Episode 39: From Cookie Dough to America’s #1 Deli | Athena & Melina Sippel | TKB Deli

Athena Sippel built TKB Deli from a family kitchen experiment into the #1 rated restaurant in the nation on Yelp in 2018. Her daughter Melina now runs the flagship Indio location alongside her brothers, expanding both the retail and wholesale bakery business. Together they share the hustle, setbacks, and vision that turned door-to-door cookie dough sales into a Coachella Valley institution. They open up about the realities of working with family, why entrepreneurship demands more than 100%, and how to create customer service that keeps people lining up for years.

“Every year we set goals. Every year we set visions. I don’t take 100% from my kids, I expect 120%. Above and beyond and they know that. How I look at my vision is always what I tell people, put your backpack on, climb to the top, put your flag on it. As an entrepreneur you never, never stop.”

— Athena

“If we didn’t go through the days when we didn’t have any customers, when nobody was walking through our door, when we were figuring out our next steps, how we were going to do it - If we had gotten the Yelp #1 10 years ago, we would have crashed and burned.”

— Melina

• Show Notes

  TKB Deli 

  Pace Picante

  Lowerys

  Gelson Supermarkets

  AJ’s Fine Foods

  Wholefoods

  Phoenix

  Los Angeles

  Indio

  Palm Springs

  Palm Desert

  Coachella

  Top Restaurant in the Nation 2018 on Yelp

  Starbucks

• Transcript

  Follow along using the Transcript

  Chapters:

  00:00 Starting with cookie dough sales at Christmas

  04:24 The muffin recipe that changed everything

  10:40 From “Scoop and Bake” to wholesale success

  18:55 The family’s vision and expectations

  25:15 Surviving slow days and building resilience

  33:50 The Yelp #1 ranking and what it really means

  40:23 Lessons from the grind of entrepreneurship

  48:10 Balancing family relationships in business

  54:30 Serving the Coachella Valley community

  1:02:15 Favorite menu items and customer favorites

   How I look at my vision is I always tell people, get your backpacks on. Climb the mountain, get to the top, put your flag on and say, ah, yay. I made it to the top. But then little do people know there's another mountain to climb. As an entrepreneur, you never stop.

  If we didn't go through the days when we didn't have any customers, when nobody was walking through our door where we are figuring out what was our next step, how are we gonna do it?

  If we would've got the Yelp number one 10 years ago, we would've crashed and crumble 'cause we wouldn't have been prepared the way we are.

  That's Athena and Melina. Sipple of TKB Deli and this is The Powerful Ladies podcast.

  Hey guys, I'm your host, Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast where I invite my favorite humans, the awesome, the up to something, and the extraordinary to come and share their story. I hope that you'll be left, entertained, inspired, and moved to take action towards living your most powerful life.

  Athena is the family matriarch and founder of TKB Deli, the number one rated restaurant in the nation on Yelp in 2018. Her daughter Melina is the new generation owning and running TKB Deli with her two older brothers and expanding the family business into a flagship in the Coachella Valley. On this episode, we discuss how the family business started the secrets to a successful family business with five passionate and independent people, the differences between business and entrepreneurship and what great customer service really means.

  All right. Hi ladies. Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Hi. Hi. I am really excited today to have the mother daughter duo behind the number one deli bakery in America on Yelp, TKB Deli, the kids' business on the line from Indio, California. Hi. Cool. Hi everyone. So I would love it if you guys would introduce yourself and tell us more about yourselves.

  Okay. I'll start with me. Perfect. I'm my name is Athena Sippel and I am the founder of the TKB bakery in Delhi, in Indio, California.

  So my mom always sells herself short. She, yes, she's a founder. She's this, she's the creator of all the products. She's the backbone of our business. If it wasn't for her and my dad, my brothers and I wouldn't have what we have today.

  I'm the daughter. My name's Melina. I'm the daughter of the family, the youngest it's my two older brothers and I, we run the retail bakery and deli. And then we also have a hotel cookie dough company. And we've been doing it since 1994. So this year would be 25 years that we've been in business.

  Which is so crazy 'cause it's been a family business for so long. And even before you and your brothers were involved, you were still involved, right? Yes.

  Yes. Even as children we were always working at the shop after school, before school weekends. So we've really been there with my parents a lot, even as much as we are now.

  Athena, where did the idea come from to start TKV, the idea? From the cookie dough, it started with chocolate chip cookie dough. And it also started with my husband was a stockbroker and he always told me the story of the paste ante woman and the lowry's lowry's creator that he knew being a stockbroker.

  And how it came about was I was a pastry chef. And I also was a home economics major, so I had a love for muffins, cookies, and gosh, I all I did was think of food. It was crazy. I was always creating, and always in the kitchen and just loving food loving that to create. And so it started with that.

  And how the kids got involved was they needed Christmas money. And I didn't know what to do for them. So I said, Hey, let's go door to door selling cookie dough. And we did, and I taught the kids the ropes of entrepreneurship just by going door to door selling cookie dough. And my daughter can tell the story to this day is I used to make cookies for them, muffins for them, and wrap 'em.

  So nice and beautiful. And she used to put it in her backpack and she used to sell it, at school. She used to sell it going door to door and she would raise money for for camp. And so she's been doing this since she's been a little girl. She. So that's it. Sorry. No, you're perfect. So did you go from were you at first a stay at home mom and then you decided oh no, I can do a business selling this.

  Like how did it go? 'cause you started first in the wholesale space, right? Creating dough for places like grocery stores and Correct. Is that how it started? Oh, absolutely. It started at Gelson Supermarkets on Tarzana. Tarzana area. And that's when the big gig of the coffee came around the corner.

  And so they were, when the coffee craze was coming around the corner, Starbucks was just coming around the corner. And so they needed product to sell with the coffee. And I could remember at the time the guy who was the buyer, he had said to my husband, 'cause we knew him, 'cause my husband was a stockbroker, so he was introduced to this gentleman.

  And he said, can you do. A low fat red raspberry muffin. And I remember that. And he said, if you can do this, raspberry this low fat red raspberry muffin, he says, then you got the whole bakery case of doing all the muffins and it was creating muffins that were raw dough in a 10 pound bucket, and it was called scoop and bake at the time.

  So it was a real challenge for me. It was a real challenge for me, and I had to make sure that the customers would come back and I did it and I was able to sell 110 pound buckets a week for this coffee bar in Tarzana, California. And then it just went from there. And I was working, my husband and I, there's so many stories, it's like an endless amount of stories of people that walked through my path.

  That

  helped me. And we went from there to the grocery store chain of AJ's fine foods in Arizona whole Foods, which we still do to this day. And we go the back door and we sell cookie dough, scone dough muffin dough. And what happened was I kept going to these grocery store chains and selling, but I didn't get that recognition.

  That people knew me. 'cause it was always the bakery people who were scooping, baking, scooping, baking in hotels and all country clubs everywhere. And so I said, I wanna be recognized. I wanna do this myself. I wanna open up my own bakery and let people see me. And so it went from there to, it went to a sandwich shop and my co goal was to be able to do all my bakery products so people can come in there and buy all the muffin flavors and cookies and scones.

  And so to this day, I finally got my dream and it's even gonna be even bigger. But anyways. It's, that's it. It's gonna be bigger because you guys are opening this new fabulous location in Indio, right? Yes. Melina, do you wanna tell us about the new location? So let me just say this before Melina talks.

  Sure. Is that I was, I'm the original OG from the beginning, Melina. Can, can tell all the young women out there of the second generation of what she's gonna create. So go ahead. Sorry about that.

  Thanks for the intro, mom. Okay. Okay. Okay. So about a year ago we purchased four acres of land across the street from where our building is now in north Indio.

