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NWA Founders is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
'NWA Founders' is a voice for Founders, Owners, and Builders driving growth in Northwest Arkansas, and is hosted by Cameron Clark and Nick Beyer.
To recommend a guest or ask questions, reach out at nwafounders@gmail.com and follow us on YouTube and LinkedIn for video content.
Cameron Clark: [00:00:00] Are Acai bowls, are they a fad? Are they here like forever?
KK Goodwin: So we don't even like to put ourselves in the category of Acai bowls. Um, that was like pretty early on when we were creating the menu. We were like, we don't, so all the way back, whenever I first had my first Acai bowl, it was an Acai bowl. Okay. Um, but I didn't know anything.
Like, I just liked what I was eating. Um, and then as we start to like dig into actually building the menu, we realized that like 99.9% of Bowl places their franchises and they're using frozen packets of Acai, which is, so the Acai berry, this is getting a little technical, but it doesn't last very long. So when they harvest it, it literally has like a 48 hour life.
And so you either you have to puree it or you have to, like, you have to do something with it. It doesn't last as a berry for very long. And so what most people use. To keep the consistency of bowls [00:01:00] thick is this frozen Acai packet with that. They've pureed, they've added sugar to it, um, and then they freeze it and then that's what they blend with other fruits so that it's thick.
We actually only have two bowls on our menu that have Acai in it. 'cause obviously if you're using those packets, that's gonna be a really overpowering flavor. Like, so a common way that people build menus is you go into a place and it'll be like, we have an Acai base, a patai base, coconut base, and like maybe one other.
And then you can, and then they'll have like five different topping options. And so it looks like their menu has like 15 or 20 things on it, but really there's like four bases. We were like, people really just want. They want the thickness of a bowl, but like people are not married to the Acai flavor. And so early on we knew we're not gonna even use the frozen Acai packets.
So we literally use an Acai powder. It has the benefits of, Acai has everything that like, you're like wanting from like mm-hmm. The, the health standpoint of acai. [00:02:00] But you're one, you're not getting the sugar pureed into that frozen packet. Yeah. And we don't have to rely on that being like the thing that makes the bases super thick and you're getting with 15 blends on our menu, so you have 15 completely different flavor options.
Whereas like a lot of the places you're gonna go, you're kind of getting stuck in that just Acai taste category. And so I don't think smoothies are a fad. Smoothies have been a thing in like forever for a long time. And so to us, like smoothie bowls is just kind of like a whole new way to have a smoothie.
It feels more like a meal. Sure. Um. It can be a midday snack. It can be a meal. And so I would say like, if anything's a fad, it's really because like they've grown too fast and not with a lot of care. And I think what we've done from the very beginning is put a lot of care and a lot of like thought into what we're creating.
And we did not start off to be like a fast growing thing, which [00:03:00] is really funny. Um, we really started like, let's just do this one thing really well and like see what happens and like, we're gonna do this one store and I hope people show up. And so I think when you do anything with like genuine like care that it's like you want it to be a long lasting thing, I think it's pretty impossible to call it a fad.
Cameron Clark: The granola is part of it too. I mean,
KK Goodwin: yeah. So the granola is a funny story. 'cause whenever, so the story of Maka, like actually started when I was in high school.
Mm-hmm.
KK Goodwin: And my mom made the granola recipe when I was in high school. Like, I literally just, it's the
Cameron Clark: same recipe from then.
KK Goodwin: Oh yeah. Wow. And like,
Cameron Clark: because we, I wanted to start, I wanted to start at the beginning, but I wanted to kind of talk about the recipe stuff first, but Yeah.
That's crazy. Yeah.
KK Goodwin: So it's not changed at all. Um, and it's still made in all the stores pretty much daily. Wow. And only the operators know the recipe. Like it's our crabby [00:04:00] patty, you know, you can't steal that. People come in all the time. It's a secret sauce. We have employees and I'm like, I'm watching you.
Like I know that you're like coming in the back of the house, like. What you putting in there? Yeah.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. That's hilarious. Uh, and so yeah, talk about the beginning. So, uh, you grew up in Texas.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Cameron Clark: Um, but like, were going to California on vacations. Family was there. Yeah.
KK Goodwin: So the, so I grew up in Texas, um, grew up in Dallas.
My parents were sending all three kids to Canuck and like, I was such a camp kid, like I loved camp. My two younger siblings were like, kind of eh, on it. Mm-hmm. Um, and my parents were like, we are spending so much money to separate our family every summer. Like, why are we doing this? And so they basically took everything they were spending on summer camp and they were like, let's go somewhere as a family.
Let's like totally change the way we're doing this. Like, you only have so many summers with your kids. Like you go to college and you grow up and you have your kind of your own independent life. And so [00:05:00] when I was in. I think I was a freshman in high school when we started this, but we started going to Laguna Beach.
We actually started in San Clemente. That was the first place that we spent the summer, um, rented a house and just like, kind of lived our life Yeah. In California for the summer. And it was the best thing ever. Like I was so, like, I didn't, I was not athletic in high school. Like, I was like such a, I was small.
Like I did not fit any athletic categories. Yeah. And so, and like in my high school, like you kind of needed to be the best at something to like really, like sports was everything. Like you needed to fit certain boxes. And I mean, I remember freshman year, like. What am I gonna do? Like you actually have to be good at these things when you get into high school and where
Cameron Clark: do I fit in?
KK Goodwin: Yeah, literally. Um, like the funny story is that my dad was like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make you a golfer. And so my freshman year of high school, the least cool thing you could do was be a women's [00:06:00] golfer. And so I'm in ninth grade, like trying to, you know, make my own. And I'm on the golf team with five other people and like to now I'm like, I love that I know how to swing a golf club.
Yeah. But then, you know, you're in ninth grade, you're insecure about everything. And yeah, through that year my mom was like, Hey, you've always been really creative. Like, do art. Like you do not have to fit these boxes. And that was kind of the first time that I was like, oh wow. Like I can. Do whatever I want.
Like I don't have to fit whatever boxes that it looks like has been created. And California like totally exacerbated that for me. I was like, there's a world outside of Dallas, like there's a world outside of Texas, like there's a world outside of this high school. And I was just like, I got so much confidence from those summers and.
I had my first bowl in California. I'll always give credit to bon eye bowls. Like that was my first bowl ever. And I was like, and I love them, but wow. Their speed of service is horrible. Yeah. [00:07:00] And so my, my family would literally wait 45 minutes to an hour with me when I just like ordered a bowl and like, we, you know, but it was the thing that everyone did.
I mean, it's right across from the beach, like, go walk. Yeah, go get in the ocean, wait for your bowl. Like, nope, big whoop. And I had one probably every day I was there. And so when we would go back to Dallas for the school year, I'm like, rolling on this confidence I have from California. And I'm like, dang, I really miss this bowl too.
It's like a staple in my diet. And there was no chains in Dallas at this point. Um, I graduated high school in 2014, so there were definitely, there was just, it was pretty much probably only California at that point that really had a lot of bowls. Maybe some other, maybe Florida, but. I convinced my mom one year, I was like, Hey, can you just make me a bowl and bring it to me at lunch one day?
Like, yeah, I, I don't even remember, like, it's like funny to me that I even asked her to do that. Like, um, but she did not take that question lightly. And she was like, yeah, absolutely. [00:08:00] And that's when she made the granola recipe. Like, she was like, I'm not gonna just go buy a bag of granola, like I'm gonna figure out how to make the best granola and I'm gonna like, bring you a bowl and brought me one to lunch one day.
My whole, you know, my cafeteria table is like, can you bring mom, bring me one of those tomorrow? And so I'm like, Hey mom, you wanna make my friend Caroline? And my friend Gracie a bull tomorrow? And she's like, sure. And so she's bringing three to four and then. The whole cafeteria is like, where are y'all getting these things?
I get in my mom's car from after school one day and I'm like, Hey, so the whole cafeteria wants these now. And my mom's like, yeah, that's great, but like, I'm losing money now. Like I'm already making your friends like five or six, like, you know, I'm officially going to Sam's. Yeah. And so she was like, if people are like willing to pay, like, I mean, why not?
Yeah. I mean she's, I remember like growing up, like riding, like car rides, like road trips, whatever. Like my parents were always like, it's a very [00:09:00] entrepreneurial spirit in my family. My dad started his own business. Like, that's like what I grew up watching him do. And so it was like not super weird to me that my mom was like, sure.
Like that's just how I've always heard them talk. Mm-hmm. And so she set up a Google phone number to where people could text, like, in that they wanted a bowl. There were two that she had, and she made, she would make them before the fourth, fifth, and sixth period lunches every day. So people would text the night before they'd say, hi, this is so and so, I want a mama Ka bowl tomorrow.
And she named it Ika when we were in high school.
Cameron Clark: Oh, the name hasn't changed.
KK Goodwin: Oh, no, no. We, we've stuck with that very weird word that no one knows how to say. And
Cameron Clark: so where did, yeah, where did that name come from? It's
KK Goodwin: the first two letters of me and my siblings names. And so it just all kind of mashed together.
And then the cool part was that like when you look it up, 'cause we've had people look it up thinking it's like, like it's Hawaiian or like California thing. No, literally. And in Hawaiian it means new beginnings, which is so crazy. Mm-hmm. Like, [00:10:00] um, so random And, um. So she set up the Google phone number, and long story short, she was making 40 to 60 a day and like, we didn't live far from our high school, but I mean, she was like blending by herself.
