From Coffee Beans to Dream Homes: If You Understand Sales, You Can Apply It Anywhere.

In this captivating episode of Love Your Sales, I’m joined by the incredibly versatile entrepreneur Leah Beaulieu. Leah shares her rollercoaster journey of starting various businesses, from a coffee house sparked by a love for coffee to a unique venture into the world of commercial kitchens and cupcake trucks. She dives into the lessons learned, the importance of adaptability, and her eventual pivot into real estate, all while emphasizing the entrepreneurial spirit. Her story is not just about the success and challenges of her ventures; it's a testament to the power of cross-selling, understanding your market, and leveraging sales and marketing skills to thrive. Tune in to this episode for an inspiring conversation that explores the true essence of entrepreneurship and the drive that keeps innovators like Leah pushing forward.

Contact Leah –

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/leahmbeaulieu

Website - https://www.coast2coastprop.com/

E-mail - Leah@coast2coastprop.com

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@coast2coastproperties

 

Ready to grow your business? Schedule a call with us today - Book Appointment

 

Special Thank you to our Sponsor Genhead – www.genhead.com

 

Robb Conlon – Intro and outro – Westport Studio - https://www.westportstudiosllc.com/

 

The Brave Ones – Instrumental Version Song by Jan Sanejko - https://artlist.io/royalty-free-music/song/the-brave-ones/119489

 

 

Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. Today, I am joined by Leah Bollier, Realtor with Coast to Coast Properties at EXP Realty. With a background in sales and marketing, she has owned and operated several businesses over the past 15 years.

Starting new ventures is her, is a passion of Leah's and she understands the necessity to be able to pivot while running a business. Leah believes everyone should seek their passion while [00:02:00] understanding running a business can be challenging.

Welcome Leah. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today.

Leah Beaulieu: I'm excited. Also, for having me on the podcast.

Leighann Lovely: Yeah, no, I'm, I'm very excited to talk with you because you are, well, kind of a serial entrepreneur, a passion of yours, as you know, I just mentioned in your bio. Um, so why don't we, you know, jump in, when did you first get the itch to start, you know, your first business?

Leah Beaulieu: It's really just kind of crazy. I mean, I remember whenever, you know, Starbucks and I'm from Columbia area. So like Atlanta bread was big back in the day and I spent tons of money, just like we all do still drinking coffee and having my lattes and breakfast every day. And my husband and I had been out of town and it was like, we were coming back.

We had a long drive and I thought, you know, [00:03:00] I think I'm going to open a coffee house. And he said, I don't think so. And I said, no, I really think this is what I'm supposed to do. I was like, I spend so much money on coffee. Like I may as well own my own place. I mean, at least I understand what everybody enjoys.

And so the craziest thing is back then, because this was in early 2006. There wasn't as much information as there is on the internet, you know, like we still had Barnes Noble, we still had Books A Million, and they were all kind of books to read. And so, I literally went to Barnes Noble and picked up a book that said how to open a coffeehouse, and I read it in an entire weekend.

And, I thought, I think I can do this. I don't know how I'm going to do it. I didn't have any experience. I

Leighann Lovely: It's so funny [00:04:00] that just, you know, what, with 2006, so what, less than 20 years ago, 18, 18 years ago, that is where we learned. That's how we got it. And I have a book. What is it? Um, you remember the books for dummies?

Yeah, right. So I, I think I have like three or four of those. I think my, one of my girlfriends bought me a how to cook potatoes, like a book for dummies, all the different, that's, that's the reality of. You know, 18 years, 20 years ago, that's how you figured out how to do something, right? No, and just think how far we've come now You can literally ask and I don't want to say her name too loud or she'll start talking to me But you know Alexa like waiting for her to go.

Yes Come here, right? You can literally say that and she'll spit out You know, an answer, and that can be a starting point of, oh, that's [00:05:00] what I need to Google. Next is how do I set up an LLC? How do I but if you didn't know the right person, you didn't even know where to begin to

Leah Beaulieu: know. And, you know, and I'm.

I'm older. So obviously I remember a lot. And back then, do you remember online forums? Like, they would have, you didn't have, Facebook wasn't that big back then. So you didn't have Facebook groups that you could go and get opinions on, like, how to run a coffeehouse, how to run a boutique, or how to run really any business.

