The Soul-Led Sessions
Real conversations with soul-led business owners diving into what it really took for them to build a life and business they truly love — rooted in purpose, passion, and aligned success.
The Soul-Led Sessions
10 - Building More Than a Bakery: The Crème de la Cocoa Story with Nils & Bailey Rowland
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Tucked away in the heart of St. Augustine, Nils & Bailey Rowland have transformed Crème de la Cocoa into far more than a neighborhood bakery—they've created a place where life's sweetest memories are made. From the enchanting bakery filled with handcrafted pastries, custom cakes, and house-made ice cream to their desserts featured at many of St. Augustine's favorite restaurants, venues, and local businesses, every detail reflects their commitment to quality and community. Bailey shares how a college dream became reality, while Nils recalls watching Alton Brown on the Food Network as a kid, convinced he'd become a chef one day—never imagining his path would lead him to becoming an award-winning pastry chef.
This inspiring conversation explores entrepreneurship, hospitality, leadership, work-life balance, delegation, and building a thriving family business. Nils and Bailey reflect on taking risks, growing alongside St. Augustine, creating opportunities for their team, and discovering they're not simply in the bakery business—they're in the memory-making business. Their story is a heartfelt reminder that sometimes the best careers aren't carefully planned—they're discovered by following your strengths, embracing community, and saying yes to unexpected opportunities.
Explore Creme De La Cocoa online www.crememdelacocoa.com or on Instagram: @CremeDeLaCocoa
Chapters
00:00 The Dream of a Bakery
03:07 Creating Memories Through Pastry
06:04 Building a Strong Team
08:57 Balancing Work and Home Life
11:45 The Importance of Delegation
15:00 Inspiring the Next Generation
21:44 The Legacy of Entrepreneurship
24:35 Discovering Passion in Pastry
28:10 Building a Business from the Ground Up
32:05 Daily Routines of Successful Entrepreneurs
33:58 Collaborations and Community Engagement
36:43 Living the Dream: Reflections on Success
Connect with Host Leandra Sweet: @TheSoulLedSessions
I moved here to St. Augustine, Florida to live my dream life. It didn't take long to realize, but other people did too. People who took a leap, followed what they loved, and built something of their own in this magical little town. The Soul-led sessions is about those people, the stories behind the businesses you see, visit, and fall in love with. Not just what they've created, but what it really took to get there. The risks, the pivots, the moments that changed everything, and what it actually looks like to build a life that feels aligned. These conversations are here to connect you to the heart of entrepreneurship and maybe even to what's possible for your own life. I'm here with Nils and Bailey. Roland, thank you so much for joining me today at Creme de la Coco, the most beautiful bakery in St. Augustine and St. John's County, if I may say so. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you taking time. Tell me a little bit about how you got started with this beautiful bakery.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we both studied hospitality management, and Nils went to a pastry school, and I also studied marketing. And so in college, we would just kind of laugh about it. Like, wouldn't it be fun one day if we opened a bakery and you could do all the baking and I could market the business and do the front of house? And it was just a dream back then. And as we got a little older and a little practice, we eventually said, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. What a combination. So yeah, it was just a split decision like that. Like, okay, it's time, we're gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I didn't I didn't know what in food I was gonna do, but I did know it was gonna happen. And recently, uh, some of my really good friends that I've known since you know we were like six reminded me that uh back when Food Network first came out, I always said I was like, I'm gonna do that, I'm gonna be that. And then some guys I played college with in La Crosse that live in the area came back and they were like, You were saying that. So it just it's nice to see it all come together, and she's the best at what she does. She runs the place, I work here. That's great is kind of how it works. She's the boss, huh? Yeah, yeah. It makes it easier. I'm not the most organized person, so but just when it all came together, and you know, we got the practice and working jobs and everything like that, it all just hit at the right time, and everything just went really well and kind of snowballed up.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's great. What a great, literally great combination of skills, like skill sets to have. And you can come in and be creative and experiment and try new things, and you just keep the books going and make sure the place looks great and is advertised well.
SPEAKER_00I feel like there are worse things to sell, right? You know, like it's it makes people happy what we do. So, and we're a part of their most special celebrations in life. So, what an honor that is for us.
SPEAKER_02So, how special. That's great. And I I learned today that you have nine pastry chefs.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_02That's incredible. So they're all back there doing their own thing, busy, busy as can be. You get a lot of custom orders, I'm sure, a lot of weddings and birthday party celebrations, like you said. What's your favorite part of all of this? What do you love doing the most?
