Retail Relates
Welcome to Retail Relates — where commerce gets personal.
Each episode brings you inside the world of global commerce — across retail, consumer services, hospitality, and brand marketing — through powerful human stories and the ever-evolving forces shaping what we buy, why we buy, and how we connect.
From entrepreneurs and icons to industry veterans and rising changemakers, we spotlight those redefining how people lead, create, and connect in a fast-moving world.
Hosted by our roundtable of industry experts, we offer a 360° view of the marketplace through honest conversations, lived experience, and practical insights that resonate.
Let’s get started — this is where the story of modern commerce comes to life.
Retail Relates
Nostalgia, Grit, and the Open Road: Stephanie Stuckey on Reviving an American Iconic Brand
What does it take to revive an American icon? For Stephanie Stuckey, it meant reacquiring her family’s struggling roadside brand, embracing grit, and turning nostalgia into momentum.
Founded in 1937 by her grandfather, Stuckey’s became synonymous with pecan log rolls and quirky highway charm. At its peak, the company had over 350 stores, but decades of decline left it nearly forgotten. In 2019, Stephanie brought it back into family hands, and since then has grown sales fivefold, acquired a candy manufacturing plant, and expanded into new retail channels.
In this episode, Stephanie shares why she pivoted from stores to snacks, how storytelling keeps legacy brands relevant, and why grassroots “road warrior” marketing beats big-budget campaigns. She also opens up about her career pivots - from law and public service to entrepreneurship - and the lessons she’s learned about leadership, resilience, and community.
From Route 66 dreams to dashboard inspiration, this conversation is both practical and inspiring. If you’ve ever wondered how to revive a brand - or your own career - Stephanie’s story offers a roadmap worth following.
What does it take to revive an American icon, owning manufacturing, building community mile by mile and turning nostalgia into momentum? Today, we go from the statehouse to the open road with Stephanie Stuckey. Stephanie Stuckey is the chair of Stuckey's, the iconic roadside brand known for its pecan log rolls and its quirky highway charm. Founded in 1937 by her grandfather, ws Stuckey Sr, the company grew to over 350 stores nationwide, at its peak in the 1970s, before decades of decline under outside ownership. In 2019, stephanie reacquired the then-failing business, returning it to family hands. In 2021, Stuckey's purchased a pecan snack and candy plant in Wrenge, georgia, fueling a turnaround that has grown sales fivefold. Today, the company operates a distribution center, fundraising business, corporate gift program and online store.
Rich H:A graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, stephanie's career spans trial law, seven terms as a Georgia State Representative, director of Sustainability for Atlanta, and teaching at UGA Law.
Rich H:She serves on the boards of Beals and Full Course and has been recognized as one of the most admired CEOs by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and among the 100 most influential Georgians by Georgia Trend. Her 2024 book Unstuck Rebirth of an American Icon has been praised by the Wall Street Journal and Georgia Public Broadcasting. In this conversation. We dig into the operator's view behind the comeback, why owning production changed the math, how a grassroots road warrior approach beats spray and pray, and how to keep nostalgia as a doorway, not a destination, so the brand stays fresh for new fans. We also talk love of road trips and dive bar curiosity that makes great marketers showing up, listening and earning advocates. One story and one sample at a time. Whether we're just starting off or well into our careers, looking for a new path, stephanie's playbook is packed with lessons on grit, stewardship and storytelling that sells, so it's our pleasure to welcome Stephanie Stuckey to the program today. Thank you for joining us on Retail Relate.
Stephanie S.:Thanks, Rich, I'm excited to be here.
Rich H:And, of course, today I'm joined by Gautham. Mr Professor, how are you doing today? Doing?
Gautham V.:Wonderful. I look forward to this conversation and thank you again for making time, Stephanie.
Stephanie S.:My pleasure.
Rich H:And Jamie Lynn, who I've had the privilege of knowing for many, many years, and I've learned a lot from her as a serial entrepreneur.
Jaime Lynn:Thanks, Rich. I'm so excited for this conversation today. Stephanie, Awesome.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, fellow entrepreneur, we'll have a lot in common.
Rich H:You have a very impressive bio. What we want to do is start off with something a little bit more telling about who you are, and so, instead of just taking us through the long history of who is Stephanie Stuckey, what are the three pivotal moments that have shaped who you are and that have brought you to where you are today?
Stephanie S.:I'm going to answer that in the context of what I'm doing now, which is with Stuckey's, and I've had a lot of pivotal moments, but I think the most important was figuring out the business strategy to revive what I like to refer to as an 88-year-old startup. We had to reinvent Stucky's when I bought it five years ago. It had a long and complicated history with some ups and downs. My grandfather started the company and built it from a roadside con stand to at its peak. We had 370 convenience stores in 40 states and we were this iconic institution that was synonymous with taking the road trip during a certain era really peaked in the 1970s. But he sold the company out of the family for decades and, frankly, was really on the downward spiral when I had the unexpected opportunity to acquire it.
