#Ep 76: Building An American Bakery Abroad With El Cookie

Today's guest took their love of American pastires, moved out of the country and shared thier passion with everyone.Today we meet the owners Alicia and Sean of El Cookie in Alicante Spain.From Alicia's American roots nurturing her love for baking to Sean discovering his flair for the craft after marriage, they've whipped up a business that's a perfect blend of their two worlds.

The duo’s journey hasn’t been a piece of cake. Living with autism and ADHD, they've experienced unique challenges that have shaped their business operations. Hear their candid take on maintaining balance, managing sensory overload, and sticking to a schedule amid the chaos of a bustling bakery. It's a testament to their resilience, turning obstacles into stepping stones, with a dash of creativity and clear communication.

In a world that’s often too fast and too impersonal, Alicia and Sean have built a space that's more than just a bakery. It's a community that thrives on support, love, and the shared joy of good food. They are the perfect example that success isn't just about the destination, it's about the journey and the people you meet along the way. 

In this episode we will cover:

• The importance of having a growth mindset when operating a business
• How to deal with the day to day operations of running a business
• How both Alicia and Sean manage their autism and ADHD while running a buisness
• How they use their shop to foster community in their area and so much more.

Love thier business? Check them out here for more info or to support https://www.elcookie-alicante.com/en

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:02

Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with the bottle of DeCerono and one Bundt Cake Pan. Fast forward to today, from news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more. I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now, as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world in my global membership program create six-figure businesses, mainly from home.

Speaker 1: 0:29

The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of that, from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all. We would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling. What are you waiting for? Hey, what's going on, sweet friends, and welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast. I'm super excited to have you guys here today. I know you're like Chef you say that every week, but I am I really am excited because today I actually have two of my students and two really cool people. These will actually be the first bakers who are actually representing us from another country, which is really cool. So today we have Sean and Alicia, who are a married company, and they're both the owners of El Cucque. El Cucque, which is located in Alicante, spain, wanted to make sure I pronounced that right, and so, alicia and Sean, how are you guys doing today?

Speaker 2: 1:32

We're doing good.

Speaker 1: 1:33

Thanks for having us. Awesome, absolutely. And so, alicia, I know I wanted to start with you. Where exactly did your love of baking come from? Where did you get bit by the baking bug Straight?

Speaker 3: 1:49

out of the womb. My mom says she used to eat so much cookie dough when she was pregnant with me, so I think some of that just seeped in. But my earliest memories are baking with my mom Coming home. Mom would always make cookies and brownies, cinnamon rolls, sticky buns. She was always baking. Her mom would always have raw cookie dough in the fridge for us and that was like a special treat. We went to go visit her and then grandma on my dad's side as well like to make treats. She taught me how to make a pulltaffy, so we would make pulltaffy with grandma from scratch. So just a lot of cooks, a lot of bakers, and I think it's just always been a part of who I am and what I've loved to do.

Speaker 1: 2:39

I love that. Yes, it definitely sounds like it was born into you and Sean. Did you catch the baking bug when you married this one, or had you had any previous love for baking or eating baked goods?

Speaker 2: 2:52

Eating baked goods absolutely. But no, my family was very complete opposite of Alicia's, where my mom just always bought like I'm going to name drop Entomans, donuts or just ice creams, like we never made anything at home. So I think that was one of the reasons why I was drawn to Alicia was because I get the fresh baked cookies and the cookie dough. But since marrying Alicia, aside from learning a lot about the science of baking and how to bake things yeah, I do, I do dabble here and there. We can get that a little bit later.

Speaker 3: 3:24

Sean is really, really good with coming up with unique flavor pairings and putting that into our food, so he's a flavor guy.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Okay, way to go, sean. Well, yes, it's never too late to catch the baking bug. And so, alicia, at what point in time did you decide that you wanted to try to give this a go as a business? Because I know you started out as a home-based business first.

