Veronica Stubbs is an author, baker, and founder of The Scone Goddess. She grew up in the tiny town of Phelps, NY, an area of the Finger Lakes best known for farms and wine. She now lives in Midcoast Maine with her husband Jason, three children; Andy, Riah and Izzi and their pets.

Having moved to Maine after 20+ years in Vermont, Veronica started The Scone Goddess as a way to meet the people in her community. She baked out of her home kitchen one day a week for the local farmer’s market and saw instant success; selling out each Saturday.

The pandemic forced her to pivot. Still working from her licensed home kitchen , Veronica started creating premium scone mixes and selling them across the United States via her website. She credits her customers with spreading the word to their friends and family and helping her business thrive. She and her daughters mixed and bagged 50-100 of The Scone Goddess Premium Scone Mixes by hand each day until the first piece of equipment was purchased in 2021.

The bagging machine allowed them to make more mix. In turn, they could advertise and reach more people. By the end of 2021, a brick and mortar had been built and they were selling out of fresh baked scones daily while making 400-600 mixes a day with the help of 1 part time employee. 2023 saw the addition of the manufacturing space, moving it out of Veronica’s home altogether, and a larger shipping and receiving area. A large commercial mixer was purchased and pallets of ingredients are received to make thousands of mixes each week.

Now, all three children work at The Scone Goddess helping to manage the growth of the business and the relationships developed with a community that now spans the US. The Scone Goddess Company is deeply committed to quality, service and helping others. The company has opened their wholesale channel to the entire US and is poised to go nationwide.

At the end of the day, the move to Maine was about Balance, Family and Community. As a Family First Company, The Scone Goddess has been a source of pride for Veronica who enjoys working with her family and providing balance for her employees. “We Bake Memories Here!”

Key Moments

[05:31] Opened bed and breakfast, loving cooking, amazing view.

[08:43] Love, touch, and technique make perfect scones.

[10:37] Makeup artist with diverse experience shares advice.

[13:32] Starting home kitchen, rapidly expanding, 16 years.

[16:16] Seeking community connection and positive impact.

Find Veronica Online

https://thesconegoddess.com

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Transcript provided by Castmagic.io

Seth [00:00:00]:

Entrepreneur’s Enigma is a podcast for the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, so the wins and the fails that we all face being entrepreneurs, how we learn from adversity. Every week, I talk to a different entrepreneur with a story to tell. I’m Seth Goldstein. Come with me on the journey. This is Entrepreneur’s Enigma. Let’s get started. Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of the Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast.

Seth [00:00:35]:

I’m your host as always, Seth. I have Veronica Stubbs here. She is self proclaimed, and I would agree with this, The scone goddess, because she has these mixes. They are very easy to make Scones. You think Leonardo, when they use the tomato, they taste like crap. No. These are amazing. These are incredible.

Seth [00:00:56]:

These are yummy, delectable. And there’s scones, which, you know, if you’re running the scone world, a good cup of coffee, a scone. Oh, it’s amazing. So Veronica Is an author, a baker, and the founder of Skunkuys. She grew up in a tiny town of Phelps, New York. It’s over by the Finger Lakes, And it’s known for Farms and Wine. She now is in Midcoast, Maine with her, husband Jason, 3 kids, and their pets. She was also was in Vermont for for a stint as well.

Seth [00:01:27]:

So she’s a New Englander pretty much. In our no. No. No. No. Not just New England there, but Northeasterner is what I always call it. Because because I guess Finger Lakes is exactly New England. So but, it’s a heck of a story.

Seth [00:01:40]:

We’re gonna get right into it. This entrepreneurial journey is a incredible one. So Hey, Veronica. How’s it going?

Veronica [00:01:48]:

Hey, Seth. How you doing? Thanks for having me.

Seth [00:01:50]:

Good. How you doing? You got a little filly in there. How you doing?

Veronica [00:01:56]:

And so, yeah, it’s bringing that out every once in a while, and I’m excited how you You’re from you’re from

Seth [00:02:00]:

the Finger Lakes. Where are you get to how you doing from?

Veronica [00:02:03]:

You know, I don’t even know. My husband’s from outside of New York City, and I think he’s got, like, this fake accent. Yeah.

Seth [00:02:10]:

That’s probably why. You got the city boy. You can get the city boy out of them. Right?

