Georgi DeCosta with Georgi’s Goodies

David Crabill: Welcome to the Forrager Podcast, where I talk with college food entrepreneurs about their strategies for running a food business from home. I’m David Crabill, and today I’m talking with Georgi DeCosta.

But first, we need to talk about email, and especially email marketing.

If you’re not sending emails to your customers on a consistent basis, then I think you’re missing a big opportunity for sales. I really love using Kit to manage email for my fudge business, and they recently introduced the best free tier that I have ever seen in an email marketing platform, which allows you to send emails to up to 10,000 subscribers for free.

So if you still haven’t hopped on the email marketing bandwagon, now is a great time to do so. To get started and learn more, you can watch my free email marketing tutorial at forrager.com/email.

So I have Georgi on the show today. She lives in Kaneohe Hawaii and sells banana breads and bundt cakes with her cottage food business, Georgi’s Goodies.

Georgi has been through some incredibly dark times in her life. Over 25 years ago, she recovered from a dangerous addiction to meth and heroin.

And more recently during the pandemic, she dealt with very serious depression. She never expected to end up in the food industry, but she found that baking provided her with a much needed reprieve from her depression. And with the help of her boyfriend, she’s turned her baking therapy into a legitimate cottage food bakery, and now sells close to $1,000 of baked goods at her markets.

But Georgi’s story is less about making money and more about finding purpose when facing adversity.

And with that, let’s jump right into this episode.

Welcome to the show, Georgi. Nice to have you here.

[00:01:45] Georgi DeCosta: Great to be here. Thanks David.

[00:01:47] David Crabill: Well, Georgi, usually with a episode I have people take me back to the beginning of their journey. This case, I thought it would be good to just look at what you’re doing today, right now, and just get a snapshot of your business as it is in this moment in time.

[00:02:05] Georgi DeCosta: Right. Great. So right now at this moment in time, I am making banana bread and bundts and some brownies, and I set up a weekly at the local farmer’s market here. On Sundays, and I do a few other popups here and there. But I really enjoy the farmer’s market feel and family and seeing the customers over and over again.

[00:02:28] David Crabill: And about how much business are you doing right now? Like how much do you sell?

[00:02:34] Georgi DeCosta: Oh, gosh, we’re, I’m doing about maybe $3,000 to $4,000 a month depending on what, how many events I have.

[00:02:43] David Crabill: Part of the reason why I wanted to kind of jump ahead is because you kind of have a dark past and a very interesting story. And so I wanted to get into that, but I wanted people to kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel before we dig into your journey and see just how far you’ve come and, and where, where your business is today.

So can you just, provide a little bit of background on your story?

[00:03:08] Georgi DeCosta: So in about 2016, I started having some significant health issues and a job loss. And so that spiraled into me having fibromyalgia and so with the next job, but that I had, it was very challenging for me to hold down a full-time job with my health issues. That were going on.

During COVID, I was laid off and I was extremely depressed for a good amount of time. And it took me maybe two or three years before I started to come outta that fog of depression and, start to look around and see what I could do with, the remnants of my life at that point. so I started baking because I had nothing else to do during the day.

And so I was baking my banana bread. And then my boyfriend at the time said why don’t you make some and I’ll sell it at work? And I was like, okay, you know, I’ll make some extra Christmas money. And I started doing that and it just fueled me. I caught, I got this momentum going and I did so many banana breads.

I, I don’t even know, I lost count that one Christmas. And he was my salesman going out there and doing the stuff that I couldn’t do because the anxiety was just too much for me to even go out of the house a lot of days. Right. And so, it was the perfect situation for me to kind of, burst from that dark time and move forward.

And so after that, I started looking around and, I enjoy making rum cakes and bunt rum cakes. I had always enjoyed that, so I thought, oh, I’m gonna make bundt cakes because I’m not a frosting girl. So I like the fact that, you know, you can kind of have a, a little bit more of a naked cake.

A plain cake, so to speak. And, and so I. I got into the bunt cakes and started testing my recipes with different family and friends. I had a little group of testers and they had little score sheets and feedback and remarks to me. And I formulated my very first set of recipes through that. And I started selling.

At first it was just to family and friends and on Facebook. So, and using those basic outlets. And I started looking around to shows and I did popups and events and learned that really uh, quickly with the tent and the tables, and that’s a lot of work. And all this time there was this farmer’s market here in my own town that I never did.

Check out. And so I finally got to the point of being tired with the tables and tents over and over again. It’s a lot of work, especially when you have physical challenges like I do. And so I’ve signed up with the local farmer’s market and I’ve been so pleased to be there ever since.

I’ve been there since November of 2024, and I just love seeing the, customers come back and get to know them and know what their favorites are and be able to serve them in that way. So it’s really been a long journey from where I started to where I am. I still have a lot of anxiety and a lot of that some remnants of the depression around.

And I definitely still have physical challenges but I’m in a much better place right now than I was a few years ago.

[00:06:26] David Crabill: Yeah, you talked about the depression and of course your fibromyalgia, you know, your health issue that you’ve been dealing with. And what is crazy to me is, is it’s not the first time your life has kind of fallen apart. could you share a little bit more about your past and what you’ve been through?

Because it’s just a kind of unbelievable to me, and I just, You’ve done a lot of advocacy work and I thought it would be good. Just share a little bit about your background and better understand who you are.

