An explosive brand is about striking a balance between high-quality products and a value-driven mission. This is exactly what Margarita Womack did to establish the first brand of Latin Goodness Foods, Mas Panadas. Sitting down with Elliot Begoun, she shares how her highly prescriptive approach to running a business secured the success of her frozen empanada brand. Margarita also explains how she is making Mas Panadas a place of equity and community for minorities, detailing its part in empowering Hispanic entrepreneurs.

—

Listen to the podcast here

How To Build An Explosive Brand With Margarita Womack Of Mas Panadas

Before I turn it over to Margarita, I got to do my normal plugs. I’ll start with the TIG Venture Community. The reality is that for so many entrepreneurs, what they are building is not a rocket ship. What they’re building is a Camry. They’re building a very reliable, dependable, business vehicle that can take them coast to coast, but it isn’t one that is meant to be put on a launchpad. You wouldn’t fuel a Camry with rocket fuel, but yet for whatever reason in this industry, the vast majority of our brands are fueled by rocket fuel, and yet very few of them are those brands that are going to launch into $100 million brands in 3 to 5 years.

Their journey’s going to be much longer and they deserve the optionality of building a business that can be EBITDA and cashflow positive. Whether they want to jump onto the launchpad and transform into a rocket or whether they want to be a continued sedan going down the highway at a comfortable pace, that should be their call.

The TIG Venture Community is built to help fund that. There’s a funding gap early stage out there. There’s a challenge for these brands. The reason is that the typical fund is built on getting that grand slam on that rocket ship. It’s our belief that we can build a fund that not only helps and supports these entrepreneurs. In a way, that shows a good return to LPs, but not based on rocketships or grand slams. It’s based on singles and doubles. If you’re interested in investing in this space, supporting the entrepreneurs of this space, and funding the brands that can be the next tarter grades, not unicorns, reach out to us. Check us out at TIG VC and we’ll tell you more.

I’m talking about the TIG Collective. We’re having our first advisor and, brand meeting at Expo East for those brands and advisors who are part of the collective. This is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to have access to an amazing cadre of advisors that run the gamut in terms of experience and subject matter expertise. It’s also part of a mission to make sure that our future boards represent the communities that our brand serves.

There is a lack of women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ representation on boards and the TIG Collective aims to change that while at the same time helping talented entrepreneurs get the support, advice, and strategy they need to navigate this difficult water. If you’re interested in learning more about the TIG Collective, you can reach out to any of us here at TIG Brands, including me, and we’ll be happy to share more.

My two commercials are done. I’m not loving doing those commercials, but I’m passionate about both things because both are part of that holistic approach to trying to make sure that entrepreneurs like Margarita have every opportunity to succeed because you’re doing all the hard stuff. It’s amazing the tenacity and perseverance. I’m excited to have you here to talk about your journey and what you’ve done. It’s cool because you’ve taken a different approach to what a lot of other entrepreneurs have. You’ve built manufacturing and have developed a private label business. I don’t want to take any of your thunder. I’ll let you introduce yourself and your brand, then we’ll just have a conversation. Thanks for joining me.

Thanks so much for the opportunity to be here. What an honor. I’m the Founder and CEO of Latin Goodness Foods. Our first brand is MasPanadas. We started in 2017 out of Union Kitchen in DC, the incubator, and then moved to our current space in 2019. At that point, it was a 3,000-square feet kitchen. We doubled the size in 2020. Now we’re exploding at the seams. It’s expanding into the parking lot and hopefully, building pretty soon our own new plant across the parking lot that will give us about 10X capacity.

What’s causing this explosion? Let’s rewind. Tell us about this journey. How did you wound up here? Why you started the business? Let’s talk about that stuff first.

We rewind all the way. I’m originally Colombian. I’ve been in the US now for over half my life. I came first because my family had been threatened by FARC, one of the main guerilla groups. I had to flee my country and completely change my life plans. I was lucky to be able to come to college here. It was an easy transition in the beginning, “I’m young and independent. I got this. What’s the problem?” You don’t quite realize the issues that are around than trying to have a family and build your life separate in the US. I had a friend of the family come and help out when my 2nd and 3rd were born. She wanted to stay and do so legally. I was more than happy to entertain the idea.

