David Crabill: Welcome to the Forrager Podcast where I talk with cottage food entrepreneurs about their strategies for running a food business from home. I’m David Crabill and today I’m talking with Jessi Deily.
[00:00:11] But real quick I wanted to check, have you created a website for your business yet? And if you have, do you pay for it?
[00:00:17] A lot of entrepreneurs still think they need to spend money to get a good website and that is simply not true anymore. I am a really big fan of Square Online. That’s what I use for my fudge business website. And I created a free tutorial that will walk you through how to set up a totally free website in less than an hour.
[00:00:35] And in case you think free also means cheap, it’s actually quite the opposite. I think Square Online is hands down the very best website tool for most cottage food businesses. So if you want to learn more, you can watch my free tutorial by going to forrager.com/website.
[00:00:52] All right so, I have Jessi Deily on the show today. She lives in Helena, Montana and sells macarons and custom decorated meringue cookies with her cottage food business, Colby Jack Rabbit. Now, if you’re not familiar with custom meringue cookies, I suggest that you head to the show notes and check out Jessi’s Instagram feed right now so you can see just how incredible her cookies look.
[00:01:15] And once you see her cookies, you’ll understand why she has quite a significant following on social media. In fact, she now has 140,000 followers on TikTok and actually goes viral on a semi-regular basis. in this episode you’ll hear some of her social media strategies and how starting a cottage food business enabled her to consistently monetize her undeniable artistic talent.
[00:01:41] And with that, let’s jump right into this episode.
[00:01:44] Welcome to the show, Jessi. Nice to have you here.
[00:01:48] Jessi Deily: Thank you for having me on, David. I’m a big fan of the podcast, so I am honored to be here.
[00:01:53] David Crabill: Awesome. Well, then you know how it works. Can you uh, take me back to the beginning of this journey? How did it all get started?
[00:02:01] Jessi Deily: Yeah, so it’s, kind of a long one. my first dream was actually to be an illustrator, so if you look back far enough on my social media, you’ll see a bunch of, Pokemon doodles and illustrations. My background is in graphic design. I graduated with a BFA from Montana State University in Bozeman, and my focus was really on illustration.
[00:02:22] I really wanted to get into children’s books and comics. My senior thesis, funny enough, was a children’s book I wrote and illustrated about this little baking creature. He went into a baking frenzy and needed his friends help to get all the baked goods out of his kitchen. And I look back on that and laugh because it’s kind of foreshadowing.
[00:02:40] Um, so after I graduated I moved in with my dad in the Seattle area to look for jobs in graphic design which I did. Didn’t have a lot of luck. So I was working jobs in the meantime like retail. I was a receptionist. I was a recruiter for participants for user research studies for a while and all the while I was trying to build up my graphic design portfolio and my illustration portfolio.
[00:03:03] I opened an Etsy shop in 2014 because I found I really didn’t like making art for other people, and what they asked me to do, I like to make things for myself, which is not really helpful when you’re Trying to build a career in graphic designer illustration where you’re trying to solve a problem for a client.
[00:03:21] So that’s where Colby Jack Rabbit started. That’s what I called my Etsy shop Um, I set up tables at artist alleys and comic cons, and between those two, I made a little bit of a profit, but realized I’d have to sell so much more, create so much more, to actually do any of that full time.
[00:03:37] And in hindsight, I was dealing with a lot of untreated depression, anxiety, seasonal affective disorder, and There was a lot of pressure to create and that stressed me out so much that killed my creativity and I was art blocked all the time and it was a vicious cycle. So I found myself procrastinating to relieve stress doing things like video games, cooking, crafting with polymer clay, and needle felting, reading, and especially baking.
[00:04:03] David Crabill: Now really quick, I just want to ask about your business. Same Colby Jack Rabbit. It’s a pretty unique name. Right? Where did that come from?
[00:04:10] Jessi Deily: So it was because I considered myself this jack of all trades, for one. I really was into illustration, photography, writing um, video games, a little bit of programming and I really didn’t consider myself a master of any of those, so jack of all trades always stuck with me.
[00:04:28] And I really liked rabbits, I really like cheese, and then this kind of wordplay, Colby Jack Rabbit, popped into my head, seemed catchy, so that is where the name comes from .
[00:04:37] David Crabill: All right, so you started with this background in graphic design and illustration, and you tried to sell your artwork, but it sounds like that led to stress, which then led to baking. So what were you starting to bake at that time?
[00:04:52] Jessi Deily: So, I g ot way more into baking when I was a receptionist. I had a lot of downtime, where I’m waiting for customers to come to the desk so I can help them. And to pass the time, I would browse recipes on Pinterest and watch a ton of baking videos on YouTube. And I got so inspired to make all these different bakes.
[00:05:09] And I would, and I’d bring them to the office to my friend and my coworker. And they looked terrible, but they were always tasty. So that encouraged me to keep going. And it was actually, when I was a receptionist, I tried my first macaron. We had this little cafe on the first floor of the building that we worked in, and I think it was maybe a customer that brought me and my friend some creme brulee macarons one time, and they were so good.
[00:05:33] I’d never heard about them before that time, and, when I realized how expensive they were to buy them for myself, I was like, oh my gosh, maybe I can just make these for myself for cheaper. But I got quickly discouraged and intimidated when I looked up how to make macarons because there’s pages of instructions and so many warnings on all the steps that could go wrong.
[00:05:51] And I was like, oh my gosh, I’m never going to make these. It’s, it’s more worth it just to buy them. And I don’t know what changed, but eventually , I changed my mind and I decided to make French macarons. So I did a ton of research, I looked at a bunch of different recipes, I watched lots of videos of like how the batter consistency is supposed to look at different stages, and I went into it really prepared.
[00:06:12] So my first batch when I finally made one was almost perfect, it had feet and everything, which people say is one of the hard parts, but I underbaked them for 2 minutes So it was so perfect, they just didn’t quite come off the baking mat. And getting it almost right. Made me really obsessed with the process because then I really wanted to perfect it.
[00:06:31] It’s like you get that little bit of hope that you almost did it right and you can do it, but that failure is almost addicting. Like, I can’t rest until I figure it out. So when I got the hang of it, that was it. I was just obsessed. I’d find every excuse to make them for Valentine’s Day. Birthdays, work potlucks, and I got a lot of really good feedback from friends, family, and co workers who were like, Oh my gosh, you should open a bakery.
