S1 E4: Sweet Kiss Brigadeiro Talks Rapid Scale and Culture in Small Business

08/02/22 • 33 min

Maven Minds: Trailblazers of Modern Business

As Kansas City’s first artisanal brigadeiro shop, owners Jessica Harris and mom Regina, are bringing the heart of Brazilian tradition to the midwest. Similar to chocolate truffles, brigadeiro is soft in texture, luxuriously creamy, and can be crafted with a unique mix of flavor combinations.

Jessica and Regina started Sweet Kiss Brigadeiro on the side of their corporate jobs and have since been able to scale to a storefront with a certified kitchen and have landed features in major publications such as Good Morning America and New York Live.

“I’ve learned one thing - that everybody deserves publicity. You just have to do the work. ” – Jessica Harris, Sweet Kiss Brigaderio

In this episode, Jessica discusses:

Building a brand that embraces cultural traditions
Using PR to scale beyond their local area
And expanding their focus on a unique customer experience

Thought starters: How can I apply this thinking to my business?

Consider what it takes to take something from concept to execution.
Where in that process are you at with your business today? If you’re in those earliest stages, what is it going to take to get you to that next step? What is your most immediate goal? What is your long-term goal?
What is the role that PR could play in your company?
How would additional exposure help you? Is your product accessible online? Are there other opportunities that would additionally be beneficial?
What role does culture play in your business?
Are you telling that cultural story? Is that culture reflected internally as much as it is externally? Does that culture create a niche? Is there differentiation in how your product is conveyed to customers?
What are you doing to market your business?
Have you taken an audit of your marketing? Do you know how your marketing efforts are performing? Are you making the most efficient marketing decisions? Are you getting a return on your marketing investments? Are you tracking conversions? Are you aware of what it costs to bring in new customers?

Key themes

Small business ownership
Public relations
Cultural experience
Marketing
Scale and visibility

For extended show notes, resources, and ways to connect, learn more at: mavenminds.com/season-1-trailblazers

–

Podcast Editor and Strategist: @episodeready

“I’ve learned one thing - that everybody deserves publicity. You just have to do the work. ” – Jessica Harris, Sweet Kiss Brigaderio

In this episode, Jessica discusses:

Building a brand that embraces cultural traditions
Using PR to scale beyond their local area
And expanding their focus on a unique customer experience

Thought starters: How can I apply this thinking to my business?

Consider what it takes to take something from concept to execution.
Where in that process are you at with your business today? If you’re in those earliest stages, what is it going to take to get you to that next step? What is your most immediate goal? What is your long-term goal?
What is the role that PR could play in your company?
How would additional exposure help you? Is your product accessible online? Are there other opportunities that would additionally be beneficial?
What role does culture play in your business?
Are you telling that cultural story? Is that culture reflected internally as much as it is externally? Does that culture create a niche? Is there differentiation in how your product is conveyed to customers?
What are you doing to market your business?
Have you taken an audit of your marketing? Do you know how your marketing efforts are performing? Are you making the most efficient marketing decisions? Are you getting a return on your marketing investments? Are you tracking conversions? Are you aware of what it costs to bring in new customers?

Key themes

Small business ownership
Public relations
Cultural experience
Marketing
Scale and visibility

For extended show notes, resources, and ways to connect, learn more at: mavenminds.com/season-1-trailblazers

–

Podcast Editor and Strategist: @episodeready

Previous Episode

S1 E1: Water.org’s Heather Arney Talks Innovation, Climate Change and Impact on the Global Water Crisis

In developed countries, access to safe water is an unnoticed luxury. But, by 2030, an estimated 700 million people worldwide will be displaced from their homes due to water scarcity.

Heather Arney, Senior Manager of Insights and Innovation at Water.org, and her team have invested years of research and innovation into creating ground-breaking water and sanitation solutions for remote populations.

“There's no silver bullet. There's no one size fits all. Especially with climate, this is felt so locally, you have to have different options in all different kinds of scenarios.” – Heather Arney, Water.org

Their creative approaches tackle all angles of the problem including financing, markets and on-site solutions like wells and sanitation. With the growing impacts of climate change, their solutions are being tested worldwide as they aim to solve the global water crisis.

In this episode, Heather discusses:

Snowballing challenges and impacts of water access and scarcity
Innovative solutions that enabled scale for their organization
Water.org has grown from impacting 100k+ people to 45m+ with access to safe water
Multi-faceted approaches to breaking down environmental, financial and innovation barriers

Consider and discuss: How can I apply this thinking to my business?

Are you embracing innovation from multiple angles of your business?
Is innovation limited to your product or technology? Are you innovating financially? Are you innovating on your marketing strategy and approach? What voices represent innovation in your company? Is innovation a core value in your business? Should it be? Is there an opportunity for greater collaboration?
Is your business prepared for scale?
Are your solutions able to support rapid scale and adoption? Will your growing solutions hold up over time? How will your business respond to needs while scaling? What funding will be needed to continue to support your solutions?
What’s the environmental impact of your business?
Are there areas of your business that are particularly harmful to the environment? How much waste is created by your business? Is your packaging environmentally friendly? How can you improve your impact on climate change? How can you support the initiatives of Water.org?

Key themes

Innovation
Finance
Micro-finance
Scale
Environmental impact

For extended show notes, resources, and ways to connect, learn more at: mavenminds.com/season-1-trailblazers
Podcast Editor and Strategist: @episodeready

Next Episode

S1 E5: Green Dirt Farm Talks Scaling to Achieve Economic Sustainability

Sarah Hoffman is blazing a new trail in agri-business with her grass-fed, sheep dairy farm. With a strong team of women to support her endeavors, she’s gone from a sheep farmer to cheese maker to restaurateur. Throughout the years, Green Dirt Farm has garnered accolades as one of Food and Wine’s best artisan cheese makers and has won several awards from the American Cheese Society.

While staying true to the handcraft tradition of cheese making, Sarah talks about how they’ve evolved their process to make the most out of the low volume of raw materials that sheep provide.

“We are constantly looking for ways that continue to celebrate and use the old methods, but also improve on those and create more efficiencies in the process.” – Sarah Hoffman, Green Dirt Farm

In this episode, Sarah Hoffman discusses:

The challenges of offering a unique product that’s not well known to consumers
Creating efficiencies and techniques that celebrate an old-school craft while still accommodating scale
Utilizing a team to increase opportunities to expand their product

Thought starters: How can I apply this thinking to my business?

Are you making your product available in a cost-effective manner?
Are there other ways of getting your product into the hands of people that could be more cost-effective? Can you find distributors to hold your product? Can you get other people to talk about it and get it into the hands of customers? Can you partner with a shop? Can it end up on a menu? What are some other creative ideas you have?
What are you doing to educate your customers?
Do they need it? Do they need to know more about your product or the process, or the benefits? Is it understandable out of the gate? Do they know what your product is or how it works? What questions can you answer for your customers? Are they confused in a spot that you didn’t quite realize? How can you help them along? How can you help them complete that purchase journey?
Where are the responsibilities on your team?
Where is the structure? How are you creating operational efficiencies across those? Do you have owners, champions, and people leading? Do you have the support you need to get everyday tasks done?

Key themes