SPEAKER_00For me personally, I like to see people when they're engaged, and then you know, do their engagement parties, their weddings, and then their first their baby showers, their first birthdays, and so coming on. And that's really special that we've been able to be a part of people's lives. Yeah. Just by being here and then wanting to come back to us.
SPEAKER_01So you get to hear their stories and see their growth and I'll piggyback off of that a little bit, but in the beginning it was a little bit different. I just I really wanted to do a good job. I wanted to be the best, I wanted to put out like the best product and all of that. Right. Uh, it sort of shifted, you know, four or five years ago, kind of right after COVID, it shifted more towards, you know, I realized that I'll we're in the memory business. We're not in like it's we are a part of everybody's big day, whether it's a birthday, a wedding, a first, like everything. It's all emotionally invested. Every cake purchase has some sort of emotional investment in it. And so it's it's it's an honor that we get to be a part of making those memories. And my job is to make them as good as they can be. And if something doesn't go right, make sure it's not a disaster, make sure it's a good experience versus like a a a rough one. Right. But it's it's really the memory making is is what's the the most important part of all of it, I think, because you can have a great product, but if the service is bad, you might go once. You can have an okay product, but if the service is amazing, you'll go again. Right. And then if you're really lucky and you can have a great product and great service and be good valued. Yes. And people come to you all the time.
SPEAKER_02They're gonna keep coming back.
SPEAKER_01And so the memories are where it's at.
SPEAKER_02That's really special that you get to be a part of all of that, and how it was unexpected. You weren't really expecting that to be the biggest blessing of it all, right? So I love that in entrepreneurship. You think you know you're gonna be one way, or you may think a certain way about it, and then it just completely turns on you and changes and pivots, and right? There's so many ways to just shift. That's so cool, and I love that you you honor that and you hold that dear. That's special. That makes I think that's what makes you so special here, too, is you can feel the love put into every every single thing. I mean, there's so many beautiful options here for yummy treats. I don't can't even tell you how many times we've come here for yummy treats. We love your vanilla that's our staple in our house to use for baking and and lattes in the morning, you know, just things like that that we find really special here. All of the little accoutrements that you can add to cakes and parties, you have decorations, and it's really come a long way, I think, even since we've been living in this area. Um, were you brought up here in St. Augustine? Are you from here originally? We're both from Gainesville, Florida.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so not too far, but I spent most of my summers over here in Bolano Beach. So nice. So it was always a special place. And then when I was in college or we were in college, my parents moved over here from Gainesville. And we we tossed around the idea of going back to Gainesville, but it didn't seem like necessarily the best fit for two hospitality management majors.
SPEAKER_02So St.
SPEAKER_00Augustine, we just enjoyed coming here. We we started coming here almost every weekend, and we're so we realized, okay, we really like this place.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Maybe we just move here.
SPEAKER_02This is where it is gonna be. Yeah. And what were you doing at the time that you opened the bakery? What were you working for? Oh, she was.
SPEAKER_01Were you working elsewhere? Uh membership and marketing director at the Florida Yacht Club. I had just helped open up a place downtown, and then it got to a point where I was just like, you know what, I just gotta jump in and do it. And she kind of gave me a pep talk at some point, and she was just like, hey, either like do it or stop complaining about it, right? Right.
SPEAKER_02And so, you know, nicer way to say.
SPEAKER_01I mean, you know, but it kind of I was like, all right, yeah. That's that's kind of how that worked out. But it just, I I think we started everything right place, right time, grew with the city, grew with the wedding industry, grew with the hospitality industry. We're able to fill a lot of the gaps that came up. And just fortunate enough that we have a really great team and everybody that's been with us, you know, people have been with us for almost 10 years now, so a lot of the time, and the team in the back and up front is everybody's just exceptionally good, which it's it's more them than us at this point because some of them are more important to the day-to-day than I am at this point. But that's great. They just do a really good job.
SPEAKER_02They do a better job than you do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01On a lot of it, yeah. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02That's great. That's great. Well, being here 10 years, how long have you been open total? About 11. 11 years.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_02So 10 years, that's a long time in this industry, I feel. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00If somebody stick around sometimes and then it feels fast all at the same time, right?
SPEAKER_01It is. But that's that's one of the things that I probably hang my hat on as a success. It's how long the people you work with want to be there. Absolutely. And if you know, you're getting to the point where people are there the entire time, or that's always the goal. I don't want like high turnover. I want people that you know, we trust each other, we're family. It's gonna be for the rest of our lives, but that entails us doing our job and growing and trying to make sure opportunity keeps coming up for everybody. It's great. More like a family.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's the other favorite part of the business, the internal part is that for some people we saw them come in as teenagers and now they're living out their careers with us. Wow. Also, there's not a lot of places for pastry chefs to go. It's just kind of a dying breed. So to be able to provide an opportunity for others to live out their dreams is just another bono part of unexpected part of yeah, and getting that it makes you want to come to work every day to have those special, those special things happening here.