I started what I thought was going to be a teeny business out of my kitchen to work with neighbors and my friends, catering. She was going to be the chef, and we’re going to get her visa because it turns out there is a program that allows central personnel from home when you start a business in the US. It turns out you can’t do a food business out of your kitchen in Maryland. From there, we went to Union Kitchen, starting our business there. From catering, we realized, “Empanada is the best seller.” We have so much more potential as a CPG item in the frozen space.

We pivoted at that point. We couldn’t get the visa. The program changed, but the original intent lives through in what is the spirit and the soul of the business where we hire the gentleman behind me. He is a Venezuelan refugee. We hire Hispanic immigrant people. Many of them are refugees, mostly women. We are 75% to 80% women nowadays. We train people in manufacturing. We give them opportunities to then build a community to connect with and acquire the resources, the skills they need to succeed in the US.

It’s an amazing mission because you’re doing two things. First of all, you’re building a CPG brand, it’s hard. You’re building a social enterprise, it’s hard. How are you doing both at the same time? How are you managing that?

It’s been certainly tough, but they’re so deeply intertwined together. Sometimes I feel a little bit like have a split personality. It’s not just at that level, then you go deeper into one side or the other, and there are so many aspects to it. We can talk forever about doing the private label and a brand at the same time. People sometimes come knocking at the door. It’s always something that’s been dear to my heart because I found myself in that situation, too.

I’ve had so many opportunities and luck that my path is so much better. I’ve had so many advantages over an average Hispanic immigrant. People come in here and we can loop them in naturally with the skills and resources they need. There are aspects that come from the business. Now we have subsidized health insurance for our employees and 401(k). They come in and get absorbed in this community where they start getting trained from the beginning where at the place itself and the people that are here already per se are an integral part to make the program work, welcome people and help them get oriented.

Every case is unique. For every person that comes through, we have to do something different. It’s only now that it’s becoming more official and it’s not something we do on our own. It takes a village for all of this. We’re partnering this time around with a group called Women Palante. It’s a local nonprofit. They most often support Hispanic women entrepreneurs. We’re doing wellness classes and financial literacy with them. It’s finding those whose mission also aligns with you and then building something together.

I want to take a second to celebrate you because you’re emblematic of something that I try to talk about often and quite frankly, use what you do as an example. There seems to be a belief that social good, climate good, and those things are at odds with business. Truthfully, if you look historically, the biggest changes, improvements, and step forward in our lives in every way, shape, or form have been driven by commerce and business.

I will say in full transparency that some of the things that have created some of the worst things about our society, and of what we’re doing for the climate have also been. Business can be a great change agent for good, corruption, and bad, but once it’s harnessed for good like you’re doing, its power is immense. It’s also different from the subsidized handout and all of those kinds of things. It’s about self-worth, enterprise, ownership, and pride in work and it’s great.

That’s the base there. If you have people that believe in what you’re doing, are happy to be working, are enjoying what they’re doing, are learning, and see that they can accomplish their own dreams by working with you to accomplish your dreams, then that changes everything. It’s a group of people that I can count on no matter what.

Let’s talk about the business for a little bit. Tell us about the business, where it is, what you’re doing, and where consumers would find your products.

It is MasPanadas. It is sold frozen and those standup pouches are mini, bite-size empanadas, turning the idea of the handheld into a bite-size idea where you have more like poppers. It’s something that can be an appetizer, a snack for the kids before the soccer game, or a late meal. It’s portable and prepared in seconds in the air fryer. The current size takes about five minutes. It makes life easy, but at the same time, you can feel good about where you’re eating and feeding your family. We have a presence in Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Midwest. The brand is exploding and we expect to grow about 4 or 5 times our size in the branded channel.

What’s driving that brand explosion? I want to make sure people understand. You’ve been doing this for some time. This has not been an overnight success. What suddenly, do you think, has caused that tipping point to occur that now the business on the branded side is starting to explode?

