Jamie Forman with Menagerie on Main and Katie Cruz with Bomb Babes

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Woodstock, Georgia. It’s time for Kid Biz Radio. Kid Biz Radio creates conversations about the power of entrepreneurship and the positive impact that journey can have on kids. For more information, go to kidbizexpo.com. Now here’s your host.

Layla Dierdorff: Hi, welcome to Kid Biz Radio. I’m Layla.

Austyn Guest: And I’m Austyn.

Layla Dierdorff: And today we have awesome guests with us in the studio. We have Katie with Bomb Babes and Jamie with Menagerie on Main.

Austyn Guest: Hello Katie and Jamie, thank you so much for being with us here today.

Katie Cruz: Thank you for having us.

Jamie Forman: Yeah. Thanks for having us.

Layla Dierdorff: Yeah.

Austyn Guest: So can you tell us both a little bit about yourselves and your businesses?

Katie Cruz: Um, okay. Well, my name is Katie, and I’m the owner of Bomb Babes. We are a gourmet cake bomb bakery, so we specialize in transforming classic desserts into your newest dessert obsession. So it’s just like a cake pop without a stick. And much more delicious.

Austyn Guest: Nice sound. Amazing.

Jamie Forman: And I’m Jamie. I own Menagerie on Main. It’s a an art gallery that represents about 50 local artists in the area, and we have everything from paintings and photography to clay and jewelry and fiber arts. And we also do classes and workshops and events. And we recently added some local wine sales. So we’re kind of like, yeah, a gathering spot, all things creative and local.

Layla Dierdorff: So how did you guys both get started in your business? Did it just come from nowhere? An idea or was it kind of something you’ve always had in mind?

Katie Cruz: Um, well, okay. For me, I’ve loved. I love cake pops. Like I’ve always loved cake pops. I think that cake pops are, like, the most delicious dessert ever.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: They are pretty good. When do you go to a birthday party you don’t want to grab, like, a whole bunch of slices of cake. And no, because everyone’s like, what the heck? Why she can eat so much cake? Um, but if you have a, um, a cake pop, nobody knows how many you’ve eaten. You can just throw the stick away.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, they don’t pay attention.

Katie Cruz: Gone is the evidence. So, um, it kind of just stemmed from from my love of cake pops. But then a desire to make them more delicious, so.

Jamie Forman: Makes sense. And art has always been a part of my life. I grew up with an artist mother. I didn’t pursue it as a career because I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but a lot of times, people, there’s this starving artist reputation out there and yeah, it’s almost discouraged. Um, so I went other paths, but no matter what I did, I always found myself engaging with the creative. And that became a focus. And so midlife hit and I was presented with an opportunity to open a gallery and decided to do it.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: So on this journey, uh, what have you done that has helped you become as successful as you are today?

Katie Cruz: Um, a lot of patience.

Austyn Guest: It does require lots of patience.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. Patience is a big thing. Um, and then also surrounding myself with people that support my dreams and ideas. And without the support of people in my life, I probably would be, um, not working or having some sort of other awful job that I wouldn’t want to have.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, it is very important. Me personally, I have my parents as my sponsors because they are paying for the startup and I’ll pay them back later, but it is needed. Mhm.

Jamie Forman: Yes. Support is huge. I think like the internal work you do on your mindset too. I think um, really forcing yourself out of your comfort zone and accepting failure along the way and just knowing it’s, it’s part of it. I think a lot of times we try to shy away from it or protect ourselves from it. And getting over that has probably been the biggest thing that I’ve helped me.

Austyn Guest: Everybody makes mistakes. Believing in.

Katie Cruz: Yourself. Yeah, believing really, truly. And leaning into yourself as like, you know. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: Believing that this will work one day. Yeah.

Jamie Forman: You have to believe that.

Austyn Guest: You have to believe that. Okay. So what do you define success as?

Jamie Forman: For? For me, I think it’s, um, choice and pursuing something that I’m choosing to versus something I’m settling for or, um, you know, feel obligated to do.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Jamie, that’s such a great point. Um, I have to agree with that. Um, but also for me, it is, um, seeing people smile, like, when they get desserts. I mean, I love, I love when people are just, like, happy and having a good time. And, like, my desserts bring a smile to people’s faces. Like, everyone loves dessert.

Austyn Guest: So sweet tooth. I love my desserts.

Katie Cruz: Yeah, well, you know I love that.

Austyn Guest: Yeah. So in the process of starting up said business, do you have any regrets that you have while starting it up? Or maybe some mistakes you made along the way?

