From Healthcare Exec to Gluten-Free Bakery Owner: One Woman’s Entrepreneurial Leap

Free Agent Podcast with Meg Schmitz – Guest: Heather Smith, Owner of Molly’s Gluten-Free Bakery

Meg Schmitz: Hello Everyone, and welcome to or welcome back to my podcast, Free Agent. I am Meg Schmitz, your host, and this discussion is all about free agency and taking control of your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations of real people who took the leap into business ownership, sometimes franchising, but more or less freedom from a desk job. From corporate refugees and executives tired of that desk job to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey, my podcast aims a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control of their destiny, and became their own boss.

I don’t remember exactly how long ago it was that I was introduced to Heather Smith, my guest today, but we’ll talk about the navigational twists and turns that our conversation went through. It was so much fun to work with you, and today we finally get to hear your voice and have you tell the story.

So welcome to the show, Heather.

Heather Smith:
Thank you. I appreciate being asked to be on your show. I’ve listened to so many episodes.

Meg:
Well, that will make this so easy and so comfortable for you.

You and I met at a time where you were exiting corporate America. You had had a long career in healthcare administration, if I remember correctly. And you wanted to make this pivot talk about where you were career wise. And then the mindset that circled your brain and really led to a family investment into a business.

Heather:
So, to begin, I think it’s important to note, as you mentioned, as you mentioned, my career, my background was over two decades in health care, being in a health care executive, and I had a fabulous career. I had great bosses, I had great mentors. I worked with physicians and administrators. And one of the common threads throughout all my years in healthcare was I was often asked to charge, lead, be part of that, was developing new departments, new businesses, and I really enjoyed that.

After just about 23, 24 years as a healthcare executive, I took four years off and stayed home with our children, who were at that point, elementary, middle school. Fabulous four years. I was really able to be at home. I did some other work on the side but my main focus was the children. And it was. It was really a rewarding time in my life. And then they started driving, and they were on their own. And, I mean, they always need their parents, but still, they, they had less of a day to day need for, for me being home. And I really missed working, and I really wanted to get back to being engaged in an environment that really fit who I was and where I could contribute. And so I began by looking where I had exited from. I thought that, well, that’s where I’ve been for two decades plus, and it was time to go back. So I started to interview, actually, and really knew that that was not where my heart was anymore. And for my entire career, for most of my life, I’d always thought, dreamt about being an entrepreneur, really wanted to run my own business. The challenge was I couldn’t think of what that might be because I think, like so many entrepreneurs, you think you need to create something, you need to make something.

And that’s when the paths crossed, and I saw you on the morning blend a number of times. And actually, I think one of the key things that I would like to share with your audience is that I believe it took me, one of my regrets is it took me too long to reach out to you to admit to myself that this is what I want to do. I want to be the owner. I want to be responsible. I want to make that move.

And I think that it’s fear, it’s concern that it’s so far from the corporate world that I was accustomed to. So as I was in parallel looking at positions in healthcare, I reached out to you and just knew that being an entrepreneur, running my own business, that’s really where my heart was. So, as I connected with you, we spent about a year looking at franchising. And I can certainly go into more detail, but as we went through that process, I ended up outside of franchising, but with a gluten free bakery,

Meg:
Which it was such a total surprise to me, going the direction that you went in.

But when you explained to me what it meant for you and your family, and, you know, the amount of time that we worked together, we got to know each other pretty well. But that was one layer that I, of course, had no idea about dietary restrictions. Was it just one of your kids, or does it impact more?

Heather:
So when we purchased the bakery a year ago, a year previous. So two years ago, our middle child was diagnosed with celiac disease, and that’s when we actually have become a customer of this bakery because it was so hard to find baked goods that tasted good and were gluten free.

And we’re from a dedicated kitchen, not gluten friendly, but gluten free. And so we have one child, and we just have found out that we’re going through the process with our third child. So it looks like we’ll have two family members with celiac disease and need a gluten-free diet.

Meg:
Yeah. So that that piece that got built in here really came at such a great time because you had looked and evaluated, compared and contrasted, and did such a deep dive into so many concepts that some of them look great on the surface, some of them look great even below the surface as we were digging deeper into them.

