Fear is Good

<Carrie> I have always had biscuit dreams.

<Daniel Rickenmann> This is what heaven looks like.

<Carrie> What they don't see is that it's crumbling behind the scenes.

Charlotte needs some help.

<Amy> We have two payrolls left.

<Carrie> That's four weeks.

<Kelly> We have about 150 retail orders.

<Carrie> How does this happen?

I'm overwhelmed.

<John> It's time to bring in people who are experts.

<Carrie> Real dreams like world biscuit domination.

We're ready.

<Carrie> I took my mom's best recipe and started selling handmade Southern biscuits.

Now I'm balancing a family, a business and biscuits every day.

Thank you so much.

I'm Carrie Morey.

And this is how I roll.

♪ [light music] ♪ <Carrie> I do not nor have I ever had a grand growth business strategy plan.

Nothing has its place yet.

It'll take us a while.

I definitely have fear.

But I think fear is good.

Oh, my God, there are people waiting outside.

I won't fail.

<Group> 1, 2, 3 I won't fail.

<Carrie> I'm kind of freaking because I'm going to have to leave soon.

How does this happen?

I'm overwhelmed.

I think I want to shut it down.

♪ [bluegrass music] ♪ As the company has grown way bigger than I would ever have imagined, I'm not able to do it all.

I have always built the plane while flying it.

And I'm starting to realize, as it grows, it'd probably be a better idea to build it first, then fly it.

♪ <Kelly> How's it going?

<Carrie> Good.

<Kelly> Good.

<Carrie> This is hard for me.

I get very emotional talking about it because people see what they see on the outside.

But what they don't see is that it's crumbling behind the scenes.

And that's not because it's a bad business.

It's because there are so many balls in the air.

It's hard to fix them all.

<Kelly> Alright, we have about 150 retail orders.

And then y'all are looking about 16 wholesale.

<Customer> Thank you.

<Employee> Thank you.

<Carrie> If we don't take a step back, make a plan, then we could really screw it up.

<Amy> Morning.

<Employees> Morning, [spoon knocking inside pot] <Carrie> You just spilled my coffee everywhere.

<Sarah> How did I do that?

<Carrie> Wait a minute, I want to say something about the laundry pileup that has not been dealt with.

Let me give you a deadline.

At 5 PM, whatever's in there is going to Goodwill.

<John> She's not somebody who waits for things to happen at all, She's somebody who's going to take care of it now.

You still see her on her phone, or texting somebody while you're talking to her or but we're all used to it.

I mean, we all know.

But we also know what her priority is and that's us.

<Carrie> Love you.

Have a good day.

Ahhh Silence.

Admitting to myself, to my family, to my team, that I am not able to do it all is me recalibrating.

[phone ringing] <Carrie> Hi, how are you?

<Amy> I'm good.

How are you?

<Carrie> I'm good.

Anything I should know?

<Amy> Running into the same problem with the water bill in Charlotte.

<Carrie> So we've not, we have not paid a water bill in a year.

<Amy> Correct.

<Amy> How does this happen?

What else?

What other utilities in Charlotte?

<Amy> Pretty sure that's the only one.

<Carrie> How did Charlotte do yesterday?

<Amy> ...60 dollars <Carrie> They did not do $60.

<Amy> $160.

$159.

I was giving them a dollar.

♪ [light music] ♪ <Carrie> I mean, I'm kind of freaking out.

There's nobody anywhere near.

I mean, it's like a ghost town.

And they've got to be bored to death in here.

Before this pandemic, it was like, a crazy place.

<Carrie> Your baking area looks so organized and neat.

<Amy> This store is clean.

They are definitely cleaning and they are probably twiddling their thumbs.

<Carrie> The store looks really great.

We just need people.

<Employee> Yeah.

<Amy> We got a loan for this store, we got to try and make it work.

<Carrie> So realistically, how many weeks do we have regarding being able to pay payroll and our bills?

<Amy> We have two payrolls left.

That's four weeks.

I can maybe eek it out one more week.

Restaurant business and travel will not be back to normal till 2024.

<Carrie> What?

<Amy> I saw that on the news last night.

<Carrie> Okay, well I'm going to go with 2021.

<Amy> I don't know if we can hang on that long.

But we got to give it our best shot.

<Carrie> Yep.

We're at a pivotal point in the business.

We have the wholesale.

We have the online.

In five years, I want to have 10 to 15 Hot Little Biscuits.

<John> It's time to bring in people who are experts.

<Daniel Rickenmann> [laughs] Who am I?

My name is Daniel Rickenmann, and I'm a serial entrepreneur.

<Carrie> He had a amazing restaurant in college.

And you could just tell he was a great entrepreneur from a very young age.

He finally introduced me to Beverly.

<Beverly> My name is Beverly Westall.

And I run a company called EIP ventures, and we help companies grow their business.