Jamie Forman: Yeah, lots of mistakes along the way. Um, I thought a lot about this. I wouldn’t say I have regrets, because I think the regrets teach you a lot. So if you don’t have those things, sorry, I do. I will say what I’ve learned to do, and I wish I had done sooner was kind of was pause and listen to myself. I think early stages you have a tendency to or I did ask other people for feedback and input, and there’s this assumption that other people might know more than me. And, um, sometimes when I chose things based on that, they didn’t work out because it wasn’t coming from me. So it’s that combination of pausing, listening to people accepting input, but like, not losing sight of, yeah, where I stand.

Austyn Guest: Mhm mhm.

Katie Cruz: Um, I think for me, my only regret is that I didn’t start sooner. Yeah, we.

Austyn Guest: Get a lot of those. Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Uh, I mean, but otherwise, you know, I’ve made a lot of mistakes along the way, and. But it’s taught me, like Jamie said, is it’s taught me as well to just kind of learn from those mistakes and move forward. So, um, yeah, I just wish I would have started sooner.

Jamie Forman: And it teaches you to not be afraid of mistakes. Like, now it’s like, yeah, I’m gonna make mistakes now from here on out. I’m just gonna keep going.

Layla Dierdorff: It’s not so scary.

Katie Cruz: Yeah, definitely a test of, uh, the perfectionist in me.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, I feel that in my soul.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. Like you can’t. You can’t be a perfectionist. You just have to just do.

Austyn Guest: Sometimes you gotta wing it. Mhm.

Layla Dierdorff: Um, do you have any advice for any aspiring entrepreneurs to help prevent some of the mistakes that you made?

Katie Cruz: Um, don’t don’t be fearful about what you can provide. Um, don’t be afraid to start. Don’t be afraid to try something new. Don’t be afraid to throw away an idea that you thought was going to be a really great and turns out not so great. And, um, I think just trust yourself to make the right decisions. And they’re not always going to be right, but they’ll be a decision and you’ll learn from it. So yeah.

Jamie Forman: Yeah, I think realizing like, check in with yourself, how much do you want it? And then when the things come against you, you get to decide, is this a test that that’s not going to stop me or am I reevaluating the direction? But I think it goes back to, yeah, trusting yourself and staying committed to what it is that you want to see, um, happen.

Layla Dierdorff: So we’ve talked a lot about the past and the present. Um, do you have any future goals for your business and what are those.

Austyn Guest: Short term, short term or long term?

Katie Cruz: Yeah, yeah. So it’s funny, Jamie and I were just talking about this shortly before, but. Yeah. So I’m, um, I’m currently in the process of, um, ordering a new machine, and this new machine will allow me to print directly onto food so I can offer, like, uh, images. So I can print your face on a nice medallion and, like, we could print your face on on something like that and, um, or a logo. So my direction is going to be moving towards, uh, more corporate orders and, um, gourmet gifts like our gift boxes that we offer.

Austyn Guest: You’re like, those are good for, like we were talking about earlier. Um, bridal showers. Yeah. Bridal parties. Sorry. Or, um, like a grand opening for a business.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. And I’m moving more towards, like, larger orders and more, uh, challenging bakes. So, like, offering new items so I can challenge my skills a little better. Yeah. No.

Austyn Guest: That’s good. You got to do that every now and then.

Jamie Forman: Yeah. And, uh, for me, I’ve gotten kind of into this custom commissions with art. So I represent a lot of artists and I have clients and, um, really exposing people to the opportunity for commission pieces of art. It’s very unique and special. That’s one direction I’m really digging into. We also, as I stated, uh, recently added local wine sales. When I first opened, I always had this vision of a of a place where people could come and linger and be inspired around the creative, the creative. It’s a nice little space. It’s a cool little space.

Austyn Guest: And it is.

Jamie Forman: So, um, so I wanted to extend that and give people another reason to kind of spend some time. So that’s that’s my focus right now okay.

Austyn Guest: All right. So these questions are require a little bit more thought. So take your time to answer. But um if you had the attention of the whole world, everybody is watching listening to what you were saying for five minutes. What would you say?

Katie Cruz: Oh, a loaded question here.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Katie Cruz: Um. I would tell everybody to probably take a deep breath. Honestly, it’s probably needed. Yeah. You know, I would probably just be like, okay, everyone, take a deep breath.

Austyn Guest: Just calm down for a moment.

Katie Cruz: Yeah. And it kind of like rethinks everybody in the world, assuming, you know.