Stephanie S.:And so just figuring out, like, what am I going to do with this? We only had a dozen stores left. We didn't own them, we didn't operate them, they'd seen better days. How do you turn a company around? And I'd never run a company before. I kind of joked. Yeah, I'm a fellow serial entrepreneur, but I'm an entrepreneur and trying a lot of different things throughout my life, but I'd never run a business before. So I would say one of the key pivotal moments was figuring out that I could not do this by myself. And it was almost a year before I found a business partner who's just been such a blessing and a great fit for what the company needed and hopefully we brought a lot of value to him as well. So his name's RG Lamar, and so that was a pivotal moment realizing you can't do this stuff alone. Running a business, taking on a new endeavor, it's really hard, I like to say. The entrepreneurial journey is lonely, but you're not alone and don't do it alone, it's a team sport.
Stephanie S.:The second key pivot was RG and I, jointly as a team, figuring out what we were going to do to turn this company around. And I had a very specific moment. I can share that story at another time. But basically I realized that the store model was not going to work. We were continuing to hemorrhage cash and so we decided we were going to focus on Stucky's as a consnack and candy brand. So pivoting the business model that was really key. And then the third was buying a manufacturing facility. So we started outsourcing, realized we had a hard time controlling margin, controlling quality and also just controlling the business in general you know we were constantly trying to figure out when the product would arrive and managing the outside manufacturers, the co-manufacturers and then also the retailers. There's a lot to do there, and so if we really wanted to scale, we figured we had to invest in manufacturing. So that was a big turning point as well. Those are three.
Rich H:But this isn't what you set out to do. What were your aspirations when you were growing up?
Stephanie S.:Well, actually, in a way it is. My big aspiration was always to give back to community, and that's what I did for many years. I initially thought, well, to do that you need to be in public service, so I wanted to run for office. I thought the pathway to run for office and elected office was to be a lawyer. So I went to law school and then I became passionate about being a lawyer and so my first part of my career, first decade, was being a lawyer and helping others. I was a public defender. I also worked in the state prison system, so I really had this passion for helping others. And then I transitioned that to running for the state legislature and I served there for 14 years and then I didn't run for reelection. I transitioned to being head of sustainability for city of Atlanta, devoting my career to the environment and building community around environment. And now I'm building community in a different way and you know it's not just making pecan snacks and candy.
Stephanie S.:We really are passionate about employing people. Being in the small community of Renz, georgia, we're the largest employer, building jobs, building careers, employer building jobs, building careers, helping people, and also the type of retailers with whom we partner, like Rich, we work with you, we work with the Navy and NextCom. We really value people who give back to community, so the military is one of our most important accounts. Because of that, we like to employ veterans. We give veterans discounts at our gift shop in Wrens, georgia, so we just really it's. Valuing community, valuing partnerships, has been what my career has always been about, and I've learned you can be in business and do that too. I didn't always think that and now I've totally embraced it.
Gautham V.:Stephanie, you talked about three pivotal moments right in Stucky's new turnaround and I'm going to just double click on it. I'm the academic, so excuse me, I'm going to go off script. Rich, you know this. I am very curious For a lot of the students that I work with. They all have this entrepreneurial journey. They start off as solo entrepreneurs before they realize that, hey, they can't do it all right and they bring in. But finding the right partner almost in everything in life, as well in business is critical. How did you and RJ Lamar, if I heard correctly, right, rj Lamar? Rj just think really quickly. Okay, rj Lamar, how did you form this partnership? What's the secret to identifying a successful business partner?
Stephanie S.:What I think is really important is your network, is your net worth. You hear that all the time but really you probably have within your network of people you trust and know the right fit for your business, and so I really turned to that. That gets back to the whole sense of community and not doing it alone. So I sought advice, and my father was actually the one who suggested I connect with RG, because they knew one another. My family has always had a pecan farm and RG's family has had a third generation pecan farm business and they manage pecan farms, including the Stuckey's family farm, which is really small.
Stephanie S.:We're 100 acres. Rg manages, you know, in excess of 1,000 acres, so we were small. Well, he manages a lot more than that. He owns 1,000 acres, manages farms all over the state, and so we were one of the farms that Lamar Pecans managed, and so he was the right person and he was also had the skill set I was looking for, which is we were looking for.
Stephanie S.:I was looking for a fit with CPG, consumer packaged goods, bringing a product to market, so he really had the farm to table journey mapped out. He had done that. He had a small packaged good pecan snack brand. So you look for the skill set and then we met and we just clicked and he is a person of faith, he's a person with values and you find that shared sense of faith and values I think is really important. You've got to have something that's really anchoring, that is deeper than just, oh, we want to make money, of course, you're in business, you want to be profitable, but it's got to have a higher calling or else those tough times are going to be really hard. You got to pick someone you want to be in that foxhole with when it's really hard.
Jaime Lynn:So, Stephanie, you know, when you took over the business, it wasn't just a business for you, right. It was essentially a story that needed to be retold. How did you honor the history and the legacy but make it relevant for today?
