Maybe it's obvious, but maybe you're wondering "WHY!?" If you're in the latter group, read on!
If you’ve noticed I’ve been a little quieter on social media in the past 6 months, it’s because I’ve been ~*doing too much*~ in the very best way. As we were building out and making the move to our new kitchen, I was confronted over and over with the question of, “who are we?” Who are we if our hours aren’t restricted? Who are we if our space isn’t restricted? Who are we if we’re not… heck… Nomadic?
CUE: panic, existential crisis, identity woes, and then… peace. The truth is, this name change came easily because… this is who we’ve been for a while now. We’re Vermont’s first & only marshmallow confectionery. We’ve been The Vermont Marshmallow Co. We’re ready to claim that and embody who we truly are. (We also hope this makes it a lot easier for your friends to find our tent at the farmers market, hehe).
When I first started this business, I felt like I needed room for it to become anything. What if nobody cares about marshmallows like I do? (You do! <3) What if I change my mind? (Spoiler: I didn’t!) Will I even be a decent entrepreneur? (I am!)
Nomadic Kitchen was about me. But this magical, marshmallowy venture is so much bigger than me now.
Nomadic Kitchen was the business I started alone, The Vermont Marshmallow Co. is the business we built together.
Vermont Marshmallow Co. is about us. Me, you, my magical marshmallow team, the community we’ve grown in, and the people who are gonna learn about us now that our name actually makes sense (hehehe!).
Everything’s the same, except the name. You’ll start seeing our new logo, new labels, and an upgrade to our market setup right off the bat. You’ll see us in more stores. You’ll see us expressing more creativity. You’ll see some brand new packaging (ziploc, anyone?) soon but not yet.
Otherwise, it’s still me, Mandy, Katelyn, Charlie, and Thea, makin’ & shippin’ everything by hand, just a little faster than we used to thanks to our new burners (lovingly named The Beastie Boys) and new mixers (our resident R2D2s).
It’s still us, we’re just stepping boldly into the next phase of this thing that wouldn’t exist if you didn’t care about it. The only reason we get to think and move at this scale is because you see the magic in our marshmallows.
Thank you for caring enough about this sweet business that we get to make such big moves. It means the world to have you on this adventure with me.
]]>I laughed, "well, I'm my boss... but I needed this validation today!"
]]>I laughed, "well, I'm my boss... but I needed this validation today!"
It wasn’t til this exchange that I realized… if you’re working for someone else, and they’re a decent person, you’re going to be acknowledged and appreciated for a job well done, or a tough stretch where you continued to show up even when it was hard. But when you’re your own boss that space for positive feedback tends to go *poof*
I do an alright job of overall acknowledgement of myself, but I’m going to start implementing “hey, you did great work today, thank you for your time and effort!” into the ends of my day, the same way I do for my team.
Did I just learn that we all get to extend our gratitude practices get to *ourselves* too?! Gee golly, for all our sakes, I hope I’m late to this party 😂♥️
It's part of the cycle of being a business owner. At some point, you'll look around and realize that everything that was once hard is now easy... and you've also unlocked a brand new level of hard. It's like a video game, every level is designed to be difficult for the stage your character is in; and it's always going to be leading up to a big boss fight you gotta get by before it gets easy again. If we can start to expect that things are cyclical, and recognize that the point of this game is not to avoid fighting the bosses, but to focus on leveling up our personal stats, gear, and understanding of how to play the game, then maybe we can even start looking forward to those inevitable moments where we get to test our metal and see how far we've come.
Just last week I had a full day of crying, confident that burning everything in my life to the ground was the answer (my old way of doing things, I’m a recovered runner). But instead, I felt to the very bottom of those feelings, and found what was on the other side: a big OHHH moment around boundaries/a realization that to scale the biz & preserve both my harmony & values as a manager, we gotta approach a giant new cliff side of scary, of HARD, of WORK. More on that later.
So let’s change the advice to, “when you find something you love, you get to commit to self-expansion & continuously become the person who can meet inevitable hard days with grace.”
]]>By the time the event started, I was already overtired, stressed, and gripping tightly to a very specific vision of what the week would be. The last point, in particular, was causing me STRIFE.
The event started off slow. WTF. This was supposed to be a blow out. I put in all this f’ing work and prep and effort and it’s going to be slower than a f’ing farmers market? This has to be a joke. Energy like that.
But the sheer process of working & of sharing my craft, my business baby, the thing I believe so deeply in, shook me out of all those ways of being. Within the first 6 hours of the day, I chose the joy of all that instead. I chose surrender. I chose detachment (NOT not caring, but releasing the desperate need for things to look only one way). I chose: I am here, I’ve done all I can, whatever this will be, it will be, and I am excited to see where I’m right, where I’m wrong, and where I’m surprised.