But for one reason or another, it wasn’t the right thing. This is where the universe conspires to put something in your Facebook feed, if I remember correctly. Is that how you learned about it?

Heather:
That is correct. I had worked with you for almost a year, and, as you mentioned, really looked at a number of concepts, varied concepts, dug deep into the businesses.

All had very good, strong bottom lines, great other colleagues who would be other franchisees. And I really, my interest was piqued on probably three to four of them. So much so that I was very close to going to meet the team day. And you’re correct. The universe conspired, and for very different reasons.

One was a territory, just up and went to another person who was already a franchisee, and it made perfect sense for the company, and in the end, it made perfect sense for me. But there were just odd things that happened along the way. And then, yes, I was looking at Facebook, and because we were customers of the bakery, I saw that the previous owner had mentioned that they were going through a sale, and I reached out to ask who I could speak with about potentially purchasing the bakery, and we connected, and within a matter of weeks, we purchased the Molly’s gluten free bakery.

Meg:
Yeah. It was just such a natural then, by comparison, a natural, logical progression, gathering the information, you knew by then what you were looking for. We’ve been working on financials and all the other layers of context that go into this decision. So it seemed like the timing as well became very favorable and easy, natural for you to make this decision.

Heather:
It was very beneficial. I do not know that I would have been ready if I hadn’t been working with you and looked at so many different concepts and companies and really felt comfortable evaluating a company, which, thanks to you and your expertise, really helped walk me through and that’s an area where I would really encourage others who are looking to become a franchisee, become an owner of a business. Having a consultant and having that experience with you is, you know, just second to none.

It’s absolutely, I feel, necessary because it’s, there’s so many pieces and parts, and to have somebody who has expertise and experience to just ask questions and help guide is very valuable. So I was fortunate that we had gone through the process, because then, when presented with the bakery opportunity, like you said, I knew what I was looking for, and I was ready to pull the trigger to make it move.

Meg:
The other elements, of course, that you and I talk about, and I talk about with everybody, your wife, your life, and your money, how is this decision going to impact something? The three main things that are working already, if your life is working, if your marriage is working, if your money is working, this has to fit neatly in with the other elements of your life. I know now about two of your kids and Celiac, but talk about the other elements of business ownership and how it how this happenstance thing created, I’m sure, some dinner table conversations with Jason and your kids about moving forward.

Heather:
It has been very impactful to our family in very positive ways and in ways I didn’t expect. So all three children work at the bakery, are employed by the bakery, and they’ve really evolved into positions that fit each of them. And we wouldn’t have known from the beginning, and are very beneficial to the business. For example, our oldest, over the summer, she was home from college, and she ran our social media, she updated websites and took pictures, and really connected with the community and helped me step up my game on social media.

Our second, she runs one of the farmer’s markets. So every Saturday, she’s loaded up. She’s interacting with our customers, and they expect to see her, and she expects to see them, and she manages that portion of our business. And then our youngest, Jack, who probably has spent more hours at the bakery than most 14 or 15 year olds, he is, is fabulous. He works with our customers.

He can run the bakery on his own. He is there doing the retail side and interacts with our customers and knows all about our products. And I’m very impressed with all three of them and the roles that they’ve taken on and the confidence it’s given them and the opportunity that wouldn’t have been there otherwise. So that has been a big surprise and a very. From a mom, I’m very proud of all three of them.

My husband, he’s certainly been there nonstop, helping me, being supportive. The first three months he was there, baking pumpkin bread because I was still, you know, baking at seven or eight at night. So he helped a tremendous amount. And so it’s been a family affair, especially this first year as we’ve gotten up and running, and it’s been very positive from that perspective. 

Meg:
So that’s the positive side of the surprise. I always love to hear how kids integrate into the business side of things. Some really don’t care, but knowing how you raised your kids, that was such an important part of our conversation, too, looking back on that, how much time you wanted with your kids at that stage of their lives. Yes, because now they’re becoming young adults and influenced by their friends. And to be able to be that parent who was available, take the SOS call and be able to, at the drop of a hat, not have to worry about leaving your career or getting the guilty look for leaving the office for a kid who’s 16, like, let them fend for themselves. No, that’s the most important time you need to be there is when they’re vulnerable teenagers making decisions that might have other consequences.

