Growing Slowly: How Maura Duggan Has Scaled Fancypants Baking Co. Over Two Decades
LISTEN ON: APPLE | SPOTIFY
When Maura Duggan started Fancypants Baking Co. two decades ago, it was just her, baking decorative cookies in her kitchen in Massachusetts. Twenty years later, Maura’s family has grown and changed… and so has her business.
In this episode, Maura is sharing how her company slowly grew into a national brand, what she’s learned in every step of expanding her business, and how she eventually decided that it was time to move to premium CPG cookies over decorated baked goods.
She also opens up on her decision not to take on as little debt as possible, how she thought about scaling carefully, and what she thinks has helped her company grow to its current reach.
Maura is super open and honest, and you’re going to get so many great insights. Let’s jump in!
Subscribe to the Food Means Business Podcast with Hudson Kitchen founder Djenaba Johnson-Jones to hear the personal stories and “secret ingredients” of abandoning your day job and starting a CPG food business.
In this episode, you’ll learn...
[00:50] Maura’s original plan to be a neuroscientist and how that shifted into baking
[06:02] How Maura thought about finances when transitioning into a baking career
[10:59] The challenges Maura navigated while scaling her business, including transitioning to a commercial kitchen
[22:10] How Maura’s experiences helped her hire the right advisors when the time came
[27:06] How Maura thinks about networking and the ways it’s helped her grow
If you’re a CPG entrepreneur looking for a relatable and inspiring story from a fellow business owner in the trenches, be sure to tune into this episode:
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About Maura Duggan
Fancypants is a proudly women-owned brand crafting delicious crispy cookies with an elevated twist, using high-quality ingredients. Founded by Maura Duggan in 2004, Fancypants originally started as a decorative cookie company in Walpole, Massachusetts selling to grocery store bakeries - most notably, Whole Foods Market. Maura evolved the company with her husband and COO Justin Housman into a premium CPG cookie brand in December 2023, inspired by the homemade cookies she made with her grandmother after school.
One of the most impressive accomplishments about Fancypants is that they’ve been operating their own manufacturing facility since within the first three months of launching out of their tiny Boston apartment kitchen, so that Maura and Justin could oversee their own production line to ensure quality control and scale the business. No stranger to taking risks, Maura started her early career in neuropsychology education after earning a Masters from Harvard University. She pursued her passion for baking to become an entrepreneur within the multi-billion dollar cookie category. Maura has primarily self-funded the business and taken on private investors in the last couple of years, with plans to fundraise as the company grows.
As one of the first upcycled cookies, Fancypants is dedicated to building a high-quality brand that is tackling sustainability and keeping the environment top of mind. Fancypants is Upcycled Certified as they bake with upcycled oat flour made from dried and milled oat pulp left after making oat milk. Fancypants combines the oat flour with King Arthur Baking Company’s flour to make its proprietary flour blend along with real butter, sugar, and eggs — no artificial ingredients in its cookies. With a commitment to being zero-waste, Fancypants turns any cookies that get broken during the process of its production cycle into renewable energy via its partnership with Farm Powered. This food waste is converted into carbon-negative renewable natural gas to cleanly power farms in Massachusetts.
In the first six months of launching the CPG line, Fancypants is in over 1,500 retailers including Central Market, Gelson’s, and Mother’s Market (store locator here) at a suggested retail price of $5.99 per bag. Fancypants flavors are a range of classic, approachable, and innovative with a special fancy twist, with its six current flavors including Birthday Cake, Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate, Oatmeal Raisin, S’Mores and Salted Caramel.
Connect with Maura Duggan:
Visit the Fancypants Baking Co.website
Follow Fancypants Baking Co. on Instagram
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Connect with Maura Duggan on LinkedIn
Stay Connected with Djenaba Johnson-Jones:
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[00:00:00] Djenaba: You are listening to the food means business podcast, which features the personal stories and secret ingredients behind what it's like to abandon your day job to start a CPG food and beverage business. I'm Junaba Johnson Jones former marketing executive turned entrepreneur and founder of food business incubator Hudson kitchen.