Speaker 3: 3:49

So even before that, I've been a teacher for the past 10 to 15 years and just always baking for friends and get togethers and whatnot, bringing stuff into the schools. And it was really during COVID where here in Spain, we had a very strict lockdown and for about two or three months we weren't allowed out of our homes, and that allows you to do a lot of reflecting on your life or baking in general, and I had just come to a point in my life where I'm like, what can I do that's going to bring me a lot of joy, what can I do that I like and I feel passionate about? And just doing a lot of reflecting, I realized that was baking and especially cookies. These were a huge part of my childhood just a lot of positive memories and I realized that was the direction I wanted my life to go, was something that I enjoyed, bringing more positivity around, and so we started looking into how can we make this a reality.

Speaker 2: 4:55

Well, I mean, I'm going to interject here Didn't you start baking and you posted something on Instagram and people are like, ooh, those look really good, can we order some? And I kind of like that, spurred the idea, that kind of like cemented you know. Okay, maybe this could be an actual thing.

Speaker 3: 5:10

Yeah, I had posted some. Looking back I thought they were good pictures, but whoa, it was a cookie on a paper towel. I'm like, hey, I'm making cookies, you know, is anyone interested? And we have a lot of interests. You know, I made some bagels and people like we can't get those here. We also can't get American like chocolate chip cookies here either. It's not like a thing, you know, that's commonly found. And so people just started coming out of the woodwork going, oh my God, I want some, I want some. And right the idea of, wow, I like this. And now there seems to be like people want this. You know, let's, let's do it.

Speaker 2: 5:54

Let's see how we can make this happen.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Absolutely, alicia. How much time did you spend in the States, like, how were you familiar with American cookies per se?

Speaker 3: 6:07

So I grew up in the States and so I was there until I was 26, 27 when I left the States. So I mean, I grew up with cookies. Mom would make cookies for my lunch. I hope mom doesn't listen to this, but I and I'm sorry, mom, I love you so much but I would often take some of the homemade chocolate chip cookies she would pack in my lunch and I would trade them for Oreos, because we didn't have Oreos at home and so I would trade it, and I'm so sorry, mom.

Speaker 1: 6:46

But that sounds like the entrepreneur bug early on, because you were bartering, you were just exchanging one service for another one, so that's pretty cool.

Speaker 3: 6:55

I partnered so much with my cookies. Like all through college, I didn't have a car, and so I would talk to roommates or friends and say, hey, I need to go to the store for something you know I'll give you. Somehow I always had the ingredients for cookies lying around, don't know, but I would bake them cookies and they would bring me to the store. Or hey, I need help with this. You know, I'll bring cookies to the study session.

Speaker 2: 7:21

Normally it's pizza and beer. For helping moldies with Alicia was cookies and brownies.

Speaker 3: 7:25

Oh, that's like everything. If you look at all my social media memories, it's all like me posting about hey, I need help with this. I'll give you cookies, like that's my thing.

Speaker 1: 7:38

So cookies are definitely in your blood, which makes sense as to why you have your business now, and so growing up in America, though, but then going back to Spain, how did you get introduced to Spain? What made you want to hop over there?

Speaker 2: 7:54

Can I take that one?

Speaker 1: 7:55

Yeah so.

Speaker 2: 7:57

I mean, alicia and I met in South Korea of all places, teaching English there. We lived quite a distance apart and we met through Tinder, of all things, and it was a match made in heaven, south Korea. Eventually Alicia moved to my city and we lived together for a little while, fell in love, proposed, but we didn't want to live in South Korea forever. The work-life balance there is very skewed to the work side and not the life balance side, so we also knew that we didn't want to live in the States.

Speaker 3: 8:34

Just we like the expat life, we like exploring, we like traveling.

Speaker 2: 8:38

So Alicia was looking online naming places that we could go, and one of those places happened to be Spain and we both had a Spanish background like beating Spanish, and it seemed like the move to make Spain seem like the place to go. So we started to get our ducks in a row to move to Spain.

Speaker 3: 8:56

And we came here in 2018.

Speaker 1: 9:00

That sounds so romantic, oh my gosh. So you meet in South Korea while you're both teaching so many similarities, and it's definitely a match made in heaven because you guys are perfect for each other. But to meet on Tinder, oh that is so adorable. I love that. All right, and so now, alicia, you actually brought up something that I really wanted to share, because I know building a business in itself can be tough. But she said you made some cookies and they were on a piece of paper towel.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Yeah, they were.