SPEAKER_01And there's just not a lot of places where the pastry chef is like the head show, right? You go to a lot of restaurants and it's like half a table side thing. Like it's a it's kind of an afterthought, which is tough because I do think pastry is kind of a dying art. There's just less and less, but it's it's one of the few places I think you can come and but you're gonna do all types of pastry, right? It's not it's like a fully encompassed thing, and I think that's part of it too, is there's just there's a lot more creativity and it's the focus, and right, you know, we've got all the stuff you need, and you know, just tons of flat sheet trays, which is hard to come by in hotels and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But uh yeah, no, I think it's just it's and she's right, it's the people here too. Like it's I'm coming to hang out with my friends.
SPEAKER_02That's so cool. Yeah, that makes sense. They might not think they might not think, but I knew. I knew they're all your buddies. Yeah, you're not there. They're yours. They're my family. And then your customers as well. I'm imagining there are repeat customers like ourselves that come in and like you said, they go through all the special events with you, but maybe even just the person who comes in every Wednesday to get their special treat or whatever, right? Or the celebrations. I love like post-soccer game or post, you know, something coming here, and yeah, kids want to come here for sure. That's as their favorite place in the world. And I think the kid, the child in all of us, the kids, you know, that that child at heart wants to come and indulge in the yummy treats too.
SPEAKER_00So that's the way I want it to feel when people walk in. Like no matter how old you are, you're kidding a candy shop.
SPEAKER_02I love it. I love it, and you've done a great job of creating that here. This space is so welcoming, also just so playful, so fun, yeah, sophisticated. You know, it still has that like that, like, okay, they're adults running this. It's not good, not kids living out their childhood dream, right? It's real, real adult humans. So um that's special here too, I think. Um what is if you have some advice, I always love when I speak to couples to discuss a little bit about how you separate business from home life. Or or don't you? You know, do you have rules? Do you have anything that you say, meh, we're not, we're gonna leave this at the door.
SPEAKER_00We used to. The day's work at home, but I think now we've just gotten to a point where it's like a mutual understanding that when we clock out, we we're clocked out. So, you know, if we if we have to have a conversation, because sometimes it is hard for us to find time during the busy work day, but yeah, for the most part we could just mentally separate the two.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. That's good. Did that take a while to learn that or did it come naturally?
SPEAKER_01It took it took a little bit. I mean, there's still days where there's conversations where stuff happens and it's just kind of gotta be addressed.
SPEAKER_02Right, right.
SPEAKER_01You know, I think as far as like the work-life balance goes, um ultimately we do two totally different things in the business, which I think is really important. Separate because it's you know, I'm pretty competitive. So when we're doing stuff in the kitchen and people are bumping ideas, it keeps us from competing, uh, right? Because it's it's two different things. I mean, we cross over a little bit, but it's I think that's like a really big part of it because you know, she's got her team and all the people that handle all their problems, and I've got my team, and we handle all of our problems, so it's a nice division of labor. And then it it just if you gotta talk about it at home, great. If you don't, great. But if you can't get it done in the eight to ten hours your work, yeah, it has to it can wait to the next day.
SPEAKER_02Sure, yeah, sure. That's great. I know it's tough for a lot of people, they don't realize like kind of again unexpected things that come along with entrepreneurship as a couple, and you're like, oh, I didn't know that was gonna be an issue. Or you know, you you discover things about each other that you're also like, oh, they're that way, you know. Yeah, that's not what I expected. And but also probably some great things too that you're you realize what a great worker you've mentioned already, what like what a what an organized person you are, Bailey, and maybe you see some more creative things about Nils and Nils is is very talented, so um we like you said we're we're separate in our own ways.
SPEAKER_00Like we are lucky enough to get to see each other every day, but we're not necessarily doing the same things, right? We have learned over time, but we've also had the opportunity to employ great leadership that's been extremely helpful for us and helping us solve any kind of issues, you know. It feels like it's not just us anymore, it's a team.