Stephanie S.:I'm still working through that, so I would welcome advice and input. Maybe some of the people listening to this as well can chime in at some point, reach out to me, but I'd love your thoughts on it. But for me it's about storytelling, because that's the way people connect with one another, and I've got a treasure trove of stories just a lifetime of having the last name, stucky where people come up to me and they share their Stucky stories and so I share their stories. But I also try to distill what is the deeper underlying current there that really makes that story stick. And stories stick if they have something that's interesting, something that's authentic and something that's relevant, and so you really look for one or all of those combinations. So authentic is pretty easy. You want the story to be real, like you might be able to riff off of it a little bit to make it more fun, but you want it to be grounded in authenticity. And then it's got to be interesting. It can't just be someone who said, oh, I took a lot of road trips as a kid and we would always pull over for a log roll like yawn. It's got to have something that's a little bit of a punch and then it's got to be relevant. So that's where it gets to more of a modern day. So you try to look for timeless anecdotes. I mean I have dozens and dozens of them. I hear them every week.
Stephanie S.:One I heard after a speech was a woman came up to me and said thank you, stuckey's taught me how to read. And I was like what? And she said well, you had all these billboards and it would say Stuckey's 200 miles, stuckey's 100 miles, and your billboards had all these fun sayings. And so I'm the youngest of eight kids and you're kind of on your own when you're the youngest of eight kids. And she said I would read billboards. And I said so was your first word exit, you know. So stuff like that you know. I've had people who told me that they were so poor they couldn't afford a log roll for the. You know, for everyone. So they get this big log roll and they slice it up. Mom would serve it up like pate. So that's kind of a fun story.
Stephanie S.:And another kid who told me that he had gotten left behind at a Stucky's you usually hear this when it's big families. Those are some of my more interesting stories and his parents actually went about half an hour down the road. It was like a home alone, but home at Stucky's, and they had to do a U-turn. And his parents actually went about half an hour down the road it was like a home alone, but home at Stucky's, and they had to do a U-turn. And he said I was not scared at all, I was so happy. I was like what do you mean? You came and got me. So you just tell stories and you try to make it relevant. Times can be hard and I think just turning to some comfort and nostalgia is really reassuring. And comfort food is a thing and comfort candy is really a thing, and so I don't think candy is ever going to go out of style and I don't think nostalgia is ever going to go out of style. I think now more than ever.
Rich H:I'll ask the question and it's probably an unfair question, but it's kind of the chicken or the egg. What was the spark? The idea of the product or the idea of the story? Obviously, both are critical to you, but was there something that drew you in as you decided to go down this journey?
Stephanie S.:Oh, why did I decide to buy Stucky's? Well, it was for sale. I wasn't looking for it. I literally got a phone call and there's a group of investors that own the company at that point and they were looking to sell and they were having a hard time finding buyers. And it was offered to me why I actually did it. Well, first I reached out to all my family members and nobody else was interested and they all said that's great, you go do that. No one wanted to do it.
Stephanie S.:My grandfather had seven grandchildren and I was the only one who said yes. And really the reason I said yes was pretty simple. I loved my grandfather and I thought what he did was pretty amazing. It's just the great American dream. You know, you start off with nothing. It was during the Great Depression and he had this little stand and he worked hard and he made something of himself and he created something really special. That was this unique experience. It wasn't just making convoys and snacks and selling kitschy souvenirs, but it was creating this memory and experience that people just treasure and I thought that was so special and I thought it was worth saving.
Stephanie S.:I think some things are worth saving. We see a lot of really great brands that have died and it just hurts my soul when I see brands that I just have this really emotional, close attachment to. And I want a Polaroid camera. I want to be able to shop at Tower Records. I'm kind of aging myself as a Gen Xer, but there's just certain things that make me so happy and warm and I'm sad that I can't go to Howard Johnson's and order fried clams and a hojo cola. I just wanted to save it. I thought it was worth saving.
Gautham V.:I love the comment of worth saving right. I'm a marketing professor, but as an academic researcher, I study the existence of brands and look, the reality is many brands come and most die, right, they have longer cycles, some have shorter cycles. You started off by having this conversation that stuckies is still undergoing a transformation. Companies are always looking to transform themselves to stay relevant in today's economy, and you talked about storytelling and community as being pillars to this transformation. What else do you think drives this transformation for you? And I also want to touch on the second point, the pivot point that you said. You said store model is not going to work. So clearly you have made that pivot. How do you see stores playing a role in building a community, being this memory, and what else is elements of your transformation if it's not stores?
Stephanie S.:Wow, okay, that's a lot so.
Gautham V.:I'll A lot of questions.
Stephanie S.:Wow Okay, that's a lot so thanks, professor, I'll tackle it as best I can. So with the transformation, we've always sold product. We just sold product and branded Stucky stores. And there still are a handful of those licensed stores and I value them and they're great. But that's not enough to rebuild a brand. And so really, how we're rebuilding the brand is still through selling in stores. It's just not Stucky stores.
Stephanie S.:So we're selling in retailers that you'll find on the interstate highway, like Clipper Petroleum, weigel's, road Ranger. We are just landing in Hot Stops, which is about a 60 store chain in North Carolina. We're in Rutters in Pennsylvania. So we're growing in that C-store space. But we're also growing in grocery Food. Lion and Ingalls are our two biggest, and then Nextcom is a great one for us. So we're a military channel. So just, we're growing in these other channels and these other retailers.