Layla Dierdorff: I like that. It’s like everyone sitting at the same time. Yeah.

Austyn Guest: Like, take a chill pill for a minute. Just simmer down.

Katie Cruz: Just have everyone inhale and exhale.

Jamie Forman: Yeah I would say stay curious I think um, I think that and bring it back to like, the people around you in your community. Because I do think that you can’t be in, in judgment and be curious about somebody at the same time really makes sense. I just I don’t know, there’s so there’s so many there’s so much good right around you. And like sometimes we get we go back too far. Yeah I know, so breathe. Stay curious I like the breathe.

Austyn Guest: That’s good, I like it. Yes.

Layla Dierdorff: Um. One more. If you woke up tomorrow without your business, what would be your first steps to recovery if you even chose to recover?

Austyn Guest: Like it was like it never existed. It was just gone.

Layla Dierdorff: It was. You’re like, oh, where is it? Oh my God, that’s crazy.

Austyn Guest: Do you mean like.

Jamie Forman: Get your business back or recover? Like as a person? As a human? Both.

Austyn Guest: Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: Like really?

Austyn Guest: It’s like that would take an emotional toll if you want. So. Yeah.

Katie Cruz: I’d probably I’d probably first breathe. Yeah. Um, but also, uh, I think, I think that would require a lot of mindset shifting, you know, like you’d have to really, like, wrap your mind around, um, what the next steps would be. But, yeah, uh, I, I would assume that my business would disappear because my house burned down or, like, my kitchen burned down. So my first steps would be to call my insurance company. Yeah. Um, I don’t know. I other than that I would probably have a good cry at first, and then I would pick up the pieces and just reevaluate and go from there.

Jamie Forman: Yeah, I think I’d go for a run. I, I am a firm believer that you have to take care of your thinking. And so whatever I had to do, um, but there’s no doubt I’d be doing something creative too, so just recentering.

Austyn Guest: Yeah. Okay, so after to deep questions, we’re going to have a quick this or that. So just answer as quick as you can okay. Cats or dogs? Cats Spider-Man.

Layla Dierdorff: Or Batman.

Austyn Guest: Batman books or movies.

Katie Cruz: Movies.

Layla Dierdorff: Waffle or curly fries.

Austyn Guest: Waffle mountains or the beach.

Katie Cruz: The beach.

Layla Dierdorff: Sweet or salty?

Austyn Guest: Sweet chocolate or fruity candy? Absolutely.

Layla Dierdorff: Chocolate cake or pie?

Katie Cruz: Definitely cake.

Austyn Guest: Lower high rise jeans.

Katie Cruz: Oh, high rise jeans.

Austyn Guest: Yeah, yeah.

Katie Cruz: All that cake and pie.

Layla Dierdorff: Uh, comedy or horror?

Katie Cruz: Comedy. Okay.

Austyn Guest: Nice.

Layla Dierdorff: Nice, nice. Okay.

Austyn Guest: All right. Cats or dogs?

Jamie Forman: I’m gonna go with cats.

Layla Dierdorff: Spider-man or Batman?

Austyn Guest: Spider-man books or movies?

Layla Dierdorff: Books. Waffle or curly fries.

Austyn Guest: Waffle mountains or the beach? The beach.

Layla Dierdorff: Sweet or salty?

Austyn Guest: Sweet chocolate or fruity candy. Chocolate cake or.

Layla Dierdorff: Pie?

Austyn Guest: Pie. Sorry. Lower high rise jeans.

Layla Dierdorff: High rise comedy or horror?

Jamie Forman: Definitely comedy.

Austyn Guest: Nice. Okay. Well, thank you, Katie and Jamie for hanging out with us today. We really appreciate it. Um, can you tell everyone how they can get in touch with you and check out what you’re doing?

Katie Cruz: Uh, yeah. So you guys can go to my website. Uh, it is wbom babeshko. Com. Um, or you can follow us on Instagram. Our handle there is Bomb Babes HC.

Jamie Forman: Yep. Menagerie on main. Com is our website and then on Facebook and Instagram. Menagerie on main is the handle.

Austyn Guest: Honestly, do your best to spell that. Yes.

Layla Dierdorff: Try I dare you.

Jamie Forman: Okay. Google it. It’ll come.

Austyn Guest: Up. Yeah.

Layla Dierdorff: We enjoyed our time with you today, and we know our audience will get so much out of hearing your story.

Austyn Guest: Thanks for listening and we’ll see you on the next one.