Full time job with a Vitamix blender every si five days a week. And coming into the back door of the high, coming to the back door of the high school and like a big white suburban and like, I don't even know, chest freezers or like, like, uh, like coolers. I don't even really remember, but I mean, people were just paying $7 cash of like their babysitting money.
Like it was. So, it's just so weird to think about now 'cause like a random person cannot roll up to the back door of a high school and like deliver food. Like, and so she did it for a year and then she was like, what on earth did I just do? Like, I did not mean. To do that. Yeah. Like, and she stopped after a year.
She was like, look, I think there were, you know, handfuls of people were like, you should open a store. And she was just like, I don't, [00:11:00] I don't know. I don't really wanna do that. Like, this was kind of just fun. And the joke was definitely that she should have won prom queen that year. Like everyone knew. My mom, it was like, oh, she has a daughter that goes here.
Like, um, and so it was just like a wild year. I mean, they, my parents, this was like, I don't think Sam sold pre frozen strawberries. Mm-hmm. And so every Sunday night was strawberry cutting night. We got paid a dollar per box of strawberries that we would prep. She would cut the top off strawberry and I mean, we're such competitive siblings.
It was like, how many boxes did you prep? I mean, it was just the whole, the house smelled like granola constantly. Like it was wild. Yeah.
Cameron Clark: It's part of it.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. So she did that for a year and then I was a junior in high school, I think. So senior year she didn't do it. People were very sad. Yeah. Um. And so that was the beginning and it kind of just felt like at that point it was just this hilarious thing that happened and kind of put to rest.
So totally [00:12:00] wild.
Cameron Clark: And, and so when did it, I mean, it's basically put to rest. So you first semester was at ou, right?
KK Goodwin: Yep.
Cameron Clark: And then transferred to Arkansas. It's in the spring. Yep.
KK Goodwin: Yep. I went to ou. So my kind of college story was I applied to 57 art schools, basically. Not really, but so many. Yeah. And like that was what I was gonna do.
I was gonna art school and then literally like a couple, like, I don't know, everyone had decided where they were going to school. And I, the only normal university, like normal in quotes, like was that I applied to was ou. 'cause my mom went there and I was like, I'll, I don't know why I even applied, like just the, my mom went there, so I'll apply.
I mean, I don't know. And like a couple my, like, I definitely needed to decide, have decided where I was gonna go to school. And I was like. Man, art school is so expensive. And like, I kind of wanna go to a school with a football team and like, what am I doing? And like, this is kind of intense. And [00:13:00] so I was like, well, I guess my only option is ou.
And, uh, I went and I was an art major and it was just going from Dallas to Norman is a really big shock. Um, and it just was not a fit for me. And I, I just, I knew that, like, I knew like I needed to make a change. And so I had, um, a really good friend that went to Arkansas, I think Caroline Silva. Um, and I was like, I'm going there.
I don't, I've never been on campus. I have, I have no idea what the school's even about, but I'm gonna show up. Okay. Yeah. And I applied to maybe two weeks before, I think that's even pushing it. Um, and OU does not do digital transcripts. So we had, you know, drive to Norman, get your physical transcript. Like everything in that town is no.
Like, they need to catch up so bad and like, uh, so it was a wild process. Um, my, what I thought was gonna probably be an absolutely random roommate is like [00:14:00] still one of my best friends to this day. Like, it was just everything in, it was like God's hand was on it from the beginning. And like, it was a, it was a very wild three and a half years of me figuring out a lot of my own life.
But, um, I cannot imagine not going to ou to push me to go to Arkansas. Like embarrassingly, like, I, I mean, I drove through Branson. I mean, I drove through Fayetteville to get to Branson, to go to Kuk. Like, that was my, that was my exposure to Fayetteville. Yeah. And oh my gosh, like Fayetteville has totally changed my life.
And like, I cannot imagine not knowing anything about Yeah, it's special. The state of Arkansas, you know.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. No, it's, it's
KK Goodwin: so, yeah. Crazy. So
Cameron Clark: well talk about Monica and, yeah. So
KK Goodwin: when, so I get to Arkansas and I have an internship after my sophomore year of college in New York. And I, that was when I realized, wow, I love to work.
Like I, like I, my [00:15:00] high school was like honestly a pretty hard high school, and I love to learn, I love challenges, I like being pushed. And I just, I came into college and I didn't choose a hard major. I transitioned into a journal being a journalism major at Arkansas, and it just, it wasn't super challenging for me.
And I just, I think I just kind of floated and yeah, I wasn't being pushed. And I realized when I went to work, I was like, wow, I have purpose every day. Like, mm-hmm. This is awesome. Um, I've always been very driven. And so then next summer I was like, I have to find an internship. Like I cannot just sit around like I, I like, this is like feeding my soul to be pushed and challenged.
And, uh, the internship, I thought I was gonna have fell through the very last minute they canceled the internship program. And I was like, what am I gonna do this summer? And so I was like, I can't nanny, I'm not a nanny person. Yeah. Like, I will lose my mind. And so I was like, I've, I had always wanted to restart mom.
I just was like, [00:16:00] I wanted, but I'm like the kind of person too that like, I don't think a lot of things through very often. And so like in my head I was like, I could do this whenever. And my mom was like, you cannot do this unless you're in your own house. Because like, I'm gonna get roped into this. I don't wanna be roped into this.
Like, you literally live in the Pifi house right now. You can't do this there. And
Cameron Clark: and your parents were living up here now, right? Yeah. So they
KK Goodwin: moved when I was a sophomore in college. Yeah. Yeah. So they were here. Um, and so it was going to be very, they were definitely gonna get roped in if I was doing it like out of an apartment or something.
And so that summer before, it was before my. It was before my senior year of college. I was living in a house on Maple with five other girls. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna restart Monica. I'm in my own house now. Like I can do this. Like I, I can have control over this. And my mom like pulls out her old binders from when I was in high school.
It's like the old recipes like, and the recipes like my mom and I's brains are [00:17:00] similar in this very, does not make sense way. Like it was not like half a cup of this, it was like 17 strawberries. I was like, this is not helpful. Um, and so it was totally refiguring everything out. And then of course, like I wanted to make it kind of my own.
And so I think I had four or five different blends on the menu that I came up with instead of the two. But it was the same granola recipe and she didn't have an Instagram. And so, 'cause I don't, I don't even remember if Instagram was a thing. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so I started an Instagram and I made a website.
Two things that we didn't have. Yeah. Back then she had like a Twitter account, Uhhuh and the Google phone number. And I totally thought it was gonna be me making bowls for my friends. Like, I remember talking to my roommates and being like, Hey, would y'all mind, like, if I made smoothie bowls out of our house, like, I'm pretty sure it's probably just gonna be for our friends when they feel like being nice to me.
Like I just wanna come hang out. You know, just like a very chill thing. Um, and I made the website that pretty much the night before I went to Sam's the night before made the [00:18:00] Instagram like website was like, you could select the time that you wanted to pick up your bowl. And I mean, within two weeks I was making 40, 50 a day.
Wow. And it was like people picking them up for their offices and like picking up 10 or 12. And I was like, I need nine arms. Like I, yeah, this is insane. And it was the most fun summer of my life. Like it was, I got a vitamin blender for my birthday birthday, like, I mean, it was, it was all in. And so after that summer, I mean my dad's like totally geeking out.
He's like, this is awesome. Like, okay, what are we gonna do? Are we gonna get, like we, we looked the food truck route and then realized that's honestly like not as cost effective in a lot of ways and mm-hmm. So we just, the funny thing is that my mom was like, I don't wanna get roped in. So I'm like, great, I'm gonna do it in my own house.
And then she's like, okay, let's, let's do this for real. Like we've done it in these sketchiest ways possible and like it's worked both ways. Like, and I remember like at that [00:19:00] time for sure, I was super into the, how I built this podcast and yeah, the five guys, brothers like their dad was like, Hey, if you open this in the most random spot in, I might have this wrong but like super random spot in Florida.
Mm-hmm. And people are willing to show up, then we'll go all in. And I just like, that's always stuck with me because that was so the beginning of Ika, I was like, people are willing to show up to a random girl's like pretty sketchy college house and like trust the food they're eating and wanna come back.
Yeah. Like people were coming back and that was what was blowing my mind is it wasn't just like this one thing they tried 'cause they were bored one day in the summer they kept coming back and so after that summer we were like. Okay, let's do this. Let's do it for real. And so we spent my senior year looking for real estate and building out the space.
And it was where we are now. And like there was nothing there. Like it was Greenhouse Grill behind it. Mm-hmm. It's now the a segas
Cameron Clark: we talking about. So was the building [00:20:00] being built at the time it
KK Goodwin: was being built? So there was like on, there was literally nothing on Prairie. Like Yeah. And there was the plan to do like two retail spaces below, and then I think three floors of apartments above, maybe two Uhhuh.
Um, and it was truly like, again, it was honestly such a God thing because like they were willing to build it out with us because they were like, we don't have, like, if y'all are signing this lease, like we're gonna white box it. So like, where do you want the plumbing? Yeah. And so it was like, okay, right here, I mean, you know, like, this is great and yeah.
So, and the space is so small, like, you know, again, you're going in so naive. Mm-hmm. It's. I think 800 square feet in the front, like no back of house. Like talk about not having restaurant experience. Like we opened a restaurant with no back of house. Amazing. Yeah. Like what? Like what are, who does that? Who does that?
Like only idiots. But like that's like, I always will say like. The biggest [00:21:00] blessing was that we had no experience because there was no patterns that we fell into because they were just like industry patterns. Yeah. You know, like you just, we learned it all based on like, just learning it for the first time and like, this is how things should go or whatever.