SPEAKER_02It's a team.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think if if there was like a piece of advice at all that, if you were gonna start your own thing, you know, with your spouse, I would say it's it's figure out how to delegate the small things that are gonna cause issues if they don't get done. Right? Like I don't use the computers, I don't really answer emails, but it's because the way I do it doesn't mesh with the way they do it. Right. No, it just doesn't. Like I'm sure I'm too shorthand, like I don't, it's not professional enough, right? So anything that no, any any inflection point that the other may do, yeah, you know, it just works better. It's like, for example, I always joke about this in the back, she doesn't think it happened, but it it does. It's just when I do the artwork, she's very critical of it, right? And then so Victoria does almost all of the artwork at this point because she's better than me. Wow, but she's a lot less critical of Victoria or a lot less sharp. And so it's really nice that Victoria and her communicate about it, and then her and Brooke communicate about emails, so it takes away some of our shortcomings, right? And you just you just move them, right? You don't nitpick at the end of the yeah, yeah, right? Because it's it's the little nitpicky stuff that has to get figured out how to like kind of like a marriage, really the same. I mean it's a continuation, yeah. But you just you just figure out what works, what doesn't work, and you gotta actually proactively try to make it work. Yeah. Because otherwise it just goes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So that makes sense, actually. And it's great that you have a great team to be able to carry you with those things too, and pick up kind of the places that you might be lacking or that you're maybe not just cut out to do. That's some that's really impressive. I feel like with with business, you know, being a business owner when people are thinking about going into owning a business, they think, oh, I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to do that, how am I gonna do this? And it's like streamline and delegate, right? I mean, are you are you pretty good at delegating? It sounds like you're great at delegating.
SPEAKER_00Managing people is definitely not my strong suit or my favorite thing. Okay. I've always been sort of in a more independent position. So I didn't have a lot of experience with it, but it's something you just you know, I think everybody, no matter how great of a leader you are, you get better as you practice it more.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00So, you know, it's just there, it's just part of the business, and I try to practice it as much as I can.
SPEAKER_02That's great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And improve maybe or find ways to grow in that field. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a skill probably you're not born with necessarily. Exactly. Leadership, yes, but not managing and you know, dealing with people that you've not done that before, especially and when you have a small business, you're not just managing at work, but you're kind of managing people's personal lives too.
SPEAKER_00And it's hard to not let that like pull on your heartstrings and separate those two things. So yeah, I could see that it would be. Everyone comes with their own things, you know.
SPEAKER_01Referencing that is life happens. Yeah, we're all adults here. The conversation when people start here is that we're all adults, stuff's gonna happen. Yeah, you have appointments, things are gonna go down. Right, it's everybody's job to accommodate it so that life doesn't get too heavy.
SPEAKER_03Right?
SPEAKER_01Because if you're team, like if you're in a job where they're like, you can't, right? Right, okay, or like you can, and you're gonna cover for the next person that has an issue. Right. Right? Or you want to go on vacation for two weeks, well, we gotta cover, right? But we can do it for everybody. Like it's not like a work together to the solution. It's getting to a point in a business where you don't have to have it from one individual. Right? And that's in in in a way that makes it sound like you know, people are less important, right? But all it is is it's just make it it means people are more important, right? We're willing to carry an extra person so that everybody can have more time off, a consistent schedule. You're not gonna get crushed when something does like right, it's not teamwork. It is, and it's it's it's important, you know, and it's just it can it can be tough sometimes, but it's just knowing that it happens. For example, me, you know, it was you know, in 2021, I did a slip and slide, and then I couldn't like I had to have a pericardial window, so my goodness I couldn't work for like four or five months. Wow, right? And then last year I tore my bicep, couldn't do anything for two, three months. But in in those instances, it almost forces delegation and it forces people to see that they can do it because without without the missteps or the problems and stuff, everything's really easy and it seems like it's all good. Right? But when those happen, it really gives you a window into where the shortcomings are and you can make adjustments and stuff. And a lot of times for people, it's just it's realizing that they can do it because there's this idea that you always gotta have a safety net, safety net, safety net. Well, if you're gonna open your own business, there's no safety net, but that's when the game is real.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_01Like if there's no safety net, it's is do or die, right? And I like competition because you either get better or worse, right? It's very rarely anything else. But I view it like that. It's like you gotta figure out how to handle it. So the next time it comes around, ain't a big deal.
SPEAKER_02Totally. Right? So great insight. Really great insight.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's just it's you you have to delegate and you have to trust people. Otherwise, it will be a very long, hard road.
SPEAKER_02Right, because you're doing uh most of the work and you just can't sustain that over time. No, yeah, you need I mean, that's what a team is for. Correct. That's why you hired your team, right? And yeah, sounds like that's why they stick around. I hope so. Right. There's a reason, there's a good reason they're still here, I think. That's great. How about your family life? You have children at home?
SPEAKER_00We do. We have a seven and a nine-year-old, two little boys. Very nice. They keep us busy at home.
