Episode Description
In this episode, host Nate Littlewood is joined by Charlynda Scales, a dynamic entrepreneur, author, and Air Force veteran. Charlynda shares her journey from inheriting her grandfather's sauce recipe to becoming a successful founder of multiple businesses. She discusses the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of resilience, and how she learned to embrace rock bottom moments as opportunities for growth.
Key Takeaways
- Embrace the Journey: Charlynda emphasizes the importance of learning from both successes and failures, and how each experience contributes to personal and professional growth.
- Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: She shares insights on dealing with self-doubt and the inner critic, encouraging listeners to pursue their visions even when they don't feel fully qualified.
- Financial Literacy: Charlynda discusses the financial challenges she faced and the importance of understanding business finances to ensure sustainability.
- Community and Support: The value of surrounding oneself with like-hearted individuals who provide honest feedback and support.
See More from Charlynda
- X
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Amazon, Rock Bottom Has a Trampoline (book by Charlynda Scales)
Listen to the full episode to discover how Charlynda's experiences can inspire and guide you on your entrepreneurial journey. Don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations!
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Transcript
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00:00 Introduction to Charlynda Scales
02:23 The Journey of Mutt's Sauce
05:59 Lessons from Shark Tank
08:41 Navigating Imposter Syndrome
14:07 The Impact of Trauma on Entrepreneurship
22:15 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
28:49 The Legacy of Family and Financial Literacy
32:37 Financial Lessons and Asset Management
34:06 Navigating Business Challenges During the Pandemic
36:21 The Impact of Financial Stress on Health
38:56 Mentoring and Supporting Other Entrepreneurs
42:13 The Importance of Validation in Entrepreneurship
45:20 The Power of Like-Hearted Connections
49:29 Embracing Rock Bottoms for Growth
52:10 Resources for Entrepreneurs and Final Thoughts
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Nate (00:01)
Welcome to the Profits on Purpose podcast. I am your host, Nate Littlewood. And in today's episode, I am joined by Charlynda Scales, who is a remarkable woman, wears many, many hats, including being a founder. She's also an author, keynote speaker, Air Force veteran, and startup advisor.
Among the many things that I learned from this conversation was Charlynda's remarkable ability to find positive moments through some of the entrepreneurial journeys and life's hardest moment. In my opinion, she has a real gift at looking at some of these challenging moments and β rock bottom moments as she calls them and finding a way to turn them around.
And finding a way to learn from them, grow from them, and improve herself from them. Anyway, I really, really hope you'll enjoy this conversation. I had a blast speaking with Charlynda, and yeah, let's dive in. Charlynda, welcome to the show. It's so great to have you here.
Charlynda Scales (01:14)
Thanks for having me, Nate.
Nate (01:16)
Of course, of course. I guess first question before we dive into some of the content we have to talk about today. Is there anything I missed in your introduction there? It seems like you have so much going on. Any important parts that I skipped over there?
Charlynda Scales (01:33)
I think the one hat that I wear the proudest is I'm a mom of one. β My son David is five.
Nate (01:42)
Awesome, amazing, amazing. So a very, very busy woman indeed. Well, Charlynda, β I wanted to get started here β and I guess lay the foundations for folks and introduce you to them.
One of the things that I have found most intriguing about you is your ability to learn, reflect, and grow from the many, challenges that life and the entrepreneurial journey has kind of thrown at you over the years. Was that a skill that you always had, or is it something that you kind of learned along the way?
Charlynda Scales (02:23)
I think it's two parts. One, I'm always reflecting on can I do something better or what did this moment teach me? β But also life experience has taught me not to discount the lessons of rock bottom moments or things not going exactly as planned, but I'm always reflecting. So I don't think that part was taught. That's just who I am.
Nate (02:53)
Okay, and your business, Mutt's Sauce, β is a very interesting story. Could you give us a quick background on how you came to be doing that and maybe just quickly touch on the Shark Tank experience too while we're here?
Charlynda Scales (03:10)
Sure, so it's been a long journey. β I am a founder now of two for-profits and a non-profit. My first company of which was Mutt's Sauce. And I'll preface this with I'm a country girl from Tennessee. So I'm a very β family-oriented person. I was raised by my grandparents. My grandfather was a Korean Vietnam War veteran. His call sign was Mutt's. So.
Anyone's not familiar with the military, a call sign is something you get as a nickname that somehow represents your personality or something you've been known for. And he was a very adaptable personality. He had friends all over the world and he would usually break bread by making this sauce that he created in 1956. It's just like a red tomato-based sauce in a mason jar and it was always there.
And he was passionate about it. He passionate about serving people. He was passionate about bringing the family together. And he was the person who made this recipe. So when people see Mutt's Sauce, where does it come from? I named it after my grandfather and it was his recipe.
And I'm just executing what I think his dream would have been. My grandfather also was diagnosed with cancer when I was in high school. So right when I had graduated from high school, I told him that I was going to pay for school, for college with the Reserve Officer Training Corps scholarship. That means they're paying for college and then you owe the equal amount of time in military service after. And at that point, he got very emotional and I didn't quite understand that it was a legacy that I'm going to pass down in our family that he's not going to be able to see. He's not going to be able to witness.
