Speaker 1: Hey fam, Hello sunshine. Today, on the bright side, we've
Speaker 1: got the brilliant mind behind some of the most unique
Speaker 1: ice cream flavors that we've ever heard of. Jenny Britton
Speaker 1: of Jenny's Splendid ice Creams is here with her secret
Speaker 1: recipe for success. It's Wednesday, April twenty fourth. I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 2: And I'm Simone. Boys.
Speaker 3: This is the bright side from Hello Sunshine. Okay, Danielle,
Speaker 3: I've known you for what eight months now? I still
Speaker 3: am not clear on this. Are you a hugger?
Speaker 1: You're not clear.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Are you physically affectionate with your friends? Does that make
Speaker 3: you comfortable or uncomfortable?
Speaker 1: I am such a hugger. I'm such a cuddler. Yeah right,
Speaker 1: love it. That is with people. I know. When people
Speaker 1: I don't know hug me, I get a little uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Not women, let me be clear. Men. When men I
Speaker 1: don't know names or like, do like a real juicy
Speaker 1: kiss on the cheek, I'm like, I don't know you.
Speaker 2: You know, kiss on the cheek is never okay?
Speaker 1: You grew up in my hand. All those guys do that.
Speaker 3: Don't even get me started on the microaggressions. From f
Speaker 3: boys and men. Okay, I mean there's so many, like
Speaker 3: when you're like in a crowded place and they like
Speaker 3: brush their hand along like the small of your.
Speaker 2: Back, that it gives me the checuse me, excuse me.
Speaker 1: I wish you could see her face right now as
Speaker 1: she's doing this. No, I yeah, I don't like that.
Speaker 1: But from women, all the hugs, all the love, all
Speaker 1: the handholding. Just call me Drew Barrymore.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is great.
Speaker 3: This is great, Drew Barrymore, Because I mean, I'm a
Speaker 3: hugger too. I love physical touch from friends, and it
Speaker 3: can go along way when you're feeling down right. But
Speaker 3: now there's actually science to back it up.
Speaker 2: What do you mean?
Speaker 3: So I came across the study that showed that getting
Speaker 3: a hug or a pat on the back right before
Speaker 3: you have to do something challenging can in some cases
Speaker 3: actually reduce your stress levels.
Speaker 1: I get that. Sometimes I ask to borrow somebody else's
Speaker 1: nervous system. I feel, why are you looking at me
Speaker 1: like that?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I just have so many questions. But also that sounds
Speaker 3: so Danielle borrow someone else's nervous See, it's real, we're
Speaker 3: not there yet. Technology is not there yet.
Speaker 1: No, I'm telling you, if you are really stressed, everybody
Speaker 1: feels it differently. I always feel stressed in my chest.
Speaker 1: Some people feel it in their gut or their throat.
Speaker 1: But when I get that feeling of overwhelm, if I'm
Speaker 1: with someone I love, I'm like, can I just hug
Speaker 1: you for ten seconds? Can you give me your nervous
Speaker 1: hit stuff?
Speaker 2: That makes more sense?
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it calms you down. Also, go outside, yes,
Speaker 1: if you don't have someone to hug.
Speaker 2: Stick your feet in the grass, for sure.
Speaker 1: But there's something about it. Breathe somebody else's skin and
Speaker 1: like heartbeat and I, yeah, I just want to borrow
Speaker 1: their nervouses.
Speaker 2: And y'all just wants to wear your skin, No big deal.
Speaker 1: Have you ever seen those videos on Instagram where like
Speaker 1: girls climb into their boyfriend's sweatpants and they're like, I
Speaker 1: just want to be close to you.
Speaker 2: That's me.
Speaker 1: It's great, really close, great, good to know. Are you
Speaker 1: not like that with Michael?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: Were you ever?
Speaker 2: No? That's just not me really no, it's not my DNA.
Speaker 1: You hugged me when we first met.
Speaker 2: I yeah, but I'm not like, let me wear your
Speaker 2: sweatpants like me alsine.
Speaker 1: Wow, I feel personally attacked.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm just sorry, it's just not that's what
Speaker 3: I sound like. No, that's what the TikTokers sound like. Right,
Speaker 3: okay whatever, moving on. Okay, So this study is actually
Speaker 3: really interesting. So the researchers at the University of Boswell
Speaker 3: studied videos of sixty NCAA women's basketball games and they
Speaker 3: were looking at what happens right before free throws. So
Speaker 3: they found that the chance that the player would score
Speaker 3: went up when their teammates gave them just a pat
Speaker 3: on the back that's it, or even just like squeezing
Speaker 3: their hand before they took their shot. Huh, Danielle, do
Speaker 3: you have any other physical touch hacks for confidence?
Speaker 1: I don't know if I do just that I like
Speaker 1: a good hug, but I do like I moderate a
Speaker 1: lot of panels, or do like hosting events live and
Speaker 1: if I know somebody in the audience and like we
Speaker 1: just kind of give each other a head nod or
Speaker 1: like lock eyes, that makes me feel more confident. So
Speaker 1: I do believe in the power of support in that way.
Speaker 2: You know, the one that I really like.
Speaker 3: And this has been well researched is the superhero pos.
Speaker 3: You have to spread your legs out about like shoulder
Speaker 3: length apart, and you stick your hands on your hips
Speaker 3: like your wonder Woman, and something about it just like
Speaker 3: calms you down and instills you with confidence.
Speaker 1: Does that really work?
Speaker 2: I think it does.
Speaker 1: That's cool.
Speaker 2: I think it does. Okay.
Speaker 3: Speaking of reducing stress, Danielle, I saw another article this week,
Speaker 3: and this one is about reading your partner's stress language.