[00:06:56] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah. Prior to my baking journey, I had spent 20 years in the community and in nonprofit organizations primarily on the funding side. I was blessed to be on the funding side but I also was in the trenches doing direct service drug education work and drug prevention work with youth.

And that really stems from my own personal experience as a young person being addicted to heroin and meth. When I was between 18 and 24 I was on the streets. I lived a very hard life and that these were the choices that I made as a young adult getting sucked into that life. And I ended up getting arrested when I was pregnant with my third child, and my other two had been taken care of by my parent. My mother, I. I got pregnant again, and I was, I remember being so afraid because I thought, oh gee, I can’t even take care of the two kids I have. How am I gonna take care of this one?

And I think the the police felt the same way. And so they arrested me and put me in jail and did not let me out. And so it really it saved my life at that point because I couldn’t save myself. So they helped me. I spent seven months in, in pretrial. Incarceration here in Hawaii. And I had my child while I was incarcerated.

I went in handcuffs to the hospital. Had a guard watching me while I was at the hospital overnight and everything. So it was a very unique experience. But it helped to shape me and it made me very grateful for being saved. And so when I did have that opportunity to a few years forward from that give back and work at an organization, Hawaii Meth Project and teach young people about staying away from the drugs, I jumped at the chance and, it really helped me to work through a lot of those issues that came from, using and being on the streets and, and dealt with a lot of the guilt that I had. So it was amazing journey. Get to work in nonprofits and get to work with the kids and man, the kids taught me so much, and they made me so brave.

They really did some amazing, amazing young people who are now becoming engineers and doctors themselves and, and amazing things, you know? so it’s great to have that experience. And I think that’s where I get the, the sense of community again, coming into this farmer’s market, I really miss that community interaction and the advocacy feel where you’re out there talking to people at the booth, and I, I did a lot of that, and so now I get to be back in that feel, and I, I really enjoy that.

[00:09:45] David Crabill: Yeah. So, that was just a snapshot. I mean, there, there is a lot more to your story, of course, and there’s this incredible article, the Civil Beat article that we’ll link to in the show notes. People can read that. And I think it was really eye-opening for me and, inspiring in some way. You know, your, your journey is really an inspiring one where you went through some extremely dark times, some unbelievably dark times, and then have come out on the other end and become, you know, an executive director for the Hawaii Meth Project.

And you’ve worked at these nonprofits have become really a leader in the space. and then now you’ve transitioned into running this business. I was curious though, like, Are you still doing advocacy work or I’m just curious as to why you chose to start a bakery as opposed to, continuing and doing advocacy work for drug education.

[00:10:38] Georgi DeCosta: Well, unfortunately, that nonprofit that I was working at, Hawaii Meth Project. It did close. So I think that was the beginning of my depression is when I had to close that down actually. It was very sad for me, you know, and it’s always difficult to lay off people and we tried to do a really nice send off at the end there, but I think it was my, my last job, I think the last couple of jobs that I had in nonprofit that I saw some things that I wasn’t happy about in the nonprofit space, And so I think that was a part of my depression. I was really sad to see people who weren’t that great people after all in that space. And I had been spared up till a certain point seeing only the good things.

And then when I saw some bad things, it really affected me. So now my family is very much involved in community and they do community things all the time and every other week they have community service. and I can’t even talk to them about it because it’s very difficult for me to even get on the subject.

So I think it just hurts, And so I really had nowhere else to go.

’cause I had spent 20 years of my life I had to think of something totally new. had tried to do stay at home work for other non nonprofits, and it was just not working out. I think the brain fog from the fibromyalgia also makes it really difficult for me to do paperwork and things like that.

So with my. Own business in the bakery. I feel that I have a better handle on it and that I can manage the pace and that I don’t feel like I’m letting anybody down. Like I can manage what I have with the bakery, whereas my other jobs in nonprofit, I, I really, it was bigger than what I could handle at this point.

So I have to work with some limitations, my physical and, mental capacity at this point. And so this is what I can do and feel fulfilled. And it’s still a challenge. It’s not that it’s super easy. It’s, it’s very much a challenge making sure that I get the recipes right, making sure I don’t forget orders and such.

But this, it fulfills me. The bakery fulfills me in a way that I no longer get from community work.

[00:12:51] David Crabill: One thing I noticed is that you do talk about your story within your business, say on social media, and I feel like a lot of people with a dark past might be inclined to just, not talk about that aspect of themselves when they’re running a business. And when they’re running a business that, you know, doesn’t super well correlate. And so I was wondering, you know, why you choose to share it and why you choose to make it part of your business.

[00:13:17] Georgi DeCosta: I’ve always been very open about my situation both about my previous addiction and I think going through everything that I did with the advocacy, I found that it really, you could, are able to connect people when you’re more authentic. And so I, I just put it out there, this is me and this is what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.

And I think that’s just a part of me being authentic and trying to connect with people on a different level. Yeah, It’s something that I find that it brings people out and they will come to you and say, I get this, or I, I get what you’re saying, or, I’ve been through that, or my family member or my friend, or whatever.

And it really connects you in a different way. And I get a lot of hugs. A lot of hugs at, farmer’s market and such. And I appreciate that. I think it if I was to hide it, I would feel disingenuous. Like I wasn’t telling the whole story of why I’m doing what I’m doing.

baking has really saved me from my depression and I want people to know that.

[00:14:21] David Crabill: So it sounds like, you were doing this baking and it was well loved by people, but it doesn’t, didn’t sound like you would have necessarily pursued a business on your own. It was this partner of yours who really went out and sold it for you. Is that correct?