But he did, he fought cancer for four years. He was the first person to salute me on active duty. So I got the recipe for this from my grandfather eight years after he passed. And my mother had been holding onto it my entire military career, just waiting for a time that she thought was appropriate to hand it to me. So what people see is not just a line of barbecue sauces. It is me β
you know, picking up the baton, you know, of someone's passion and love for family. And how do I take care of my family and bring people together the way that he did β with this sauce recipe? So that's what it represents. And that's why it's named Mutt's Sauce.
Nate (05:46)
And what about the Shark Tank experience? Tell me how that came about and I guess more importantly, what did you learn from all that?
Charlynda Scales (05:59)
Shark Tank was probably the most impactful thing that you can β experience as an entrepreneur. And mine happened when I had really no clue what I was doing. So when I started the company in 2013, we went to Shark Tank six months after that. So I was a brand new founder when I went to Shark Tank. I had just done my first run of 700 bottles hand poured by the Amish.
In the small footprint of the town that I was in, Beaver Creek, we had sold $30,000 worth of sauce and just a few mom and pop stores. I went to a conference and they said, Shark Tank is in the building. It was such a whirlwind. I think I was number 500 pitched that day. did the pitch. was about two minutes and then they call you. So it's a lot of like, you haven't made it, haven't made it. And then the next thing you know, you're going to Hollywood.
And I was still on active duty, so people didn't realize I'm still in my uniform. I'm still serving my country. So there are a couple of things that I think in hindsight, I could see Shark Tank was something that as an active duty person, I can't tell them that I'm going to quit my full time job. I didn't get a deal. But when you're there, you have to know your numbers. You have to be disciplined. You have to have a plan. You have to be ready to negotiate.
And some those things take years to cultivate that I'm learning in a short amount of time. And even afterwards, they said, don't, don't quit because you're only six months in. There's not a whole lot of data you can give us, but you had enough that it made it impressive enough to, to be in front of us. Yeah. So I took that, I took that feedback and then eight years later, I wanted to pitch to Damon John, who was a Shark Tank investor. Won a contest four years later, Bob Evans, he was the CEOs and my mentor was Damon John. So I tell people it all comes back. You just got to keep going.
Nate (08:11)
It was a full circle. just took a number of years to play out by the sounds. Amazing. Okay. So I want to talk a little bit more about the entrepreneurial journey, which I know is something that you're very passionate about. You've actually got a book about this, which is full of all sorts of wisdom on the topic. But I want to talk specifically about some topics that are broadly related to, you know,
Charlynda Scales (08:16)
Yes.
Nate (08:41)
imposter syndrome shall we call it. So~
One of the things about entrepreneurship is that sometimes there is this need to kind of put on a bit of a show and pretend that we have got our what together and that everything's fine and we're in control and we know exactly what we're doing. But even though β deep down, like we know that it's an absolute crap show and there's chaos behind the scenes, β how do you
balance the need to really put on a show and you know give the act versus be vulnerable and authentic and kind of share with people you know the madness that is actually going on inside.
Charlynda Scales (09:28)
That's a good question, Nate. I don't subscribe to balance, but one thing that I felt was a pivotal moment as an entrepreneur is when I had a mentee say, everything must have gone perfectly for you. And they were struggling and they couldn't really relate because they thought she's never talked about anything bad. So she obviously has just had great things, Shark Tank and Bob Evans, and she's winning grants and she's always...
out there is congratulations for something. And many people, especially entrepreneurs, experience β public triumphs and private torture. They're going through rock bottom. And that's why I wrote Rock Bottom Has a Trampoline, because one, you're not built to hit rock bottom and stay there. You're meant to do great things. But two, rock bottom is not something you can really avoid.
Especially as an entrepreneur, you can't avoid rock bottom. You have to learn how to handle rock bottom. And I had a unique perspective, I think, as a military veteran, because we do what's called compartmentalization. So say, for instance, you're in a hostile environment, β there's so much going on, there's chaos all around you, but you have a mission that you have to get done. So you put all the emotions in a box. And you're like, I have to come back to that later.
I have to unpack that later. Right now I just have to get this job done. And that I think spilled over to how I lead because I have to put things in a box. When I won Bob Evans, I was also a proud military spouse. Told everybody how great it was to be a military spouse. And then abruptly left the marriage a week later. You know, that was never on my plan to be a single person after getting married.
So making that decision, knowing that in public, everything was great. There were so many people cheering for you and dedicated to you doing well. And so I would just say.
You will heal from transparency, but I understand nobody talks about rock bottom when they're in rock bottom. They have to get through it first. And so I give people grace and give yourself some grace. So if you're going through it, it's not always the time to be like, hey, look at me, I'm at rock bottom. They're not going to do that. And that's okay. But eventually, yes, your testimony is going to save somebody.
Nate (12:11)
Can you expand on that a bit? Your testimony is going to save somebody. What do you mean by that?