  So we purchased four acres of land in North Indio off Golf Center Parkway, and we we're gonna be building a restaurant from the ground up. It's gonna be 10,000 square foot. And our dream, our goal is that it's gonna be a landmark from travelers coming from Phoenix to Los Angeles off the 10.

  Fast casual food. We're gonna have a dog park, we're gonna have an amphitheater, but we really wanna make it like this destination. When you are on the tent and you're in the middle of the desert, there's nowhere to go. You can get healthy, fresh home, that mama's home cooking. And then we just, we wanna have music.

  We wanna have, fa families come, park your trailer, park your boat, and have a good time.

  That's our goal. The mirage in the desert. Exactly. Exactly.

  And what's really great is that, there's nothing like that out here. There's nothing trendy la there's no vibe like that, especially in North Indio.

  It's a lot of franchise fast food. So we're hoping that we're the first of our kind out here and we can really be like platform for Indio to take hold of it and do more stuff around the city because everybody goes to Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and everybody just comes out to Indio for that one time for Coachella Music Festival, and they forget that, we also our product of the desert and we have a lot of the same stuff that Palm Springs and Palm Desert has.

  So we're like the hidden gem, like the, what do you call it? Like the, what do you say is the rock? You know what I'm trying to say? Yeah.

  I think it's the hidden gem. There's the diamond in the rough.

  Yes, exactly. Exactly.

  No, it's so true. I found out about TKB Deli through Brandon your brother who we had met through Landmark and he kept being like, come to our deli.

  Come to our deli. And finally we did. And once you have a sandwich there, like you really don't want a sandwich from anywhere else. Yes, it's so good. And it's not like the food is amazing. But there's a whole experience that goes with it between the staff and all of you working there and the energy and like I remember walking in and everybody talking to all the patrons as they come through and calling out people by their first names.

  You guys know the community and like giving first responders and military people, like they get to cut the line, they get free food. There's all these like really great things that you guys build into your model that celebrates the community that you, from your, you come from and honors the people that hold your same values, which I think is really cool and is missing in so many other businesses that exist today.

  Yes, it totally is. Even like when I go out to eat I try to, see, I try to picture myself as a consumer and even, going back to our place and doing the same for the people that walk through the door. My brothers and I, the main thing that we believe is that if we were to come through our own door, how would we wanna be treated?

  And I think that we've had that motto for since about six years ago when we didn't have anybody coming through the door, and it would just be me and my two brothers. So it's really crazy to me doing all these interviews, going on the news for this Yelp that we got the, top in the nation and seeing the lines out the door that are just like, these people keep coming.

  And we're like, where are these people coming from? But it all started six years ago when we wanted people to come through the door. We didn't have anybody coming through the door. So we thought, what do people want? People wanna be treated good and people want to be known. They want to be heard.

  If I were to go somewhere and my sandwich wasn't made properly, I wouldn't want an added, attitude about it. I wouldn't want my money back. I would just wanna be taken care of, so when people walk through our door, our main thing is that we make eye contact, good energy, smile. If I'm not having a good day, I tell my brothers, look, I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take a break, go in the office because I just have an attitude or whatever.

  So I try to pull myself away when I'm not in that space. And we give free cookies to all first timers, all kids get free cookies. We just treat you like family. We treat you like friends, and the food is phenomenal. Obviously we have the best food. We make it from scratch. We make it with love, and we just take care of people.

  That's what it's all about. And people just keep coming back because. They love to be taken care of. I have all these regulars and when I see that they're waiting at the end of the line, I pull 'em up and I say, I already know what you want. Here's your cup. I'll bring your sandwich to your table.

  And they just, they love that. And I would love that if I would go to a place like Starbucks for instance. You go to Starbucks every morning you go to your coffee shop every morning and you feel shouldn't they know my order by now? I've been coming here for months.

  So you feel really special. If, you know a young girl or young man is oh yeah, caramel macchiato, extra shot, non-fat milk. You're like, yes, thank you. And it just makes the experience so much better that you walk in somewhere. They know your order they know who you are and they take care of you.

  I think that's a secret that, if you, especially in the foods, you know, service and restaurant world. If you can make someone feel special, that is the number one way to victory. It's not about how much money can I make on the sandwich, it's can I make you feel special? Because that is going to equal so much more than money, so much more than margin in the long run.

  It's bigger than any math that you can do. Because at the, there's so much competition, one and two, everybody wants to feel special. Everybody everybody. Yeah. So why not feel special and get comfort food at the same time?

  Yeah. And another thing I learned too is going above and beyond.

  So I learned a long time ago that if I, let's say for instance I'm outta onions, right? I never, my whole thing is never 86 anything. If I have it on the menu, I better have it in house because I hate going somewhere and I'm looking forward to, shredded beef tacos. And I go on a Friday night with my boyfriend out on a date and they're like we're out.

  And it's what the heck? Like I drove 15 minutes to my favorite spot to have this item and you don't have it. That would be a turnoff for me. So I've really prided myself and my family that I tell my brothers, look, we can't. 86 anything. Anything we can't. And if I'm outta onions that morning, because.

  The distribution didn't send me any. They were out. Guess what I do? I get in my car, I drive to the local, store or wherever, and I buy onions and I just make it happen. And that happens all the time. And I think that pe people don't see what happens in the back of the house, but guess what?

  It happens all the time. You don't have the product. You run out. I just don't. 86, anything that's like my thing.

  I think that's a great point. And I would love to know Athena, you, it's, it is crazy to me that this whole business started through a connection and a random conversation of Hey, could you make this?

  And suddenly it's this huge business that you guys have today. Like to go from not having a business to selling the a hundred buckets a week to moving into the deli space. At what point did you know your husband join you in the business? Did he stop being a stockbroker? When did you decide to make it a full family business versus, your personal side hustle?

  What happened when Paul joined me was it just got how it, when you're an entrepreneur, you gotta concentrate on being an entrepreneur. You gotta give 24 7 to it. And my husband being a stockbroker, he couldn't concentrate on his own business. So he just said, you know what, he just went cold Turkey and said, here's my retirement money.

  I'm coming in and I'm gonna help you. And and it was a little tough. It was a little tough because I had a husband who was a stockbroker. He was doing very well, and in fact it was like, I felt like it was a death in the family and everything was going to fall on me now to feed the family, to do all that kind of stuff.

  So I had it it was tough. And he came on and we we had to, what we had to do was he was the person who handled the money, which of course when you're an entrepreneur, if you have someone who handles all the money, it really helps because then it gives me time to create. So going into this with a marriage and children and bills and all that, it was a tough gig.

  It really was. But we knew how, there was one thing that we, him and I both what we both did for each other is he had to stay in his lane and I had to stay in my lane. We got off of our lanes every now and then we found it didn't work for us. Get back in your lane again and I'll go back. And now it's really cool because he did a hell of a good job in his lane and so did I.

  And as 25 years later, we all the time do not step in each other's face. We don't, and that seems to work for us very well. Yeah. And so he came on board right away. That's really cool. I think it takes something special for, a high powered spouse to give up their career, to support their partner's dream and.

  I love that you're both excited about this business. Like all five of you as a family are so passionate about TKB that like, it's always top of mind, always top of conversation. You're always looking at how to, make a new recipe, make it better, meet new clients, expand the business, and I think it's really cool.

  And I just wanna acknowledge you guys for how unique it is that you have five people in a family who even if you disagree once in a while about the smaller decisions, that as a family, that you are committed to the business growing and succeeding for all of you. When I first was married to my husband.

  He when the day of our marriage, he said one of the goals, he, we all set our ourself goals for every year. And he says, I need to finish college. But when he finished college I had thrown a party for him and he came up to me and he says, you did it. You did it for three years and you helped me finish college.

