Bennett Maxwell is the Founder of Dirty Dough. Beginning his entrepreneurial journey in elementary school by selling candy bars, Bennett now leads a pioneering cookie-selling franchise. Dirty Dough’s innovative centralized production introduces the first-ever three-layer cookie, streamlining franchise operations by addressing challenges like waste, quality control, and supply chain at the corporate level. This unique model allows franchises to operate with reduced costs and labor. With Dirty Dough, Bennett is looking to raise mental health awareness by encouraging authenticity and self-acceptance.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- Bennett Maxwell explains what differentiates Dirty Dough cookies from the competition
- What qualities would Bennett like to see in a franchisee?
- How Dirty Dough assists franchisees in understanding all aspects of the business prior to opening
- Bennett describes the vibe in a typical Dirty Dough location
- What sort of capital investment is required from a franchisee?
- Why Dirty Dough adopted a franchise business model instead of expanding under singular ownership
- What is a mobile franchise?
- Bennett discusses his journey to becoming Founder of Dirty Dough
In this episode…
Many restaurateurs open a single location with the hope of expanding to more than one. In some cases, brands end up with many locations — some singularly-owned and others owned and operated by franchisees. Which of the two business models is best for restaurateurs who’d like to grow their brand?
According to Dirty Dough’s Bennett Maxwell, whose brand features a unique three-layer cookie, his best option was to franchise. Bennett says he was advised to do so by a group that owns hundreds of restaurants in Utah when they learned he was operating in a new market: gourmet cookies. Bennett didn’t have a lot of built-in capital and wanted to grow quickly, so franchising became the clear option.
On this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Bela Musits welcomes Bennett Maxwell, Founder of Dirty Dough, for a conversation about franchising: the reasons to do it, the drawbacks, and the keys to franchisee success. Bennett details what he looks for in a franchisee, the reasons Dirty Dough is a good franchise opportunity, and everything the brand does to ensure that franchisees gain a positive return on their investment.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Bennett Maxwell
- Bennett Maxwell on Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | YouTube | TikTok
- Dirty Dough
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- SpotOn
- Rise25
Sponsor for this episode
SpotOn:
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 Media, we featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Bela Musits 0:20
Hello, listeners, Bela Musits here. I’m the host of this spot on podcast episode, where we feature top restaurant tours, investors and business leaders. This is part of our SpotOn series. SpotOn has the best in class payment platform for retail. And they have a flagship solution called SpotOn restaurant, where they combine marketing software and payments all into one. They have served everyone from larger chains like Dairy Queen and Subway to small mom and pop operations. To learn more, go to spoton.com This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses get clients referrals and strategic partnerships through custom done for you podcast. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships with clients, referral partners and thought leaders in your space, there’s no better way to do it than through podcast and content marketing. To learn more, go to rise25.com or email us at support@rise25.com Today’s guest on the podcast is Bennett Maxwell. Bennett has been making use of his selling skills since his days of selling candy bars in elementary school. He’s traded in his elementary school candy bar business for something slightly bigger. Bennett is currently lowering business barriers and raising mental health awareness through his cookie selling franchise called Dirty Dough. He stands for authenticity and self acceptance, encouraging others to come as they are. You might even say that from a business perspective that it is one tough cookie. Welcome to the podcast Bennett.
Bennett Maxwell 2:10
Thanks, appreciate the intro, I’m gonna get a different ending take the tough cookie out of that bio.
Bela Musits 2:17
I thought it was pretty good. So let me ask you a question. If you’re at a non work related social event, and you get introduced to someone, and after that introduction, they say to you Oh, very nice to meet you. Bennett. What do you do? How do you answer that? requestion
Bennett Maxwell 2:36
cookies, just one word. That’s perfectly here here in Utah. I mean, we’re, we’re still fairly new. I mean, we opened up our first store in June of last year, so 11 months ago. But due to a lawsuit and some other things. Everybody knows who Dirty Dough is. So it gave me some good publicity. I think we have 10 stores that we’ve opened in in Utah as well, maybe nine in the last year.