It’s proof of concept. Now we have a good market fit and the evidence that goes with that. For instance, we check our velocity at Whole Foods. It’s about three times the competition. Now the other piece to it is having the team behind me and the equipment to the operations to produce the number of empanadas we need to be able to deliver what we sell and have the management team to support those efforts. Someone that is now an expert in sales, long experience in the CPG space, a gentleman called Barry Octigan started working with us, and he’s driving this huge explosion with the brand.

One of the things that come with a huge explosion of the brand is a huge explosion of resources being consumed, both financial resources and human resources because you’re making more products, holding more receivables, and going to be doing all of those things. How are you preparing for that?

We are at a point where we are bankable. That has completely changed the world. Also, we are at a point where we’ll be investible and much more attractive. The conversation now is, “I need help. I have this idea and I’m trying to make this happen, but I have something good here. I have a good deal. I’d like to check you out as a potential partner in this venture.” It completely changes the tone of the conversation because now we have the trajectory to show that we are worth it. We are doing things well. We have the ability to repay a loan and also bring back the return that investors are looking for.

It took a while to link back to your earlier question. We started with a single story. I started with food service. It seemed to be the most obvious scenario and not the Whole Foods and the retail chain of the world. It was the corner store in my neighborhood little by little just to step out of time. Years later, we’re starting to show up on the map and get attention, but it took a lot of building small steps at a time to line up things.

It’s an egg and chicken thing. We’re still at a point where I’m ambitious and I’m pushing all these sales and growth, counting on everything I pushing in terms of investment, financing, and resources, just the plant I’m still billing it and I’m already selling stuff that I’m going to make out of it so that we are all lined up. There’s a certain sense of also leap of faith.

I don’t see it as a leap of faith. You’ve been prescriptive and different in this. You didn’t jump on the hamster wheel and go raise a bunch of capital first. You’ve been metered in your approach. You’ve stayed controlled and small. Early on, you recognized you were going to do this journey by manufacturing because not only did you want to have control of the product, but it’s part of your mission to be able to provide these opportunities. You also used private labels strategically. Tell us a little bit about that in terms of that decision and how you see it in the role it plays in the business.

I didn’t even realize it existed, to be honest. I was completely new to the food industry and I was learning as we go. I did not realize that small companies like mine make some of the products you find on shelves at big retailers nationwide. Right before COVID, I had a healthy food service business and I was starting the brand a few stores at a time. COVID came around and it killed 80% of our business. That was all food service that all went overnight. That is where the power of these groups, where you have different brands that come together with advisors, where opportunities can come from.

Another brand from Union Kitchen had been working doing some private label. They wanted some empanada. He connected me with them and it worked out. It’s what saved the business in 2020 that then we were able to start a private label that we do sell nowadays with the main retailer nationwide and then a couple of smaller companies. That has become our cashflow and the core of the financial structure of the business.

What makes us bankable nowadays is that we do private labels. There’s a lot of power in this hybrid business where we have the food service, the brand, and the private label because we can change the levers how many bands did we do when we have the opportunity to do so, when we have the resources to do so, or we can tune down to just our private label, stay there, and be perfectly sustainable on our own.

Especially when you’re building a facility because a big challenge of a facility is that you’ve got fixed costs. They’re there, they’re sunk, and they’re not going to change. To build a brand and also to get that brand to the level of volume to absorb a lot of those fixed costs is doubly hard. If you can absorb those fixed costs, get that cashflow, get all of that working self-sustaining, and become a profitable manufacturer for your own products, it works. To your point, it diversifies the business and mitigates risk. You’re not 100% reliant on your brand pride and everything.

You’re not 100% reliant on a single channel. It gives some inherent flexibility. Knowing what you know, you suddenly are running a much more complex business than you ever intended when you started. You’ve got a lot of things going on. If you could go back to that time when you were first thinking about it before even Union Kitchen and share something that you’ve learned along the way with yourself in the early days, what would that be?

The most important lesson there is that everything you do is an iteration. There’s always room for improvement. At each stage, you should be always gathering information to keep on validating your assumptions so that you can always evolve and keep on making what you do better and finding, not just your product, but the right marketing you do. It’s never a final thing.