Stephanie S.:And I found what's important is to really lay your foundation and what is true to your brand's identity. Our brand has always been closely associated with road trip, so we always try to connect. Even if you may be going to your grocery store, we still want that spirit of the road trip to be there. We want you to think not just of getting in the car and exploring America, but all the feelings that are associated with taking a road trip, the fun, the excitement, the independence, that uniquely American experience. We're a uniquely American product. We get all of our pecans from local farmers. Pecans are the only snack nut native to this country. We make everything in our factory in small town Georgia. So just all that connectivity, I think, to associations that are fun and warm and exciting.
Stephanie S.:I think that's really important in making that transition from the Stuckey's retailers to our partner retailers. It's all about those partnerships. The hard part is we're doing it on a budget, so we can't just throw money and say, all right, we want to. You know we're going to be in Weigel, so here's, you know, a $10,000 budget, which is probably nothing for a lot of retailers, but for us that's like a big chunk. You know you can't always throw money if you don't have the money. So we're trying to figure out like how can we get that message across in a scrappy way, almost like guerrilla marketing?
Gautham V.:I want to authenticate your strategy or validate it in one personal anecdote. So I come from India originally, right? You know, when I first came, I used to make these long drives from Texas to Oklahoma to be with family and part of the Minnesota, like almost always it used to be to get these pecan praline candies Wow, and that was something uniquely, and so it is a taste that I love and I buy all the time now, and it's it's associated with road trips for me, right so, and now with my family, we do the same thing, and my daughters got addicted to these things, uh, in a good way. So, yeah, it's a great idea.
Stephanie S.:And see, that's another way you've touched upon. Something else we're doing to try to get our brand to resonate with the new generation of consumers is the pathway is often through the parents or even the grandparents and in some cases, great grandparents. I mean we've been around since 1937. So we've got generations who know our brand. So it's not uncommon for me to meet someone in their 30s to say, oh, I know your brand, my parents love your brand, and so then that's my opportunity to say, well, you tried it and I do a lot of pop-up tastings. And I'll just call a retailer that carries our product and say, hey, can I set up a little table? I mean, I'm literally in my car, I drive around, I am a traveling pop-up tasting booth. I have a table, I have the tablecloth and the little. I have a Stucky's pop-up banner. I always have. I always have product on me. I don't care where I am. I can be traveling by plane. I am packing a case of log rolls. I will hand out log rolls wherever I go.
Stephanie S.:It's just constantly like snack and share, chat and chew. You can't just give the product. You have to talk to the person and say here's the story behind the brand. You're not just eating a pecan log roll. Pecans are the only snack nut native to our country. We made everything fresh in our candy plant. This is my grandmother's recipe. I called her big mama. People want that. They don't want just a well. I think more and more that's what younger people especially I've got two Gen Z kids and so I'm seeing this firsthand they're craving something that's personal, that's unique.
Rich H:So talk to me about the road trip, because that's how we met. On Lincoln, as you were, you were telling your story and getting people excited. And then you happen to be here in Norfolk and we connected after you had spoken at the conference, and I'm amazed at it. Almost seems like every day you're on the road somewhere and you're sharing a scene and I hadn't connected the dots that you would have had a case of con logs in your trunk, but now it makes all the sense in the world. How did that idea spark and how does that keep driving you? Because that really is, I mean, that's guerrilla marketing and it's fine.
Stephanie S.:I will give credit to I do have. So I have my main business partner, rg Lamar, who's the CEO, and I'm the chair. I started out as the CEO and quickly wanted him to be the CEO. He's doing a great job. So I've got RG.
Stephanie S.:And then we have two other investors and one of them is a man named Ted Wright who runs a marketing firm called Fizz Marketing and he wrote a book called Fizz about word of mouth marketing. So I learned a lot of those strategies from him on how you find what's the essence of your brand and then you just hone in on it. You tell stories around it constantly to connect with other people. So Ted and I had a whole strategy session where we just threw out all the different characteristics and attributes for your brand. This is such a great exercise for anyone and you should really almost do this exercise regularly to just make sure you're refreshing what your brand is all about and remind yourself. And so we just threw up on a whiteboard right, all the different characteristics and what are the experiences associated with our brand, and we just kept circling things and it all came back to the road trip. And that's when Ted's one who really kind of put some real flesh around those bones to say, all right, it's not just the road trip, it's freedom, it's independence, it's independence, it's control.
Stephanie S.:In a time when we feel so overwhelmed with everything that's happening in life to be able to just get in a car and behind the wheel of a car, we suddenly have control. We may not have control in any other aspect of our life, but when you're driving, you get to pick the tunes, you get to pick where you pull over, you get to pick what you see. Oh and, by the way, you get to pick your snacks. What's a road trip about? It's about snacks, and calories don't apply when you're on the road. I like to say that, and it's true, road trips are when you treat yourself.