Speaker 1: 9:37

And you were like looking back now I know that that's horrible, but it's crazy because there are so many people who are beginning and they're starting out and they're not paying attention to things like that, no matter how much I say it, no matter how many people I hire. But I know there was a point in time, because you're actually a member in the entrepreneurial community, that you actually shared. This was something kind of hard mindset wise to get over to literally pay someone to take pictures of your baked goods. But once you decided you wanted the business and once you decided you were going for it, how did you overcome that mindset hurdle of just investing in yourself?

Speaker 1: 10:18

Because now I know this is a podcast for anyone listening and I'll link their page in the show notes the imagery of their cookies are beautiful. They're always played it nice, they're with a craft beer. Just imagine somewhere, just being in a corner of Spain in this nice little quaint area and everything is just so beautiful now, but I know it took a little while for you to get there. So how did you come over that mindset of I really do need to invest and wash it? I listen to this crazy woman that's always cursing all the time.

Speaker 2: 10:50

That was me and my stubbornness of like no, I can take the photos, I can do it, I can and eventually realizing you know what I do a good job, but there are people out there who can do it better. So part of it was me and me really pushing that control of wanting to be the person who takes the pictures and set everything up.

Speaker 3: 11:08

And some of it was actually a lot of. It was through you where we were doing it and you know to all our knowledge and resources that we had prior to joining the entrepreneur community. We're like we got this, we got this, like it's not that important. You know, when someone tries our cookies, they're going to be like wow they'll know.

Speaker 3: 11:30

But then we started learning and looking and we would start to see other people's Instagrams and you know I would look at places and go I would definitely go there because the picture they're not going there.

Speaker 3: 11:43

And then we had talked to you a few times and you know you had really talked about the importance of imagery and how people eat with their eyes and how that's going to attract the customers that we want Always trying to attract your ideal customer and I think we had asked, like someone to take a couple of professional pictures for us and they did and we got a lot of positive responses from it because this person knew what they were doing and it all just kind of clicked and it was really hard because starting a business from scratch you know, in terms of life in the world, you know we're in our early 30s, so we're still quite young it's not like we had when we started.

Speaker 3: 12:28

When we started, so it's not like we had, you know, billions of dollars and investors lined up. So it was quite scary using a lot of our own money to be like, you know, even if it was just $100 for an hour, that when you're starting out, is a lot of money. And it wasn't until we said, okay, you know, chef's been great to us this far, like she knows what she's talking about. We've had a couple of good heart to heart talks, let's listen to her. And so we did it and we started to see kind of that return. You know a lot of positive engagement and new people coming to us and you know the increase-.

Speaker 2: 13:09

Hey, we saw you on Instagram. It was really good. We wanted to come in.

Speaker 3: 13:12

Yeah, we're getting that now. All the time People are coming in saying we saw you on social media and you know your pictures looked amazing and we had to make a stop specifically here to see you. So it's scary but it works out.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 13:29

That is so awesome. You went from being the baker who looked at other bakers, like you said, and you were like, oh, I would eat that, I would eat that To now having customers who literally walk in your door because they say, oh, I want to eat that because of how you presented it, yeah it makes a huge difference.

Speaker 1: 13:49

And it's not just the photos. What I love is that you're always telling a story. On some of your posts You're always talking about the flavors, like Sean, why you came up with it, but then also, even on some posts, you're also speaking both languages. So you're really creating this sense of community out there. And how important is it to you to have that sense of community in your baking business.

Speaker 2: 14:16

It's great that you mentioned that, because we have on the window of our store it's Cooke's cafeteria community cookies. So that's the three things that we focus on as a store, and community is very big when building up relationships with our neighboring businesses, with our clients. We do a lot of events cookie decorating events. I host a trivia every other week at our store. We do yoga and brunch. We're talking with someone to do a wine painting night and cookie night. So community is very, very important to us.

