peace of mind knowing that's coming in. So something you said that was really impactful is when you chose where you guys were going to either do pop up sales or just donate product it. It wasn't about a visibility strategy. You made that very clear. This isn't.

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Jennifer Kok: A tactic to just, you know, try to market yourself without really choosing to go all in and make this part of your business model which obviously you have gone all in and made it part of your business model. So for someone who's listening and has been just kind of thinking about? How do I get more involved in the community? What would be your 1st kind of suggestion for them?

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Scott Vogel: I look at it in twofold. I look at it. If you're what your business does, make sure you're exceptional at it. If you're going to incorporate into the giving because it has to be exceptional. You can't have a bad product. Be an exceptionally engaged person. They don't match up. But if you do have a best in class product, and then you match full engagement with a nonprofit or just the community in general.

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Scott Vogel: it will carry you along. I think it's that's really important. The other thing is is.

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Scott Vogel: don't. What's this? May or may not make sense in how I say it. But is I always said if if everyone would just do things without worrying about who got the credit for it.

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Scott Vogel: so much more would get done. So my! What I want to share with people is jump in. If you're gonna like kids, food, basket, pack some sack suppers for kids, draw on bags. Just engage your community wherever you can, and have a servant's heart, and if you have.

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Jennifer Kok: Yeah.

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Scott Vogel: That genuine, authentically engaged in a community like West Michigan will want people like that to be raised up. They're going to ask questions about you because they see you now.

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Scott Vogel: and they want to know you, and they want to know your story. Be ready with your story, not let me sell myself. Be authentic. Our story. We moved here from Boston. No one knows us here. We opened a bakery. We love this company, this whole, you know, this this community so much. We want to make it our forever home. And we have 3 young children.

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Scott Vogel: Is I keep talking to you right now. People are leaning in, and now they want to be a part of your story, and that authentically lead with your heart. But have a servant's heart in doing it.

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Jennifer Kok: So what you're essentially doing is attracting people into your world, which eventually become a customer. But when you go out looking for the customer. They're hard to find.

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Scott Vogel: Yep.

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Jennifer Kok: So tell me a little bit more about the impact this has had internally with your employees because they're coming to you. And they're seeing what you guys are doing as leadership, you and your wife, and how you're putting the community first.st Has that made an impact on is a little easier for you to attract employees. Your retention.

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Scott Vogel: Sometimes.

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Jennifer Kok: On, that.

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Scott Vogel: I wanna say, yes. What I would say is this, first, st I'll give a couple of numbers that help kind of give you context of what we've done, which kind of helps, when we talk to our associates

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Scott Vogel: say, last year alone, we donated over $105,000 worth of cake and financial donations to the community. Those pop-ups alone was we generated over $40,000 in donations, life to date. We've donated over $500,000,

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Scott Vogel: and I share that. That took 8 years, and it was just faithfully doing the same thing over and over again. It wasn't you know there's a great book called Dream Big Think, Small, by a local author, Jeff Mannion, and he calls it ant power, just faithfully doing.

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Jennifer Kok: That's right.

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Scott Vogel: Over and over again, and it builds to something amazing, right? And the same thing is what you do with your staff. You can tell your staff that you donate all this money. Look at me. We're such an amazing person. Give these great numbers right? That doesn't mean anything to them unless you show the same servants heart and the same caring to your staff.

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Scott Vogel: And that's where the 2 intersect. And and people start to realize that this might be an okay company. Even if you do everything right, you could have a team walk out on you and happened to us twice.

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Jennifer Kok: I know.

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Scott Vogel: And I could share all the mistakes we made that led up to that. But things like our team falls onto hardship where we pay well above minimum wage. A number of associates who work for us are one paycheck away from bankruptcy, that one medical event, one car that breaks down

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Scott Vogel: something happens right? Fraud happens to their account. So we do payroll, advance for them, or we, you know, someone's struggling. We fill their gas tank full of gas, and we make sure they have food in the refrigerator. Those are your actions. Speak louder than words, and then people will buy into what you're doing.

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Scott Vogel: my world. It took a huge shift in learning, because I used to manage people who made 6 figures, and while they had their own set of issues, I'm sure, because we're all humans they had, and they were making enough money. They could manage them very easily.

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Scott Vogel: When you're dealing with our associates with us. What you see is what you get. And so it it took a shift of seeing and being close to a lot of issues that we had to take care of them.

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Scott Vogel: to maintain them as a workforce, and for them do the right thing for them which we should do, but also for them to be loyal to you. You've got to go 1st in corporate America. You actually could share all these amazing things with Perks. And you can bring your pet to work

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Scott Vogel: at 6 figures. You fall in love with it, and you get right in line, I think. The other side you don't. So it took a while where I think the giving aspect is maybe the cherry on top, after you've done everything else behind the scenes. And, by the way, just because you did it one day

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Scott Vogel: doesn't mean that will last you. You're only as good as your last kind act to your team in your team, especially today. They talk about everything transparently, from how much they make to how much Scott and Christine maybe have done for people. And you know, so it's very transparent. Everything's out in the open like a Google search.