[00:00:20] Join our community of fellow food business owners and subject matter experts. First to learn and laugh with us as we explore a startup world. That's a little more culinary and a lot less corporate these days. Hi, Mara. Welcome to the globe means business podcast. I do not, but thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:37] Thank you for being here. Absolutely. Um, so before we jump into your story, cause I really want to hear it, I want to hear a little bit about your background. So this podcast is all about. People that go from their corporate career into food business. So I'd love to hear about you.
[00:00:50] Maura: Sure. Well, I was born and raised in Boston, still there and started my career thinking that I was going to be in neuroscience and education.[00:01:00]
[00:01:00] So I went to college and graduate school with a pretty firm plan about thinking that I knew what I wanted to do, but then. Once I finished that all, I decided that I really didn't want to do that. It would really just, you know, in real life, once I started working, it just wasn't what I thought it would be.
[00:01:19] So, and I really missed, kind of, some aspects of parts of my career, but I knew I didn't want to do that. to pursue at full time. So I decided that I would do something completely different, which was baking. It was something that I loved doing as a child, but I had never even once considered that I would do as a career, to make money, to support a family.
[00:01:44] So it came as a huge surprise, not only to me, but to. Pretty much everybody that knew me.
[00:01:50] Djenaba: So can you just talk a little bit about what neuroscience is just so we know and how you were like studying it along with education and what you were doing? Just curious. Yeah,
[00:01:58] Maura: sure. So neuroscience is [00:02:00] really the intersection of kind of biology and psychology.
[00:02:05] Both of those things working together contribute to, you know, how we learn and how we behave. And so it can study various degrees. You can be in a research lab, which I did for many years, doing sort of molecular, you know, think of like microscope type research. And then you can also, I decided that wasn't quite for me, so I did something more clinical, which was I worked with children.
[00:02:29] Who are deaf, blind and also had multiple handicaps and other health issues. And so I could sort of see firsthand how various diseases, birth effects, issues, things interact directly, you know, how into your brain and behavior. And so that was a much more clinical application of neuroscience and education.
[00:02:51] Djenaba: Thank you. I needed a little bit of open primer around answers. Sure. . Yes. So you mentioned you started baking as a child and. As I was like preparing for [00:03:00] this interview and like reading your story, it made me think about like a core memory of mine, which is like baking with my mom in fifth grade, like fourth and fifth grade.
[00:03:08] Like that was like a thing we did. She was a stay at home mom just for those two years, and we baked cookies. And cakes and stuff like that, but like that like really made me think about that. So Oh, that's great.
[00:03:21] Maura: I love it. You know, it's such a great thing to do with children. That's very similar to my experience.
[00:03:28] I had, uh, my mom loved to bake and her mother, my grandmother lived across the street from us. And so I would come home from school. My mother was a teacher, so she wasn't often home quite yet. And I would spend some time with my grandmother who very often was baking up some chocolate chips. cookies. Those were a go to for, for our family, but, and it was just something, it was like a part of my life and she baked other things.
[00:03:52] We baked other things, bars, you know, cupcakes, cakes, almost always dessert. So it was something that I grew up doing this, you know, [00:04:00] such immediate gratification. You make it, you bake it, you eat it. So I love that, that you had the same experience. So
[00:04:07] Djenaba: a lot of people love baking. So what made you decide to kind of abandon your career and kind of go and start this business?
[00:04:15] Maura: It was something that I did somewhat gradually. I decided I could simultaneously try to start a business. I started with a residential kitchen license, which meant that I could bake out of my apartment legally in Boston and sell to area grocery stores and specialty stores. Well, I still had my full time position and I planned actually to do that for kind of as long as it took or until I decided that maybe this wasn't right either.
[00:04:46] And it was just, I was really lucky. I think a lot of things fell into place and that I was making a product at the time that I was making decorated cookies. So very specialty. And a lot of [00:05:00] stores just said, Oh, great. And so actually within three months, I had signed with a pretty major supermarket in the greater Boston area.
[00:05:08] And this is still why working out of my home. And I just decided, all right, this supermarket will take me on. And I had other accounts. I'm going to, you know, hold my breath and leave my job figuring. I have a background I can fall back on if need be. So that was sort of, and I stayed working, you know, out of just my kitchen for another almost year and a half.
[00:05:33] So I was only paying the rent on my apartment that I needed to live anyway. So I was really able to do it very carefully without taking on a huge amount of risk.