Bela Musits 3:01
So tell us a little bit more about Dirty Dough.
Bennett Maxwell 3:05
Yeah, Dirty Dough serves large gourmet cookies. Every flavor. There’s there are sorry, every week, there’s new flavors. And so we’re competitor to crumble in that space. And the differentiator, I guess of us first STEM is to the consumer, these are stuffed cookies. So rather than kind of doing a plain black cookie with a bunch of frosting on it, we stuffed whatever we’re gonna put instead of on it. But inside and we see we do multilayered cookies. Like a three layer cookie, we’re the only ones that do that, which is you look at it, it looks like a peanut butter cookie, you break it open, there’s a chocolate dough in the middle, and then there’s hot fudge in the very center. And then that goes with the mental health messaging of these cookies represent life and they’re not perfect, they’re not supposed to look perfect, right. But they’re they can definitely be enjoyed. So and there’s a lot of other I guess tie ins but that’s kind of the main one. Now today’s the franchisee which I consider my customer more than the end customer. We pre produce all of the dough at a centralized facility and we ship out these pre portioned dough pucks. So you can run large volumes out of these tiny little, you know, eight hundreds 900 700 square foot retail pad. And then compared to like a crumble, we’re opening up for a half to maybe a third of the cost. But you and there’s just so much more simple to run your overheads a lot lower your your Labor’s a lot lower because again, I mean, anybody can find one or two employees to work in the store and grab something from the freezer and put it in the oven.
Bela Musits 4:42
Yeah, that sounds cool. So let’s say I’m, I’m someone that’s interested in opening up one of these stores in my location. Take me through sort of how that works. What are the qualities that you look for in a person who, who’s going to run one of your franchises
Bennett Maxwell 5:00
Yeah, the the ideal candidate is an existing franchisee of a food brand. So when we find one of those, that which is funny, because I mean, that’s the exhibit, that’s who we want to target. And that’s also the easiest people to sell. Because if you’ve never been in food, you don’t get the complexities of it, suddenly you say, Hey, I got this super simple model. And the people are like, Oh, that’s cool. Well, if you’ve ran a restaurant before, you’re like, that’s amazing, very low waste one or two employees. So and then identifying the area and looking at some demographics of, you know, the competitors, population density. I mean, you can get down to household cookie spending per month. So then we you know, then going on and identifying an area, but that’s, if they don’t, if they’re not a food franchise owner, then just being a franchise owner also helps a lot. Or I guess the third option would be you’ve been in food, but you’re not a franchisee.
Bela Musits 5:57
Yeah, yeah. So do you help them sort of understand the demographics? And is that part of the assistance that you provide?
Bennett Maxwell 6:05
Yeah, so we help them when they’re in the sales process, to locate a territory, because a lot of territories are starting to fill up. So it’s like, oh, I live in Utah, but we’re sold out of Utah, where else can I go? So there’s a lot of kind of that back and forth. And then once they actually sign then we connect them with our realtor partner, and they have every state and city and even shopping mall, from a one to 200 ranking based on the number of factors, I think there’s like 26 Different factors it’s pulling from, and then 100 is average. 200 is the best so and then you can rank where you’re looking at and it’s often that micro demographic rather than macro demographics. So not so much. Are you in New York versus New Jersey, but were in New York versus were in New Jersey? And that’s where this tool really comes in handy.
Bela Musits 6:54
Yeah. And do I need to build a dedicated building for this? Or I just rent some some space? That’s usually that allows foodservice?
Bennett Maxwell 7:02
Yep, you’re grabbing, you know, 800 square feet, to 1200 square feet would be ideal strip mall next to like a grocery store, grocery store already has our target, target demographic, which are primarily moms, right, going every day. And you know, if you’re within a stone’s throw of of of them, those stores tend to
Bela Musits 7:22
do better. Yeah, yeah, it’s, it’s fascinating. And so how much of that 1200 square feet is sort of, may not be used in the right terms, but sort of the front of the house versus the back of the house?