[00:14:36] Georgi DeCosta: That’s correct.

[00:14:37] David Crabill: Yeah. I was curious because you know, a lot of people say that one of the biggest challenges in starting a business is getting over the fear of starting it. And, you know, you had someone essentially help you get over that hurdle and now you’re on the other side of it and you have this business. So I just was wondering if there was something that you could share to someone who maybe is tentative, like your previous self was to starting a business.

What would you share to that type of person?

[00:15:05] Georgi DeCosta: Just do what you, what you’re good at and what you love. And, you have to be a little bit brave to put it out there. But you start, start small. That’s what I would say because you don’t have to, fulfill a whole menu of things. Just do what you do well, what you enjoy doing, and put that out there and start small.

And I think from that you create momentum and confidence and I never would’ve thought that I would be doing baking. But I am so happy to be here and, you know, if it wasn’t for, putting out that one product that I, I wouldn’t be here. And I, so I just, I would say start with something simple and small and go from there.

[00:15:48] David Crabill: Hawaii’s Health Department is not well known for. Are being super accommodating when it comes to their, their food laws. And for a while there, Hawaii didn’t really have a great cottage food law. Well, it’s improving, And I was just curious, you know, what, if there had been no, cottage food law or no route for you to sell easily from home, do you think you would have with your partner, do you think you would have gone to the effort of Getting a commercial kitchen and starting this business?

[00:16:21] Georgi DeCosta: No, uh, without the cottage food laws, I would not be where I am. because of my health situation. I really enjoy baking from home where I can pace myself, I can rest when I need to. I can get a snack when I need to. I can go at my own pace and not at the pace of the appointment or my scheduled allotted block of cooking.

And so it really works better for me. I cook sometimes, you know, it’s, we’re going 12, 15 hours a day some days, but it’s yeah, I would not be here without the cottage food laws and I’m looking forward to them expanding hopefully soon.

[00:17:02] David Crabill: Do you feel like you would have. I don’t know. You said that the baking kind of pulled you out of your depression, right? were you contemplating suicide? Like were you in a really dark place before you kind of found this outlet?

[00:17:17] Georgi DeCosta: I was in a really dark place. I was there, suicide was on the table. I was I ended up, before I started baking, I was in a three days a week uh, treatment program. It was all day, three days a week, so I don’t know, like 20 hours of, treatment a week. yeah, and just as it was ending, that program was ending.

Then I got into baking. But I was in a really bad place where even my son, my he’s in his early twenties and he had grown up depressed. And he spent three times in the mental hospital during COVID because he was so depressed. But even when I, when I got depressed, he stepped up and started taking care of me.

And so we’re a really good team that way, where he’s been helping. He does help, he helps me do the dishes. Now sometimes he helps me do my shopping runs and everything. but yeah, I was in a really dark place before this, and I didn’t see any light out the window, you know, light in the, at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, it was really bad.

[00:18:24] David Crabill: Well, just to share a little bit about why I’m asking about this and digging into this a little more, it’s just, it’s personally relevant to me. It’s something I haven’t talked about on the podcast before, but it’s a big part of the reason why I do Forrager. It was back when I was in college. I, I remember my brother visiting me and he was dealing with depression and he was just feeling very stuck and like, he had a, a finance degree, but he didn’t wanna really pursue finance.

He didn’t wanna be stuck in an office job someday. And I remember him saying, I was like, well, if you don’t want to do finance and what do you want to do? And he said, you know, I don’t know, maybe like open a coffee shop or something. Something where he could get out into the community. few months later, unfortunately, he took his life and you know, I don’t know if having a cottage food law would’ve saved his life, but I do have some understanding of what it means to feel hopeless, to feel stuck, to feel like the world is conspiring against you.

And so, that’s part of what drives me in this business because, the food world, we often talk about safety, and health and trying to keep our food safe by following all these rules and having our kitchens follow these rules.

But rarely do we talk about the mental health of our community. And when you put all these rules and all these restrictions in place. Does it cause people to feel stuck, to feel like they don’t have any options to feel like they don’t have any purpose? And so it’s really like someone like you, Georgi is part of the reason why I do Forrager.

and I just love hearing your story and, hearing how this business has turned everything around for you.

[00:20:06] Georgi DeCosta: Yes, David, I’m so sorry to hear about your brother. That’s really, really. Hard. I can’t imagine. in our family, we’ve lost a couple of really close people. My kids’ father committed suicide as well as my sister’s daughter. So it’s hit us closely, but a brother is really special. And you’re right, it’s purpose. I think that’s what the baking gave me was purpose. Um, I didn’t have any purpose. I was just sitting there every day feeling hopeless. And um, it gave me purpose. And you’re right, community is so important. So even though I have anxiety still today getting me out to the farmer’s market once a week is, is a big deal.

It’s very important to reconnect.

[00:20:55] David Crabill: What was it like when you started your business, when you actually decided to start selling your items?

[00:21:01] Georgi DeCosta: Huh. I think I drew upon everything that I had learned the previous 20 years in nonprofits and advocacy. And it was kind of exciting, you know, trying to figure out labels and, uh, recipes and packaging and all of that. But I, think I kind of fell into a nice groove and someone made me a really great logo that I, love just as a favorite, as a, as a gift.