Speaker 3: We know about love languages, but stress languages. Hmmm, this
Speaker 3: is interesting to me very so. Stress languages is a
Speaker 3: term coined by author and wellness expert Chantal Donnelly, and
Speaker 3: she says that stress languages are all about the way
Speaker 3: that we react to and express our stress. So each
Speaker 3: person has a different way that this manifests, and it's
Speaker 3: important to understand how you partner reacts to stress so
Speaker 3: that you can better support them.
Speaker 1: Same as love language, I love exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: It feels like this is long overdue, like we've needed
Speaker 3: this language.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, fight, flight or freeze. We need like
Speaker 1: a language for all of them. There's five of them, right.
Speaker 3: Yes, So we have the fixer and these are people
Speaker 3: who try to fix situations even when they're not invited
Speaker 3: to fix them, and they often wind up doing more
Speaker 3: harm than good. They cross boundaries, they're overbearing.
Speaker 1: I know who this reminds me of, but I can't.
Speaker 2: Say I know who this reminds me of.
Speaker 1: Two.
Speaker 3: We all know a fixer, Oh, we know fixers? Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 3: There's also the denier. The deniers suppress and minimize negative emotions,
Speaker 3: so they're the type to think that the glass is
Speaker 3: half full even when they're struggling, when they're really strugs
Speaker 3: to funk, and they just act like the problem doesn't exist.
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess that's one way if that works
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 3: As I'm going through this, I want you to think
Speaker 3: about which one you are, Okay, okay, and I'll do
Speaker 3: this Okay. The next one is the number, and they
Speaker 3: tend to self medicate with alcohol or other substances like also,
Speaker 3: using screen time or overworking can be a method of
Speaker 3: escape for them.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of my friends do the screen
Speaker 1: time thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I will say I'm a former number, I'm a
Speaker 3: reformed number. Then we have the exploder. Exploders are aggressive, angry,
Speaker 3: quick to point the finger at other people. They can
Speaker 3: gravitate towards catastrophic thinking. They might storm off in the
Speaker 3: middle of a conversation blame other people for their stress.
Speaker 1: I have always admired exploders.
Speaker 2: You admire them, I.
Speaker 1: Do, I think because I'm the opposite.
Speaker 3: Okay, wait, the imploder is number five, and imploders internalize
Speaker 3: their stress and they tend to spiral into self criticism
Speaker 3: and shame.
Speaker 1: Yeah that's me for sure. I hold it all inside
Speaker 1: and then just have a good cry, usually in the
Speaker 1: shower or in my car. But I've always admired exploders
Speaker 1: because they just get it out of their system.
Speaker 2: But exploder's got to be really hard to live with too.
Speaker 1: I know an exploder. I have lived with an exploder,
Speaker 1: and they feel better, But then the other person has
Speaker 1: to live with all their words for the next few
Speaker 1: days or maybe forever.
Speaker 3: If we're being honest, like, we all have moments where
Speaker 3: we are exploders. We have all exploded in certain situations,
Speaker 3: and then you have to also live with those things
Speaker 3: that you said while you were exploding.
Speaker 1: Yeah, although a lot of exploders like black out and
Speaker 1: forget what they said and just s are like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I got it out, I'm better now.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to think which one. I am definitely not
Speaker 3: a fixer. I'm probably a denier. Really, yeah, I'm miss
Speaker 3: little miss toxic positivity.
Speaker 2: Little miss that's.
Speaker 1: A good meme for you. Uh, what do you mean?
Speaker 3: I really try to just push through and minimize and
Speaker 3: stay positive. I think it's I think part of it
Speaker 3: is good, you know. I think I developed it as
Speaker 3: a coping mechanism growing up as an only child, moving
Speaker 3: around so much, having to be strong.
Speaker 1: And new, and that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it is a defense mechanism.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which one of these is healthy? I'm still unclear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't are any of them.
Speaker 2: Which one should we be aiming for?
Speaker 1: I also feel like, similar to love languages, you can
Speaker 1: be a little bit of a few exactly like I
Speaker 1: think I'm a little bit of a denier, a little
Speaker 1: bit of a fixer.
Speaker 3: Chantal tell us who we should be? Who are we
Speaker 3: supposed to be here? Because I'm unclear on that.
Speaker 1: I would really like to know. Okay, here's what I'm
Speaker 1: curious about. Yeah, if you're out with somebody and you're
Speaker 1: realizing that you're in one of these stress responses, Yeah,
Speaker 1: are you admitting it? In person, like, if you're on
Speaker 1: a date, are you asking your date which stress response
Speaker 1: they are?
Speaker 3: I think you should bring a print out and actually
Speaker 3: to make it interactive, just create some checkboxes and like
Speaker 3: create a questionnaire and ask them to go through and answer.
Speaker 1: I should do that on my next date. I think
Speaker 1: I'll be really popular with all the guys. Maybe I'll
Speaker 1: ask them for their credit report right after.
Speaker 2: Didn't somebody say that you asked too many questions on dates?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I got feedback that the date felt like an interview.
Speaker 2: I think you should double down. I think you should
Speaker 2: lean in.
Speaker 1: Whose side are you on? Are you trying to get
Speaker 1: me married or are you trying to keep me single?
Speaker 1: My mom is gonna have to call you. Oh, I
Speaker 1: know what side she's on.
Speaker 3: After the break, we sit down with entrepreneur and literal
Speaker 3: tastemaker Jenny Britton, the founder of Jenny's Splendid ice Cream.
Speaker 2: We're gonna find out.
Speaker 3: How her company went from one single scoop shop to
Speaker 3: a national ice cream sensation.
