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This is a podcast for anyone feeling stretched thin by work, activism, caregiving, or just surviving under systems that weren’t built for our thriving. On Balm in the Burnout, we speak with artists, organizers, and community builders about what’s helping us stay grounded and resourced in the face of burnout. Together, we reclaim our right to soothe, heal, and make hopeful, sustainable action.
[00:00:00]
Megan: Welcome to Balm in the Burnout- a podcast for cross-sector people and professionals navigating personal and systemic burnout. Whether you're a doctor, educator, farmer, caregiver, or simply trying to survive under the weight of broken systems. This podcast is here to offer solace, strategy, and solidarity.
Welcome back to Balm in the Burnout. I'm your host, Megan Hadley, founder and health coach at Harvest Health and Wellbeing LLC in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and I cannot wait to chat today with Tina Rexing and Tina is an entrepreneur and former corporate maven who is [00:01:00] now exploding her delicious cookies all over the country.
In 2015 T-Rex Cookie was born from a leap of faith and a 17 year run in baking competitions. And in 2015 T-Rex was featured on the Today Show on a search for The Best Cookie in Each State. In 2016, Timeout Magazine names T-Rex Cookie the Best Cookie in America. And in 2017, T-Rex Cookie opened its first cafe and retail location.
Since then, T-Rex Cookie has been featured at the Super Bowl 52 in Minneapolis, featured on ABC's Shark Tank () ,although that episode never aired because the TV execs couldn't afford them. T-Rex Cookie also launched frozen cookie pucks into retail locations for people baking at home, expanding to a thousand plus retailers, and they continue to grow.
Tina and her company have been featured [00:02:00] in media such as NPR, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Popsugar, and Food Bible, and locally the Star Tribune, Twin Cities Live, Kare11, Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal, Twin Cities Business, boasting partnerships with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Lynx, US Bank Stadium, Children's Theater and History Theater.
Her physical locations currently are in Eagan, Minnesota and the MSP airport, terminal one concourse C head there early if you're going on a flight soon. And her retailers currently include Cub, Kowalski's, Lunds and Byerly's, Hy-Vee, and several breweries in the Twin Cities area. And I almost forgot, but I couldn't omit that we went to the same college- surprise. We are everywhere. We both went to St. Olaf. And Tina, you are the third Ole on the pod so far. So I feel like I'm being a little biased, but honestly we're good people, you know.
Tina Rexing: Well, Um [00:03:00] Ya Ya to you.
Megan: Um Ya YA! Thanks again, Tina, for being here today.
Tina Rexing: thanks for the intro. I mean, it sounds really impressive when I hear someone else talk about it, thank you. I really appreciate that.
Megan: That's the whole purpose of the bio. Just builds you up, you know, remind you how much you've been through.
Tina Rexing: Yeah. I think going through it is a little different story than if you read about it. I guess it's different.
Megan: I totally get that.
Tina Rexing: Thanks for having me on
Megan: Yeah. I'm curious if you could share with our listeners a moment when you felt really present lately.
Tina Rexing: present.
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Tina Rexing: Well. I teach yoga three days a week, a hot power. I work for a company called Core Power Yoga, and they're all over the country, but a couple years ago I decided to start teaching yoga and so I taught three classes this weekend. And I think for me, anything physical [00:04:00] that's physically related where you're like trying not to pass out. Forces you to become present. So that's, that for me is really important to stay present physically and then it extracts me mentally also.
Megan: Absolutely that connection to body and it makes sense why you started out as a baker too, if you're doing that physical work and delicious work too.
Tina Rexing: Yes. And you know, I've told a lot of people this is that it's been years since I've been in the kitchen myself.
Because one of the key things as an entrepreneur is hire people who can do that job better than you can and just be there for them when they have questions and put out fires figuratively, not literally.
Hopefully and just kind of be there for them to bounce ideas off of. But at the end of the day, they are doing the work that I started and they know they do a better job than I do.
Megan: Yeah. [00:05:00] Such important humility to bring to that and knowing that as a business grows and scales, you're bringing people on board that can make your brand look even better because they're producing at a level that one person alone couldn't do on their own.