And so, that kind of helped me just push forward. Once I got that logo, I was like, okay, now I’m ready. I can do the next things. I started doing those events and meeting people and just seeing people happy to have my, goodies and that’s kind of a special thing, especially like my banana bread.

It’s, it all started with the banana bread and so when they come back and back for the banana bread, I really, I love that and I think it’s so special. It’s a part of me.

[00:21:55] David Crabill: You know, It’s interesting, like banana bread didn’t use to be a big seller, and I’ve noticed in the last couple of years, you know, maybe three, it’s really come back and, and we’ve seen businesses being built around this one product. and what do you think it is about your banana bread that keeps people coming back?

[00:22:13] Georgi DeCosta: Well, I think it’s lots and lots of bananas, that’s for sure. And chunks of bananas in there is, is nice. But it’s just a very local to Hawaii kind of recipe. I’m very stoked that I came upon it and very minor adjustments to kind of make it my own. But I like a lot of bananas in my banana bread.

Less, less bread and more banana. That’s what I like.

[00:22:37] David Crabill: So you sell banana bread and what else do you sell?

[00:22:41] Georgi DeCosta: Bundt cakes. I love bundt cakes because they have a limited amount of frosting or glaze on them. And so you can still taste the cake and not just frosting.

[00:22:52] David Crabill: And you said you’re mostly doing events. Is that like how you started, you didn’t start doing direct sales from home?

[00:22:59] Georgi DeCosta: I did direct sales from home, but at the time I was working, I was living in a, an apartment building and they complained. The first sale that I had, I had so many people coming to my home that the parking lot was full of customers. And so I got into trouble the first time from my apartment building.

The, the, association wrote me a letter and said, you can’t run your business like that. I, after that, I changed my mo a little bit and I I went out to go meet people. And then I just started doing events from there because I realized I couldn’t bring all these people to my home. Since then I’ve moved to a different place where people can come to my, home and pick up goodies. So especially on special events, holidays, I will do pick up at my home and I just got a nice Georgi’s goodies sign to go out front so that they can be sure they’re coming to the right place.

My new landlord is very open to it. they have a business in their home as well, next door. So we’re all kind of working from home here.

[00:23:58] David Crabill: That’s not typical, right? To have a kind of a porch pickup from your home and then to have tons of people come the first time. how did you do that? How’d you get so many people to come?

[00:24:10] Georgi DeCosta: I think it was from my prior advocacy and my social media reach was, it was significant. And so, at the time I, I was able to just get a lot of support from people on my social media and people. I had friends that I had never met on social media. You know, we have those Facebook friends that you’ve never met them in person, but they’re great support, you know, in your posts and you love laughing with them about jokes and they showed up.

They showed up for me. And I got to know them through that experience of selling them goods and getting them some goodies. So yeah, I tried marketplace, Facebook marketplace a little, but that was a little hit or miss and I felt that that wasn’t quite my market. So, after the porch pickups, I went straight to the events and yeah, just to take the heat away from the house.

And the events were hard at work, but definitely worth it.

[00:25:05] David Crabill: And so was this just your personal Facebook page that you were, advertising it on? And you had, built up a following while you were doing all this advocacy work. And then as we know, you went through a period of a few years of depression. Were you still maintaining your social media presence during that time and providing people updates?

[00:25:28] Georgi DeCosta: Somewhat. I was a little checked out for at least two years there, so I was not totally posting a whole lot, but they were still there when I needed them.

[00:25:38] David Crabill: Yeah. So it was mostly dormant, but by the time you came back and started, sharing what you were doing.

[00:25:43] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah.

[00:25:44] David Crabill: They were there and do you remember about how large of a following you had at that time?

[00:25:50] Georgi DeCosta: Oh, it’s a couple thousand people. and most of them were probably local.

exactly. Yeah. I’ve even sold, I have a Facebook friend I’ve never met in person in Denver. And I sent her some banana bread just to test it out, what it would, if it would ship or, or what. And so that was an interesting experiment. She got some banana bread out of it.

[00:26:11] David Crabill: So you shifted to events and what was your first event like?

[00:26:16] Georgi DeCosta: Was absolutely nerve wracking. I was used to the setup of a, table and a a booth from doing my advocacy work. so I kind of understood the hard work that kind of put into sending it up and making it nice and everything. But I wasn’t prepared for people to be so personable and you know, they like talking to you about the goodies and I don’t think I sold everything. I make so much stuff for events that is hard for me to sell out, but I, can’t help but over bake. That’s just, I over prepare in my head. So, yeah, there’s only been a couple of times that I’ve sold out completely, but that first time I think I was really nervous.

The event that I went to, they were great though. They have people roaming around from their, their squad that will give you change if you need it. If you need to go to the bathroom, they’ll watch your, your booth for you. All the, it was a great setup, so I was really appreciative.

[00:27:14] David Crabill: So it sounds like you can get overwhelmed at events sometimes, and um, you’re not alone in that aspect. How do you deal with that?

[00:27:25] Georgi DeCosta: I in the events, you just have to push through. ’cause there’s, once you’re there, you’re, there’s no turning back. You gotta just complete it. I do better in an event when the people come up and talk to me. When I’m standing there and nobody’s around, I get more nervous. So I like when I get to talk to people and, you know, hear where they’re from or they say, oh, we came last week, or, we had this before my friend brought it to work and it was great.

You know, And so they wanna try some. I love to hear that kind of feedback or how, how far the reach is getting, just with being out there

[00:28:00] David Crabill: So at this point, what’s the biggest event that you’ve done?