Speaker 1: Dare I say we're getting the scoop? Oh? Stay with us.
Speaker 1: We're back on the bright side with entrepreneur James Beard,
Speaker 1: Award winner and the person responsible for some of our
Speaker 1: very favorite ice cream flavors. Jenny Britton is here aka
Speaker 1: the brains be behind Jenny's splendid ice creams.
Speaker 2: You know Danielle.
Speaker 3: Jenny started with a single scoop shop in Columbus, Ohio
Speaker 3: twenty years ago, but since then she's built an empire
Speaker 3: with more than eighty scoop shops nationwide and pints available
Speaker 3: at major grocery stores. You know you've seen them on
Speaker 3: your shelves. She's here to talk about what it took
Speaker 3: to get there and how she creates those delicious flavors
Speaker 3: that we can't get out of our heads or mouths.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the bright side, Jenny, Hi.
Speaker 4: It's so great to be here. Love talking flavor, Jenny.
Speaker 1: My freezer is full of your ice cream. I see
Speaker 1: your name almost every night when I open my freezer door.
Speaker 4: I love that so much. You know, it's funny because
Speaker 4: when I see a woman's name on a brand, first
Speaker 4: of all, I usually reach out to her and say hello.
Speaker 4: So like Target, for instance, there are so many women
Speaker 4: founders in Target. But I honestly like sometimes when I
Speaker 4: see those packages, I will wave like wave through them
Speaker 4: to people, like there's some energy in the universe where
Speaker 4: I can like speak to people through through these packages.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, Just imagine me on the other
Speaker 4: side when you see that, like waving to you.
Speaker 3: Saying Hi, Jenny, your ice cream hits different to me.
Speaker 3: It's genuine hospitality in a pint. I love the way
Speaker 3: that you view this industry and ice cream through that
Speaker 3: lens of gathering and hospitality. What are some of your
Speaker 3: earliest splendid memories of ice cream?
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, that's so neat that you say that.
Speaker 4: I love it so much because I'm a Midwesterner and
Speaker 4: it really always is that sort of Midwestern tradition of
Speaker 4: coming together and serving each other. You know, it's funny
Speaker 4: that I put my name on my company. I did
Speaker 4: not want to do that. That is not something that
Speaker 4: Midwesterners do. We need to just hide because it's never
Speaker 4: about one person, and even at Jenny's it isn't. But
Speaker 4: ice cream in the Midwest is like and I think
Speaker 4: that's true of everywhere, but I mean, especially in the
Speaker 4: eighties and nineties when I was coming up, it's something
Speaker 4: that you do. It's like not a dessert. You know,
Speaker 4: a lot of times in the Midwest will eat like
Speaker 4: cinnamon rolls before for dinner. Ice Cream was just something
Speaker 4: that we did almost every night before bed. So we
Speaker 4: would actually have ice cream at my grandmother's house before bed,
Speaker 4: and that's probably my earliest memory. It was like this caring,
Speaker 4: loving thing to do. It's a ritual almost of care,
Speaker 4: which I think is so beautiful and ice cream is
Speaker 4: that way. I mean, I always say ice cream is
Speaker 4: there for you with you win the game or lose
Speaker 4: the game, and it does it makes you feel better
Speaker 4: no matter what.
Speaker 1: You've been creating ice cream flavors for more than two
Speaker 1: decades and the names and the flavors are so unique.
Speaker 1: There's fluffer nut or pie, maple soaked pancakes. The one
Speaker 1: that I crave the most is brambleberry crisp. Where do
Speaker 1: you come up with these?
Speaker 4: I started in a public market, so I was making
Speaker 4: whatever flavors I wanted to and just listening to feedback constantly.
Speaker 4: So I would get some ingredients, i'd make the ice
Speaker 4: creams and then I would give people samples. So I
Speaker 4: would just listen to feedback constantly. And when you do
Speaker 4: that for a decade, you get a sense of not
Speaker 4: only what you want and what you like which is
Speaker 4: always app For me, it's always butter caramel, peanut, butter
Speaker 4: brambleberries because we actually picked brambleberries when I was a
Speaker 4: kid and made crisp out of it. But you know
Speaker 4: what you're adding to the world, but you're also listening
Speaker 4: to feedback, so you kind of get a really good
Speaker 4: sense of what you're doing and what people want. And
Speaker 4: I think that's true of whatever it is you're making.
Speaker 4: If you want to be an entrepreneur, to get as
Speaker 4: close as you can for as long as you can
Speaker 4: to your customers and just start playing around and then listen,
Speaker 4: because you have to bring something new to it. If
Speaker 4: I had just started making all the flavors that people
Speaker 4: thought they wanted, like cookies and cream and mint chocolate
Speaker 4: chip and all that, nobody would have come to me.
Speaker 4: People would have told me that's what they wanted, but
Speaker 4: ultimately that's not would have built my business. And yet
Speaker 4: the first, you know, the early flavors that I was
Speaker 4: making probably weren't exciting enough either, you know, so it
Speaker 4: really was like it kind of had to like evolve together.