And there were several, um, popular online coffee forums and that was what I did. I joined a forum and I would just read thread by thread by thread, like what these people were having success in, like what were the best products to use. Today, I could type it into chat GPT and probably have 10 pages of information in like a [00:06:00] matter of minutes.

Leighann Lovely: I live in chat GPT. I'll even ask, like, I'll even, and I, I, I refer to her as a her. I don't know why I'll ask her. Can you help me with this? And, you know, she spits back like, Oh, well, yes, of course I can help you with this. Give me more detail about X, Y, Z. And I'm like, Oh, Oh, okay. I feel like I'm having a conversation with a real person.

Leah Beaulieu: I know. I know it's

Leighann Lovely: crazy. Right. I know. So, so you opened up and let me just go back really quick. The fact that your husband, while you're his answer. No, you're not. Nah.

Leah Beaulieu: He, he was shocked and that's like, this is, this is easy. You know, back then I had a 401k. I had been in sales and marketing for 16 years with a company.

So, I mean, I pretty, you know, I had enough. Um, and then I also, I've had, I will say I've had [00:07:00] fabulous mentors in my life. Um, and I used to visit a little restaurant not too far from where my office was located and I went in there and I talked to the chef and I was like, Hey, so like, I have this great idea.

And he's like, what? And I said, well, I want to open a coffee house, but I don't know anything about the restaurant business. Like, I've never waited tables. I've never been in food and Bev whatsoever. And he said, you know, um, I don't know what to tell you. He's like, it's hard. Like, I don't know that you want to get into it.

I mean, he listened and it was a great conversation. And then it was probably four or five days later, he called and he said, I tell you what, why don't you come into my cafe and you can open for breakfast and coffee. I will teach you everything because he was only open for lunch.

[00:08:00] So it was fabulous.

He brought me in. I bought all my equipment. I set everything up. He helped me. He taught me everything there was to learn about running a kitchen, how to operate the equipment. And that was, that was the beginning.

Leighann Lovely: And how did you know him? Did you? I ate

Leah Beaulieu: lunch at his restaurant like every other day. I'd been a customer of his for years. Um, and you know, he was, He was an incredible chef. He still is an incredible chef today. Um, and was just very willing to show me the ropes.

Leighann Lovely: And that's awesome. And sometimes that's all it takes is somebody willing to say, well, let me show you.

Yes. So you had the sales and marketing piece, which is what a lot of entrepreneurs are lacking. They have the vision [00:09:00] of I'm going to make X and Y. Widgets or I'm going to make this product. How do you think that helped you when it came to opening your first business?

Leah Beaulieu: Well, I think I understood like people have to know who you are.

I mean, it's fine to make a widget, but if you don't get out and put that widget where people can see it and understand how it operates, then. It's just a widget in your house that you love and that you enjoy. So, you know, we would hold free events like on Saturdays, people could come in and taste everything.

Now, you have such an advantage because there's like so many farmers markets, so many platforms, you know, um, dip and shop events that you can go to. You could put your product everywhere. And not only that you have Facebook, you have Instagram, you have TikTok. I mean, we only had Facebook. I don't [00:10:00] even know how we survived.

Leighann Lovely: Right. People had to actually like walk around and get out of their house and research where they were going to go and where they liked to go. Right. Like you couldn't just look it up on your phone and see who had the five star review and then show up there. So. A lot of, you know, and there are a lot of entrepreneurs out there or people who are, you know, have this great idea and they are of the mindset.

If I build it, people will come. Well, right.

Leah Beaulieu: Yeah. And we can thank Field of Dreams for that. No, I mean, that was, that was like the ultimate, but in reality, it's not really the case if you don't put yourself out there. So, I mean, like I said, today we have so many platforms that we can You know, cross market on TikTok is tremendous that we don't even understand the value of that.

But just being able to [00:11:00] have several different, whether it's groups, you know, you've set up a business page for your widget or your restaurant or whatever it is that you want to go into. And then you. Market that on your personal page and then you put it in group pages, you know, you have to be able to put your information out there everywhere.

 So that's amazing. So let's fast forward. Now you've owned this for a while. What comes next?