SPEAKER_02I bet. And do they come into to the the space at all and and oh yeah, I'm sure enjoy their desserts from time to time.
SPEAKER_00They want to eat all the things and they're not tired of it somehow yet. But you know, hopefully they don't necessarily have to work here one day, but hopefully they'll be inspired by us in some way, or at least learn to work hard.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I was gonna ask that if they they're a little young yet, but did they talk about owning their own business in the future orms and animal blood?
SPEAKER_01That's held true for a while now.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01What does Rory talk about? He's talked about running Kremlin Coco and stuff.
SPEAKER_00Roy wants his own YouTube channel.
SPEAKER_01I love it.
SPEAKER_00That's great.
SPEAKER_01My eight-year-old does as well.
SPEAKER_02She thinks I'm crazy for not letting her have one.
SPEAKER_01He's he's entertaining, he's got he's got a lot of pizzazz. That's great. They'll they'll figure it out one day. It'll it would be cool if they worked here and we'll work together and like kind of really make it like a family generational thing is kind of the goal. If they don't want to do it, that's fine. It's not a big deal. No pressure. But you know, it it would be it would be cool to watch them be able to grow up. And it's like I have the like my off dream is is just if they're work here when it happens and then they have kids, I can just cover for the first year, let them stay home, and then I'll take care of the kids after the first year. I love that. Right, because get through that first year, you can do all that and then I'll step off and just hang out with the kids and you can take care, right? Sounds great. So just kind of have that transition would be nice, but that you know, you don't know if that's gonna happen. It's a long ways away.
SPEAKER_02But become engineers or ideally would be great. Yeah, that would be super. I mean, I'm sure you're very inspiring to them. They see you day in and day out going about your business and coming into here. That must be amazing for a young child.
SPEAKER_01They just run behind the counters and start to try to grab stuff, which is problematic. It's problematic because it's like this shop will be full of like 30 people and they just run back in their street clothes and they'll And grab stuff and I'm like, stop, stop. I'll just tell all the everybody that works here. I'm just like, just kick them out. Just kick them out. Get them out of there. Trip them before they get out there. They're going, right? And so, but generally it's like after school or they just played a bunch and they're all sweating. I'm just like, oh, that's like you can't bring your hand.
SPEAKER_02No, they try.
SPEAKER_01They try, they try, but they've gotten good at asking now.
SPEAKER_02So that's great. That's great. I mean, it's a special thing for them to be able to experience, not just having a bakery in your family, but also having that example. And, you know, you're leading by example. That's a huge thing that I think maybe our generation and parents before us didn't really get to experience. There weren't that many entrepreneurs back in the day. You know, you would work for somebody maybe, or if you were fortunate enough to own your own business. But we didn't get to see I didn't get to see that growing up. I had my dad, he was an interior designer, so he did he was great at what he did, but he wasn't a great businessman, so I didn't get to see that aspect of things necessarily. But just in terms of like giving that to your child, that's pretty darn special, I think, to be able to pass that on. And if they do or not, that's great too that you're giving them that option. You're not forcing it on them or you know training them from day one to be pastry. Do they fake with you at all?
SPEAKER_01Do they ever do any a little bit if they ask, we'll do stuff, but it it's not like it's not like a huge interest, which is is totally fine. I didn't really I didn't get into it until I was 21 in school, right? Oh wow. Um but or after college, 22. Really? Oh no, whenever I graduated.
SPEAKER_00They would rather eat. Yeah, I think they're they don't want to make it.
SPEAKER_01They just want to eat it. Which is fine. But we'll we'll we'll get there. It's just it's you know, they gotta get tall enough and yeah, you can have stools and stuff, but a lot of the equipment we use back here is not not made for young kids. It's it's heavy equipment.
SPEAKER_00Like it's not but actually Remy loves to cook.
SPEAKER_01Remy does. Does it? He is good at cooking, he cooks breakfasts and everything now and stuff and changing. He can cook the eggs well without browning them and they're seasoned well. I don't know. It's it's nice. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Then he can do the savory and you stick with the sweets, and there's your meals every day. Yeah. That's awesome. Tell me a little bit about the equipment in the back. Like, how did you well, you said you were 21 or 22 when you started? 22. Yeah. When you started baking. So it wasn't even a pastry paper.