[00:05:44] Djenaba: I love that because I think people get so excited and they kind of dive, head burst, and they, You know, either take on a lot of debt or take on some investors and they kind of get under, you know, kind of underwater in a sense.
[00:05:55] It's like you kind of are, there's a lot going on all at once. Right. [00:06:00] Very gradual was like, was kind of a nice strategy.
[00:06:02] Maura: Yeah. I think, you know, for me, that was really important. I had taken on debt to go to school and to go to graduate school and it wasn't something that I wanted to take even more on. So I thought, let me be strategic and careful.
[00:06:14] And I've kind of, I've continued that way for, you know, Since the day one,
[00:06:20] Djenaba: the company is called Fancy Pants. So can you talk a little bit about
[00:06:24] Maura: the
[00:06:24] Djenaba: name?
[00:06:26] Maura: So again, since this was going to potentially just be like a fun thing that I did for a little while, I really wanted it to reflect this, just that it was kind of lighthearted.
[00:06:36] Cookies are delicious. I wanted the name to be memorable. And as I was testing out different names, you know, in my head and talking to people every time I said, well, make Fancy Pants, people would say like. What? And laugh. Right? And I thought, Oh, this is kind of, it's kind of fun. And that's really what I was looking for at that point.
[00:06:54] Like all of those things. So I just decided again, like, Hey, let me go for it and see. [00:07:00] And it doesn't matter how many times I say it. People. They tend to remember it. They tend to lean in. And a lot of times people have a personal connection, like, Oh, that used to be my nickname or I knew someone growing up with that.
[00:07:14] So, so it's kind of funny that it's worked out really well, I think.
[00:07:18] Djenaba: It's a great name.
[00:07:20] Maura: Yeah. Thank
[00:07:20] Djenaba: you. Let's talk a little bit more about your kind of trajectory. So, okay, it's been a year and a half and you've been at home baking out of your apartment oven. I can't imagine it was like, it was probably two racks, right?
[00:07:33] Yeah. Like.
[00:07:33] Maura: Yes, I could, I could do 18 cookies at a time. Okay. Wow. Yes. I mean, it was a small apartment kitchen and I don't even know how, by the time I left that oven actually still turned on. I really don't. But so how I went from that, you know, it was another moment of like, Let me hold my [00:08:00] breath. That felt like a huge, it was a huge leap.
[00:08:06] It was, I was so excited, but so terrified, really. But I had been going to networking events, not a lot, but I was really mostly baking. But I, you know, I met somebody that had a very small kitchen, uh, near the town I grew up in and not too far from where I lived in Boston, a commutable distance, excuse me.
[00:08:32] So I, it was coming, uh, it was going to be open and I just, the rent was reasonable. It was just one of those things where I, you know, I carefully planned, but you never really know what's going to happen. And I felt, I decided same thing. I can take this next step. If I have to pull back, I can. And then as soon as I moved in, it was like, I realized.
[00:08:58] Oh my gosh, I can do [00:09:00] so much more, right? I can take on more accounts. But at that time, actually, my husband, he wasn't planning on joining the business. He was a teacher. He was very happy being a teacher, but we decided together, well, what if he joins the business too? And so we didn't have, I didn't have any other employees, but that was another enormous leap that he decided to join.
[00:09:25] And then we together were able to do, you know, having two people is a lot easier than having one, right? So as we moved into a larger space, you know, there were two of us and we're able to grow that way.
[00:09:40] Djenaba: So were you guys just like, it was all hands on deck, like baking, selling, managing the accounts, like you both were doing everything, I assume.
[00:09:48] Everything
[00:09:49] Maura: all the time, seven days a week, 12, 13, 14 hours a day. The product was very labor intensive. Um, the decorative product. And again, it was kind of my [00:10:00] almost obsession with not taking on debt and also learning, right? Because my background, I had been in a lab and then I had been sort of like doing some teaching and things like that.
[00:10:14] I certainly, I didn't know anything about sales, marketing, you know, finance. Baking, really, at that scale. So it was, it really did. It was a hands on learning. And I really think that that's been something else that's been so helpful that I truly have done every single day. bit of, of the business. So as I've grown, I've really been able to say like, Oh, I, you know, I know what that's like and I know the challenges and now I recognize that someone else can do it much more efficiently than
[00:10:50] Djenaba: I can.