Leah Beaulieu: So, at that point in time, um, we went straight into the recession. And I remember the headlines on the newspapers couldn't have been any worse. Don't spend 4. 50 on a Starbucks drink because gas was astronomical.

That was when the hurricane had hit.

So, the headline was killing us, right? And I had been in it for three years and was exhausted. So I, I did have a business partner at that time [00:12:00] who, who was fortunately wanting to stay in the business. So she bought my half out. Um, and most entrepreneurs know you don't ever get back the majority of the money that you put into some ventures.

It just depends on what it is. So that was a tough lesson. And, you know, fast forward a couple of years, several years, we moved to the Charleston area and, um, I jumped back into food and Bev again, I, you know, I was laughing and I said something about it when it gets in your blood, like you can't get it out.

Leighann Lovely: There's a lot of people, you know, they, once you get the, the into something, the itch for something, the passion, the love, it's just. You can't, you can't get away from it. You just keep for some reason, either getting pulled back into it or, you know, there's that like, wow, I liked it, [00:13:00] but then there's always that.

I don't know. How long do I like it?

Leah Beaulieu: Right. Right. Right. It's like it has a lifespan. Right. Just like with anything. I mean, it's really no different than you being in a position with a company. You know, you may be just in sales and marketing, but you may decide you've had enough of that life being in sales and marketing.

Maybe you want to lead the team of sales and marketing. Maybe you want to move into a higher position. So when you feel like you're capable of being in that position, then it propels you to move forward to something different.

Leighann Lovely: So you, so did you start another?

Leah Beaulieu: I did. And this one, I actually went a little bit further.

So, um, this one started with cakes and cupcakes and I taught myself how to decorate cakes with fondant. Thanks to my daughter, she wanted [00:14:00] me to make a birthday cake for a friend of hers, but she was like, I want it to be covered in fondant. So that's the only thing you can do. And I thought, I don't even know how to do this.

Then we have YouTube, right? Because like you can find anything on YouTube. Right. Like you just jump into YouTube and you just. And so I did, and I think it's probably a good thing I've deleted those pictures because they were the most god awful games that I first started with. But, you know, as with anything, over time you get better, right?

So then I had the brainchild of, I wanted a cupcake trailer, thought it would be fun, and I wanted it to be an old Shasta camper. So My husband and I talked about it, and it was like, well, how do we start this? Like, what's the best way? And again, I love to do research, and I love to figure anything out. So, I go to [00:15:00] just looking, um, at commercial kitchens, because I knew by state regulations, you couldn't have a food truck unless you had a commercial kitchen.

And at that time, this was 2014, There weren't that many here in the Charleston area. Again, another brain job. Well, this has got to be easy. Let's just go ahead and open a commercial kitchen. And back then, um, Craigslist was huge, right? Like, you could actually trust stuff that was on Craigslist. I'm not saying that you can't, but, you know, there was a way to navigate that site.

And we posted an ad. Hey, we're looking to open a commercial kitchen. Like, who would be, who's interested in, you know, who needs a space for a kitchen? We can serve food trucks, caterers, bakers, you know, any type of food business. And we [00:16:00] got a lot of response. And so then whenever we had the response, it was like, okay, now we have to find the place.

Because we knew it was something that was feasible, right? There was a demand for it. So we started looking around the area, and we were fortunate enough to find a restaurant that already existed, had all the furniture in the front, had like a thousand square foot kitchen in the back, which is highly uncommon in any food business, and had all of the equipment.

So I contacted, luckily, it was, um. owned by a local guy. So I didn't really have to deal with the national firm. We tried and it was crazy. The lease was like 60 pages long and we were like, it's like I'm signing over my children.

It was very intimidating. But anyway. So I talked [00:17:00] to this gentleman and he's like, I don't understand what you want to do. It doesn't make any sense to me. And he made me come up with a business plan. Now, for me, I am not a business plan person and I know everybody says you have to have a business plan. It wasn't how I operated.

I figured I'm going to jump into it and then I'm going to figure it out. But he did require me to sit down and put it all on paper exactly how it was going to work. So we, um, we're actually. We had fabulous friends in the area and they jumped in and helped us clean the entire space because it had been shut down for a while and we opened in 2 weeks and we had the Department of health and environmental control come in and we went through the regulations and everything that was required.