[00:06:52] And I resisted that idea so hard for so long, and I thought, no, I would hate it if it was my full time job. Something my grandma always used to tell me was don’t make your aspiration your vocation. And I really took that to heart. I was aware of all these studies that show people enjoy their hobbies less when they monetize them or make them their full time job.
[00:07:12] I thought if I had to bake for money, it would feel like a chore and I’d start hating it. at the same time, I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
[00:07:19] So my next job when I was a recruiter I had this coworker He and his fiancé rented commercial kitchen space so they could sell breakfast tacos at farmers markets, So I started looking into how could I do this with baking, and that’s when I first learned about cottage food laws. And I looked in, into the cottage food laws in Washington first, because I already lived there.
[00:07:39] And Oregon and Montana, because I’ve lived there before, I knew I would be happy living there. And quickly got overwhelmed and discouraged myself, talked myself out of it, by all the limitations. And the most common limitation was not being able to use butter or cream in frostings, and that was really important to me.
[00:07:55] So I, kind of tabled that idea, but it was always in the back of my mind. And then when I moved back to Montana in 2019, I moved to Helena. My mom lives in Helena and I got a state job as an administrative officer and I liked it well enough. But I was still trying to figure out what I really wanted to do, like, do I want to try writing and editing in some way, do I want to try illustration, which felt like this dying dream at this point, or do I want to make a baking blog, But I realized how hard that was going to be to monetize, and I wasn’t sure that that was the best fit for me, um So I was baking more and more.
[00:08:28] I found every excuse to bring treats into my office. And then COVID happened I got to work from home and I just absolutely thrived in that environment. I was working out every day.
[00:08:38] I was eating really healthy meals. I was the Best shape of my life. Um, I’m really introverted. So I saved a lot of energy by not being around people. And I knew, Oh, I really don’t want to go back to work in person. I know that’s coming, but I don’t want to. So I started scheming all these ways I could work for myself or keep working from home.
[00:08:55] And One of my coworkers during the pandemic ordered macarons from me. He had tried them in the office, loved them, and that was a huge confidence boost.
[00:09:02] Like, wow, people will actually pay for these. And then I just started thinking, maybe I want to bake full time. Maybe that’s for me. So I tried to get experience in any way I could. I entered the King Arthur baking competition at the Montana State Fair in Great Falls. And the challenge was coffee cake. And I love.
[00:09:20] All kinds of cake. And I ended up winning second place and I was so happy and emotional. I couldn’t believe I won. And at around the same time I was applying for jobs in actual bakeries. And so I’m sitting there during judging and I get a message that one of the bakeries wants to interview me. And it sounded like my dream job.
[00:09:37] They had to adapt their business model during the pandemic and They weren’t so much of a storefront anymore, although local customers could order and pick up from their commercial kitchen. So it was like Minimal social interaction, lots of baking.
[00:09:50] That sounded amazing. And it was one of the few baking jobs that paid really well, but I’d have to move and the cost of living in the area was a lot more expensive. And so it broke my heart, but I turned down the job and I grieved that for a long time. But in the meantime, I was determined, like, I’ll find another way to bake for a living.
[00:10:08] So I applied to, like, the Costco bakery, didn’t hear anything back, interviewed at some local bakeries thinking I’ll work my full time job and then maybe pick up some shifts on the weekend. Got some interest, but understandably, I wasn’t available enough for them. And then I learned about the Montana Local Food Choice Act that passed in 2021.
[00:10:28] And you could use butter and cream, So that’s definitely made me go all in. Where I felt like, okay, I can actually do what I want with this and I’m not limited. Ended up being willing to be a little bit more limited once I was actually started, but it was, it was absolutely the Food Freedom Act that convinced me to start.
[00:10:47] David Crabill: So you started to get really into baking macarons. Didn’t think you would turn it into a business initially, but in 2019 thought about turning into business, but the laws sort of turned you away until Montana passed the food freedom law in 2021. And then you finally decided to start your business. So what was it like once you actually started selling.
[00:11:10] Jessi Deily: So I started marketing on my website and social media. And I actually did see a couple of sales, but it was really slow. And I realized, I probably have to get my name out there and get people to trust my product through farmers markets and events. But all of those required a cottage food license. So finally, I started my application. I was determined to make it work even if I couldn’t use butter or cream.
[00:11:32] So I tried a lot of recipes with shortening instead and most of them were pretty good. But then I stumbled across this information about There’s these two e books, I think they’re called Come and Bake It, and they have a bunch of recipes that have been tested and approved as non potentially hazardous and are allowed under the Texas Cottage Food Laws and Montana’s Cottage Food Laws are very similar to Texas Cottage Food Laws.
[00:11:55] So they accept all of the recipes that have been tested and approved from those e books. So that changed everything because now I could get no cook Swiss meringue buttercream, French buttercream, chocolate ganache, and lemon curd, and many, many more approved, and that let me make exactly what I wanted.
[00:12:13] So I was getting ready for my first farmer’s market and I fully intended to sell just macarons and I do Italian macarons now because they’re easier to scale up and they’re a little bit stronger. They hold up better to jams and curds. And at that time, I had seen people making little animal shaped and character meringues on Instagram, and I was instantly obsessed.
[00:12:33] I had no idea you could do that with meringue. And so I was playing around with that, and I brought some of them to work, and my co workers went crazy. One of them bought a little tub of them for her grandson, and that boosted my confidence so much. And it’s all I wanted to bake at the time, so I’m like, I wonder if other people would buy these.
[00:12:51] So I listed them on Helena classifieds, like a Facebook group, and other local Facebook groups in Helena. And I got like 80 likes and a ton of comments, and then I got worried that, do I have enough? So I baked my butt off and I made a ton more and got to the market and sold out of all my macarons and all my meringues in the first hour.
[00:13:09] I was not prepared. And that was another huge confidence boost. The farmer’s market staff told me, this is amazing. You have to triple your inventory for next time. So I did and for a while I worked my state job 40 hours a week and baked the rest of the time and I’d do about one market a month and I was making some good money.
[00:13:29] But I wanted to do more markets. And I was going through a heartbreak at the time, and I really wanted to do something for myself and make some changes in my life.
[00:13:39] And so I told my boss I wanted to go bake full time and fully intended to do that. And it looked sustainable when I did the calculations. And then she asked me, well, What if you just worked part time? And I thought about it and I’m like, Oh my gosh, I’m so silly. I didn’t even think to ask that. it’s a full time position, so I didn’t think she’d want me part time.