Stephanie S.:So he really helped me sort of riff off that theme over and over and over. So whatever you figure out is going to be the essence of your brand. It's got to be something that you can come up with 365 stories about and not have it be stale. You could do that with a road trip. I thought about the pecan. We went back and forth on the pecan and I love pecans and I write about them and talk about them, but I don't have 365 stories Five years running now. I mean, I post pretty much every day. If I don't post, it means I'm sick.
Jaime Lynn:Well, I have been following you, you know, since we planned out this podcast. I love how you have made it a family affair. You know, I do the same thing with my kids. They're always coming into the video. It just makes you real and it makes you genuine. And I was actually just reading something it was a statistic that said I think it was like 70% of people are willing to purchase from a brand if they know that the founder or the leader is authentic and is out there and has a presence and really believes in what they're doing. So talk to us a little bit about. Was that like a defining moment for you to be the face of Stucky's? I mean, I know it's your last name, but how do you authentically and genuinely go out there every single day and be the brand?
Stephanie S.:Well, it's pretty easy. I'm my own brand or the company brand ambassador, because I'm free. I mean, we just we didn't have a big budget and so I can't afford influencers. They're expensive and not only that, I agree, it's not authentic. And also I'm frequently on the road by myself, and so when I'm looking for content, it's me or it's just taking photos of product on the shelves, which I'll do sometimes.
Stephanie S.:I try to take photos in an interesting way and I'm also self-taught. But people engage with other people. So if you have a photo of a product versus a photo of somebody engaging with the product, unless your photo is like super amazing and creative, most times people are going to gravitate towards the one that has a human in it. So that human, you know, 80% of the time is going to be me. I'm doing my best to get more content with our team members, with my business partners, with my daughter. My daughter is so cute and has such a great personality and sometimes I just have to bribe her to get her to be in the. I'm like come on, I'm paying your tuition, come on, just do this, and she's so good at it. So, and my son barely is in and yell them and my team members sometimes will be in them.
Stephanie S.:But I'll beg them. I'll be like come on, you're, you're doing a trade show. Can I, can I get photos? And I will get photos of a trade show booth. No people Yawn, can we get some? And then it's a posed picture sometime and I'm like no people want things that are different. You have to have a little personality. I don't. But it's hard because when you are 50-ish and I'm soon about to hit a decade milestone so I can't say I'm 50-ish anymore, you know, you notice things like I got lines under my eyes and my hair is turning gray and I don't look as thin as I did in my 40s, and you just have to get over it. It's hard sometimes, but you just put yourself out there. It's authentic. You're doing a great job. Yeah, no, it's authentic, because some days I don't look super polished.
Rich H:We haven't noticed. But what I do notice when you do post is you love to highlight iconic diners or brands or businesses in other communities.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, that's my jam, that's my personal thing, and dive bars I love dive bars and fortunately that meshes very well with our brand and so I can. I can talk about that and I really do strive not to be so 1980s that I want Gen Zers to relate. I want millennials to relate and fortunately I have family members in those categories. So I'll reach out to them and say, does this resonate? But people love diners and so I find that that connects people. Everyone loves a dive bar. I really don't know anyone who says it. Maybe they don't, they just don't say they don't but I think people love dive bars of all ages. So I try to pick things that people can just relate to.
Rich H:One of the rapid fire questions may be what's your favorite dive bar? So you might want to prep for that one.
Stephanie S.:Oh, I don't need to prep, it's right down the road from me. The Claremont Lounge in Atlanta, georgia it's my local New Glid App. New York Club too, that's right down the street from me, and then in Georgia, pinky Masters in Savannah is just legendary.
Rich H:I will go and I know it's kind of an old, an old stable. But Florivama was when I really discovered what a dive bar was on the Florida Alabama line.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, national Dive Bar Day was this week and I did a post about it on I think it was on X, and I'm on every platform. I try to make them different, so if you follow me on different platforms you'll get different content. And I talked about, like, what makes a dive bar, and I had a really good time coming up with this list on my morning walk and I was like, well, the bar stools are always duct taped and they've got really fun graffiti. That's even more fun than a TikTok feed. You know, the graffiti is awesome and they always have Freebird on the jukebox and they've got some guy at the end of the bar his name is Red and he's never not there and you just look at it and you can tell like, yeah, that's a dive bar.
Rich H:So let's talk strategy for a second so you're very open bought the company and I was really on my own.
Stephanie S.:I drew up a strategic plan and it was focused on the stores, and so that did not work, but the branding strategy has been consistent. Ted is really good at crafting. Who's your audience when you're doing this post and who do we want the audience to be? Who road trips? Think of groups that road trip that you want to make sure you appeal to. Think of groups that love nostalgic candy that you want to make sure you appeal to. So, trying to make sure that we're crafting things in a way that's going to be geared towards a specific audience. That's one refinement of the strategy that we've made.