And we were up just the

Leighann Lovely: commercial kitchen. Wow. That is, that is amazing to get that up. Now you and I talked before. So [00:18:00] not only did you get the commercial kitchen up, but now fast forward and this commercial kitchen that you're selling cupcakes or I'm sorry, you had the commercial kitchen so that you could have the truck.

Yes. What now you, you also now this became another coffee house. Yes, it

Leah Beaulieu: did.

Leighann Lovely: So,

Leah Beaulieu: you know, at that time, um, food trucks were really just starting, and in the Charleston area, there were only like 20 of us. So, I mean, it was fabulous because we were busy, and now there's probably over 100 or 150 food trucks here.

So, we get into the cupcake trailer, and we're doing, at that time, what they called food truck rodeos or food truck festivals. So we would, all the food trucks would line up on a Saturday and, you know, you're open for business and you're selling food and the people here love it everywhere. They love them because you just [00:19:00] get to hang out and try everything.

So, our first event, we sold out in like 600 cupcakes in a 4 hour period, which was crazy. Right. Um, but it led to more business. So then I started, I was still learning how to do cakes and, you know, my friends were great. They were like, Oh, hey, I want this cake. Can you make this cake? So I was like, okay, sure.

Um, so then I got super busy. So then it was like, okay, well, the front of the restaurant is available and it's just sitting there. So, I mean, I've already had a coffee house at one time. Why not open another one? And then I would be there to work on cakes and cupcakes and I could get ready because, you know, I was spending, you You know, I've been till nine or 10 o'clock at night trying to get all these things baked.

And I have two kids, you know, I mean, I had two kids in high school at this point in time. So it was like, I need to be home sometime. So [00:20:00] you,

Leighann Lovely: so you took your space. Which started making money your cupcake truck, which was already sounds like making money. And so you were making your, you were, you had 2 businesses basically.

That were generating revenue. In a very short period of time because you're obviously very business savvy woman who was able to flip those both into profitable spaces and when you have. And so if I'm understanding, the only reason that you had the commercial space, that kitchen was because it was a regulation in order to have that truck.

Leah Beaulieu: That's correct.

Leighann Lovely: I mean, that that is. It's brilliant, it's a brilliant sales, like sales entrepreneur

marriage in, in utilizing basically all [00:21:00] of the space available to you, you know, and, and, and I'm just, I'm reiterating that and pointing that out because I want the audience to understand, you know, what you basically built here. I mean, that's, that's, it's, it's amazing. And it's, and it's very brilliant. And then now you're, you're obviously not, you know, when I introduced you, you're a realtor, so you're not doing the cupcakes anymore.

Leah Beaulieu: No, I still occasionally I'll make a cake. Um, from friends, obviously from my family, because we have grandchildren now, so they always get a cake. Um, so, I stayed in that business for about three years. Physically, it was very taxing on me because I was up at 4. 30 in the morning. I don't even like getting up early in the mornings.

I am not a morning person. So, um, after a while, I was exhausted, you know, and it was six days a week. Um, I learned from a friend of mine [00:22:00] who had opened a restaurant a couple of spaces down from me. She actually sold her business. And I said, I need to understand how you did that because we don't own this space and I don't know how you sell a business that you don't own.

And so she told me, she's like, I'm going to, I'm going to tell you and she did. And so I was like, this is brilliant. So, I ended up selling to 1 of the food trucks that was operating in our kitchen. Which worked out perfect. So, you know, in that time, it was easy for me to promote the cupcake business, the coffeehouse, the kitchen, because they all three had websites.

So I was constantly cross posting, you know, what was going on, where we would be with the cupcake trailer. Running the coffee house, doing food events in the afternoon. So I was able to keep those three up and running by being everywhere.

Leighann Lovely: And you just, a very important thing that you just said [00:23:00] by cross selling, by posting, by being relevant, by making sure that, you know, that each one of those were separate entities, yet.

By cross selling and, and, you know, being able to, I suppose if somebody is sitting in your coffee house and, you know, they mentioned they need a cake, you can say, Hey, I know somebody who makes cakes or cupcakes. Right, right.

Leah Beaulieu: And that was the thing is the funny thing is like. Everyone would say, Oh, you need to have cupcakes.