Veronica [00:02:13]:

Little bit. Yep. Exactly.

Seth [00:02:16]:

So how did this all get started? Like, I mean, let’s talk Talk a little about in the beginning because you’re an author and you’re a baker and you’re the founder of the SCOAN Goddess. Like, have you always Had a entrepreneurial bent to you, or has it been, like, have you worked in the corporate America? Like, what what what’s your story origin story?

Veronica [00:02:33]:

You know, it it it’s a little bit crazy. Going way, way, way back, I was actually a cosmetologist. Oh. Yeah. So, always wanted to do hair. I thought that would be So fun and so creative and, you know, gotta give, like, huge props to Lisa Romeizer, my cosmetology teacher, because She really taught me about business and, you know, I was good at hair, but I moved on. And, you know, it was it was interesting. Through just a series of events, I ended up In sales and then managing someone else’s company and Oh.

Veronica [00:03:17]:

Yeah. So it just occurred to me I was really, really good At, creating relationships and helping people to understand Things that they didn’t know that they needed. Oh. And yeah. Exactly. So, I don’t like to say Selling them on things because I don’t really want call myself a salesperson. I I kinda like to educate. Yeah.

Veronica [00:03:42]:

Educate. Exactly. Informed. Yeah. Exactly. Inform. So, anyway, so here I am. I’m I’m in the business of educating people, and I have my 3rd child And, so I’m home.

Veronica [00:03:59]:

Yeah. And a little bit bored. I mean, I’m really excited, but, you know, she’s sleeping all the time.

Seth [00:04:04]:

Yeah. Yeah. What are you doing when the kids sleep? I mean, when the kids up,

Veronica [00:04:07]:

you’re busy,

Seth [00:04:07]:

busy, busy, busy. Well, you know, otherwise. Yeah. Right.

Veronica [00:04:09]:

And, you know, I’ve got tons of energy And and I’m home and, you know, I don’t have to work, so I’m I’m kinda playing in my kitchen. And my friend brings me these scones, and they’re amazing. And honestly, I’d never had a scone before. Yeah.

Seth [00:04:25]:

The scone guys never had a

Veronica [00:04:26]:

scone before. I had never had a scone. This was 15 years ago. I had never had a scone and these were so good. And, you know, you watch out what you wish for. You know, here’s this kid. She was sleeping. I was bored.

Veronica [00:04:38]:

And, it’s it’s like literally as soon as I said it out loud, oh my gosh, I’m so bored. What can I do? Of course, she stopped sleeping. So Mommy

Seth [00:04:45]:

or Mommy or what?

Veronica [00:04:49]:

Right. Right. So my husband and I were living on these scones and, And I’m I’m I’m, like, obsessed with them and I start creating these different scone flavors and different scone recipes.

Seth [00:05:02]:

Yeah.

Veronica [00:05:03]:

And, You know, fast forward to when the child gets a nanny finally, and, I’ve got some time to actually, go back to what I’m good at. I opened a bed and breakfast. Oh. And

Seth [00:05:16]:

I I that that that so you have a small kid at home and 2 other kids.

Veronica [00:05:20]:

Yes. The 2 other children were in school.

Seth [00:05:23]:

But still the news decided to open up bed and breakfast. I mean, guess it’s I guess it’s a New England New England, you know, northeast kind of thing to do. So yeah.

Veronica [00:05:31]:

Yeah. I mean, we have this amazing view, and we have this huge, huge house. And I just thought it would be really, really fun. So I opened this bed and breakfast. I love meeting people, and, I wanted to still be at home, but, You know, I was needing to do something and, so I’m a really good cook. I’ve been cooking since I was 4 years old, baking since I was 4 years old. Wow. And, so we opened this bed and breakfast, and every day, the guests would Start with these fresh baked scones that at this point, I had tweaked and tweaked and tweaked to have, like, all of these amazing flavors.

Veronica [00:06:08]:

And We are rated 5 stars.

Seth [00:06:11]:

Wow.

Veronica [00:06:12]:

And, I always thought, oh, they must love my hospitality. They must love my View of Mount Mansfield.

Seth [00:06:18]:

Scones.

Veronica [00:06:18]:

It was the scones. So yeah. So I I took my show on the road in Maine and, I after being here for just a couple of years, decided that I would bake these scones And, just sell them 1 day a week. Give me something to do, make a little extra pocket money, and, feed my community. So

Seth [00:06:44]:

We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show. And I I read in your bio right now that all 3 kids help you with it now.