Bennett Maxwell 7:35
Yeah, I would say, Man, without ever even working in a restaurant myself. You walk and you maybe have this 15 feet for kind of customers to wait, and then you have a calendar. And then the next 15 ish, 20 feet back is kind of the where the employees are going to be baking the cookies, putting them in the boxes and handing it to the customer. Yeah, and then there’s a wall right there. And then on the other side of the wall, there’s just three compartments, seeing, you know, some storage of freezer and a bathroom. Okay, so without percentages that I mean, it’s pretty small. And that store that I’m describing is 900 square feet, kind of as I walked through it, in my mind, but very simple build outs as well.
Bela Musits 8:22
So I’m actually sort of preparing and baking these cookies in front of the customer.
Bennett Maxwell 8:27
Yes, yeah, that you still get that I mean, they’re being baked fresh every hour, there’s no preservatives used. So you don’t suffer at all with the quality but you still get all the benefits of scale and lower labor lower waste all about higher quality.
Bela Musits 8:40
Yeah. And sort of as a franchisee. What’s sort of the capital investment that I need to make to get one of these places?
Bennett Maxwell 8:49
Um, I would say most of them are coming in from mid to hundreds, all in, you know, franchise fee billed out equipment. But, you know, some like, I know, Houston was a little bit more expensive than that, where Oklahoma was a little bit cheaper than that. So but I’d say 250 is the average.
Bela Musits 9:06
Sure. Oh, that’s kind of neat. So, you know, when I think about cookies, I love buy cookies, that’s for sure. But when I go to the grocery store, there’s like a whole aisle of cookies. And it’s almost overwhelming for me. So what sort of makes these different and better? I mean, I understand the experience is different, right? Because I’m going to get them but yeah, take me through a little bit more of the motivation for all of that.
Bennett Maxwell 9:30
Yeah, so typically like a grocery store, if you’re buying prepackaged, then you know lots of preservatives, the freshness isn’t there. Or if you can go to their, you know, their baking section or their bakery, and those are a lot fresher. I’ve never seen them served warm, which warm cookie. I mean, that’s the secret, right? You just warm it up and warm cookies is a big thing. The other thing is just the they’re giant, you know, these are about a third of a pound. They have toppings and drizzles and those aren’t things that would be Be prepared, and that way, and then every week, there’s new flavors. So you have your Mainstays, and then every week, you can go back. And they’re just crazy flavors. I mean, I think we’re, you know, 80-90 recipes right now that are in rotations. So again, grocery store, you know, your, your chocolate chip, macadamia nut, I would just say the flavors is another big thing.
Bela Musits 10:22
Super, super. Now, for all these different flavors, and the three layers you talked about was was was that sort of your idea? Are you a cookie, Baker, by trade or take me through that a little bit?
Bennett Maxwell 10:35
No, I made. I never made a batch of Dirty Dough cookies. But the process of in order for this, to have a low enough overhead that we can get through the next recessions coming up, we needed a model that after what works, which is Mrs. Fields and great American cookie company, they both have been around for 46 years, have multiple 100 stores, you know, they’ve gone up and they’ve gone down, but they use a centralized production model. And they’ve proven that if you can operate out of less than 1000 square feet with one employee making a frozen product, very little waste, then it’s a sustainable business model, I look at other cookie companies that everything’s done in house by hand weighed by hand portion by hand, you’re mixing 60 cookies at a time we’re doing 4000. Like, I don’t think that those are sustainable models, I think that crumbles killing it because they’re the only ones in most cities. But you see that as competition comes, their top line goes down, and their margins just evaporate. So that’s kind of where my thinking is, and then hey, let’s find the machine. And then once we found the machine, how can we get a more unique product. So our franchisees, you can’t make a three layer cookie by hand, you know, you can’t make a stuffed cookie, you can’t put an ounce of hot fudge in a cookie by hand, you just can’t. So then it’s let’s get the machines. And then let’s leverage the model to give our franchisees a unique product. So we also started doing gluten free or gluten friendly cookies, which were the only chain that I know of that does that because we only have to do you know, you swab one facility rather than all right 800 locations, and we just pre launched our protein cookie. So it’s an honestly, an amazing cookie and as 25 grams of protein. So we just pre launch that over the weekend, and it’s coming live in stores. June 1. So again, I don’t see crumble doing any of those, those competitive competition, so I don’t make the recipes, but it’s kind of like, Hey, how can we leverage this model? Let’s get a protein. And then I turn it over to somebody who actually knows how to make a protein coat. Yeah.