Stephanie S.:So not so much a pivot, but like continually finessing to make it more interesting. I'll give an example. One that I'm really starting to focus on is RVers, because they road trip, right, and so I just signed up this week that I'm going to be at the KOA Campgrounds of America trade show this year. I'm going to go to their conference and hang out with all the owners of the KOA campgrounds all over the country and pitch selling Stucky's products. So how can I be more thoughtful in telling a story in a way that's going to resonate with RVers? Motorcyclists, right, that's another one. They love to road trip. They like to take the back roads. They like to take the back roads, they like to take the scenic routes. They always stay at motels right so they can park their motorcycle right outside their window and keep an eye on it. So what are they going to want to see? They like motels Just finessing, constantly finessing.
Jaime Lynn:Stephanie, I want to ask you a question back to the pivot of your career. What is one piece of advice you would have for students who are just getting started in their career journey, or possibly somebody who was looking to make a pivot in their career, like you did?
Stephanie S.:Don't be afraid to seek mentorship and advice. Just ask questions. Don't be embarrassed to ask questions and then also have faith in yourself. I think the times when I felt I really didn't go in the right direction or I could have made a better decision, there was when I knew what I needed to be doing and I didn't trust myself enough. And so I think having a support system and having friends and having people you really respect, that can run things by and say, hey, can I do a gut check, like I think this is the way I should be doing this, or just ask an open-ended question, see if they agree with you, so it gives you that confidence, and then assert yourself. Don't be afraid to assert yourself and speak your mind. So, yeah, seek support and guidance from others and then have some confidence in yourself.
Rich H:So I'm going to jump back into the strategy part for a second. And, gautam, since you and I'm seeing it now kind of following in your footsteps to a small degree at GMU that there are a lot of students that are looking to start their own businesses and, stephanie, you mentioned that you kind of started with the, what I'll call the traditional what's the store or the and then you wrapped it into the story. Gautam, when you talk to students that are starting a business or thinking about it, do they start with the tradition and do you have a hard time breaking from the story?
Gautham V.:I think they don't even know what the story is right. To be quite honest, I think oftentimes they start with a product and they go to build a story. So maybe I'll take that opportunity to ask you the question on building brands. Right, so, as I hear you speak, stephanie, you are the brand. I think that's kind of a point that Jamie was also getting to. What are the stages, if you will, to building a brand? How do you go from zero to one? So now, of course, in Stucky's case, how significant right Now, talk, ask a professor and educate our audience. How do you go, build a brand and how do you stay consistent to the brand message across time?
Stephanie S.:I am probably not the best person to say how to build a brand from ground up, because I've never done that. I have built a brand or rebuilding a brand, and I shouldn't say I. I should say we, team Stuckies, we're rebuilding a brand and we started on second base. We already had a brand, we were hitting the refresh button on it, so it's slightly different, and that, and you look at what's the essence, what really makes this brand special. So I would think, if you're starting at ground zero, think about what the essence is.
Stephanie S.:And you said a lot of your students start with a product. Well, they probably came up with that product because I think what most entrepreneurs do is they problem solve. So there must have been some problem that they were trying to fix that this product solves. And so I would start with the story of what does that solve? How are you making people's lives better? Why should anyone buy this? Why should anyone care? Why should anyone have a connection with it? And so figure out what is that? What's that solve? That makes things easier on all of us, and that's what we're all searching for, is something that's going to give us meaning and that's it's going to help us connect with other people. At the core, that's everything we do, and so how can I translate that to a product? And so then the consistency is you force yourself to get up every day and tell the story. Habits are, and that consistency it's that daily practice is going to build a habit and that's going to build the discipline. And I think the key to the consistency is to give yourself some grace. If you miss a day, don't think, oh my gosh, I've screwed up, I'm off track, so just get up the next day and get back at it. Keep pushing forward.
Stephanie S.:And I have a promotion calendar. I have a calendar. It's on a platform called Loomly. There's hundreds of platforms out there. Whatever works for you. There's hundreds of platforms out there. Whatever works for you. That's one that we have.
Stephanie S.:It's myself and a man named Marcos Thomas on our team. He's also doing sales, so we wear a lot of hats, but part of his hat one of his hats is marketing too, so he and I collaborate on the marketing piece and he helps me a lot with the technology. So we have a shared like here's what we need to be posting. There's certain key themes. We have a shared like. Here's what we need to be posting. There's certain key themes. And then I actually have little cards that one of my partners created that just have different themes on it and he's like listen, if you ever have a low day, just pick a card. It's like a deck of cards, right?
Stephanie S.:And it'll say all right, you're posting about nostalgia today. You're posting about how it's made. Today You're posting about a road trip story. Today You're posting about pecans and why they're special. You're posting about made in the USA. You're talking about. You're posting about family.
Stephanie S.:It just kind of helps you like okay, today's a family story and don't don't have too many themes and you don't have to overcomplicate it, because the reality is there's very few people are going to be reading your post every single day. Most people are scrolling and you just happen to hit on their feed at the moment that they. That's why you have to post every day, because there's a randomness to it. So, even though I'm out there every day, rich isn't reading my post every day. You might, I might come across your feed I don't know once every couple of weeks. So it's OK if I hit on road tripping five out of 10 times, because you're only going to see it once, maybe, but if you consistently see me posting about that, that's what you say, like it looks like you're always on the road. Well, sometimes I'm just working from home or I'm at the candy plant with a hairnet on, but I'm posting about being on the road because I've got a whole library full of photos that I take and save and post.