You always do so in small stages, try something, validate it, get the data from it, learn from it, try again, improve, then the leaps can become bigger as you go. First, always very small tests, even if you’re convinced. I still remember very early on that I had the most beautiful packaging. I thought it was awesome and it was validated from everywhere and it’s so much cheaper to buy a good large amount of packaging. You save money.

It turns out pretty quickly once I put it on shelves, it was not perfect and you needed some serious changes. I had to throw away half of it. If I had paid more but had a small amount, I wouldn’t have to throw away a good chunk of it. Now I’m much more comfortable with my packaging. It’s been through several alterations. In fact, we are launching new packaging, and it’s starting itself. It’s exciting. They’re colorful, each flavor with a different color. Something I learned is that there was too much weight in our earlier packaging, and it didn’t show well on the shelf.

It didn’t pop on the shelf.

Also, the small amount of height. In the freezer aisle, most shelves are just low. You have the top folded. The branding was up and it would be hidden. There are little things now that I have to fix and are much easier to fix versus something like they would come through and get rid of shelves. You certainly want to make sure you don’t have that mistake, so small, even if it’s expensive, learn from it, and then start growing from there.

As we are doing this show, for the readers, behind Margarita are members of her team. In addition to being an entrepreneur, building a brand, and all the things you’ve learned, you’ve also found yourself as a leader, building a culture, and doing all the things that are necessary to try to bring people around the brand and you. Get everybody excited and do the same thing. What have you learned about that? What have you learned about yourself first of all, as a leader? What have you learned that is important in terms of how to be one?

People are the most difficult piece of a business to manage. That’s the reality. It’s the hardest bit. You start this adventure on your own. You wear all hats and try to do everything yourself. You have yourself to deal with. It’s certainly lonely and limiting and it gets to a point where, “Now I have enough resources and I need more help to go onto the next level.”

Find the right people to come onto that team and make sure they’re the right fit for you for your style. It’s not about making yourself better in every single way and improving your weaknesses. It’s more of being aware of your weaknesses, and strengths, and then building a team around that then they fill in your weaknesses so that you, as a whole with your team, have every single possible aspect covered.

In the beginning, it’s not easy because bringing somebody that is an expert that comes from the industry and knows all the ins and outs, you can’t afford that. You have to teach people. You have to bring in people that are hungry, that buy into your vision, and that are willing to work for more than just a paycheck. You help them learn what you do and become better at that part. That’s how we started growing our team. It’s tight in here, but this is our little bullpen where we have all the operations and marketing sales going on for the whole plant.

Before, it was just me, and then afterward, I put my tail in the back. The first one who join the management team and start helping me out and her role has evolved through time. Lorena is her name. When she came in, she was supposed to be helping me when I started the private label to manage it all. She had time. She was not working because of COVID and she thought it’d be fun. She’s gone from being part of the line to being HR to then jumping in the books to whatever is there that’s needed. People that are flexible and open-minded are key at the beginning.

Part of it is creating a culture that allows people to grow, be inquisitive, learn new roles, do things, and feel a sense of pride in ownership. If you and I are having this show revisited in a few years, where’s the business? What happened?

We have a full-on model with all the right inputs and is granular. At that point, we are tapping a good chunk of the capacity of the new plant. The brand is nationwide. We’ve acquired a number of other private-level customers. We’ll be putting MasPanadas all over the country. We are at a point where MasPanadas who start turning into the brand name to go, the Q-tips of cotton swabs, the Kleenex of tissue paper. That’s the dream.

As you think about the business and as you reflect upon all the different balls that you’re juggling, all the things that are going up, what are some of the things that are still to this day the most challenging for you?

Still, the financing, because there’s always chasing.

You’re always a little over your skis. As we say in entrepreneurial lingo, you’re forever jumping off the cliff and then building the airplane on the way down. That’s the reality.

