Stephanie (00:08)
All right, let's get into it. I am not from Kelowna. I am an Alberta girl actually. the small towns up the QE too. So born in Innisfail, ⁓ lived in Red Deer, did a stint in Edmonton Sherwood Park, moved to Calgary.

Host (00:07)
let's You from Kelowna.

What parts?

wow, you're like a well-traveled operator.

Stephanie (00:27)
Well

traveled. My dad was in construction, so we kind of just like moved wherever work was. and then I went to school like university in Calgary and then ⁓ marketing and entrepreneurship. No, it actually comes. So you think it would be convenient. However, and this is going to date me for sure, but social media wasn't around when I was in school.

Host (00:40)
Would take?

how convenient. I know.

Stephanie (00:55)
And it was like just on the cusp. So Instagram, thought was a picture editing app. Like I didn't know that other people could see you. Like I had no idea. Twitter was like just starting. And my marketing professors were like, you don't market on social media. It's like super unprofessional. You don't do it. This is how you do copyright on billboards. So like I can do billboard copyright, but then...

And it is one of those things that grows so fast and so exponentially that by the time I graduated, within two years, social media had taken off. There was a huge boom. It was the new push of marketing. And so I would hand in my resume because we moved ⁓ into Kelowna right after I graduated. Like I had to go back for my cap and gown ceremony. So it was like the day after I did my last exam, we moved to Kelowna.

out here with my resume, don't know anyone. I'm trying to get a job. And they see that I went to school for marketing. And the biggest question was, can you help us with our social media? It's this new thing. We don't understand how to use it. I was like, no. I know nothing about it. So my whole four-year degree was done. was like, none of that matters because none of it

Host (02:09)
⁓ wow.

Stephanie (02:19)
applies to the real world anymore and I was like okay cool.

Host (02:23)
Can

you take us down memory lane on besides your billboards, what were some of the things that you learned and focused on or skills or programs that you that you use? Because this would be great nostalgia for some of us.

Stephanie (02:36)
I

know. You know what, some of it did come in handy, but I find so much of it now you can learn through social media too. But it was your huge focus on your brand presence, right? So like building your brand out and having that voice of the brand and making sure it lines up everywhere. ⁓ But yeah, we did billboards, we did newspaper ads. What else was it?

It was interesting though, because ⁓ we got to do hands-on work with different organizations. But of course, when I was in Calgary, everything was oil and gas. I was there in the boom. And so all your marketing was around oil and gas. And I'm going to be honest, it was so boring. And I still don't understand it. And so was kind of this pivot point of, OK, if we stay here, then I'm going to go into marketing for oil and gas. And that's...

not fun. So I'm super stoked that we landed in Kelowna. It's just why

Host (03:37)
Why did you come to Kelowna?

Stephanie (03:39)
I'm from Alberta and my then boyfriend now husband, was from the island. And so we were at this point where we were both graduating and his new job he traveled for. And he was like, so we can literally live wherever right now. And we're going into this next step of our lives. Where do we want to go? So we opened up a map of Canada and we, we.

picked our favorite spot, kind of. So it's middle ground between both of our families. So no one's really close, but no one's really far either. Airport. But yeah, and I told my family, was like, you know what? I know we're going out to BC, but I'll be back in Alberta. None of my family's ever left Alberta. So it's like this weird thing that someone would leave Alberta. And I was like, yeah, we're coming back. We're just going to check it out for a year.

Host (04:11)
airport.

Stephanie (04:29)
And within a month I was like, no, this is home. this is, there's something magic about the Okanagan that you can't describe until you're here and you're fully immersed in the culture of it and the community of it. And yeah, this has always felt like home from day one. ⁓ yeah. That's so cool. Yeah.

Host (04:46)
amazing.

So did you always have in the back of your mind wanting to be entrepreneurial with your own business or am I getting ahead?

you landed in Kelowna, you're looking for a job, you don't have social media experience, what'd do?

Stephanie (05:08)
No idea. I worked at a bank.

Host (05:11)
⁓ well that's... ⁓

Stephanie (05:13)
It does not align. Oh, so I worked at a bank. It didn't last long. I remember I wore jeans in one day and they're like, oh, that's inappropriate. I was like, what do you mean it's inappropriate? Like what? So I was there for about six months and I was like, yeah, this is not the thing. So I did a brief stint

Host (05:30)
It's Kelowna.

Stephanie (05:44)
my own other business. I used to make furniture out of vintage suitcases. Get out! It's weird. Like it was, I don't know why I was- Well, you need to- Yeah, it-

Host (05:55)
Take a moment and expand on this.

How did you get? know if we need to I do. Yes, we do. How did you get come across that idea?

Stephanie (06:05)
Pinterest? Well, I think the thing is when you move to a new city, you have no friends and you don't know anyone. And I was still fairly young and scared to put myself out there. So I spent a lot of time on Pinterest and a lot of time at thrift stores. I was like, oh yeah, I could do this. And it was interesting because it was great. I'd build stools out of furniture. My first sale was into New York. Wow. And then I had to figure out how to ship a stool into New York. And then

I felt bad because they would have to install the legs. So then I actually wrapped up a screwdriver from my house to put there because I'm like, I don't know, New York has apartments and maybe they don't have a screwdriver. And so then I wrote a note on how to use a screwdriver. It was so weird. It was a weird time. And then I got to the point too where I was like, OK, you can only thrift so many vintage suitcases.

Host (06:52)
I love it.

Stephanie (07:01)
And then you've taken the entire supply of vintage suitcases out of the Okanagan and now you're out of a business. Yeah. And so you can't scale it. It was just one of those weird passion projects. So, yeah, that was that was like a side thing.

Host (07:15)
How many months did you do that for? a year?