Speaker 1: You put all these ingredients in ice cream that I
Speaker 1: would have never thought of in ice cream, like there's
Speaker 1: olive oil and just these ingredients that are so outside
Speaker 1: of the realm of ice cream.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well that comes from the farmer's market. Whatever was
Speaker 4: there became ice cream at some point. Even you know,
Speaker 4: fish and any cheese that the cheesemonger had, or any
Speaker 4: wine or variation of some kind of spirit, or you know,
Speaker 4: anything that was in the market. And all of those
Speaker 4: beautiful merchants who were there every day, you know, and
Speaker 4: they knew everything about what they sold. When they got
Speaker 4: something new, I was always the first person they thought of,
Speaker 4: so I would trade. I would make ice cream out
Speaker 4: of whatever it is that they brought me, and then
Speaker 4: I would trade them for the product so that I
Speaker 4: could then sell that ice cream to my customers. I
Speaker 4: didn't have any money in the beginning at all, so
Speaker 4: a lot of it was just done on trade for years.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I have to rewind fish ice cream.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I'm not saying it it needs to
Speaker 4: be made or that it was.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: The weird thing about ice cream is that it's I
Speaker 4: always say, it's surprisingly not bad. You can almost put
Speaker 4: anything in it, like and it's surprisingly not bad. But
Speaker 4: it took me really a long time, like years to
Speaker 4: learn that that isn't good. You know, like just because
Speaker 4: you can make a smoked fish ice cream doesn't mean
Speaker 4: that it's delicious.
Speaker 3: Okay, okay, thank you for clearing that up. Funny, So
Speaker 3: you started an ice cream company before Jenny's, called Scream,
Speaker 3: but it didn't work out. How did that experience shape
Speaker 3: you and how did you find the grit to try again?
Speaker 4: Well, everything that I know comes from what I learned
Speaker 4: at Scream. It's the foundation. Like I learned about seasonality
Speaker 4: of produce. I learned how to make ice cream. I mean,
Speaker 4: it actually took longer than I thought to learn that.
Speaker 4: All four years. I got good by the end. I
Speaker 4: thought I was good in the beginning, I wasn't. But
Speaker 4: I learned about how the market works, which is I
Speaker 4: mean in terms of like the farmer's market. So a
Speaker 4: rising tide lifts everybody up. We're in it together. If
Speaker 4: there's somebody failing over here and somebody's super excelling over there,
Speaker 4: like we gotta like learn together. I learned everything I
Speaker 4: learned about fellowship and finance in a very simplea stickway,
Speaker 4: which is all you need to know in business to start.
Speaker 4: So Scream was everything, but Ultimately it failed because I
Speaker 4: didn't know a lot. I also had a business partner
Speaker 4: that wasn't very into the business. I mean, we weren't
Speaker 4: doing very well, so it kind of makes sense she
Speaker 4: had another business. But I was there every day and
Speaker 4: it was like all my ideas. And so when I
Speaker 4: closed Scream, I thought I was done forever because I
Speaker 4: had been the one working there every day. I had
Speaker 4: lived out of my car for three months, like I
Speaker 4: was trading not just for ingredients, but also just for
Speaker 4: food to live off of. I really didn't have a
Speaker 4: safety net, but for some reason, I just didn't care.
Speaker 4: I was just on this cool adventure. So living in
Speaker 4: my little chevette, I had a tiny little chavette, I
Speaker 4: would sleep on my clothes in the back hatchback. There's
Speaker 4: a rich neighborhood in Columbus, and they had the best trees,
Speaker 4: and I would park my car under those because I
Speaker 4: felt like maybe people wouldn't see me. But it was
Speaker 4: a safe neighborhood and that was where I would spend
Speaker 4: the night. But I would like look at the stars
Speaker 4: and the tree above me. I felt very much on
Speaker 4: my own, but very in control of my destiny.
Speaker 1: Wow, what were you after during that time, was it
Speaker 1: the pursuit of ice cream or it seems like it
Speaker 1: was just something bigger.
Speaker 4: So I had studied art and left art school to
Speaker 4: make ice cream. When I was in college, I actually
Speaker 4: wanted to be a perfumer. So I was studying art
Speaker 4: and a whole bunch of other stuff that I was
Speaker 4: just interested in. I went to Ohio State University, which
Speaker 4: is massive, and so you can really learn anything there
Speaker 4: that you want to. So it was hard for me
Speaker 4: to focus, but I wanted to get into perfuming, and
Speaker 4: it wasn't long after that I'd read all these books
Speaker 4: about ancient perfumers, and I realized that butterfat, the fat
Speaker 4: that's in milk, is a perfect carrier of scent. Then
Speaker 4: I started to get things from the farmer's market, like
Speaker 4: rose petals or sweet basil and actually steep them right
Speaker 4: in the cream. It was hooking up with the butterfat,
Speaker 4: so then it would like get frozen and then it
Speaker 4: would melt when you eat it. So once I started
Speaker 4: to work with that, I felt like there was a
Speaker 4: lot that I could do if Ben and Jerry's did
Speaker 4: what they did with kind of like that stoner junk food.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a huge Ben and Jerry's fan to
Speaker 4: this day. Well, then I can do it in the
Speaker 4: other way, you know, in this more like, you know,
Speaker 4: just a better quality kind of way, and to put
Speaker 4: the emphasis on the experience of eating the ice cream.
Speaker 1: You know, I was going to ask you a question
Speaker 1: about what you wanted to do differently, but I think
Speaker 1: that feels like that's what it was, as you just
Speaker 1: viewed ice cream in a different way than all these
Speaker 1: other companies did.
Speaker 4: I was studying art and because all of my friends
Speaker 4: were kind of like the punk kids hanging around Columbus,
Speaker 4: and I was like, we would never go to one
Speaker 4: of those like old fashioned nostalgic ice cream shops, So
Speaker 4: maybe I can make an ice cream shop that's like
Speaker 4: for my friends. So that also became that sort of like, well,
Speaker 4: you know, you to find your market, you don't have
Speaker 4: to look that far. If there's something that you kind
Speaker 4: of love but it's not being served by the people
Speaker 4: that you know and you relate to, can kind of
Speaker 4: go after that, which is exactly what we have done.