SPEAKER_01It was an accident for me. Um that wasn't what I was doing. I come from a very like science family. Like, my dad was the chair of psychology UF for like 35 years. My mom did neuroscience research and development at UF. Wow. So I was working in like neuroscience labs and stuff growing up. And then I just kind of always like like I said, when Food Network first came out, it was like Alton Brown goodies. It was like, it was more educational, right, instead of reality. And I just I I watched, I made a deal with my parents at 13 that if they bought me a grill, I'd cook dinner every night. They did, so I started cooking dinner every night.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_01I got tired of eating the same five things. It was like hot dish, spaghetti, taco. I was like, nah, man, we gotta we gotta get a little different here. I think my dad was really happy about that. Uh no more soup. My mom was a soup making. Oh, what? She made a lot of soups. They were good, but it was just soup in Florida all the way. Soup the perfect family. You know, but it's okay. Uh, but no, and then I, you know, graduated hospitality school because I always like dealing with people, and that's like a people business. Uh-huh. And then I was managing some restaurants, and then didn't really love it. And my mom was like, Well, you always like the cooking side, and the pastry school is the only place that had an opening while Bailey was finishing her marketing minor and went and uh won everything in the in-school competitions. They were like, Yo, you're really good at this. That's kidding. But it's kind of why I say now and they were like, so I started doing it, and it's you know, people say always say, chase your dreams. Sometimes chase what you're good at, and the dreams will change.
SPEAKER_02Wow, I love that.
SPEAKER_01So they change all the time, right? So it's like my dream was okay, I'm gonna do science stuff, and then uh it turned out I was really good at pace for it. I started doing that, and you're gonna do what people tell you you're doing a great job at. Yeah, and you're gonna start to like it, and especially if you're like winning, doing things, right? And okay, cool. So I'm really good at this. I'm like really, really good at it, and everybody's like, oh my God. And then you know, you get here and I want to be the best, right? But then the goal changes to be make the best memories, right? So it's just you kind of always gotta as you get older and you have kids, and you kind of shift and see what really matters at the end of the day. Yeah, and it's it's just you know, it's do what makes you happy and what makes the most people happy, right?
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, not just your dream. So, what was your dream, say, in high school or college?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's funny because I always joked about being like a food network chef guy. Like, I like you could fact check this with all my friends, right? Like it's not it's something I've been saying for a while. I believe you have a really long time. And it's it's we all they always thought it was hilarious. They were always like, oh, whatever. Sure, but yeah, uh huh. Right. Right, you know, and everybody was always all the way up through college, like, okay, whatever, right? You know, and it just it it just happened. I mean, I I d I don't know what my dream was ahead of that. Okay, right. I can't couldn't I can't remember. I I couldn't tell you. I don't know if I ever had like a specific thing that I was like, yeah, I'm gonna be. I think it took me a while to figure out what it was. Yeah. And then when I did, it kind of all clicked.
SPEAKER_02It all just clicked and it kind of paved the way for you, it sounds. Yeah. Rather than you trying to pave it, it just was there for you. And that's where you met at UF. Is that where you went to school? We met color since eighth grade.
SPEAKER_00Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01We went to fall in together.
SPEAKER_02You did.
SPEAKER_01We weren't bad. We are. She she knows all versions of me. She knows all versions of meals.
SPEAKER_00We went to a small school. We had about 75 people in our graduate school class. So we were we were just good friends for many years, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then college together. You said UF, right?
SPEAKER_00Or no, not actually we were at UCF. Oh, UCF, okay.
SPEAKER_02And then you that's when you started dating, making plan, not making planning.
SPEAKER_01Well, kind of all that happened is is we were hanging out all the time, and then I was going on a first date with somebody else. I didn't realize it was a date, so I invited Bailey along. Uh good story. And when we realized that it was a date, and I brought it just we were always hanging out, she's always my best friend, and it just you know, it all worked out.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, for sure. And here you are, entrepreneurs, parents, it all just happens pretty quickly. It sounds like, and now you have a nine and seven-year-old, you started this 11 years ago, so things happen fast.
SPEAKER_01Ten years is a long time. I think people don't realize how long 10 years are, right? If you can do all this in 10 years, think about what you can do in like 30, right? It's just it's I think people, it life is short and long all at the same time, but I think people always view it on the short side, and then time goes by and they're like, oh my god, what happened? What happened, right? Right at that time. It's just it's it's you need to be happening too. Yeah, yeah. It's important you're doing stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. It's amazing. And then you started in this building. This has been your first, or did you start elsewhere?
SPEAKER_01We started across the street at DOS. Julie and John, who own that, Julie's from Gainesville. Her dad, Gary is best friends with her dad, Larry.
SPEAKER_02Okay, that is hilarious.
SPEAKER_01It's uh this is sort of the Gainesville side of town. We we rented about 120 square feet from them. Uh-huh. They let us put a case in and we'd just fill it up and figure it out, and then we realized quickly we would need our own space eventually. And then this came up for rent, and everybody was like, that's a terrible idea. Like everybody. Really? Everybody.