Speaker 3: 14:54

And to piggyback on that as well, part of the reason it's so important as, like you mentioned, we are Americans who are living here in Spain and when even if you move to a new city, I think a lot of people can relate that it's hard to make friends as an adult, it's hard to meet new people, and we struggled with that our first couple of years here and when we wanted to open up this place, we had discussed that, while we wanna provide delicious cookies, like that's a thing, but our bigger focus is creating a community in a place where people like us, who maybe aren't from here, or even aren't from here but wanna make new friends, can have that place to meet other people in a safe, comforting environment. And then recently we had this really fun interaction.

Speaker 2: 15:48

Earlier in the summer, friends of ours were leaving and were having a going away party and we went there and we were all sitting at the table having our dinner and whatnot. We looked around and everybody at the table knew each other because of us.

Speaker 1: 16:01

They'd come to one of our events.

Speaker 2: 16:02

They'd come to our events and they had built those friendships in those community and there were like 10 to 15 people at this table that we looked and say, hey, we're the common denominator.

Speaker 3: 16:12

Yeah, so we've met a lot of people. We also had very recently we do a board game night and we have a group of people who are here as refugees from the whole conflict in Russia and Ukraine and I was talking to one of them and he was saying how he had to leave his gaming community behind when they left that area and that because of us and our board game night he was able to connect and rebuild his board game community. And it's just, it's nice to hear that not only do we have really good cookies, but, more importantly, people come to us because they know we're the place that hey, I'm new here, I need information on places to go. Or hey, I wanna make new friends. We've actually had people come in and say, like I'm new here, I heard you were the place to go if I wanna make a friend, and we're like yes, we are Like it's nice.

Speaker 1: 17:13

That is such a blessing. But also it speaks to just your brand experience as a whole, and so I know someone listening especially someone who's home-based is gonna say, oh well, you lost me. I'm home-based, I'm not a storefront, I can't do that. But yeah, you can. You can foster community through your email list. You can foster community through the people that you partner with in your city and your town. You can foster community through giving.

Speaker 1: 17:42

We have a student who's in the same group, penny, and she does what's called give a penny, where she gives a cookie to every person and advises them for them to give it to someone else, to bless someone. So creating community yeah, creating community doesn't just have to be with brick and mortar, it can be with home-based too. But I just love the fact that you guys are doing it and you're just taking it up a notch and you're really just becoming that place that people really wanna go to. Another thing is that I know you had shared a while back not that either of you guys have let this stop you or hinder you in any type of way, but I know, alicia, you shared that you struggle with autism as well as Sean, and Sean you struggle with autism and ADHD also. Yeah, that's a good combination.

Speaker 1: 18:33

They actually said to you guys, before we pressed record, alicia said yeah, we're all the alphabets, just alphabet soup. Now, adding that to the mix, with people now knowing that, how did you focus or how did that play a role in you opening a bakery and getting it started and actually going for it?

Speaker 3: 18:54

Well for me, because we both are autistic in different ways. But I'll speak to my experience first. One of, I guess the great things about being autistic is that you developed like sometimes very intense special interests, and mine was the science of baking, and for a long time I would just sit and read all the books and watch all the videos and read all the blogs and learn as much as I can, like I love learning, and so that was actually really, really helpful because I now learned, like where do I get ingredients? Because fun fact it's not always easy to get American ingredients or American style ingredients. In a smaller city in Spain they just brown sugar.

Speaker 3: 19:45

You cannot get that in the supermarket you have to hunt that down. And then in terms of like paperwork there is a lot of paperwork, not just in opening the business but in terms of us making sure we have the correct visas and everything to legally work and set up the business A few other steps and so I actually excel at organization and research. So being autistic has really helped me in that way in the business side of it. But in terms of like people side, you know, we love our clients, we love our customers and we love our friends.

Speaker 3: 20:29

But I do get very overwhelmed easily and so when there's big events and a lot of people all just the people energy sometimes is too much for me and I have to actually step out and go and kind of like take a breather in the kitchen and be like we got this, we can do it. I have special earplugs that I wear as well that can help dim some of the sound when it gets too loud and as well, just trying, like when we're working together, like doing a tag team, and being like hey, look, I need to like step away for a minute. It's too much. You know, can you kind of take over and make the coffee as well, I take a breather. So communication is really important to understand everything that's going on and then for you as well.