[00:28:05] Georgi DeCosta: Something called Kaneohe Night Market. It’s put on by a local event. Coordinators crave marketing. They do these great community based events. And it was about a couple hundred booths, thousands and thousands of people. I got pretty close to selling out. I think I made like $2,000 in that one night. It was a pretty good sales, event.

[00:28:29] David Crabill: And what’s a typical event like for you in terms of sales?

[00:28:34] Georgi DeCosta: Typical farmer’s market maybe between $600 and $1,000. It just depends. On the crowd. So this month I have an, I have a special lucky drawing contest going on. So if you come in and you purchase something, you can put your name in the box and you enter to win a $50 gift card at the end of the month.

So I might just give out two gift cards just because it’s fun. We’ll see.

[00:29:01] David Crabill: Yeah, I saw the lucky drawing contest. I thought that was really creative. I haven’t seen that before.

[00:29:07] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah, I just figured it’s a way to draw people in, maybe if they’re kind of considering coming by. You know, April’s a little bit of a slower month for me, so I wanted to get people to come stop by and hopefully get more banana bread and buns.

[00:29:23] David Crabill: Another creative idea I saw was the half off, half hour. Can you share how you came up with that?

[00:29:30] Georgi DeCosta: Can’t take total credit for that because it’s another vendor that does the last hour is half off. And I thought, well, that’s a great idea, but I’m, I like alliteration. So I did half hour, half off. So it’s actually turned out really well because as people are passing the table in a mall setting right at the farmer’s market, it’s, it literally inside an enclosed mall.

And so as the people are walking by, just tell ’em everything’s half off and nine out of 10 times they turn around and come back and they wanna try something. So that’s been helpful. it helps to clear the table at the end of the day. And whatever’s left over, after sales and I take home I usually give to my son’s pizza making workplace.

So he works at a pizza place and all his coworkers get to try my cakes.

[00:30:20] David Crabill: The only potential risk I could see to that is just like if you had like a recurring customer who would come back and buy from you, but they choose to come back in the last half hour. have you found anyone who’s taken advantage of, of that promotion?

[00:30:37] Georgi DeCosta: No, actually the returning customers wanna come early because they wanna get the exact thing that they’re looking for in the last half hour. There’s no guarantee what will be left. it’s just maybe a dozen things on the table, and it could be all one flavor. It could be, things that you weren’t looking for.

So actually, the returning customers typically come first thing in the morning.

[00:30:57] David Crabill: Another creative idea I saw was your Disney themed bunk cakes and, and the reason why I thought it was creative is because I don’t think you actually changed your flavors. I think you just matched flavors with a Disney character and then you just put a sticker on the box and I was like, wow.

It’s so simple and easy to do, just creative. It was just creative way to, market your products in a different way.

[00:31:24] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah, thank you. That was actually for a specific Disney themed event that I participated in a few weeks ago. And everything in the event non-food wise had to be mostly Disney. And so I thought, well, I’ll just get some Disney stickers and be festive. And I think it was a big hit with people.

I, I like putting stickers when it’s different. Holidays and themes, just to be fun. Um, I don’t have a whole lot of money to, do special packaging or anything, but the stickers are just fun and festive.

[00:31:54] David Crabill: Yeah, I mean, I know you did it for a Disney event, but I could see that working well just for a normal event. There are a lot of people who are pretty passionate about Disney and maybe they feel a certain affinity towards a character, and then they go, oh, you know, they’re drawn towards a certain product because of that.

I just thought it was really creative and it could be used, you know, more broadly than just at a Disney event.

[00:32:14] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah, thanks.

[00:32:16] David Crabill: So, you obviously do banana bread and then the bunt cakes. Are these like in a kind of a Hawaiian style, would you say?

[00:32:25] Georgi DeCosta: I would say the banana bread is more of a Hawaiian local type of uh, recipe, but the bunt cakes are not My top seller bunt cake is a lemon, lemon pound cake. So I tend to do more pound cakes because they come out nicely in a bunt pan. But my lemon crunch pound cake is my number one seller.

It’s a classic seven up pound cake with slight adjustments and a adjustment to the, icing on top as well to make it extra lemony. And it’s on one of the, recipes that I tested out early with my taste testers. And they helped me to get it just right and it’s something I’m really proud of.

So, when I do do samples at the farmer’s market, I’ll do samples of banana bread and lemon poundcake because those are the top sellers.

[00:33:12] David Crabill: Thinking, you’re in Hawaii and you have a bakery, and I was wondering if you’ve ever considered selling malasadas, you know, like if that’s something that you’ve considered selling, just because they seem to be so popular there.

[00:33:26] Georgi DeCosta: Masada, you kind of want them fresh. So after they’ve sat for a little bit, they’re not as good in my opinion. So, I leave that to Leonard’s Malasadas. They’re actually out in the parking lot of the mall when we’re in our farmer’s market, and they’re great. So, I don’t wanna compete with something that is absolutely delicious.

So.

[00:33:49] David Crabill: One thing is kind of random, but one thing I saw was that you have your label on your tablecloth, like a custom printed tablecloth. I don’t really feel like I’ve seen that before. How did you get that tablecloth?

[00:34:05] Georgi DeCosta: Oh impact.com. Yeah, so I, went and ordered myself some, some gear first time I had money to do so. And I like it. It helps me feel more professional. It comes from my advocacy days when I did booths and, outreach all the time. So we had all our gear. I just ordered a nice Georgi’s goodie sign for out front of my, place here so that they know which little driveway to turn down.