[00:10:52] I always think it's like the best to do the job first just so you kind of have an understanding of what it actually is before handing it off.
[00:10:59] Maura: Right. [00:11:00] And right. And there are so many challenges, you know, to scale a business of any size of any sort. And so I was definitely felt like I needed to learn before I could possibly manage or really grow, you know, significantly.
[00:11:14] Djenaba: Do you recall how many accounts you had by the time you did move to that? 40. Oh, wow. Okay. I
[00:11:22] Maura: mean, if I remember really clearly because that was such a big transition, but I mean, if I can tell you that apartment was just, Overrun with bags of flour, bags of sugar, packaging. I mean, it was, I have to imagine like the living
[00:11:40] Djenaba: room just like stacks of things.
[00:11:42] Maura: It was, it was, it was like, okay, we, uh, we can't really live here anymore. Our entire refrigerator was like butter and eggs. It was almost like no, no food. I love that. So when
[00:11:56] Djenaba: did you ask to hire your first employee?
[00:11:58] Maura: It was actually a couple [00:12:00] years, really, yeah, I think I look back on that sometimes as maybe we waited too long, but it was the way I went.
[00:12:11] You know, it was probably after maybe four years and it was life changing again. And another pivotal moment of like, Oh my gosh, the person that we hired was actually a trained baker. Oh wow. So it would make all the
[00:12:28] Djenaba: difference.
[00:12:29] Maura: Yeah. I mean, the knowledge that he brought, you know, in the first 20 minutes, it was like, oh.
[00:12:38] All the efficiencies
[00:12:39] Djenaba: and everything that like a trained person brings in.
[00:12:41] Maura: Right. Right. It was amazing. Yeah. And then, you know, just suggestions that he could make, like, Hey, you know, this piece of, you don't need a lot of equipment to bake cookies, but it really enabled us to say, okay, well, wow, look what two or three, now three of us can get done.
[00:12:57] We can now maybe take some money and invest [00:13:00] in some larger mixing bowl. You know, we're still using things like that. So it really is kind of a snowball effect of as long as we could get more accounts, then we could produce more products and we had more money to invest in all that. So, but. Yeah. Sometimes I look back and I think, you know, maybe day one, I should have just said, Hey, I mean,
[00:13:19] Djenaba: I think you did the right thing.
[00:13:20] I know it was like a challenge. I'm sure.
[00:13:23] Maura: Right. You know, I was, I was, I also, I looked back, you know, at the time I was a lot younger, right? I was renting an apartment. I didn't have a family to support. So I also, you know, a lot of those things, they really go into if I was starting it today, I have two sons now, you know, that things would, would look differently.
[00:13:44] You make different choices. I had just more life experience too. Maybe I would have, you know, Who knows?
[00:13:50] Djenaba: Yeah. I started my business. My kids were one in high school, one in middle school. So yeah, it's very different.
[00:13:55] Maura: It's different. Right. Yeah. Um, or sometimes if you, I mean, when people [00:14:00] talk about it, they have toddlers, you know, that's like a whole other life stage where you just think like, you know, You do need to sleep.
[00:14:06] Djenaba: Okay. So you're in a small kitchen, like what happens next? Obviously at some point you outgrow that. Where do you go from there?
[00:14:15] Maura: Right. So we were in like an old mill building actually up on the fourth floor. So it was like this walk up that had a freight elevator that we could use occasionally, and we actually grew very gradually.
[00:14:28] It happened that the business behind us decided to move. And so we rented a little bit more space for storage. So we did very incrementally for years. And it was like, we were again, by the time we made the second move to where we are now, which is about 25, 000 square feet, we, it was kind of a duplicate of the way.
[00:14:50] our apartment had been, which was every room filled with all sorts of stuff everywhere. And it could, you know, not running efficiently anymore because we were [00:15:00] outgrowing it. And again, it was the same thing, like terrifying, taking on a much larger rent, feeling like we were doing too much. And then the same experience of like, Oh my gosh, building out a larger commercial kitchen is certainly quite an experience.
[00:15:19] It is quite an experience.
[00:15:23] Djenaba: Yes. I was wondering like, okay, so you both you're in this 25, 000 square feet. So now you obviously have to have more employees. There's a lot of probably large scale equipment that's helping out and you're still doing these decorative cookies. Yes. And for how long did you guys do those?