  He says, I owe you. He says, I'm gonna, I'm, what I'm gonna do for you is I'm going to help you with your dream. So we both helped each other with our dreams, but there was one thing that we did do is every year we set goals. Every year we set visions. And I always tell the visions like this for my kids of course I don't take a hundred percent for my children and I expect 120%, which is going above and beyond.

  And they know that. And there I always what I, how I look at my vision is I always tell people, get your backpacks on. Climb the mountain. Get to the top, put your flag on and say, ah, yay, I made it to the top. But then little do people know, there's another mountain to climb, then there's another mountain to climb.

  As an entrepreneur, you never stop. And you could ask that to my daughter, which she will say that, mom, am I done yet? And she's always climbing a mountain. That's how I look. That's how I vision. My dreams and my life,

  Like our family. A lot of people don't see behind the scenes with our family.

  We have our ups and our downs. It's definitely hard running a business with your family, but the great thing about running a business with your family is the trust and the loyalty. My brothers and I'm so loyal to them. I, we all win. If the company makes money, we all make money.

  And I think that all of us deep down would rather put the money into our parents' retirement, their future than go work for somebody else and put it in somebody else's pocket. So I think that we have the same morals with that, and I think that's what drives us every day, is we know that by us working together and working hard, we're increasing our family's wealth, our family's success.

  Which we'd rather do that than anything.

  I think that's a great transition point because, growing up with a family business, there's a lot of people that don't wanna stay in it, and they don't have the same passions and they don't care about the business that their parents have. As you were growing up and learning to be your own entrepreneur, did you struggle deciding if you wanted to stay out in the desert and stay with the company?

  Or was it an easy decision and how did you get to how you feel about it today?

  Yeah, I always want, I always had a love hate with the business. So did my brothers, my middle brother, Nate, he's always been all about TKB, but, I think he's also struggled with it within, he goes in and out of enjoying it, being mad at it, frustrated, all that.

  Brandon as well. Brandon, definitely. Brandon and I have been on the same, like we've tried other things. We've come back in, we've come back out, and I think the main thing that kept us coming back was working for yourself. I think that because we started the business as such young kids, that we saw that we didn't need to work for anybody that we knew how to sell.

  We knew how to be hustler, mini hustlers and make our own money. So I think that if we didn't have TKB or, God forbid, if anything were to happen, I think that we would just start our own businesses, whatever those, whatever our passions might have been. But definitely the thing that drove me always back to TKB was not having a boss.

  I really, I would go work for other people and I just didn't like. I didn't like being bossed around by other people because not that I like, knew what I needed to do, but I think that I liked the whole mentality of doing sales, doing customer service, going out door to door and getting customers I don't think that I would ever just did like a nine to five and sat at a desk or

  Been like a teacher or something like that. I think that it's like in my nature to always wanna make more money and what could I do, could I flip this? Could, it's just always, you listen to my mom and I just, my mom, my dad have always taught us how to make money and how to, invest our money.

  How to everything, sales, all that.

  I think it's clearly, in, in the DNA at this point, that to be self-made and to be a self-starter, yes. I think it's different than what a lot of people have been taught because the common, practical method they would say is to, go to college, get a job, and, separate work and life.

  And I really have a complete racket about just the phrase work life balance, because to me it's like saying I'm looking for spring seasonal balance. Like work is part of your life. And yeah, like it, it doesn't, like your life has so much in it and work is part of it. And it's such a huge part of it because one, it allows you to do everything else you care about that doesn't, produce income, but it's also where you spend most of your time and your accomplishments.

  And I just, I think it's foolish for people to think that work is something separate from who they are and what they're up to and what they're creating.

  Yeah, definitely. I totally agree with that. My mom and I, this last Wednesday we went to speak at the college. They're starting an entrepreneurship program at Cal State Palm Desert.

  It's been very successful at Cal State San Bernardino. They have a whole program and the guy that started it said it would took him years to get this program at college about entrepreneurship. And for me, that's what I would, I didn't go to college for entrepreneurship. I went for business, which are two separate things.

  Yeah. A business, you learn accounting, economics. Management, but entrepreneurship is like this whole other thing. And it's so big in our lives, it like is our life, and I stopped going to college two years in because I said, I'm paying all this money out of pocket. I just wanna go learn from my mom and my dad, because they were successful at the time.

  They had four locations, the wholesale business was doing good. And I was like, I'm over here spending $300 on a, chemistry book that I'll probably never use again. And not to knock college because my boyfriend finished college and he said it was the best experience. It taught him so much things that he used in his life.

  So I'm not knocking college, but college isn't for everyone.

  No. I think, and I think that learning is for everybody. Like we're all learning. Like you can't be successful if you're not learning somewhere. But a college degree is very different than learning. Some people get it at college. Yeah.

  And some people get it in life and some people like get it everywhere. So I agree with you, like it is if you know it's not for you, put your time, energy, and resources somewhere else, but you have to be learning something somewhere.

  And like the times we're living in now, entrepreneurship is so huge.

  Like they should have a separate college on entrepreneurship. You have social media, you have these kids are having these accounts that have half a million followers or quarter million of followers, and there's no college for them to learn how to create a product. Make money off the product to get customers to come back to their page or their YouTube channel.

  And it's like they're, the jobs are dwindling down because we're all online now. We're all shopping online. And, if I were to be a teenager in this time, oh my God, it would be like, I would be like selling sandwiches online or, like even what my mom and I are doing now getting more into social media and marketing, stuff like that.

  Get people through the door, get more followers, and it just, it boggles my mind that, in high schools, they're still like, go to college, and it's man, if they just had another avenue for them to go down on entrepreneurship and starting your own business, it would be, it would help these kids tremendously.

  Yeah. Entrepreneurship to me is a life skill because it's about being resourceful and creating something from nothing, and whether that, it doesn't need to be a business. It could be a nonprofit, it could be a hobby, it could be how to bring your friends together and just how to organize your life.

  That's why when I'm coaching people in my consulting and coaching business, whether they're a business or they're there for personal coaching, it's the same questions, it's the same process because living your best life is the same steps as, running your best business.

  Yes.

  We, you talked a little bit before Athena about how, you and Paul stayed in your own lanes as you've brought the kids into the business.

  What did the lanes look like today for the five of you? That's a very cool question. That is a cool question. It, it is so cool because 'cause we did that, my husband and I, and it worked for us. The the young adults who are the owners of the company right now, they are working really hard to stay in their lanes and the and it took 'em a while.

  Wouldn't you say Melina? It took you guys about five years to get it and it yeah, they each have their roles. They have their roles. Nate's the general manager. He knows his job. And Melina is, is social media and she's marketing and she's also running the deli. And she's also, she's got a lot on her list.

  She's also creating new products, trendy products. And then Brandon, of course, is the president that makes sure everyone stays in their lane. Everybody from my husband who's the financial guy and me as the chef. He he's really good at that. Real, real good at that. So yeah, all of us all of us know our positions and when we go into work, we're in our positions to make it work.

  The biggest struggle of a family business, and even with the listeners listening, is the number one reason I believe that family businesses don't work is 'cause there's too many chiefs in the kitchen, yep. Our employees always say, your brother told me to do it this way, and now you're telling me to do it this way.

  Because we're all our own boss, which is great for business, but it's not great for running the business. So the main thing is what I've learned growing up. And, maturing is when my brother comes in to my space in the deli and he, starts bossing everybody around and moving things around is I used to yell at him, get frustrated throw a fit, and now I just walk out and I say now I can go sit down at my desk 'cause he'll run it for a little bit.

  So I think it's I think it's like picking and choosing my battle because I'm a woman in the workplace and I understand, I have two older brothers, so of course if I move the table this way, they're gonna move it, say, no, it looks better over here. That's just them of, they're my older brothers.