You need to have cupcakes in here. But it was my least selling item in the coffee house, but I could take, I could go out to the cupcake event, you know, or take it out for lunch or to the food truck rodeo. And the food truck rodeos were amazing. I mean, we ended selling over like 1200 cupcakes at our last event that we did.

It was just absolutely insane. Um, [00:24:00] so it does take a lot of bandwidth to. Manage multiple businesses like that to cross post and be sure that everyone knows what you have. Um, so, yes, and it was very hard to leave my clients and my customers. Um, I, I sold all of it. I got rid of the cupcake trailer, sold the coffee house and I was done.

Um, did a little stint where we had a wholesale business with Amazon for about a year. Uh, things kind of started getting crazy with Amazon, so then I pivoted to something else, back in the food business again. And I created a, um, keto granola, because that was the big thing. You know, that was whenever keto first started.

And then I did, like I said earlier, farmers markets are the best way [00:25:00] for you to get started for people to understand what you have, see what you have, see how it operates, or what the benefits are. And, you know, we always like to say, if the math doesn't make sense, there's no need in being in it. And the math didn't make sense after a period of time.

Um, so, yeah, I had to pivot one more time. And, you know, my thoughts were, gosh, I can hear, like, Yes, I could go back into the business world. I mean, I've been an entrepreneur for so long now. That's kind of, um, difficult for me. So it was kind of, you know, like, where do I go to next and my husband, you know, we've always flipped houses over the period of our marriage and that we've always had some kind of dealings with real estate.

And, you know, he was like, Hey, like, what about real estate? And I thought, I mean, sure. I, you know, I love houses. I mean, I [00:26:00] love how everybody decorates and I love to see new houses. So why not? Um, so yeah, I pivoted into real estate and that's where I've been.

Leighann Lovely: And it shows that, you know, that everything has a season and, and I think that you and I had talked about that, that, you know, and it's okay that when we have, you know, seasons in our lives and, and it's okay to move on and to enjoy what you're doing right now.

And then to be able to look forward to the future. But I think one of the most important things is that you have some of the core, core skillset, um, coming from a sales and marketing background. And obviously it's not just that. You have to have that entrepreneurial mindset. Um, because there are salespeople out there, there are marketing people out there that don't have that true entrepreneurial mindset.

They can go and sell something. You have those core, that [00:27:00] skillset along with that entrepreneurial mindset that has been able to drive you and push you. To being able to handle. You know, each venture you've taken out and be successful at it. You know, you, that's absolutely amazing. If not only to, you know, have one coffee house be able to be bought out, but have another one that actually was three businesses in one and, and sell that,

Leah Beaulieu: you

Leighann Lovely: know, to somebody, there are way too many entrepreneurs who, and I have a, um, you know, somebody who's in, um, you know, uh, A private equity investment, and she goes to look for, um, businesses to invest in.

And so often she comes up against business owners who've owned a business for 5, 10, 20 years even. And they're like, yeah, who would want to buy my business? And she's like, what do you mean? Like, [00:28:00] you just need to look at your numbers. You need to figure, like you were saying, if the numbers don't add up, it might be time to, but if your business is profitable, if the numbers are adding up, why wouldn't somebody want to buy a successful business?

And I'm saying a successful, and there, and there are businesses out there that somebody's baby, they're the face of the business. And if they don't exist. The business doesn't exist if you do it right, if you're creating it right for the right reasons, you're driving it forward the proper way. Why wouldn't somebody want to buy a successful business that isn't obviously tied just to the owner, but, and you, you clearly have done it, right.

But with those core skills of understanding the sales, understanding the cross selling, understanding the marketing, understanding that just because you make it doesn't mean [00:29:00] somebody buys it. Right. Because if they don't know it exists. How are they going to buy it?

Leah Beaulieu: Right, I mean, how are they going to find you?

How are they going to know? And it does take a lot of time. I mean, as with anything, it takes probably, I think, you know, social media these days is a full time job. I mean, I think you spend, you can spend hours upon doing that. Um, but obviously there's different ways to manage it so that you don't feel like you're so overwhelmed.

And you can actually work and what your passion is or instead of spending the entire day on the computer or doing your books, you know, those things are not. I don't think those are anything that an entrepreneur truly enjoys. I mean, like, our thing is to do what we do.