[00:15:40] Maura: We actually continue doing those until just this past year. Wow. Okay. So we were able to scale, you know, again, it was once we moved into the much larger place, right, we had a lot more equipment, more ovens, huge mixers, more people, all of that, but we were able to extend [00:16:00] our reach from regionally to maybe, you know, one third of the country to ultimately being carried by retailers nationwide.
[00:16:11] Right. And we were able to continue to scale and offer different variations of the same product. You know, we were able to really, something that I also decided really early on is to stick with one product. People would say, please make cupcakes. And I love cupcakes, but it's a really, it's a different business.
[00:16:32] Right. Right. We're not like a retail shop where you come in and you have lots of choice. We don't have a shop at all. We shipped from our website and we shipped to stores. And so I'm a firm believer in doing one thing, doing it, you know, really well. And we dabbled in other small variations, but our core business was in decorated cookies and they were similar to what I was doing
[00:16:56] Djenaba: that very first day.
[00:16:59] I'm so [00:17:00] glad you said that because owning a shared commercial kitchen, I get to see a lot of different businesses and the ones that are so focused. are the ones that are doing really, really well. They don't have shiny object syndrome. They have one product. There's probably three flavors or five or whatever, but that's it.
[00:17:16] Maura: Right. It allows you to really focus. And you think about when you're so small, you know, we live in a country where there, hundreds of millions of people, right? If you can just capture a fraction of those who like your product, you know, you're good. You can always add later down the road, years later, many years, decades later, if you want, right?
[00:17:40] But I think it, it allows you, you know, to save money, to be really focused. Messaging is really complicated. The more you have, it's the difficult while I do this and this and this and it's hard to, to focus. So it is tempting now sometimes, you know, it's very good.
[00:17:59] Djenaba: [00:18:00] Yeah. So you recently pivoted into CPG. So talk a little bit about that decision.
[00:18:04] I mean, it seems like a huge change and maybe it's not. for you, but like, I'd love to hear why you guys decided to make that decision.
[00:18:11] Maura: Yeah, no, it, it is a big, big, big change. Like I said, when I started, all right, I, my background, you know, neuroscience, I have no idea anything about really selling, marketing, anything.
[00:18:21] So I made cookies. And so when I shop, if I want cookies, a lot of times I would go to the fresh bakery department, right? If I even went there at all, I was baking myself. But when I started selling, I walked into the fresh bakery department to bakery managers and said, hi, would you like to carry my product?
[00:18:39] And what I didn't know at the time is that there are. Very few vendors, you know, most bakeries make their own products. And so I was walking in with something that was really unique and that enabled me to get in just, there weren't a lot of layers. It was often that store manager saying [00:19:00] yes or no, and there weren't any fees.
[00:19:04] Advertising fees, slotting fees, nothing like that. So it enabled me to really just focus on my product and sell and grow slowly. So going into CPG, it is completely different. You do have to approach people and ask them if they want your product, but then you also have to show them all the different ways that you're going to be able to support it.
[00:19:25] Right. You know, from the second you hit the shelves, then get those cookies right off the shelf. Right. So, it's, it's completely different and I did know a lot about, over the years I've learned a lot of different things, so it's not that it was shocking, but it is a completely different type of business.
[00:19:44] So the reason the driver behind it, I mean there were a couple of different things that were going on. Like I said, that making decorated cookies is extremely labor intensive and ultimately You know, after doing it for so many [00:20:00] years, we were carried by retailers nationwide. There's a lot of seasonality to it, big kind of peaks and valleys, often it's often seasonally driven and because we run manufacturing, I don't want to employ people.
[00:20:16] three or four or five months out of the year. And we've always operated year round, but it's, it can be challenging. So it was like, well, maybe we need to do something that is more of an everyday product and one that is truly scalable to all levels. We couldn't have had our decorated cookies. They're too expensive to make, to be truly accessible to most people.
[00:20:40] They're expensive to make. The ingredients are expensive. The, you know, the labor is very expensive. The distribution is expensive. And so ultimately I felt like we were sort of maxed out with where we were and we just decided like maybe this isn't what we should be doing. So it wasn't, you know, a sudden [00:21:00] decision.