Once I chose that, it all became so fun and so easy. I wish I could tell the frantic Alexx 24 hours before the event started: your body will adjust amazingly. You will sleep 8-9 hours a night, eat well, and still make time to exercise. You will have this behemoth on lock by day 3 and it’ll unfold amazingly easily from there. You’ll create bonding and memories with many of the most important people in your life, and even brand new people you haven’t even met yet. This commitment unfolds easier and better than you can even imagine. You’ll blow farmers market records out of the water.
You'll be written up by a major news outlet as the number one thing at the event, out of thousands of options, to try.
But hey, she found out on her own, eventually ♥️
What a blessing it is, to set yourself up for success, and then let go.
Hitting 6-figures for us has meant:
- Raises for my incredible team
- Profit sharing & a 401k plan in the works
- Investments in equipment to make all of our jobs easier
- Donations and repartitions to our community
- Upholding my commitment to building something that allows me to live well, and create opportunities for others to live well, too
- Time for me to mentor other young women creating their own magical ventures, because a rising tide lifts all boats and i want to share EVERYTHING I've learned and make that "6%" a thing of the past.
- More marshmallows in more places
- More sweetness for everyone
The only way this 6% figure starts to shift, the only way this number starts to grow, is if we start talking about it. This final boss level collaboration over competition.
The more examples we have of this being possible--not even just 6 figures, but 6 figures sustainably, humanely, joyfully, kindly--the more the collective mental model shifts.
The mental model that exists behind the business model is where most of the game actually lives. It's not about "out-performing your competitors" anymore. gross, blah, boring.
It's about transforming the universal sense of what's possible.
]]>Things that, even when we're busy as heck, we deserve to experience.
Instead of pushing, I paused. Everything in me was saying "get the work done now, as fast as possible," but my soul managed to take over and prioritize the things that my traditionally-capitalist programming wanted me to believe were so silly: doing my hair, doing my makeup, playing dress up.
And so, on my busiest night of the week, I made room for delicious food, a stunning setting & nourishing company. I was able to be present with every taste, view & moment.
After that, at 10:30pm, I went back to work in a killer two-piece set & heels. though the night stretched much later than I would've chosen, the work got done well. It got done with joyful ease. The only way I want to run this business.
Do i always catch myself this elegantly? Heck no. Just 48 hours later I didn't catch it and ended up needing a big cry. The breakdowns are welcome, and as much a part of the human experience as anything else. But the more I'm able to routinize this question, "how do i preserve my joy?" in the moments of anxious escalation, be they in my own head or in the world around me, the more consistently elegant it all becomes.
Yeah, no. I remember, once upon a time, thinking “business” & “entrepreneurship” wasn’t for me, because all I’d been exposed to was “rise & grind” entrepreneurship, “wake up at 5am to get ahead of the competition” entrepreneurship, and cutthroat/scarcity business cultures. Lol. Gross-o.
Am I a high achiever? Sure. Do I have big goals and bigger dreams? Totes. But outer success is not worth sacrificing my inner peace. For me, they MUST coexist. I refuse for these to be in opposition. And in my experience, the latter feeds the former in ways I never could’ve imagined.
In other words, the more I prioritize my peace & harmony, the more I see results.
Ultimately, I’m all about doing shit that works, I’m all about efficiency, and for me, harmony works best. I’m a better problem solver, listener, delegator, visionary, creative, leader, community member, friend, partner, business owner, entrepreneur, when I’m operating from ease.
Napping in the middle of the day, structuring my week around time off (2-3 days, consistently), creating structures to support even longer stretches of time off than that (I was taking month-long vacations in year two of my business, without compromising growth), are all key parts of how I run my business.
Here’s the thing: I believe working hard is important. I don’t believe sitting around expecting my circumstances to improve without effort is an option.
But hours worked does not equal output produced. Time put in does not equal quality put out.
Our fulfillment times are 2-7 days, and if it’s gonna be longer for some reason (yknow *the whole supply chain thing* and I’ll often hold off on shipping during heat waves), then I’ll email ya!
For the sake of all the small biz owners out there, please be patient, be kind, and look at shipping costs as something you’re likely splitting with the small biz ♥️
*A way around this is to work your shipment costs into your prices. Measure & weigh a standard order, choose an address as far away from you as possible, and use a system like PirateShip or Shippo to calculate how much shipping will be. Add that to your price. Across the board, no matter where you're shipping to. This way, you'll be able to offer your customers free shipping, and you get to ensure you make a damn. good. product.
We may switch to this method one day.
]]>Thriving in your passion and living in illusions can’t exist in tandem.
Recently, I was uploading a photo of myself to Instagram. I thought, “woah this’ll probably be the first pic I ever post of me like, SMILE SMILING.”