SPEAKER_02No one supported July.
SPEAKER_01That side of town f 10 years ago was you know, the equinox was fun. Like, you know, it wasn't. And I was like, nope, it's a good idea.
SPEAKER_00I mean, really, it was just Julie.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it was just Julie.
SPEAKER_00It was just ghosts.
SPEAKER_01But I find when when the masses tell you it's a bad idea, generally it's a good idea. It's a good idea. Go against that. Well, masses. A lot of people told me it was a bad idea to do pastry. More people told me it was a bad idea to move here. And I think it's just I think it's a default like protection thing people have. Like if it's scary, they tell you not to. Yeah. But at the same time, if it's scary, it's probably worth doing.
SPEAKER_02Right. And change, any change, people are it's hard for them. You gotta figure that out. Right. It's important. I mean, change is the only study in life, I think. Yeah. It's the only thing that's consistent, really.
SPEAKER_00I will say that my dad, he's an entrepreneur, and I feel like no matter what we've wanted to do, where we've wanted to go, he's always been, like always had our back, but said, no, dream bigger with what we're doing. So he's actually how we have acquired all of our equipment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, Gary's like my second dad. He's he's so important to this place, right? He is a huge reason why we are the size we are. He finds all the equipment online, gets them from good deals and stuff. He's kind of like the ghost in the machine. He's like he's like the soul of the place, right? It's just he's very I think once he tried it and he kind of saw what it was, he understood where it could go, right? And he saw it all. And he's been super supportive, and he just he's still you know, we're we're still buying equipment. He's got a building in Gainesville, it's full of twice as much equipment as I have here. That's really true. He's the one that's he beat into my head that it's you have to have backup equipment.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01Because if you are in an industry where it has to be done, you have to be able to change it out. You have to have enough.
SPEAKER_02And so you probably have. Oh, yeah. And bigger equipment. And bigger.
SPEAKER_01I've got much bigger equipment. Well, you know, we've been buying equipment for a long time for whatever's coming in the future and upgrades and growing and bigging big, you know. So I've got a couple 80-quart mixers instead of 60s, right? So you just big rotary ovens. Yeah, you got, you know, they make them a lot bigger. Yeah. But you know, an 80-quart mixer is a pretty sizable, you know, it weighs about as much as a car. Crazy. So, you know, it's a it's solid, uh, solid piece of equipment. But he's he's really like the unsung hero of like beautiful, you know, creme de la coca. He really does a great job, so he's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. And you have all these pieces in place that just make for the perfect business. I mean, truly, it sounds like everything is already there. I mean, it's maybe it's taken ten years or maybe less than that, but you really have now a a basis for anything. So in the future, speaking of the future, are there plans for I mean, I would love to have little creme de la cocos all over Florida. Your branding is so good, it'd make a great franchise. But I don't know if that's a thought in in the works or maybe we're definitely planning to go bigger. And love that sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02For for the locals especially. Yeah. What would you say is your favorite? Do you have a do you have a morning routine that you go by? I'd like to talk to entrepreneurs about this. I feel like either you do or you don't.
SPEAKER_01There's there's yeah, I can I can tell you exactly what it is. So wakes up at 6 30, goes to burn boot camp at 8, I get the kids ready for school, get them out. I go home, work out, and we're all to work by like nine.
SPEAKER_02Amazing.
SPEAKER_01That's pretty much what it is.
SPEAKER_02So you have your staff baking for you.
SPEAKER_01So the first shift comes in at 5 and they leave at 1, and then the second shift comes in at 12 and they leave at 8.
SPEAKER_02That sounds like a great day. I love Burncamp. I was doing that for a while, but switch to choose now. But um, it's a it's such a great place here. Do you do you take advantage of the beach? Do you take advantage of the sunshine here?
SPEAKER_00Or have you kind of mostly in the fall though? That's our favorite time. It's just less crowded and there's a nice cool breeze, and the boys love to all fish together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, surf fishing is like when the weather's right and the tides are right, we'll I'll pick them up from school every day and we'll go out there till like six or seven, and you know, or if it's like nice days and stuff like that. But yeah, it's when it's nice, it's nice. And when it's hot, it's really hot.
SPEAKER_03It's really hot right now.
SPEAKER_01It is hot. Yeah, you know, we're not even into July or August yet, and we like whoo just getting started, and it's like season, yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's always cool though in here. Yeah, it is cool in here. That's true. And the ice cream is available.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you can come pull off here anytime. Um, talk a little bit about collaboration if you don't mind. With I know you have a collaboration with Cookie Bird and they're most delicious Sunday there. Do you collaborate with other businesses in the area?