So this is really great. You and I haven’t caught up for a while, so I haven’t heard about how much they’re spending time. So Jason and you were, you’ve always been in alignment about this particular decision, and it’s been great to get to know him as well. Who in your support sphere, you bought an independent business, you bought something, the wheels were in motion, and you needed to hop on and get in there. So besides your family support, what other support mechanisms have you called into play?

Heather:
There have been a number of additional support mechanisms. I think it’s critical to have additional people in your life who either support you just emotionally when you take on a new business and, or ask some critical questions, because I often find myself head down in the business and don’t take the time to take a step back and look at the, the bigger picture. So two very important people that have helped me. One is my mom and my mom. This is great.

She is in her seventies and lives about an hour and a half from here. And both my parents have always been extremely supportive. My dad works full time, my mom has retired, and she last fall knew that I was swamped. We bought the business in September, and you just roll into the holidays. And so from October until the week before Christmas, every week she would drive down to the bakery on Tuesday.

She would roll pies or make cookies all day. She would stay overnight and she would come back to the bakery on Wednesday and she would roll pies all day again, and then she would go home. And that support and that, you know, just dedicated person, love, and I believe in you. That’s phenomenal. So we had a good time and she worked so hard and she pumped out more pies than anybody.

So I already have her lined up for this fall. Hopefully it’ll be a little easier. But I think that support is. It just is really important, because when you’re having the long days, the hard days, and you can look up and see family or employees who really are standing right there and say, I believe in this, too. It really helps.

The second person that’s really continued to be a support to me is my previous boss. I worked for a lady named Patti for about 15 years, and then we actually had a partnership for a healthcare consulting firm for a couple of years. And so we work closely together. And I meet with her. I continue to, on both a social level and also just as a, as a mentor.

She’s known me for so long, and I’ve asked her questions, especially strategic questions, about business and building a business. And it’s really important, I feel, to have someone like that in my life, to be able to bounce ideas off of and just ask for additional input.

Meg:
Yeah, it’s hard enough to be a franchise owner, but when you own your own business and you bought it from someone else, they’re the skeletons in the closets or the surprises. They never saw that coming. And it can be so isolating, particularly if you.

It’s the middle of the night, you don’t have anyone to talk to. The dark thoughts that go through your head, did you experience any of that?

Heather:
I have been fortunate the previous, a couple of levels, because I think what you, you know, what you just said, Meg, really resonates. You buying your own business without a corporate support, without a franchise. As I went through the process with you, I could feel the strong franchises and who was going to be there, who had really good infrastructure and was going to help you.

And that’s. I think that’s important. And it is a missing piece when you buy an independent business. So part of me finds it very important. I still reach out to the previous owner.

She’s a fabulous lady. She owned the business for 15 years. She’s very open. She stayed on for two or three months with me to train myself, the staff. She was very dedicated both to the business and to the customers.

And every few weeks, I still text her or email her and ask for her opinion, or get some input, or how did we do cream puffs last year? Because we only make them once a year. And she is always more than happy to help and give input. So that is important that I have such an, maybe rare that I have such a great connection with the previous owner, and she’s so willing to be so helpful. The other thing, just with the feelings that you described of looking up, and I was in corporate life for so long, and I had colleagues, and for any, pretty much any situation, I knew who to call, and there was always more than one.

And about six months in, kind of after we made it through the holidays and I looked up, I felt like, well, this is mine, and where are my colleagues? And I have some questions and a funny story. I literally stopped a mile down the road. There’s a convenience store. However, since the 1960s, up until the early 2000, 2010, it was a bakery.

And the owner’s mother started the bakery. And I stopped in, and I know him as owning the convenience store, but I knew there was a bakery. It’s physically still behind there, but nobody uses it anymore as a bakery. And I asked if I could meet with him, and I just said, this is who I am, and I have some questions, and would you help me and would you just have time to give me some guidance and advice? And he was more than happy to.