  I get that. And, with what I like to post on social media or the new specials I like to bring out, they don't say anything. They don't cross in my lane when it comes to that stuff. So I was talking to my mom about it and I was like, I'm just gonna put all my emphasis on that because that's like my position now at the business.

  Is sales, marketing, and new items. So if they want to, manage the front more, then go ahead. It takes the weight off my shoulders.

  And also for everyone listening that doesn't know your family, you guys are all very passionate. Like you there's no separation between, family thoughts and work thoughts and there's a lot of loud, like it's talking, it's loud, it's commotion, it's energy in all the right ways. And to see you guys get to a place where you can pause and you can like, not make it personal and you can, take a different route and be like, okay, like you said earlier, when I'm in a bad mood, I remove my, tell everybody and I hang it over here so I don't put my bad mood on the space.

  And if they're in a mood where they're gonna take charge on something, you're like, okay, fine. One less thing to do. And the maturity in that of the, having the communication and reading each other, obviously it takes time to build that, but it's based on the fact that you guys know you're all committed, I think.

  Yeah. And not getting, not taking it personal if. If they say something that I'm doing is wrong, yeah.

  One thing I do know about them, and thank goodness for that is we, what has helped us an awful lot is taking courses to better ourself, to all of us, to better ourself, and then using the tools in the workplace and using the tools as family it has helped me out a great deal, even when they get into a real big argument, it's so cool because my all three of them close the doors.

  They all have meetings at five o'clock. They talk about what happened and what they do that's so cool is they say, okay, I wanna hear your side. I wanna hear that side. But what I've told all of them, because they used to come to me for all the answers, and I have finally said to them, I don't have answers for you because I never worked with my family.

  So I can't give you those answers. But what I did offer to all of them is if it becomes so hard. I said to them, and they can't solve their problems or whatever thing that's bothering them, I said, the company will pay for you to go seek help by a professional. And that to me has worked because I don't have an answer for them.

  And I bet you can ask all the people out there. Has any of you ever worked for your family? It's a hard gig, let me tell you. It's hard working with your family and you have to work on it every single day. And and thank goodness that we go seek help with professionals, or things to inspire ourself and things to make ourselves better 'cause it's working for us.

  And we're able to solve things and we work very well as a team, all three of us. And the end result is we love each other tremendously and everything goes in one pot. That's what my son Brandon always says. Yeah. And you guys have done a great job, not just in reaching out for additional courses, but also for when you guys don't know something, like bringing in help, bringing in an expert to get an opinion or to get advice about what the next step should be.

  Which, so many people put so much ego into their companies when, asking for help and knowing that you don't have all the answers is actually the fastest way to make your business healthier and to allow it to keep expanding. 'cause you guys, even with the new place, like you don't know what's after that and what's next.

  I love that you're open to discovering what that is and chasing the opportunities as they come up.

  Yeah, we're you basically hit it right on, is that we are not afraid to admit our faults with our business and what we're not, super educated on my brothers and I know that we're not super educated on starting a franchise.

  The second location, is even big for us about getting the policies and procedures in line. We need help with that stuff or we're not afraid to ask people or to bring outside sources in to teach us so we can learn more about expansion.

  The other stuff I think is so fascinating about TKB as a business is when people think about entrepreneurship today, they think a lot about what you guys have brought up, which are, being a YouTube star or these tech companies that are part of Y Combinators and have all this funding.

  And, when you think about. Who is a small business and who is an entrepreneur. A lot of people are forgetting the family businesses, the woman who's a independent hairstylist, the people who are, in these kind of what you think of more as a freelance opportunity, but really it's your own business.

  And there's, there people are thinking right now so much that entrepreneurship equals glamor. And I really wanna break that myth out of the conversation because. You guys have said it repeatedly already about how entrepreneurship is hard work. Entrepreneurship is making these sacrifices to work together.

  It's getting out door to door, it's grinding, it's, figuring out a way to go find onions when you've run out and, you're taking the entire supply from Ralph's for the day. It's a lot of hard work and, but there's so much opportunity in the things that may not look glamorous or may not be getting the respect that they should be today.

  Yeah. I even look at young girls that do makeup lashes microblading, like all these new things with of females. Yep. Female glamor is just these young girls are like 21, 22, and man, they're making good money and they're wondering what's the next step? Do I go rent a studio?

  Do I hire more people and teach them how to do it like me? And they don't, they can't foresee past them just having 15 clients a month or, like the girl that does my lashes, she does a great job. She sells herself short, she does. She says I need to raise my prices 'cause my rent went up.

  And I'm like, raise them. The people aren't gonna stop going to you. You're the best. And, I said, don't do it three days a week, start doing it five days a week. Start training other, get other girls in here to do it next to you. Have them rent a space next to you. I'm, they, it's hard for people to look past what they're already doing and foresee themselves being bigger and better.

  Yes, I a hundred percent agree. It's honestly, it's why I love coaching and consulting for women in businesses like that. Who are in startups who are freelance or entrepreneurs or the family business because there are so many opportunities today and so often you just need someone else to show you it's there or to remind you.

  Yes, there's so much growth potential for people who are doing their own thing. And like you said it like how do you get out of. You having to be the one that generates all of your income. There's only so many hours in a day. So either you keep raising your prices you do your build the wall strategy, which I think is a great strategy to have, like that she hopefully she's not listening to this podcast 'cause your eyelashes will go up significantly in price. But she could probably double her rate and a lot of her customers would still come because they're like shit sh like I know I can trust her. They're gonna last and look awesome.

  I don't wanna find somebody else. And Okay. Like you, everyone adjusts. I think so much of it comes down to, oh, go ahead, Athena. My daughter said the most amazing thing this morning and it blew me away. Okay.

  And what she was saying as a 3-year-old woman, I already figured this out as a 65-year-old woman, and I'm like, dang.

  As her being entrepreneur from the ground on, from being just a young girl. Melina, share what, share what you talked to me about today, about the journey of what you have done and that you wanted to say to a bunch of, to a lot of young people, young entrepreneur, woman, women, about the journey.

  The one thing that people always would ask my brothers and I is, how long have you guys been doing this for?

  They can't fathom that we've been doing it for 25 years. And I remember the days when my mom and I would be in the shop and we'd be looking out the window and we'd be like, how do we get people to come in? We're barely making rent. It's just us there. What do we do? And fast forward to now where it's like we have 50 employees, the lines are just piled out the door.

  The people just keep coming in. And I look back and, it's like that corny saying it's not the destination, it's the journey. And for my mom and I, because we were the main ones that had the heart and soul and the deli the most of the time. Is those were, if we did not go through those days, if we didn't go through the days when we didn't have any customers, when nobody was walking through our door, where we are figuring out, what was our next step?

  How are we gonna do it? If we would've got the Yelp number one 10 years ago, we would've crashed and crumbled. 'cause we wouldn't have been prepared the way we are because we went through every trial and tribulation to lead us up into this point. And I look back in my early twenties when it was just my brothers and I in one sandwich cart, those were the times I wish I would've enjoyed them more.

  I wish I would've foreseen that we're always gonna be successful. I believe the moment you stop doing your dream is it's, that's when it stops. Every day you gotta just keep doing it, keep grinding. 'cause eventually you do get there. You do get there. And I miss those times. I miss the times when it was just the five of us running the shop.

  And those are the best times in my life. And I didn't embrace 'em as much as I wish. I would've because now it's like we never have time for each other. There's so many people in our business, we're growing so fast and we never have time off. So for me, this next journey of this new building and wherever else we might go with our business, I'm really just gonna enjoy the moments and just let it happen and not have any doubts.

  No, I love that. Oh, amen on that, that, that was so emotional. I'm cry. I'm on the other end crying. It's oh my God. And when she told me that today, I just, tears were just like flowing down because, and when I was her age, I didn't get that. I didn't get that. And it's now at 65 years old and she said that to me.