I got that from Impact as well. you know, it’s not. too expensive and um, but it’s a little bit of an investment and I think it’s worthwhile. I think when people come across you in the farmer’s market, they’re looking at how professional, you know, you look, how put together you look. And so, I wear my, branded t-shirt with Georgi’s goodies on it every market.

And have my tablecloths have a, a little popup sign that comes up on, on the side of me. So all good stuff.

[00:35:02] David Crabill: I saw a post where you said you get help from your granddaughter in the business. Is that something inconsistent

[00:35:10] Georgi DeCosta: Sometimes I do. It’s not super consistent ’cause she’s still a little young. But I’m hoping that she can grow into it because she loves to bake. She did not like the sales part of it at all, but she likes the baking part. So, I want her to help me more. My granddaughter is um, turning 12 shortly here.

And so she’s getting at the age where she can be more of a help and more of a, a partner in this. So she bakes with her mother all the time. She loves it. Her mother is an, a better baker than I am. Let me tell you her, she can do some, some stuff, some magic in the kitchen. But that’s why I think this, this girl is gonna be a big help for me shortly.

[00:35:52] David Crabill: and I, I saw that your son is also in the food industry. Is that correct?

[00:35:58] Georgi DeCosta: All of my kids are. So, my, my oldest, oldest son is in, uh, the restaurant in, in industry. He manages, he’s a gen general manager for a local restaurant. Hava Joe’s here in my daughter is going to college, but she is also in the restaurant industry to pay her bills. And my youngest son works at a pizza place.

So they’re all in, in food. It’s something I never thought I would do, ‘ cause even when I was a young teenager, I didn’t work in food. So it’s, some of, it was a learning curve for me, but, yeah, I got the cleaning down. I got the surf safe down. I, I think I’ve got, I figured it all out now. And Department of Health over here is really good.

They have their classes for free, for your surf safe kind of class. And so that’s a really big help to help you get started.

[00:36:51] David Crabill: Did your kids help you at all given that they have experience in the food industry?

[00:36:56] Georgi DeCosta: My daughter likes to help me. She can help me decorate when she’s here. She’s a, she lives on a different island, so when she’s here I can put her to work and she can help me decorate and things like that. She’s very good at that. My youngest son who lives with me, he, he’ll help me jump in and do dishes.

’cause after you’ve been baking for hours and hours and you’re just tired of washing the same dishes, right. So he’ll come in and help me, especially at the end of the night when I’m just so exhausted and he, he’ll just clean up the dishes for me and it makes it so much faster. My older son is always busy, but he gives me some good feedback.

Thinking about the way I work my business, because he’s a general manager, he works more of the business side of things, so he understands that part. So he’ll ask me different questions about the business.

[00:37:43] David Crabill: Well, obviously with you being in Hawaii, you get a lot of tourists. Do you find that most of your customers are local or are most of your customers tourists that come through the market?

[00:37:55] Georgi DeCosta: Most of them are locals, but I have had some tourists come through and there’s a lot of people who have family visiting with them and they take them to the farmer’s market. So there was a, a woman who had her parents visiting from Spain and they were here for about a month and every week they came by to buy lemon cakes.

Every week they were there. And then finally they came by the last time to say goodbye when they were going back home. So that was really sweet. But mostly we were seeing locals in the mall,

[00:38:26] David Crabill: And so sounds like mostly returning customers.

[00:38:30] Georgi DeCosta: Mostly returning customers. Yes.

[00:38:33] David Crabill: Do you sell anywhere else? I mean, You do the markets, but have you done custom orders? Have you looked into wholesale or anything like that?

[00:38:42] Georgi DeCosta: I have not looked into wholesale. I know that’s one of the things coming up for our cottage rules. But I kind of like doing direct sales and I do do special orders. For sure. My largest order to date was for Christmas time I did 17 dozen mini bundt, baby bundt boxes. And so, that was a lot.

And I was amazed to pull it off, but that was well worth it. I think delivering that part was harder than, delivering that package was harder than making it so it was uh, it was a lot of boxes.

[00:39:18] David Crabill: Have there been any challenges just from the standpoint of being in Hawaii on an island? Obviously, food’s outrageously expensive there, have there been any challenges with not being on the mainland?

[00:39:31] Georgi DeCosta: Absolutely. You know, A lot of places won’t ship to Hawaii supply stores and, just to find packaging is difficult. I don’t wanna spend as much as I do on Amazon, but that’s where I’m at because there’s no local baking supply store that provides all the things that I, I need. I, do a lot of Costco shopping some Walmart shopping because these are the only places I can get for the right price point what I need.

But yeah, it’s, the difficulty is not having the access to all the different supply stores for baking. I would love to go. I think I, I might need to plan a trip to go visit one of them just to see what it’s like, going into a big baking store, all the different things that I probably more than I can even imagine.

But I’ve been pretty lucky to find what I need on Amazon. So for now I’m okay. But it’s tricky.

[00:40:29] David Crabill: I feel like most people do Amazon and like probably don’t do a big baking store like most. People find things online, which just easier to access. ’cause shipping’s probably free, you know, and they could get it in a day.