That’s a big challenge and you got to measure how much you’re going to grow, how much leeway you have, and try to keep those growing together. If you miss a step, you could make things tight. The other part that’s challenged now that we’ve dominated is the regulatory aspects of owning or running manufacturing. When you’re very little, it’s one thing. As you scale up your production and the regulations get tighter and demands from retailers as you grow are higher, we are having our SQF audit. We’re excited about that, but getting the right knowledge, pieces, and amount of paperwork are daunting. We’re there. It’s exciting.

Let’s talk about the financing side for a second. You’re at the stage of the business now that if you wanted to go, jump on the circuit, and start having conversations with significant venture investors that you could potentially get the money you need now. It’s not easy valuation in terms and all of that, but you’re not doing that in that way. What’s your thinking about that? Why continue to do it the way you’re doing which is using debt smartly and things along those lines?

There are a couple of reasons for that. I want to find the right partners for this, people that are going to help me grow the brand and grow the company that shares that vision. That takes a long time. What I’m learning from talking to a number of potential investors is that it’s a lot like dating. You don’t want to get married to the first guy that comes around. It takes a while for you to figure out what’s the right fit for you and what you need from a partner or an investor that will make that relationship successful.

It takes a lot to meet people and understand where they’re coming from and what they’re looking at. I also didn’t want to give all my equity up right away. I wanted to wait until we were at the right size where it would be worth it to get to that point where the efforts we’ve done will go on the path we expected and with the right people to grow it and get it there.

It makes complete sense and I applaud it. I believe it to be very much the smart direction for you, but in our industry, for whatever reason that the path that you have chosen has now become almost contrarian. It’s become the exception and not the norm. As a scholar of the industry, which you are, that’s something you do very well. You like to learn, ask questions, and be around people who understand this industry.

So much of what you hear are these other brands out there that are raising a ton of money and doing all these things then trying to stop the accelerator down and grow rapidly. How have you maintained that discipline and said, “I’ll let those people do their things. That’s just not my jam. I’m doing this. I’m sticking to what I feel is best for the business?”

There are two main variables there. On the one hand, I’m coming from a completely different background. I’m trained as a scientist to have a PhD in Biology from Princeton. That was going to be my path. This is me reinventing myself as things change. I was coming with a clean slate. I didn’t know what to expect from this. I was learning as I’ve been growing. I didn’t have necessarily that bias that is in the industry. The other part, to be honest, and be perfectly vulnerable and transparent is that I thought I would do that. I thought I had to do it because that’s what you see everywhere.

When you start having conversations, people are like, “I’m not ready for that.” That doesn’t make sense. I would get that feedback, “You’re not ready for it.” I realize that I don’t need it either. There’s a much more sustainable and rewarding path, which is to build this to the point where then it makes sense, where then I’m ready, and I have control of the conversation. I’m not begging for help. I’m asking or checking you and vetting you as a potential partner for joining forces and making this happen.

That’s a courageous approach and it is phenomenal. Going back to the first part of your statement where you came in not knowing, that was the benefit. You didn’t have the paradigm to start with. It’s one of my favorite quotes, which I’m sure I’ll butcher. It’s by the Zen Master, Shunryū Suzuki, who said, “In the expert’s mind, the opportunities are few, but in the beginner’s mind, many because you don’t have that limit or that paradigm.”

That was your benefit, but then you did quickly hear the typical bell tolling, recognized that, and heard what the investors were saying to you, “You’re not ready,” and didn’t take it as like, “Bullshit, I’m not ready.” You sat back and said, “They’re right. I’m not ready, but I don’t want to be ready and I don’t need to be ready.” What you articulated is what my hope and aspiration are for every entrepreneur I have the privilege of working with. My belief and my goal are that every entrepreneur gets delivered to what I call this land of optionality, this point in time where then they can choose the path that they want to go and not where the path is chosen for them.

Most entrepreneurs, you didn’t start this just to make a ton of money or to get unbelievably rich, because you probably wouldn’t have started this business to do that. You started this because you had a passion and it was a way for you to share a tradition, to have a social impact, and all of those kinds of things. The money side of it gets beaten into us pretty quickly early on. As entrepreneurs, we always seem to use our comparing mind and benchmarking that we start talking about.