Stephanie (07:17)
⁓ probably six months until I ran out of all the suitcases. OK. So if you look at my personal account, which is a whole other situation, but like the I have a modern day Wonderland account, and that was actually my suitcase account when it started. And then it morphed into something bigger. yeah, it started with suitcases. So cool. It's so weird, though.

Host (07:40)
This is.

Stephanie (07:42)
It's I don't know. was. Yeah. So I still have like one at our house. yeah. Actually, I have two at our house that I won't get rid of. These like fun random stools. But yeah, realized that that doesn't work. then I got pregnant with my kids and I was like, all right, this is this is the thing. I'm going to be a mom, going to be like a Pinterest mom. And I was like, what do moms do after they have kids? And I was like, ⁓ mom's right.

blogs. So I was like, I'm going to be a mommy blogger. That is totally my thing. I'm going to. So I became a mommy blogger and again, had no idea what I was doing, but it was also a nice way to start learning social media with a marketing background. So was like, how do I do this? And it was interesting because it was back there. There's waves, there's waves and trends. And it was back when social media was like white and clean and perfect.

Host (08:34)
me.

Stephanie (08:36)
And I was like, I'm going to be that mom. Like I'm going to be that perfect mom in white linens and my kids are going to, I don't know, like bake cookies with me and it's going to be beautiful. Right. And it wasn't. And at about that time, my mom was diagnosed with cancer and they gave her a month sentence. They were like, it's you need to come and say goodbye. So I moved my toddler, my newborn back to Alberta. We lived

in like this little camper because they were on an acreage so we were there I was like wow life is not all like linen-y and perfect I'm like this is brutal I am sleeping on hospital floors and finding wings to breastfeed my child and it sucks so I started talking about that in my blogs and on social media and just how we really don't talk about the real raw stuff

And now I think there's a huge trend towards talking about that, but it wasn't out there yet. And so it was interesting because it got picked up and it went viral in Germany.

Host (09:42)
I don't know.

Stephanie (09:43)
All my stuff started getting translated into German and then the like German community was like, wow. yeah, I was in the newspapers in Germany about this mom that's talking about the raw side of parenthood. And it was wild. this is the thing. Now I'm just going to start becoming mom blogger. was exhausting.

Even if you're talking about the real side of things, I was like, okay, this is a new chapter, but that's fine. We're gonna roll with it. So in that time, we did lose my And through that stage is a different type of grieving. And I find any time you lose someone in your life, you always wanna remember them in one way or another. And I find it's really common, people wanna get tattoos.

of someone that they miss. And my sister and I aren't into tattoos. so, but it was funny because she was like, yeah, let's get a tattoo. And I was like, you have never tattooed your body. you're in your 40s and you're not at that, you're over it. So we were like, okay, what's another way that we can keep our mom kind of in the forefront of our lives?

And she's an artist and she's a beautiful artist. And I was writing, I was doing all the blogs, was doing guest writing newspapers in Germany. so we were like, let's write a children's book. Let's write a book and it'll be, it was called Darlie. And it was my mom's name mixed with all of her granddaughter's names. And we wanted it to be where she could go on these adventures with her grandkids still, even though she wasn't there.

So we were like, okay, we're gonna publish it. We were looking into different publishing houses and then COVID hit. And ⁓ she had her own ⁓ studio at that time and she had to close down her studio because she couldn't do classes anymore. we were like, okay, we're not gonna do this book anymore because when you're going and you're looking at these small publishing houses, it's expensive to put your book out there.

you know what, we're just gonna do it on our own. We're gonna figure out how to print this book and we'll put it up somewhere and maybe someone will buy it. So we did that. We ended up writing five books in the series through COVID. It was Darlie going on all these adventures, but in her imagination. So she still got to be with her friends and her loved ones, even though she wasn't leaving her house, which was actually really timely because we were doing this through COVID where people...

couldn't leave their houses and they couldn't see their grandparents. And so we had one called Dear Grandma, where she's writing a letter and it's actually my letter to my mom because she's no longer here. But it really connected with a lot of people because they couldn't see their grandparents at that point, right? had figured out self-publishing, which is a whole other ball game and so many mistakes. And

I can write, but I can't spell check to save my life. So I think we did runs before we got all the spelling mistakes out of our books. My mom would have been so angry. But we had, yeah, we had published five books before we had even seen each other. So we had gone from like point A to point G.

Host (12:51)
Thanks

Stephanie (13:01)
without even seeing each other. And then we finally got to see each other and we were doing a book signing at Indigo. And that was like the first time we actually saw each other since. We had put our books together. Wow. Yeah, it was pretty crazy. It was crazy times because she was still in Alberta. We tried to connect, but also my kids were young. She has three kids. if they saw a different plate in those provinces, people got really angry. So we were like, OK, we'll just we'll see you when I see you. And we did a lot of FaceTime. But yeah.

Wow. Yeah. So we were at the Kelowna Indigo and that was doing a book signing and that was, we were kind of like, oh, look it. We made books together. We did this whole thing. yeah. That's really Yeah. So, okay. This is a long story of getting to Granola because this

Host (13:44)
really that is really neat.

No, is the whole purpose of the podcast.

Stephanie (13:53)
So after we did the then COVID was done. And so we kind of like carried on with our lives. She opened her art studio back up. I was off looking for a job again. no, rewind. While we were doing the books. Sorry, let me go back to that. As I was writing the books, I was also volunteering at a not-for-profit ⁓ called Mamas for Mamas. ⁓

Great. So I was volunteering there and then COVID hit and I ended up taking a full time position So I was actually one of the directors and worked on the Canadian expansion. So the way that granola ended up in my life.

Host (14:30)
Wait just a sec, so you were working full-time and writing five books during COVID?

Stephanie (14:36)
Yeah, but you couldn't leave your house. you weren't going to different. Yeah. But again, you couldn't leave your house and my husband couldn't leave the house. So everyone's there just figuring it out. Right. So.