Then I scrolled through my feed and noticed that since I started this business, I’ve posted a shit-ton of exactly that.
Somewhere between childhood depression and spending my teen years/early 20s in scenes that glorified cynicism, I got very attached to the idea that Alexx Is Sad. So attached that I not only didn’t notice that I’ve been Happy, a /sustained and reliable/ Happy, for a whiiiile now, but occasionally catch myself tempted to self-sabotage that Happy. “That’s not me! I don’t know how to be that! Let me stay where I’m comfy cause even if that place uhhh kinda sucks it’s easier to be in the place that’s familiar than the place that’s new!”
If you’ve hung out with me enough you’ll have heard me say: if you want the same things at 30 as you did at 20, you haven’t changed enough. I wanted & needed this story then, I don’t want or need it now. Can’t wait to see what’s on the other side of letting it go. Eeee!
]]>𝐈’𝐦 𝐚 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐩 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚. 𝐖𝐡𝐲? 𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 ‘𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭.
When you’re starting a business, it can be hard to determine how to differentiate yourself. The easiest way is WITH YOURSELF. No one else is going to bring your unique passion, strangeness, personality, and charm. Two people could be making the exact same cookie, and you’re going to experience that cookie very differently based on the person talking to you about it. YOU are your strategic edge.
This also gives people additional “way in” to supporting your business. There’s your product (or service), and then there are all the things you build around it. There are plenty of people who follow me who’ve let me know, “Hey, I don’t like marshmallows, but I do like the energy you’re bringing, so I’m gonna try yours/get yours for my friends.” I’m constantly looking for ways to open as many doors into supporting Nomadic Kitchen as I can; finding all the ways I can make it as easy for people to get on board with this venture.
This is all coming from someone who sucked at social media on a personal level. I posted crappy pictures of nothing. I never did stories. I grew into this. For the longest time, showing up here felt like dying. I would—no joke—write myself and practice scripts before hopping on stories, I’d re-record 10 times over ‘til I nailed it without anxiety in my eyes. Now, I show up unfumbly and fumbly, and it’s okay—I’m showing up human. It’s less about developing a comfort with the technology, and more about developing comfort with being uncomfy.
My top 3 pieces of advice:
1. Just starting a business? Swap your personal handle to your business handle. Why start with 0 followers when you could start with 100, 200, 500? People can unfollow you if they’re not into it. Get in the practice now of not making hills steeper than they need to be.
2. Document, don’t create (credit: Gary Vee). If you follow me, you’ll notice that I try to give a full picture of what it’s like to own a company and what it’s like to be a person who owns a company. That gives me so. much. leeway. And so much flexibility when it comes to “creating content.” This can be such a stress-point for entrepreneurs, but if you switch the mindset, the challenge simply becomes remembering to turn on your camera. You are more interesting than you believe you are.
3. Do what you need to do to develop the comfort levels. Write the scripts, record 20 times, find the filter (that doesn’t change your face, but improves your lighting) that makes you feel confident. Eventually, you’ll notice that you haven’t done any of that in 5-10 stories. You might even notice that you’re havin’ fun.
]]>“Growth happens outside your comfort zone.” An adage so void of surprise there that the only way to meet it is with an, “ugh, I knowwwww, I know.”
As an entrepreneur, I spend a *lot* of time outside my comfort zone; this life I’ve chosen demands the ever-expansion of self, choosing the Stretch over and over to increase my own personal capacity to support this Thing as it grows and grows.
That said, I’m a BIG believer in The Comfort Zone.
Because, you see, there’s no “finish line” to expansion, to growth, to stretching beyond what’s comfy. There will always be a fresh set of limits to either honor or push against, and we simply can’t stay in a constant state of the latter if we don’t want to burn out or fall out of love with our current pursuits.
The trick here is to take a really good, hard look at our Comfort Zones, because I vividly remember the day I realized that there were some deeply undesirable things hanging out in mine. Strife, struggle, making things harder than they needed to be, not asking for help, swallowing words at the base of my throat instead of speaking truths aloud, allowing my own experiences to be minimized... a cacophony of circumstances that damn well felt like shit, were my idea of comfy cozy.
I felt most comfortable in discomfort.
This showed up in the way I was running my business over and over again, leaving me experiencing way more pain on a daily basis than I ever have since I started choosing otherwise. I took it upon myself to Curate My Comfort Zone, so that it was actually a warm bed for me to fall into each night, safe, cozy, and NURTURING. A place that would give me the energy to recharge, remember myself (can be easy to lose track of Who We Are when in states of growth).
Curating the comfort zone should be emphasized just as avidly as leaving it.
What’s in your comfort zone? Is there anything in there you can release, too?.