Early on, most entrepreneurs, whether they recognize it at the time or not, turn in their freedom card for optionality to get on the hamster wheel of venture capital. I’m not saying necessarily that’s wrong. I’m not blaming the venture capital folks. For doing so, I’m just saying that we create this false belief that that’s the only option. The choice that you’ve made is a hard choice and battle that has taken a few years. I’ve known you for a fair number of those years.

I’ve known that those steps have at times been slow and small, and other times bigger, but you will now arrive at that point where you can choose. Door Number 1) To work with a good venture capital team and take the business on the wild ride. You could also potentially choose Door Number 2) Be bankable. Be build a business with EBITDA and cashflow positivity and use commercial lending to support it. You could pick Door Number 3) Private equity or Door Number 4) Private placement and building a sustainable business that pays dividends. Suddenly, you have choices. You can be building a business that one day can be an ESOP that your employees own.

There are so many more choices because of that early discipline and that early control. First of all, I want to praise and congratulate you for that, but also, ask if you now recognize that or if you recognize that early on. It’s terrifyingly exciting because, to your earlier point, you’re always on the edge and always over your ski. At the same time, you’re not running somebody else’s race.

It’s empowering to have that. It’s so much more fulfilling because you’re not trapped. You’re still working for what you want. You still have that flexibility. Things change. You want to be able to be flexible. You have to be an adrenaline addict to do this, but there’s always a relief that, “There are choices. I’m not caught and trapped in this.” It was a process to realize that because you get caught easily into that hamster wheel. It’s not necessary.

If you approach things methodically and plan ahead, but at the same time, always take that input from the market, the environment, and your learnings to then grow with measure, direction, and data behind it. The scientist in me is always looking for those data. What indications do I have that this idea makes sense or not? Do I have that information? If I don’t, I need to go find it and validate my thoughts because if it makes sense and tastes delicious to me, it doesn’t mean that it will to the world. You have to go and validate those. It’s doable. You can do it that way and in fact, it forces you to be lean.

You and I’ve had this conversation and those who have been a part of our community for a long time. We talk about that all the time that part of this is building a growth hypothesis and then growth hacking is putting on your white science coat, being a mad scientist, going out there, and building controlled experiments. Walk us through this arc of growth that you’ve taken, this self-reliance, independence, and empowerment. How have you done it? How have you avoided falling into what everybody else is?

The vast majority reading this either have a convertible note round open, are doing with friends and family, or are crowdfunding but 90% of them are still having night sweats about cash and you still are, too. That hasn’t stopped except they’re hoping that they can find somebody who can fish for them and you’re fishing for your own food. That’s the difference between being empowered versus not. How have you done it? How have you made it this far?

That’s going to take a little bit of thinking because there’s been a lot of luck in that sense. I have to confess that with that approach of where are we right now, “Where am I coming from? Where do I want to go?”  and judging that on a daily basis. What new resources came around? What new information do I have about my product, the market, or whatever it is that’s relevant to what I’m doing that day and adjusting every single day?

It has not been a linear path. I didn’t start with this idea and I’m here many years later doing exactly what I thought I would be doing in the country. I started a catering business. It has nothing to do with what I do nowadays, but every time I got the information, I was able to go back, judge my decisions, and then pivot to whatever made the most sense with the information I had at hand on that given day. That’s been the technique every day, rinse and repeat.

That’s a great point. This wasn’t preordained. You just met the moment at the moment and iterate it. You constantly embrace that mindset, which is the entrepreneurial mindset of iterating.

Not to say that I didn’t have a North Star in this process. I did have a business plan. I’m at version 33 right now of that business plan. It’s not that, “Try something and see what happens, what sticks, and then go on.” I have a plan, but that plan is always reviewed. I’m always checking that that’s the right direction.

How often are you checking that plan?

It’s daily, but I have daily, weekly, and monthly goals that then I keep on reviewing and see if they still make sense or not.

Explain that process. How do you ascertain whether those are still valid or not? Is it simply intuitive? Is it intuitive plus fact?