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Jennifer Kok: It is, and I think, as entrepreneurs, we have to embrace that, and we have to embrace it with our community, our customers, and also our team. I love. How you you said that. Well, obviously, Scott, it's worked. You guys have built an amazing business. So how many locations do you have now.

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Scott Vogel: So we've got 2 locations. We've got one near the airport in Grand Rapids, and then we have 28th Street, and then the other one is on the other side of town, where, I would say, is next to Cabela's

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Scott Vogel: people seem to find that one, and we are growing to a 3rd location at the Lakeshore Muskegon, which we think will be open. God be willing! In the next couple of months we just started construction and are going through the ups and downs of construction.

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Jennifer Kok: You know what a just, what a joyful story! Today I really just enjoy your attitude, your

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Jennifer Kok: your story of grit and being transparent, that, you know you're you put it out there. We almost failed and entrepreneurship. This is the game we're signing up for, and I feel like, in order to keep going. You have to be surrounded by people, you know. I always say entrepreneurship can be really lonely at the top, because you don't really have anybody there. But obviously you found your people that kept you going and just wanting to continue to

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Jennifer Kok: pour into our community. And what a joy! I mean, I have to believe that you wake up every day and love what you do.

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Scott Vogel: No, we we absolutely love what we do, and you hit it right on the head of the only reason why we're sitting here today laughing about. You know our near failure is because there are hundreds, if not a couple, of 1,000 people

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Scott Vogel: that walked beside us and introduced us or helped us in community leaders who who brought us in and said, I know you don't have money to sit at this fundraiser at this table. I'm going to invite you. Now I want you to meet these 5 people, and they validated us

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Scott Vogel: and allowed us into, and I joked with you about this, and I know it dates me about. Meet the parents. The Jack Burns Circle Trust. Every community has it. I think it's a real tough one here in Grand rapids, but they allowed us. They introduced us to this special side, giving side of the community where, if if these set individuals know you give.

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Scott Vogel: they want high tide raise all boats. By the way, I've got a company function next week. Maybe we'll get dessert from you. That's a good idea. Thanks for the introduction.

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Jennifer Kok: Exactly, and just even corporate orders. All those things that are gonna help you build reoccurring revenue to just.

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Scott Vogel: You got it.

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Jennifer Kok: Making those relationships.

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Scott Vogel: Yeah.

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Jennifer Kok: So basically, I mean, not basically what I want to say. And what I feel like is so powerful from your story is we just have to keep showing up.

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Jennifer Kok: So anybody out there, that's just kind of at that point, like, Oh, this is a grind. I haven't had a paycheck in 6 months. Just keep showing up. Don't give, you know. Bet on yourself.

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Scott Vogel: You. You have to, you know. And I think you've seen this too. People read so many books, listen to so many podcasts. They go to see so many speakers, and you see them. They're leaning in listening, and they're looking for one word. And they're looking for that one thing that they can do that, they can replicate that magic.

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Scott Vogel: The answer is, it's your story one. Everyone has their story in in way path to find their success.

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Scott Vogel: No 2 paths are the same. The other thing is is, people don't want to hear this. It's just do the work. It's it's hard. And, by the way it doesn't. 1 day you wake up and the work gets easier. You just get into the rhythm of it, and it doesn't feel as hard. But you still have to show up every single day, and I'm not. I'm still showing up the networking events where I'm like

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Scott Vogel: some of the ones I'm going to get better at picking them. There could be 5 people now.

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Scott Vogel: and I'm 1 of them right.

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Scott Vogel: It's still that thing you just don't know, and then it. But what you don't realize in that moment, where there's only 5, I'm still gonna bring the best version of myself and not be pouty. And that's important. Show up and show up in the the best version of yourself, no matter if there's no one in the room or 100 people in the room.

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Jennifer Kok: Well, I can't do it

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Jennifer Kok: better way to wrap up this conversation than that. That is very inspiring, very motivational. And I just really appreciate you coming on today and sharing the hard truth about entrepreneurship, but also sharing the light that you can win at this. It's a great game when you do win at it, and we need entrepreneurs more than ever. We love the you know, the innovation and all the what they bring to the party. So. So thank you for pouring into us this morning. I really appreciate it.

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Scott Vogel: No thanks for having us on. And thank you. I hear all these great stories about you and the community where you're lifting up these small business owners with their vision and dreams. You get it. You've lived it. You left corporate America. So when you're talking to us, it's just it comes from a lot of experience. So thank you for what you do. I've heard rave reviews where businesses are growing, thanks to your your help behind the scenes coaching. So we just appreciate everything you're doing in the community.

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Jennifer Kok: Well, thank you. Thank you for your kind words. I really appreciate that. So, folks, I will put in the links how to get a hold of Scott, because I'm sure you are very generous with your time. If anyone has any questions about entrepreneurship or franchising, because, like you, said.

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Jennifer Kok: I thought what you said earlier was really pivotal about. Yes, franchise gives you the step by step, but every community is different. And so that's where you have to lean in and learn how to be an entrepreneur, too.

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Scott Vogel: You do.

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Jennifer Kok: Well, best of luck to you as you continue to grow. I am excited to keep watching and thanks for being on today.

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Scott Vogel: Thanks again. Love being on.