Rich H:And I've seen you post from the factory with a hairnet on.
Stephanie S.:Yes, At least I don't have to do my hair. It lends character. Hey, if I don't have the hairnet on, I get so many comments you are violating food safety standards. What are you doing? Yeah, or people say there's a piece of trash in the background. Oh my gosh. I have to be so careful Whenever I post from the factory. Everything has to look perfect.
Jaime Lynn:Stephanie, you have dropped so many nuggets today about your journey, but I would just be curious to know what's one piece of advice that you were given and you would love to share with our audience today.
Stephanie S.:I've had a lot, one that just really sticks out and is really basic. But I think it came to me at a time when I was really down, and this was during my legislative career. I had a mentor who's now one of my very dear friends, mary Margaret Oliver. She's a state representative and I had this bill that I worked so hard on. I worked on it for six years. It was defeated three times on the House floor. By the way, it is what I am most proud of At 14 years in office. It allowed for higher alcohol beer to be sold in Georgia. So there are thousands and thousands of craft beers in the state of Georgia that are now legal because of this bill. But at the time it was very controversial and I was being fought by the traditional beer manufacturers and I was being fought by Mothers Against Driving Drunk and the Christian Coalition and it was just I mean just crushing defeat. I got defeated on the House floor, very public vote.
Stephanie S.:It was all over the media because it was kind of an interesting bill and people were saying Stephanie Stuckey passed the high alcohol, we're trying to pass high alcohol beer getting teenagers drunk bill. And I mean it was. It was bad and I was just sobbing in the women's bathroom and she comes into the stall like, whams the door and like, hands me some tissue and she's like don't ever let them see you cry, you dry your face. And she said, mush on. So it was mush on.
Stephanie S.:And I think of that all the time. When I have a hard moment I'm like just mush on, it's, you're in it for the long game. It's a down moment, you're in it for the long game. If you know what you're doing is right, you just got to keep at it. And you know that high alcohol beer is sold in every convenience store in this state, just about. It is one of the largest economic drivers in the beverage industry in this state. And pat myself on the back, you know, and the whole team that worked on that bill like we got it done. So you just mush on. You know what you're doing is right, you just keep doing it.
Gautham V.:So maybe that's a good time for me to ask a follow-up question, right? You said just so. I love this conversation as a person who studies passages of Bill. Only 2% of Bills ever get passed, so congratulations on getting it done at a later point in time. But how do people like talk students when they deal with failure? It's near to them, right? It's not something that we talk a lot about and oftentimes even for me we don't have the tools to cope with someone.
Gautham V.:Yeah, they don't teach that, yeah, and it's hard to teach it. It's through these stories that people tell that you can. So what would you give? What advice would you give our students Like if you're an entrepreneur, you're bound to deal with failures, right, how do you get back up? How do you incorporate those failures into future success? Do you have any tips that you could give for our students or audience in general? It doesn't have to be students right On this very critical path of being successful as an entrepreneur successful as an entrepreneur.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, I can give three tips. First, be really grounded in what you're doing and you're playing the long game so you know what you're doing. Have a very clear sense of not just what you're doing but why you're doing it and your why cannot be. I want to make a lot of money. That's just not your why. It's not going to motivate you. It's not I don't know anyone who. If that is their goal, that's really keeping them going.
Stephanie S.:No-transcript of community and wealth and and building jobs where people have a pathway to prosperity. You know like we really are invested in that vision for the entire team and we all want to make pecans like America's big snack nut. My business partner is a third generation farmer, so just having that like we're grounded in something, that is a why that really drives you. It's got to be a strong why that drives you because you're going to have some tough times. So that is number one. And number two is connected and that's that's you're not alone, Right, the best way through failure, I found, is knowing that you are not in it alone.
Stephanie S.:A Buddhist saying help others to help yourself, help yourself to help others. We had a very big meeting this week that was. That was tough. I was feeling incredibly anxious about it and I realized the way I could help myself get through it was to reach out to my business partner, because I'm sure he had the same anxieties, and to ask how can I help? How can I help you? Because he was doing the main talking. I said how can I help you prepare for this meeting and what materials can I put together for you and how can I bring value? How can I help so you're not alone? Help other, help your team. They're going to help you. You support one another. Turn to your team, Turn to the people you're in the trenches with.
Stephanie S.:And then the last thing is be grounded in a sense of meditation or whatever that higher spiritual connection is that you have. For me it's religious, but it doesn't have to be. It can just be having a sense of something that's spiritual purpose, that's higher than you, and spend some time every morning meditating. How do you start your day? Do you start your day with some positive meditation? I have all these meditations I listen to that are uplifting, and I go for a walk and I listen to it and I just try to get my mind in the right place to deal with adversity, because you are going to have a lot of adversity thrown at you. People who succeed aren't always the smartest. They don't always have the best ideas. People don't give up.