[00:13:57] And so that’s what I do now. I work about 20 hours a week with the state, and. And you are between 40 and 60 hours a week baking and doing farmer’s markets. And so that’s kind of my schedule is just doing farmer’s markets in the summer and then doing events at the Civic Center or.
[00:14:14] The fairgrounds or different pop ups at different small businesses or bakeries in town, doing special orders for my regulars for birthdays, sometimes for weddings, and I get to monetize a little bit on social media.
[00:14:26] David Crabill: so you said that you were looking at baking jobs, you know, when you’re kind of trying to figure out what to do and you’re into baking and I’m a little bit surprised by that because you said when you were focused on graphic design that you realized that you didn’t really want to do graphic design for other people. You just wanted to create it yourself. So do you think you would have been happy if you were baking for someone else?
[00:14:51] Jessi Deily: a good question. And I actually don’t know. I think at the time I really liked the process of baking. So I could see myself doing that every day for a while. But I, I don’t think I would be happy doing that forever, and so I think I thought of it as more of a way to get experience in a baking and kind of fast track some of that knowledge and get experience working in a commercial kitchen just to kind of see what other opportunities were out there, but I think it’s Absolutely the same as graphic design.
[00:15:21] Eventually I would just want to create what I want to create instead of what other people want to create.
[00:15:25] David Crabill: Well, this is correlated to something that I noticed, which is that you don’t offer custom orders for your meringue cookies, and you’re super talented. I’m sure you could do a phenomenal job creating custom orders, but you just want to sell the ones that you create each month, right? So, can you walk me through sort of the thought process behind that?
[00:15:47] Jessi Deily: Yeah, and that’s definitely something I discovered about myself. meringues just take so much time and effort to make and I’m not gonna lie, there’s some days where that’s the last thing in the world I want to do is make meringues because it can take a lot of energy. But I love making them. I always come back to them, so.
[00:16:07] Early on, I think I kind of entertained the idea of doing custom meringues. And then when I actually fell into a regular schedule at farmers markets, I realized it’s really hard to turn around like a set of them for farmers markets. So adding some custom ones on top of that wasn’t very realistic and wasn’t as profitable.
[00:16:27] It’s a lot easier to make three different meringues that go in these tubs, these variety tubs, and sell a lot of those at markets than it is to just make a single batch of meringues for a birthday or a baby shower or something. So I’m really lucky because I have found a way that I can just create the meringues that I want to make and I’m excited about and people will buy them.
[00:16:48] And I think I’d have to ship the business model if people didn’t buy them. But so far I’ve had a lot of good luck with that where I get excited about designs I want to make, I make them, and then I try to build some hype on social media and then lots of people will come out and get them. And I hope, I hope that continues because that is the way that I can keep this business sustainable, that I can stay interested in it and not get so burnt out.
[00:17:11] David Crabill: Well, if somebody checked out your Instagram, they would be able to see why your cookies are so popular. I mean, they look phenomenal. Honestly, I had not seen this style of cookie before, and I mean, they just look amazing. you know, you, I think you said in there that you Got a cottage food permit in order to sell at the farmers markets, and I know, you know, Montana’s a unique state.
[00:17:36] They have two systems, a previous system, which is a cottage food system, and then the kind of food freedom system, the the local food choice act. So you started out under the food freedom law, And it was my impression that you could sell at farmer’s markets under the food freedom law. Is that not true?
[00:17:56] Jessi Deily: That is true. So it’s one of those situations where within the law it’s allowable, but Farmers markets and people who host events still have that ability to require that. So I think if the farmers market at some point decided, like, it’s okay, you don’t have to have a cottage food license, then we’re all geared up to go that way.
[00:18:18] But it’s just kind of an individual basis for business owners to decide if they want you to have a cottage food license for their event or not.
[00:18:25] David Crabill: Right, yeah, so I mean, farmer’s markets have always had the freedom to even, you know, deny a cottage food business entirely, and also, you know, have the freedom to, to choose what they you to have. So, that makes sense. I just, I just wanted to make sure that It was a market specific thing and it wasn’t statewide.
[00:18:45] So you sell Macarons like people be a bit more familiar with those and then these meringue cookies which Truly are like works of art. I was wondering do you sell more? Macarons or do you sell more meringue cookies
[00:18:59] Jessi Deily: You know, so far it has been kind of 50 50, and I’ve thought about just only selling meringues because I love making them but I have so many customers who absolutely love the macarons and they come to me specifically for the macarons that I don’t feel like I can quit at this point. So it, it really does seem like an even split.
[00:19:21] It’s starting to get to the point where I think there’s a little bit more hype over the meringues and I’m getting more known for the meringues so at some point that might be the majority percentage of what I sell. So far it’s been pretty 50 50.
[00:19:36] David Crabill: Now as anyone would be able to see you have a ton of talent and You know piping skill and you could easily Do very well at making custom decorated cookies, which have been a super hot trend. I was wondering why you haven’t chosen to go that direction.
[00:19:52] Jessi Deily: There was a point where I played around with it a little bit and I feel like I’m just a really weird person where it should be like the same Skill set, but for whatever reason I hate making royal icing and I have so much admiration and respect for decorated sugar cookies with royal icing, but I just can’t bring myself to the point to making them and I’m not sure why that is.
[00:20:16] They’re so cool and I’ve been wanting to try them more and get into gingerbread cookies, but on a business level, I think I’m just really enjoy the process of making macarons and meringues .
[00:20:26] David Crabill: As I think about the, you know, the macarons and the meringues, are known, you know, as a pretty high end item. You can charge quite a bit for them. People are willing to pay high prices. You’re the first person that’s been on the show that sells these. unique 3d meringue cookies. So I just was curious about the pricing and you know, what the difference is and you know, where you’ve landed there.
[00:20:51] Jessi Deily: Yeah, so, I started out pricing my macarons at $2.50 per macaron, which is what I was used to paying back in Seattle, and kind of what coworkers, when they’ve come to me and asked for them, have so that they’d pay me. And that was my first guide for doing that. Like, okay, these people propose this price.
[00:21:10] I’m going to stick with that. That seems safe. And as I was doing more and more farmers markets, I started to realize. I was getting kind of burnt out with how much money I needed to make and how many macarons I’d need to make to get to that point. And that’s always a good sign to me if I’m getting burnt out that maybe I need to raise my prices and sell fewer macarons for more money to hit that goal.
[00:21:32] So now it’s $3 a macaron. And I was really hesitant to do that, like so many cottage food bakers are. But my dad gave me this really good idea of do kind of a, like ask your customers what they’re willing to pay, do sort of a pricing analysis survey.