Cameron Clark: And were you like going and visiting other, uh, like smoothie bowl?
KK Goodwin: No.
Cameron Clark: Places then it was just like, Hey, this is, we're gonna re we're gonna invent this like, on our own. Totally. Yeah. Like, and
KK Goodwin: that was again, like, that was why I think it worked so well, because like, we didn't copy anybody. Um, like we took inspiration for design.
Like there's concepts always give credit to like great white cafe in Venice. Like, we love the way that their shop looks. Um, Tobi is like a taco thing that's, they started New York, like blending kind of those two vibes together was like where we got a lot of our inspiration. But for the food itself, we were like.
People just want good flavored mm-hmm. Smoothies that are still thick, like a bowl. Like let's just figure that [00:22:00] out. Yeah. And it was a process. I mean, we almost couldn't be open our second day of business because the way you freeze bananas, we, we prep and freeze every single individual banana ourselves.
So like, we don't get frozen bananas in, we wait till they're perfectly, like, at the exact ripeness that we want them, um, prep them and freeze them. Yeah. But there's like a whole science behind it that we did not realize. And you cannot just throw hundreds of bananas into one freezer and have no air to circulate in a freezer or else the freezer doesn't get cold.
So literally the second day of business, we didn't have any of the bananas. We had prepped frozen. And so, you know, there were so many things like that, that we were just like learning. It was, we were totally inventing whatever we were doing. Yeah. And so it wasn't like us going and kind of mimicking what was going on in other places.
'cause up to this point, like. There were some Acai evil places in general, but that wasn't even really what we were after. And so it was kind of totally figuring out mm-hmm. What [00:23:00] we were doing. Um, so yeah, it was a, it was such a wild beginning. Um, it's, yeah. And did it open
Cameron Clark: while you were in college?
KK Goodwin: No, we opened the day I graduated, so I did not walk.
We opened and like, truly, it was so wild. Um, I always say that as if like, I was gonna walk anyways. I was, I was, I was absolutely not gonna sit through that ceremony. Like I was, like, it sounds cooler to say, but I'm like, I wasn't gonna sit through it. So it was a great use of time anyways. But it was so fun and like I was so nervous people weren't gonna show up.
Like, I mean, part of me was like, I have this Instagram from the summer before and people are messaging and I'm like kind of doing updates on it, but like. I didn't know, you know, like I knew, like I had friends from college and it was just like, it was so fun and people were so kind and like we again had like the training we did for employees, one, they were like [00:24:00] borderline all my friends.
Two, like I blended one bowl for them and was like, see all tomorrow. Oh God. Yes. And that was, you got it. That was literally it. Yeah. And so everyone was like, the, the fact that people came back was truly a miracle. Um, and the fact that the employees were like just down to figure it out was amazing. Um, but like everyone came in their cap and gowns like it was so awesome.
It was so fun. So literally mom caught turns seven, what is today? The eighth? The eighth, yeah. Mom caught turns seven on the 10th in two days. No way. Yeah,
Nick Beyer: seven years. Nine locations now. Right. Locations. Yeah.
KK Goodwin: Nine locations. Yeah. It's been like drinking from a fire hydrant.
Nick Beyer: Um, we'll, we'll get to that. So the location that you picked, was it truly because that, that was just the space that y'all found and you can kind of create it from the ground up, or was there more to it than
KK Goodwin: that?
Yeah, we, so my dad and I absolutely love the real estate and like my dad [00:25:00] does not work full time for mama ka ha not never has, but just like, loves the spirit of building a business. Mm-hmm. And we spent a while looking for spaces. Um, we really wanted, like, we've always loved the vibe of like old garages, like an old auto shop.
Mm-hmm. An old gas station, just like cool spaces like that. And so we were, we're big dreamers. Like we were dreaming down that pipeline. Like there were some cool spaces in Fayetteville, like, um. Gosh, it's some, I think it's a coffee shop now, finally. But there was that old liquor store on. Yeah. Um, it's on college.
On college. We wanted that space. Is that word. So Yeah. We're bad. Oh my gosh. Yeah. But, and like mad need a lot of work, mad respect to them because Wow. I cannot imagine what they did to get that space.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. Ready all the way to the finish
KK Goodwin: line. Um, and this space was like, it's the perfect blend of close to campus, but like, if you're not a student, you [00:26:00] don't feel like you're entering into the college bubble.
Yeah. And so close
Cameron Clark: to the trail. I mean, it's like close to the
KK Goodwin: trail. Like it was just like this. Perfect. It's small enough to where like, if this does not work, like, I mean, I don't even think we were thinking about, like, I don't, I don't know what we were thinking in the beginning, but like mm-hmm. It was so small that we were like, if this doesn't work.
I don't really know what we'll do, but it's not 4,000 square feet, it's 800 square feet. Like, and you know, it was this brand new thing, but it was kind of this weird dead space in Fayetteville. And so it was kind of just, again, like, I just feel like God was like, you're gonna do this. You don't really understand it, but like it was.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, we looked at a couple of things, but that one was really the one that just, like, it made the most sense, like financially all the way around. Like, it's the little, the smallest amount of lift. So,
Nick Beyer: and what sort of capital was needed for that? Had you made some money making bowls? I mean, like, had you saved some stuff up or That I ended up,
KK Goodwin: you know, spending on [00:27:00] like, clothes that year.
Yeah. I mean, like nothing I, you know, thought, I mean I, yes I did, but like nothing substantial. Yeah. Like, um, gosh, I don't even really remember, but, um, we literally opened on an Amex credit card.
Okay. Mm-hmm.
KK Goodwin: I like, and then I think my, my parents put in like. I think $10,000 and like that was to get I think some of the little finish out stuff across and it worked quickly.
Yeah. Like it just, we were like, I hope we can pay off this credit card. And we did. And
Nick Beyer: no SBA loan,
KK Goodwin: no nothing. And there was
Nick Beyer: no science. Like, Hey, we modeled it out. We need to sell 40 bulls per day. Nope. To, it was just,
KK Goodwin: Nope. Your girl is a journalism major. Like, I, I like, I mean in my, yeah, okay. Like I, I'll give my dad some credit for the fact that he had built a business, but so much of his like.
Um, help was like honestly a lot of like [00:28:00] how to build a business well. Mm-hmm. But like, as far as like any financial backing thoughts, anything. I mean, it was like, I mean, I remember probably being like six or eight months Ben in and being like, wait, I should probably figure out if like the actually how much a bolt cost us to make.
Like, it's, it's embarrassing. Yeah. But I mean, it was kind of like, okay, we, we've kind of loosely done that math. Yeah. Obviously figure out what, yeah. We know we're making money, but like Yeah. Like we knew we needed to like figure out, we dunno how much, like, what to price a bowl at. Yeah. But I mean, to this day, like we are the cheapest smoothie bowl you can get on the market.
Like it might feel like, oh, I'm paying nine 50 for a bowl, a small bowl. But what, like, when you do kind of look around in this like.
Cameron Clark: Space.
KK Goodwin: Space. Mm-hmm. I mean, minimum you're paying $13 for the size of a small bowl. Wow. Like, it's, it is wild. And like, I think the way that we've been able to price it, and so the volume that you [00:29:00] can get with that, and just like the fact that it's not just o sa, you can kind of get different flavors.
Mm-hmm. And, you know, one flavor is not more expensive than another flavor. They're all the exact same price. Mm-hmm. Like, there's just something to it that works. Um,
Cameron Clark: and did you have coffee from the beginning? I can't remember. No. Okay. But
KK Goodwin: drip, we always had the drip coffee. This drip coffee is, was from the beginning.
It's private labeled coconut drip. It is like we all, I mean, we take it on vacation, we're totally addicted to it, but the espresso did not get introduced until our Waco location. Okay. Um, and that was honestly done. One, like I drank a latte probably every day of my life for a few years and. To, like, it helped with our seasonality.
Mm-hmm.
KK Goodwin: Um, 'cause at the time, like you could only get something cold at Malika. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And so even just to be able to have like a hot latte and a cold Bowl like that, just, you know, it helps balance that out in people's minds when it's January and it's [00:30:00] four degrees outside.
Nick Beyer: Yeah.
KK Goodwin: And it's been so fun.
It's been a fun addition.
Nick Beyer: That's awesome. And so for someone who has, who's thinking about opening up a food deal and, and maybe signing a lease, like what did, what did that look like? Like signing, I mean, is it a three year lease? Is it a five year lease? Like how,
KK Goodwin: yeah, I think, do you remember what it
Nick Beyer: felt like?
Signing? Oh yeah, signing that. So
KK Goodwin: bizarre. So like, I mean, honestly I don't even like think I knew what I was doing. Like, I, like, especially now like looking back, like when I, you know, it's almost like the first one feels the least amount of risk because you don't really know what's at. Risk that's at risk.
You don't know. And so like now when we sign a lease, I'm like, oh gosh. Like this is, this is a lot. Yeah. And I mean, I think signing that Fayetteville Lease, it was like, this is awesome. You know, like, this is so cool. I can't believe we're actually doing this. And I think too, like we knew Mama Ka had worked.
Mm-hmm. Like we had done it twice. Yeah. You know, and people had shown up in really weird ways. And so we had that confidence. I [00:31:00] think, um, we started a three, I think it was a three year lease with like some extensions, but it, we really wasn't like, oh, we need to sign a three year lease because like, what if it doesn't work?
Like I think there's so much that you can freak yourself out about and it'll keep you from doing anything. And I think you just, like, you have to have, I mean, do the work. Like you have to have the confidence and you have to know what you're doing. Like put some thought into it and you need to be passionate about it.