Bela Musits 12:34
Very nice. Now, the other thing I I really liked about what you’re talking about is with decentralized, sort of preparing things, freezing them and then shipping them out to your your franchisees is that you get consistency, right, one of the one of the important things in sort of, when I when I become familiar with the Dirty Dough, that I see another one, I know what I’m gonna get when I go into that other one. And if I, you know, I already know I like it. So I don’t have to worry, it’s like going into a brand new restaurant for the first time, you’re never quite sure what the experience is going to be like. So this consistency in experience is really important. So along those lines, what have you guys done with your franchisees to make sure that experience from the time a customer walks in the door to the time the customer takes the bite of that cookie is really consistent and high quality,
Bennett Maxwell 13:25
I would say you start with kind of the the look and the feel of the store, you know, the layouts are roughly the same, you have a dirty little logo on one side. And then in the background, we do customize that per location, which is fun. So you give me five landmarks. And we kind of build it to that into that wall mural. And then the cookies themselves. Again, I mean, when you have a different brand that you have hundreds of locations and all of them are making from scratch. Now you’re depending on 10s of 1000s of teenagers, right for that quality control, and we just don’t want facility. So I think that helps a lot. But having the processes, you can still have the exact same cookie, but if you your oven wasn’t preheated or you baked a little bit too long, I mean, they’re pretty obvious things. But you know, it can still happen. So making sure that our instructions and are kind of top down. Oversight is similar. And then tracking metrics. Like we have some cameras with some artificial intelligence technology that it’s counting, who comes to the door, how long they’re staying, so we can track order times and wait times, things like that. And the next thing that we’re in trouble in implementing with the same camera company is as the employee hands off the cookies to the customer. This will be taking basically a picture of the cookies and measuring two things. What is the diameter of the cookie to make sure that some aren’t too fat or too spread and then is the toppings with the drizzles are they overflowing off the cookie because we don’t want that we want them to be able to be in the car on the go. So that would allow us to give our franchisees instant feedback which then contract Go down to their employees on any cookies that weren’t baked properly, or had too much toppings.
Bela Musits 15:06
Yeah, well, what a clever way to kind of sort of do quality assurance. And that’s, that’s, that’s really a great idea. So you get that consistency of experience, right, and you get that consistency of the product. That’s super. So let’s talk a little bit about why you decided to do this as a franchise model versus other models that are, you know, around for these types of enterprises?
Bennett Maxwell 15:30
Yeah, as I was exploring that option, I spoke with a group that owns several 100 restaurants here in Utah, and they don’t franchise and I’m asking them, Hey, should we franchise should we’re not franchise? And he said, Well, you know, is it a new market? Which the gourmet cookie space is a new market? So if the answer is yes, then you need to go quicker. Okay. Well, how much capital did you have? You know, do you have enough to go open up 100? Stores? Right? Are you sitting on, you know, $25 million, or no? So that was another question. And then what do you have that, you know, is patented or trademarked? And the answer is really nothing. I mean, we do a three layer cookie, we’re the only ones that doing that. But just because we bought the right machine, and we figure it out. But we can’t patent the process. So somebody else will do that. And then that again, is okay, well, you need to go faster. So based on those he said, You should franchise if you’re in a new and emerging space, you want to you need to move fast, you don’t have a patented product that you can move slow on, so franchisee can open up. So facilitates that gross growth plus just the model, the kind of requires fast growth, right? How do you produce a facility and ordering a flower to get all of your economies of scale down as well as ordered packaging that franchisees by drizzles topic? I mean, just everything? How do you get those costs out as quickly as possible, we move fast. So the faster you move, the better it is for the franchisees on the cost as well as corporate. But, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s other hiccups that come with with fast growth, which we’re always dealing with.