Charlynda Scales (12:15)
Yes, there's people who are going through rock bottom or they think that their rock bottom is unique, that nobody has ever been through that before. Nobody would understand having to juggle motherhood and a full-time job and running companies and being divorced and all those things. And it's not till you put yourself out there and tell your story~
and tell them I have had days when there was negative $1,500 in my account and I owed everybody on the planet. And I had three interviews that day where I had to say everything is great. I love it. I love this. Thank you everyone who supported me. I have had moments where, you know, my son was born in March, 2020 at the beginning of the global pandemic and I had zero projected revenue. And yet when I took to social media, I'm encouraging people
and telling them you're going to make it. It's halfway coaching myself. you're going to make it. But you, in spite of those things, you have to show up because it's not showing up for you. I believe your journey here is not to hoard talent and awards. You're here to help other people. You are a baton that's going to be handed to someone else of encouragement to tell them, β you've been stuck for years, but I'm here to tell you that today is the day that you realize your worth. And that's, that's, think what it's all for. That's why you tell your story.
Nate (13:47)
Yeah, I love that. The military β background that you mentioned there and how that has influenced your approach to compartmentalize is really interesting and I think something that maybe other founders can learn a lot from.
I wanted to spend a little more time on that. β I'm imagining your day that you just mentioned where you had these three interviews and you had to jump on a phone call or video call, whatever, and tell this story about, hey, everything's great. Like, Mutt's Sauce is amazing. Like, you know, we're killing it, blah, But in between, there's moments where you're dealing with complete chaos and a mess behind the scenes. I don't know about you, but I mean, I've had days like that.
And I have found it really, really stressful to go back and forth like that, to show up on a call and be authentic and convincing, wearing in the back of your head, you know, that you've only got $1,500 or whatever you said in the bank. I've found that really hard. And I can have a whole day where it's all good or a whole day where it's all bad, but going back and forwards multiple times a day, β I imagine is incredibly stressful.
Is there any insights you have, β whether it be from your experience β in the Air Force or elsewhere, any tricks that you've learned along the way that have made that process easier for you at all?
Charlynda Scales (15:23)
Sure, yeah, Nate. So I don't subscribe to balance, I do subscribe to over-communicating. That's usually the hardest thing is to voice that things are not great. But I try to make a habit of voicing that to at least one person. So there's someone who knows my real situation. β That gives me a relief at the end of the day that I've pushed through, but...
There's someone who's there to encourage me. Like, know the world thought today was a good day, but I know it was not a good day. And let me get it out of my system. β Over-communicating about where your focus needs to be. Cause I think when I'm working with small business owners and I'm trying to give them business goals, I have to first look at their life because they're...
personal life is going to affect their ability to execute their business effectively. They're navigating β breakups. They're navigating β not having financial literacy. So when they get funding, they're not being responsible with it. So I just try to tell them you have to over communicate with people who are going to be affected by you. And you have to be open to getting feedback on that.
β And you need to have a safe space to to tell them the things that you're not good at or when you're you're not Holding it together very well. I think recently what gives me a perspective is as a mother I've learned that you don't just have a bad day. I I totally haven't had a bad day since my son arrived because
the perspective I was given that a bad day for you is your child's childhood. So we may toss, know, every day is like, I'm stressed out, stressed out, and you walk through the door, I'm stressed out, I'm stressed out. But that is shaping someone's world in their childhood so that they ask, what was it like growing up? Mom or dad worked around the clock and when they walked through the door, their face looked like they were just tired. So when you asked me,
what helps you put on a brave face is like, because one, I'm motivated by giving my son a great childhood. And so no matter how hard that day was, I'm going to give him a good childhood and not the stressed out, tired mom. will communicate with him like when he understands mommy worked a long time or mommy has to work, but I don't want him to feel the effects of it.
I'll take on the stress. I'm not going to give it to him.
Nate (18:18)
Interesting, interesting. Yeah, wow. I never thought too much about that. I don't have kids personally, but that is a really interesting perspective on how children can change things for you. That makes a lot of sense.
In your book, you talk a lot about trauma and some of the life events that you went through. And candidly, I was surprised at times at how much how much you went on to share. Can you talk a little bit about how trauma can impact us as entrepreneurs, how it may have impacted you personally as an entrepreneur? And what are some of the things that you've learned along the way about dealing with trauma.
Charlynda Scales (19:07)
Yeah, well, you know, there's different types of trauma, right? There could be childhood trauma, trauma from experiences on jobs, trauma in society, β interactions with people. And I have experienced, you've read it, I've experienced a little bit of everything. And I think it just becomes a choice at some point to let it define you. And I don't want...
the trauma to really define me, I would like to harness it to help the next person. β I could wallow all day long. I could say, was me? This X, Y, Z happened to me. I had a lot of trauma that I experienced from the military. I think in the book, I talked about the California wildfires. I was in my 20s, Nate. I mean, that is not...
A typical job you would give a 20 year old of like California's burning to the ground and you have the only firefighting program in the Air Force. And there's a governor going on the news talking to anyone who will listen that we need federal support and send out help immediately. And if you didn't do it fast enough, you know, you're going to get blasted for it. And that level of β
stress like every day that we had not extinguished all the fires, I would be imagining people dying and people losing their homes and something you're seeing it on TV and β that affects me greatly. I mean, when I make decisions as a leader, I tend to think of the worst case scenario. So I am definitely a worst case scenario and then backwards plan from that.