Yeah. Especially if you're gonna do food. 'cause it's so freaking hard. Yeah. Um. But if you're passionate about it and like you have some things figured out and you have people around you, like good people, good team. Mm-hmm. Then like if you weigh every risk, you'll never do it. And so like there is a point you kind of just have to get to where you just decide to jump off, you know,
Cameron Clark: go with your gut.
KK Goodwin: Totally.
Cameron Clark: Talk about the first year, like building the team, what that looked like and kind of where at the end of the first year, what did that look like?
KK Goodwin: Yeah, so my senior year I sat at the [00:32:00] um, ARS Segas on Dixon and like interviewed so many people. I mean that Ars Segas was probably like, please leave, like, please.
And I, it was all people I interviewed from like sorority sisters at Pi Phi. Mm-hmm. Yeah. To like just random people that just, I don't know how they found out about Malika, but I mean, because this is way before we're open. I mean, I didn't know the timelines of how early do we need a team. Mm-hmm. Um. And so I remember doing a ton of interviews.
Pretty sure I hired every one of them. Yeah. Um, and I mean, there were all people I knew and so like how to like, I don't even remember, probably 25 people on staff before we started. That's a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Um, trained them in quotes. Yeah. Like they showed up and listened to me talk for probably 10 minutes and watched me blend a bowl and then showed up and that was that.
Um, and then we quickly [00:33:00] realized, wow, this is working. People are showing up. And so like we, you know, we gotta keep figuring this out. And I lived in the apartment directly above Maka. So there was zero separation between my life and Monica. But like there, there wasn't going to be anyways. And honestly, like there couldn't have been, like I needed to be there, there all the time.
I needed to be able to be on call all the time. Yeah. But I mean, figuring out like leadership, like that's not easy at the beginning. I mean, I was 22. Well, how old are you when you graduate college? 20. 22. 22, okay. Like I turned 22 that summer. Um, so I was 21 when we opened. Wow. And I turned 22 that summer.
And I, I mean, there's a lot of lessons you gotta learn and like how to be a leader. Like how to, like, you, you cannot be friends directly with these people. You can be friends, but like Yeah. You know, that was really important to me, like learning things like that. Like they're gonna all go out [00:34:00] and get drinks and dinner and whatever after, and I'm just not gonna do that.
Yeah. Like, I am gonna, you know, I, because I'm 22 and they're also 22, like, or 21 or 20, like, I, I want them to come into work and seize the blast. Respect me. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Like, I wanna have fun together. I mean, that first year was a blast. Yeah. Um, but I want there to be a different type of fun that like we have when we're at work versus like Yeah.
The fun they all had that night or whatever. Um, and so there was a lot of figuring out, like just little things like that. And there was a lot of like, going upstairs in my apartment, figuring out what on earth payroll was and
Yeah.
KK Goodwin: Like. Uh, I mean, Kevin Wass Miller, I'll never forget, walked into Mama call one day and was like, Hey, are y'all doing any sort of bookkeeping and accounting?
And I was like, what is that? And he was like, okay. Um, so let me help you. Yeah. And I mean, I just remember being like, I mean, there's so many things that would not have worked out very well for us [00:35:00] if it hadn't been for a lot of the Fayetteville community that came mm-hmm. Around us. I mean, it was so incredible.
And like this, like I remember early on, like riffraff would cater bowls and like they were some of our like first catering experiences mm-hmm. And like all the sororities on campus and like, they shouted us out on their Instagram like so much. And like that was just like from very early on it was like, if the support in this community, like figuring out like how to like, engage with the community, how to like build the right team, like.
It was all, I mean, there was so much to learn. Like it's, it was definitely overwhelming. Um, and like very little sleep and zero separation from the store. I mean, it was, we didn't know what a shift lead was. We didn't know what a general manager was like. We didn't know what any of that was. It was like, oh, oh, we're not supposed to open and close the store every day.
That's not like, like, and it's like, of course not. That's not sustainable. Like what? Yeah. And [00:36:00] so there were so many little things like, I mean, like I said earlier, you just, it was kind of the best way to learn because you didn't just fall into like, some of the terrible industry standards that exist in restaurants.
Mm-hmm. Um, and when you learn things the hard way sometimes, like you get the valuable lessons out of them. Yeah. You don't
Nick Beyer: forget it.
KK Goodwin: Definitely not.
Nick Beyer: Talk about a couple of those, like what, what were some of those mistakes that you're like, man, that one hurt, or,
KK Goodwin: yeah,
Nick Beyer: that one left a scar.
KK Goodwin: I mean, I feel like the biggest ones, like for Monica in general, like signing three leases at once, that was.
That was so dumb. Um, but like, it pushed us really, really, really heavily in like a, you know, to where we are now. Mm. Um,
Cameron Clark: how many stores did you have at like, when you service three and like, you have three you're done with? Yeah. So
KK Goodwin: like, for anyone listening, if you have three stores, like it doesn't, the math, doesn't math to just like, make three more after that.
Like, that doesn't,
Cameron Clark: and you're probably signing personal guarantees on each one. [00:37:00] Yes. You're probably like,
KK Goodwin: yeah. Oh, yeah. And putting a
Cameron Clark: lot of money into the buildouts too, and equipment. Well, it's like, and like
KK Goodwin: Buildouts, it was like, we, we were, but like the same time, like, we didn't have, like, we didn't have, we hadn't taken loans.
We hadn't taken a line of credit. Mm-hmm. Like there was nothing, it was all cash flow.
Cameron Clark: Mm. Super impressive.
KK Goodwin: It, I mean, I'm like so grateful that's the way we had have grown and like, but it is so gnarly and so doing, having three stores and then opening three more. Was such a challenge. And that is when we, so that would be one hard one.
And I can go into more on how we handled that. But, and I would say the other, honestly, hard one, just early on, like learning how to like pay operator, like what operator structure should be like, we don't call like the heads of our stores or not general managers, they're operators. We like who we wanted to model after.
[00:38:00] Um,
Cameron Clark: because you're not a franchise, just we're not a franchise.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. So we own all of them and we had to really learn like how do we wanna pay people, how do we wanna like, give them some ownership into this without being a franchise? Like how do we like set this up So like we, they do care about their spaces.
Mm-hmm. But we don't wanna do the franchise. 'cause honestly it feels like a lot of franchises, they lose the care. Mm-hmm. And so like how do you balance this the right way? And I mean, I think Chick-fil-A's done it. Beautifully. And so early on it was learning like we're gonna really model the way that we structure ourselves based off of Chick-fil-A.
We went to a Chick-fil-A in Little Rock and really learned from the operator there and like how they run things, how they manage people. Um, so I would say like just some of the hard lessons in managing people, like we are like wrong hires with management, um, the right hires with management and us just not knowing how to handle the right hires.
I mean, some of those like are tough things to [00:39:00] like look back on and, but they are like, I'm so grateful we learned them in year one. So that like in the, you know, from year two to seven, like I feel like we've really put a lot of care into the way that we manage people and care for people. And that's like, I think those are, those are important lessons to like, you know, put the pride aside and like, you know, have the humility to say, we didn't do that.
Right. Like, let's do this better the next time. And so. Now we can have nine stores in seven years because the people care about their spaces and they like could not do that, um, if we didn't have amazing operators. And so a lot of those leadership lessons in the beginning are hard. Um, and then just understanding, you know, some of the operational stuff and, you know, delving your business with no capital does not make sense.
So that's good.
Nick Beyer: Well take us back and we'll kind of go into the scaling phase and, and how, what, how, and what you've learned building out nine [00:40:00] stores in seven years. Yeah. But like, take us back to that first year you've graduated, you're operating the business. Like how, how hard was that? Were you lonely?
Was it, talk about the hours you were working Yeah,
KK Goodwin: yeah. Living
Nick Beyer: above the, you know Yeah. Living above the store. Like
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Walk us through some of that.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. It was definitely weird. Um, I mean, like I said, I was, I. Working a with people that were my age. Um, and they all still, like, were, some of them were still in college.
Like they were all able to be friends. Like again, I was trying to kind of create that professional separation. I had friends that had like, they were moving to cool cities or, you know, had like, what looked like these like flashy jobs and like of course I'm like so proud and grateful of like what we're doing, but I'm like, I'm making, I didn't even, I didn't make anything until like a couple, maybe, I don't even remember eight months [00:41:00] in.
It was like Kevin was Miller, sat my mom and I down and it was like, Hey, you should take a salary now. And it was like, oh, I can make money. Like, I mean it was just truly like we did not start, it's amazing to be making, yeah. I mean, I don't even know what we were doing, but there were definitely so many moments in that first year.
I mean, first year, like. Everyone's first year post grad is weird. Yeah. Like, and I think, you know, everyone, it's almost like that freshman year of college, no one wants to like, act like it was hard. 'cause it was like, you're, you're in your freshman year and you're like, no, I'm, I'm thriving. Like I have cool friends and I'm doing great.
Like, no one wants to admit that. It's like weird and hard. And like, I think that first year post grad, it's a weird and hard year. Like you have to, everyone's doing something different. You have to schedule to have phone calls with your friends. Mm-hmm. Like, and everyone's exhausted by the end of the day.
And I definitely was like, I lost a lot of touch with friends because my hours were like, I mean, 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM [00:42:00] midnight. Like, 'cause you know, I'm working in the store every hour and then I'm going upstairs and I'm like, I am marketing, I am hr. Mm-hmm. I am pr, I am like the manager. I'm everything. And like, I'm also washing the towels in my dryer.