[00:21:47] And so I put together a really like rudimentary one. Kind of figured out what people were willing to pay, which is what I really wanted to. Price it out was what people ended up being willing to pay. So I was glad those lined up and meringue, same thing. I think I underpriced them the first year I was selling them just cause I was like, these are so expensive.
[00:22:05] Is anybody going to want to buy these? And so at first a tub of 30 meringues was $15 and that felt really high to me. But when I calculated out how much time it took me to make them, ingredients time to package them, what I wanted to pay myself, I realized I probably should price it a little bit higher, so I raised it to $20 for a 30 piece tub of meringues, and $7 for like a 10 piece container of meringues.
[00:22:33] And I’ve really started gravitating towards the smaller packaging because I think more people are willing to buy it at that price point rather than, like, a few people will really want the big tubs, but when people are a new customer, it’s a little less intimidating to buy it at that smaller price point, even though it’s overall a little bit more expensive.
[00:22:51] David Crabill: Wait, so you sell tubs of 30 or 10, and you have them priced at $20 for $30 and $7 for 10. So we’re not even hitting a 1 per cookie price point.
[00:23:07] Jessi Deily: Yep, that’s right. They’re about 66 cents per cookie.
[00:23:12] David Crabill: So how, I’m just curious, like how long does it take you to make these meringue cookies?
[00:23:17] Jessi Deily: It depends on the design, but if I’m making a standard batch of my meringue, I can usually make between 120 or 180 individual meringues which is like three cookie sheets usually, in two to four hours. And that’s partly why I raised my prices as the complexity of some of the designs increased. I was putting more and more time into it.
[00:23:41] But it, it really does depend. Some of my simple ones, like the little pigs, I can usually get them done in two hours, and some of the more complex ones, like there’s these little Sheba dogs, or Pokemon those were taking up to four hours. I think I’ve gotten faster now, where I can get those Down to like two or three hours.
[00:23:58] And then there’s just the kind of passive baking time where it takes two to three hours to bake them at a really low temperature.
[00:24:06] David Crabill: Okay. So if you’re doing 120 to 180 cookies over the course of, let’s say three hours and that’s just three hours for you to make them, right? That doesn’t include the baking time. Yeah. So and then you’re adding another two to three hours of baking, which I understand is passive. But it’s still oven time.
[00:24:28] So, you know, let’s say maybe four hours. And then, you know, you’ve got cleanup and everything like that too. So I’m just going, okay, if you’re making 150 over four hours Then that’s like 38 cookies per hour and then you’re packaging them in packs of 10 and That’s times seven. So what I’m calculating now is you’re making about $25 to maybe $30 an hour if if you didn’t have to pay for ingredients at all and You know didn’t have to pay for you know, the time they say take to market and everything it just seems so low to me for a totally like custom artwork product.
[00:25:10] Have you experimented with bumping up your meringues higher?
[00:25:14] Jessi Deily: I haven’t yet and I don’t know it’s, it seems like a good chunk of money to me because I, I definitely do price my hourly wage close to my state wage and that’s pretty high compared to a lot of the other jobs in Helena and so I’m, I’m pretty happy with what I do make because what I make from baking is about half of my income when I look at that proportionally 20 hours a week at my day job and then baking I make maybe The same or a little bit more in the 40 to 60 hours I’ll put into it.
[00:25:43] it may be as a little bit disproportionate. And I think that’s kind of me where I’m, I’m just willing to put so much time into this because I love doing it. So at some point, I think I probably could experiment with pricing it more, but I’m also mindful that, I don’t know if people in Helena or Montana would be willing to pay much more than that for meringues, so I am curious with experimenting with it in the future, but I love doing it so much and I love how much my customers love the meringues that at this point I’m, I think I’m okay with that.
[00:26:15] David Crabill: Well, I mean yeah, besides the just the inputs of your time and everything and ingredients and obviously eggs are not cheap, but it’s also just, you know, what, what the market will bear. And I just, because it’s such a customized item and it’s such a, a piece of artwork, I just have this feeling that people would pay quite a lot more.
[00:26:37] Now, one thing I did see was these tubs that you’re putting them in. And was there a specific reason why you chose to package them in tubs?
[00:26:46] Jessi Deily: Yeah, so the deli containers are, I like that they’re clear so that you can really see The meringues inside because that’s the most important part is that people see them and they’re like, oh my gosh, they’re so cute. But the other reason is I could order them in bulk to kind of keep the price down and they seal really tightly.
[00:27:07] I feel kind of bad at markets when people are trying to open them because they’re, they can be really hard to open once you close that lid. And that’s really important for meringues. They Do not do well around humidity, so it keeps them really shelf stable. I tell people I’ve kept them for three months and I’ll open that tub and they’re still fresh.
[00:27:26] So it really keeps the moisture out. And I will struggle in the summers. Montana is usually really dry. But in the summers the humidity has been a little bit higher and even after I bake them they’ll get a little sticky so I have to have a dehumidifier. So any packaging I can do that helps me with that and keep the air and the moisture out is really important and I don’t think they’re the prettiest packages so I, I would like to play around with different packaging that’s a lot cuter but it’s just been really practical for now.
[00:27:54] David Crabill: Well, you’re super creative, obviously. You’ve got the graph design background. You put that label on it, which is a very nicely designed label. So that’s, that is, you know, definitely adds to the niceness of the packaging. Now, I’m curious What are your macarons packaged in?
[00:28:10] Jessi Deily: So my macarons are packaged Again, I’d like to play with cuter packaging, but I actually put them in cellophane sleeves that are, have the little self adhesive things that stick together, so it’s not like heat sealed or anything. And the reason I did that was the same, idea of making the product really visible, but also cutting down on packaging costs.
[00:28:32] The cellophane sleeves that I use are just like, A few cents per sleeve when I order them and I, I really wanted to do that because macarons are already so expensive that I didn’t really want to pass a, really big packaging cost on to my customers, and I worried at first that that made them look less fancy and that people would be like, oh, I don’t really want to pay for that, that doesn’t look quality, but that hasn’t been a problem, I think people get really excited about them they tell me they look really beautiful, and so I just keep Using those, and at some point it would be nice to use macaron boxes or like the little blister packaging, just to keep them extra secure.
[00:29:10] But for now it’s the best way to keep costs down. Since I have to pre package them all for markets, it saves me a lot of time just putting them in the sleeves like that. So, pretty simple, but it gets the job done.