Host (14:41)
And you're a mom.

Some people made sourdough.

Stephanie (14:53)
I tried sourdough. ⁓ God. I tried sourdough. I'm like, the starters were good, but it was like a football. It was a football. was like, how? How do people make sourdough? I don't understand. And I wish I could. tried. I did all the COVID. Like, what were all the weird COVID things? There was the sourdough. That was the biggest one.

Host (14:56)
I'm

Any type of art I'd imagine there is like crocheting, knitting, paper mache, painting, ⁓ house renovation.

Stephanie (15:19)
paper mash egg.

Yeah.

wall paint hands. yeah we did that. We did quite a few house renovations. did oh the like laundry stripping. But we got really into that for a while. It was like borax and baking soda and Tide and you put it all in your bathtub and you put all your laundry in it and it would strip your clothes. I don't know it sounds like

Host (15:44)
Oh, like cleaning the old fashioned. Did you get a washboard out?

Stephanie (15:49)
at the gloves and was like hand wringing things.

Host (15:52)
This

is why we invented washing machines, so you don't have to do this. That was a really big thing.

Stephanie (15:56)
built a garden. Oh, that was a big thing.

Yeah. then what I don't know. Yeah, did canning. There was like a checklist, feel like everything that people did during COVID and we did all. Oh, I didn't buy a pet. No, I didn't.

Host (16:10)
Bought a pet?

that was another thing too as the COVID-19.

Stephanie (16:16)
of pets.

Yeah. No, but we tried to do all the things to keep entertained because my husband travels for work and he couldn't travel either. So we were like, lots of puzzles, of Books. feel like lots of people did write books during COVID though. Or read them. Yeah, we did both.

Host (16:27)
puzzles.

Yeah? Yeah. Read them.

You did it all. ⁓

Stephanie (16:41)
We put

a gym in our basement during COVID. was a big one. The home gyms. did that. Got a paddle board during COVID. But they were actually really hard to find during COVID too. Yeah, that's true.

Host (16:50)
the paddleboard!

Wasn't everything?

Okay, we digress. I interrupted you. You were talking about after COVID.

Stephanie (17:03)
Right.

So no, during COVID, I started, so right before COVID and in the midst of writing these books, because we're at the publishing stage when COVID hit. So we were writing these books, I'd started volunteering, and then COVID hit. And so then I took on a full-time role in not-for-profit. we did an expansion and a pandemic when you're

dealing with low-income families to begin with. So you're dealing with all sorts of situations. so I met so many amazing people and some of the people that I hold closest to my heart are outreach workers, social workers, anyone that works frontline, anyone that is like their boots on the ground in the community. I have so much respect for because they do the work that people are scared to do.

or the work that people don't know how to do. And so my job was, well, the marketing and the socials, but another thing was connecting with the community and also bringing in donations. So I would work with our outreach workers and see what they needed. you need blankets? I'll get you blankets.

Host (18:12)
You need.

Stephanie (18:14)
I don't know, you need a roly cart for going out into the community and putting your stuff in, I will get you a roly cart to put your stuff in. You need food, I will get you food. What kind of food do you need? And one of these outreach workers used to always tell me, we need stuff with oats. Oats is a big one. It fills stomachs and it will keep people full longer. So if you don't know when their next meal is, if you give them oats, you know it's gonna last longer. Anything that burns really fast, right?

Host (18:39)
then.

Stephanie (18:43)
And it always stuck with me because she was always like oats, nuts, seeds. ⁓ we're going into real food, right? If you're going into a school system, oats. We want to get those granola bars in them. We want those fast snacks that they can put in their backpack if they don't have access to food. And so fast forward, working through a not-for-profit, through a pandemic and natural disasters. We had that huge flood and the

the Coca-Holo was wiped away. So, yeah. So I remember at one point, cause we had resources on our side. We had another office that had resources on another side. We partnered with a helicopter company that it was pilots without borders, helicopters without borders, something along those lines. And they would go into these isolated areas. And so they really leaned heavy on this organization, but they needed our resources. So I remember

filling up helicopters in the middle of the day while my kid was in preschool, looking at the time and being like, okay, I gotta go get my kid from preschool now, so let's load this up as fast as possible and then you fly away. And we and then the fires that happened a few years ago. And to be honest, I was burnt out from like all the things. moms are already burnt out, not for profit, anything in not for profit, you burn out really high.

so I crashed and I was like, okay, I either, I need to take a step back. I need to take a step back from my family. I was traveling a lot and I need to like reset my nervous system pretty much. So I left the not-for-profit world and I knew I was gonna start my own business. I just didn't know what. work with entrepreneurs all the time. I did community engagement. I was always surrounded by people who were passionate about something that they had built.

I was like, well, that's cool. I want to be passionate about something that I build, right? But I'm like, what is it going to be? I don't know. I tossed around these ideas. And the heart of my friend that goes hiking with me once a week, I ran every idea by her at the beginning stages. I was like, I'm going to open a pajama company. I don't wear pajamas, but I'm sure other people do. And she's like, that doesn't even make sense for you. OK, you're right. That doesn't make sense.

What am I passionate about? When I worked not for profit, where was my heart? And I very first started volunteering on the farm there. I love the whole connection of the food system. I think it's beautiful. I think parts of it are broken, but I think there's something so important about where food comes from, how it gets manufactured, how it gets redistributed into the public, into the community.

And I did a lot of talks with schools. I was fortunate enough to talk with the universities and the colleges when I did not-for-profit. And anytime I got to speak about food security, it was just one of my favorites. I like any excuse to go to our farm. We had a little farm plot. Any excuse, I would go there. I'm like, let's have this meeting out at Helen's Acres because I feel like we're all happier when you have a handful of strawberries and you're talking about.

strategic planning, right? okay, maybe it's food that I should be doing. Although I have no background in food, so I knew nothing about it. okay, I'm gonna do something with food. then I was like, now what am I gonna make since I don't really like baking?