Gautham V.:I love it. I took notes just to remind myself of these. I also want to make one comment, Stephanie, that stood out to me in this whole chat that we've been having, which is that throughout this conversation, you have consistently of my products that I work with Taking a step back. Can you just, is that something real Like? Is that a real issue? How do you know when to step back, when to let someone else take the lead?
Stephanie S.:Yeah, you have to listen to other people and ask them to be brutally honest and say, okay, what's my strength, what's not my strength? I'm good at the brand and the storytelling. My strength is not the financials, it's not talking the deal terms. I'm not a great closer, I'm a better opener and I've asked my business partner for some very candid feedback on how I do when we do pitches. And he's like Stephanie, you're great at the opening, tell the story, tell the history of the brand, tell why the brand's relevant. There's so much passion, there's so much energy, like that's great.
Stephanie S.:He's like please don't do the deal terms. He's like you go off script, you get very enthusiastic and sometimes you over promise and we can't fulfill. Or you throw a number out and the number's wrong and we've got to backtrack, and he's like just don't do it. I'm like heard, I hear it Understood, and so I've got to check myself and sometimes I know, when there's an email that's going to someone important, that's relating to financing or a pitch, I'll do a draft and send it to my partner and say, all right, review this, and maybe you need to be the one to send it, but here's the draft. So just try to have some self-awareness and even if you don't be humble enough to ask people and really really listen when they say, hey, sometimes this isn't your strength, I've got other things I can do that are going to bring value to the team and I'm going to rely on them to do their part, and I feel confident they're going to do it.
Rich H:All right, Jamie Lynn, why don't you kick off the rapid fire round?
Jaime Lynn:Okay, I need to know, Stephanie, what's your most favorite road, route 66.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, and I've never done the full stretch. I've done pieces of it in every state, but I have not done the entire mother road from start to finish. And next year is the 100th anniversary of Route 66. And it is my 60th birthday is a week before 2026. So I'm going to celebrate my 60th birthday in 2026, 60 on Route 66, and my kids have already signed up for it. And so at some point next year I am going to finally take a vacation which I haven't taken in a while. I'm going to do the ultimate Mother Road road trip. I'm going to drive Route 66 in an RV, I hope.
Jaime Lynn:That is fantastic. You will have content for days.
Stephanie S.:Yes, oh yeah, and I'll have fun. We'll have fun. Yes, oh yeah, and I'll have fun.
Gautham V.:We'll have fun and I can't wait to hear how that trip went. So, sticking with that road trip, what would be the comfort food that you take with you? Not the Stucky's pecan roll. Outside of that, what else will you be taking with?
Stephanie S.:you. Oh, I have to give a shout out to my other third generation and fourth generation nostalgic brand. So moon pie, which is a fourth, fifth generation, sam campbell. I think he's the fifth now, but he's he's fifth generation. He's younger than I am and he is poised to take over moon pie. That's a great road trip food. Goo goo uh, laurie spradley runs that company. Uh, that's a. That's a great road trip food. Goo Goo. Lori Spradley runs that company. That's a great heritage brand.
Stephanie S.:I absolutely love Goo Goo. I like Cheer Wine, which is a North Carolina drink, but of course I'm from Atlanta, I live in Atlanta and so got to give a shout out to Coca-Cola, got to have a Coke. That's a great one. Got to have something crunchy, right. I love Dot's Pretzels because Dot is my Shiro I hope to meet her at some point North Dakota housewife who had this amazing recipe and hustled and became this incredibly successful entrepreneur and sold her brand for a reported I think it may even be a billion, I don't know. She sold out to Hershey and did okay. So Dots Pretzels classic. I want the classic flavor. I want the ranch.
Rich H:All right. So, sticking with the retail theme, you've been on road trips, you've been in gift shops. What's that one thing that you picked up that you either absolutely love or absolutely regret, but it was that impulse item when you were on the road.
Stephanie S.:Oh, I have a dashboard Jesus that I love. You know you stick him on your dash and he wobbles. Yeah, you can also get a hula girl. I love a good dashboard little statuette. I think they're so much fun.
Rich H:I'm a Jeep owner, so my dashboard my daughter just decorated it with about 20 ducks.
Stephanie S.:Oh fun, it's a little talisman, it's a little good luck. I rub my plastic Jesus head when the weather's bad and pray for safe travels. He gets me through it.
Rich H:Well, that is awesome, stephanie. I really appreciate you joining us today. This was a fantastic conversation, and I will tell you, for somebody who didn't necessarily intend on jumping into a brand like this, you've done more than just recraft it. You've created a new version of it. So I think there's a lot of lessons learned, both personally and professionally, in here.
Stephanie S.:Thank you, it's just a delight talking to all of you and, gotham, we're going to follow up with your class. Right? I want to be a class project.
Gautham V.:I would love that. Yes, I would love that.
Stephanie S.:Yeah, jamie, I welcome any advice you have in the future. So this is just absolutely I would love that. Yeah, jamie, I welcome any advice you have in the future.
Jaime Lynn:So this is just Absolutely. I would love to stay connected. You are worth such a pleasure to talk to and I'm just so inspired by everything that you've done and will continue to cheer on Stucky, thank you.