[00:29:21] David Crabill: Yeah, I could definitely see how that would work well. Cause you’ve got the macarons clearly visible through the packaging. I actually feel like, you know, you could definitely play around with your meringue packaging because, if they’re just all. put into a tub. Although the tub is clear, you know, each one is like so ornately designed and meticulously handcrafted, but they’re not, you can’t really see them.
[00:29:45] I feel like if you put them in like clear packaging, like if you go to a store and you see Macarons, right? Costco, for instance, you know, they’re all like laid out, you know, they’re, you can see each one of them. I feel like if you had them in packaging where you could see them more easily, then, you know maybe a 12 meringue box in my opinion A 20 gift like very easily, you know, but I don’t know about Helena, but I’m just, I just feel like they look so amazing.
[00:30:16] You just, you could show them off a little bit more with your packaging, but there’s so many things you have to juggle with business. And I know this is a part time thing for you, so, all in due time, but, that was just my thought when I saw the packaging.
[00:30:28] Jessi Deily: Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that, and I totally agree, I would, I’ve done some for Valentine’s Day, like those little clear PET plastic boxes that are food safe, and I kind of use royal icing to put Like, glue the little, these little bears down onto a little gold insert thing in there to keep them from shifting and breaking.
[00:30:48] And then they’re so much more visible, so I really would like to play around with that more it’s just a Matter of finding a packaging that’s highly visible and Keeps them in place so that they don’t break but I think you’re spot on I think playing with packaging would make them so much more giftable and I could maybe raise the price a little bit more
[00:31:06] David Crabill: So you’ve done a lot of different designs for these meringue cookies What are some of your favorites?
[00:31:14] Jessi Deily: You know, some of my favorites are the really simple ones because they’re fun to make. So I love making bears. I don’t think people like buying bears as much as I like making them. So I don’t very often, but I love bears. I really like The bunnies too, just because bunnies are just something I resonate with so much and they’re part of my name.
[00:31:35] But again, I think those only really sell that well during Easter, so I don’t make them often. And then some of my other favorites are the ducks, because I just think it’s so perfect to float them in coffee or tea or cocoa, because they’re like little bathtub rubber duckies. I love the farm animals, they’re always a best seller, so it’s, it’s a good mix of something I really like to create, because I love farm animals.
[00:31:56] But it’s also a good mix of, my customers continually come back for those, and at a farmer’s market that feels so appropriate.
[00:32:03] Um, One of my favorite projects of all time that I’ve done is I did this marshmallow ramen, with little Pusheen meringues on it. And that, that was so fun to make, just because it looked like ramen, but it’s all sweet, so.
[00:32:18] I get excited about a lot of my projects, but those are probably some of my favorites.
[00:32:22] David Crabill: Now that ramen project I saw that on your your social feed So was that something that that company reached out to you to do and did they pay you for it?
[00:32:32] Jessi Deily: Yeah, so ItSugar reached out to me, and while I wasn’t paid, I was sent a little Pusheen plushie. And I’m at the point where I don’t feel like I’m that big of an influencer, where I don’t ask for payment for a lot of things, but at some point I might consider it. And I just, I like getting free stuff.
[00:32:51] So, I love Pusheen, I agreed to do it, and part of it was just because I was so excited about the idea I got when they asked me to collaborate, that I was like, yeah, I don’t, I don’t want to ask for payment. I get a plushie and I get to make this cool project. And it really didn’t get that many views but it still has been one of my favorite projects just because I enjoyed it.
[00:33:09] So they sent me the plush with the understanding that I’d make content that pertained to it and share the link with my followers and a discount code so they could get it early access and post some pictures of the plushie with the work that I created. So it was really fun.
[00:33:23] David Crabill: Well, I mean you did an amazing job with it and I think It was worthy of being paid for because, If it helps sell their plushie, then, you know, they’re making more money because of your work. So and it’s so funny that you said that you’re not that much of an influencer.
[00:33:41] I mean, you, now have over 12, 000 followers on Instagram. you have 140, 000 TikTok followers, and I’ve seen a number of your videos have gone viral and have millions upon millions of views. So it’s just curious, why do you not think of yourself as being that much of an influencer?
[00:34:01] Jessi Deily: I think I don’t feel like I’m much of an influencer just because my videos with my content gets a ton of views. And I’ve found this really nice niche place, especially on TikTok, where I can get videos to go viral. Not all the time, but consistently enough that I feel like something’s going right there.
[00:34:20] But when I partner with other businesses, I feel like those posts get very few views. Compared to the other meringue content I put out that gets like millions. And so, I don’t feel like a very good influencer because when I partner with the other brands, I don’t really know if the content I’m putting out there is actually driving sales for them.
[00:34:40] So, it would be interesting if they shared the metrics with me more and I could see like, did anyone buy this plushie? Did anyone buy this stand mixer? But I don’t have visibility to that. So, I, I just see the views on my end and think, oh, I hope they got. sales out of that.
[00:34:53] David Crabill: Well, I could just tell you, even though your Instagram feed isn’t enormous, it’s still of high value to a lot of brands. And you’ve obviously put in a ton of effort to building up your brand and, and your following.
[00:35:07] Um, You’re the first person to say that you’ve found some kind of system that allows you to go viral on TikTok on a semi regular basis. So I have to hear more about this.
[00:35:19] Jessi Deily: And to me, it’s, the algorithms are always so tricky and I’ve researched a lot of SEO for, it was back when I wanted to do a food blog, I was trying to figure out how do you drive traffic? How do you optimize those keywords? And so I kind of know the basic concepts. I kind of know like, Oh, these are. The hashtags you should use of when you look up a hashtag, it’s like, you maybe don’t want to pick the most popular one, it gets millions or billions of views because your presence isn’t big enough to compete with those other presences that have millions of followers.
[00:35:53] You want to kind of pick those mid keywords that. You know, a few thousand people might see and build from there. that’s always been my starting point, but there’s content that I make that I’m like, Ooh, this is going to be so popular. And it just gets a few thousand views. And then stuff that I have no idea is going to be that popular.
[00:36:10] It gets like, like my duckies. I did not expect that to be my most popular video, but I think that’s up to like 18. 9 million. And it’s just these weird little factors that are. That one was definitely some luck. That wasn’t just me. But it’s partly the, the content. Like, if people like your content, you’re gonna get it.
[00:36:29] Engage followers. It’s a little bit of luck. It’s a little bit of trending music. It’s a little bit of trending The ducky one, I used Sesame Street rubber ducky, and it wasn’t even that it was just nostalgic for people in my generation. It was also that I think a famous Korean pop star, sang the Rubber Duckie song, so there’s this whole younger generation who recognized it for that, and there were all these comments about it that I didn’t understand, and so sometimes you get a little bit of that.
