Have you ever thought of opening a brick and mortar store someday?

If so, I think you will find the latest episode of The Forrager Podcast fascinating!

I spoke with Diana Shockley, who runs a brick and mortar pie shop in my town, but she started her cottage food business at the farmers market only two years ago.

Most food businesses need 5+ years before they're ready to move into their own storefront.

Not only did Diana turn the trick in under 2 years, but now she is already outgrowing her space and wants to open a 2nd location!

So what made her successful? That's what we explore in this episode, and I think you'll see that it wasn't just luck.

I especially like that some of her advice directly contradicts the first three episodes:

- In episode #1, I said that you should listen to your market before determining what to sell. But Diana simply followed her immense passion for making pies, and didn't even care if she made much money from her business.

- In episode #2, Lauren said that you should not price based on cost of ingredients. I agree, and have given similar advice many times. And yet, that's exactly what Diana does!

- In episode #3, Dawn strongly recommended finding a unique niche, instead of directly competing with all of the bakeries that make the same things. However, Diana is not doing anything new: she is selling regular fruit pies. She has plenty of competition and definitely wasn't first-to-market!

Of course, I'm not saying that anyone gave bad advice. To the contrary, I'm glad to see that the podcast is exposing different methods of achieving success. Different strokes for different folks, right?

My hope is that you can listen to multiple episodes and glean the advice that is most applicable to you.

Listen to Episode #4: From Home Kitchen to Pie Shop in Under 2 Years with Diana Shockley

David

P.S. Have you listened to any episodes yet? Please reply to this email and let me know! I'd love to hear what you think, whether good or not so good.