Host (22:08)
Not sourdough, yeah.

Stephanie (22:11)
on sourdough. And this social worker or this outreach worker always stuck in my head. And she was like, oats, oats, nuts, seeds. Like, that's what we want. Let's get granola bars out there. Let's get oatmeal out there. Let's do something like that. So I'm going to make granola. And I had this epiphany. was like it all came into my head at once. I was like, I'm going to make granola. It's going to be fantastic. For every bag I always sell, I'm going to donate meals back to the youth in our community.

and then it'll all be great. My husband's like, you don't eat granola.

Host (22:43)
You

Stephanie (22:44)
that's because it sucks. I'll just make better granola and then I'll eat granola. He's like, okay. Honey, support you, but also have you done the market research? And I'm like, yes, people love granola. It's great. He's like, okay, that's fine. He's probably thinking I'm just going through a moment, which I was a little bit, but I was like, no, I feel like there's something here.

Host (22:50)
Hey.

Stephanie (23:13)
And then I was thinking about this cross-section of being able to give back to the community, but also finding a way to merge it with adventure. people always talk about the like granola girl, right? I'm doing air quotes right now, but granola girl. And I was like, nobody has really capitalized on branding a granola girl and making a brand out of it, right? And so I was like, how can we merge adventure?

into the brand too. As soon as you start doing that and you're in Kelowna, I'm like this whole community loves adventure, right? Like we are at the peak of adventure here, right? I could drive five minutes that way and there's water. I could drive 20 minutes that way and there's a mountain. could, you know, like there's so much here. And so I was like, my gosh, girl guides, boy scouts. It was one of those weird, you know, when like things are just flooding into your brain so fast. So I created

all these logos, which are not my current logos, but I had created all these logos, like sketched them all out. And I was like, this is my business plan. And it was like one of those weird maps on a wall. My husband's still like, I don't know what you're doing here. This is pure chaos. trust me, I have a vision. And so I started just like testing it out. Like I was probably just six months to a year of,

learning how to make granola, because I like, don't know how to do this. I'm like, OK, I don't like granola. My kids don't like granola. But my trick with my kids is if I put sprinkles in anything, they will eat it. Maybe I can do that. So adventure confetti was my very first granola because I put sprinkles in it. And I used to buy all my produce off of the farmers here, like we do in the summer. And I would start handing out mason jars of granola to.

the farmers or to my friends or to anyone who tried it. And I'm like, tell me what you think. I've never made granola before, but I feel like it's good. And that one was great. People liked it. So I was like, okay, I'm going to make another one. I'm going to make like spicy granola. don't know why, just because I can, right? I was like, there's nothing like that out there. I'm sure it won't suck. And like it did.

It was not good in the beginning and now it's my favorite and people will go across town if they know that a certain store carries the spicy granola. And it's so funny, at the beginning I was like, I'm just going to test all this stuff out, right? And then I had all my little logos that were these weird little pen scratches and I had made them on Canva for like the vibe of it. But I was like, I really want,

someone that knows what they're doing and someone local. Obviously it just makes sense to support someone local here. so Ashley Green. That is Ashley Green logo. know. And it's, so beautiful. It's interesting because I always knew that I wanted this specific artist. I always saw it. was like, I don't know who this artist is, but she's the one that I want to do my logos. And I had cross paths with her many times.

Host (26:09)
not saved that's an Ashley Green though

Stephanie (26:28)
Not putting two and two together though that she was the artist. I had met her through her partner Jason when they were filming different things. And finally I was somewhere I was the artist Ashley Green. Because she would just say, hey, I'm and finally I put two and two together. I'm like, I have been trying to find you.

will you do my logos? And she's like, absolutely. And so I sent her kind of the mock-up ideas that I had, and then she just turned them into these beautiful pieces of art to the point where I want to make new ones all the time just so that she'll make new logos. But it's pretty cool because it's a piece of local art with every bag that you purchase too, which I think is so beautiful.

Host (27:09)
and you're sitting there at the farmer's market and there she is right across from you.

Stephanie (27:12)
It is so fun. It's so fun when you're talking to people because I wasn't in the farmers market this year. I was a block away from the farmers market. Weren't you?

Host (27:22)
You are the land is the land. Yeah, I'm right there. You're below the landmark.

Stephanie (27:27)
Right. So there's the farmers market and then I actually rented out a space right beside the farmers market. No, it was close enough that I was like, OK, people come on over. But I had a whole retail location. it was our whole campsite. So you walked in and it was a whole campsite. We had games that people could just borrow on site and they could use them and bring them back. We had campfire confessions. So there was like.

Host (27:34)
thought it was part of it.

of ⁓

Stephanie (27:55)
a question every time we were there. But we rented out the space one day a week. So we had to bring everything in. wow. Make a campsite and then take it all down. That's so much work. And we had like a cabin five friend with us every week. we had Sarah from the Lizard was there one week. We had Tourism Kelowna one week. Jewels of Hope one week. it was pretty cool.

Host (28:06)
That's a lot of work.

Stephanie (28:21)
But it was so much work. my gosh, it was two months of it. I loved it. I was like, would I do this again? I don't know. It was very tiring. But anyway, so we weren't quite in the farmer's market, but we were just outside. But it was really cool because, I constantly got to see and say like, yeah, these designs are Ashley Green, just right over there. Go get more stickers. Everything's beautiful from her.

Yeah, so that was the big next step was when you're in local artists to do the design and then to buy the stickers. It was it was a big like

Host (28:58)
Are you still doing all this out of, like I'm assuming you were making all this granola at your house to begin with.