[00:36:57] You just hit on something that’s trending, that’s kind of adjacent to what you’re doing, and your video blows up because People are interested in that. But to me, it’s really about you find your niche and SEO is getting so much smarter these days where it really is about the quality of the content you’re providing.
[00:37:13] Is this solving a problem for someone? Is it entertaining to your audience? And so I feel like I’ve found that niche and then posting regularly is important, but that SEO with the keywords, using SEO I think it’s, you don’t want to use more than 11 keywords usually. You want to use a mix of highly popular hashtags, some lower ones, some really specific ones to your content, and then some mid ones so you’re getting kind of a range of people.
[00:37:37] You want to use music that’s, if it’s on TikTok or YouTube, popular but maybe not so popular because it goes along with that You’re competing with people with a higher following than you, so if you get kind of those niche, somewhat popular songs like for me, I use a lot of video game music, which people will stop and watch just for the video game music, because they recognize it, and it’s kind of their niche, so.
[00:38:00] there’s so many factors. I don’t have it down to a science by any means, but following those ideas, I’ve been able to get several of my videos to get several million views.
[00:38:11] David Crabill: So it sounds like you start with the keywords. are you actually like Literally looking and seeing what keywords you want to use and then creating a design off that or are you just creating your design or Video or whatever and then finding the right keywords
[00:38:28] Jessi Deily: It’s usually creating the content, creating the design first, because first and foremost, I want to make stuff that I enjoy, but when I am designing meringues I’ll be mindful of like, I wonder what people would be interested in, what they’d buy, what they’d want to watch. And so that influences it, but it always starts with the designer, the content first, and then it’s puzzling out what hashtags, what descriptions.
[00:38:53] are going to, what music is going to get people to stop and watch, what’s going to, what’s the algorithm going to pick up on. And that’s when I will type in hashtags in TikTok as if I’m searching for a video. And it’s a really useful tool because you can see when you search by hashtag how many people are following that hashtag or how many people liked it.
[00:39:13] I forget which one it is. And That kind of helps you choose like, oh, this one’s got like 14 billion following that hashtag. Whereas this one has maybe 5, 000 or 50, 000. So maybe that’s a better hashtag to use than this really popular one. So content first and then finding a couple that work really well for that content.
[00:39:33] David Crabill: Well, you said you kind of hit on some trends another trend that you didn’t mention is the Pokemon trend that’s been a really hot thing for the last a few years, but I know you’ve been Doing Pokemon art for a decade at least. So do you think that’s also part of it? Cause I’ve seen a lot of Pokemon meringues in your collection.
[00:39:53] Jessi Deily: Yeah, and that that was a really recent thing. I held off doing Pokemon for a long time because I really wanted to more of meringue artist that does animals rather than characters because I I didn’t want to get locked into that. I wanted to be able to make other things that I like.
[00:40:10] And Pokemon, I always kind of intended to make meringues, but it took me a long time. Because that’s kind of what I started with illustration too, I was just doing a Pokemon doodle a day to get myself into the habit of drawing more. And that got my account a lot of attention. Or a lot as a really small artist with a really small following anyways.
[00:40:28] So I wanted to kind of get back to that, knowing that that was a big part of my childhood. I love Pokemon, and that it’s continued to be this popular thing in Current future generations, you know, kids now love Pokemon. I did one Pokemon video, it was Eevee and it didn’t get as many views as I thought it would.
[00:40:46] I think right now it’s at like 50,000 or something. But it, the community absolutely went crazy for it, so, and that’s always the balance. I have a very small following on, say, Facebook, and I kind of like it that way because it’s just Helena, but the people who follow me on there are so engaged, and so when they saw Pokemon, they were all like, oh my gosh, I think you have to make more, we all need this.
[00:41:07] And so, that has definitely helped. That drove a lot of sales. Maybe it didn’t drive as many views on TikTok or Instagram. It was a good amount, just not a viral amount. I think as I post more, It might gain more traction that way, but I think it’s an example of one of those really, really popular spaces that is hard to get into because it’s really saturated. So I think stuff like that can help, but I also think.
[00:41:33] You have to be pretty persistent in that space to pick something that popular and really take off from there.
[00:41:39] David Crabill: So it sounds like even though Facebook is your smallest following by far. That’s what actually drives sales for your business.
[00:41:49] Jessi Deily: Yeah, Facebook and Instagram are the biggest source and a lot of my followers that follow me on Facebook also follow me on Instagram. I have a bit more of a following on Instagram of people who don’t live in Helena or Montana. But a lot of my local people are still on there and it’s taken a while to kind of train my followers that no, I don’t ship when I say there’s a sale, it’s only for people in my town.
[00:42:14] But absolutely Facebook probably generates the most sales for me in person because it’s just everyone’s on Facebook. There’s so many local groups that people are looking for events to go to that. You get people who see the notifications right away. They’re really engaged. It’s easy to reach out to me on Facebook and say like, Hey, are you going to be here or do you have these left?
[00:42:36] Which has been so interesting because the 140,000 followers on TikTok, it’s really fun and I can monetize that a little bit, but I can make more money off of the maybe 600 followers I have on Facebook than the many thousands on TikTok.
[00:42:48] David Crabill: So I’m just curious, why do you put so much effort into TikTok keywords and everything when, you know, it doesn’t actually necessarily increase the amount of business that you get?
[00:43:00] Jessi Deily: I think it’s because deep down I, I would love to be a, primarily a content creator and that be the main source of my income. But right now it doesn’t seem realistic. So I put a lot of effort into it because one, I really enjoy it. Two, there’s that hope that maybe someday I can grow it into a content creation business.
[00:43:19] I think it’s still a good marketing tool with, the trend of food freedom just becoming more and more prominent across the country. I feel like someday Montana is going to let us ship out of state. And so at that point, it’s, it’s a nice investment to have people who do want to buy it. They just know they can’t because I can’t ship it to them.
[00:43:38] But when it comes down to it, I know that I’m already starting to feel it, the repetitive stress injuries sometimes from making so many meringues. That I feel like as much as I’d love to do baking and sell this amount forever, I don’t know if it’s sustainable. My, my wrists might start breaking down and someday I might not be able to keep up with production.