Veronica [00:06:52]:

Yeah. So what started as, me meeting my community Yeah. We sold out. We just I was baking one day a week. We sold out every week, pandemic hit, and I started bagging mixes. And, you know, I’m so grateful To my customers for kinda sharing the scone love and Well,

Seth [00:07:12]:

then you got the box. You’re you’re you’re the scone dealer. Yeah.

Veronica [00:07:15]:

Oh, well. Yeah. They’re a scone dealer. That’s hysterical. Yeah. So, yeah. So we’ve just grown and grown and grown, and, Now we’ve got this amazing brick and mortar in Northport, Maine, right on Route 1. So it’s it’s this wonderful, well traveled Road between, you know, Camden and Bar Harbor, essentially.

Veronica [00:07:36]:

Bahaba. Bahaba. Exactly. And, you know, right on the coast, and we’ve got Tons of people visiting us. We’re making our scone mixes here, and we have just finished Scaling up. We’re going nationwide with our farm mixes to, different retail stores across nation. So, you know? Wow.

Seth [00:07:58]:

I could say I knew you when.

Veronica [00:08:00]:

Yeah. Exactly. So that was a really, really long convoluted answer to, you know, what to I think

Seth [00:08:08]:

That’s fantastic.

Veronica [00:08:09]:

You you you talk to a baker, you know, who gets up really early in the morning and you just get all over the place, but,

Seth [00:08:16]:

Yeah. Well, that the the scones are fantastic. You sent me some there. I mean, mouth watering. So, I mean, you can have a bad if you have a scone and it’s bad, it’s not mouth watering. Is not drying.

Veronica [00:08:26]:

Exactly.

Seth [00:08:27]:

Yours are so good, and they’re right the right percentage of everything. All you have to add heavy cream. It’s like, oh, I’m done. Like and then put them in, like, you probably know the I mean, skills don’t seem that hard to do, but it’s it’s it’s the love that goes into the mix is really what it is.

Veronica [00:08:43]:

It’s it’s the love that goes in the mix, and it’s the the least amount of touch that makes the scones. So, you know, so many people make amazing scones, but they’ve gotta cut in the butter and some recipes call for egg and some recipes call for additional liquid and, You know, you’ve gotta fold it all in and and do it without touching it because if you’re if you touch it too much, it makes them either dry and crumbly or Tough or flat. And so, like flat stone. Yeah. Who wants that? Exactly. Exactly.

Seth [00:09:16]:

They’re laying fluffy.

Veronica [00:09:18]:

Right. And we kinda call ourselves the Ben and Jerry’s of scones because we add lots of chunks to it. And, you know, it’s just super simple, instant gratification, lots of chunks in every single bag has the same amount of goodness. So And I love it. Love it. Love it.

Seth [00:09:33]:

Love it. Love it. So you worked so you were in sales. You worked For someone else for a little while, had kids, did your and now you’re doing your own thing. What’s the best thing about being an entrepreneur in your mind?

Veronica [00:09:48]:

The creativity. The creativity. And, you know, I’ll tell you something. I should back up. Speaking of Ben and Jerry’s, I’ll tell you the funniest thing.

Seth [00:09:56]:

Please do.

Veronica [00:09:57]:

So, I started my career as a cosmetologist and, went into sales. And the sales piece was cosmetic sales. Oh, nice. And and and as I was in cosmetic Sales, I was also working as a freelance makeup artist, which was basically my 1st entrepreneurial job. I kind of

Seth [00:10:18]:

your side hustle. Yeah.

Veronica [00:10:19]:

Well and it’s actually really interesting. It was my side hustle in Vermont. So, like, 32 years ago when they didn’t wear make Yep. Okay. So I I was pretty proud of that. Yeah. But, yeah. So I was doing I was doing, just Small budget, movies.

Veronica [00:10:37]:

I did some catalogs. I did some TV shows and political commercials. But, it’s really, really interesting For anyone who’s out there and they’re, like, not completely pointed in the exact direction of where they wanna go, You know, just some words of advice, everything you do leads to where you’re going. And so Absolutely. As a makeup artist, I did a show, I I did make up for a show called Epicurious, and the show was filmed at Jerry’s house. It was all about Ben and Jerry, and it was amazing. And, you know, I mean, those guys

Seth [00:11:17]:

are awesome. Together.