Stephanie (29:04)
No, so if you sell at a farmer's market, you can make it out of your house. But here's the interesting thing. I actually couldn't get into any farmer's markets my first year. I applied for them and I tried getting into them and they were like, no, we're full or just no, or I wouldn't hear back from them. So was

Okay, I thought this was like a farmers market brand. I make granola. I can't get into the farmers markets. And granted, this was also when our big colonial farmers market had just moved locations. So there was a lot going on on the rent. But yeah, I tried for the first year. I couldn't get in. I couldn't get ahold of anyone. So I would do pop ups in the strangest spots like Toppy Knox. You could get granola up Run clubs. I would set up at run clubs. could get granola at a run club.

go to farmer's market, no granola. It was just one of those things. was like, I'll just get creative with it. where was I going with this? I can't remember.

Host (30:00)
Well, we were talking about, we went off on a tangent with Ashley Green and you're because you were talking about your logo design and you're doing all these sketches and then you sent it to Ashley and now you want to keep getting more logos to see her design.

Stephanie (30:14)
The next design

is. Right, okay. So yeah, so I selling at all these places, but I couldn't sell at the farmers markets. And so I was like, okay, I'm just gonna dive right into wholesale retail. because of that, you can't cook in a kitchen, in your house kitchen. This is where we were going with So from day one, like my testing was always in my kitchen. And then as soon as I went in production, I started in a commercial kitchen. So I was renting out a kitchen one day a week. Every Monday, I would go in there and I would

bake as much granola as I could, bake as much granola as I could, and then I would sell it.

Host (30:46)
So you having to bring in, you're then having to bring in all your ingredients and stuff like that?

Stephanie (30:50)
I rented a spot in back too so I could keep all the stuff. know. But that's what a lot of chefs do is they have to bring everything in.

Host (31:00)
to the outside world that's all new to us.

Stephanie (31:02)
Yeah, I know. so yeah, and when you're getting into it, you're like, my gosh, there was so much to think about, all your licensing, because as soon as you have it in a bag and it goes on shelves, you need obviously your interior health, you need your food safe, you need your kitchen to be inspected, you need all the specs on your bags to be up to code, right? So ⁓ but I was like, well, I can't get into farmers markets. So I guess I'm just going to like jump into that side of things, right?

when the community was just like opened their arms and gave me a big hug and was like, yay, we'll support you. So my first store I was in was Okanagan Pasta Company. ⁓ cool. And my second store was Chickpeas. Yeah. And they helped me so much when starting my business too, when coming up with.

ideas and what to do and what kind of oven and what kind of baking sheets and... the sheets make... Well, just the sizes and like how to do big amounts like batches, right? Because there's a difference when you're cooking enough granola for your family based on when you're making a wholesale order, ⁓ yeah, like I burnt so much granola or I would like it would be off or then you would

Host (31:59)
difference again.

How much to make?

Stephanie (32:21)
get an ingredient for a while, and then you're like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm just going to figure it out. I remember the first day in my commercial kitchen, I go in, I was like, hey, my goal is bags of granola. That's what I'm going to do. I'm going to come in here with no idea of how long that would actually take. But I was like, that's my goal. And I was like, yeah, I'm going to make 200 bags of granola today. That seems fine.

Host (32:42)
So you gotta weigh all them out too, right?

Stephanie (32:48)
I was there for six hours and I think I made

Host (32:51)
Thanks.

Stephanie (32:53)
If that, and I was, and so I go home crying. I like obviously like burnt my hand on the oven or like my arm and I come home with husband's like, how'd you do? This was the worst decision of my life. Why would I have done this? Like, why didn't you tell me this was a bad idea? He's like, no, it's your passion. Go for yeah. And so it was just, and he was like, you know, next time you'll probably do 35 bags.

And then the next time, like, you'll figure it out, right? And you do, it's like, you just, you keep going and you figure it out a little bit more and you figure it out a little bit more. And then you grow and you grow. And now I have a full-time kitchen, right? Like I'm not there per day. So now I have a little spot in Pandozzi that I can go anytime and cook. And if I do 25 bags in a day, that's great, but it's not stressful. And I can do...

200 bags a day and that's awesome too. So it's like those little learning curves of doing it. But yeah, so that kind of like brought us to granola and then just the community and how awesome it's been. And so we had the three original flavors. We had the adventure confetti, the espresso sunrise and the spicy maple. And then last year BC tree fruits closed and the whole city felt that because

farmers are the backbone of the city, right? Like we're such an agricultural city. and so everyone was kind of finding ways to support farmers in their own ways. So it was like, Oh, I a granola that has apples in it. Right. So I connected with local farmers who, by the way, they're all amazing. Like I just, I love the farmers in the Okanagan. They're so passionate about food security. so I started our apple crunch.

it was such a hit that it has become the most popular one out of all of them now. And I had resellers that were just okay, can we keep this one? let's not do a seasonal with this. can you keep it going? I'm like, okay. So I think that's a really interesting thing too is when you're in business, listen to your customers too, right? Cause I was yeah, apple crunch. That'll be seasonal. I don't know. Nobody likes fruit in their granola. Although there's always fruit in a granola.

Host (35:04)
raisins

or dried things?

Stephanie (35:07)
Nobody

likes a I don't know anyone who's passionate about a raisin. But yet it's in all-

Host (35:13)
Is it easy filler maybe? Yeah, that's probably why. I don't know.

Stephanie (35:14)
It is, and it's cheap. ⁓ Good.

No, but anyway, so yeah, so we did the apples. They're so good. The difference with ours is they're local. So you can taste the difference in the apples. They're fresh. They're beautiful. I to the orchard where they come from. That's cool. Right? I can tell you the farmer that picked it. I can tell the amazing mom in the farm that dehydrates all the apples.