[00:43:58] So it’s, it’s kind of a way of d iversify a little bit of an investment for the future of, if I could be a content creator, I could produce less and be more creative with my content, make a bunch of cool stuff, maybe branch into more of a teaching space, and that might be a safer investment if I was able to build it up for my body, which could fail me at some point.
[00:44:20] David Crabill: Well, I could definitely see you getting into teaching online. You clearly have the skills and, um, since you can’t ship in state, it might not be something that you’ve considered, but I really feel like with the quality of designs, you know, and I guess with the stress of how many you make, I could just see, you know. If you’re able to ship, you would probably be able to charge quite a bit, even considering the cost of shipping for these very unique products.
[00:44:49] So is that something that you’ve thought about is potentially, you know, going commercial or, or something at some point?
[00:44:55] Jessi Deily: Yeah, I have a bunch of ideas, and I’m not sure which I like more, but I definitely like the idea if I ever was to ship, it stresses me out to think about shipping sometimes because the meringues are so fragile. I would have to figure out a really good way to package them and pad them so that they can survive without breaking so much during the shipping process.
[00:45:17] But at the same time, that’s a really appealing idea to me if I can figure that out, because I think you’re right. I think. You can target a lot more people and find that target demographic that’s willing to pay more for something that’s, really giftable like that, who’s willing to pay the shipping costs.
[00:45:31] And that could open up a lot of opportunities for me that I might not have just in Montana. So that idea sounds really good, and I would, just have to figure it out. the type of person where I, I feel like I should never say never because I said I’d never make macarons, and now that’s my business, partly.
[00:45:47] So I’m somewhat open to the idea of a commercial kitchen, but I don’t know that I’m that interested in high volume production, and so that’s kind of where I battle with it. Where sometimes I think it would be really cool to have a little commercial kitchen, I make all my stuff I can make whatever I want, and then have like these little Refrigerated or, for the meringues, non refrigerated little automated storage lockers where people could order them and come pick them up and that would save me some time on trying to arrange pickups or doing events or things like that.
[00:46:15] So there’s some ideas floating around there that would be kind of cool. It’s just not quite sure where I want to go with it yet. But I wouldn’t want to have, say, like a restaurant in a storefront. I’d much rather have a commercial kitchen where it’s just me baking. And not having to manage that storefront customer service piece of it.
[00:46:32] David Crabill: So going back to social media, one thing that I noticed on your social media accounts is that there’s not much information about you, your personal life. I couldn’t find a single picture of you anywhere. So it’s, it’s all about your brand. It’s all about your artwork. can you share a little bit about, is that a strategy? Is that just, you know, your personality?
[00:46:57] Jessi Deily: it definitely comes from my insecurity. I’m really a private person. And so I am really nervous to put. my face out there, and really would like to share more about myself and put my face out there more, but I just haven’t been able to work up the courage yet, so it’s a goal. I’d like to do that.
[00:47:15] find that I engage a lot, like, I’m really interested in content creators who do share about themselves, who do put their face out there, but I think I’m just really shy and a little bit insecure, so I Haven’t gotten to the point yet. So I, I kind of will like sneak little bits of it here and there, but it’s really minimal, like you said.
[00:47:33] But we’ll see. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll share more in the future.
[00:47:35] David Crabill: Well, if you’re considering going all content creation and doing online teaching, then it’s inevitable. You’re going to have to put yourself out there at some point.
[00:47:45] Jessi Deily: Yeah, exactly. I, I have family and friends who keep telling me that and I’m like, oh, I don’t want to. but I think you’re right. It’s, it’s coming. So I got to start practicing that.
[00:47:55] David Crabill: Well, I can understand. I mean, if you track back to the beginning days of Forrager, like, there was nothing about me on Forrager at all, and it took a long time for my introverted self to finally get used to putting myself, kind of into the whole business, too. So, I definitely understand, and it looks like you’ve been, you know, in different ways, in different avenues, trying to put yourself out there for a while. You know, I, you know, you started this Etsy store a decade ago, and, I sort of think about, like, the struggling artist. Like, that’s a typical thing when somebody pursues art.
[00:48:29] So, I just was curious about the Etsy store, I know you still run it. I, looks like you have over 600 five star reviews on it. Like, is that something that still is a pretty successful thing for you, or are you not so focused on that anymore?
[00:48:43] Jessi Deily: Uh, Not so focused on it anymore. And I think with any It’s not really social media, but it, it has the same kind of strategies as social media, where if you’re not doing things that really play into Etsy’s algorithm, you’re not really being seen on there. so for a while it was like some nice extra passive income and it was a lot of sales, not a lot of money or anything.
[00:49:06] A nice little chunk, just a little extra. So I’ve seen engagement on their drop over the last few years and it’s probably because I just haven’t put really any effort into it. It’s still up there. I still get a couple sales every now and then but it’s way less because I’m not really putting out new items.
[00:49:23] I’m not Paying as much attention to the trend. So it’s, it’s really something that to be successful on Etsy, I think you really have to play to what Etsy is trying to do and take advantage of the tools they use there. And I’m really not doing that.
[00:49:34] David Crabill: So yeah, if you, started the commercial kitchen or something, you could potentially like sell your products on Etsy and, ship them across the nation , I guess that would be kind of. Bringing it full circle.
[00:49:45] Jessi Deily: Yeah, I think that would be a really natural pairing. I like Etsy. The interface has been really easy for me to use for art and keychains and things like that. And I definitely do see people on Etsy selling meringues, and there’s a space for that. It’s just that I, either they’re not following cottage food laws or their state allows it.
[00:50:05] So I would not mind having a commercial kitchen where I could ship on Etsy or even on Square. I think I have it set up on Square when I open that now so that only people within like a 10 mile radius can order them. And then obviously they have to pick it up where I want them to pick it up, but it would be really cool to have that as an option to be able to ship on either Etsy or Square or some other venue.
[00:50:26] David Crabill: So one thing that clearly stands out to me on your social media is your photography. Really good, really clean, really simple. What do you do there? Is that just your background in art and photography coming into play?
[00:50:43] Jessi Deily: definitely, I draw on my graphic design background for that. We had Kind of a digital visualization class I took that was heavily photography focused. I learned a little bit of that, and then Kind of when I was trying to figure out, like, my illustration dream might be dying, but I want to do something creative. Where am I going now? I got really into photography, so I brushed up on all the photography basics and practiced it a lot. So it’s a A mix of that learning and a mix of graphic design.
[00:51:12] I use a DSLR and really simple photo backdrops. And then I have a bunch of different lighting and things I can use to reflect the light and soften it to really control it. And I feel like I’m still learning. A lot of my photos to me, they look like either so much for watching, and I’ll you in the next video.