That affected me in that way, manifested that way. β Relationships have been through a lot. I feel like I did not take the time to get to know myself. So the lesson I'm learning now is you have to have the self-actualization of knowing who you are and being unapologetic about who you are. Because if you try to change yourself, then that's going to just make it worse for you.
that you're not able to show up and be yourself. And I couldn't learn that being in a relationship. It actually had to come at the heels of my divorce to start really getting to self-actualization. So that's, know, there's different ways you can experience trauma. β But life is the best way to like show you this is how to use it.
This is why this happened. didn't happen for your life to be ruined. It happened to shape you into the person who's going to make an impact somewhere.
Nate (22:06)
Wow, I like that. β Let me follow with a question about imposter syndrome, which is something that a lot of us entrepreneurs have dealt or deal with regularly as well. How has that manifested for you and what are some of the ways that you've learned to manage it or leverage it or turn it into a positive?
Charlynda Scales (22:40)
Yeah, so imposter syndrome, I definitely had a lot of that. I call it the inner critic in my book where I really struggled with feeling qualified. Like I felt like there were prerequisites because when I got the recipe from my grandfather, he was no longer here. So I lacked the validation that I was seeking at the time. Like, is it okay? Am I doing the right thing? He's not here to validate me. So I don't think that I should do it.
My mentor from score, he said, this should be a manufactured product and you should just jump into manufacturing tons of bottles of this. And I said, I'm in the military. I don't know anything about food business, the food industry. I'm the worst cook in my family. You know, I went through this whole like self doubt on overload and ~
And when you have the first production, you look back on it. And we did that from concept to first production in like four months. So when you look back on it, you kind of feel a little foolish, like that I had put up all these walls. The only thing stopping me was me. And you would think that one experience like that would make it click for you, but it just, something I felt like I kept dealing with for a decade. β
Am I good enough? Should I take different positions? Comparing myself to people I thought were great. But what it really boils down to are a couple things. One, you don't have to feel qualified to be qualified. If you can see it, you can do it. β And then three, stop putting yourself in a box. So when I look back on that first production and I really felt foolish for a second because I said, well, one,
~ We did this in four months. So I learned a couple things. The first one was you don't have to feel qualified to be qualified to do what you wanna do. If the opportunity presents itself to you, if you can see it, then you can do it. β Feeling qualified is not a prerequisite. And then two, if you look at some of the people who are in rooms that you wanna be in or sitting at tables that you've always wanted to sit at.
Some, you'll be very surprised, and I'm surprised now, because I'm in these rooms and sitting at these tables, that one of the main things that got some of these people in the room was just the audacity to believe they belong there.
And right. It wasn't that they were the smartest person or the expert on anything. It was just, saw that this is a position that no one has taken up or this is β an opportunity that no one has taken advantage of. And they're like, I'm do it. I'll be the one. I will ask for that amount of money. I will start this company. I will launch this product. And they just hit go.
They just execute. And I had seen in my own experiences where I kept saying, I want to do something or I'm working on this or I'm thinking about that. Meanwhile, people are just zooming past me because they are executing. They're not sitting there making checklists of all the things I need to do first. They just go. And now I think that's where I'm at. I'm just like, just execute it because if it's on your mind, then it's supposed to be in the world.
in some form or fashion. Maybe you're here to encourage someone to do it, but don't lose sleep over, am I qualified?
Nate (26:29)
Yeah.
Interesting, interesting. So when was the first time that you actually observed this in someone else and you kind of looked at them and go, and you had this kind of audacity realization that you just mentioned and thought to yourself, my God, like, they're just going and doing it. Like, they're no more qualified than me. Like, if they can talk the talk, why can't I walk the walk? When was the first time you kind of noticed someone else doing that and what happened, you know, as you make that observation.
Charlynda Scales (27:01)
Well, I'll tell you one that really stands out to me. I was invited to a summit and at the summit there were entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurs were talking about their experience. And a couple of them had only been in business for a few years and they're already doing seven figures. And I said, well, how did you come up with this idea? They're like, well, it wasn't really my idea. I just found this technology and
I got the funding for it by asking so-and-so and they gave me the money and I executed it and we're about to exit in a couple years. And I'm just like, you're just saying this, like you just asked for a couple million dollars and I said, well, if you can prove that the product works, yeah. So you just have to pitch and say that this is going to work and believe it. And I like, that is, think what I was seeing in myself was
Nate (27:52)
Yeah.
Charlynda Scales (27:58)
you know you have a good product, but you are not walking in this confidence that you had a good product or service. You're thinking it, but it's not translating to your actions. So, because you don't wholly believe it that you are someone that can do this, that you are someone who is worthy to be funded in the millions, that you are someone who has a product that can ~
that can exit or IPO. That is something I think β was very impactful, just seeing them nonchalantly talk about how they scaled so fast without money, without a viable product. Just did.
Nate (28:42)
Yeah.
Yeah, interesting, I want to ask a question about your grandfather, if that's okay. My understanding is that he had a number of grandchildren, one of which was you. And by the sounds of it, you were probably not the most qualified in terms of your cooking abilities. Why do you think he chose you to give the recipe to?