That’s where the white coat comes back. The scientific method is at work. I have this assumption. “What did I learn? What are those data and facts that I can use to validate? Does this makes sense or not?” There’s certainly an intuition aspect to it. I do trust my intuition significantly because data can tell you only so much. It gives you an idea about the reality out there, but it’s never the perfect picture that you get. You fill in the rest with intuition and that intuition comes a lot from your learnings or KPIs that you’ve been collecting through time and your understanding of how your business is developing.

One of the things that I would encourage anyone reading is to try to manage and make a decision by exceptions, not by everything. In other words, if you have data points, you make assumptions and assertions about where the business is going, instead of trying to manage everything, you only have to manage or address those that aren’t manifesting the way you expect them. It shrinks the focus a bit. Instead of trying to see the whole business all the time in every aspect, you’re like, “These are my biggest assumptions, revenue assumptions, expense assumptions, or KPIs. You’re only addressing the ones that are in red, yellow, or green. You’re just not putting any effort into it.

That keeps the focus on where it needs to be. Instead, if you don’t put those things into place, if you don’t put pen to paper or spreadsheet and make an endpoint, an expected milestone, achievement, or KPI, and you only have, “I expect a business to go from this to that,” then you’re managing the whole business. You’re not sure where the cause of any restriction or limit in the business is. There’s a real benefit to that approach. You’re juggling a lot. How do you make time for yourself?

That’s a tough one. That’s one I struggle with constantly. I have three little boys, too. We end up sometimes pulling straws to think it off that. I’m lucky to have an amazing husband, incredibly supportive that goes above and beyond. Especially as a woman, tasks often fall still to women. He has assumed and helped out, so that I have a unique situation, in this case, to have more freedom to manage the business.

It’s always a struggle because the needs of either the kids, family, business, or the house are always changing and there’s sometimes one needs more than other times. I don’t believe too much in the idea of juggling. You’re keeping them all in the air and you’re giving them all equal attention at all times. That’s not reality. Hopefully, it’s something that runs slightly on autopilot. You have those KPIs. You have that base established, and you’re looking for things that go out. That’s what you give attention to at that point.

The child is sick. It is something we all have to deal with and it throws everything else off. That takes priority at that point. If everybody’s healthy, then we don’t have to worry about that one at all. You have to be able to monitor those aspects that go beyond the usual. Also, for now, especially having a team has been such a relief as I did go a little bit overboard in 2021. It was a tough lesson that I need to figure out where that border is and set up some limits.

Having a team has been so much more helpful because I can delegate many things and make it home for dinner sometimes. Also setting a point where, “I’m going to turn off the phone.” That’s that. Turn off the phone. Do not worry about it. Take a bath. That’s my favorite to relax. You need something time that you set aside. It’s not going to happen on its own. It has to be something that you plan practically and force yourself to do. It’s not easy.

We talk a lot about this concept of work-life balance, which I hate by the way because to me, it immediately says that work is separate from life and work is one hat that we wear in life. We play all these roles and they’re all part of life. They’re intertwined and so forth. It’s just the pendulum swing. Sometimes the pendulum tips more in one way or the other and you just react to that, but if you flatten it over time, it’s about balance. It’s about, “Am I putting the right amount of total time in each of the various aspects of my life?”

Sometimes one aspect calls for more than the other. You mentioned your three boys. What do you hope that they’re learning from watching mom be this amazing independent entrepreneurial force to be reckoned with? Those three boys are watching and absorbing. What do you hope they take away from it? They’re also watching the way your husband has stepped into this. There are so many fantastic lessons. We don’t talk about that stuff enough, but the next generation of entrepreneurs tends to come from entrepreneurs. We’re teaching our family, kids, and so forth. What is it that you hope that your boys are gleaning from this?

It’s so true when you say that it is something that you absorb from the environment, big lessons, and observing entrepreneurship in action. I do come from a background in entrepreneurship. My family owns a family business in Colombia. It’s something that’s always been in the air for me, and probably, shape significantly who I am now. For my boys, it’ll be very important to see the difference in both that women can play, especially Hispanic women. Even though they’re half Hispanic, you would never call them Hispanic. They’ll have some advantages there.