And I sat down and met with him for half an hour, and he connected me to other people, and they came and met me at the bakery, and it was amazing. And people are so open. And since that time, I’ve been able to reach out to other local bakers, ask questions. One of the bakers needed to buy a bag of flour. That’s, that’s how we make our connections in the bakery.

And it’s great to have professional colleagues, even if you’re maybe competing on some level. I think helping each other is really been the fundamental piece that I found. So that’s how I’ve gone about finding new colleagues, is simply asking for help. 

Meg:
Simply asking for help, which is so hard for some people to do. But you’re running an institution in the area, and people count on you to have your products.

And so what a great story about how you protected your, your business. But also for people who are coming out of corporate America, this is such a key thing. You have to get your posse. Yes. And if you’re going to buy an independent business where you don’t have that posse, you don’t have other fellow franchisees and whatnot, you’ve done exactly what, what most people don’t do, and that’s where they get in their head and it is empty and isolating because they, they don’t have that, that lifeline.

Early on after you bought the bakery, I remember we were, I stopped by, by the way, the products are so good. I come, I, we don’t have an issue in my household with celiac disease, but that rye bread and the pizza. 

Heather:

Yes. Oh, thank you. 

Meg:

We had gotten you connected to another friend of my husband who really got into business, very much the same way Celiac’s disease runs in her family.

Have the two of you been able to strike any sort of ongoing conversation, sharing of best practices?

Heather:
We have. It was a great connection. Certainly appreciate that. Another, I think, just fabulous network opportunity.

So I was able to reach out to your husband’s colleague, and she’s in the greater Chicago area. She’s, I would say, five to ten years ahead of me. Her business, she’s been with the business longer. It’s her, she started it. And we’ve had great discussions both about strategy because of where she’s been and what her business looks like, which is more mature than where we are at right now.

So it’s been extremely beneficial to myself to be able to think through some of the strategy, the things that she’s done that has worked and maybe some things that didn’t work for her. She’s really given some insight and tidbits that have saved me time, which is fabulous. And then we have an ongoing texting relationship at times. Such as we connected over what type of products we’re using for food coloring, for frosting coloring and what’s working, what’s not, because we’re in the same boat, they have to be gluten free. That’s limiting of products in and of itself, of what you can use.

But then it also has to taste good and look right because that’s what we expect of our food and, and, you know, neither of us want to put out product that doesn’t look great and taste fabulous. 

Meg:
I remember when you were doing a lot of cake decorating and ended up doing some of that yourself. 

Heather:
Yeah.

Meg:
Is the gal that you hired still with you who came on to do the decorating?

Heather:
She is. We are so fortunate to have a cake decorator, so that was certainly an area that is not my expertise. I’ve taken classes on it. It takes hours and creativity and some artistic ability and some of those things I’m lacking heavily in. And so the beginning of the cake decorating, because we did want to offer cakes, and our daughter, who has celiac, said, mom, I don’t care what it looks like. Everyone deserves a birthday cake.

And I’m like, oh, this is pretty bad, but okay. So I would crumb coat it and I would frost it, and I talked most people into confetti so I could put sprinkles on it, and it looked a lot better than not sprinkles. And that’s where we started. And then we hired a fabulous lady with experience who has taken our cakes to the next level. And we have a whole page on cakes now, and we offer a number of cakes.

She’s making a number of cakes every week, birthday, graduation, wedding, cutting cakes. And so we. We keep it within our wheelhouse. So we’re not doing massive tiered wedding cakes. And I, we’re doing things that make sense for us and that work for people and people appreciate.

And my daughter was right. People want birthday cakes, and they’re happy to get what we have. And with our new employee, who’s been there a number of months now, they look fabulous. And so we’re so pleased to offer them to our customers. 

Meg:
So also on the horizon had been the notion that you would get into commercial, potentially getting into commercial accounts. Have you pursued that?

Heather:
So we have. The bakery had a number of wholesale accounts in place when we purchased the business a year ago, so we’ve maintained all of those. And then we have had businesses reach out to us, especially additional coffee shops. People are very clear about gluten free versus gluten friendly, and many bakeries and coffee shops may have been bringing in gluten friendly products, and that is limiting for people with celiac.