Charlynda Scales (29:15)
You know, it's the question I'll be asking my whole life. β I'll never get the answer, but what I would like to believe is that our relationship was one where he understood that if there was a task, that I would do it. And especially if it, if it takes care of the family. Cause he would dream out loud, we would walk in the hills of Tennessee and he would just talk about his
what he wanted to do with sauces or what he wanted to do post-retirement. And he would talk about having a whole family compound. He's like, can you imagine going on some land and you see all these houses, but every house on that property is your family? And I was like, how are you going to do that? And so my mentor was the one who listened to my life story and my relationship with my grandfather. And he said, he ran out of time.
He's still, you know, the compound, the land, taking care of the family that was there. He's just saying, I don't have time left to do it, but you might be able to get this done. And I take that as, you know, my why, the humility behind running Mutt's Sauce, because I want to see it happen. Even in the times where the sales numbers aren't matching.
I'm still encouraged to keep going because I don't think I would be put on this journey to not be able to make it. And to get over that scarcity mindset because at some point you have to accept wealth into your life. You have to say, my goal is to become wealthy because that's what's going to get you to the goal of taking care of your family or taking care of multiple generations of your family the way that he dreamed.
Nate (31:12)
Interesting. Well that's maybe a good point to pivot our conversation a little bit into the world of finances. And I think my understanding is you have some rather interesting perspectives on this. But let me start out by asking how did you first become aware that you had a financial problem as it relates to the business?
Charlynda Scales (31:38)
Yeah. Oh man. Well, there's a couple of things. To start out, I wanted to buy a BMW with my $25,000. I did not have financial literacy growing up. That's what I wanted to do. I just, wanted to buy a nice car because in life, my mom and I moved away from my grandparents house. She wanted to be independent and she moved into what was considered section eight housing or the project. So by, you know, society standards, we were poor, but
we weren't. I never felt poor. I never felt like we didn't have anything. But once you get around other people, other kids, they're the ones that say, you got, you know, you don't wear new stuff or you live in the housing projects or, and you start to feel like when I grow up, I just need to not look like I'm poor. You know, I don't want it to appear that way. And I became fueled by that, that motivation to not ~
look that way. And so the financial decisions that I would make were reflective of that. And my mentor said, do you know what depreciating assets are? You are fawning over a car that's going to lose value the moment that you drive it off the lot. Why would you not put your money here? β And then along the way, learned pricing and like the margins in the food industry are not big. So you have to be very smart about ~
the cost that you're, you know, the cost of operations and then what you're passing along to your customer. The only thing you can do is widen that gap, right? Cost of goods sold and the retail price. And I can't say that I did a great job throughout the years. At some point I was learning lessons on net payments, learned that the hard way where β payment terms, yeah, in the grocery industry, like you can,
Nate (33:31)
payment terms.
Charlynda Scales (33:36)
give a ton of product to your client and then they have 60 days to actually pay you. So I had to learn net payments and there'll be days where I'm waiting. The bills are piling up and I'm just like, why have they not cut me this check? Like I got two days before everything falls apart. that, know, multiply that by multiple years, it gets stressful. It's really stressful to maintain the pandemic forced me to do a
β different business models. So we were mostly in-person events and festivals. I didn't even have a website. There was not a MuttSauce.com e-commerce website. I was rocking my baby, newborn March 2020, because we had zero projected revenue in March 2020. And I had to learn how to make money and never leave the house.
So that, you know, that pivot had to happen. It's never ending, you know? And now that we've gone, you know, back to normal, the people going back to grocery stores and the questions arise like, are you going back to grocery stores? What's the strategy for going back in the stores? And because I manufacture my consumer packaged goods, when people ask me where's the sauce, I'm saying where's the $40,000 to do every flavor that you want me to do.
So it's always just having the capital to keep going. Have the capital, keep going.
Nate (35:08)
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a lot. Was it a specific event or β observation about your bank account or anything like that that became the catalyst, the trigger for you? Or was it just the culmination of a lot of stress accumulated over a lot of time that got you to start paying more attention to this stuff?
Charlynda Scales (35:37)
Well, the net payments was a rock bottom because I was $1,500 in the hole. Not like I have $1,500 left. I looked and it said negative $1,500.
Nate (35:49)
While you are overdrawn. Wow.
Charlynda Scales (35:51)
I was overdrawn by $1,500 and it was because I had payments that were automated. I automated a lot of my things. So I had automated payments that were hitting and then a client who was like, I'll pay you by this day. So I'm over here trying to get receivables, like pay me before this date or I'm really in trouble. And it was just like the perfect storm of they didn't
do what they said they were going to do. All the payments hit and all the payments bounced. I was, think I just, well, I ended up in the hospital because I had a panic. I didn't even know I was having a panic attack. I felt like I was dying. It really felt like I'm having a heart attack and I can't breathe. And that's when the doctor was telling me like, you have stressing induced anxiety. What is going on? And when I explained it to him,
He's just like, why would anybody do that to themselves? Like, what is, you what is that? But that's when I said you.
Nate (36:58)
Such a great question about entrepreneurship. I love that quote. Why anyone do that to themselves?