Tina Rexing: Totally. Yes. And they know that our goal as a company is to grow and scale, and that changes the way we do things. You know, we're no longer. A tiny company that makes 200 cookies a day. We're a tiny company that makes 2 to 3 thousand cookies a day. So it changes the way I speak to them. It changes the way they speak to me, and they know that we all are striving towards the same goal for the company.
Megan: Yeah, and I know you kind of alluded to it as I read the bio or afterwards, but tell me what that journey has been like to just watch you going from baking and competitions and at farmer's markets and now having this scaled [00:06:00] business. I.
Tina Rexing: When I started the company it was more of the question of, can I do it? I, I am not sure. So when I quit my job in 20 14. It was November of 2014. I quit my job, corporate six figure job. And I came home and I told my husband that I had no backup plan, that I just didn't wanna deal with corporate America anymore.
Spending two months of trying to figure out, alright, what feels good. And I ended up writing a business plan because that was. I have a corporate background, so yes, I'm gonna write a business plan. And I showed it to my husband and I took the 80 page business plan to the bank. And without even reading it, they gave me a line of credit for $50,000 because I wrote a business plan.
Because apparently most people go to the bank and they have no idea what they want the money for. But I had it laid out and I started the company with the pure intention of just, let's just sell at the Minneapolis [00:07:00] Farmer's Market. That was the idea and. I ended up finding a commercial kitchen. I hired my parents to help me bake cookies at three o'clock in the morning and a not so awesome neighborhood.
And we sold cookies and we would sell until we would sell out. And I'm like, okay, that worked. Let's just go to the next market. And it's just, it's really interesting how I look back at it now. I like, wanna like tear up and cry about it because it was so, it was such a cute little company. We're not cute and little anymore, but to some people we are.
But knowing that this where I am today is not, was not in the business plan at all is really surprising to me.
Megan: Yeah. How do you think you navigated all those twists and turns?
Tina Rexing: I think it's a lot about grit in terms of grit and luck. A combination of both.
Being able to take what's thrown at you and try to figure out how to fix it. I'm always been a problem solver. Uh, even as a child, it's like, gimme something to solve [00:08:00] and let's do that. Also, I've taken StrengthsFinder and my number one strength in StrengthFinders is competition, so I hate losing.
So the idea of giving up, quitting, et cetera, is just not in my vocabulary. So it is just combination of my crazy Scorpio, oldest daughter mentality combined with the fact that I am an immigrant. I was born in the Philippines and we moved here when I was young. And my parents kind of instilled in me that you have to work twice as hard as the next person to get the same thing done.
That's just how we are. Mm-hmm.
Megan: Yeah. So really this huge value that comes from your family, your cultural identity, your astrology that you mentioned, the Scorpio, that usually comes up for people. Also just that sense of surprise and kind of awe and wonder that you have at being open to what happens next, and not being stuck on this original business plan, [00:09:00] but kind of going with the flow and seeing what twists and turns you needed to take next.
Tina Rexing: right. When I had a mentor early on and I remember them telling me that. In order to like, keep yourself grounded, you need to say no to something every day. As you start businesses, it's super easy to say yes to everything, because if you say no, that means you're not gonna make money. But at the same time, if you say yes to everything, you kind of lose who you are. So how many, if I had a dime for every time someone asked me to make a smaller cookie. For the
listeners out there, I make half pound cookies. They are seven to eight inches in diameter. And when they ask me if I make any other sizes, I say yes, I make them bigger. Because size matters, Megan.
Megan: Yep.
Tina Rexing: So when I tell them that, they're like, oh, okay.
So I always say no to making a smaller cookie because if I made something smaller, it takes me away from who [00:10:00] I am and what I started the company for. So just kind of keeping that in mind if you are an entrepreneur out there. But at the same time, business ownership, entrepreneurship is not for everybody.
So that's also something I hate telling people, but let's, a lot of times people have to learn the hard way. Mm-hmm.