Speaker 3: We all know that saying ego is the death of creativity,
Speaker 3: and yet I'm always confused as to how ego factors
Speaker 3: into entrepreneurship, right, because all great innovators like yourself, start
Speaker 3: by investing in their own ideas, believing in their own ideas.
Speaker 3: But then you have to engage in co creation with
Speaker 3: your customers. So it's a give and take. What has
Speaker 3: entrepreneurship taught you about the difference between ego versus instinct?
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, what an incredible question. So yes, all of that.
Speaker 4: I mean it is an act of co creation. Building
Speaker 4: Jenny's was an active co creation, and in fact, my
Speaker 4: first store, I didn't realize that, and that's really the
Speaker 4: big thing that was the problem. I sort of thought
Speaker 4: of myself as the artist, and because of that, people
Speaker 4: people weren't actually that interested in what I wanted to
Speaker 4: make every day. They wanted what they had last time,
Speaker 4: which I didn't have because I was interested in making
Speaker 4: something different all the time. And so when I opened Jenny's,
Speaker 4: it was like, let's I already knew what flavors people
Speaker 4: really loved that I was making before, and so I
Speaker 4: knew that those had to become like regular flavors. That's
Speaker 4: the thing that really made Jenny's Versus scream is that
Speaker 4: idea of committing to what our customers loved out of
Speaker 4: the things that I was making. I think that there
Speaker 4: is this weird ego death in creativity in that when
Speaker 4: any creative person puts themselves out there and says, I'm
Speaker 4: going to put my name on this, I'm going to
Speaker 4: stand for it, stand for my ideas. It is the
Speaker 4: hardest thing you will ever We all know that. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, just even putting a post up on Instagram
Speaker 4: can be like you have to get over yourself because
Speaker 4: you have to get over that thing that tries to
Speaker 4: protect you from expressing yourself. And people think it takes
Speaker 4: ego to do that, but actually it takes ego to
Speaker 4: hold you back. Your ego is what holds you back
Speaker 4: from actually taking that step.
Speaker 1: Jenny, you hit an unexpected bump in the road in
Speaker 1: twenty fifteen with a lasteria outbreak that just seems so
Speaker 1: brutal to endure. How did you navigate that moment?
Speaker 4: I mean, I think when something like that happens, the
Speaker 4: first thing you do is just pause and stare at
Speaker 4: the problem. You look directly in the eye of what's happening.
Speaker 4: We had done everything we thought we were supposed to
Speaker 4: do to prevent it and then we got that call,
Speaker 4: and so the moment, you know, that's the moment the
Speaker 4: world kind of stops for us. Right. We came together
Speaker 4: as a team very quickly. I had great people on
Speaker 4: my team, just I mean, just kind of regular people.
Speaker 4: We were just running this little company. But like we
Speaker 4: had just opened in La To literally like a month before,
Speaker 4: and we had this amazing collection of ice creams inspired
Speaker 4: by colors of the Matisse paintings. So this is like
Speaker 4: the highest moment we had ever achieved in the company.
Speaker 4: And a month later we were worth nothing.
Speaker 1: It took your company out that badly.
Speaker 4: We needed money so much to it that so badly
Speaker 4: at that moment because we were coming out of winter,
Speaker 4: so we were just waiting for any of those summer
Speaker 4: sales to come in, any of those spring sales.
Speaker 1: So one of my favorite Ted talks is about the
Speaker 1: importance of grit in business. That to me just seems
Speaker 1: like such a huge test of grit. In hindsight, now
Speaker 1: that you're nine years out of that experience, what was
Speaker 1: the most impactful learning from that?
Speaker 4: Oh, my goodness, we became the company we always believed
Speaker 4: we were after that, Because when you are hit with
Speaker 4: that kind of a challenge, and we could have made
Speaker 4: very different decisions than we made in terms of like
Speaker 4: trying to protect our company, and we chose to do
Speaker 4: the right thing instead at the risk of everything. I
Speaker 4: think that's actually you don't know what you're going to
Speaker 4: do until you are presented with that. No one does.
Speaker 4: But when you get through it and you can look
Speaker 4: back and say, we actually are those people, that company
Speaker 4: is us. Nothing you can do in life can give
Speaker 4: you that. But crisis, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Did you ever think about giving up?
Speaker 4: Well? No, not in that. The interesting thing about this
Speaker 4: kind of deep existential crisis where you're just really like
Speaker 4: is that the rules are different. You can fight in
Speaker 4: a way for what you believe that you wouldn't in
Speaker 4: other times of your life. And there is a weird
Speaker 4: creativity in that moment too. I don't want to say
Speaker 4: it's enjoyable. You would never wish it on anyone. It's
Speaker 4: so incredibly difficult, But actually, like during the crisis, there's
Speaker 4: creativity and passion. You're on fire, you're walking through it,
Speaker 4: you're getting through it, you're doing it for reasons other
Speaker 4: than yourself. It's the hard part actually comes afterward, when
Speaker 4: everything's kind of subtled and you realize you just gave
Speaker 4: everything you had. Then it kind of messes with you
Speaker 4: a little bit afterward.
Speaker 2: Creativity and crisis, that's something that's going to stick with me.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I wrote about it. I wrote a journal and
Speaker 4: I wrote about that, and yeah, what.
Speaker 2: Was the journal entry? Like, what do you remember from it?
Speaker 4: Well, it's like, you know, I was sitting there for
Speaker 4: so long, trying to save the company, trying to come
Speaker 4: up with an idea. The rest of the team was
Speaker 4: all working on amazing projects. They were in the phone
Speaker 4: manning the phone bank which we had set up. They
Speaker 4: were working with the FDA and trying to get us through.