Speaker 2: 21:20

Well, for me with my autism, it's very much getting a schedule. I need a schedule and owning your own business it's. We get to choose our hours, we get to make our own schedule, but we don't because you know we set, we set our certain hours and I guess for us Gotta stick with it.

Speaker 2: 21:38

Gotta stick with it. And for me it's really hard because there are those days that I wake up and I just don't have the spoons, which is a term Like I don't have the mental capabilities, the energy to go in. So it's a lot of. I guess it's communication. But the schedule thing has been big for me because we've had to change our schedule a bunch of times and every time we change it it messes with my idea of what needs to get done at certain times and certain areas of the house and dinners, and but now that we've gotten to, what?

Speaker 2: 22:09

and yeah, yeah, and working at a store, like I like working in the service industry because, as someone with autism, you develop scripts for certain situations in your life, things that you automatically go to to say, and as a server, you create a script, you have what you say to your tables every night, you have what you say to your customers. So, working in the store, I can speak Spanish pretty well in the context of the store because I have my script and I can talk to people at the store. But once they go off that script, I start to get flustered and I have to turn to my wife, whose Spanish ability is significantly greater than mine.

Speaker 1: 22:52

You guys, you actually you literally answered my next question, which I think is so cool. But one of the things that I love, even while you guys are explaining your autism and ADHD, it wasn't like a well, I have this and it hinders me, it stops me. It stops me, alicia. You went directly into your strengths. You said, yes, I have this, but I use these facts and I use them for the greater good, and I wish more people did that, that, rather than you just reframed the diagnosis and said, okay, I got it, but I'm a role with it. You know, I'm gonna turn the glass upside down. Look for the positives, and it's nice that you use those things. And I was gonna ask you guys what are some tips and techniques that you have to help you cope. But, alicia, you said the earbuds, as well as scheduling and breathers. I love that.

Speaker 2: 23:50

But Sean, crafting scripts man, that's so big and a lot of it is also communication just being able to tell the other person, hey, I'm struggling right now, I need help, and I know personally. It's taken me a good two or three years to get to the point where I'm now comfortable telling my wife and friends hey look, I'm not doing good right now, I need to remove myself. It's taken a lot to get there for me.

Speaker 3: 24:18

And just also being open and honest with yourself and people about what's going on. So, a little bit too, I had mentioned that I was a teacher. My background is a little bit also like special education and autism, so I used to work like as a behavioral therapist. I had worked in camps, like summer camps and schools, and got to meet a lot of like really great families, and one of the things that they taught me as well was like if you think that you've got something going on, always seek out a professional, but then don't be ashamed of it.

Speaker 3: 24:57

It's like you've got alphabet soup going on own it, be okay with it and be like hey guys, I have alphabet soup and these are the things that I need from you so that I can be the best that I can be, and also being able to do that in a business as well, like you know, like I've definitely been.

Speaker 3: 25:21

Like if I've been on my own and I'm like, hey guys, hold on a second, I need to put in my earbuds, it's getting too loud, and so just being able to you know you don't have to go into your whole life background but just saying like, hey, I need to do this real quick and then coming back and you know, sometimes in our social media stories and stuff we'll put things about our life and be like you know, hey guys, it's just us running the business and you know this is mentally. We need a little bit of a break today because there's a lot going on and you know we apologize, but thank you for being understanding. So I think that's a huge part of it is just being confident in who you are and just being Okay to ask for what you need, because people are very receptive.

Speaker 1: 26:13

You definitely have that confidence, both of you guys. I follow Sean on TikTok and he is always doing the same. He's always I don't, I don't, definitely don't want to say making jokes. He's always finding a smile in the things that he's, that he has, he's always sharing hey, this is how I see the world. Maybe this is how I see something that other people may not see, and I think that is so refreshing, thank you. And I never look like why is this person sharing this? If anything, it makes me connect. So when I think of cookies, if I ever were in Spain, I'm like I would have to go to Alicia and Sean, because it makes the person feel like they know you. Yeah, what advice would you have to anyone out there who is listening right now, who maybe has autism or has ADHD, and they feel I know you see it a lot, alicia, from the women. I feel overwhelmed. I'm doing all the things like what's going on?