Host (35:43)
I

was just about to ask how you go about... Yeah, all of a sudden I saw you in the kitchen, my mind peeling apples or something, you know, but they come you buy them dehydrated.

Stephanie (35:55)
Yeah, so our apples are from Kelowna Fruit Stand by the airport. They are amazing humans there. grow the apples, they harvest the apples, they dehydrate the apples all on site. ⁓ sweet. Which is amazing. They have a commercial kitchen in there that they are just they work so hard. They are the sweetest family. They are one of my favorite families in the Okanagan. so that's where all of our apples come from.

and you can just go there and buy straight up apple chips from them. They're so good. And yeah, so we started doing that. Our last two trail mixes had their apples in them as well, because people just love them so much. But yeah, it's one of my favorite things. I love connecting with this community through business, but making friends along the way. yeah, so that's where our fourth flavor came from.

we have one right now because the CCMAs were in town. So we did a country vibe one.

Host (36:51)
What makes that country vibe? The seasoning?

Stephanie (36:55)
Let's

see. of course, because Ashley put a cowboy boot on the front. So that makes it very country. But we did it so it has a toffee covered pretzel, which it has pretzels and peanuts, which I feel a very country vibe, right? Like it just screams two stepping in the fall. ⁓ OK. We did pumpkin seeds because they're really good for you. And then we added Okanagan apples. So it's like our

country mix with an Okanagan twist. cool. Yeah and it's so good. Altogether it kind of tastes like a candied apple with a little bit of crunch. Like my god it's so good. Yeah. Have to go pick that up. I know I was gonna bring you some but I we sold out of it. No it's all good. That one literally as soon as I make it it's sold again I love it. It makes me so happy and I get it. It's delicious.

Host (37:45)
might not have any seasonals, they're all just gonna be staples.

Stephanie (37:48)
I know, I know. Well...

Host (37:50)
The

marketing aspect of that is you don't there's something tantalizing when you can't get it all the time.

Stephanie (37:57)
I know, and we just wrapped up our summer one, and people were pretty upset about it. It was our take a and it had apples, ⁓ a candied almond that we did in-house, a maple glazed almond in-house, seeds, and blubberries. It so good. only had it for the summer, though, and yeah, I'm getting some upset people, and they're like, can you make it again? I was like, no.

Commons are so expensive. But yeah, I had a woman come up from the States and buy my last case of Wow. Yeah. And I was like, OK, she's committed to this one. yeah, I don't know. I think it's fun to have something seasonal that you can only get short term. then it's gone.

And ⁓ if you keep your bags, you have that little piece of Ashley Green as well too, right? Like it's, yeah.

Host (38:50)
Yeah,

I think it's I like that aspect to life because I've talked about this before on the podcast, but you know, we live in a culture where it's if I want it, I want it now or tomorrow. everything's out of fingertips. We don't have enough of these. Actually, just because you want it doesn't mean you get it. you appreciate things more when you might not be able to get it again.

Stephanie (39:13)
100 % and I'm guilty of that. I'm like, Amazon will deliver this tomorrow. Done. But what's what's the connection of it? Mind you, like a toothpaste is a toothpaste, right? But yeah, I think there's something that we're missing about that slow living. And I think we're getting back to it in the Okanagan because I think we're kind of in a community that is learning to

cherish and linger a little bit longer on our seasons and what is coming out in the Okanagan. And because we have so many creators here, there's a lot more small batch. And so I think we're starting to appreciate that a lot more too.

Host (39:53)
Yeah, I concur, yeah, which is a thing. So right now is going very well by the sounds of it.

Stephanie (39:56)
Yeah.

It's like, it's a learning curve. gotta say, it's always a learning curve, right? So, we've loved the Okanagan. I've loved the Okanagan. It's still just me running it. So we're at this.

Host (40:13)
I was about to ask, do you have an employee?

Stephanie (40:15)
⁓

No, if my husband's in town, then he becomes an employee. My kids work a good market. But if Chicken Dave is at the market, who is, it's the booth where you get to hold chickens, gravitated there and now they work with Chicken Dave at the markets. ⁓ So yeah, it's just family right now. It's kind of at that cusp, right? Like how much can you do?

Host (40:39)
The tipping point, yeah.

Stephanie (40:40)
need another person. it's been great in the Okanagan, but we're just finishing up, I'm just finishing up my Canadian licensing to sell across Canada, which is pretty exciting. It's an online form you have to fill out. You have to make sure all your packaging is compliant and we're getting new packaging. by the time this airs it'll be all out. But we have new packaging coming out.

Host (40:52)
into that.

Stephanie (41:03)
where everything's printed. So right now I'm sticking a front label, sticking a back label. All of it. Yeah, it's all manual right now. So it's a long process.

Host (41:09)
you do that all manually.

So to be compliant, it has to be printed on the bag. That's actually one of the things.

Stephanie (41:20)
No, necessarily.

No, it's just there's like there's certain things that when you're starting out, you don't know. So you're like, I'm going to sell this. I didn't know before. your print has to be a certain size on your nutrition labels. So it's like it's a little too small right now. So the new bags will have the right size. And everything's in French and English which I already have right now. But, you know, like there's just those little things that people won't necessarily pick up unless you're in food packaging.

yeah, everything's getting printed. It is a nice lengthy process. So if you are hand sticking right now and you are going into printed packaging, give yourself about three months. Yeah, I started this process in June, start of June.

Host (42:00)
wow.

even go about finding somebody like a printer? how does that even work?

Stephanie (42:10)
Yeah, it's tough. It's something I had thought about in year one, but it was almost too overwhelming in the beginning because I don't know where to look. I don't know what a good printer is. So actually it's when I moved into my commercial kitchen, I'm with Brielle from Lazy Batch Cookies, which by the way, if you haven't had them, they're amazing. They're so good.