Speaker 4: There's so much red tape in all of this, and
Speaker 4: we were doing testing and luckily we did not find
Speaker 4: more litheria, so that was very good. But we were
Speaker 4: trying to get the kitchen back up and running. But
Speaker 4: my job is to create new flavors, and I had
Speaker 4: no job anymore because we couldn't make ice cream. My
Speaker 4: job is to connect with people, and so most of
Speaker 4: that stuff was like on hold for now, and I
Speaker 4: was just sat there thinking like what can I do?
Speaker 4: In days, weeks, even months went by, and nothing was
Speaker 4: like I remember, there's this blackness everywhere. I had nothing
Speaker 4: to hold on too, nothing to grab onto, not even
Speaker 4: a spark of an idea to carry me to the
Speaker 4: next stone or whatever. And then it was interesting because
Speaker 4: I got a call from an ice cream maker actually
Speaker 4: in California, in Napa, and he said, come make your
Speaker 4: ice cream at our plant. Can you do that? Can
Speaker 4: we help you? And I thought, that's amazing, what a
Speaker 4: wonderful human being. But no, we can't because it's too
Speaker 4: far away. We wouldn't. It wouldn't it wouldn't actually work.
Speaker 4: And then another ice cream maker starts calling. This is
Speaker 4: actually just a couple weeks after after the recop, maybe
Speaker 4: six weeks, and then another ice creamaker and another icere
Speaker 4: maker and I and I tried to work with one
Speaker 4: of them or something didn't work. But that was like
Speaker 4: the spark. You know, you have to wait for that
Speaker 4: like shift in thinking, and then it comes.
Speaker 3: It almost seems like another small ego death in a way,
Speaker 3: like having to having to put to bed this idea
Speaker 3: of what you thought it should be, and then that
Speaker 3: opens up so much greatness on the other side.
Speaker 4: It was mind blowing. Yeah, it really does blow your mind.
Speaker 4: I mean you are you're it is an ego death situation,
Speaker 4: for sure. You get a lot of those as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 4: I think, you know, especially when your name is on it.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's a funny thing. It seems the opposite.
Speaker 4: But yeah, there's a lot of Yeah, killing your ego.
Speaker 1: Tumbling to be in business is basically what it is.
Speaker 1: I'm always really interested and inspired by compassionate leadership. I've
Speaker 1: had enough bad bosses and good bosses to understand and
Speaker 1: see the difference. And my friend Steven runs a company
Speaker 1: called Flowers for Dreams in Chicago and I love it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Well he had told me a story about you years ago,
Speaker 1: and so I texted him and I said, you know,
Speaker 1: we're going to be interviewing Jenny. And his response was,
Speaker 1: she really gave me an ear when I needed one.
Speaker 1: And I just thought that was such a characterization of
Speaker 1: who you are as a leader who gave you an ear?
Speaker 1: And did any of those conversations change the way that
Speaker 1: you do business.
Speaker 4: It's weird because when you're an entrepreneur, when you're a founder,
Speaker 4: most people in your life you have to convince because
Speaker 4: most people around you think that you are not making
Speaker 4: the right decision, or that you don't know what you're doing,
Speaker 4: or that you came from art school and you didn't
Speaker 4: go to business school, or that you're in ohioan and
Speaker 4: you don't know from New York, like whatever it is,
Speaker 4: there's you're a woman, and not a very very very
Speaker 4: few people actually do care to listen and to it
Speaker 4: on your side and to support you. And I've only,
Speaker 4: i would say, recently found that, and I have found
Speaker 4: people around me who are actually interested. And I know
Speaker 4: what it feels like now to be pulled up, to
Speaker 4: be allowed to expand into something I didn't know what's
Speaker 4: possible for myself. Most of this in my life was
Speaker 4: on my own, and especially when you talk about being
Speaker 4: in the middle of Columbus, Ohio, which Columbus has a
Speaker 4: great community, a really incredible community, But for most of
Speaker 4: my life I was very alone. All of the women
Speaker 4: in this city that were on the level that I
Speaker 4: was or where I wanted to go, they were like,
Speaker 4: you know, shoulder pads and pantyhose and high heels working
Speaker 4: at the law firms. That wasn't me at all, So
Speaker 4: I couldn't identify with them, you know. So I really
Speaker 4: will say that like for a lot of the time
Speaker 4: it was out on my own. I had to believe
Speaker 4: in it. But I only recently got the support that
Speaker 4: I need, which is pretty cool. So I have a
Speaker 4: coach and an advisor for the last maybe five years,
Speaker 4: and those people are incredible. And I would say to
Speaker 4: any entrepreneur, the three people you need in your life
Speaker 4: right now are a coach, because being a founder is
Speaker 4: different than being an executive. You have different kinds of power.
Speaker 4: You have to know how to wield it in the
Speaker 4: right way. In your company. It's hard to know. You
Speaker 4: need a business advisor. You just have to know what
Speaker 4: all the things about the board are, what the contracts are.
Speaker 4: You need somebody who's protecting you outside of your company
Speaker 4: and who's helping you understand. And then you need a
Speaker 4: really really really good lawyer from day one, you know.
Speaker 4: So So anyway, it's funny, it's interesting. I think we're changing.
Speaker 4: You know, people are more open to listening now, and
Speaker 4: I certainly take every call I possibly can for emerging entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: I'm always, I mean, I'm always on phone calls with them.
Speaker 4: I'll have some more this afternoon.
Speaker 1: It means so much when you're building something and I
Speaker 1: feel like you're part of that change.