They’re just not going to do that knowing there’s cross contamination possibilities. So we’ve had a number of local businesses reach out to us, and that is on our strategic plan for one of the next steps that we’re going to take. We’re looking at temperature controlled van. So a bigger way to move things.

Right now, we’re limited with space and keeping things appropriate temperature. We don’t have a large van, so equipment wise, that’s one of our next purchases, I think.

Meg:
And have you been asked about expansion, opening more locations? 

Heather:
We have, and we are looking heavily at potentially doing so. One of the things that we did this summer is we reengaged with farmers markets.

And we went to. So we’re in Pewaukee. We went to West Bend. We’re there maybe three out of four weekend Saturdays per month. We already had a number of established customers in West Bend.

They’re very loyal. They would come down to the shop. However, they aren’t able to come every week. They were, many of them voiced how excited they were that we were coming, and they show up every week for us. They are fabulous.

We are there, and it’s appropriate. It’s an hour away. We also picked up Janesville, and that’s about an hour south of here. And we’re there once a month at their farmer’s market. And we were not as well known in that area as.

As locally. West Bend is probably, you know, 40, 45 minutes, maybe not quite an hour. And we didn’t have as many Janesville customers. We had a few. One, actually, one lady saw me at a Madison expo that we went to, and she was a customer, and she is the one who said, one of our customers said, please come to Janesville.

We get skipped over. Come. Come down and. And see us. So we signed up.

Their farmers market is fabulous. Both West Bend and Janesville farmers, they’re huge. I can’t believe the amount of people that come through there. And there are so many vendors. So they both have been a fabulous place to be this summer.

And we will continue on both of those sites through the fall. And that was very helpful for us to establish some customers in Janesville, for example, where we didn’t have as many, and now we have people coming back when we’re there every month. So now we have some regulars in Janesville. So I think that was a really good way to test the waters. And our next step will be either continuing.

For example, Janesville has a winter market, so we could continue to show up with our products that way, which is great for us not to always have to build out a storefront and the expense of having employees all week when people know, okay, we’re going to be there once a month, and this is a Saturday. All our products freeze beautifully, so that works as well. And so we will continue to reach out to both of those markets and stay engaged. But the farmers market was a great way to test the waters.

Meg:
It is so exciting for me because I’ve already said I love your products. I live ten minutes away from Janesville.

Heather:
Oh, fabulous. 

Meg:
I’m up in Milton. So close

Heather:
Great. 

Meg:
So close. 

Heather:

So you can come and see us when we’re there

Meg:
Indeed. Now I will look it up. And now I know that you’re also able to be there full time. I’m sorry. Year round, these little baby steps towards economies of scale and building into a bigger empire.

I know that that was always there for you, but now it’s really coming to fruition. Is any of it challenging to the point where you think, oh, man, we’re biting off more than we can chew? Or is it which a lot of entrepreneurs do. They get into the shiny sparkly and oh, this is so much fun. And we could do this, and then they have to pull back because they, they took on too much.

Where are you in that learning curve?

Heather:
We’re living it. I’m living it every day. It’s very interesting because that is kind of where we are as we grow. It feels that I just want to rip the band aid off and have a bigger place and have all these storefronts and let’s go as fast as we can, where really we’re taking steps each, you know, each week. And so, for example, we are looking to automate some things.

We just bought a cookie depositor. So we need to be efficient enough in our operations that it’s not just hiring more bodies every time we need more production. So we’ve been looking at that as we’re looking at now, we are producing all this food more quickly. That would be great. Now where are we going to sell it?

So we need the next step and then we need staff to staff those sites or to come in and bake more. So it’s really, as you, it’s a very step by step process. And I wish it was rip the band aid off and put in a huge mixer and all these freezers and go, but it’s just going to take us a while and I think it’s much smarter to do it that way.

Meg:
Absolutely agree. It’s so easy to get caught up and then not realize where you are with your financials. I’ve seen some businesses where the expansion and the growth was so positive, but they ran out of money then, so they’re building infrastructure and inventory. There are a lot of different ways that it can get screwed up when you’re, when you’re really trying to scale. So you’re. Of course, you’re doing it the right way because you’re. Heather.