[00:40:41] Georgi DeCosta: Yeah. Well, actually in Hawaii it takes us a couple weeks sometimes, so the shipping is just a, a little bit of a hassle. So I gotta, it, I’m always planning ahead and I, don’t have a huge house, but I do have a storage room that I’m lucky to have one spare room and it has all of my baking pans, all of my boxes, and it’s still not big enough.

So I, I’d like to have lots of backup just because you never know if shipping is gonna be delayed for your next order. So, I have a lot of backup.

[00:41:13] David Crabill: Well, with Hawaii, obviously food prices are sky high. What, what have you landed on with your pricing?

[00:41:22] Georgi DeCosta: So that is tricky. So for my market pricing is, I’m doing $8 for bundtlets $14 for mini bunts. And I do that for small, one pound, uh, banana breads is $8 and the two pounds is $14, so it’s probably pricier than you would see other places. And it’s a little bit higher than what I, what I would like, but I just raised them to adjust for the tariffs and everything coming down the pipe.

And it’s still not making a whole lot of profit, but it’s, it does what I need and I’m very, very happy with that. So I stick to about $8 and $14, and I do have some, if you buy. Multiple bunts, you can get it for a discount. I like to do that at the markets ’cause it helps people try different flavors.

I really like a variety pack, that’s one of my top sellers as well. I do two different variety packs at a time. I have my classic flavors, which are little baby bunts, like they look like little cupcakes. And there’s coconut, double chocolate, and uh, lemon in my classic box. And right now I have my soda pop box, which is all soda infused flavors, which is the lemon, seven up pound cake.

Then I have my strawberry soda, so strawberry crunch. And then I have a orange dreamsicle. So the orange creamsicle orange pound cake with a cream glaze on top. So those are my, current flavors and the variety boxes sell well because people like to share,

[00:42:56] David Crabill: what are the variety boxes priced at?

[00:43:00] Georgi DeCosta: They’re at $18 right now, so $3 per piece, six pieces in a box.

[00:43:06] David Crabill: So, what kind of discount does that represent?

[00:43:10] Georgi DeCosta: It’s about on point. there’s not really a discount to get the box, cause it, the individual pieces are $3 each. I have two pieces for $6. So there’s not really a discount. It’s pretty straightforward.

[00:43:23] David Crabill: You don’t necessarily need to offer a discount. You just put it into a package that is more appealing and then people buy it.

[00:43:30] Georgi DeCosta: Yep. And you can even on the boxes, put the stickers of whatever, theme you’re going with and that’s fun. I like the wax paper to match, you know, all those different things.

[00:43:42] David Crabill: I know you have the rum cakes and items with alcohol in it. did you have to do anything special to be able to sell items with alcohol?

[00:43:52] Georgi DeCosta: No, and I don’t know technically where I would fall in the cottage food rules with that because I haven’t had any questions about it. So, I guess I would have to see, you know, uh, ask for forgiveness if anything ever came up because I did. There’s no clear rule about it.

[00:44:11] David Crabill: Well, having spoken with other people about it, I, I wouldn’t be surprised if you called up the health department and they didn’t know that that happens a lot. So, um, I see you also have gluten-free and dairy-free bread. Uh, What caused you to go in that direction?

[00:44:29] Georgi DeCosta: So I have some friends that are gluten-free. And so I like to do gluten friendly, ’cause my kitchen isn’t totally gluten-free, but I like to cook with the gluten-free bread and the butter swap so that they can have an option. And you know what, I found it, I made it for my friends.

But when I put it on my, table, little kids have gluten or dairy allergies and they can’t have treats. And so to see multiple little kids come by and be so excited to get a little dairy free, chocolate chip, banana, bread, all for themselves, it just makes my day. It really does. And it’s just adorable.

To think that, that’s all they wanted is a little treat and they could finally have it. So, that really makes it worthwhile.

[00:45:17] David Crabill: Are there any other stories or memorable moments over the past year or so in your business that stand out to you?

[00:45:25] Georgi DeCosta: There’s lots of different stories. I’ve met so many people. There’s a, a little old lady, an auntie that saw me at a event and she was actually in line for another vendor and saw me purchase some things and she started an Instagram account just to follow me. That was adorable. And she still comes by and sees me all the time, takes my treats up to her daughter on a different island.

So she’s really a wonderful customer. I’ve met people just, you know, hanging out next to the booth, you know, talking story with them. I was really touched recently when my stove went out and people. Sent me money just to, you know, help get back up and running. they pre-ordered something so that I could have cash to bit the stove.

That was really a, big deal because I didn’t know what I was gonna do if I didn’t have a stove and my stove was literally turning off in the middle of cycles and a baking cycles. So, I was lucky enough to, gather the funds and, purchase a new stove and everything is great now. So that, I think was the highlight and especially because another baker sent me over a couple hundred dollars and I thought, oh my gosh, like, she doesn’t even know me.

She just wanted to help another baker. And I thought that was so special and it really touched me.

[00:46:45] David Crabill: Was that baker, someone who’s at the markets with you or somebody who’s actually, you’re directly competing with.

[00:46:51] Georgi DeCosta: Technically we’re, she’s not at the market with me, but we go to events in the community together. And so we technically are competing against each other. And just, she said, no, I wanna put out good karma. I wanna help you because one day I’m gonna need help too. So, it was no hesitation on her part.

And I didn’t even realize who she was. So she came up to my booth and she told me who she was, and I was like, oh my gosh, you can have whatever you want on the table, just take it. So I was just so grateful to her. So for people to believe in you, in what you’re doing, makes a big difference.