Speaker 4: We can all be so much more than we believe
Speaker 4: we can be. And sometimes when somebody else just sees.
Speaker 3: That in you, that kind of like when saw something
Speaker 3: in Frodo that no one else saw in him. I
Speaker 3: just want to say, I've had so much self control
Speaker 3: throughout this whole conversation because I am such a huge
Speaker 3: Lord of the Rings fan. I know you are too,
Speaker 3: and I've waited this whole time to get out my
Speaker 3: Lord of the Rings reference.
Speaker 2: I have a Lord of the Rings question.
Speaker 4: I have to ask you, Okay, great, this is like
Speaker 4: you know, I always say the Lord of the Rings
Speaker 4: is my favorite movies, is my favorite business book?
Speaker 3: Yes, I've I've learned that you believe that. So is
Speaker 3: there a particular scene that inspires you as a business leader?
Speaker 4: The one that constantly is in my mind is when
Speaker 4: Frodo like finally like throws the ring into the fire
Speaker 4: or whatever. You know, It's like he's so bloody, you know,
Speaker 4: and he's so that expression that he has it just
Speaker 4: says everything, and it's exactly like it's a metaphor. It's
Speaker 4: like what it feels like, Like I always talk it
Speaker 4: like instead of having a mission in the company. We
Speaker 4: had like this vision quest or mission quest sort of thing,
Speaker 4: just because I want to compare it to like what
Speaker 4: Frodo goes through. But there is a quietness I think
Speaker 4: in ba an entrepreneur, and sometimes we're like on instrument
Speaker 4: out in the world of Or. But most of our
Speaker 4: lives are just working and just trying to get that
Speaker 4: ring to Mordor. We never show like all of the
Speaker 4: incredible people who supported you, the fellowship, the fellowship, and
Speaker 4: it's not even just supported you, but like together we
Speaker 4: make something greater than the some of its parts. So
Speaker 4: when I think about I like the word company better
Speaker 4: than I like the word business. So company is a
Speaker 4: fellowship with people who are all an important part of
Speaker 4: the mosaic to make one thing.
Speaker 2: Whole, one last thing.
Speaker 3: There's a glad Real quote that I think perfectly describes
Speaker 3: you and your perseverance, and that is this task was
Speaker 3: appointed to you, and if you do not find a way,
Speaker 3: no one will.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 4: I can hear her voice say it when you say.
Speaker 3: That, right, Yes, So, Jenny, our minds are like gardens,
Speaker 3: and you've had such a vivid imagination since you were
Speaker 3: a little girl. You've talked about searching for fairies and
Speaker 3: nymphs in the forest, and you're constantly sprouting.
Speaker 2: New ideas today.
Speaker 3: So what do you do on a daily basis to
Speaker 3: keep your mind ripe for creativity.
Speaker 4: I shut everybody else out because it's to the judgment
Speaker 4: and the opinions are too loud and the voices are
Speaker 4: too loud. And so I just go into my own place.
Speaker 4: And I live on a park, and I go to
Speaker 4: the forest a lot, and those are sacred places for me,
Speaker 4: and I allow my mind to just wander. And I
Speaker 4: really do think that imagination can be therapeutic. So sometimes
Speaker 4: it's like there's like active imagination and then there's actually
Speaker 4: turning off your brain and just feeling just radiating and
Speaker 4: feeling the energy of whatever it is that you're doing,
Speaker 4: especially in nature. And for some reason, that's also where
Speaker 4: ideas come from when you stop thinking.
Speaker 1: So you are an ingredient company, and you have this
Speaker 1: flavor called sunshine, which is very on brand for us
Speaker 1: here at the bright Side and sunshine, Yeah, what are
Speaker 1: the ingredients for sunshine in your life?
Speaker 4: So for me, like because I was in a period
Speaker 4: of darkness, which I'm also not afraid of, and I
Speaker 4: kind of like I was like born under a scorpio
Speaker 4: moon almost at midnight, So like I have those light
Speaker 4: and dark side of me, which is I'm an optimist,
Speaker 4: you know, but like I'm rooted in both sides. But
Speaker 4: like I don't know the elements of sunshine. I mean
Speaker 4: I just think of light, you know, and it takes darkness,
Speaker 4: Like you wouldn't have light if there wasn't darkness, right,
Speaker 4: So it's that balance of.
Speaker 1: Forces, balance of forces and flavors.
Speaker 4: The flavor was and I don't even know, maybe I
Speaker 4: went too far the other way because if you were
Speaker 4: just asking about the flavor.
Speaker 1: I mean I wasn't. I wasn't. I really wanted to know,
Speaker 1: like what makes sunshine for you? Like for me, it's
Speaker 1: like a dash of alone time, you know, a tablespoon
Speaker 1: of community that if I'm being corny, that type of
Speaker 1: a thing. I just wanted to know what it equalled
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 4: Well, I love that And in a way like the
Speaker 4: ice cream because it was the color of a storm cloud,
Speaker 4: but behind the storm cloud was the light. It kind
Speaker 4: of matches up with this idea of dark darkness and
Speaker 4: light kind of stepping into the light, which I think
Speaker 4: that's the sunshine, that's the flavor. And also for me,
Speaker 4: like what it represents.
Speaker 1: The definition of wisdom is holding two opposite truths at
Speaker 1: one time. And I feel like you do that with
Speaker 1: your ice cream. It's light and dark, it's sweet and
Speaker 1: salty and all of those things.
Speaker 4: Well, and it's also true of our company. Like you know,
Speaker 4: it looks optimistic, it looks like it's bright and cheerful,
Speaker 4: but there's always a little shadow behind everything that we do.