Charlynda Scales (37:07)
So,
I mean, we love it. I don't know if we're crazy. So, you know, that was the hard lesson of you cannot put yourself in this situation. You have to make sure that you diversify your funding and even down to listening to people like Damon John who were telling people he worked at Red Lobster. So there were times where they had cashflow issues.
He had to get a job in order to draw a salary for things not to bounce. And I took that advice. So I had to go over and find a government contracting job and recover and then go back and look at the business and say, you know, let's get everything paid out and in the green and then really look at this because it can't operate in this net payment environment efficiently.
It's not my company couldn't operate in that effectively. So I think that was why e-commerce did work, because it's direct to consumer, it's instant. β Yeah, that was tough. And I didn't have a source of capital, because you hear people saying, my investors just gave me this water money. I don't have those. I don't have investors.
Nate (38:32)
I'm floating around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you on that one. So you I gather have gotten to the point now that you are actually working with other entrepreneurs and founders and teaching them and training them about finances. Is that right. Tell me a little bit more about what you are up to. What you are.
Charlynda Scales (38:55)
So around the pandemic, I just started volunteering my time really to the Small Business Development Center. They have mentors, but they needed food and beverage mentors. And I would just do one-on-one, one-on-one consultations and talk to them about what they're going through. And I took for granted the fact that the experience that I've had, I've had a lot of different types of experience ~
that people in the food industry would not get all of it. So the grocery experience, e-commerce experience, I've been on QVC, I've been on Shark Tank, we've done corporate accounts. So was like, in every way a food business can operate, except for opening a restaurant, I have actually done it. But when I was looking at how they could scale, I used a manufacturer, so I went from basically zero to a hundred.
But in between there, before opening a brick and mortar, you could go to a commercial kitchen. And I had joined a commercial kitchen when I moved to Washington, DC for a while. And I was like, this is a great resource for food entrepreneurs. You don't have to own the building. You just pay a flat fee and you make your food product. This is great. When I'm mentoring 2019, 2020, I'm asking them like, where are the commercial kitchens in this town? They said there aren't any. And so
the entity, the Downtown Dayton Partnership is what they're called. They connected me and two other founders. They had a commercial kitchen and they were renting out space and they said, we're trying to teach these entrepreneurs, but we're not teachers. Like we could run a kitchen, but we're not teachers. So we combined our experiences, opened up a commercial kitchen, and then I'm the director of Oh Taste's Foundation and I...
Curated sharpen the axe financial literacy school. So it is β Online Academy sometimes we have in-person workshops, but it is to teach financial literacy for food founders Which is a very niche Education because you can go to some of these big, you know business plan building type of accelerators but they're not going to teach you how to get into HUB and Kroger or your pricing structure for farmers markets is different from your
pricing structure for QVC, which is different from your pricing structure for doing online sales. So a lot of them go into these situations with one price and they wonder why they're losing money. And it's because you can't take that same β cost of goods sold and retail price and spread it across all these experiences. Because in one you might be making money and the other one you have negative margins.
Nate (41:46)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, no, it's a super important area β and we certainly share a passion.
Charlynda Scales (41:58)
We have a passion for it, yeah.
Nate (42:01)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. β So I want to ask a few closing questions here as we wrap things up. β
As entrepreneurs, we often look around for validation from those around us. gather, and you've mentioned a couple of things about this already, but I gather that you've learned a lot over the years about the places and the sources that you look to for validation. β Could you kind of round that out for us? What are some of the key learnings that you've had β about validation and where you get it from? Over the years.
Charlynda Scales (42:44)
Sure.
So you can be validated or seeking validation from people who are no longer here. Just like I was with my grandfather at the beginning of the journey, I was just searching the stars for what should I do? Am I doing the right thing? And if you seek external validation, you won't get anything accomplished if they come back and say no, because the person or entity you're asking to validate you,
is going to put their own biases and their own opinions into the answer that they give you. And I would say surround yourself with like-hearted people because they don't always have to agree with you. Sometimes the most impactful people in your life are the ones who respectfully disagree or they say, love you enough to tell you no. And you need to surround yourself with those like-hearted people. β
not necessarily seeking validation from them, but I would say do seek a different perspective. Don't seek out people who are just gonna fawn over every idea you have and think that it's great. There's so many entrepreneurs who have the issue of ego, or they just can't be wrong. have to be right. I don't seek to be right, I just seek to be understood in a way.
I'm not going to apologize for who I am and I'm going to change who I am, but I do seek to be transparent so you know who you're dealing with. And on the validation, another thing about validation is what you have been given as an entrepreneur, the vision that you've been given is for you. And the people who are supporting you, you need to show
Respect for the fact that they don't see it. So if they're showing up to sell at farmers markets with you It's not because they see your vision It's just because they care about you and the least you can do is make them a part of the journey and not drag them along so β I would leave you with that is β Only you know what you're supposed to be doing and you if it feels right
then go ahead and do it. If it seems crazy, then go ahead and do it. But don't try to get consensus. Don't operate by consensus.
Nate (45:12)
Absolutely, β yeah, so true, so true. You mentioned just now like-hearted people, which I understand is different to like-minded people. Just for the sake of clarity, can you explain that difference for us and why is it important?