Megan: For sure. Yeah. And that's such good medicine to hear that that "no" can actually keep you grounded instead of take you away from something that can keep you close to who you are and why you're doing what you're doing. That makes a lot of sense.
Tina Rexing: Mm-hmm. Definitely.
Megan: Yeah. Well, you've been weaving in your values and your what lights you up in your health and wellness world, but is there anything else you wanna share about just your frame on health and wellness?
Tina Rexing: I think one of the things I say at the end of my yoga class is we take care of ourselves so we can better take care of others. That was one of the main reasons I quit corporate was I remember coming home and my kids were [00:11:00] teenagers at the time, coming home from a corporate job and just being mad and just being really upset and taking it out on them in terms of like not being present for them, being like a pretty shitty mom because that's how I was feeling at work, and I find that. If you don't take care of yourself first, it's kind of like putting on your oxygen mask. I know it's super cliche, right? If you are running out of oxygen, you're not gonna be able to help everybody else put their masks on. So that's just kind of the super cliche of how I feel about taking care of yourself, both physically, mentally, and otherwise.
Megan: Yeah, that it has to happen. It's not comfortable.
Tina Rexing: Mm-hmm. Not, it's not, and asking for help is really, really hard
For people like myself. But now that I've been telling my team, listen, if you're getting swamped in the kitchen and you need help, you need to ask for help. It's not a sign of weakness at all [00:12:00] actually. To realize that, Hey, I just can't do this on my own.
Megan: Yep. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Values and work ethic. And sounds like community building you've done with your team. Uh. I think the other thing you mentioned, and alluded to was the idea that entrepreneurship isn't for everyone, you know? What do you think burnout looks like in the entrepreneurial world?
Tina Rexing: Oh, it depends on where, what you're doing. I know it's not talked about a lot. We I have a podcast about mental health. Especially in the food industry. A lot of people turn to drinking using.
Megan: yep.
Tina Rexing: All sorts of drugs and whatnot. And early on when I was growing and doing a lot of stuff by myself, yeah.
It's like, oh, I'll have, I'll joke about having one or two cocktails every day, but at the same time you're like, oh, this is not solving anything. Right. Burnout also looks like just taking out your [00:13:00] frustration on people around you in the form of just blaming them or screaming at them. And you see it a lot in like chef's kitchens, you hear about it, you watch TV shows about "The Bear" or whatever, where kitchens are tough,
bakeries are tough. And some people will yell and scream and maybe even physically abuse people. And that's burnout too, where, you know, and then you see some people just up and leave the industry altogether. So not only is not entrepreneurship for every, not for everybody, the food industry is not for everybody. People just don't really understand the amount of stress that happens on the food side of the world.
Megan: Yeah. And that was new to you when you went from your own individual baking world into this bigger scene.
Tina Rexing: Yeah. Yes and no.
I so fun fact my first job ever when I was 15 years old I couldn't even drive to work. [00:14:00] I was the weekend baker at the Old Country Buffet, and I would be making all the desserts for the weekend.
So I got to kind of take a sneak peek of that when I was a teenager. I've blocked a fair amount of that outta my system.
But I've had friends in the food industry for a long time and I know how rough it could be. And quick story. I, one of my first chefs I hired when I owned a cafe, I asked him what he would want to do and how, why he wanted to work for me. 'cause I needed a cook for my cafe. He's just as long as you don't throw shit at me, I'm fine. And that was his only requirement. And I laughed at him. He is like, no, whoever he worked for at the time made it a regular occurrence that he would throw things at his employees. And so I'm like, well, geez, I, I feel like I'm doing pretty good since I have not thrown anything at my employees yet.
Megan: Totally. Yeah. Just that [00:15:00] culture, like you said, it's represented in media and of course the disassociation and the addiction that comes from people just coping. You know, it may be a, you know, uh, coping mechanism that's not necessarily advantageous to your health, but people are out there trying to support themselves in, in the ways that they can.
And so it sounds like you just building a culture based on you and your values happens to be a different environment than a lot of the food industry is used to.
Tina Rexing: Definitely for sure.