Mm-hmm. Like, it's like. So there were so many moments where I was like, again, I'm, I like challenge, I like being pushed. I don't mind working. I love to work. But there were definitely moments where it was like, I am lonely. Like I, you know, the people I can relate to are my parents right now. Like no one can, I don't know anyone that can relate to building a business.
And if, if there is somebody I can relate to building a business, they're 45 and like, they're not 22. And so. And like, that was weird. That was definitely, and like, that's honestly been a hard thing for the last, like few years. And I would say recently I'm just very comfortable and just like being in that, and like, I don't, it doesn't feel [00:43:00] lonely, but like, definitely when you're just like, you spend a lot of your years in college being able to relate to people and then suddenly overnight you're like, I am not able to talk to my friends on the phone about my days.
Like, it just doesn't make sense. Like, and no one wants to like laugh at me about the crazy customer interaction I had today. Like, there's just, you know, there's so many things that suddenly I'm like, I'm in the restaurant industry. Like I'm, I'm already confused by that. And so. There were a lot of hard moments in that first year, and then, uh, like so much, so many rewarding moments.
Like so many laughs and so many exhausting tearful days of just like, I don't even know what I'm crying about. I'm just tired. Uh, but like the, I mean, the staff in those first, in that first year, like, I'll never forget that. It was so fun. Like, there were so many great bonding moments and I was so close to my family and it was amazing.
I mean, there's people graduating in two days that started working at Maka when they were in high school. Like, that [00:44:00] is literally like, it gives me chills. Like those are the things that like, I can, that's so fun to remember. Um, but in those moments, for sure, like there's a lot of like, what am I doing? What are we, like, where are we gonna grow?
But it's also really exciting and in that first year we, you know, we realized we are making money. Mm-hmm. Like, we can grow. And so where do we wanna grow? And so that, you know, starts the excitement of like, okay, let's. Look at where we wanna go. And we looked at probably five or six places and Waco is the one that kind of fell together.
Honestly. Like the doors just opened, like there was a perfect spot and it was like the, the perfect lease and its own parking lot and close to Baylor's campus, but not on Baylor's campus. So if you're a Waco local, you don't feel weird. And, but for Baylor students, it's easy to get to. And it was just like, we don't have to do a crazy risk by going to like a brand new city, like a Dallas.
Like let's just do what we know we've done well, which is a college town. Mm-hmm. Like, [00:45:00] let's not take the unnecessary risks like we've done the college town, well we know that works. Let's do that again later on. You can take some unnecessary quote unquote risks. But like for then, like for store number two, like, let's get a win.
Yeah. And so that was like year one. It was like, okay, we can grow, let's. Let's do it
Cameron Clark: and talk about, so yeah. So decided to get to Waco first. Was the, was there ever any thought like, Hey, let's Rogers, Bentonville and Springdale?
KK Goodwin: Yeah, for sure. I mean, we definitely looked at Bentonville, Rogers, and it was really like where the doors opening and the doors just opened and Waco, and again, it was kind of like the, what, what risks do we take?
And like we knew we had done the, our, our whole market at that point, year one, like our entire demographic was college kids. Yeah. And so there was a part of like growing into Bentonville and Rogers that was way riskier to us than doing mm-hmm. Waco because [00:46:00] that, like we had, you know, the young college kid was the person that was willing to try this weird smoothie bowl thing.
'cause again, it was something we kind of like, I mean, I'm not gonna go out and say we invented the smoothie bowl, but like, it was a new, a definitely a new thing. And so college kids were like down to try that. And um, for me growing up in Texas, like I had some comfortability with that as well. Um, and so that was kind of just the reason for, for Waco.
Nick Beyer: And so what did that, so, so that's 2018, you're, you're kind of cranking here. You're realizing, yeah. Okay. This is working. Like we we're, we we can grow.
KK Goodwin: Mm-hmm.
Nick Beyer: You start dreaming about other places. You pick Waco. What does that look like? Yeah. Are you, are you traveling down there to go see stuff while you're also just like figuring out how to keep your head above water here?
Yeah,
KK Goodwin: so at that point we had hi, we had figured out, we did finally figure out that shift leads and operators are like a [00:47:00] positive thing. And like that's a thing that restaurants have is, uh, management. Yeah. And so we had some management in place and my parents lived here obviously. And so my mom was doing like a lot of just kind of like the check-ins on the store.
And my dad and I would travel to Texas. I think we, at the same time we were looking at Dallas, feel like we looked at College Station at that point, Waco. I mean, we looked at a handful of things. And again, that's just like when, and Waco opened up and I'll never forget, like the, you know, there's moments like where we go to Waco and the real estate agent kind of showing us around was like, Hey, y'all are not a destination spot.
Like people aren't gonna go outta their way to try to find you. And I was like. Wow. I cannot wait to prove you wrong, and I just would love to talk to that man again one day. Uh, but like, it was, it was a definitely, like, there was a little bit of travel and then I literally packed up my car and I moved to Waco before construction even [00:48:00] started.
And so I had a, like, long-term Airbnb and I lived like very local Waco and local Waco is a very funny place, and I ended up living there for 18 months. Uh, we had a general contractor who lied to us for nine months, told us that he was pulling permits, all this stuff. And like he is, you know, it was a friend of a friend, like he was, he was a good dude.
And like, on paper and then like, you know, a like garage doors get installed. So it, that's the only thing that ever happened. Like it. So it looked like things were happening, but again, this is our second. Store and it's a new state, and so we don't really, we're like, man, construction does take a long time.
And then it was like, oh no, he just literally hasn't ever even pulled a permit. And so nine months in, we realized there's not even been permits pulled. And so that was like a totally rude awakening. And then, you know, we're kind of pulling general contractors together and we don't have capital. And so we're, you know, it's very, [00:49:00] like everything is very kind of thrown together.
But that store did get open, obviously. Um, and it opened two weeks before Covid. Uh, and so it was like a whole new challenge and Wow. Um, but I mean, it taught us to know every dollar coming in and every dollar going out and yeah, we got scrappy. So.
Nick Beyer: So at that point, were you just rolling capital from this store into that?
Yep. Or did you have to take Okay.
KK Goodwin: Yeah, we were like rolling capital from Fayetteville, but I mean, man, there were. There were, I mean, I, there were so many payrolls I skipped mm-hmm. Like for myself. Mm-hmm. Um, obviously not for employees, um, but like, there were so many Yeah. You know, weeks that it was like, you know, Monica would, was paying for my Airbnb, and so I wasn't like worried about like my rent not getting paid or something.
But I mean, my, I think my rent was probably, I don't know, like a thousand dollars in Waco. And, um, but there were so many payrolls that, I mean, every year, honestly, that there's payrolls that you skip. Mm-hmm. [00:50:00] Um, and it's just part of it. I mean, it doesn't need to be part of it forever, but I mean, when you're building something and you're, you have to be willing to know that that's part of the grind.
Mm-hmm. Um, so yeah, pulling from Fayetteville, but with, you know, days being like. Okay. Like, I'm gonna make sure that we run payroll at this amount of time so the taxes come out on Monday and not on Friday. So we get the weekend and on Monday. I mean, you just really have to start to like, you get really scrappy about it all.
Um. Mm-hmm. But yeah, I mean it was all coming from just Fayetteville cash flow. It's amazing.
Nick Beyer: And at this point, are you kind of learning who your customer is? Are you learning like, Hey, this is how much we make on each bowl? Are you learning totally. How you, how have you figured out where or how you're pricing them?
Like talk about some of the actual business, like Yeah.
KK Goodwin: Where your, so by the time we got to Waco, I, you know, we finally am like you, I find business so interesting. Like, I'm loving it, I'm thriving. Like, I found it interesting quickly into, [00:51:00] you know, when I was doing it outta my house, but I didn't, you know, not having any background in any of the education.
Like, I didn't even know what to dig in on. Mm-hmm. And so by the time of like when Waco came around, it was really me like able to kind of. Learn kind of deeper, more of the details of what's going on. Definitely doing more of the like, this is what we're making on a bowl. Um, this is what we can do. Like we can open a third.
And during Covid, we signed the Fort Worth Lease. And it was amazing timing because like, there was kind of like, um, it wasn't as expensive as a lease because everyone was, no one was signing leases in Covid. Um,
Cameron Clark: probably had great terms. So we got
KK Goodwin: great terms and like, it was a lot of figuring out who our customer was and also being willing to be like, okay, there is some pretty aggressive seasonality in college towns.
People leave for the summers. That's should be our, you know, that needs to be our number [00:52:00] one kind of period of the year. Yeah. And so that was when Fort Worth was like, that was when we were willing to be like, okay. Let's do something that still is able to, like, we're able to look, it's still College Town has TCU, but we are gonna get to experiment with some of the city.
Yeah. And so that's when we made the decision to do Fort Worth as kind of a test into what city would look like. And that store absolutely blew our minds. Like it was, it's still like, I mean, number one or two top stores like it, like it really opened a completely new chapter for Malika. Was the model
Cameron Clark: changed then too?
The size of the store? Like,
KK Goodwin: yeah. So Waco changed the size of the store because quickly into Fayetteville we realized, oh,
Nick Beyer: is way too small. We need space. Yeah. I mean we had indoor space like Is that, yeah, like
KK Goodwin: we need more storage. Yeah. Like, I mean if you go into the Fayetteville store to this day we have freezers to the ceilings basically.