Veronica [00:11:18]:

Yeah. They were awesome. I mean, I was in there powdering noses and, you know, I did the makeup for the host. And, at the time, I thought, oh, how cool. I’m doing Ben and Jerry’s Makeup, this is awesome, and I thought this is just the pinnacle of my career, you know. I wanna tell you how how old I was then. Right? And, Meanwhile so I fast forward to now, and I, you know, I catch myself saying, oh, yeah. We consider ourselves the Ben and Jerry of Spones.

Veronica [00:11:45]:

And I laugh because, honestly, I mean, after that

Seth [00:11:49]:

shoot Jerry’s makeup.

Veronica [00:11:50]:

Well, yeah. But after that shoot, those guys went down into their basement, Pulled out all these pints of ice cream, made us these amazing sundaes, and, like, we chatted. And, you know, I mean They’re the real guys. Yeah. Yeah. They’re amazing. They’re the real deal. And, you know, just talking about their philosophy, and it didn’t even occur to me until, Like, 2 years into my company, how much of that talk stayed with me.

Veronica [00:12:19]:

And so, you know, the SCone goddess is incredibly attentive to our community. I mean, we were built By our community, for our community. And one of the main principles of the company is to give back to our community. So we’re creative. We always strive for quality and, you know, and and we strive for balance. We’re a family first company. So,

Seth [00:12:45]:

Well, feel your kids work for you. So yeah.

Veronica [00:12:47]:

Yeah. Absolutely. And and and anyone with us, they’re just everyone’s like family and, you know, even if you’re cat sick, if To catch your family, you’ve gotta go to the vet. They’re your family.

Seth [00:12:56]:

They’re the vet.

Veronica [00:12:57]:

Go to the vet. You’re a Period. Exactly. So it’s just it’s amazing how, you know, everything kinda rolls Forward in life, and some people can’t always see that.

Seth [00:13:05]:

Yeah. It’s hard to see when you’re in it. When you look back at it, you’re like, oh, Okay. I get it now. So also then on the flip side, what keeps you up at night when you’re running your own you’re running your own empire? You’re in a school and empire.

Veronica [00:13:22]:

Well, the company has grown so fast. I mean, for all intents and purposes, the company’s 3 years old.

Seth [00:13:28]:

Oh, wow.

Veronica [00:13:29]:

Yeah. So

Seth [00:13:30]:

And you’re going nationwide. It’s pretty wild.

Veronica [00:13:32]:

Yeah. So, I mean, it started out of my home kitchen, And, it very rapidly moved from my home kitchen to we did a test in a food trailer 1 summer, then we built this Building and then we added on to it. So, anyway, so it’s grown very rapidly. And Every once in a while, I just find myself shooting up in the middle of the night going, oh my gosh. Did somebody record this information for traceability, or did somebody remember to put this Ingredient in. I only just recently, started allowing my son To make some of the bulk mix. And, I mean, that’s always been done by me because, obviously, that’s been getting 16 years

Seth [00:14:17]:

since then, though.

Veronica [00:14:18]:

Yeah. Oh, he oh, he’s amazing. I mean, he’s he’s the operations manager, and he’s learning from the bottom up.

Seth [00:14:25]:

So, I

Veronica [00:14:25]:

mean, he’s he’s amazing. But, I’ve always done

Seth [00:14:29]:

just proud mama too. So yeah.

Veronica [00:14:30]:

Oh, yeah. Yeah. My kids are so great. They’re all so brilliant. I remember my, My youngest child was the 1st one to be able to calibrate these machines that we have, and she’s only 15 now. So this was 3 years ago. She’s like, oh, yeah. The machine wasn’t working.

Veronica [00:14:45]:

I calibrated What? What? You know what validate means?

Seth [00:14:50]:

My 11 year old. My 11 year old codes roadblocks nowadays, and he’s like, daddy, I I got stuck on something. I can’t help you with that. I do have plates, so I can’t I can’t help you with that.

Veronica [00:15:00]:

Right. Right. Yeah.

Seth [00:15:01]:

They’re a whole another beast now.