It really does. And I think that’s what I’ve found this past year, is that people really do believe in me and, and I appreciate that.

[00:47:34] David Crabill: Well, I can tell that that community element is important to you because I, I saw you started a Facebook group. Can you tell me a little bit about that?

[00:47:41] Georgi DeCosta: I’m trying to get this Facebook started. See, this is difficult because I still have anxious feelings, so I’m like trying to get out there and be more public, but at the same time, I’m really afraid. So, but this Facebook group is supposed to be for us locally, cottage bakers who wanna share tips and tricks or, just information.

Especially considering with the New Department of Health rules coming up, we’re going to supposedly be able to sell online sell in a retail store, a third party, and ship to certain places.

So I’m, I’m excited to see how they make all of that work out.

I even reached out to the Department of Health if they wanna share anything with the group that they could directly share it with us and then we’ll, post it, you know, to make sure that everybody’s on the same page.

We’re all following the right rules. And then we get to see what exciting new things are happening with Department of Health. I, that’s kind of what I wanted to see. It’s more sharing. it’s a lot of people from different islands, so it’s not like we’re all competing with, each other directly.

there are some national cottage baker groups, which I think are fabulous. And so I just wanted to do that for our little Hawaii community is a place for us to share and post and get feedback or get clarification as needed.

[00:49:04] David Crabill: Another way you, you give to your community is I notice you donate sometimes. Can you share a little bit about that?

[00:49:13] Georgi DeCosta: I don’t have a lot, but I know when the fires hit uh, in California and they were just devastating I thought the one thing that I can do is, donate to World Kitchen, to help feed the people immediately. And so that’s what I did. I would’ve done that for Laina fires and, you know, that we have, in Hawaii, I, any kind of other tragedies that might come up, I, probably will.

I, know the importance of nonprofits and I know they can’t do it without donations. And so when I see a tragedy, I, I want to respond to it. And I was really blessed to be able to at least give a little bit of something. And it felt good to be in a position to do so.

[00:49:52] David Crabill: So you’ve been running this for over a year now. what advice would you give to someone who’s just starting out today.

[00:49:59] Georgi DeCosta: My advice to someone just starting out today would be to start with something you really love and focus on that to begin with and something you’re really good at so you can put out your best foot forward. and I think beyond that, just believe in yourself, just believe that you can do this.

And I think you, once you start doing it, you get momentum and the momentum helps you move forward and, propel forward. So, just ride that momentum.

[00:50:29] David Crabill: When you started the business, what did you expect it would be? Did you have any vision for it at the time?

[00:50:37] Georgi DeCosta: At the time, I didn’t know what to expect. I think I was just trying to fulfill the orders in front of me and not thinking about building a business. But once I started to put labels together and packaging together, then it became very real. And I think one year later I am just in awe of how far I’ve come from the beginning.

[00:51:03] David Crabill: Yeah, It’s amazing how far your business has come in a, in a relatively short time. Now, as you look into the future, what are your plans? Where would you like it to go?

[00:51:14] Georgi DeCosta: Where would I like it to go? Uh, you know, A lot of the bakers, I think they’re, they’re shooting for an actual bakery or an actual storefront, but I’d like it just the way I am right now. And I think, you know, I’m unfortunately having a little more health challenges currently. So the idea that I get to do this from home.

And rest when I need to. Or maybe I start a little later in the day than I, had planned to, just because I don’t feel up to it and I can work at my own pace. I really enjoy having a cottage bakery. And I don’t see myself, growing beyond that, but I want to grow in what I do for my cottage bakery and so, you know, always trying new flavors coming up on summer.

So I’m already thinking about what those flavors will be just coming up with new things and new ways to take care of service, the, the customers.

[00:52:10] David Crabill: What do you think drives you to continue the business? you said, it was sometimes hard to put yourself out there, sometimes hard to do events. why do you keep pushing it forward and, and wanting to keep growing it?

[00:52:23] Georgi DeCosta: I think it gives me purpose. It comes back to the purpose. Because there’s other ways to find the money, but this gives me purpose every day. I have a schedule of what I’m doing throughout the week to prep for the weekend, and I know what I’m doing every day and I like that. When I was in my, in my depression, I didn’t have anything scheduled or anything to do, and that took a lot out of me.

I think it was, it really brought me down. So baking gives me purpose and that’s what I strive for every day. It’s just to fulfill that purpose.

[00:52:59] David Crabill: Well, thank you so much, Georgi, for sharing all of that with us. Now, if somebody would like to learn more about you, where can they find you or how can they reach out?

[00:53:08] Georgi DeCosta: The best way is to find me on Instagram @georgis_goodies or you can email me at georgis.goodies@gmail.com anytime.

[00:53:22] David Crabill: Great. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing with

[00:53:26] Georgi DeCosta: Thank you, David.

[00:53:30] David Crabill: That wraps up another episode of the Forrager Podcast.

For more information about this episode, go to forrager.com/podcast/142.

And if you feel like you’ve gotten a lot of value from this podcast, I have a favor to ask you. Could you please take a quick moment right now and leave me either a review on Apple Podcasts or a rating on Spotify. It’s truly the best way to support this show and will help others like you find this podcast.

[00:54:00] And finally, if you’re thinking about selling your own homemade food, check out my free mini course where I walk you through the steps you need to take to get a cottage food business off the ground. To get the course, go to cottagefoodcourse.com.

Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.