[00:21:00] It was something that we. You know, I thought about off and on for years and then seriously started considering it about 18 months ago and thinking through and costing out and trying to plan for it, probably in a much more thoughtful way than I did initially when I started the business. That's because you have that experience.
[00:21:22] So yeah. Right, right. Now I'm like, well, now I really know what I need to think about. And, you know, probably the biggest thing that I wasn't as nervous this time to take on the people that I needed to really help support the growth. This isn't something that I could say, Hey, I'm going to launch a CPG line.
[00:21:42] Just me. Right. Like that. No, like I wanted to have, you know, and I did already have a great team. in place. And so people at our production facility, you know, are staying with us. But it also brought on an entire team of amazing advisors that [00:22:00] has been fantastic because they've, you know, lived in this CPG world for decades.
[00:22:07] So it's really helpful to have that community when
[00:22:10] Djenaba: you are switching gears. It seems like because you had the experience of doing it yourself, it was easier to hire advisors. at this stage just because like you knew what you were asking for. Yes. Versus I, I know like for me, like I've made mistakes in hiring people, not because they weren't great people, but because I thought I needed a thing that I didn't need.
[00:22:31] Right. So now you actually knew what you needed. Right. And
[00:22:34] Maura: really entrusted people to, to say, No, or like, this is what you need, right? Like, and even knowing having a, you know, I think owning a business, it can be really isolating. Right. And, and I think that's true at any stage. And then the more, sometimes the busier you get, it can be more isolating rather than more.
[00:22:58] And so I think it [00:23:00] can be hard to even network. And I sort of started with one person that I had known for many years and said, like, this is what I'm thinking. Would you want to be involved? You know, I totally get it, but do you know anybody else who would? And, you know, when I started out, I didn't even know where to start.
[00:23:23] Like, do I walk into a book store and say, can you help me? So, yes, knowing, you know, having any network at all, even if it's a handful of people that can then put you in touch with other people is, is so important. But I, but I think very difficult. Yeah. At the same time. Sure.
[00:23:45] Djenaba: Why did you guys decide to self manufacture for all these years?
[00:23:47] Because at a certain point, like maybe you could have used a co packer for some things for some parts of the business. I'm just wondering.
[00:23:54] Maura: Yep. And that's something that I thought about early on. [00:24:00] And initially I just thought, I, again, it was like, well, I'm still figuring out how exactly do I want these cookie to be made?
[00:24:08] I want them to be right every time, but I was still figuring things out and I thought, well, the only way I'm really going to get good at this is if I keep doing it. I wanted to have the ultimate control over how they looked. I wanted to have a lot of control over pricing, even, you know, even though at the time, you know, I was buying a small amount.
[00:24:28] It over the years, it's certainly more helpful to be able to control your own pricing. And I'd also, I knew I wasn't sure at the beginning and you know, you're still never sure how much you need to scale up or scale down. And I wasn't, able to say to anybody, hey, I know that I can hire you to make X amount.
[00:24:49] I was early on saying, I actually have no idea what's going to happen. So I, again, it's something that I, you know, I sort of mentally revisit [00:25:00] every few years, but I love having my own place and all of the reasons that it was helpful then, it's still helpful now. It's challenging, but I think that the benefits outweigh any challenges.
[00:25:18] Djenaba: What is it like working with your husband? I mean, at a certain point, he actually said, Split the duties and you have real responsibilities, right? So I'm wondering what that's like.
[00:25:28] Maura: Yeah, you know, it's, it's certainly, it changes all the time from, you know, what we were at the beginning, we almost, we did a lot of things together that really didn't last too long because there are so many things to think about.
[00:25:42] We're really good at different things. Our personalities are really different. Our sort of our backgrounds are really different. Everything about us is different, which I think makes us good at different things. So it's ultimately a really good partnership. And you know, we have our days, of course, like any, you know, like [00:26:00] any, any couple, sometimes it's like, Oh my gosh.
[00:26:02] But. They're overall, it's great. It, it's like the benefits you get to, you know, when you have a win and it's like, my gosh, my husband's right there, you know, and if you have a loss also like, oh, we're right there too. So, but ultimately, yes. It really has evolved so much from day one, but it works.
[00:26:24] Djenaba: Good. So what advice would you give to someone that's just starting out?