Heather:
Thank you. I don’t know about that, but we’re doing it the way that I think it fits our business and our customers are extremely supportive. So it’s just, it’s very helpful that way to have that kind of positive message around you as a business owner. I think 

Meg:
Absolutely. Especially when you’re a pillar of the community and providing something that is so vital to the consumer, the wellness factor, to be able to deliver something that does what it’s supposed to do.

Makes you feel the way that you’re supposed to feel, which is better. Yeah. So it’s really also great that your kids are incorporated in there. So by the time you’re really ready to mushroom cloud all of this, they’ll probably all be in college by then.

Heather:
Right. Yeah. Jack, he’ll be a freshman this year in high school, so, yeah, it’ll be perfect. 

Meg:
And who’s taking care of the goats?

Heather:
Yeah. Well, I still run out there. I’m still on goat detail when school starts, but Jack has been doing the majority of the heavy lifting on the goat side until school starts for him.

Meg:
That was such a fun event last summer to come to the county fair and to see your kids and Jason so involved in the raising and showing of the animals. It’s such a great experience for a kid to have. Anyway, I know you grew up that way and you’re a well rounded, intelligent human being who’s doing the same thing with your kids. So it was really fun to see that last year.

The one question I guess I’ll leave with is, because we started off with. We started off with freedom. Some of it was financial, and some of it was just that freedom of not having a boss. What one or a couple of freedoms are you enjoying? I hope that you are enjoying freedoms now that you’re a year into the business and some of the dust has settled.

What. How is this nurturing you and what freedoms are you experiencing that you didn’t have in the corporate world?

Heather:
The most impactful freedom that I have, which is really important to me because of who I am, is the freedom to make the decisions and the freedom to move as fast as I want. There have been times where I’ve looked up and said to myself, why can’t I go any faster? I can. I can. And there’s some of that, I think, built in as, after two decades in the corporate world of, well, we need to plan and we need to do, you know, do this and that.

And I think very thoughtfully, I can move much faster as an entrepreneur than I even imagined I could. And that’s a huge freedom for me. And it isn’t, you know, I’ve always had great bosses. It certainly wasn’t that. It was just the infrastructure, the large corporations.

It’s very different than I wake up today and say, we’re going to add a new cookie to the menu. Well, we can do it. Let’s just start baking. And it’s very fulfilling, professionally and personally, to be able to have ownership and complete accountability for your business.

Meg:
Yeah. There’s no chain of command to beat down your dreams.You can make the decision.

Heather:

That’s right. And I’m fortunate. I have a tremendous staff.

It’s, you know, as you talk about freedoms, I’ve been very fortunate. And one of the strong learnings I’ve had is the importance it has been to me to have the right culture and fit. So I’ve hired in. In my career over hundreds, literally hundreds of staff. I helped open a hospital up in the Twin Cities.

And we had to hire 400 nurses within, like, two months. So I’ve been through the process, you know, multiple times. Many, many times. But it’s different hiring for your business, and it’s different hiring for a very small team, because if somebody doesn’t fit, it becomes very obvious. And so we’ve had some of that where we’ve had to make adjustments, find the right team members.

Certainly in a bakery business, people come and go. It’s not all long term career. So finding people who want to stick for a while and then hiring and continuing to grow has been a challenge. But it’s been a freedom. And I really don’t take it for advantage that the culture, the fit I get to help shape, that I get to lead, that I get to make that the way I want it.

And if it isn’t working, then that’s on, that’s on me, and I can make the change. And so it’s been extremely rewarding and certainly a freedom I did not expect.

Meg:  
Well, and freedom is a burden, and it’s a lovely, wonderful burden to carry. The buck stops here every day.

Heather:
Yeah. 

Meg: 
Yeah, and you have unilateral control over what that outcome is. I know you’re 100% girl anyway. And in making these decisions, you don’t take it lightly, not only for your consumer, but also for your employees, and then also, obviously, for your family. 

Heather:
Yes.

Yes. And every one of their products is delicious. I can vouch for that. 

Heather:

Thank you, Meg.