Veronica [00:15:03]:

Exactly. These kids are so smart and and just so innovative. You know? But yeah. So just Staying awake at night wondering, oh, did this get done? Or I still wonder, does someone like my scones? You know? Will they like

Seth [00:15:20]:

you? They’re really damn good. They’ve always

Veronica [00:15:21]:

been nice. Thanks. Yeah.

Seth [00:15:23]:

I had to stop myself after 1 because I would be eating a whole tray.

Veronica [00:15:27]:

Yeah. It’s They’re the healthy baked good, though, Seth. So it’s okay.

Seth [00:15:31]:

It is. But still, you got you got it’s called pacing yourself.

Veronica [00:15:35]:

Yes. Yes.

Seth [00:15:37]:

So what is the most important thing to carry with you all the time besides just gum mix?

Veronica [00:15:43]:

Heavy cream, obviously, if you’re carrying a gum mix. Absolutely. No. Well, you know, it’s funny. It’s it’s a funny thing I say all the time. There’s no scone emergency. That’s the thing I carry with me all the time. So, You know, when I pull into my, facility here and my 2 oldest children meet me at my car and I’m not even allowed to get out of my car and they both have these faces, I just opened the door and say there’s never been a SCOAN emergency that I’m aware of.

Veronica [00:16:16]:

So whatever it is, it can’t be that bad. And but, you know, just to just to keep it all in perspective, you know, this this was built Because I wanted to meet my community. It Yeah. You know, I I wasn’t looking be totally. Yeah. Right. I wasn’t actually looking To put my my skills into motion and and become this worldwide stone goddess. You know? I just, I was just looking to meet the community and to, make a difference in people’s lives.

Veronica [00:16:49]:

And so, You know, being humble and just remembering why it all started is really the the the best message To remind myself every day because, you know, that’s the important part of it.

Seth [00:17:04]:

Yeah. Also, I mean, meet meet people once skone at a time.

Veronica [00:17:08]:

Exactly. Exactly. And change the world 1 scone at a time too.

Seth [00:17:12]:

Exactly. Absolutely.

Veronica [00:17:14]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:17:14]:

The way you do is have a scone Skone and a good cup of coffee. Mhmm. Best. The best.

Veronica [00:17:20]:

The best.

Seth [00:17:20]:

The best. So people can find you over at the Skone Goddess .com. Pretty much everywhere the scone got us. Right?

Veronica [00:17:28]:

Yes. The scone goddess.com and, retailers near you. If you don’t see us there yet, ask For us,

Seth [00:17:36]:

Yeah. Please do that. Yeah. Because that’s so good.

Veronica [00:17:38]:

Yeah. It’s it we

Seth [00:17:39]:

I’m gonna go back and make I didn’t make the 2nd bag yet. So I’m gonna go make the 2nd bag.

Veronica [00:17:44]:

Well, they freeze well, so that’s that’s good news. If you bake them and you wanna control yourself, just wrap them up. And once you have anything

Seth [00:17:51]:

I know that there there has to be a time limit on it. Now there’s gonna be a time limit. They they they come out, they’re warm, they’re gooey, not gooey, but they’re sconey.

Veronica [00:17:58]:

Yeah.

Seth [00:17:59]:

Of course. Sconey. But I mean, they come out, You let them cool a little bit, you have your cup of coffee, you have your scone, and you walk away from the kitchen, and you come back 5 minutes later for another one.

Veronica [00:18:10]:

There you go. Do a dab around the house, bring it off, or just invite some friends over. That’s the easiest way.

Seth [00:18:15]:

That’s the best way to do it. Veronica, to pick

Veronica [00:18:27]:

up and

Seth [00:18:28]:

email to you. This oh, they’re so good.

Veronica [00:18:30]:

Sounds good.

Seth [00:18:30]:

They’re so good. Yeah.

Veronica [00:18:32]:

And so

Seth [00:18:32]:

go everyone, go to the scone goddess.com. So I have Veronica on on Facebook and Instagram as the scone goddess. I can’t say scone goddess. Yes. I can. There we go. So

Veronica [00:18:42]:

Scone goddess.

Seth [00:18:43]:

Yeah. It’s awesome. Such a good name. And we’ll see everyone next time.

Veronica [00:18:48]:

Thanks, Seth.

Seth [00:18:50]:

That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please view us in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps other podcast listeners find our show. If you’re looking for other podcasts in the marketing space, look no further than the Marketing Podcast Network at marketing podcasts.net.