Host (42:35)
You

Stephanie (42:36)
And the like the like little edible cookie. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Anyways, side she had just gone into the package and she was like just finishing the process. So I got to see her final product and what she would change and what she would do different and what she loved about it. And so picked her brain forever about it. And then I ended up going with the same company because I know what it looks like.

process of it and then you just dive in but it is a lengthy process and it's all fair point it was so funny it got to the point I was like they're emailing and asking me other questions like what do they want now just because it's such a long process but I was like yeah no this is all stuff that they need to know from me like it's not them at all it was it would be like what is your nutrition label and you're like yeah they do need to know that yeah but

It's a process. It's nice once they've done the original templates. And then if you add new things, you can kind of go off of that now. tweak it. Yeah. But those first ones, and they learn your style too, right? Like it's a completely different redo. And you can put messaging on the bottom of it and at the tear lines. And you can put a personal message from yourself.

There are so many different ways to play with the packaging. you get to decide, because right now it's all standard. So the window is an oval. what if it's a maple leaf? Thinking it's this new idea. they're like, yeah, we can do that. We can do all the things. It's all printed. what if we add this to the bottom? And they're like, yes, we can do all those things. It's a printed bag. But it's fun, You get to

recreate your package in a whole new vision now. ⁓ But it's so much for her.

Host (44:26)
yeah and you can still pull in your own designs or do they redesign your logos?

Stephanie (44:32)
No, so that was a big thing as I still wanted to keep Ashley's designs very front and center pulled from that design. So we still have it with the big badge in the front of it, but then the background complements it, right? So I can still lean on a local artist for all of the original of it and then just make it a little bit more polished.

Host (44:57)
very cool. Yeah. You haven't told the story of coming up with your name yet because I had a long delay in making that connection. ⁓ really? It was like months after. Because when we had first scheduled, you you're like, I have to go up to my cabin and turn the cabin over. Yeah, guess. Yeah. And now in my mind, I just thought like an Airbnb or something. And then I'm like, the cabin. She has a cabin.

Stephanie (45:23)
I do have a cabin, and it is actually cabin number five. So it's not really that original of a name. I love it. a connection. think it's fantastic. My cabin actually looks like our logo. It's like that little A-frame rounded. And Ashley's fantastic, because I sent her a picture of my cabin, and I was like, make this into a logo.

Host (45:31)
It's pretty cool though, yeah.

Stephanie (45:47)
And so she did and it's beautiful and I love it. But you know, leaning on the adventure side of our branding and the connection side of it, that's where our family goes. We go on adventures, we connect with each other. And then we do Airbnb it over the summer. Cause I'm like, how fun is it that you get to make all these memories, but then you can rent it out and other people can have these super cool memories in your space too,

I love it, and I love that we rented out and people always tell us the stories and their adventures. And we have like chipmunks that come to the front door. It might be because I leave them oats all the But it's so cool to be fully immersed in that and then get to rent it out to people as well. But yeah, so that's where the name came from is literally our cabin is the fifth cabin.

Host (46:35)
And did it come right away or did you have your list and then and then had an epiphany?

Stephanie (46:41)
It all kind of as soon as I figured out the name, because I was like, I'm going to do granola. then of course, Googling what rhymes with granola? is, you know? And then once I was piecing together that night when I was like, oh, all the badges and all this adventure like piecing all of that together, then the name came from that. Cabin 5, that's...

favorite place. Like, I'm going to fully brand everything around that, And it's so fun because now you look into the future of the branding of it and it all comes together in the badges. But you still build different adventures into it too. I love it. still, mind you, I'm like, I'm a marketing geek and a branding geek. So I'm that person that if there were two packages side by side and one of them

calling my name, but twice the price, I will still buy it because there's, you know, like a fun little doodle in the corner or something. I just think it's amazing. And if I love packaging, I will keep it. And I a box that has all my favorite packaging materials from where I travel to. Yeah. Kind of the same thing, right? something so special about the way people choose to share their product into the world. And so it's interesting.

Host (47:49)
bottle labels, yeah.

Stephanie (48:00)
And mind you, this is because I'm a marketing background too, but sometimes people leave the marketing to the back and they're like, I'll figure that out once my product's out. But I'm like, that is literally you out in the community being like, this is my product. Why wouldn't you start at the very beginning with strong branding and a strong message? Because if you don't have that strong message from the beginning, then it's going to be really confusing when you're trying to explain yourself.

a year down the road and being like, no, meant to say this is who I am now, which is great. Like people go through changing their marketing, but I think you need to know when you put something out into the do you stand for? What does your brand stand for? And you need to make that really strong and really obvious from the beginning or else you're just going to get lost on the shelves or you're just going to get lost in the community and they're going to be cool, but why should I care about it?

You know, it's just another granola. And I totally get that. there's so many granolas out there, but it's interesting when you can connect it to something bigger, right? So now when people buy the granola, so many people now I get, love it because they know there's a donation part of it and they know that there's an adventure part of it. And I love that. That's your marketing, that's your story and that's who you are. So yeah.

Host (49:23)
That's like one of the reasons I love this podcast so much is because now when I see your product at the store, I'm going to think back to listening to you and your whole story behind it. like all of these memories flood my mind of like visualizing you if you know, with your little pen sketching out your logos and yeah. And knowing why you got into what you're doing, you know, like everything, everything. just, ⁓

Stephanie (49:41)
crazy lady with a board in her hose.

Host (49:51)
you feel so connected to it.

Stephanie (49:53)
love that. know? Yeah. 100%. I love that.

Host (49:55)
purpose of this.

It's just so cool. So do see yourself going in the next couple years? Besides maybe getting an employee?