  I had a wake up call. It was like, you're so right. It's just be in the present moment. Enjoy the, the time that you're, enjoy the journey. And it was an amazing journey and yeah, it was a struggle. Yeah. We had, we it was a risk. Yeah, it was all of those. But those are learning tools, but anyway, stop crying. I'll stop crying. I it's so true in that. Like having faith that it's going to work out and having faith that you are creating something bigger than you can see it right now. That's the biggest hurdle to get over because once you believe in what you're capable of and especially the five of you together, it changes things like we, we get so stuck in the fear and the worry and the anxiety and the reality is that when we're feeling those things, nine times out of 10 we have enough food, our rent is paid this month, like in this current moment, it's okay.

  And i, that's also why I think to your point about needing to teach more people about being resourceful and being entrepreneurs. If you know that you can generate income from anything, it changes your perspective of fear and money.

  Yes. 'cause a lot of people, they have fear of money.

  They have fear that they, that if they start their own business, that they're not gonna make it. They're gonna be out on the street. Yeah. And they'll never be out on the street. They, as long as you work, as long as

  you got two hands, as long as you've got two hands of brain and you're alive, that's what I always say.

  And as long as you're ready to put the foot the first foot forward, get to work and it'll happen. It will. I remember at the entrepreneur, at the Palm Desert, Cal State Dr. Mike had said when he was speaking to all of us, he says people don't understand is 99% of the world is entrepreneur.

  Yep.

  If you really Sodom, think about it. It's the truth. The Ford, the the cars, the tv, everything that you touch is an entrepreneur that created that. Isn't that amazing? That's so amazing. And that's how it's been for most of humanity. In the past 50 years, say we've forgotten that most people had to be self-made.

  Most people had to be artisans or have a craft or have a skill that they learned themselves. They passed on to their family and like you had to figure it out. There weren't these easier opportunities of get into the corporate lane and it's smooth sailing, to retirement.

  Yeah. Or just go to college, get your degree, and then all of a sudden you have, a job that has benefits. You get paid a certain amount and then boom, you're set.

  Yeah. Like that. It just,

  it's not like that.

  No. And I, I don't know anywhere that's happening now. And if it is happening, like really appreciate that.

  'cause that's like the fluke moment in your life and in, in history's life, most likely. And I think too, like as much as people are afraid of not having money, a lot of people are afraid of making the money, of not being worth being paid, of not being worth their skills being a value that they should make money off of them, which is a whole nother, area to coach people and give people freedom in.

  Yeah. Like I was just gonna say that is, my mom and I always dreamt about lines out the door, billboards on the freeway being this landmark, and then boom, it happened and oh my God, that's when the real work set in. I'm talking like 12, 14 hour days. Six, seven days a week nonstop.

  It didn't stop. So what happens is people, they dream of having these big businesses or having all these people come through the door, but if you're not, if you don't have that work ethic to handle it, your business will, crumble. With the whole Yelp thing we went to Yelp headquarters like three years ago to speak at them because of our success on Yelp.

  And they were telling us stories where a lot of these companies that would make the top 10, top 20, they would get those lines out the door, what they dreamed about. And they couldn't handle it. Yep. They didn't know how to hire more people. They didn't know how to, now you gotta hire order more inventory now you got more problems, more money, more problems.

  So with the money comes more work, more problems, more everything. So you get the money, you get the success. But then it, it doesn't stop. A lot of people can't handle that

  well, and I think that's why it's so important to have some of the years under your belt of going through the smaller mountains to climb.

  Because if you go from nothing to Mount Everest, like very few people are going to be able to make that happen.

  Yeah. It's like celebrities that, it's like celebrities that, get their 15 minutes real quick and then it all crumbles so fast.

  Yeah. Yep. So as you guys we were talking about how you, the business goes through different phases, right?

  There's moments when it's awesome and everything's working, and then a challenge comes up because you've expanded. There's something new, there's something you don't know, there's a breakdown somewhere, and then you go back into living in a new reality where that is just part of the new program.

  Where do you guys see yourselves today? Are you in a growth period where you're expanding and then you'll need to come back to some kind of, balance between everybody? Or like, where do you feel it's at now and where will it be in the next year or so?

  The biggest things that we're working on now that we've never had before is human resources and policies and procedures.

  So we've always been a mom and pop shop that kind of didn't have those departments, like a big corporation. So the main things that we're trying to focus on now is. My mom obviously is getting older, so her recipes are like written down on pieces of paper, but they're like gold, right? These like golden recipes.

  So getting those recipes in a platform for, so it could be easy for employees to come in and make these products. And there's, it's still the same product that my mom creates. The next growth period is being being politically correct, having human resources.

  The more employees you have to have human resources. We never had that before policies and procedures. So if we were to expand there's a big book that you open up and this is how, you know, Melina does this, this is how the founder creates this is our mission statement, this is our, how we do customer service, all that stuff.

  So it's stuff that we've never tapped into all these years that we now are doing. And it's hard because we have brain patterns of how we are with employees, how we are with customers, and my brothers and I are just trying to make that transition to now be politically correct so it doesn't bite us in the ass.

  And also just getting it all on paper. It sounds like a just a operations overhaul of taking what you've done and what's worked and now getting it on paper so it can be replicatable.

  Yeah. Believe it or not to me, people that went to college or people that, are smart, that's easy for them, but we're backwards.

  So we we're great at, getting people through the door, getting them to frequent our spot. We're great at having high profit margins, but when it comes down to the stuff you would think would be easy for us is very hard.

  I think the good news is that a lot more of the operational making manuals part, it's very easy to find someone to do that for you.

  Yeah. So that's the relief I think,

  Yeah, that we now we should just hire somebody to do that.

  So how do you guys find time for yourselves, for your relationships, for all the other things in life that you care about that's outside of the deli? That's a good question for Melina. Yeah because I'm getting I got like a few steps out the door.

  So for me, getting ready for retirement. I think for me it's coming up really quick and I'm still, I think if I, like Melina says, if you stop dreaming, if you stop doing that, then I'm dead. And so what I, what for myself, I'm gonna continue to keep moving forward with the business. But there, so speaking of all that, it's my 65th birthday and I wanna bring all the family together, but we've narrowed it down.

  We've all narrowed it down to just two days. That's it. And it, and then that's a tough gig for us. But that question will ask Melina. Melina, what, what do you do seeing that you're not a mother and you don't have children? Tell all of us out there how that works for you.

  I think that's, I think that's the biggest thing is that, the biggest thing is that I don't have kids.

  So my biggest fear is to have kids because my time is not so minimal.

  Like even with my boyfriend, it's like we don't have time for anything. So I feel like, oh, throw in two kids. Oh my God, I would lose my mind. I don't know how women do it with kids, a business, all that.

  But I think the biggest thing is like on days like today, so everybody, so we don't have our business open on Sundays and a bunch of customers have been like, come on, Sundays will be great. All these people after church would come to your place. But I told my mom and my brothers and my dad, I said, whatever we do, let's never open up Sundays.

  Sundays are have always traditionally been family days. Where people closed their business down. So I think having a whole Sunday where the entire family is off is such a blessing because we're not worried about the business. The lights are off, business is closed, and we can all the day with our own families or, even I'll go over to my brother's house and he's not working.

  It's just, I think just having that Sunday off is what makes it work for us. And also, like I told my mom, I said, I can't go on vacations that are like, party, party, party, drink drink, have fun. But I think the older I get, I have to choose destinations where I like literally sit on a beach or I sit at a resort and I turn my phone off and I don't talk to anybody.

  You need a full recharge.

  Full recharge. Because what happens is even this past season, from January to April, I went hard. I'm talking hard. I was working six, seven days a week, plus at night I was going out, having a great time. I was like, work hard, play hard. And I literally got burnt out. Like where I was just done, I was done and I lost my voice.