Speaker 3: 27:15

All the. That's my life every day. Yeah, my biggest thing has been one to learn how to make schedules and just kind of like on my phone I've got so many like to-do lists I come in I'm like all right, bacon day, we got to do this. Or admin day, you got to do this. And it can get really overwhelming. And I think the biggest thing that I've had to learn and the hardest thing I've had to learn is how and when to ask for help, because help is always there if you need it. You know there's someday, one day, fun little story. We had a. There's a trick or treating event on the streets and a lot of little kids and very you can hear a lot of noise.

Speaker 3: 28:04

And very quickly, our small little cookie shop was just filled with kids and families and sounds and multiple languages and me being autistic, I just got so overwhelmed that I couldn't do it. And so Sean was great and he kind of called some of our friends and said hey guys, who's free?

Speaker 3: 28:27

We need your help now and a couple of friends showed up and said hey, how can we help you? And you know, one of my friends literally just kind of said you sit in the corner, I'll wash the dishes, take a breath. We got you and like it's just great because so many people think and I included for the longest time but I need to do it myself and I still struggle with I need to do it myself but asking for help, you know, because we all have people who will help us and just knowing like that they will if you ask.

Speaker 2: 29:01

And I would say for me is be open. You know, tell people about your experiences, because they're not going to be able to know how to adapt their behavior, adapt their interactions with you, if you don't tell them you know. So one of the first things that I lead with when I meet people is you know? Hi, I'm Sean. I'm autistic. If I say something rude to you or if it looks like I'm not paying attention, what not? It's not because I don't care, it's not because I'm not interested. It's just because I sometimes have difficulty showing those types of emotions, interactions. I'm not on this, I'm missing the word right now, but you get what I'm generally saying Absolutely and thank you so much for sharing that.

Speaker 1: 29:45

Those are definitely wonderful tips. So now, knowing that you're operating the bakery every day and you're not letting anything stop you and you're bringing a taste of all the American goods to all these wonderful people in your town, what has been your biggest accomplishments thus far since opening El Cookey? You can go first, okay.

Speaker 2: 30:08

Mine is the 25,000 followers we have on TikTok, but that came from we mentioned earlier. Like I'm the flavor master of the store, we have things called experience cookies where we sell the cookie and flavorings that I make. So the most recent one we had was a Habanero cherry white chocolate cookie. I also have a cookie out there that I call the sushi cookie because I use all flavors that are profiled sushi, but it works. In a cookie I somehow make it work. So for me it's a mango cookie with candy ginger in the center, soy sauce, icing and crushed wasabi peas on top.

Speaker 3: 30:58

Whoa People love it.

Speaker 2: 31:01

It's weird. I think it's a little bit of a surprise that I'm not the only one who is discovering how creative I can be and I am with flavors being like, hey, I think this is going to work together. And then it does. I'm surprised myself.

Speaker 3: 31:16

So I'm proud of myself and that's my biggest accomplishment for sure. Yeah, I think for me one just proving that, hey, we opened up a business in a foreign country in a language that we speak, the fact that it's the two of us that run it and anyone who's married knows that being married is work Now being married and running a business together, now being married, running a business together in a language that you both are learning to speak, so we are still married. So that's another huge accomplishment. And I'd say my other biggest one would just be the amount of people who come in and say that they've had such good experiences at our place that they made friends through our place and our cookie shop has been just such a community hub. To me that's even better than saying you make a damn good cookie, because, like I know, I do, but it's harder, I think, to make an amazing community, and that's what I'm most proud of.

Speaker 1: 32:25

I love that From the bottom of my heart. You guys are both awesome and you continue to kill it. Thank you so much for showing up today and just being transparent and being open. I know you guys have been members of our community for a long time and you're always both so kind and helpful whenever you can, and it's just really nice to just scroll and to see your growth and there's a lot of that Absolutely.