Charlynda Scales (45:41)
Right, so right when I had left my marriage, for example, I was in an apartment with no furniture. So when I left, I just left with my clothes and some boxes. At the same time, I was in the last, I guess you'd say last phase of being vetted for the cover of a magazine that celebrated military spouses. And I got a phone call while I was in this empty apartment that I made the cover of the magazine.
And so I went into this whole diatribe of why I'm not qualified to be the one I told her everything I was going through at the moment and they should pick someone else. And her response basically was this is bigger than you. And when you're in pain, that is a hard thing to hear someone tell you is you need to get over yourself. Especially if you've, you know, you're feeling very vulnerable ~
in sharing something so painful, but she was saying β what mission that she had to tell stories of the triumphs of military spouses and that they were more than just people holding posters at airports of welcome home. The military spouses were not just women, they are men because there's women going to war and going to combat and their husbands are staying home. So there's male military spouses. So she said,
in all the ways that they're leading in their homes, they're starting companies and these companies have to survive multiple military assignments in different cities all over the world, that they are still excelling and you're doing this and I'm trying to use your story, again, your testimony to save people. I don't want you sitting here wallowing in this empty apartment. Now is not the time for that. Now is the...
best time for you to show up and show out. And hearing that, was like, she's like hearted because a like minded person would be like, yeah, right now is not a good time, it? Yeah, well, I'm just gonna pass right now and β I hope everything works out. And she could have done that. She could have done that. But she knew that that's not what I needed at that moment.
Nate (48:04)
Wow, yeah, that's so powerful and such an important message. are so many, people have such complex stories underneath and we're all going through our own struggles and journey. And yeah, it may not have been the narrative that they initially set out to tell, but it was, sounds like a damn important story and perspective to be sharing anyway. So good on you for
following through with it. So let me ask you one last question here. I'm just blown away at your ability to, β how to put it, guess...
the way you've survived the ups and downs of not only entrepreneurship, but life and everything that's thrown at you and the way that you, as I said at the beginning, like the way that you have found a positive spin on so many of these challenging times that you've been through, I think it's really remarkable. Given the many years experience you've had at doing this now,
If you had an opportunity to turn back time and go and talk to a 21 year old version of yourself, what would you say to her?
Charlynda Scales (49:29)
I would give her the quote that I got post divorce, but if you believe in something bigger than yourself, rock bottom will have a trampoline. it took years before I respected the rock bottoms. I used to just complain and try to bury them and blank them out. And the more I tried to bury it, the worse it became.
But if you look at it, like all the building blocks that you need to become the person that you're ultimately supposed to become to do the job that you were put here on earth to do. And if the puzzle pieces are the good moments and the bad moments is taking you twice as long to get to the, I would say the, the baddest version of you. It's like the most dangerous version of you is built from
All those bricks, all those pieces. And you have to use them all. You can't build who you are without them. So I had them discarded in a pile in a corner for so many years until it finally clicked. This is what you need. You can't ignore those. You have to respect those moments. I'm okay now. I think this is the journey of self-discovery,
of what the dash was supposed to mean. You arrive here, there's a dash and when you leave and what am I supposed to be doing in that dash? Now I know. Now I know how I'm supposed to pass the baton. Now I know that all the angst that I went through of 10 years of infertility and all those experiences were because I was being prepared to be David's mother, not anybody else's mother, David's mother.
And I cannot have been him if I did not take all those things and put them together. could not have shown up as a keynote speaker and give a message that was going to help the person who comes to the stage after I'm done crying saying, I was about to fold up everything until I heard you. So I had to embrace those things in order to become the person that they needed me to be in that moment.
Nate (51:53)
Wow, Rock Bottom has a Trampoline. I understand that's also the name of your book. Is that correct? Which people can find β on Amazon or what's the best place to get a hold of it?
Charlynda Scales (52:04)
Yep, you can go to Amazon.com. They have a paperback and an ebook.
Nate (52:16)
Okay, cool. And where are some of the other places that people can find you if they would like to learn a little bit more about you and all the interesting stuff that you're up to?
Charlynda Scales (52:28)
You can go to Charlynda Jean, that's charlyndajean.com. And that's if you want me to show up at your event and speak, or if you would like to work with me or any of the brands that are under my umbrella, Mutt's Sauce, Oh Taste Foundation, 6888 Kitchen. And β Mutt's Sauce has Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, same with...
It's 6888 Kitchen, 688kitchen.org or Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.
Nate (53:02)
Okay, perfect. We'll include all those links in the show notes below, but Charlynda, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on today. β You have taught me so much about β the way to navigate the inevitable roller coaster that is not just entrepreneurship and small business, but also life. β You've given me fresh perspectives on how and why to show up.
The people around us, β in your case your son, David, and the many other people in your life. And yeah, you've certainly given me some things to think about when it comes to purpose and perspective and how to navigate through β tough times. So I appreciate you coming on and sharing all your wisdom with me. Thank you.
Charlynda Scales (53:52)
Thank you, Nate. Thanks for having me.
Nate (53:55)
Of course. Well, awesome. Thank you again. was, that was really great. I, I appreciate it.