  I had to go to wedding. I'm at that age where there's like a wedding every other, season. And I just, I shut down. So I just started planning like, my trips and organizing myself and I, I feel like when I take three, four days off instead of just one or two, that it, I get a new passion for the business and I get a full recharge.

  It's

  so important.

  So I think not. Yeah, I think like I was taking one day off a week, this week I only took one day off and I'm already like, you know what I have to do tomorrow, what I have going on this week. So I think it's very important to take off, three, four days in a row and just shut your phone off and not talk to anybody.

  This is this. This is what the tradition that, that I just started, I when we first opened up the business, I had a tradition and I said, and I'm gonna keep that tradition is I believe that Sundays. Everyone should be off, even the employees. 'cause it's just a recharge. And even on Sundays, all the employees said, Hey, we're not working.

  Let's go do this. And, it's always gonna be in my company. And I told all of the owners that, guys, we have to keep that tradition going. And then for the first time this year, and the kids are all gonna say thank you, mom is for the first time I told all of them because Melina's right, they have been putting in the hours.

  People don't know they're putting in 10 hour shifts, six days a week. All of them were okay for years. And this is the first year that I said, enough is enough. Let's figure this thing out and everyone take a sat not a Saturday, but two days off a week, and you guys all gotta learn to cover each other. And so it, what I've seen is I've seen new owners, I've seen my children happier.

  They get along, they're able to focus, they get a lot of things done. And I want that to continue because, sometimes as an entrepreneur you can work 24 7, you're gonna end up bearing yourself and there is another world out there. And that's what we learned. Thank God for all that. So go ahead.

  This is Jordan. And one of the things I was gonna say is that it's, I 100% agree with you of taking the one day off compared to the three or four days off. I worked for seven years in all different types of food service settings. And one day off was not enough relaxation to realize okay, now I can be calm and collective and come back to work.

  Nice. 'cause you already knew you had to be at work the next day, but having those three or four days Yeah. You're not even calm. Yeah. You're not calm you're anxious, you're like, yeah, whatever I need to get done. Like I had to get done and then maybe I can have an hour to watch TV or something.

  But having those three or four days, especially when you're. Talking to stranger after stranger. Like I'm an extrovert to begin with, but as I get older I can like sense more introvertedness coming into play, but constantly. Yeah. Being with people, constantly talking to strangers and like knowing those people, knowing their orders, seeing them all the time and seeing new people and making sure their experience is good.

  That is so draining. Yeah. So to have those three so draining. Yeah. To have those three or four days off, that's, yes. It makes a world of a difference. Oh

  yeah. And you're like excited, you're like, excited to see your customers after not, you want that interaction with people when you don't have it.

  So I to, I totally agree. It's like being a hermit in your, in your home or whatever for two, three days. You're like, all right, now I'm like, ready to talk to people, be with the employees be a boss, all those things. And when you're constantly doing it, that's when you get little attitudes with the employees.

  You get attitudes of customers. Oh yeah. It's bad for business.

  100%. So you need Oh yeah. True. When you're with people from day, from the morning, you wake up to. By the time you go to bed those days off, like as much as you want to go out and do something, sometimes the best thing for your mental health is to not be anywhere with anyone to hibernate.

  So as the business is expanding and growing and there's always the change happening between what you guys are focusing on and what's next how have you guys been incorporating your commitments to the local community and Coachella Valley into your business?

  Yeah, that's great because that's what my brothers and I have been talking about because right now is summertime in the desert.

  So it, it's definitely slowed down for us compared to January through April. And we, our last meeting was, doing more charitable causes. Now that we have the time. And going and speaking to the young kids. Earlier this year, I, this woman started this career day at Palm Desert High School.

  It was so great. It was two days long. She got all the young girls from all across the valley. They had, gifts for the girls, they had all these speaker, it was pure women. It was career day for girls. And I was invited to go both days and I brought, a bunch of swag. I brought cookies. So it's doing things in our community now that we're at that age where the young kids can look up to us, being in our thirties and having the success we had at the shop.

  So we're thinking more of what can we do for the young kids out here in the valley, seeing that we're not in a big city. There's not much to do. And, my mom and I went and spoke at Cal State Palm Desert to the college kids. In a week I'm going to speak to the elementary kids, so I've never done anything like that.

  Going out there and, it's one of those things where it's, you don't get paid for it, maybe I'll get more customers out of it, maybe I won't. But it's so rewarding to go and, talking to these young kids and they know who you are. Like, it's like these nine, 10 year olds, they're like, oh, my parents love going there.

  Or, oh, I love your guys free cookies, or stuff like that. So going out into our community and like actually having a one-on-one talk to our customers opposed to them just coming in, taking their order, taking care of 'em, actually like sitting down with them and speaking to them and them telling us, thoughts about our business or, why didn't they come back?

  So when we go out into the community and my mom, I took her this last time and she absolutely enjoyed it. It was super educational for us. So going out and speaking, actually speaking to our customers and hearing what they have to say about our business is super rewarding.

  It's true. I agree.

  And we wanna do more of that. It's like, and me and Melina as a team of two women, it's like even more powerful and it's like let's do this. You know, Melina, let's, let's give more to the community. You get back so much more in return when you give to the community. And that's what me and Melina have learned.

  We don't want, money or this or that. We just want smiles on people's faces and just to inspire people. And that is, is a lot for us. It's so important. Yeah it's, because it shows up in how you guys take care of your customers and your customers are your community. And there's so much growth happening right now in Coachella Valley after all the attention it's received from the two weeks of Coachella and then the one week of stage coach and like it's now becoming like on the map after all of that's been happening and been successful.

  It's still an area of the world that does have a lot of like income discrepancy and, it's not like even just Palm Springs to the, east side of the Valley. Like it's very different of what there is to do and what's accessible and even career choices. So I think for successful business owners like you guys to make a difference and show what's possible and just to be another role model for what is available in your home community is really important.

  Yeah. So I have my place in West LA that I've had for 10 years. And my boyfriend, he lived in LA for about seven years and he's been out here with me for a year and we traveled back and forth and he absolutely loves it out here. And he loves that. There's so much land, there's so much space.

  It's peaceful, it's quiet. And I think that LA and Orange County have really caught on to the fact that it is like this secret hideaway the desert. And you're not crammed up in this small apartment for, three, $4,000 a month. You can get a home, for 300,000, $400,000. And it's like this massive home with a pool.

  No traffic. You can see the stars at night. The only thing, the drawback of the desert is jobs. Because it's very seasonal and it's very, it's hospitality, there's no big corporations out here.

  But the great thing about the desert is it thrives off on entrepreneurship, because we get all these travelers that come in, and I think that the desert is gonna get bigger and bigger, especially with the Los Angeles crowd, because it's just getting too hard to live in those areas.

  And you're just piled on, people after people. And you and the weather is changing too, in la It's getting hotter out there.

  So I'm like excited to see what's gonna happen to the desert in the next 10, 20 years.

  For sure. Even since Exactly. Exactly. I've been going out there and seeing the differences.

  It's wild.

  Yeah. Exactly. Even, you know what, you, Kara you've been in my brother's house, right? No, not yet. Oh, you it's ama amazing the house that he got. Amazing. He got such a good deal. Never, nobody's never lived in it. He built a pool from nothing, from dirt. It's just, it's crazy.

  I'm really excited to go and see it.

  When I was at the deli a couple weeks ago, that's what we were talking about. 'Cause Jessie's been out a bunch and I just haven't yet 'cause of recording and schedule. So next time I do, Yeah, for sure. It's a place that we were looking at buying property because there are great homes. It is affordable.