Speaker 3: 32:56

And we thank you for your role in the growth too, because it has been instrumental. The entrepreneur community has been so key in our learning and our growth as well. We're so thankful for it.

Speaker 1: 33:08

Well, I love you guys and we're so happy to have you. But before I let you go, sean and Alicia, do you know what time it is? No, no, no, not in your country.

Speaker 2: 33:20

We should be.

Speaker 1: 33:22

It's time for lightning round. Are you ready?

Speaker 2: 33:25

There it is.

Speaker 1: 33:28

Let's lay tonight, alicia, what is your favorite color?

Speaker 3: 33:33

My favorite color is purple and Sean.

Speaker 2: 33:36

I'm a forest green kind of man.

Speaker 1: 33:38

Love it, and I'll start with Sean on this one. Sean, what is a kitchen utensil you cannot live without?

Speaker 2: 33:45

My blender.

Speaker 1: 33:46

Alicia.

Speaker 3: 33:50

Oh, I don't know, probably a wooden spoon.

Speaker 1: 33:56

And Alicia. What is your favorite book or a book that you'd recommend?

Speaker 3: 34:01

Oh, that is so hard. Actually, we're going to go, because I collect it in every language when I go to other countries. Alice in Wonderland. That's so cool.

Speaker 1: 34:13

And Sean Sean. What about you?

Speaker 2: 34:17

My favorite book. Do comics count? Because I have a lot of Calvin and Hobb comic anthologies. They count, so I would say my Calvin and Hobb books.

Speaker 1: 34:27

Okay, we'll take it. Sean. Who is your celebrity crush?

Speaker 2: 34:33

Oh, I don't think you even know this one.

Speaker 1: 34:34

I do not.

Speaker 2: 34:37

Off the top of my head. I always like Jessica Alba.

Speaker 1: 34:39

And what about you, Alicia?

Speaker 3: 34:41

Harrison Ford.

Speaker 1: 34:45

He mouthed it while you were saying it. That is so sweet, young.

Speaker 3: 34:48

Indiana Jones.

Speaker 2: 34:50

Harrison Ford or any male artist wearing eyeliner.

Speaker 3: 34:54

Hey now, Girl likes what she likes.

Speaker 1: 34:57

Oh my gosh, you guys are too cute. You guys thank you so much for coming on, for sharing your story and your openness, and we appreciate you.

Speaker 3: 35:06

Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 35:08

How refreshing were both Sean and Alicia. Thank you guys so much for tuning into this week's episode of Baking for Business. I hope you learned a lot from hearing their story. More than anything, I really hope it inspired you. I do appreciate both of them with their transparency and their authenticity of just talking about the struggles of day to day life as entrepreneurs, also the challenges and how they face them.

Speaker 1: 35:39

You know, we are not designed to do business alone. We're not even designed to do life alone and if you are still out there, hopefully maybe, like Alicia and Shawn, you may find your special person on Tinder. But to everyone else who already has a spouse, it is just always a blessing when you have one that is supportive, both in business and in anything personally that you are going through. It's hard enough running an American business in America, so I can only imagine just the challenges that they have with opening and getting started and I've been blessed to have a front seat to just watch them go through while they were building the place, when they put the things on the walls, just sharing their journey. They're two really nice, humble and kind people and I'm so blessed to have them in our group in our community. They're always there answering questions and providing support whenever they can.

Speaker 1: 36:38

So I hope listening to their story motivated you, regardless of if you have a storefront or if you are home base. I hope you picked up on all the little extra nuggets and gems. You know, sometimes business can be overwhelming for all of us. So, knowing that you have that support system, that community, that place that you can go to and, like Alicia said, asking for help it is always, always okay to ask for help and I'm so grateful to have a front row seat and get to watch them continue to grow and I know Spain is really the place that is blessed to have these two in their community sharing their gift. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode. If you appreciated this episode, do me a favor. Tag me on Instagram. I love when you listen. Tag me at bakingforbusiness. I would love to give you a shout out, to speak to you, to show you some love and I appreciate you guys. Take care and bye for now.