Megan: Yeah, and I would love to hear a little bit more too, you mentioned as we were planning how your family has really played a role in the building of your business.
Tina Rexing: Well, in addition to my parents helping me start the company in terms of free labor my sons, I, one of the things I remember. After I quit my job and it was a very good IT job, as [00:16:00] anyone would know, IT jobs pay well. But when I decided to walk away from that and give up that paycheck, it changed the family dynamic quite a bit.
We had to give up, you know, our country club membership, we had to give up our season tickets to the Minnesota Wild, right? Because obviously I was not bringing in the income I was used to. The kids at the time were questioning that move. Obviously you're 13 and 14 and they're just like, why are we not doing all the fun things that we used to?
And my husband at the time, who is still my husband, but at my husband at the time, would be like, well, it's because mom quit her job. Right? But at the same time, I had to tell my kids, I'm like, you know, you don't have to make a gazillion dollars to be happy. At the same time, I'm kind of convincing myself of that on a daily basis.
But it was really important for me, for my sons to see that it's okay to do something that you love [00:17:00] doing and you don't have to be, quote unquote, stuck in corporate. My husband loves his corporate job. He could be there all day long, and, but it was just wasn't for me. I was too ambitious to be in the space I was in.
You know, I have the story of when I realized corporate wasn't for me when I had applied for a job. And the feedback I got when I didn't get the job was that my ability to get shit done was a problem.
And you're like, Hmm. How many people out there have gotten feedback that they don't know what to do with?
Right. yeah.
And like, how is that a problem when I get things done? Because in corporate America, you need to collaborate and. Have meetings to plan meetings I was more like, let's just get it done. So that was another reason why it kind of pushed me out of corporate and into my own space. So I'd need to kind of remind myself of that.
So going back to my family, [00:18:00] my oldest son, Luke, two years ago, decided he wanted to try selling roofs door to door. If anyone can survive that. Period of time of chasing storms and knocking on doors and selling roofs. You could do anything. And he did that for two months and he made 40 grand in two months.
And he said, okay, been there, done that. I was able to do it without, you know, melting down. So now he's actually working for me. He just graduated from Carlson School at the U of M. With a marketing degree and he decided that he wants to come work for me. So he's on my team full time as my director of sales.
So that's kind of a full circle moment for him 'cause he, when I used to bake competitively, he would take my cookies and like sell them out of his locker in middle school. And now he's going door to door selling cookies, which is a lot easier to selling doors by [00:19:00] roofs by the
Megan: Roofs.
Tina Rexing: Yeah.
Megan: That is such a sweet story. Thank you for sharing that. I'm seeing just like the generational link between your parents coming here, you know, building the life for you, you building your own life, finding your way to this happiness and cookies.
Tina Rexing: right?
Megan: that, you know, of course cookies are something your children are gonna love, so, oh,
Tina Rexing: sometimes they do. I was forcing them to eat my cookies for so long. Then that now they're like, nah, they, they're good. But when you talk about full circle moment, I've just spent the last five months moving my parents into an assisted living facility.
Megan: Hmm.
Tina Rexing: these are the same parents that would help me,
Megan: Yep.
Tina Rexing: but having to take time out of my job my daily job of running T-Rex Cookie, putting that on pause and helping my parents navigate this change in their lives.
Has been a huge challenge and talk about [00:20:00] burnout. I'm probably more burnt out on that than T-Rex Cookie. 'cause anyone who has to deal with the transition your parents have to go through as they get older is, I feel for you. 'cause that's where I'm sitting right now.
Megan: Yeah. That changing of the guard, that
Tina Rexing: Yeah.
Megan: Yeah. That's a lot. Hmm. Well, as we think about where you're going next, you also talked about the idea of looking for investors and what that looks like. Why don't you share with me what's on your mind with that?
Tina Rexing: So right as we speak, like right now at noon today. I own a hundred percent of my company, but about a year ago I started thinking about growth and how do we scale a company without additional funding.
And it's virtually impossible to get to that next level, quote unquote next level without taking outside money.