  Even if you can't make it your primary residence yet, like there's so much opportunity between Yeah. There's a lot of events that happen out there. So to it is possible to Airbnb and to provide other, income streams. That's what's possible. 'cause it is so hard in California to buy a home.

  And the fact that there are communities that, want people to, walk to things and hang out and put a stake in the ground and add color to the community that exists today is quite cool.

  Yeah, that's a, my friends from LA they wanna do, they wanna buy like a house here and make it a Airbnb.

  And then when they're when, they want time off, just come out to the house and have a little getaway. Which I think is so smart.

  Yes. So we ask all of the people that come on the podcast where they put themselves on the powerful lady scale, zero being average human, and 10 being super powerful lady that's unstoppable.

  So I'd love to know from each of you where you feel you're at today and wh where you feel you're at on average. And we can start with Athena. I'm not a 10 yet. I, there's still a lot of work to, there's still a lot of work to go to keep going and I would probably look at look at myself and say because, I deal with employees all day long and try to inspire them and try to make them go beyond and even doing it with my children, it's I guess I would probably say I am probably a seven.

  That's probably what I would say. I might have the scale of a seven, because there's more to go. You never stop learning. And what I'll give you an example. I've created 300 recipes, correct?

  But I'm not done. I'm not done. I said, you know what? All day today, if PE people wanna know my life I'm a 65-year-old, you think I'm gonna be retired over a beach or whatever.

  No. I was up at four o'clock in the morning trying to create a menu for a baby shower. And people don't understand how hard that really is, but, and it's constantly using your brain, constantly creating, constantly putting art out there. And it's but I'm not finished. I want more.

  The only downfall I find with myself though, to be super human and all of that is that the hard part for me, the hard part for me is I've got so much to give. It's just incredible. What I could do with all the knowledge I've learned all these years, but the hard part for me is that.

  You look at yourself in the mirror and you could do it. You could do it. You could reach the skies. 'cause I can, I've gotten to the top, I've done all that kind of stuff. But at 65 years old, every day you, you now you're running into my hands. Can't do the 10 hours anymore. My feet can't stand on my feet for six hours.

  That's the hard part for me. 'cause I woke up this morning and I said, oh my God, I could create this amazing big catering. I could do this. But then I look at myself and I say, I. But I don't have a stamina anymore. It's tougher.

  So

  that's the hard part for me, is that I know I can be a 10, I know I can be a 12, I know I can be up there, but this, my stamina being the age that I am is starting to fall down.

  So where do you go from there? You know what I'm saying? And that's not my fault. That's not my fault. It's just the way. Your body is it's the way the age is. I do look at, I do look at Trump, I look at everyone that's gonna be running their, they're in their 70, 77 years old, but what are they taking to keep their stamina up?

  It's dang, okay, do we have a shot here? And in fact, I told my daughter, I said, may, and I even told my my live clinic doctor is, I said, okay, could I every week come in and do an IV pump of vitamins to get me moving? And he goes, yeah, you can. And I'm like, okay. But I wonder sometimes about the people who are running our government, what are they doing to keep their stamina?

  Because I want that. I want that. So I can keep moving forward. But anyway that's me. When I, where I'm at, when I come out to the desert next, I'm gonna bring you a whole bunch of goodies then. Okay. I'll take them. I'll make them.

  How about you, Melina? Okay

  I, it was on a scale from a zero to 10, if I'm power powerful lady, yes. I would say I'm a 10. And the fact that, being a woman and running a business and deal and dealing with every month that we have an emotional breakdown that we can't control.

  And then I haven't killed anybody yet at the business because of it. I would say that makes me a 10. I like it. The one thing that I'm not a 10 at being a powerful lady that I know is in my cards, I'm just stalling on it, is being a mom. Yeah. Because women out there that are moms that also have careers, that also have husbands to tend to, that have a social life to tend to everything.

  Those women, I give any women out there that are listening that are mothers career, women wifes, and they still hit the gym, they still look, bomb when they go out. I give them so much kudos because I haven't even tapped into that world yet. I don't know what that world looks like for me.

  So what's in my cards? What I need to work on is juggling career, relationship, friends, social life, and. Becoming a mom, that's the next step.

  Yeah. I think it's great 'cause both of you hit on, being feeling powerful and also needing to figure out how to keep expanding. And I think that, one of the biggest things that women in particular don't think about enough is, what does it look like for it not to be done by us, but just guided by us? What does it look like for us to be the conductor instead of the one playing the instrument? Because that's really the key to expanding what we're trying to create.

  Just like you guys know, you couldn't get to where you are today with your business, without your 50 employees. Anytime that I find that I'm really overwhelmed and I feel like I just can't do it, I take that as a sign from the universe that I'm not looking at creating a team around it and delegating it the way that I should, my, that's my sign. And yes, there's always things to build in, like looking at my schedule more and finding the time and making sure I'm doing self care and all that. But we have, there, we have such an opportunity to widen our circle, to allow people to support us and contribute to us, and take the baton and run with it.

  That I wish more women realized they didn't have to do it all on their own. Amen. On that.

  I, I know that this podcast is for women, but I really hope that some men listen to it because my biggest racket about being a woman is we're supposed to be, so we're in an age where we work, we're career women, we're entrepreneurs, we're all these things, right?

  But my brothers always get mad at me for having to go get my nails done, my lashes, my eyebrows, my hair, like I. Men do not understand what it takes to be a woman and be put together. And it really frustrates me because we have this history of, our nails have to look a certain way or our bodies, or like even our closet.

  Like my closet is like quadruple the size of my boyfriends. He can wear a black tee and blue jeans, but I have to wear a dress to an event or I have to wear heels. All these things that we are as women where we don't have to look at. But obviously, of course you wanna be done up and look beautiful.

  And it's just frustrating to me that guys don't understand what it really takes for us to be put together. It's a lot of different stuff. And then on top of it, we have to be wives, mothers make money, support the household, clean the house. It's a lot. And they need to back off and they need, we need to get paid.

  We need to get paid more because of those things. And you know how men have always gotten paid more? Our argument should be that we should be paid more. If you want our boobs to look good. If you want our butts to look good, if you want our lashes done, if you want our hair done, then guess what? Our income needs to be higher.

  'cause they don't need that stuff done. We do. Ah, men. So ahead

  of the women half what a lot of people gotta understand about women is we were gifted multitasking. I have worked with so many women and we are so gifted with multitask. It's like incredible. And and I come from the old school where when the husband says, what's for breakfast, what's for lunch, what's for dinner?

  And then you're doing that cleaning, that taking care of your children, running a business, doing all of that kind of stuff. It's it's tough. It's a tough gig, but we've got that gift of multitasking, thank goodness. Because I think if we do it couldn't multitask, then either us or the kids would've ended up getting killed somewhere along the way.

  Lovely women. No, there are so many days when. I fantasize about being the Don Draper character in Mad Men, where I just come home and like the house is clean and there's a drink waiting for me. And like my responsibilities, oh my gosh, for the day are done. Like, how do I get, oh my God. Oh, I don't know if it's a Butler or a wife.

  I'm not sure what I need, but like I just how do I delegate those things? Like it'd be so nice to come home and know I can sit down. But normally I have a rule where I come home and I don't sit down like I was raised that you don't have fun until all the work is done. So it's hard to have that mentality as an entrepreneur because it's never done.

  So I really have to like. Take a whole day where I'm not allowed to do work or think about it. And it's a struggle to get there. But once I get there, I'm glad I was. But most days, like I stop running or recording or doing stuff, and then I'm switching exactly to what you said. Cleaning the house, doing dishes, doing laundry, making sure I'm like scheduling time with my friends so I can actually see them.

  And when I finally sit down, it's I don't even want to spend this time watching tv. Like I'm over it.