SPEAKER_00We do. Um, that's what that's a such a fun part of what we do. For years, we have collaborated with Declaration and Co. Lara over there. So she actually still to this day creates all of our labels with me. And she was always such an inspiration for just making things cute and fun. But also we make a lot of things for the St. Augustine distillery, which is awesome. We do marshmallows and chocolate bars and popcorn, um truffles, and we do serve our desserts at many restaurants in town. So we've been over at Michael's for almost probably nine years, eight or nine years now. Um and La Novelle, his newer restaurant.
SPEAKER_01We do stuff for the chop shops.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, both the chop shops, tour mics, amphitheater. Amphitheater, yeah. You can get our cookie sandwiches at the amphitheater. That's a great idea. Yeah, and a lot of desserts. And the Ponta Vidra concert hall, too. So yeah, we're a lot. We're in different places.
SPEAKER_02So it's it's fun. I mean, that sounds like a business in itself, just the collaborations that you're doing.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think we're a little bigger than people think we might be, you know, because I think your average bakery and stuff is you know, but we kind of we we have a nice balance between like volume production and quality. Right. Right? Because there's there's a fine line there, because we can't lose it being good in lieu of like a lot. So mass producing. Yeah, it is just you have to be able to do that in a bakery. I think that's generally like their downfalls, or if you're just doing it all yourself, like there there has to be some sort of volume play. If there isn't, and you're one person and you're just doing cakes, that's fine. But if you're just doing out of your house, that's really hard. Yeah. Right? It's like doing doing like really big cakes out of your house is tough. I don't think people appreciate how hard it is, because with the size ovens, the it just yeah, yeah. Cause I you know, I did it for a little bit and I was like, I can't, like, I don't really bake at home anymore. If I'm gonna bake, I just come here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I guess. Why wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_01It's it's easier. Yeah, it's easier.
SPEAKER_02So that's yeah, that's important, I think, for at least cottage bakeries and people who want to start that kind of a business. Yeah, it's not that easy in your kitchen, right? Commercial equipment is way better producing and right.
SPEAKER_01Instead of baking four eight inch cakes, you can bake twenty-five. Same effort, basically, same effort, right? Just bigger equipment, same effort.
SPEAKER_02Just more. Yeah, more dishes. Okay. Yeah, that's important. So, in wrapping up, I think the the most important question I like to ask is are you living your dream? Do you feel that you're living your dream life?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_02You are.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. That's awesome. I feel like just finding being able to find happiness is my dream. So you found it. Yes. I love it.
SPEAKER_01For me, it's if I'm being honest, it's like it's bigger than I ever thought it would be by a lot. It's better than what I thought it would be, right? And I just feel fortunate that you know, all these great people have come in our lives and we've had some success and things have gone well, and we've gotten opportunities and we take them. So yeah, I mean it it's it's probably past what I my dreams were, right? You know, it's like we've got two kids that are happy, a business, you know, like everything's ever part of a community was always a big deal for us. And it just, it feels it's just it's really nice to have like roots, and it's really kind of surreal and sometimes because I walk in here and I'm like, man, this is our place. Like it was crazy. Like, but it's there's people doing stuff that I'm not necessarily involved in now, and something new comes out, and I'm just like, oh man, this is so cool. Like we get the the the cake sheets to have like all the printed out pictures, and I'm like, man, it's fancy. Right? But it's just it's it's you know, these things happen and it's just it it's it's really great. I I I wouldn't want it any other way, you know. We get to hang out all day and see each other and you know, build all this stuff together, and it's just it's it's a lot of fun, and uh it's it's great. We feel very lucky.
SPEAKER_02Amazing. I think that competitive spirit in you though still wants maybe a little more. Always always always it's important to be grateful for what you have. I'm always a lot more, right?
SPEAKER_01I'm always wondering where you know where the next shop's gonna be, who's gonna show up next, right? You know, it's it's a it's it's fun for me, right? I like competition, I like to be competitive, I like to do a good job. I think that's important, right? You know, I've got a lot of pride in it, so but no, it's it's more than what I thought it would ever be. So it's it's been great.
SPEAKER_02Incredible. Well, thank you both. Thank you. Of course, for being here. It was a treat to be able to chat with you both, and I think St. Augustine and the rest of the world will be quite happy to see and to hear a little from the case.
SPEAKER_03We'll get you some desserts now.
SPEAKER_02I trust that whatever was meant for you in this conversation will remind you that there's a way to build a life you love. Follow where it leads, and I'll see you in the next session. Be sure to like and subscribe to never miss an episode.