Leighann Lovely: Make the cake or run the business or correct.

Most entrepreneurs, I would say almost all, [00:30:00] if you were to ask them, did you become an entrepreneur to become an accountant or to do social, they're going to go no. And then when you say, you know, you have to do it though. And they're going to go. Yeah. I know, I know I gotta do it, but I really don't want it.

They're like, well, and then when you explain like, well, you also gotta do this and you gotta do sales and you gotta do this, and they're like, maybe I really should have thought about this .

Leah Beaulieu: Right. Maybe I'll just keep this as a hobby. . Right. I'll just do it on the side.

Leighann Lovely: Correct. So I'm gonna put you on the spot here for a second.

If you were to give advice one piece of advice. To a new entrepreneur who is like, yep, I'm raring, ready to go. What advice would you give to them?

Leah Beaulieu: I mean, I think that if it's in you to do it, then [00:31:00] you absolutely owe it to yourself to search that out, research it, get your numbers together. Just be sure you have everything in front of you to get started.

I'm not saying that you have to have all the answers that how it's going to look a year from now. But all of the information in front of you to get started and take at least just one step. Um, it's, I think we owe it to ourselves that whatever we feel like we are called to do. In that season, we need to search it out and you had a point earlier, there are seasons that things only last a season.

Some of it is not meant to last a lifetime. For me, that's me. I mean, some of those things aren't meant to last a lifetime. My husband has been a chemical engineer for 20 years. That's not who I am, you know, and I tell my children all the time, because they're in their 20s. And I'm like, listen, like, I don't even [00:32:00] have it all figured out.

Like, you just need to figure out the next step, like what's going to take you to the next season, and then go to the next point. You know, if you're going to finish school, then finish school, and then see what comes next. Maybe it's not what you're called to do, but you owe it to yourself to at least seek it out.

Leighann Lovely: You know, and that reminds me in this, your children might be too, um, too old, but you said that, did you say you have grandchildren?

Leah Beaulieu: I do.

Leighann Lovely: Okay. So, um, and I have a young child who's obsessed with the movie Frozen.

Leah Beaulieu: Yes.

Leighann Lovely: Okay. So in, in, in the number, in number two, there is the, uh, a quote from that, um, when, when the future is unknown, what do we do?

And, and the, the troll in that says the only thing that we can do is the next right thing. Yes. And that and you hit that on the head, which is it's absolutely true. You know, sometimes we don't know what the future holds for us. And in most cases, we don't [00:33:00] know what the future holds for us. All we can do is the next right thing.

The next best thing, take that first step into the unknown. And usually we start to see a clear path, right? And if we need to take a step back, that's okay. As long as we at some point do begin that journey forward. Um, and, you know, I, I talked to my, you know, my clients that I coach, um, all the time about like, hey, it's okay to take a couple steps forward.

Um, even knowing that we may have to scoot back a little bit if. What we've created isn't working exactly the way we wanted it to work. Sometimes that's what about the marketing, the sales arena. That's sometimes about what entrepreneurship is all about. Stirring out what messaging, what is going to work?

What, so I'm, I'm digressing here. So I want to give you your shameless 30 second pitch. Um, because we are coming to time, um, [00:34:00] you know, before we, before we wrap up.

Leah Beaulieu: Okay, great. So I, you know, again, I'm Leah Bollier. I'm a real estate agent here in the Charleston, South Carolina area. We service the whole tri county area, beautiful coast.

Charleston is like your dream city to live in. I moved here 12 years ago, but I am a southern girl. So this is my home state. Um, and I don't want to go anywhere else. You know, my husband's like, Oh, we're going to move. I'm like, no, we're not. So let's just stay here. So if you haven't visited, or if you're looking for a place, please reach out and let us know how we can help you.

Leighann Lovely: And how can we reach out to you?

Leah Beaulieu: So you can find me on Facebook, obviously, and Instagram, coast to coast properties. Um, I do have a YouTube channel, Coast to Coast Properties and our website as well. So all of our contact information is on there.

Leighann Lovely: Perfect. That'll be in the show notes. So if you do want to reach out to Leah, you can check there.

Um, but Leah, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been an [00:35:00] awesome, um, enlightening conversation.

Leah Beaulieu: Thank you. It's been a blast. I really do appreciate your time.