Yeah. And we now,
Nick Beyer: and when did y'all start renting that back part? So that
KK Goodwin: happened a couple years ago, probably. Four years ago [00:53:00] now.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. It just kind of, the door opened. It wasn't, they were
KK Goodwin: Airbnbing it. Okay. And they were, we were like, Hey, you know, we can give you consistent rent. Like, would y'all be willing to just stop air, stop doing this as an Airbnb?
Um, and they were like, yeah, absolutely. So our back house is an apartment. It literally has like a residential bathroom. It's hilarious. But it's, it's perfect. So now the Fayetteville store is what the square footage should be? Waco. Which is
Cameron Clark: what what's the ideal square footage? The ideal
KK Goodwin: square footage is 12 to 1500.
Okay. Um, but gosh, we, Dallas and Austin are, most recent stores are just wildly smaller than that. And I'm like, what you can do out of a small space will blow your mind. But I mean, Dallas and Austin are both like in the nine hundreds. Um, but you get to cities and you want the right location and you don't wanna spend $40,000 a month.
You just gotta do what you gotta do. Yep. Um, but. Waco and Fort Worth are the ideal square footages. Mm-hmm. They're the 12 to 1500 range. Um, [00:54:00] and the customer like was the college sorority girl, but we, we did finally kind of get to see and like that younger working person, like we're in a cool spot in Fort Worth where there's a lot of dudes that come in before work and it was just finally this more diversified customer base that was like so fun for us to see.
'cause that was what we saw in California. Mm-hmm. Like, that was like what we knew it like as, and so it was, it was always surprising to me honestly when we opened in Fayetteville. Like how large the percentage of just female it was. Mm-hmm. Because like, my original experience with Bowles was, it was mostly dudes.
Yeah. Like, and so. Fort Worth was kind of that first, like, okay, this is kind of everybody, it's the working person, it's the sorority girl. Um, the fraternity boys man, they're so nervous to come in by themselves and then the, the girlfriends will bring 'em in and then they finally start coming alone. But, uh,
Nick Beyer: once [00:55:00] they try it, they just have to try.
Yeah,
KK Goodwin: exactly. Yeah. So, um, yeah, Waco was kind of when I was able to really kind of be like, okay, this is. This is what we can pay people. This is, we need to structure operators like this. We need to hourly people like this. Yeah. Shift leads like this. Like that was when we really kind of perfected, I mean process.
Yeah, the process system. Yeah. Yeah. 'cause really early on, that was something my dad was like, whatever you do, make sure you can repeat it. Mm. And so we knew really early on like, we're not gonna overcomplicate too much because like, we want to be able to repeat this. Yeah. It needs to be simple. It needs to be like, like if we wanna add this thing, like can we add it in 50 locations?
If the answer is no, then we're not gonna do that. And so we had that mindset even in store one, when we didn't know that we could take a salary. It, so it was a totally different, like we had such a, you know, contrasting mindset so much of the time. It was like we, I am driven. [00:56:00] Like I wanted to, to mama God to be something bigger always.
But at the same time, like I didn't even understand what that could be. So we had these kind of constant like. Oh, salaries are good. And also you only implement processes that you can repeat 50 times. Yeah. So it was like such an interesting way to start, but yeah.
Nick Beyer: And why not franchise? If you, if you wanted it to be big, I'm sure you've had conversations or opportunities Oh yeah.
For that to happen. So, totally. So why not?
KK Goodwin: We want the control over how well the business is executed. Honestly. Like there's so many, like I said earlier, like 99% of full places are all franchised. Mm-hmm. And you can kind of feel it when you walk in. And we want the, like, there is such a unique vibe to the Mama Ka store and like, honestly we love the team.
Like we wanna build a team of like. People that are all under the same umbrella with the same goals and like, we want to, [00:57:00] you know, we wanna grow, but our, our intention truly has never been to like, grow quickly. I mean, we're at the point where like, we're having conversations with people who are like, Hey, do you wanna grow to 50 in the next couple years?
And we're like, no. Like, yeah, that's, that's not what we want. We, we've learned so many lessons with each store opening. Like, we're not trying to get to 50 in three years. Like we, maybe we wanna get to that place where we can comfortably do two to three a year. But like, we want to be able to do so much more with Maka than just, you know, it being smoothies.
I mean, we wanna expand. Clothing, we wanna do so much more with kind of the lifestyle of the brand than just kind of this thing that's a rinse and repeat. And like, we want there to be that character that feel to every store. And I feel like you just, you lose some of that with the franchise model. And then there's like the operational technicalities, like the franchise model is like, it's a quick, easy way to make fast cash and then [00:58:00] lawsuits come your way.
So like a couple years later that just are like, wasn't supported by ownership. I mean, it gets messy and we're just like, we don't want, we don't need, like, we're not after fast cash. Um, and so we wanna do it in the wisest, smartest way we can.
Cameron Clark: The culture experience of Malika is awesome. Mm-hmm. Thanks. And it's just like, no, it's so good to hear.
It's, it's. The vi the vibe just like, is so consistent. It's just mm-hmm. You know, like,
KK Goodwin: that's awesome.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. If your day is here, like Yeah. You know, you know everyone who's there working, it's like they're gonna bring this energy that, like, the
KK Goodwin: feel.
Cameron Clark: Um,
KK Goodwin: thanks for saying that.
Nick Beyer: Um, well, I mean, it's true. It's true.
Um, so go, yeah, go, go from three stores, right? So you just opened up Fort Worth mm-hmm. And it's, it's crushing it out the gate. Mm-hmm. Or
KK Goodwin: yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. Oh, I mean, the first day was like, oh no. Like every store opening has an experience where they almost run out of food, [00:59:00] like either, whether it be frozen bananas or granola.
Mm-hmm. And it is like Loaves and Fishes. It has never happened. It is like so wild. But like, that happened so many times in Fort Worth because we just right out the gate, I mean, it was the first store opening that we had a line all the way down the block to, it's all right. On the, like a saw that trail and river and I mean, we were like.
What, like, I mean, to this day, like we had the same thing happened in Austin. We opened three weeks ago, and I'm still like, I don't know. I feel like I've had an out of body experience for seven years now. Like, I mean, I'm like, the first people who showed up in Austin got there at four 30 in the morning and I was like, no way.
How do you even know what we are? Like, I'm still shocked that people know what Mama is.
Cameron Clark: Well, I'm shocked that you're surprised by that too, because to me, like one of your secret, secret sauces is we just talk about the culture, but it's, you are an incredible marketer. Like you just, yeah, thanks you, you understand like the connection with the customer, like, yeah.
Really well, thank you. And uh, it shows, yeah, it shows and people are just lining up. I mean, it's just like
KK Goodwin: to, [01:00:00] it's so wild to me, like I love doing it and so it's like, to me, I'm like, I'm just doing what I love. I can't believe people are showing up. You get fired up about this. Yeah, so it's just, you know, every time it's been absolutely wild.
But Fort Worth, I was like. You drove in from Dallas and you've been in line since 6:00 AM like, I'm so confused right now. Like,
yeah,
KK Goodwin: I hope I'm, I hope you like it. Holy crap. You know, like, um, so that was, I mean, it was immediately just, I mean, bananas, like from the beginning, like,
Cameron Clark: and did you choose Fort Worth over Dallas because of like the real estate location?
Was it just like, Hey, we have the right side? Yeah, I mean,
KK Goodwin: I, I was like, because I grew up in Dallas, like our real estate. Brokers hated me for over Dallas. 'cause they were like, kk, like, pick something. Like I wouldn't, because I was like, that's, that street's weird. Like, people don't like to drive down that street.
And they're like, you, you lived here 10 years ago. Okay. Like, you gotta, you, it's not the same anymore. Like let it [01:01:00] go. Um, but I was so picky over Dallas that it just took us forever to choose and I think it was worth it. Uh, I, I mean our location now is amazing, but Well, you can
Cameron Clark: tell when someone's like, whether it be like, you know, retail or restaurant when someone's like, go open a location and they just pick something.
Totally, totally. You can tell when that happens. I mean, location
KK Goodwin: truly is like, I mean, back to the like early five guys thing. Like, and you, you need to know that people would be willing to go outta their way to show up. But once you have five locations and you go to a busy city and like. You do need to be, you need to be in the right spot.
Mm-hmm. Like people, like they might be willing to go outta their way, but not every time. Mm-hmm. Like, and you get to a busy city and like bowls are starting to get popular and you're starting to compete with these like other people and it's just like, you gotta be in the right spot. And like, you also, when you're new to a market, like we wanna show our vibe, like, because we have multiple now, like your vibe like is so [01:02:00] important for the first location that you have in a city, like our Houston store.
I was so, I don't, I didn't grow up in city, in Houston. Like I didn't know a lot about Houston. And so I was like, I, we have to pick the perfect space because otherwise we'll get lost. And we ended up in this like. Cute cottage that we turned into, a mom caught and Oh wow. I mean, Cody is still scarred. I mean, it was the worst build out ever.
Um, but it's like, it's so important. Mm-hmm. Like it's, it changes everything.
Cameron Clark: And so when did Cody come in? Uh,
KK Goodwin: in the Fort Worth store. Okay. It was basically like, he was pretty much full-time, but had a full-time job and it was like totally a disaster. Y'all were dating
Cameron Clark: you married? At the time? We were dating.
Okay.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. So I mean, he knew that what he was getting himself into. Um, I think
Cameron Clark: y'all got, y'all, y'all, y'all got married through the business.
KK Goodwin: Oh yeah. I mean, people were like, uh, did y'all do premarital? And I'm like, yeah, it's called Mama. Cause doing your business together, like, I mean, you talk about like every challenge under the sun.