Bela Musits 17:08
Yeah, yeah. So share one of those one or two of those with us if you wouldn’t mind. Yeah.
Bennett Maxwell 17:16
Cookies. So us. I argue that this is the most simplistic food franchise that someone can buy right now. And in return, that means it makes it one of the most complicated franchisor companies you could run. Because we’re not just providing support, but we’re providing we are also a food manufacturing company now. And we’re also a logistics company, you know, so that’s right, it’s a lot more, I guess, trial and error. So one of the things that comes to mind was an error that we had that we shipped out a bad batch of cookies. And we didn’t know it was a bad batch, because we tested some at the beginning and some at the end. But something went off anyways. And we’re shipping cookies to another state. And the cookies were just they tasted fine. But the spread was too much. And they didn’t fit in, in the packaging. So we couldn’t serve those. And it was you switch flowers, because when flowers running low anyways, you match, you match up unbleached with unbleached all purpose with all purpose protein, same protein content with same protein content, but it was the absorption rate that got us the absorption rate wasn’t the same, you know, so that was something that we that we you know, obviously as corporate, we take the head off, say, sorry, we returned the product. And we experienced a loss there. But that was that just happened recently. And it’s still still on my mind, though I still
Bela Musits 18:32
fresh, fresh in your mind. Yeah, I think somebody wants once said to me that baking, you know, involves chemistry. So the percentage of things and the variability is important. Yes. And yeah, you have to really control those parameters. Because, like I said, it’s chemistry, it’s not just mixing two liquids together and adding a little salt. It’s a little more complicated than that.
Bennett Maxwell 18:57
Yeah, we also do a mobile franchise. So like a food truck or food trail, to allow people to jump into franchising with a lower entry cost. And then also lower risk because you’re not signing you know, a tenure. Sure retail pad with a personal guarantee, you can always move this business hit up events. If it doesn’t go good. Go to the next city. Anyways, we just had an event this last week, and it requires a 220-volt plugin, but there wasn’t one available. So it’s like, oh, well, we’re not serving that many cookies, we already have a warmer inside. Let’s just plug in the warmer, because that just needs a 220 or just a normal 120 outlet. But it wasn’t wired for that. So the only way to get that warmer on is the 220 So now it’s Iraq. Now we have to go kind of retrofit that just something we never thought about and retrofit that so it can be plugged in separately along with the lights and the point of sale system. So you can still operate everything but the oven on just a normal outlet, and then make the change going forward. But that was one that I just discovered two days ago.
Bela Musits 19:59
Yeah, yeah. Are there there’s, there’s, when you’re doing something new, there’s always new discoveries, right? Yeah, it’s always the unanticipated? Do you provide a level of training for your franchisees?
Bennett Maxwell 20:12
Yeah, leading up about a month before the grand opening, there’s a two-day online training that they take everything that could take them more than two days, depending on how many hours, then they fly into Utah into our headquarters. And they spend a day or two at our facility, being trained by us and third party vendors, and you know, the marketing side and the point of sale side, technical support, just getting to know everybody. And then they also do an opening shift in the store, and in an actual storefront and a closing shift. So they weren’t on kind of day, as well. So, I mean, in a week, you have an end, some people are like, Oh, that’s, you know, that’s pretty quick training only two or three days in person. And then other people are like, well, what are you going to train me on? It’s just put cookies in the oven. And I tend to agree with those the latter part, but, but we go over everything to really provide that training. And then there’s a video courses and stuff that they can refer to, and we’re always building that out.