Stephanie (50:07)
Yeah, you know, it's so crazy when I first started and people were like, what's your five year plan? I'm like, we're going to be big and we're going to be in all the grocery stores. So this can be fantastic. And then you learn very quickly where your community is. I was like, ⁓ grocery stores are not where we thrive because that's where people are price comparisons. Right. And we're not the cheapest granola out there. And so I was like, ⁓

Grocery stores are not where we're going. OK, know. Where do we go? And so then it was like, you're constantly rewriting this five-year plan. so now it's almost like a one-year plan. And then you get down to like a one month, and you're like, everything's changing again. What is happening? Ah! So it's

Host (50:52)
to

hear that and for people to hear that though and that it is this malleable constantly changing almost like a living or entity you know that

Stephanie (51:02)
Oh

yeah, and I think people get so stuck on their vision of five years that they won't become more flexible about where the direction is headed. And I think it's so important when you're starting out a new business that it's like, yeah, you can have that five-year plan, but revisit it in like six months, revisit it in a year, constantly revisit and change it.

to something that is fitting with where you're going, right? Because yeah, was like, oh yeah, grocery stores are where it's at. And then you have all these really cool experiences. we did a special blend for altitude and then we went and sold up on a mountain. I'm like, that's so cool. I was like, that's not in a five-year plan, but it was an experience that changed the way that we did our product. and so I think also,

When you don't have a team to execute, you got to be more flexible because you're like, so what's my capacity on this? Right. So long story is longer. five year plan is right now we're working on Canadian expansion. So it'd be really nice to expand, but still stay small, like still staying in the coffee shops and the farm stands and.

A lot of those smaller scale retailers are really where we can connect with community. So it's interesting on how fast you wanna grow because sometimes if you grow too fast, you lose that connection with your community. And so it's this constant struggle of balancing the two of them because I think what makes our brand really strong is that...

We love being with community, but even as I've grown, I've realized I don't have the capacity to be in the community as much anymore. So it's like, at what point are you willing to sacrifice one for the other? And are you willing to, or do you just grow a little bit slower to see how you can still create it on a larger scale?

Host (53:09)
That's very well said.

Stephanie (53:11)
Because as I was saying it, was like, that sounds confusing. No, it's...

Host (53:16)
Because

it's the same thing with coffee shops. You know, what makes your coffee like the craft coffee shops what makes them unique is it's quite often. Oh, and I feel kind of like the breweries too and any store that is a one standalone run by the business owner. The connection you have is with the business owner. Like you go in and you get to see them and it's them like they are they are the face of the business. And then how do you grow and expand?

Stephanie (53:42)
Yeah.

Host (53:44)
perhaps opening another location when you are no longer the face of the business. how do keep or adapt that feeling?

Stephanie (53:53)
And I think that's an interesting way that social media comes into play with it now is you can be the voice of a company and also show what you're doing behind the scenes. And people really like to see the behind the scenes, which is the beauty of it. I know everyone, like social media does get a bad rap. And yes, there's a lot of negatives to it. I think it's beautiful in the way that you can connect with people.

from anywhere now. And you can tell your story on your own terms. And you can tell it ⁓ in a wider variety, I had my pop-up campsite this year, had probably, I don't know, 20 people that came up to me and specifically were like, they were from out of town and they had seen me on TikTok. They were like, we came here just to see this campsite. We live in Toronto. I was like, what?

Host (54:32)
had a

Stephanie (54:47)
And you don't normally, in social media, get to see your ROI. You're just like, I'm putting stuff out there, and I hope that it sticks. And so it was really cool that you could actually see how you're connecting with people enough that they're on vacation, and they actually wanted to come see you and what you've created. I think there's something so beautiful to that. And I think that if you learn to use social media strategically,

and you use it as a point of connection and you do it more community and less consumption ways, it's such a great tool for a business. But I can also see the downside of it and how you just get like sucked into the black hole and then you see a cat dancing and then just want to see all the cats dancing. I get it. But I think it's such an important tool. Yeah. Yeah.

Host (55:40)
what a journey you've been on.

Stephanie (55:42)
Yeah, it's weird, like none of it really connects into granola, but here we are.

Host (55:46)
Yeah, but it none but it all does. Yeah.

Stephanie (55:48)
⁓

So it's been fun. Yeah, in cabin five, and I don't know if it's always just gonna be like granola, you know? I have these beautiful designs from Ashley and I've had people who have wanted hats. So we did some hats with them. And then partnered with the MarketBags this year and we created sustainable bags. So she made backpacks that are out of hammocks and tents that were headed to the landfill. So we have some of those branded bags in our store now.

And it's really fun because it's like you get to use this brand. And when you're the owner of a brand, you're like, I can do whatever I want. It's my brand. I want to make like tent bags, then we're going to do it. And it's fun. So I think right now we just are very open to the possibilities that this brand can be whatever it is. And we're going to wait more for our community to tell us what they want it to be.

Host (56:44)
Very cool. Well spoken, well said. ⁓ thank you. Yeah. it's exciting to see what you'll do with it over the next few years. Yeah.

Stephanie (56:45)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's Thank you. Thank you very much.

We're excited to

see too, because I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. It's fun. I think it's like when you just come at it with a like, it is what it is, and we're just going to see what it's going to be. we're still going to keep the granola side of love the fact that we're coming up to, we just have donated over 10,000 meals back into the community. Oh, wow. Which is wild. Thank you. Pretty, it was, it's.

Host (57:02)
Wild.

Stephanie (57:25)
pretty exciting for us, big milestone. that part will always stay, there will always be a give back side of it. And it's another fun way to connect with the community as well. yeah, yeah.

Host (57:38)
I like we should wrap her up. It's kind come to a nice little conclusion. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thanks for your time and coming on. Thanks for me. Sharing your story. Yes. Yeah. Okay, cool. We'll call it, we'll wrap her.

Stephanie (57:47)
Thanks for having me.