So I spent a [00:21:00] quite a bit of time meeting with people in the big pocket venture capital private equity world. Where they don't necessarily care about me they care more about how soon can they make their money.
So I spent a fair amount of time, like almost eight months, kind of vetting these people out.
I'm like, ah, something about meeting with them. And the whole idea of handing a portion of my company out to people who don't necessarily care about me and how I started was hard.
And so. I pivoted. That's the big, yeah, the P word into reaching out to friends and family instead and or people who knew the company when, I knew you when you were just schlepping cookies at the farmer's market.
Those are the people that I want next to me as I grow. Those are the people that I want to write a check to when I sell the company. Right. So. This afternoon I'm gonna be meeting with my first [00:22:00] investors who are gonna hand me their investment checks because I know that they believe in me and they know I, they believe in my cause and the way I want to grow the company. That's what I feel better about. I was losing more sleep about giving money or taking money from people who didn't care about me and my family. Then I am like. Taking a friend's money and taking care of it is something that's gonna make me feel a lot better about this company.
Megan: Yeah, it sounds like so much based on that relationship
Tina Rexing: Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Megan: right? That it's this thing that you've built, but also it sounds like you really wanna be honored and honor them, honor the people you know by taking care of their money, and they trust you
Tina Rexing: right?
Megan: do that. It's less transactional, it's more relational.
Tina Rexing: And it's not like giant sums of money. I had one individual with really deep [00:23:00] pockets say, I'm gonna write you a check for $200,000, but I want 40% of your company today. And just hearing that is so demoralizing as a person who's started this company from nothing. I would rather take a thousand dollars from someone who worked really, really, really hard for that a thousand dollars and trust the fact that I will take their thousand dollars and try to make it into something bigger.
And that probably is much more motivating than having to answer to someone who just took 40% of my company and
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Tina Rexing: knows nothing about me.
Mm-hmm.
Megan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'm hearing that theme come back as you were talking about your capacity to get things done, like the heart of your work and honoring the work that you've put in and the vision that you have. And not that you're like, you know, hoarding it or anything, but you've put blood, sweat, and tears into this thing, I'm sure.
Tina Rexing: Definitely I've like cut the tip of my finger off when you talk about [00:24:00] blood. You know, like I, I literally have bled for this company. So the whole idea of making sure that other people come along on this journey with me.
Is really important 'cause it's, it's super lonely actually. When you think about you get to a point in owning a company, it can get really lonely.
So you wanna share it with other people, regardless if it's good or bad news. At least share it. And if you keep it to yourself it's hard.
Megan: Yeah, it is hard. I sense that loneliness I've felt it myself. I feel it often, there's a seasonality to health coaching and the summer's always so light, and I love summer, but I always have this existential crisis. It's like, am I doing enough? Am I doing what I should be doing? It's, when you think about the work you're doing.
And how it lights you up. You know, you envision this space, I read in an article, where you didn't have to work in a cubicle, and that's exactly what I did when I was visioning my business. So I love just knowing [00:25:00] that you've, yeah, while you might not be baking every day, you're still doing something that makes you happy, makes your family happy, and
Tina Rexing: Some days.
Megan: some days.
Tina Rexing: some days. But it's funny 'cause some people believe that you get to a certain point in your business and suddenly you're a gazillionaire.
You know? And the idea of that, yes, you see my brand at the airport. Yes, you see my brand on the grocery store shelves. But that's part of my strategy is you think I'm a lot bigger than I am.
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Tina Rexing: And that's our growth is if you can make people believe that you're a lot bigger than you are, that you're doing the right things.
Megan: You have that name recognition, the brand recognition, the community support, and all of that.
Tina Rexing: Right. And, you know, some people it's, it, it took until now to have a lot of people realize that T-Rex Cookie was named my name is Tina Rexing. I always love when they come to that realization. There's like, you can [00:26:00] literally see the light bulb in their brain turn on. They're like, wait, is that your real name?
I get that question a lot. Wait, is that your real name?
Yeah.