Bela Musits 21:09
Cool, cool. And how to, let’s say I opened one of these here in my town in upstate New York, Albany. Do you help me get the word out? Do you help me do advertising? Is there some kind of program that we can sign up for?
Bennett Maxwell 21:24
Yes, we use the same company that does our social media marketing, we pay for that. And that’s in the FTD, the Franchise Disclosure Document as included in the grand opening costs. So that’s taken care of for you with corporate now the franchisees that have the best grand openings on top of what we do, which is, you know, getting putting that social media out and just advertising it, trying to get some PR around it. The franchisees on top of that, they sometimes go get their own PR, and that is probably the biggest impact is if you have, you know, a local news station covering it or not, or multiple. And then some of them have also contacted like cities that they’re opening and say, Hey, can you post this on your social media accounts, and then you get like the, you know, Miss Albany, they have that, you know, to show up with a ribbon cutting ceremony. So there’s a few creative things that we recommend that our franchisees do. Yeah, but for the most part, you know, we will do it regardless of if they’re if they’re doing it on their own front. Yeah, yeah, super.
Bela Musits 22:29
Now, let’s, let’s take a little switch, and sort of go back to selling those candy bars in elementary school. So talk to me a little bit about, you know, your journey to get here.
Bennett Maxwell 22:45
Um, I grew up here in Utah, I was number seven of nine kids. So it’s towards the end with a single mom. And so it was just, it was hectic. You know, any, you were just hustling all the time to get out to get what you needed to get. So yeah, started early on, and me and my brothers would just find any ways you can make money. So selling candy bars at school or selling shaved ice, like snow cones on the corner, or we had lemonade stands, I started going door to door in junior high to sell lawn aeration with some of my brothers. So it just kind of got me in that mindset of which I think is a very important mindset for Ben’s business. Like, just get out there, right? Go, go try. And if you fail, it doesn’t really matter, you gain experience, and what that experience typically comes confidence which is worth way more than whatever you lost, you know, in time or finances, because now you’re way more confident on that at that next gig. So just starting off on that sales game, and that hustle kind of, you know, entrepreneurs a little kid I think was super beneficial and leading me to now owning dirty dough before I had a solar company before that I was doing door to door sales, but I was able to exceed and all of that because of that mentality.
Bela Musits 24:01
Yeah. Yeah. And, and what as you as you think about building this out further, how do you think about sort of leadership and culture within the within the business and your franchisees?
Bennett Maxwell 24:20
I think it’s everything. I mean, it’s super important. It’s something that I’m not good at, at all. Um, one of the first things I did the month that we franchised about 18 months ago, I heard all a CEO that has been doing this for quite a while she did Maui while we smoothies and coffee in at three grew to over 650 locations before selling it and then took another brand zero to 90 and a few years. So she’s way better at that. So I think it is very important. I also recognize that I’m not the best one to do that. So I hired a CEO that could do that. And we’re still building that. Making sure that the leadership is you know, the leadership is right and in that everything kind of trickles down in their organizations because we kind of have a head over or logistics company or production company over the franchise company, etc. So just making sure I guess it’s top down.
Bela Musits 25:12
Yeah, yeah. Well, it’s, it’s unusual that to hear a founder, say, Hey, I understand what my limitations are. And I know I don’t know how to do these things. Well, so I’m gonna bring someone else someone else in, who really does those well. So my hat’s off to you for kind of number one, recognizing it, and then doing something about it. Right, as opposed to going to get a book on leadership and reading it and say, Okay, now I know how to do this.
Bennett Maxwell 25:41
Yeah, it’s, it’s a lot more effective for me to stick with what I’m good at. And I make more money doing that. And I make the company more money doing that. So I don’t know if it’s worth the time to pick up a book and try to learn everything, rather than just like, I’m just gonna stay in my lane and hire somebody smarter than me.