Also, the relationship between the partnership and marriage is about how you support each other and how does not necessarily determine roles that are there, the hardworking, grit that it takes, resiliency, how you deal with problems that come your way, and they’re not necessarily problems, but puzzles to solve. Not be taken aback, but just always figuring out a way around it.

There are so many small lessons that they have already. They come to the plant often, especially in summer. They tag along with me often. There’s one summer where I had my twelve-year-old be here when I had to have a difficult conversation with an employee that I had to fire because of his behavior. For him to see the consequences of when you keep on telling me, “Don’t do this,” how you saw what happens because of this thing, the implications of it, and then how our conversations have to happen. There is so much to learn from having a parent in entrepreneurship.

It’s a fantastic thing for kids. It’s hard on families. It’s hard on everybody because it demands a lot, but when we feel guilty, to do that often because we know we’re being pulled away from those activities more than we would like to be. We have to take some solace in the fact that we’re being great teachers. We are being great teachers through what we’re doing right, but we’re also being great teachers about maybe what we’re not doing as well as we would hope we could. That’s fine. Let’s talk a little bit about anything that the community reading here can do to help support you, whether it’s buying your products, or offering any connections or feedback, whether it’s the investors or bankers. What can the community here do to help you?

Buy the product and help us spread the word. Love us because of our mission and buy us because we are a great-tasting empanada. We’ll be getting ready for a real investment round. If you have anyone in your network that you think could be a good match, we would love to connect with them.

What would that investor look like? Not in terms of dollars, but you mentioned a good fit. What are the characteristics that you are hoping for in that investor, both the intangible and the tangible?

Money is secondary to someone that can be a true partner. I target to assess somebody with whom we can go through the good and bad together, somebody I can count on and go to make difficult decisions, and somebody that will be open-minded and willing to discuss different approaches to what we have to do. I want someone that we can look at the information together, the facts, not somebody that said, “This is the path. That’s just what it is.” Can we step back? Look at information we have and the side based on that, be critical and analytical?” it’s somebody that doesn’t say things upfront, “We’re partners here and tell me the things the way you see them.” We have a real conversation and get real decisions made.

No bullshit and somebody’s there to help solve it. People don’t understand that I do this show purely for selfish reasons. I do it for the reason that we tape all these episodes. Most of the episodes we do are on a Friday, the end of a long week. I get to spend my Fridays talking to amazing entrepreneurs like Margarita. I get off these calls and I go, “Is this not the coolest thing in the world that I get to do?” All of you are incredibly inspiring. I love what you’re doing. I love the approach that you’re taking. I hope people read this episode because it’s so important to have examples to point to that there are alternative ways and other choices.

It does not mean that the choice of going out and raising money is the wrong one. I’m not advocating for that. I’m just trying to make sure that people understand that to step back and ask yourself. “Why did you start this? Why are you doing this? What’s the best path forward?” You did that with purpose and with resolve and it’s paying dividends. I’m excited to see what happens next in the evolution of the business. I’m sure it’s going to be great. I look forward to seeing you.

Thank you so much. This was fun. It’s always helpful. There are a number of questions I have not thought about. It’s also good for me to your stay so much in your head and it’s important to verbalize what’s your thinking and understand sometimes your own path and actions. This is pretty fun.

Sometimes, your head is down in the details and so forth. To take a moment of self-reflection and think about all that you have accomplished, you realize, “I’ve done a lot. I’ve accomplished more than I give myself credit for.” I hope at least you take some account of that, too.

Thank you.

Thanks for joining. We’ll see you soon. Thanks, everyone, for being a part of this episode. We’ll see you next time.

 Important Links

• TIG Venture Community

• TIG Collective

• Expo East

• TIG Brands

• Margarita Womack

• Women Palante

About Margarita Womack PhD, MBA

Entrepreneur with a background in scientific research. Margarita is trained to problem solve using quantitative tools, and her experience in different fields make her nimble and adaptable to tackle the challenges of leading a startup.

Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! tigbrands.com/tig-talks/