[00:26:29] Maura: I would say. Network, network, even when you are positive, you don't have time, take half an hour. And if that's what you have, that's okay. Even if you don't like to go out and introduce yourself, if they are, you're not sort of a social butterfly type, tons of people aren't, and you'll meet people that are like you.
[00:26:51] I think that it's just so important to be able to just share the, what it's like [00:27:00] feelings with people who are experiencing or have experienced that same thing.
[00:27:06] Djenaba: Yeah. The networking is, it's really important because we talked about isolation before, and I
[00:27:11] Maura: think it's key. It's real.
[00:27:14] Djenaba: Yeah. It is very, very real.
[00:27:16] It's very real. I was just thinking about that for myself recently.
[00:27:19] Maura: And I don't mean like networking almost like, Oh, you're going out to like lots of dinners and having drinks and all this stuff. I'm thinking like, like the first networking event I went to, it was maybe an hour long. And it was with all food producers and I didn't.
[00:27:34] Go to another one for like six months, but you know, so that's the, I think like your time is really valuable, but like do what you can and you really will be happy that you did.
[00:27:47] Djenaba: So what do you guys do for self care? I mean, you work with your husband, so like, and you're both working, I'm sure quite a bit.
[00:27:58] So like, how do you, how are [00:28:00] you guys like, taking time for yourself, vacations, that type of thing.
[00:28:03] Maura: Yeah, right. And we now we have two sons. Yes. So we, you know, we spend, uh, you know, they keep us pretty busy too, but I mean, it can look all different. We, I love to read. So I'm like really happy to, you know, at night curl up and, and read a book, something like that.
[00:28:21] Just kind of do my own thing. I love to, one, I mean, I like to read novels, but I also like to read about places to visit and like plan travel. So that's something that my husband doesn't, you know, that's not how he likes to spend his time. And so I'm often the one that's kind of thinking and dreaming about a vacation and I'll pull that together so that we can do that and really kind of disconnect.
[00:28:45] We have a great team now, you know, that we can go away. That's amazing. Which is great. And we didn't go away for probably seven years. We didn't do a thing. Right? Like, we didn't go out to dinner. [00:29:00] So you know, I really feel so lucky that, that I can do that. So a lot of times for me, it's either growing up with a book or it's actually a kind of like getting out and doing something either.
[00:29:11] Low key, like, I like to play pickleball, so I'll play pickleball, go for a walk, hang out with some friends, you know, in general, pretty kind of like low key stuff. That's cool.
[00:29:25] Djenaba: So, at Hudson Kitchen, we have what we call the money bell that we ring when someone is celebrating something, so I wanted to ask you, what are you celebrating?
[00:29:33] Maura: I am very excited that we are launching a gluten free. cookie. Something that I didn't think that we could ever do and it just being launched as we speak.
[00:29:46] So it's a chocolate chip cookie and it just, it took a lot of time and research and care and planning and hard work from so many people. So it just feels like I had a sort of the idea, like what if, and then I [00:30:00] have just all these people working together to help make it happen. And it. It's just in the very early stages of rolling out onto, onto shelves and on our website.
[00:30:08] So I'm really excited about it.
[00:30:10] Djenaba: That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank
[00:30:12] Maura: you,
[00:30:14] Djenaba: Maura. Thank you so much for being here. Please let everyone know where they can find you and Fancy Pants.
[00:30:20] Maura: Sure. You can drop me a line. I love chatting with people, as you can probably tell. Always email me. It's maura at fancypantsbakery.
[00:30:29] com. We are aware on social media, so you can always send me a message that way at, uh, like Instagram FancyPantsBaker. And you can learn more about me and about the company at our website at FancyPantsBakery. com. Amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:30:49] Djenaba: The Food Means Business Podcast was produced by Hudson Kitchen.
[00:30:52] It is recorded at the studio at Kearney Point and mixed with audio. And edited by Wild Home Podcasting. Our theme song is by Damien [00:31:00] DeSantis, and I'm your host, Java Johnson Jones. Follow Hudson Kitchen on Instagram at the Hudson Kitchen and to get food business bites right in your inbox. Sign up for our newsletter@thehudsonkitchen.com slash newsletter.
[00:31:13] Listen, follow and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get podcasts. Until next time.