Speaker 4: Like I said already earlier, like ice cream is there
Speaker 4: where you win the game or lose the game. I
Speaker 4: think people don't realize how many people in the same
Speaker 4: line that they're in might be there because they're losing
Speaker 4: the game right now. And we are aware of that
Speaker 4: at Jenny's in a big way. And it's really what
Speaker 4: I think is so beautiful about ice cream. And I'm
Speaker 4: not sure how many other ice cream makers really think
Speaker 4: that way.
Speaker 2: I don't think any of them.
Speaker 1: It feels very in line with your emphasis on localization.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I always say, like anybody in America can
Speaker 4: start where they're at and build anything they can imagine.
Speaker 4: I think the most valuable resources you have as an
Speaker 4: organization or not the money that you build, but the
Speaker 4: community that you build and the people that come along
Speaker 4: with you, and of course your own passion and the
Speaker 4: love that you create in the world and all that.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's like unstoppable. That's like a course you
Speaker 4: can't really mess with.
Speaker 1: For sure, You're founding another company soon. What can you
Speaker 1: tell us about that? Is this a pivot a little bit?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I mean it's funny because this was I was actually
Speaker 4: in New Jersey to work with another founder on a
Speaker 4: project that she needs some help with. And I've been
Speaker 4: on this big health journey for the last five years
Speaker 4: or so. And we started working directly with this produce
Speaker 4: company with all of their produce trimming so apple cores, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew,
Speaker 4: mango rinds, and then and then stems of like broccoli
Speaker 4: and cauliflower, started fermenting them on site, turning them in,
Speaker 4: dehyding them, and turning them at a flour and so
Speaker 4: we were just like, can we make something out of this?
Speaker 4: So we just made a whole bunch of things. We
Speaker 4: made an amazing pancake mix of chocolate, cake mix, cookies,
Speaker 4: and we settled on doing the first product to do
Speaker 4: a bar, a nutrition bar that's just like a twelve plants,
Speaker 4: you know, probiotics super fiber bar that's just really really
Speaker 4: good for you. But the company itself will be an
Speaker 4: ingredients company.
Speaker 3: You're actually raising money through Kickstarter, and I'm sure a
Speaker 3: lot of people would think you're such a successful entrepreneur,
Speaker 3: your way beyond Kickstarter at this point, So why are
Speaker 3: you doing it that way.
Speaker 4: I like the idea of starting small. I want to
Speaker 4: start as direct as I can with people who will
Speaker 4: be our customers. I knew that I thought this was
Speaker 4: a good idea, but that's it. And so having so
Speaker 4: many people come out so quickly for the Kickstarter kind
Speaker 4: of prove the concept to me. So to me, it's
Speaker 4: a story we created together. And again it goes back
Speaker 4: to we're co creating this and you have to have
Speaker 4: your people, your community, your customers, your potential customers there
Speaker 4: with you in order to really be a company. So
Speaker 4: it's just a humble way to do it, but to me,
Speaker 4: it's invaluable.
Speaker 1: Jenny, thank you so much for being here with us today.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, thank you so much. This has been
Speaker 4: such a fun conversation.
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me Jenny Britten is the proto
Speaker 3: Baggins of Frozen Treats, the Jedi Knight of Scoops, and
Speaker 3: the founder of Jenny's Splendid Ice Creams.
Speaker 2: We got to take a quick break, but we'll be
Speaker 2: right back.
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, Daniel, but that conversation was
Speaker 3: everything I hoped it could be and more.
Speaker 1: She's a really inspiring entrepreneur, and we touch on compassionate leadership.
Speaker 1: But there's a Shakespeare quote that some are born great,
Speaker 1: some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them.
Speaker 1: And I kept thinking about that as she was talking.
Speaker 1: I think she's a little bit of all three. To
Speaker 1: be honest, she's a true leader.
Speaker 3: I loved hearing her talk about how she navigated that
Speaker 3: tension between ego and openness as an entrepreneur, how her
Speaker 3: greatest moments of creativity came in times of crisis. When
Speaker 3: I look back at my life, I think that's true
Speaker 3: for me too. I think it's true for all of us.
Speaker 1: Yeah, those moments of failure, hardship, they really suck when
Speaker 1: you're going through them. I call them crying on the
Speaker 1: kitchen floor moments. I've had a few since I started
Speaker 1: pretty smart and they're not easy. But I do think
Speaker 1: that somebody said to me one time when I had
Speaker 1: a crying on the kitchen floor moment. They were like,
Speaker 1: welcome to the club, and I was like, what do
Speaker 1: you mean? And they said, this is the club of entrepreneurship,
Speaker 1: now inducted. Your tears are payment to get in basically,
Speaker 1: and there's going to be a lot more. And it
Speaker 1: made me feel better, like everybody goes through it.
Speaker 3: And she really pulled back the curtain and acknowledged that
Speaker 3: it's never just about one person, that one person who
Speaker 3: builds a business. Even though it's her name on the pints,
Speaker 3: every self made entrepreneur is still a community made entrepreneur
Speaker 3: at the end of the day.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no one does anything great alone. Anybody who
Speaker 1: says they do needs their ego checked.
Speaker 3: Tomorrow, comedian and actress Dulce Sloan joins us to talk
Speaker 3: all about her journey to joy.
Speaker 2: You don't want to miss.
Speaker 1: It, and that's it for today's show. Listen and follow
Speaker 1: the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3: I'm simone Voice. You can find me at someone Voice
Speaker 3: on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 1: And I'm Danielle robe on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 3: Yet see you tomorrow, folks. Keep looking on the bright side.