<Daniel> She is the perfect person to help kind of drive the investment side.

<John> Beverly knows what she's doing.

She is an expert in building businesses.

<Carrie> John.

Oh my gosh.

John is really smart.

<John> What are you ohmygoshing?

<Carrie> The hair, the hair.

<John> Pretty sad, isn't it?

<Carrie> Uggh.

<John> I'm a market researcher and business consultant.

I've been doing this for 25 years, for not-for-profits, for cultural attractions.

My role with the biscuit business has evolved.

Originally it was a cheerleader.

Yeah, you can do this, of course.

<Carrie> I think we're both a little bit nervous to have him be a part of the business for obvious reasons.

<John> Now as we're trying to grow formally, in fact, the fact that I say "we" now, suggests I'm way more involved than I used to be.

<Carrie> To have him work on the strategy and business planning has been really nice.

I hope he feels the same way.

<John> I do.

♪ <Carrie> Well, I really appreciate y'all coming.

And I'm excited to get to know you, Beverly.

And I know that if Daniel trusts you then that's good enough for me and, you know, I've met with a list of investors over the last two years.

And they all say the same thing.

You're cov - we love the idea when you get to 10 million in sales, <Amy> - back.

<Carrie> call us back.

I'm like, Huh, I'm not going to make it to 10 million on my own.

<Amy> No.

<Carrie> On my own I can't make that.

<Beverly> If you want to go from where you are today EIP Ventures says 10 million, that's when we know you're, quote, unquote, "a real business", which is kind of crazy.

Be ready for change.

And especially Carrie, I hear you are.

<Amy> and that's where we're different, for sure.

Change always scares me.

I feel like I know exactly what I'm doing right now.

But in $10 million growth?

I think that would be way over my head.

<Daniel> Y'all have walked the walk, and that's different and people respect that and so this is it.

This is the, we're moving to the next level.

<Carrie> Well, I don't even think Beverly's had a biscuit, so we need to take her down to Hot Little Biscuit, give her a little tour.

<Daniel> We're converting her from a bagel eater to a biscuit eater.

[Beverly laughs] ♪ [bright music] ♪ <Carrie> I found this old alley that I walled in, eight feet wide by 80 feet long.

<Beverly> I had never had a biscuit.

I'm from the east coast.

I mean, we don't have biscuits, in New York.

<Carrie> Come on in to the biscuit shop.

♪ [bright music] ♪ There she is!

<Beverly> I think I want to try the blackberry biscuit.

We're going to have to do some investigative work as to how's the product prepared?

Is this a franchisable opportunity?

And how much really, how much revenue can be made per square foot?

What we see is someone making a purchase, biscuit mix, different product, at the same time ordering, so I think that's really interesting.

<Carrie> Ah, here are the blackberries.

<Daniel> Alright, bagel girl, what do you think?

<Beverly> Mmmm.

<Carrie> How's that compared to a bagel?

<Beverly> Wow, this is really good.

That's amazing.

♪ <Daniel> I feel like I'm in somebody's grandmother's kitchen.

<Beverly> Oh wow!

<Carrie> So, country ham is a southern delicacy.

<Beverly> Wow!

<Carrie> It's cured ham.

So, it's very savory.

It's not like ham you've probably ever had.

And there's a Dijon mustard butter in the center.

<Daniel> That mustard butter is what puts it over the top.

I told you.

<Beverly> I am like convinced.

This is really good.

♪ [bright music] ♪ When I first walked into the production facility, I was like, Oh my God, it smells amazing.

<Daniel> This is what heaven looks like.

Just so you know.

<Carrie> This is what got us here, the handmade process.

This is the heart of our business right here.

<Daniel> I mean, nobody would believe that you're making, what, 10,000 biscuits a day?

<Beverly> To get to the next stage, you've got to put in ton of infrastructure.

<Carrie> You're thinking about how we can make 10, 15, 20, 30,000 times more?

<Beverly> Yeah.

I mean, this is a five to $8 million build out new facility.

I mean, I'm just looking at it.

They do not have a correct enterprise software system.

They have so many distribution channels.

That's another problem.

They don't have enough bodies to manage all these businesses.

That's a big problem.

It's almost like starting over.

<John> Anybody who kind of works with us on something eventually becomes family.

<Beverly> She's like, you have to stay with the family, right.

We have a guest house.

Okay, I'm diving all in.

There's coffee in the morning.

And the dogs are so cute.

It's been uplifting.

<Carrie> Did you sleep well?

<Beverly> I slept amazing.

<John> When Carrie sees a plan.

She's going to feel really, really comfortable.

That calms.

<Carrie> We need to have a roadmap.

<Kelli> There's so many orders coming in.

Right now, we have like 120 trays of biscuits a day.

<Amy> Who is going to buy all these biscuits?

<Amy> We've been saying that for 15 years.

<Amy> I know.

<Carrie> Who the hell is buying all these biscuits?

<Beverly> You have 5 million people in America every month that want to like somehow consume biscuits.

We're at a point right this second, we can sell the vision.

So, we need to raise anywhere between 10 and 20 million dollars.

We want to be able to build our contact, build our brand.

We want to be able to build our infrastructure, We want to have additional capacity across the board.

And we need human capital and we need marketing dollars.

That's what we need.

It's time.

<Daniel> Authenticity sells more than anything and every aspect of what you've done is true.

<Amy> Do you feel like, um - <Carrie> - annoyed?

<Amy> No, you may not feel like this, but do you feel like you just want to be told what to do?

You know, somebody just to say this is how it's going to go?

<Carrie> Part of me does because I am control... definitely wants to be told what to do - <Daniel and Amy> But at the same time, <Amy> I want to be like, No, I don't like it like that.

<Daniel> I was getting ready to say, Amy I've known you for a long time.

I know how that works.

<Amy> I am a control freak, but I mean, obviously, when you take it to the next level, and I want to be told what to do.

<Carrie> I think you have to let the experts do what the experts do.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ [phone rings] <Employee> Good afternoon, Callie's biscuits.

♪ <Annalyle> How many boxes have I packed today?

I would say 122.

That's my guess.

But who knows.

<Carrie> It's all going at once.

You know?

We're hiring.

We're packing.

We're answering phones and taking orders <Employee> You would like to place an order online?

What would you like to order today?

<Employee> 135 cases of buttermilk, 84 cases of cheese and chive.

<Employee> Okay, <Annalyle> I put a heart around any note that somebody does a personalized note.

I just think it's a sweet thing to do.

<Carrie> Are you interviewing for a baker?

<Ashley> I am.

I have four phone interviews today.

♪ [music ends] ♪ <Carrie> So, what have y'all been making the most of recently, buttermilk?

<Hannah> I feel like cheese and chive.

<Carrie> Cheese and chive?

How's it going?

<Employee> Hello, hello, how are you?

<Carrie> Good.

Y'all busy today?

<Employee> Oh yeah, about 16 wholesale.

<Carrie> Oh, that's good.

That's good.

I love seeing all the yellow boxes.

Do you need me to help?

<Daniel> The part that she's really not going to like is letting control of certain aspects of the business.

<Carrie> Is there a way for us to compare those sales to this time last year?

I need to be able to go in here.

<Employee> Yeah.

I mean, this is awesome.

<Carrie> Can I please get the login for that.

<Employee> Yeah.

<Carrie> It gets me nervous because I don't see the hysteria.

It just seems so smooth.

But maybe that's because I'm one step far removed.

Like now that Amy is, she - I have to beg her for information.

I want to go over this org chart with you at some point.

<Amy> Let's go over it now.

Alright, does this make it any easier for you to see?

<Carrie> Can you get it like twice as big?

<Amy> Let me see.

I'm trying to - <Carrie> So who are these - Beverly wants Mason to have three people and three sales supports underneath her?

<Amy> Yep.

<Carrie> And do we have any discussions on second shifts, and when that would start and what that looks like?

<Amy> I don't think I'm going to get a full second shift going by mid-January.

But I think we are working on filling, slowly progressing there.

<Beverly> Carrie's very much, all right, did we get that done yet?

Did we get that done yet?

<Amy> As for cyber insurance, I, they are working on a quote on us.

<Carrie> Why does it take so long, it has been over a week?

<Amy> It's been, no, it's probably been about four or five days.

<John> It's been 16 hours.

<Beverly> You know, the rest of us are like, okay, let's take a step back.

You can't do everything in one month.

It's not possible, right?

<Daniel> This kind of stuff... [indiscernible conversation÷} <Beverly> Co-packing and facility like number one, and operational team investors for franchise, number two.

<Carrie> I think they should be number one and number one.

We've got to have a new facility.

<Beverly> We have to like, be realistic.

It's going to take 18 months to get a facility up and running.

♪ We're dealing with a 100 year old home.

You know, sometimes I think, should I just get a new space?

We should find one big place where we can do biscuit classes, biscuit museum, gift shop, offices.

<Daniel> Is 15-20,000 square feet going to be enough?

And that's the question.

<Beverly> That looks worth it.

<Amy> I know where that is.

It's right off 526.

It's a great location.

<Carrie> It's 20,000 square feet and it's $8 a square foot.

<John> Perfect!

<Beverly> That's it.

<Daniel> Perfect.

<Beverly> There you go.

<Carrie> That's my budget!

[laughs] ♪ [steady music] ♪ We need to make a decision and move forward on what we're going to do with these Hot Little Biscuit stores.

Because Charlotte needs some help.

<Daniel> The neighborhood's not there right now.

<Carrie> It's not, so... <John> It'll come back.

<Daniel> Oh yeah, it's going to come back.

<Carrie> I want to keep the Charleston stores and develop that territory.

And then I want Charlotte and Atlanta to be sold to a franchisee, and I want them to take those over.

That's how I've always thought it.

<Amy> That's how I would have wanted it if I were you.

We kind of share a brain.

<John> Alright.

<Carrie> Why are you hesitating?

<Daniel> I'm not hesitating.

<Carrie> Oh.

You?

<Beverly> I'm not hesitating.

<Carrie> There's so much work to do.

But we have to just chisel away at it.

The heavy is distributed.

And I like that.

<Amy> I'm exact opposite.

I think it is like frightening at the amount of work that we have to look forward to in the next 24 months.

<Carrie> Once you're in, you're in.

You go, you go forward.

That makes me very energized.

<Daniel> Y'all are at the point that the transition is moving forward.

You've made this collective decision that this is going to be the number one biscuit company in America.

Customer> Mmmm, so good!

<Matt> Thank you so much for coming by.

<Carrie> We're ready.

We don't have a choice, where we can turn off the lights and go home.

Do you want to do that?

<Beverly> You have two choices you can either from here grow to 100 million, right?

Or you can go back to like being a small shop.

You really don't have a choice.

<Annalyle> All right, and this one's going to Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner, San Diego.

♪ [upbeat music] ♪ <Carrie> I am putting together year-end company gift bags.

♪ I'm writing everybody a note.

So, personal note.

Oh, I'm not as young as I used to be.

♪ [upbeat music ends] ♪ Oh, a Hot Little Biscuit mask?

Is that it?

There's one down, 42 to go.

♪ [bright music] ♪ ♪ I just want to shower them and appreciate them.

So, they seem to be really happy.

A little tired, but happy.

♪ How did he get the logo on there?

Okay, just hold on one second.

Why don't you go find out who the next person is.

Did I give you a pop?

<Employee> No.

<Carrie> We're like all over the place.

Hold on one second.

Are you still looking for Kelli with an "I"?

♪ <Carrie> Hello.

<Employee> Hi.

I'm so excited for the swag bag!

<Carrie> It's a swag bag.

<Employee> I love swag!

<Carrie> Alright, see y'all in a sec.

This is actually perfect because they can sit in their car and chill and eat and watch a funny feel good movie.

<Employee> I have the tacos.

Mmmm.

I'm excited.

<Employee> I love my mask.

But I hope I never have to get another mask in a swag bag again.

[indescernible conversation] <Carrie> Enjoy the show.

♪ [steady music] ♪ <Beverly> In 36 months, she will own the biscuit space.

[car honking] <Carrie> Give me a honk, honk.

[cars honking] <Amy> Carrie's always been a dreamer.

I'm just happy, being employed and being her friend and doing what I love.

<Carrie> I have always had, and I still have biscuit dreams.

But I just wanted to give you a heads up on what's going on in my brain so that I can share this dream with you as we unfold it.

But we're working really hard to build something bigger than I could have ever imagined.

Like real dreams, like biscuit museums and world biscuit domination and such.

So, I just wanted to let you all know that's where my brain is.

And I'm not stopping.

<Amy> Of course that freaks me out a little bit because I'm the boss now.

Everybody listens to me and I can call the shots.

But that's not how it's going to be in the future.

I know that there'll be lot more input and a lot more collaboration.

<Beverly> We sold 2 million biscuits this year, we'll most likely sell 10 million biscuits next year.

<Producer> All still made by hand?

<Beverly> All still made by hand.

<Carrie> I can't wait.

Thanks, y'all.

[cars honking] <Amy> Well, my day is not over yet.

I wish it was, but I have a Zoom call, so here we are.

Being busy doesn't bother me.

I'm always busy.

And I like being busy.

<Carrie> I'm not scared that the business is going to fall anymore.

I feel so confident that this business will continue to grow and be greater and greater.

And I'm excited to watch it unfold.

♪ ♪ [music ends] ♪ ♪ [dramatic music] ♪ <John> Some of my spreadsheet.. Who's that?

<Caroline> Sorry!

<John> Oh!

<Caroline> Everyone's like, "“you should get a boyfriend.

"” No, I don't like boys.

They distract me and they're pointless, No offense.

<John> Are we getting that?

Hey Carrie, we're trying to shoot a TV show in here.

<Carrie> Did you know that if you go to Captain D's you can ask for the cracklings and it's all this and they give it to you for free?

<Carrie> I think we should start a petition to reinstate Mexi-pizza from Taco Bell since it's being discontinued now.

<Amy> I know.

Should we go get one last one because I love the Mexican pizza.

<Carrie and Amy> We're doing it our ways!

<John> You're still doing it.

<Carrie> I know.

I got to get something really quick for my class.

Sorry!

♪ ♪ ♪