I mean, [01:03:00] that's funny. Um, I mean, to stay, people are like, when are y'all having kids? And we're like, we have nine. Yeah. And they're all in different cities. Um,
try it.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so he came on in Fort Worth, which was the third store. Obviously. He, I think, saw me sign three leases in the back house. I mean, I was literally, we were literally sitting in the back house and signed three leases in one day.
Cameron Clark: And that's, that those are locations four, five, and six.
KK Goodwin: Yep. It was College Station, Houston, and Norman. Yeah. And wow, that was so wild. Um, and I mean, I absolutely have to shout out Reese Thompson with our best bank. He saved, he literally saved our business. I think. I mean, Cody was like, Cody had financial background.
Like he, he actually was a business major. He worked for JP Morgan. Like he had understanding of just like. The things that I just didn't have the knowledge on and like
Cameron Clark: Yeah, you have to [01:04:00] build, you're having to build out like some pretty big models. Yeah. Understand totally. Multiple stores. Like there's a
KK Goodwin: point when like, you know, you can't anymore have great marketing and you can have great vision, but you have like, and it's like, great, you found these three amazing spaces in College Station, Houston and Norman, but like, you have to pay for them.
Yeah. And he was kind of the, Cody was the one to have the conversations with Reese and our vest and was like, this, we need to, you know, we looked into SBA and it was honestly such a disaster for us. We didn't ever end up doing it. Um, so we got our first line of credit with Reese and no one wants to have, give lines of credits to restaurants.
Like, what, what can you take a Vitamix blender? Yeah. Like, you know, there's like, no, you just literally trust in the people doing the business. Yeah. And so, you know, I, I'll give ourselves credit, like to what we had built to that point, like we were. Doing it. Like we focused so much on the way we were doing things internally.
I mean, we, [01:05:00] we have a weekly call every Tuesday with every operator. We go over every metric in their store. Every, every team, um, sees what every store made that week, what their labor percentages were, what their cogs were, net profit, I mean, they see it all. Um, so I mean, we, we are really, like, I think we've done a really good job organizing our, organizing ourselves internally.
And Reese saw that Cody showed it to Reese, and Reese saw that, and he trusted what we were doing and believed in us and gave us our first line of credit and literally saved, saved the business. I mean, it was amazing talking
Cameron Clark: about like the, the amount of overhead it took before the stores got open.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
So it was the sta it was staggered the way they ended up opening because, so Houston was, it was like. Talk about the hardest city. Probably like I,
Cameron Clark: for permitting and
KK Goodwin: permitting, I will put a stamp on it. Like, gotta be the hardest city in the us. Like maybe New York City would beat it. I don't know. But I mean, it was a, the store is in a [01:06:00] historic district, so you're dealing with that.
And then Houston has no zoning. Yeah. Um, so you could open next to someone's home. Like it's wa like we were, we are in a home that's like mm-hmm. S literally what the business is inside of. And so the permitting, it took us 18 months to get a permit. Wow. I'll also say that like our, our architectural like plans like that was super, like, you know, figuring out who to use to work with the right builder, like all of it was kind of a disaster.
And, um, after Houston, we now work with Matt though, and he also changed our lives. Mm-hmm. Um. He's awesome. Yeah, he is amazing. Um, and he's done all of our locations since Houston. So he did Norman College Station, Charlotte, Dallas, Austin. Mm-hmm. Um, and just someone that gets it knows the vibe, like no matter what I mean, all our spaces look totally like they look.[01:07:00]
Similar, but you know, you go in and it's a totally different footprint. Yeah. And he's just done such a good job at making them all look streamlined, which is amazing. Mm-hmm. Um, but Houston took 18 months to get a permit, so that was an absolute disaster. And then the construction, you're converting. A res, like a residential retail space into a restaurant.
That was that. I mean, we didn't at that at this point. Like we can't afford legit GCs that have like site managers that like can be there for when, you know, inspectors come in and check off boxes, and so we're missing inspectors showing up or you know, you'all subbing
Cameron Clark: the work yourselves. So we
KK Goodwin: were kind of scrapping it.
Like Cody had a friend that was kind of a GC for us, but I mean, this is the smallest job. Like he use his, he's got exactly, so he, you know, he's using his subs and his names on the stuff. But like Cody was basically our gc. Yeah. And so Cody was basically GC and Houston College Station and Norman pretty much all at the same time.
Wow. And so it [01:08:00] was just all so wild. The first one that opened was Norman. Is that even right? I don't even think that's right. I think College Station. College Station opened first. Mm-hmm. And that one we thought we were opening on a Friday. An inspector that had gradu, literally had graduated a and m, like I mean, a couple months before he came in and was like college station's like.
Good old boys town, like you just, no one really pulls permits. You just kind of like, literally, it was like as is submit, as is. Submit as is. Mm-hmm. When we get the fresh grad and respect, okay, you know, you're doing your job. He told us, we thought we were opening like the next Friday he came in and told us we were gonna have to take the walls down because he was like, you didn't, you didn't pull permits for this stuff.
And I mean. I've ne I've maybe never been more stressed out in my life. Like, 'cause you, we don't have money. Yeah. Like, you know, we, we needed to open on that Friday. Okay. And that was also like the Friday of a and m graduation.
Mm-hmm.
KK Goodwin: So I'm looking at graduation, like waving [01:09:00] at goodbye, waving every student goodbye.
Like everything we're kind of counting on, like, we're already kind of bummed about the timeline that graduation's there. Yeah. And then this dude walks in and I'm, I'm actively painting the stripes on the wall. And he's like, you're gonna have to tear these walls down. I mean, super long story short, we did not have to tear the walls down, but we didn't open for another like, month, month and a half.
Mm-hmm. Oh man. And it was a lot of phone calls from within the, the good old boys club, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. After that it was Norman. And Norman was like, we opened like right before Thanksgiving. But again, like when you open, you gotta open. Like we need, you know, we have, we have to open. Mm-hmm. And so that was tough timing.
'cause I mean, we all know how that works. You come back for maybe a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas and everyone pieces out. Yeah. Um, and then opening a smoothie bowl restaurant when it's 30 degrees outside is not ideal. Yeah. So that was a tough opening. Um, and then Houston was like a wild process to get [01:10:00] open.
Um, but so these are all staggered. So we're, you know, college Station does get open, so we're cash flowing some of college station. Mm-hmm. We're paying some of the line of credit back, you know, able to use some of that. And then we're getting Norman open and cash flowing, some of that. And then Houston finally gets open.
And Houston was, uh, Houston to me was the conclusion of the first chapter of Monica. Like Houston was a totally new wave, like. It was like, wow. Cities, cities work
really
KK Goodwin: well. And I will say, I think like college towns are still huge and still important. Like, because there was people that went to a and m or went to Baylor that they were familiar with go to Houston and they knew what MOCA was.
'cause they spent four years at a and m. And so, um, but with cities, you, you know, students are going back to those cities for Christmas break, for summer break. Mm-hmm. You're not getting that seasonality near as much as you are in a college town. And so after Houston is when we, [01:11:00] um, signed Charlotte in Dallas and then Austin.
And so obviously all cities now. Um, and now we're taking a year off of opening stores. So that was why we need a year of rest. I mean, that was like, it was honestly like. Really like faced a huge part of my life and it was like a very prayer prayerful moment in my year, this year of like, this is Mama God's seventh year.
And that's like, it's a whole thing. And like the seventh year and the Old Testament is like a year of like, let the land feed itself like, like let kind of the Lord provide. And that just, it felt so, so like a huge calling over Maka. Like I kind of, it was like, I read that and I realized in like two months Maka was turning seven mm.
And it, I mean, we're tired. I mean, it's been nine stores in seven years and it's been a grind. I mean, we have, we only have two lines of credits now. Um, [01:12:00] and that's not a, that's not a lot. I mean, yeah. You know, it's, it's just unbelievable. It's, it's been a grind and we're like, there's been so, I mean, our operators have grinded with us.
I mean, you know, they've, there's, you know, months where they're like. Can we pay down this credit card so we can, you know, buy, I mean, whatever they, you know mm-hmm. Need for the stores and like, so there's just like, we need a year to just like, let the business catch up and for everyone to breathe and to stop doing construction and just like, let things kind of do their thing.
Um, and then we'll, we'll go back into and after a year.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. How hard is that though? Yeah. Because I imagine growing fast and having some success. Yeah. People come out of the woodwork. Kk what about this city? Totally. What about, what about here? Hey, why don't you franchise? There's so many opportunities.
For sure. So how hard is that to do?
KK Goodwin: You know, I think like a year ago I would've been like. Borderline impossible because [01:13:00] honestly, because of the, the stress and the pressure, I think you can feel of like, Hey, your time's running out. Mm-hmm. Like people are outside of the, your store at four 30 in the morning and it's gonna, that's not gonna happen forever.
Like, you know, there's that time that you gotta capitalize on where like, mama cow's hot. Like, and I think that really would stress me out. I think I, I put way too much pressure on myself that I was like at 21 and you know, the first door I was like, not even at 16, I was like, I'm gonna be Forbes 30 under 30.
Like, that was like, I was in high school not knowing anything about anything and I was like, that's my, I want that. I don't even know what that means. And. I put so much pressure on all of that, and I think that can lead you down a wrong path quickly and can, you can quickly lose why you're doing certain things.
If you, if you let the communication from the world kind of keep feeding you of like, open here, like, this is so cool. Like everything you're doing is all, you know, whatever. Like, you can, if you live on that, like you're, you're gonna [01:14:00] crash. Um, and I think in the last year I've realized, man, that's not what we're, it's not what I'm living for.