  Yeah. Yeah. It's, you're like annoyed already. You're like, okay, let just go to sleep. True. Yeah. Yeah. The tough thing too. The tough thing too is, like being a woman that makes good money, and being with a man that doesn't make as much money a lot of girls that you know are with men that make more money, there's.

  We don't talk about the women that make more than their man. And it's, there is a, I'm sure there's a big percentage of us out there now. Yep. In 2019. And the biggest thing is, still having them feel like they're the man of the house. Because, as women start progressing more and more, we want all we wanna be these bosses, we wanna be treated equally.

  We want all these things. We, it's hashtag me too, don't assault me, don't look at my boobs, don't treat me like, a piece of meat, all this stuff. But yet we're forgetting that we love when a man is a man. So it's like finding this balance where we can still be bossy.

  We can still be, these powerhouse women, but we don't want our men to be weak at the same time. So it's like this crazy thing of I want you to open the door, but you don't have to pay for dinner. It's like a weird balance.

  No, I think that's a great way to put it. Because you want a partner and you want an equal and you still want a gentleman.

  I never thought that. I just assumed that if the more money I made, it would just be a good thing. Like it would help the family. Yeah, it would help this, I'd have more savings and a 401k and it was just good. There wouldn't be any negative impact. And there definitely have been moments when I've had to have conversations about wanting to go on a big trip and my partner not being able to afford it, and I have to sell it even harder.

  No, like I'll pay for it, it's fine. I want you to come let's just go I have the money, it's okay. And it doesn't always sit well because of. How we were each raised individually and having to get through that. But even on the flip side, like now that for the first time ever, like right now, I'm making the least amount of money I've made since I first started working because of flipping into the entrepreneur space and starting from scratch.

  And it's crazy to me because, I think I'm making no money, but in comparison to the rest of the world, I'm still fine. I can feed myself, I can pay my rent. Yeah. And now to go into the, to flip roles where I am making less money than my partner, like it's now I have an issue where I don't wanna spend their money on the fun things.

  I don't mind sharing bills that are for the house and groceries and like regular stuff. But when it comes to I need, I haven't gone shopping in six months, can I go shopping? Like it was a big thing for me to be like. May I have a hundred dollars to go find something. And I hated it.

  I felt like such a weak weakling having to ask for money. And I just had to have a breakdown because I can't, I don't wanna, I have plenty of clothes in my closet, but there's something about just having a new shirt that can change your whole perspective. Yeah. So now it feels good to feel good.

  Yeah. And and then, I was having back problems and I'm like, I just really need a massage. Normally if it was, I would not think twice and just go do it. And it took me two weeks to be like, may I go do this? And I hate asking for permission. And it's not him saying I need to ask permission.

  He doesn't care, but it's me and my story about my money versus not my money.

  Yeah. And he's probably happy to, he probably feels like a man I'm taking care of my lady. Like roles have changed. Probably helps it, probably a big benefit for the relationship as well.

  I'll have to ask as we wrap up for the day, what are some last mi bits of advice that you would love the listeners to have, either about going after their best life or, starting their own business or being entrepreneurs? Do you wanna go more? Let Melina answer that first. Melina, you answer that.

  Oh, you gonna try to, I gotta think about it

  because I gotta think about that.

  I think, go ahead. I think the biggest thing is. Is, every day is work. It's not it's, there's time for fun. There's time to have a good time, but every day is work. And not getting stressed out that every day is work, but actually embracing it, enjoying it, being in the moment, and that nothing's wrong.

  Nothing's ever wrong. Wherever you are in your life is where you're supposed to be. And to just enjoy the journey, because eventually you are gonna get there. The money will come, you'll spend the money, it'll be great. And just to enjoy your moment, enjoy your family, your friends. Enjoy the age that you're at, and not always trying to move too quick.

  Don't try to get to where you wanna be too quick because you, it's coming time is moving. That's it.

  And if I if I was to give all you youngins, some good advice is if you have a dream or a vision or something that you love, love, love to do, follow it. Go with it. Don't give up, keep going.

  Because eventually you get to where you wanna be. Like Melina says it's a journey and you just gotta go through all of that. And sometimes I do find that if you have a vision or a dream and it's not working at that time for you, it's getting you frustrated and you just can't get there, what you do is just go around it, and do something that's still in that category because you'll go right back to it again.

  And it's just a matter of where you're at. And so yeah, if I could give people advice. Keep following your dreams. Don't ever take no for an answer. If it's something deep down inside that you believe in and you could have and you have that gut feeling, the gut feelings are truthful and just follow them and keep moving forward.

  And it does take a lot of work, but it's okay. We can do it. Okay. I love it. Great advice from both of you. Thank you guys so much for being a yes to powerful ladies, for being your own powerful ladies and your business and your success, and being willing to share what you've learned for everyone that's, following and paths, alongside you guys.

  It's been such a treat to get to share this with you, and I can't wait until I am back out in the desert and get to see you guys again soon.

  Thank you so much, Kara. Thank you, Jordan. Yeah, thank you, Kara.

  Running a family business is no joke. Then running a successful family business with both of your parents and all of your siblings for 25 years is a whole other level. I love that Athena and Melina shared how much they work, how much work they put into their communication and interpersonal relationships, that the business can thrive and so can their family, and that now 25 years later, with their success.

  They're reaching out to the local community to help other entrepreneurs thrive. It's true that business and entrepreneurship are two very different things. Many universities have been switching their focus to entrepreneurship, and I'm hoping that more people are realizing that they are entrepreneurs and that small business is within their own reach while you're dreaming up your next business.

  Make it a point to visit TKB Deli, of course, for a great meal, but also to see what a thriving family business looks like in person. I recommend the petit sophisticated sandwich with avocado on jalapeno bread, and don't forget to try the true cheesecake to connect, support and follow TKB Melina and Athena.

  You can visit the Deli T KB Deli in Indio, California. You can leave them a Yelp review and of course, tag your delicious meal on their Instagram at Tkb Bakery. You can follow them on Twitter. The kids business. Follow them on Facebook, t KB Deli, and visit their website, tkb bakery.com. You can also email Melina and Athena directly.

  Melina is tkb dot m sippel at gmail, and Athena is t kb dot aj sippel@gmail.com. All of the correct spellings, all of the links and all the other notes from this episode are available@thepowerfulladies.com. If you'd like to support the work that we're doing here at Powerful Ladies, there's a couple of ways you can do that.

  Subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Leave a review on any of these platforms. Share the show with all the powerful ladies and gentlemen in your life. Join our Patreon account. Check out the website, the powerful ladies.com to hear more inspiring stories.

  Get practical tools to be your most powerful. Get 15% off your first order in The Powerful Ladies Shop, or donate to the Powerful Ladies one Day of Giving campaign. And of course, follow us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies for show notes and to get the links to the books, podcasts, and people we talk about.

  Go to the powerful ladies.com. I'd like to thank our producer, composer, and audio engineer Jordan Duffy. She's one of the first female audio engineers in the podcasting world, if not the first. And she also happens to be the best. We're very lucky to have her. She's a powerful lady in her own right, in addition to taking over the podcasting world.

  She's a singer songwriter working on our next album, and she's one of my sisters. So it's amazing to be creating this with her and I'm so thankful that she finds time in her crazy busy schedule to make this happen. It's a testament to her belief in what we're creating through Powerful Ladies, and I'm honored that she shares my vision.

  Thank you all so much for listening. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode. I can't wait for you to hear it. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.

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Visit the deli - 44911 golf center pkwy, Indio, Ca 92201 Usa

Leave a Yelp Review, then tag your delicious meal on Instagram

Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tkbbakery/

Follow them on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/thekidsbusiness

Follow them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TKB-Bakery-and-Deli-122475284441985/

Visit their Website: https://www.tkbbakery.com/

Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud