Shakin' Hands

Ep. 30 | Baked with purpose - Emily Eldh

• Jack Moran • Season 1 • Episode 30

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Jack chats with Emily Eldh, founder of The Muffin Drop, about building a successful business driven by passion. They discuss challenges in scaling a company, leveraging social media, and the importance of authenticity, self-trust, and mindful practices in entrepreneurship. Emily emphasizes balancing personal growth with fostering a company culture that resonates with customers.

The Muffin Drop
Emily Eldh

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Host: Jack Moran
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Hello everybody, and welcome to episode 30 of Shakin’ Hands. I'm your host, Jack Moran. Today on the podcast, we have Emily Eldh, the founder of The Muffin Drop. What's going on? Oh, my God, I'm so excited to be here in this great little studio. Yeah, we just did some nice grounding outside. Yeah, we were both feeling like we had some jitter, so we were like, okay, let's go out and ground. That's something I do every single morning. But like, you can never get enough grounding in your day in my opinion. Yeah. I was off the coffee for like nine months. Oh, no. I quit and then like, recently in the past, like month, I've been drinking it again and like, sometimes just really gets me eat it out. Yeah, some sometimes when you go back on it, it's really like it's almost like a drug. Yeah, that was helpful that that was nice to just kind of turn and then tap in, tune in. So tell us a little bit about your business. What's what do you got going on. Okay. So we got our muffins back here. So the muffin drop is my business. We make mini muffins, which sounds like, you know, you make mini muffins, but I always say they're kind of like the conduit to the greater message. So the muffins came from a very long, tumultuous journey that I had with autoimmune disease, which, looking back, it's, you know, I say suffered. But honestly, it taught me basically, like all of my life lessons and now I get to have the business from it. So I'm very grateful for the thread line between every year that I had difficult autoimmune issues was, using whole foods to heal and learning about food and really, you know, ignoring the processed stuff and kind of getting more intuitive and in-tune with my body. And so, yeah, it was a full journey, and it's one that kind of set me up to be healthy now. But yeah, and the muffins are the delicious product from them. How long have you guys been in business for? So the company was official 2021, but the muffins were actually being made. So the banana chocolate chip flavor was back when I was like 15. So I would make that almost like therapy because that was when I was diagnosed with thyroid problems. And soon after that we were exploring gluten free because gluten can attack the thyroid. And so, I used to just make these banana talk to muffins for anybody who would have them. And so it was a gift or, you know, it was at Thanksgiving. It was the whole thing. So that's been around since whatever year that was when I was 15. I'm 27 now. So math. Have you always had the entrepreneurial make up or this is like you kind of just fell into the the profile. I think that if you were to maybe ask people who know me, maybe they knew it, but I definitely didn't anticipate that I was going to be an entrepreneur. I always like the only thing that I can remember that I would say that was like any indication was that I wanted to have my own nonprofit. One day. That'll happen probably at some point. But so I guess that's entrepreneurial. But I grew up in a more so corporate family. My mom is an interior designer. She has her own business, but my dad's always been in corporate. So I think that, you know, I would apply to certain jobs. Like I never thought of it for myself, but now that I am an entrepreneur, I can't even imagine being anything else. Because when I started this, once again, I was just like I posted on my story, not really thinking it would be a thing. And soon after that it was like, oh, okay, we're selling muffins now. We're doing this. So yeah, what was that journey like in the beginning? Like the entry into the entrepreneurial pursuit? Okay, so I was it was a year almost. Yeah, a year after I graduated from College of Charleston. So we graduated in the pandemic. And so I was supposed to move to New York and that fell through kind of like a lot of people's jobs fell through when, you know, the world was seemingly crumbling. So I moved back to Connecticut and was kind of like, what am I going to do? Started doing social media for companies. And I was like, oh, wait, you can, you know, have your own service and make money from it. So that was the first thing that showed me. And then after I posted the muffins and it was like I got like 30 orders that day. And it was kind of like, oh, we have to just jump into this. You know, there wasn't really thinking was just kind of like, how do we get these muffins need? And then how do we package them? And then I would just drive would just drive all around my town in Connecticut. And then when I moved here, I drove all around the city and just dropping off muffins. But it was all through Instagram, so I didn't have a website and people were just ordering through DM, and I would just show up at their house with a box of lessons. Was it, easy getting into the business or you dealt with some early adversity? I don't think any part is like, easy. I thought it was really fun because I had been making them for so long that suddenly a reason for that came about where I was like, oh my God, these muffins. I was perfecting them for a reason. You know, everybody would be like, okay, so what do you do different this time? My dad especially, he would travel a lot and he'd be like, what did you do to this batch? How did you change this one? So I was collecting the data seemingly for years that when I started at least I had the recipe. Right. And so that part was, I guess, easy. I know that the recipes here, but as far as how do we package them? How do we, you know, once the website came about, how do we do that? How do we keep growing? But I feel like since it felt so natural, it all played out naturally if I just trusted in it. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. What is kind of like the model? Like, do you guys, I think you're distributing through like, distribution points. I said, I've seen you at like my label spawn. Yeah. So how do you guys like that to consumers? So when it started, it was all through Instagram. And I would it was like direct to consumer. So I would just show up at people's houses with a box of muffins or they would come to me. Then that was I was actually a cottage baker, which is the legal way to produce out of your home here in South Carolina. And every state has different laws. But so I was able to produce out of my house for a little bit. And then once I graduated from that to Commercial Kitchen, that's when I could open up to wholesale. So being able to sell through you're also you spot. And so we did we've been doing wholesale so a bunch of different shops being able to sell them, but then also doing farmer's markets and pop ups and you know brand name brands sort of things where I like to show up with my table and sell them muffins and yeah, still. Oh, and then the website. So we have subscriptions and then, you know, people can just go on and order as well. What's been like the biggest limitation to scaling for you guys? There's so many that can pop up I would say every time not having experience in the industry just, you know, takes time to be able to gather more information, to be able to take a next step. So I feel like that's always been like a hurdle because, you know, maybe some people start a business at maybe in my position, like 30 after being in the food industry for however many years. Right. So for me, I kind of started with no understanding. So I think it, you know, takes a little bit extra time to find the foundation to get to another step. But it's always very rewarding once you're you can look back and be like, wait, we got there, you know? So I think that can be the difficult thing, just trusting that, okay, you did it before. You can do it again. And just gathering that information, you know, the whole time that's kind of the formula. Just be patient. Know that you'll get there. Talk to a lot of people and just trust. What do you think's the biggest thing you've learned through this journey. Oh my god so much stuff. I always say that your personal journey is in direct alignment with your business journey. Like if you grow personally, you'll grow in business and vice versa. So I actually learned so much through my business because what I was just talking about, that patience and like trusting in yourself, that's been huge because at the end of the day, you can talk to 500 mentors, but it's your gut that you need to follow to properly produce the product, the vision that you want that's most in alignment with you. So for me, it's really being able to trust in myself my exact vision while still talking and gathering information. But what do I want? You know, and I'm sure that you experience that too. I think every entrepreneur, it's that journey. That journey. Right? Yeah. And I think it's like difficult and maybe you've experienced this to like differentiate in your own head. Like what is someone else's voice and what is like my true voice? How do you block out those outside limitations that are inside your head and get back to like your core belief system, especially when you have amazing mentors? That is a huge thing, like getting mentors, gaining mentors, because truly being able to watch somebody go through a similar process that you want to get to is amazing. But I do find myself, once I gather, that information or once I've had great conversations, having to come back to myself and be like, okay, that worked for them, but is that going to work for me? You know, because even the way you think is so different to somebody else and, you know, rules and regulations that come with your business, what feels right for them, you might want to be a little bit more careful. I always lead with being very careful, like I got a lawyer and an accountant up front because I was just like, if there's any legalities with food, I don't want to, you know, be there and deal with it. So and I had a bunch of mentors who were like, oh, you don't need to do that yet. And but that was something that I felt inside that I look back and I'm so grateful. I trusted that because, you know, there's been so many things that I was like, I would have I would have rather worried early than had to have ended up in a situation which would have made me lose time by having to go backwards. Does that make sense? Yeah, absolutely. What are some of like personal limitations that you've had to deal with and get over? Oh well my health. So like when I started the business, I was very stable with where I was at health wise. So as I mentioned, it was 15 when I developed thyroid problems. And then 18, I actually got misdiagnosed, diagnosed as multiple sclerosis when I got paralyzed on my right side. And so that was a whole journey in itself of having to trust in what I felt was right. And I was like, I'm not going to let anybody else kind of diagnose me. I don't want to live with something for the rest of my life. So started my whole journey with, you know, healing myself and really trusting probably where the building blocks to trusting myself in business. But we'll get back to that. So I feel like personally, over the last couple of years, I would have flare ups if I was too stressed or like if I tried to carry too much. And so that's been a really big personal journey, which I'm so grateful for. The business for, because I had to learn to manage my stress because stress would lead to flares, autoimmune flares of whether it was those nervous system issues that I was experiencing at 18, or thyroid problems, which can affect your can make you fatigued. Day controls your metabolism like it has so many things. So I would always get really far and then I'd get pushed backwards by my health. And so that was this like tether that I had to really train my nervous system to be able to handle certain things, which once again, I'm so grateful for the business because it forced me to, because I care so much about the business, and I care so much about the message of being able to heal yourself. And so I was in this constant back and forth, which finally last summer, I started to ground, which is what we did before the pilot, and that changed everything for me. It helped me get off my thyroid medication, and it provided a meditation for me. In the beginning of my day, which just allowed me to kind of settle before getting on my phone, having some sort of caffeine or dealing with people. And yeah, that changed everything for me. So the personal growth came from having to get kind of push and pulled with my health, but it led me to being able to handle myself and handle everything. So for people that don't know what is grounding and why is it beneficial? So grounding is essentially the Earth is this big magnetic field, right? And we have kind of gotten so distanced from it because we no longer are just running around barefoot like we were when we were kids. We have rubber soled shoes. We're inside on our computers all day. We're just not as connected with the Earth. I feel like everybody understands that. Right? And so getting reconnected with the Earth allows you to connect with that big field of energy. And so what I do is I'll put both feet on my on the earth barefoot. So no socks, no shoes. And you kind of allow for the energy to flow up into your body. And so what people will tell you when you ground is picture the roots of a tree kind of growing from like your feet into the earth. And like that energy that would go up weren't. So yeah, I take about ten minutes every morning. If I can do more than that, I will. But it well, there's so much science behind it too. If you want to learn more, you can read the book earthing and and I'll show you people with cancer or people with autoimmune and chronic pain. They've been able to help heal themselves because it oxygenate to your blood and yeah, all that good stuff. So outside of grounding, what does your daily routine look like that provides the foundation for productivity success and you're. Yeah, definitely have to work out. That allows just I feel like I, I had to relearn what working out was for like I ended up I do it now for my mind, which in turn helps your body. But I feel like my mind is so can be so overactive that I really had to train the mind, right. And so working out allows for you obviously just to have that space to kind of think only about what you're doing in that physical moment. So that's really helpful. I have to eat really clean. I really haven't ventured off of being vegan and gluten free, so that works for me. I wouldn't say vegan works for everyone. I wouldn't tell people to, but if it works for you, it's done great things for me. So that's the frequency I'm at. I just works and on the gluten that definitely doesn't help any autoimmune. It doesn't matter if it's just thyroid, it can really negative at least that gluten we have in the US. So I have to ignore that. And you know, like being with my dog is a great time. Really calms me down. Being with my family and yeah, so that's all the good stuff when you look at people and see, I call it incongruence, where their, day to day actions and their reality is not reflective of their desires. What do you think are like the biggest limitations that you see in people that are or habits that they have, that they need to eliminate out of their lives in order to get more congruence? And, you know, that's an awesome question. That's a great question. I love that question. I think of something I've had a really big journey with is having to I feel like we naturally, just as people really care about what other people think, and it really impacts everything we do from how we I mean, everything. Right. So I think that I've had to do a lot of unlearning of like what I grew up perceiving and gathering from everything around me and really determined, like what I wanted to think about and what I wanted my life to be, how I wanted to heal, how I wanted to eat. I wanted to dress like there's all these things, right, that you can just pull from other people and other like even our media and shows. And I think that a lot of people listen to outside sources other than inside of themselves. And I get that because I've done that. I did that for so many years. But I think where I really saw a shift in everything that I did was really trusting with what I wanted. Like if I don't feel good immediately with something, if it doesn't excite me or make me happy, if I feel just like a negative vibe, I won't go towards it and like developing that discernment. And I think that that's something that we're not really trained to have that discernment. And so when you can develop that, I think you start attracting a lot more positive things into your life. And I think when you aren't following that, that's when all the incongruence is can happen. And I see like a lot of people, they kind of determine their reality through from the external. And you look around externally and say, this is like how I should be living where when you tune in to like your core and your intuition and like who you really are, and you start being true to that and following the things that align with, you know, your your internal self, your consciousness. Yeah. People are afraid that like, okay, I'm going to become an outsider, an outcast, but there's billions of people on this planet, like you're going to start attracting the exact people that you want to be around. And when you're doing the opposite, it can be very progressive. And I think that's where, like, a lot of mental health conditions come from, is like that abrasiveness of like trying to fit into a, you know, putting a square peg through a round hole and sometimes being the outcast is exactly what you want to be. You know, that's where, like, the most independent thought can happen when you're you don't have all the at least if you're surrounded by advice and things that you don't want. Being the outcast is great in that even though it's lonely, you know, I think I've I've gone through so many different phases of it that I can look at it now and be like, wow, if only I realized what made me different was the coolest thing, you know? That was something I feel like I struggled with a lot when I was younger that like, now I feel I have so much alignment in my life because I allow for it to. I allow for life to be different, you know? But yeah, totally outcast life is it can be scary, but it's a good one. And that's kind of one of the main values of this podcast is like, we think that chasing your passions is the best impact that you can have on the world. And that's what kind of makes the world unique. But when, you know, everyone's kind of doing the same thing and following the same path. Yeah, muddying the waters and do you understand frequency? Do you know what frequency is or vibration? I've, like, looked into it. I don't, you know, I'm not an expert by any means, but it makes sense to me. Like everything has energy. And yeah, you can tap into those data centers and. Yeah. Well, what you were just saying authenticity is apparently the highest frequency. So and like one of the lower frequencies, it would be like jealousy or, you know, anger. Right. So like good vibes, bad vibes type of deal. But authenticity is the highest at like above love, above happiness. Authenticity, being your true is self is like the highest frequency that you can buy that. So yeah, you're so right. Like when you're authentic, it's like you're just gonna attract, right? Because it's really just high vibe. But when you have all these like outside voices and these like experiences that you had as a child that are kind of like in your head, in your biome, it's like, what is your practice for finding yourself? I feel like every day is a practice of finding myself, like, I really think that's the field that I live in, you know? I'm very reflective like that. I'm really big on astrology. I'm really big on human design. Like the what would you call those personality types or. Yeah, personality or. Well, you mentioned Myers-Briggs and that's personality test. So something like that. So I really study those not out of just like it. I like the information, I enjoy it. And I think that those things I, I find a lot of depth like I hire people and we'll do their charts just because I'll understand like what characters their characteristics, they'll, they'll be best and what they might struggle with. And so those types of things provide me a depth which allows me to understand the world more. And yeah. Oh, and another thing is like all social media, because we're naturally so on it, especially having our own businesses, I started like a whole new Instagram, my personal one maybe a year or two ago, that was just following things that made me feel good and just left my other one in the dust somewhere. However, that one's doing and that was really important too, because if you're going to be on it, like I have to be always for the muffin drop and whatnot, I needed to curate what I was perceiving and seeing, and so that helps me really stay in the world that I want to live in. Instead of being called into the low frequency things that kind of can just show up on your feed. You know? I don't know if that relates to the question, but it seemed like it was exactly what was the word that you said something design was a human design. Yeah. What's that? Human designs. Interesting. So I don't know if you've ever done your birth chart, but essentially you need your birth time and where you were born. So not just like, oh, maybe 12 p.m., like you need the 1203 and then you also need your birthday. And so that will calculate a chart. So in astrology it's where to screenshot of the sky. Right. So where all the planets were at the time of your birth. In human design it's a bit more I feel like it can be easily more easily perceived by the public because it's a bit more logic based, but it uses the birth time stuff, so you need that in order to get your chart. But it essentially talks about five different types of five different energy designs. So you can have projectors, reflectors, manifesting generators and then a manifest or a generator. I'm going to do yours. We'll figure out so much for sure. But it's really helpful in business because it will show you how you use your energy. So I'm a manifesting generator, which means I have to do the manifesting and the generating, which is like the create and the do and blend it together. So we can be really hyper interested in a bunch of different topics at one time, which can make you like start a bunch of projects and, and that, and then kind of go back to it later, but start a new one. So it makes you really curious to learning about that was really helpful for me, because I used to judge that I'd be like, let's start this. Oh no, let's start this one. But then I was like, oh no, that's just how my people do it. You know? Yeah, you were talking before about like social media. How do you leverage social media, to produce success in your business? Social media has been the the thread line for everything because when I started I was just posting on my stories, do you want this? And at the time I was using my old personal account. So it was I just was like, I don't want to start a new account if I don't have followers. So I marketed the muffins to my family and friends and they knew about it. So that was amazing. So I immediately had sort of a demographic to kind of sell them to. And then as I made my muffin drop account, that's just been a creative outlet for one, a community builder for two. And then also, that's how a lot of my partnerships happen through DM. Like people just slide in and be like, you want to do this? I'm like, for sure. And then also has allowed me to work with really cool people social media wise. Like I work with my friend who's my friend now, but we started as working together for business. But her name is Jana and she has a social account for recipes, and she's helped me with like beautiful recipe videos and that helped build and then get new customers. So really it's it's kind of at the core of everything, you know, what kind of content do you get the most engagement from kind of when you're in it, like when you see a human in a video? I found that, but it's also the hardest to create, right? Because you can be the most, like self-critical. Sometimes. But I would definitely always see that when you're in it, it's it does the best for sure. And what's your dream for the muffin drop or do you want to go? Well, it's funny because the last couple months have really been a focus on that. And just being like, these muffins are magical and everybody should be able to enjoy them and heal from them, right? And really going into the dreamscape of my mind to be like, how big can we take this? And so I'm actually in a transition now planning out all of the next moves, which would take our product to a manufacturer and really get it all over the country. So that's like the idea, but really, like once again, the muffin to me is the conduit of the greater message. I would love to be able to just continue sharing about health and healing and how I've healed myself, because that journey was crazy. Well, everyone tells you you're not going to heal and you're kind of set up to fail and being able to actually heal and find healing is something that's really emotional because you've been told to. You won't. And so just shedding light on that for other people is really important to me. And even just doing pop ups and being able to connect with people about what they've gone through and how they've done it, I feel like taking that. But on whatever scale it goes, I really like to kind of just flow with it, you know? Yeah. How do you articulate your message and your values through a product like muffins? Like. Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's really been a lot of through meeting people, which is, you know, it's been it's been a lot of amazing conversations. I think the energy that you create a product with comes through your product genuinely, as we were crazy as that sounds, I genuinely think that the love and intention that's baked into the muffins is consumed by people. I think there's a frequency to your food that you eat and which is I know that because of how I feel through food. Right. So I think the product is that, you know, people can heal from it or at least heal with it. Learn about good ingredients, read our label and see it has a lot of integrity. So everything you read, you'll be able to pronounce and through social media to to be able to communicate the message. Right. So all that kind of combined, that's what you hope, right? Yeah. That's why I've deluded it in my mind is what's happening. So this is kind of a fun question. If you had $1 million of guilt free capital, how would you deploy it within your company? That would absolutely go to our packaging and rebrand, not necessarily like full rebrand, but taking the packaging to the most functional, creative product possible, because right now it's been fine to have it like this for local concerns, because I have so much control over it. But getting it to a place which is really functional, where it's out of my hands and able to be distributed and be like completely intact, that's really important. I would also make sure we have a great manufacturer, awesome distribution, because it's going to have to be a frozen distributed product, which is one of the higher, more expensive types of food distribution. So that would definitely go into that, having to get all of the trucks that are frozen to be able to get that. And then I guess marketing to write a lot of marketing can come from in-house and like it, be authentic. So I don't think that's necessarily the first thing I would put the money in to offer the rep, but it would I mean, a million would flow into that. So yeah, you know. Yeah. Also like some cool merch like we need like we need some awesome sweatsuits like we need cool, you know, merch kind of comes last, but like, people love merch. But anyways, is there any other brands or similar brands that you point to that are like they're doing a good job? We'd like to replicate kind of what they're doing and what. Yeah, what about what they're doing is you think is producing their success. I mean, there's so many now, I think food is in a really cool place where there's these amazing leaders in the company who have like these great personalities and being very forward with their messaging and are able to kind of attract people through the messaging and like the ethos of the brand. And I think that's been allowed through social media. So there's a bunch, there's oh, Allie from oat House is incredible. She's shown how she started in her parents garage to where she is now. She's in like Harris Teeter, I believe Whole Foods, she's in everywhere. Right. But she does really cool personal direct messaging. Also don't eat. Don't they make the yummy like cookie dough? She was on Shark Tank and she just grown the business to Crazy Plate. There's so many like, I don't even just look in food. You can look all around and just take amazing things from people. Ashley from BTR. BTR makes these amazing bars. Ashley has become a mentor of mine. She's incredible and all these people just have like very personable stories. That makes you really interested in the product, right? And I love to take or take inspiration from that. Yeah, yeah. And you talk about the story. I think that that's really, you know, a big thing. And another underlying value of the podcast. I think when you have a good story, it resonates with people and you're not going to have a good story if you're selling something you're not passionate about. What is your business? How do erosion control, how did you get into that? So the where I'm from in Cape Cod, we have a big issue with erosion. Like the beaches that I grew up because of the salt from the water. Now erosion is like it's sediment deposition. So water or forces of gravity, water or rain depositing sediment from one area to another. So you see that like Folly Beach where the oh, wow, the beach starts like receding. So we're essentially fixing that. And I saw, you know, that happening on the beaches that I grew up on. And so kind of the pursuit of trying to solve that problem. Now I'm not doing beaches. We're doing like golf course restorations in each place but had to start somewhere. So did you work in that prior to making a business, or did you have like a friend or a mentor? I had a mentor in college. It's a funny story. I was like, in the back of this environmental policy course was like really boring. Just talking about like regulations. Now it's sleep in the class, like I needed to take it. Yeah, I'll just sit in the back in the worst kind of class. Yeah. Fall asleep. And, you know, whether it was divine divine intervention or fate or whatever, I'll take it. That's my kind of talk. Yeah. I woke up just, like in the middle of the class one day, and the teacher was talking about how there was this $15 million restoration contract available to do a more restoration on this beach to prevent erosion, but no one would fail the bid. And his point was that there's a lot of jobs and opportunity in this industry. It's a growing industry. There's not many companies that are doing it, but there's a massive need for it. But in my head I was like, Marsh plannings like I could get like top. My buddies would do some by the plants, like, you know, yeah, we could get the contract $50 million. Like that's where my head was going. So I stayed with him after class. Like, you know what would prevent me from getting a contract like that? He's like nothing. You need to know X, Y, and z regulations. So he started kind of giving me the, like, background knowledge of the industry. And I was getting like a second hand education from him. Did he have any business in that? No. He just was teaching about it. Yeah. Was just teaching about it. Well, he worked for the Army Corps Engineers and that was doing like the federal contracts for those. Okay, that type of restoration, for 30 years. So he had a good, like, fundamental knowledge base. I think he was mentoring me. And then I knew I wanted to enter the industry. So trying a couple different models really capital intensive like failed on a couple businesses and then, you know, just through different models and trial and error figured out kind of like where I wanted to go with the company. Now that I'm just like packing up my car and shipping it down to Florida and I'm like, you know, sink or swim. So I lived in my car for like six months. We could do that by now. It's like it's going to be like a slapping, like, yeah, I lived in my car for like six months bouncing in Airbnbs and like trying to find business and just, you know, through resilience, found a way or get some big contracts. I'm, here we are now, that's also, so cool. I love hearing about businesses that are just. You would never think that's a business, you know, which is so many of the businesses. I'll hear about something. I'm like, how did you even think to get into that? But I guess it's stories like that where you just have somebody talking about something that inspires you, and then you just figure it out. Right? Like, that is such a explanation of the entrepreneurial journey. It's like, you don't know anything. You just figure it out. You know, even if you do know it, like even if you did have a background in it, you're still going to have so many moments that stump you where you're just like, absolutely. Am I ever going to figure this out? Like, is there a reason why I'm doing this? This is ridiculous. Like, you're like, I'm crazy for even getting involved in this. But then there's always something you gotta let yourself have those dark moments, that and then something on the other end of it's like, get it together. I'm going to be fine. That was difficult with my business because there weren't many people doing it, so there wasn't any one to, like, point to and be like, okay, I can replicate this. So it was kind of like creating it from the start and figuring it out as I went. That's so cool though, you know that. But that calls back to what we were talking about in the beginning of like, you really had to trust yourself 100%, right? Like there's nothing else other than I guess the word people like to use is delusion. That can get you to the place of being like, oh, I can do this. Well, the Steve Jobs they called it Steve Jobs is, reality distortion field where he perfect. He was like accomplishing things that didn't seem possible. But I've realized that entrepreneurship is more of a mental game than anything else. Like, it really doesn't matter the product people don't tell you about products. Like, if I'm going to participate in a business, the first thing I'm going to look at is the like person, because that's, you know, you look at Elon Musk, he decided he wants to go to Mars and like he's making it happen. Finally, you know, that is an impossible feat unless you have someone that has the self-confidence that they can do it totally. Also, it's like it's so important to keep people around you that constantly push you. Like my best friend and my boyfriend, like they are literally the people who are like, remind yourself what you're doing. Like it's not meant to be easy, and it's so incredible to have those people around you because if you don't, it can be hard, right? So like keeping, I would say to any entrepreneur to just make sure that circle that's around you is really influential in a positive way on you. You know, I guess it's not even just that, right? It's everything that you consume. But on the closest level, who are the closest people to you and how are they benefiting? Like my best friend, I could call her and be like, we have a thing this weekend, like, I need you to. And she's like, I'm there tomorrow, you know? And like Robert will literally always remind me that his favorite thing is like, if if it was easy, everyone would do it. And I'm like, so real. It's really a conversation game. Yeah, it's not easy, but we'll get through it. You know? That's something that I struggled with for a long time was like, you know, I do believe that you're a product of your environment. But I felt like in the beginning when I was starting my business, there was so much negativity on why I shouldn't be going this path and how risky. Yeah. And luckily I had that, like, internal delusion that I could get it done. But there's a lot of people out there that are coming to that negative feedback. And I completely agree with you that, like, you need to put yourself in an environment of people who are like pushing the boundaries and pushing the limits, and that's going to lift you up. I think a lot of people are in the opposite. Yeah, and I actually always find but it's been something that I've had to go through multiple times, that when you get the most questioning on what your next move is, that's actually when you should do it. When when you're getting all the forces that are you sure, like, you know, you probably shouldn't. That's always when I find there's going to be success. But it's so something that I've had to learn because it's not something. When I first started, I would listen to so many people close to me, and, you know, everybody around you usually wants to support you, but even they come from their own place of doubt. Right? So and it can be a projection, but you don't really know that until you know it. So that's been a big part of the journey to just being like, okay, wait, sometimes the this is great. I like sometimes I hate means I need to just trust myself ten times more, you know? Yeah, I completely agree. I think that like a telltale sign or some indication that I need to, like, make a decision is when there's that discomfort in front of me. Totally. And that's like, I think that discomfort is the currency that you pay to learn. So those like of great saying, I like that those uncomfortable moments are like, really what I seek after. But again, a lot of people like run away from that discomfort. And because of that, you stay in this like box and you never push your boundaries. Yes, totally. And it's conversations like these that are so important, right. Like we're speaking the same language, you know, and it really is interesting when you kind of have to start, you know, morphing your friendships or the people that you're around to really having that same energy that you're kind of talking about. You don't have to agree on everything. But like the fact that we're speaking from an entrepreneur, expect it or perspective expected. What is that person active and being able to like, understand each other? Because being an entrepreneur, you can really feel alone in a lot of things. And so being able to talk to and it you don't have to have somebody in your industry like we're completely opposite industries and conversations like this just to remind you like, okay, what I'm doing, we're talking about a similar thing. It makes sense. You know, it's really important if you're an entrepreneur and have people who you can connect with about your weird and like your little journey, you know, that's been one of the most interesting things about this podcast is the amount of overlap and repetition in the values that people have, and like the routines and the ideals that have produced success. It's like there's a lot of common ground, and it really does come down to like your internal self, like, yeah, how you, you're I think you're sort patterns and how you think is a first thing that you need to become aware of, because that internal thought is what drives your personality. And like Joe Dispenza says, oh, if you're discontent, I don't love the journey. Yeah, your personality, but he's the one who sends the clips. Your personality is what drives your person reality. So if you want to change your personal reality, but you want to keep the same identity in the same thoughts, it doesn't really work. So you have to start by like, you know, the first thing I look for is those negative language patterns. When you have a lot of negativity and, you're not portraying that confidence, like that's the first thing that you need to get after. If you want to change your reality, you need to change the way you think. And piggybacking off of that, health and healing is the exact same way. Like everything you encounter, health wise, sickness, health comes from your mind. And that's something that I've really learned over the last. It's 12 years now that if I lived in a state where I was constantly telling myself, I'm sick, I'm sick, you are sick, I was creating that identity for myself, and it was the rewiring of my brain that actually I wasn't getting sick. Like my body was actually trying to prevent certain things from happening. AKA my body was screaming at me, telling me, hey, slow down, listen to yourself more, be more in alignment. But I was ignoring it and that was creating more health problems. And I always tell people like, the body is a self-healing organism. It actually wants to support you and wants to heal. Where are the ones who aren't supporting it? And so the mind is such a large part of that. And just as you were saying, there's so many parts of entrepreneurship that come from discomfort. Health is the exact same way because you need to go into those parts of yourself you don't want to look at. It can be anything from trauma to, you know, even if you don't want to change the way you eat because you have some sort of, you know, you've got to do those hard switches in order to heal. And the mind was at the core of all of it. And for me, when I started grounding, I found that the nervous system was at the core of all of it, which is directly related to the mind. So the symptoms are just the product of what's going on, you know, and you like if you're constantly telling yourself negativity, you usually will develop something negative. Like I always whenever I see hate, right? He is one of those low frequencies which can develop into cancers or, you know, really scary, messy diseases. Right. And it it can all come from emotion to, you know, the mind and emotions. So it's that sort of understanding which can heal so many people, knowing that it actually comes from so much more than just a symptom. Right. It the root cause and I learned recently, which I find super interesting, is like people that are surrounded by a lot of hate or like have depression. Their bodies are releasing those like negative hormones and they become addicted to the release of that hormone. So it's difficult to get yours. It's like quitting a drug addiction. Yeah. Getting yourself out of that negative cycle. Yeah. Totally. Environment. Everything else. And like you said like, you know, I like, I don't know if you know anything about Wim Hof, but he talks to me. He talks about. I think we know about all the same thing. Yeah, yeah, I think I'm thinking of that. We talk, we learn about all the same interests. Well, you're a Virgo, and Virgo is a sign of health, so it really would behoove you to be into all that stuff. And, well, it's actually the sign of health habits in your day to day lifestyle. Yeah. So a lot of Virgos you'll meet will either have health problems, are really interested in health because the health problems are a product of our overactive minds. As you're just talking about that kind of lead, you end up needing to find healthy ways to kind of process all the things you're feeling and thinking. But anyway, he's talking about Wim Hof. Well, he I like that. He says, you know, in it piggybacks on what you were saying, like we as organisms, as humans are meant to be. And we have the foundation to be happy and healthy. And he thinks that like to achieve that, you just have to tune back into nature, which seems like you agree with totally. It's not what he does, all the cold stuff. So the cold in me like don't fully align. But a lot of people do. Like Robert, my boyfriend, he loves to do the ice baths. I found with me any extreme temperature, like a sauna or the ice baths. That's not my main thing, but connecting to the earth for sure. But Wim Hof had my entire family during the pandemic doing ice baths like in the house, so you'd get so many like things of ice from the grocery store. And everybody was doing that because. Do you do the ice baths? I'd like some times. And I actually just brought this up on the last podcast we had with Abigail King about my, like, concerns with ice baths. It's like you're putting yourself in this fight or flight, like survive situation every single day. I don't know if that's like good for you or what. I can see it releases will probably a lot of endorphins and adrenaline, which is why you get that good feeling throughout the day. But I wonder what the consequences are of them. Yeah, I think it's back to like, well, I don't even know if we touched on this, but health is so individual, right? So what works for one person doesn't necessarily it mean it works for someone else. So I always kind of go back to that. Like it may really benefit somebody to do that, but maybe they have a completely different cortisol structure than me. I know I run with a naturally higher cortisol level. So for me I'm like, I don't need to be doing certain hit classes, but I've had to learn that, right? So yeah, I totally agree with you. I think it probably from that level doesn't work for some people, but then maybe other people just run chillin, you know, and found that business is like an academic pursuit as well. I'm wondering what is your like academic pursuit? Like what's your biggest interests? Like what are you trying to learn more about and what keeps you on it? You know, I mean, like totally, I'm a big listener. Like I like to well, I'm big, big commentator, but love to listen to. So I feel like I kind of academically learn a lot through conversation and talking to others. And then from there doing my own research. Sometimes it's books, but it's not usually like I think that if I have a very specific topic, then I'll look at that. But a lot of the time I'm on my computer doing certain research, but a lot of is learning from others. And like kind of, you know, just like watching the building blocks play out and then tuning back into where things feel comfortable for me. But yeah. Subjects and specific are you interested in? Oh my gosh, health, all those astro things I talked about. And then also, I guess now food distribution and how that even happens, learning about the different machines that work for different food products. That's a big thing right now. And learning about like packaging because a lot of Coke manufacturers. So a lot of food products are produced by a co manufacturer, which is basically a manufacturer that can produce the product at scale. And so they will have machinery that you most likely won't have in your own kitchen. Like what I'm learning about right now as a flow rapper or a flow wrapping machine. And that does a lot of bars so it can deposit your product and then seal it. Yeah. And so like I'm doing a lot of research on how do people package their product and what type of packaging do they use. Such process and efficiencies totally. And what is what is the most efficient? What is the most functional? What looks about what's like compostable? What goes with my brand. So it's right now that's my current focus because I want to dive into the next chapter at least knowing as much as I can. That's kind of how I do things. I usually gather a lot of information before I take the giant, the jump, the jive dive, jump like a fire sign. So like an Aries, a Leo or sage, they would most likely do it kind of the opposite way. I'm just going to dive and learn after. I'm definitely, let's gather and then dive. So I'm in that period, right now with figuring out, well, how would this product be best deposited or produced or this distributed. So yeah, we talked a little bit before about like your where you want your business to grow or what you want your business to become. What is your own personal definition of success. Like? I really, truly feel success for me is feeling really good about the people I'm around, the decisions that I'm making, the honesty in all the decisions, the integrity behind all of that. And not how I've built