[00:51:44] Film very well on it but you, you can get some pretty good shots on just the iPhone, but for just photography, I really like what the DSLR is capable of.
[00:51:52] David Crabill: How much time does it take you to do all of the, the side work, you know, you do all the photography and all of the videos and the editing and the uploading it to social media? Like, what does it actually take to make all that happen?
[00:52:09] Jessi Deily: you know, at one point I think I was trying to tally up all the hours it took and I never really got a good number for that, but I do know that most mornings before I go to my. Part time day job. I’m between like 6. 30 30. I’m working on my website, I’m editing photos, I’m writing copy for like Facebook posts a lot of weekends I’ll spend doing photoshoots, and uh, uh, Typical photoshoot doesn’t take me as long anymore because I’ve, at first I had to build everything up and take it down every time and now I have a little bit more of a dedicated space where everything comes up and down really quickly.
[00:52:45] But I could spend 20 minutes on a photoshoot and then It takes me more time to edit. So I haven’t added up all the numbers, but it’s, it’s a good chunk of time cause there’s so much time put into baking. And then I do spend a lot of time editing videos, doing photo shoots, editing photos, picking out music managing social media.
[00:53:03] And that’s one reason I think at some point I’ll have to. Raise my prices because I don’t think I factor that in a lot and it’s because I’m towing that line between how much of this is like hobby doing it for social media and how much of this is marketing part of the business and I should pay myself for that.
[00:53:18] So don’t have an exact number, but it’s a lot of time.
[00:53:21] David Crabill: So where would you like to go? You still have a day job, right? So are you kind of eyeballing maybe taking this full time eventually?
[00:53:31] Jessi Deily: Yeah, I fully am. I’m planning on going full time. I feel like I’m in a spot where I could make this my full time job, but I am a big believer in take it slow, build up your name. I like where I’m at. It feels really sustainable. And one big factor is I really like the benefits I get as a state employee.
[00:53:51] It’s like health care and all that stuff is something I don’t have to worry about. It’s stable paycheck each month while I’m building this thing. But That’s the dream is make it a full time business. Just work for myself. So we’ll see within the next couple of years, I’m hoping to just be full time baking.
[00:54:06] David Crabill: that point going to be where you feel like you’re ready to make the leap?
[00:54:11] Jessi Deily: I think it’s going to be when I feel like I have enough of a presence in the community that I can do consistent pop ups in the months where I don’t have farmers markets or other events. And it’s getting to that point. I didn’t think it would, but usually my January, February, March are dead, but I have a lot of things that are starting to line up now.
[00:54:30] So I think I want to get through this year and see how I’m doing. And maybe this time next year I can take that leap. But, um, that’s really what I’m waiting for is just that feeling of security that I’m not just doing markets and events during the summer that I have something sustainable through the winter months where sales really go down.
[00:54:51] David Crabill: And you obviously don’t have to wait till you go full time to start teaching. Is that something that you’re considering doing in the near future on your social media accounts?
[00:55:02] Jessi Deily: Yeah, I’d really like to. I’ve been saying that for probably two years now though. I uh, had a friend who reached out to me a while back and said, could you do a remote, like, morale event? Like, you could teach Our staff had to make macarons and make it just kind of a virtual but live thing. And I was like, Ooh, that sounds really cool.
[00:55:19] But I think I just have so little time at this point where between both jobs, I’m working 60 to 80 hours a week and still trying to spend time with family and do other things that. Preparing a class is not something I know how to do, and I know it’s going to take research and preparation, and there’s so many things I still want to learn to do that I just haven’t been able to make the time.
[00:55:39] So that’s where I, I get kind of stuck, because I want to do it, I want to explore it, I just know it’s going to take that time investment, so I’m really going to have to get to the point where I push myself to do that. So it’s, it’s something I’m entertaining, but I haven’t Take in that leap of commitment to really put the resources into figuring out how to do that yet.
[00:55:57] David Crabill: if it wasn’t a class, but it was just you, you know, turning on the camera, you know, doing a live on Instagram or something. And then just, you know, making the meringue cookies anyway, and you’re just showing people what you’re doing.
[00:56:11] Jessi Deily: Yeah, that’s something I’ve been trying to work up the courage to do. I thought I was gonna do it last summer and just turn on the camera while I’m prepping for a market or something and doing a batch of farm animal meringues. Something I’m comfortable doing that I could try to balance like watching the chat and responding to people, engaging a little bit, but also showing them techniques, answering questions.
[00:56:31] And it comes down to that shyness and that insecurity again, where I really want to try it, I’m just still a little scared, so I, it’s something I really want to work on is getting more confident to be able to just turn it on, let myself fail a little bit, or maybe not, and just get more comfortable with that format.
[00:56:47] David Crabill: Well, hey, you’re on the podcast right now. You know, you’re, helping people and giving people a lot of advice. So maybe this will be the jumping off point. And I look forward to seeing you start teaching hopefully in the very near future.
[00:57:01] Jessi Deily: Thanks, me too!
[00:57:03] David Crabill: So thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of that with us. So if somebody does want to learn more from you, where can they find you or how can they reach out?
[00:57:13] Jessi Deily: I would encourage people to go to my TikTok or Instagram or YouTube for a lot of my meringue content. My handle is @colbyjackrabbit, all one word, all lowercase for Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. My handle on YouTube’s a little bit different. It’s @colby-jack-rabbit. And you can always go to my website, colbyjackrabbit.com, and there’s a contact form on there that’ll shoot me an email if you have a question, and I’m really responsive on Facebook and Instagram if people have questions in Montana about orders or if you’re not in Montana about tips and tricks and advice about meringues or macarons.
[00:57:54] David Crabill: Awesome. Well, I’ll put links to all that in the show notes and thanks so much for coming on the show and sharing it with us today.
[00:58:00] Jessi Deily: Of course, thanks for having me on!
[00:58:05] David Crabill: That wraps up another episode of the Forrager podcast.
[00:58:08] For more information about this episode, go to forrager.com/podcast/107.
[00:58:14] And if you’re enjoying this podcast, please take a quick moment right now and leave me a review on Apple Podcasts. It doesn’t have to be a long review, but it’s truly the best way to support this show and will help others like you find this podcast.
[00:58:25] And finally, if you’re thinking about selling your own homemade food, check out my free minute 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.
[00:58:37] Thanks for listening, and I’ll see you in the next episode.