Bela Musits 25:57
Yeah. Yeah. So if, let’s say someone is listening to this podcast, and they’re, and they’re graduating soon, and they’re thinking of maybe opening a franchise of some sort, what sort of advice would you give them?
Bennett Maxwell 26:13
To current franchisees, you know, because you have, whatever the experience that the salesperson gives you, or portrays to you, and then you have some information on the franchise disclosure documents. Yeah. But really, I think it’s, it’s just so relationship based, at least for us with being so new, and opening up so many stores, all at once, kind of, there’s a lot of hiccups. And it’s, you know, are our franchisees okay with that? Are we okay with that? Anyway, so those are things that only existing franchisees Can, can really know about. And then the other thing is, there’s some great loan options for franchises. So you don’t need to have you know, 250 cash or 500 cash, you can have 50 cash, you know, pay the franchise fee, go get an SBA loan, you know, a tenure SBA loan with with decent rates. And so you can get in a little bit sooner rather than later.
Bela Musits 27:13
Yeah. Excellent. That’s great advice. So then, where can listeners go to find out more about Dirty Dough?
Bennett Maxwell 27:21
dirtydoughcookies.com. So that has the information. I think we have 19 stores that we’ve opened, and, and that shows all the coming soon. I think we’re going to end this summer with around 60 Open locations, which is exciting. So there’s a lot more coming on there. And then there’s also information on franchising to connect with me. I do try to post daily, some good content and business ownership and mental health and purpose based businesses, things like that. So Bennett, Maxwell, just my first and last name.com has links to all the social medias. Yeah, excellent. So yeah, let
Bela Musits 27:56
that just reminded me of one thing. So one other question, you talked a little bit about mental health. And it’s, you know, it’s part of was in your intro as well expand upon that a little bit.
Bennett Maxwell 28:08
I had a solar company that I worked really hard at, and I have a wife and three kids. And I was working the nights and the weekends, because it was going to be worth it. You know, when XYZ happened, which was x amount of dollars in the bank or residual or whatever that was, well, I sold the company just under two years ago. And almost immediately I you know, I got that dopamine rush and I felt great. I had the cash, I had some residual I had a handful of rental properties, whatever. But that goes away, right? And then and then I immediately was like, Okay, well, what’s the next goal that I’m gonna do until I give myself more free time to be, you know, on vacation with my family to therefore make me happier. So after I sold the solar company, I realized that that I was in and I knew I was going to put the next shiny object out there to feel better when I hit that. So I really did some internal soul searching my midlife crisis. And I narrowed it down to like, what do I want? What is my mission, and it’s to find joy and fulfillment despite life’s dirtiness and myself and others so and that’s now dirty does mission statement as well, but it’s all about joy and fulfillment, despite life’s dirtiness is don’t wait to sell the solar company. Don’t wait for life to be perfect. You need to have that now and you need to focus on yourself first. And then you can start helping other people. So that and just having kids and knowing the mental health crisis is like over 50% of women are girls before they’re in like high school experience. I forgot what it was like lasting sadness or something like that our depressive episode, and it’s just like, what do you do? What is causing that and it’s the Instagram effect. The social media effect of my reality is where I’m at right but the expectation of where I think I should be continues to increase higher and higher as I look at everybody else’s highlight reels on social media. And that distance between expectations and reality is causing the sadness, depression, anxiety. So how do you fight against that, and I wanted to do that with our product, like a cookie is not supposed to look perfect, and it doesn’t need to look perfect. And then so all the messaging and the branding around the company, whether you’re in store, on the windows, or on each of our packaging, you’ll see things like, we care about your feelings, or the inside matters most or you know, life gets messy, and that’s okay. Things like that.
Bela Musits 30:33
Oh well, that’s a really nice, like, you know what, that’s just a great way to finish up the podcast. There was just some really thoughtful words on your part. Bennett, thank you so much for being on the podcast. You were a wonderful guest. And I really enjoyed our conversation.
Bennett Maxwell 30:48
Likewise, thanks for having me.
Outro 30:50
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