the business thus far through meaningful relationships and being really honest and communicating. You know, I think that just as in life, you can interact with behaviors and personalities that you don't agree with, business is no different. And I think we've also been sold this idea of business, which I don't I've never done business like this, which is like this, you know, you got to cut other people down to move forward. I think that you attract amazing things when you do amazing things, and it'll be a giver first. Yeah. I mean, it's just that's my nature. And I also feel my business has really taught me when something doesn't work out, it actually can lead you to something better. So I really try to not harp on something missed. That was something my first year business, which taught me some stuff. Now anything that doesn't work out, it leads me to something probably better or more in alignment. So my idea of success is moving in that way. I don't want to ever, you know, I don't want to succumb to something I don't feel comfortable with. I don't want to move in a way that doesn't match my integrity just how I am, you know? But I move like that in life. So, like, once again, it's kind of this back and forth. It's the same thing, right? So if I'm moving like that, that's success. And I think that not giving up is also success, right? You can give up every day and it could be so easy to give up. But just always re kind of finding that like reason why I'm doing it. Yeah. I'm one of your comments is a good segue into my next question. What is your biggest business ethic? Lying I don't like I don't like lying. It makes me uncomfortable because then, like, I wouldn't. So if you lie, we won't do business, you know, because I also have a great, like, intuition. I'm sure there's a lot of X, but the fact that that one was so immediate. But that's my biggest issue in life. I don't like lying because it makes me just feel uncomfortable as it would. That's pretty obvious, but in business you're dealing with money too. You're dealing with resources. So if you lie off the jump, there's going to be problems after that. So that's that's fine. So for the audience, let's take away the emotional side of lying. Why do people there's a lot of distrust in business and there's a lot of lying in business. Totally. If you think logically, it doesn't make sense. Like why is it counterproductive to lie? Well, for me, I think this would make sense that I view things that way. Everything is karmic, right? So if you start in that way, it'll all circle back to how you started. People usually lie to get a better deal. People usually lie to get ahead. People usually lie because it's quicker. Yeah, it's everything goes back to like, people don't want to do the long run of things. Right. So I think if something's faster, you know, that might be how people do it, but it doesn't work in the end because lying always comes back around, right? And maybe not with our business that we do together. They will find you at some point. That's how I view things. I agree, I think that it's like you get that instant gratification from lying and maybe there's like, you know, like, yeah, gratification that you get in the immediate from that lie. But the compounding effect of being authentic and trustworthy is a lot more productive. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. I don't know, I think that there's like a lot of ways to do things and how you choose to do it, I guess, just reflects who you are. It's kind of no different. I think we've kind of been taught this very unlinked version of business, that it's different, that like how you operate in life, obviously there's going to be some differences, but I definitely think it kind of just shows your character at the end of the day, how you move. Either way, you know, and I've seen a lot of like or I've had the opportunity to make unethical decisions that may give me that instant gratification. I think that's like one of my biggest pursuits is like, how can you have success and how can you get to the next level in an ethical way? And that's even a customer. That's actually that is a that's a good way to summarize, I guess, what we were all just talking about, like lying can probably have a bunch of different meanings, right? But like, how can we proceed in an ethical way? That's a great way to summarize it. And that's even a tough debate because it's like, who determines ethics? Like, yeah, it's right or wrong. It's my own. Like C kind of got to go with your like intuition. Yeah. You know and sure. Yeah. You know trust your gut. But the general concept of what you're talking about is what I'm talking about. Yeah. Like whatever the general concept of ethics are, right. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously certain people can play ethics a certain way, but I think what we're talking about is probably the same thing. Right. What's one thing that you have learned that you wish you knew at the early stage of your business that you know, now kind of a bunch of the things that we've talked about, but I think the one that we recently were talking about is how when something that you're envisioning doesn't work out exactly how you want it to envision or how you envisioned it, that's sometimes the best thing. Like, you know, when a door closes, another one will open. I think that's been a way to help my nervous system just be a piece. Okay? This didn't work out. Let's move towards the next option. Not harping on one thing because that'll just like keep you stuck. You know that's been important. Sleeping on decisions. We were talking about this. If I feel emotional about a decision and that can be this is to do with human design also. So I have I think an emotional center. So human design has taught me to sleep on decision. That can be a really high excitement and really like low. I'm really upset about this. So if I feel either one like really stoked or really upset, I'll sleep on it. And the sleeping on it has saved me so many things because I won't react. And yeah, I'd move like that even if it's slower. So I definitely have to sleep on things if I'm like, I don't know, you know? So if people want to find you, they want to reach out to you, learn more about you by your product. Where can I find you? So our Instagram is the muffin drawer@themuffindrop. Our websites, themuffindrop.com, and then me personally, my Instagrams @itsemilyeldh so @itsemilyeldh and then that's that. And anywhere else catch me on the street somewhere selling muffins. Well, thank you so much for coming. All your positivity is infectious and I congratulate you in all your success. Oh thank you guys. This was fun. Well, that concludes this episode of Shaking Hands. I'm your host, Jack Moran. If you have any suggestions for guests that you want to see on the podcast or questions that you want answered, please do not hesitate to reach out. Thanks guys. So. If.

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