I’ve been half-ass planning to start a business since I was about 6. If you lived on my street, around this time of year I would knock on your door to attempt to sell you some fresh mulberries from an orange sandbox bucket. $0.01 a berry and I ate most of them before I got to the first door. That model quickly crumbled, but I saw dried mulberries in the grocery store the other day for $12.99 for HALF a pound!! Six year old Tessa was just well ahead of her time.
But what really started the business journey was this teal 3-ring binder I swiped from my mom and started compiling notes in to my future self. It was titled “Plans for later day life” and consisted of tips on how I was going to save money when I was on my own by only buying soda once a week, how to properly dust a shelf (thanks Mom), and the coveted plans for a restaurant called “Funky Burrito”.
Funky Burrito was shaped like Pizza Hut because that was the only restaurant that I was really familiar with, and we would only sell burritos becuase I was obsessed with developing edible cheese flavored tape to keep burritos shut… and I needed a place to sell it (THAT is an entirely different story for another time). Truthfully, I think Funky Burrito could have given Chipotle a run for their money. We even had dessert! I planned to take Tootsie Rolls (my fave) and wrap them up in Fruit Roll-Ups, just like a candy burrito.
That story isn’t the point of this post, but I’ve been waiting for over 25 years to admit that I’m not going to make edible tape and I can finally share the idea with the world. I hope it brings someone else great success.
Point is…I’ve never been afraid to dream.
But I HAVE been afraid to take action, and I don’t think I’m alone in this as an adult. The older that I got, the more hesitant I became to share my ideas with people for fear that they were dumb, or wasteful, or impossible. Trust me…I had a lot of ideas get shut down as a kid…and probably rightfully so. I made some major messes and my parents didn’t want me burning down the house. But impossible!? Nah. Anything is possible…with enough time or money…within the laws of physics.
Fast forward to the past decade, I’ve been dreaming dreams of starting my own candy innovation business for YEAAAAARRRRS. But I also legitimately had a dream job and saw an opportunity to learn more ins and outs of business on someone else’s dime. Note: I was wildly blessed and incredibly lucky to land the career path that I did. I know this. I recognize this. I don’t take this for granted. It doesn’t work this way for everyone. There I was living the dream of creating candy for the masses, checking the boxes of my life goals, but felt like there was something more. Something that I would always regret if I didn’t try.
I subtly talked about my idea with others in the industry starting sometime around 2015. The general idea was a good one…the industry needed it (still does)…and people were supportive. What a relief! It maybe wasn’t dumb or wasteful, or impossible. Maybe it could happen. “Awesome”, I thought, “I’ll start that in the next 10-12 months”.
“10-12 months” was what I communicated for 48+ months.
…until my cousin Sherry asked me for a date. On a calendar. Like an actual month, day, and year. Way to blow my BS out of the water there, Sherry! I counted out a few months and picked Halloween 2019. A couple of weeks later, I went to my dream boss of my dream job and told her I was leaving in 6 months (really tried to set up the dream HR exit plan for them too). I was going to move to Nebraska and try something that still felt wild at the time. I cried in that meeting...a lot. Thankfully, dream bosses are also supportive of big dreams.
That ONE action of setting a date on a calendar changed a lot for me. It made me take other small actions like setting up the LLC…which FYI, only takes 5 minutes after putting it off for months because it seemed intimidating, and building the actual business plan.
Since then, things keep happening by taking it one step at a time (sometimes in a mad rush and often 8-10 minutes late) but still…one step at a time. I get to ride a dream ride of making candy and creating new things to spark joy.
I created Sprinkk, a candy manufacturing company that supports wild ideas and provides resources and space for them to come to life.
If you have a wild idea of any type, I want to hear it! I’ll be your “cousin Sherry” if you need it. What is one small step that you can do to set things in motion…even if that motion is slow?? You have to start rolling the rock or it won’t gain momentum.
Sweet Fact:
Deep rich caramel flavor is created when milk proteins and sugars react under heat. If the heat element is reduced, such as by cooking off the same amount of moisture under a vacuum, then “caramels” can be created that turn out white and taste like milk instead of like caramel. Tootsie Rolls are technically similar to caramels, but they don’t have a lot of caramel flavor due to the cooking process.
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