You ever have one of those weeks where all your conversations circle around to the same topic? This week, mine keep coming back to the importance of low-stakes, inconsequential-feeling hobbies/projects/activities. That “doing nothing” can also mean “doing something for no reason besides IT MAKE ME FEEL HAP!”
That we can do things without making them into work. We can do things independently of goals. What if we all spent so much more time doing things that “don’t matter?” What if you don’t have to worry about getting better at that instrument, or that art form, or that (insert that thing you started doing for fun & unconsciously turned into Another Thing on your List).
What if you found out that keeping things in pure-pursuit-of-joy, leads to more creativity, more energy, and more ease in all areas of life (and psst, you will improve, you’ll just improve without the “try”)?
The pandemic unfolded while I was traveling abroad. When I got home, riddled with uncertainty, I quarantined in an AirBnB for over two weeks. I didn’t relaunch my business until another week after that.
I felt myself creating pressure – you’ve not made a marshmallow in too long, you’ve not brought in revenue in too long, you need to start yesterday. But, there was another voice: hey, you’re still tired, you’re still mourning, you need more time with nothing, you need more time without consequence, and if you honor all of that, I promise you will come back in a way that feels light, powerful, and beyond obligation. I listened to the latter voice. I kept napping, I kept making meals that felt like adventures. I kept crying. I kept drawing. I kept playing ukulele. I kept daydreaming.
And I kept feeling the energy shift on its own. From introspective, reserved, and quiet, to buzzy, electric, and outward. That’s when I relaunched.
Honor where you’re at. Let yourself Be. And remember that Just Being doesn’t always have to look like Sitting Completely Still. Pursuing joy for the sake of pursuing joy is a radical, rebellious & RESTFUL act, that’ll fuckin’ SERVE you in your forward momentum, if you allow it.
Trying to move throughout this world with a lil' more intention.
It can be tricky - I'm someone who does well when I'm flying by the seat of my pants, when everything is happening "just in time" and I'm existing in the thrill of not knowing what's next. I can honor this truth... AND acknowledge that part of that tendency stems from a fear of claiming my wants & desires. This is two-fold.
1) Setting a goal implies that you're worthy of receiving all that comes along with achieving that goal. Eughhh. How dare I be so selfish? How dare I be so bold?
And, most present for me these days...
2) Better protect myself from any potential feelings of loss & sadness by not even articulating my wants in the first place. Better just be psyched about whatever does end up happening. Right? Right?
When I get stressed, I get vague. Particularly about the things I want from life. How can I receive the exact meal I want if I waltz into a restaurant and say, "Hey, hi, I want food!" Why not order the precise thing I'm hungriest for, and trust that the server will bring me that? As a voracious eater, this restaurant analogy makes the whole thing seem so easy, so obvious, so delicious.
Currently exploring what it's like to shift from anticipatory pain to preemptive gratitude.
Admitting that by attempting to mitigate future pain, I'm also mitigating future joy, and if I am truly trying to live as a whole, embodied human, I need to step fully into my desires. They exist for a reason - to guide us forward, towards growth and potential and thriving and joy. Exploring the idea that we're all OH SHIT loveable, and OH SHIT worthy of our desires, and OH SHIT the universe has our back.
Order whenever you're ready!
]]>Hehe, no, I never pictured myself as a marshmallow girl. I never imagined I’d work for myself. I never really thought I’d move back to Vermont. I didn’t plan any of this.
That said, I’ve never relied much on blueprints. If you asked me, “well, what DID you picture for yourself at 31?” I’d probably answer, “hm, Iunno!” There’ve been a few milestones where it was like, “huh, when I pictured myself at X age, I pictured having X, Y, and Z, and I don’t.” There’d be a small rearing of shame-failure-?-?-I’m-doing-it-wrong-!-!-!-feels, always followed by a humble, “hold on, am I ready for any of that? If I had it right now, would I actually feel happy?” The answers were hard nopes.
I’ve held steady, in part to justify my own job-hopping, continent-hopping, version-of-myself-hopping, that your 20s should be for learning what you don’t want. For whittling away everything that’s not truly You. For trying on and shedding as many skins as you can. For. Playing. With. This. Avatar!
I’m not saying don’t have goals, I’m not saying you don’t already know what your dreams are. I /am/ saying the only thing you can really plan for is the space for your dreams to look totally different than you ever expected. I’ve got five words (love, adventure, spaciousness, harmony, and growth) that I use to guide me. If those five words feel ticked off, then I know I’m successful (I revise this list once a year, per the "growth" piece of it all!). I know I’m “making it,” no matter what it looks like.
Your life isn’t gonna follow your blueprint, so get less attached to how things look and pay more attention to how things make you feel. You might already be way closer than you think.
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