Megan: yes, actually, it is. Well, as we wrap up here, Tina, why don't you tell me one thing in your work recently where you sparked some joy, hope, or a sense of renewal?
Tina Rexing: You know, most recently, and we talked a little bit about it with Luke, my oldest working for me, and by the way, I never wanna forget my youngest son Owen. He also works for me too. He more goes to like events and he'll sell cookies from either the US Bank stadium or where else does he sell us base team or he's selling at the CHS field, which is the, our AAA baseball team. And he likes to work those events with his girlfriend. So it's kind of nice and family-ish. But I think the sense of renewal and joy has come back ever since I hired my son, Luke, [00:27:00] because he's coming at the business with 10 times more energy than I could come in into it with. But he's also coming in with a level of confidence that you don't necessarily see from someone his age.
He's 23. Um, Someone his age going into a brand new company, you're just waiting around to see what he should be doing. You know, a normal company. He's come into this company with his hair on fire and basically telling me what he thinks he can do, and if he doesn't, he's gonna consider himself a failure.
Megan: Hmm.
Tina Rexing: So seeing a different level of ambition in my own child kind of reinforces the fact that I did pretty good as a mom. But at the same time, it's funny because he'll ask me questions and he'll call me mom, and I have to remind him. I'm like, you know what? You have to call me Tina in this space in order for other people to take you seriously because [00:28:00] working for your mom and or dad or whatever is actually kind of scary because. He's starting to realize he can't put it down because he lives at my home now. So he comes home and he wants to talk about business. I'm like, I'm, my brain is turned off right now. We don't wanna talk about T-Rex Cookie right now. Can I just be your mom?
I have to teach him how to compartmentalize work.
Otherwise talk about burnout. You'll, you might have to give him therapy. So i'm just, I'm trying to do the best I can to warn him. To, there's a time and space for work and there's a time and space for just being my kid in my house.
Megan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Separating those roles. And I love hearing the ambition and the, you know, competition that has come into him as well. And now allowing a new level of learning as the boss.
Tina Rexing: Yeah, totally. And then, maybe at one point in time he's gonna wanna be the boss and that's totally [00:29:00] cool. And I just have to make sure that my team looks at him not as my son, and it's important that my team respects him for the work he brings to the table, and they have to know that I handed nothing to him.
Megan: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Well, you're doing so much with that family legacy and your dream. It's so inspiring to just chat with you today. I'm wondering if you have one takeaway for our listeners as they're listening.
Tina Rexing: I think, and I say this to some of the talks I give, is do what you love, but kind of be careful what you choose. Because for example, I'll just put this out this way. Baking was my hobby, right? My hobby turned into my job. So now yoga is, was my hobby and now [00:30:00] yoga has turned into my job. So kind of just pick and choose what you choose to convert from being a hobby into your career.
Megan: Mm-hmm.
Tina Rexing: Because I used to love playing tennis, I became a professional tennis instructor. I stopped playing tennis. You know what I mean? So people have to really take a deep dive inside yourselves to decide. You hear people say, do what you love. Yes. But do what you love. To turn it into a job is a different thing.
So kind of keep that in the back of your mind as you decide to go through your life and your career.
Megan: Hmm. Such good advice. You're like our own business mentor today.
Tina Rexing: I'm like a guru. I could be like your entrepreneurial guru on your show.
Megan: Exactly. I could have you back. I would be happy to have you back another time. Well, it was just so wonderful to get this moment to talk to you about your business, about what you see with burnout in the [00:31:00] industry. I know this will be so useful to hear people here in the Twin Cities who've you know, made this brand recognition of themselves, but also have this very grounded sense of reality and how to support people through building their own businesses.
Tina Rexing: For sure. Well, thank you for. For having me. I really appreciate it. It's been fun.
Megan: Yeah. Thanks Tina.
Tina Rexing: Thanks, Megan.
Megan: Balm in the Burnout is a listener supported podcast made possible by my work at Harvest Health and Wellbeing. If you'd like to support this project or contribute to a community scholarship, you can leave a tip on Venmo at HHW-LLC. Thanks for listening and see what you can restore and alchemize today.