Charlynda Scales (54:03)
Well, I appreciate you and I am glad that we were connected because you're doing some really great things too with financial literacy. I'd hope that there's some way that we can collaborate at some point and continue helping some of these founders.
Nate (54:20)
Yeah, absolutely. I would be more than happy to have another conversation about that. I'm not β sure if you saw on my profile, but I used to mentor at a β accelerator program called Food Future Co, which focused specifically on early stage food, Bev and Agtech startups. And part of what I'm doing with Future Ready, my CFO consulting business, I do like one-on-one engagements like most other CFOs.
But I'm also very passionate about the earlier stage folks who often cannot afford a, know, fractional CFO engagement and so doing a lot of work on, you know, content education. I've got a kind of group-based product that I'm working on, β which is an attempt to not only make, you know, financial education and support more accessible, but it also adds some really interesting β elements that you don't get through a one-on-one
one engagement. it's like one of the things we're doing in that program is like bringing together everyone's data and numbers. So when we have a conversation about, you know, product costs or manufacturing, for example, I've got everyone's data on cogs as a percentage of revenue. And then I put together charts that shows how everyone compares to one another. And that's I've I've come to appreciate is a really powerful light bulb moment for lot of founders when they can suddenly
see how they compare financially to the other people in the room. It's like, ding, okay, yes, I've got a problem there. Like you can say to them, hey, your costs are too high and like you should do something about your costs. But when you actually put a chart on front of them and have a conversation in front of a bunch of other entrepreneurs about why they're the highest line on this whole chart, β it's really powerful as a learning trigger I found. β
Charlynda Scales (56:15)
I love that. Love that. You know, and the accountability factor, we're trying to build something like at least the SOPs in our organization, in our kitchen, letting these founders know you're building teams and it's not the same as working at home. You have to have restaurant mentality every day. Even if your space is in a β restaurant, you need to practice the life that you want to live.
And that's a big part of it is just the financial stuff. their cost to get sold, they're like, well, I just ran and buy some flour. Like you can't just make these random decisions because they add up financially. β But maybe it is putting it in front of them. Like your flour and sugar costs this year could have been lower. But and because of that, you lost the thousand dollars that you~ you could have used on something else.
Yeah, I like that. Putting it in front of them and letting them see it.
Nate (57:17)
Yep. Yep.
Charlynda Scales (57:19)
It's good stuff. You've launched it already? It's already launched?
Nate (57:23)
Yeah, I have a cohort one that is a little over halfway through now. A little over halfway through a four month program. I'm currently working on launching a cohort number two, which I hope to get off the ground in July, actually.
Charlynda Scales (57:41)
Wow. Yeah, I love that. I love it. Well, let me know how it goes, how they do when they graduate. It was fascinating. It was fascinating.
Nate (57:52)
Yeah, well happy to keep in touch on that one and sounds like we could have some interesting collaboration opportunities in the future.
Charlynda Scales (58:01)
Absolutely, I believe so. Great job on potting this. don't know. Have you pooped at it?
Nate (58:08)
I'm still getting the hang of it. β I've definitely got some practicing to do, but I'm better than I was. Yeah.
Charlynda Scales (58:18)
I'm telling you man, all you need is the audacity. Because people start podcasts and they just... They don't know. They're just going.
Nate (58:26)
I definitely don't know. you know, the thing that really helped for me was changing my metrics on success. And I feel like you might have said something about this in your book too. But there was once a time when I would look at something like a podcast or, you know, launching a course or hosting a, you know, free live workshop or something. And my metrics for success were often unrealistically high. It's like, you know, I want to sell whatever,
of dollars a product or have a hundred people show up to this course and blah blah blah. And I learned that if you approach it like that, then you're probably gonna overwhelm yourself with stress and anxiety. You're probably not gonna do a very good job because you're feeling so much pressure. And what I've learned to do instead is say, listen, it's not about the financial reward or some vanity metric. This is about learning. And as long as I learn from this and
get better for the next time I do it, then that's success. And one of the best ways to learn is to make mistakes. And the more mistakes and f*ck ups you make, the faster you learn and the faster you learn, the faster you improve. So β that for me was a huge unlock when I learned to just reorient my metrics for success and what I think about the outcome should be.
Charlynda Scales (59:48)
And you're going to be very successful in doing so. mean, that's the thing. As David Goggins says, do not let people criticize you for failures when they haven't even tried.
Nate (1:00:01)
Yeah. Yeah.
Charlynda Scales (1:00:17)
You've failed a hundred times and some people haven't even tried what you're failing at. So I look at Mutt's Sauce like by what, by what measure am I saying that this company is successful? Because some people say it's wildly successful. But if I'm over here saying we have to exit for X number of a million dollars, then yeah, I'm never going to feel like we accomplished what we're supposed to do. I have to just remind myself, like, this was hand poured by kids who looked like they were 12 in a warehouse. 10 years ago, so β come a long way.
Nate (1:00:52)
You sure have. You sure have. Well, keep on doing what you're doing. You're an inspiration to me and I'm sure countless others. So it's been lovely chatting with you.
Charlynda Scales (1:00:59)
You too, Nate. Have a great day.
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