That's not what we're doing this for. Like, we have really cool opportunities and nine different places to like build community. Like we're pouring into young kids like working hourly jobs, like showing them like a fun, like really well run like job, like store that you can kind of, you can work through college, you can work for four years.
And we have people graduate college and they're like. This was the, like, this was the reason my four years was amazing and like, this is how I met my friends. And like, you just, to me, I'm like, I think for the first time I'm like actually able to sit down and be like, you know, I, I'm not feeling that pressure that like, we have to capitalize immediately.
And for me, like I said, face a big part of my life. So if I feel like the Lord's calling me to take this seventh year, I'm, I, I, I trust that completely. And so if that means we're losing some time, [01:15:00] we're losing some time, but like, I know there's purpose in that. Um, and so I do just have total peace over it.
Um. I don't sit still well, and so will I, will I be counting down until May 10th, 2026? Absolutely. Like I'll have plans for all the new leases we're gonna sign. Like, don't get me wrong. And so like, I think it will get hard from the perspective of like, I'm just gonna get, I'm gonna be ready to get going again.
Yeah. But not from the pressure standpoint. And I think that for the first time in the seven years has been like a really healthy place for me.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. I mean I'm, that's how the, the big money thinks. The family office, the private equity or whatever, it's like, oh yeah,
KK Goodwin: totally. Here's,
Cameron Clark: here's the check. But we need 20 stores and
KK Goodwin: for sure three years.
And I, you know, I'll say like, we've, in the last year we've had some of our first conversations, what would it be like to take some money and Yeah.
Cameron Clark: How's that gone
KK Goodwin: really well? All the advice we've [01:16:00] gotten is like, we wanna, we want a piece of this and we have, we see no negative in you taking a year. Like it's, we only see positive in that.
And so it's just, you know, there is reinforcement from like, when you just get, have the conversations, be honest too. Like, you know, don't, like not feeling well, you have to come in with this like face and this front of like, yeah. Like, we'll just keep going and it's like
Cameron Clark: you can find the right partner.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. We're gonna be honest. Like, hey, we need to probably like, we'd like to take a year. And it's like, I think that's, um, actually an amazing and really healthy idea. Let the business catch up. It's nine stores in seven years and you are still growing. Like everything's in the green and so like, just keep.
Doing what you're doing, let some things catch up and like, let's have these conversations in in a year.
Cameron Clark: Yeah. So good. I mean, yeah. Austin had hasn't how, three weeks? Oh, it's been three weeks. Yeah. Yeah. Which is great location by the way. It's a Oh, thanks.
KK Goodwin: It's been so fun. Austin was a hard location to find 'cause the whole city's changing.
I mean, yeah, you find a [01:17:00] location you like and they're like, well, that's great, but they're tearing it down and building up. Oh wow. And it'll be ready in 2028. And I'm like, well, that's not gonna work. Yeah. Yeah. So that was, it took us a while to kind of figure out where we wanted to be in Austin. Mm-hmm. But I think it's, it's working out well so far.
Nick Beyer: Yeah. It's amazing. Well kind of catch us up to now. Yeah. So it's 2025. You've got nine spaces, whether it's kind of revenue or growth keggers or number of employees. But just kind of walk us through like. Yeah. Where are the businesses at right now?
KK Goodwin: Yeah, so we just opened Austin three weeks ago last summer, so it hasn't been a year yet.
We opened Charlotte and Dallas one week apart. That was also super insane. I mean, Charlotte, North Carolina is not close to us, and so it's just been, it's been insane all the way around. I mean, nothing we've done has really probably made a lot of sense from the outside looking in. And, um, now we have around 350 employees.
It's absolutely mind blowing. Mm-hmm. You know, I, I have not spent the time [01:18:00] to even really fully process what, what we've done. And so I think in this year, like where we are today is like, you know, we're, we literally drove out of Austin yesterday, so we are like gonna, we're gonna spend a year of just kind of perfecting what we've done, making the processes really great, like going in and all the details of like.
Going back into Fayetteville, the OG store, and like, you know, like visiting all the stores, like being back in the communities and like fixing up all the things that over, you know, seven years you're opening other stores priorities are going to those new constructions. And so going into, you know, Fayetteville, Waco, like what can we improve here?
And then just like kind of starting fresh again next year. I mean today I think we want to honestly just take a pause. Um, and then as we look forward, we will spend time [01:19:00] probably not opening in new markets. That's kind of the next steps is we'll go back into communities, cities, towns that need second and third stores.
And that will be kind of the next phase of Malika. So I feel like as of today, we're in all the markets we really wanna be in. Um. I mean, I, a couple, I mean, from the beginning probably at the Fayetteville store, I was like, whenever we can open in Austin, I'll feel like we've made it. Yeah. And like it's just wild.
Like I, it is crazy to like think back and like even remember what that mindset felt like because it didn't feel crazy to open in Austin. And so just like, honestly where we are today is I think like being able to take a step back and look back and like remember all those little feelings of like, man, we've done a really awesome thing.
I think when you're in it in the day to day, like you lose touch of that and like you get stressed out by a bad Google review or by a bad Yelp review. Mm-hmm. And it could just take your day [01:20:00] down and it's like, let's take a step back, really like be grateful and appreciate what we've done, like mm-hmm.
You know, spend time with our team, our people and take a pause from just the crazy growth, um, and then go back and do seconds and thirds and kind of cluster what we have.
Nick Beyer: That's awesome. What metrics are you looking at? Are you looking at profitability? Are you looking at revenue? Are you looking at revenue per square foot of these stores?
Like what, as you like, look forward to the future and scaling more? Yeah. Like what things are the most important to you?
KK Goodwin: Net profit is a huge one for us. I mean, like, that's what we've kind of taught every operator how to, how to really look at, um, I mean, so for operators, what they're really measuring is like their labor percentages, their cogs, their expenses, and then their net profit of their stores.
And then for us, we're really looking at we're, I mean we're looking at net profit. Yeah. Like what is each store really making at the end of the day? And then 'cause like, I mean, again, that's, that's been our cash [01:21:00] flow. Mm-hmm. Like that's been how we've fueled the business. And so I think in our net profit's been really strong for every store.
And so I think that's like all of those things kind of measured out together. Those are the things that. When we have these conversations about like taking in partners or whatever, that's gonna look for us, look like for us one day. Um, that's what's been really strong for us. I think people see that and they're like, whoa.
Like, y'all are doing a really great thing. Like, this is like, not what we expected. I mean, I think people on paper are like, oh, it's, it's a fad smoothie thing. Mm-hmm. And then they like dig in and they're like, they have like a full cult following and like, they have really strong financials and like, this business just kind of needs to sit for a year and catch up.
And like, they, I think that paired with, it's kind of an intangible, but measuring the like. Just our, the people, the [01:22:00] customers, like the following that we have. Like how much people truly just like love being a part of Mom Ka. Mm-hmm. Like, it's kind of an intangible thing to measure. I mean, for obviously for like, you know, business growth, you know, those concrete net profit numbers, things like that.
Like what are we spending on food versus like restaurant standard, what are we spending on labor versus restaurant standard? Like, we're kind of quick service, but you know, we can't, we have to make everything fresh. We can't prepare anything beforehand. Like we're measuring those things pretty aggressively.
But I think like an invaluable one is like, how much are people connecting to your brand? So, so
Nick Beyer: good.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: What about same store sales, right? Because you've opened so much in such a short period of time.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Are you, are you measuring and are you looking at, hey, we've had the Fayetteville store seven years in a row.
Yeah. Year after year. Like how are you, how are y'all thinking about
KK Goodwin: that? Yeah, so we measure year over year growth. Um, and they, like every store operator sees that weekly. So we pull those numbers [01:23:00] weekly, like just it's compiled over the last like seven years. And Fayetteville has grown like consistently over seven years.
And I mean there like, we give Fayetteville endless praise for that. I mean, that's, that's crazy. That's crazy. Like that's hard to do. Like to have growth seven years in and I mean, you know, it's like some, when we measure week over, like week over week growth, like this week compared to the same week last year, and I mean, there's weeks where like.
You know, your week is 30% higher, but in like your year over year growth and year seven is two or 3%. But like, you know, the Fayetteville store is so consistent. Mm-hmm. It's so awesome. Um, and then you have stores like College Station, it's been three years now, and their, their yearly growth is like 45%. Like it's wild.
So like, it's also cool to see like, man, the word of mouth, just like it just needed some time in College Station. Mm-hmm. And it's like. Blown up. Mm-hmm. Like year one, you know, we're [01:24:00] like, okay, this store is like, kind of kicking along, like it's a solid little store. And then year three we're like, geez, like y'all are competing with Houston.
So yeah, let's go. It's, so
Cameron Clark: Fort Worth and Houston are the two and top, top ones right now. I would
KK Goodwin: say Austin and Dallas are, I mean, Austin's already up there to kind of compete. I would say Fort Worth and Houston with Dow is kind of right behind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean the, the cities just are,
Nick Beyer: there's a lot of people.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. Yeah. And the college towns are just, are consistent. They just, they kick butt and then like that's, you know, then the college students graduate and they move to. Dallas, you know? Yeah, yeah.
Nick Beyer: What does your role look like now? What does Cody's role look like? What do your parents' role look like?
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Who's playing what, who's sitting where?
KK Goodwin: Yeah. So technical titles. I'm CEO Cody's, COO. My mom is co-founder. Um, and then my dad is the biggest cheerleader on the planet. Um, my brother is a blender at the Fayetteville store when he wants to be. Let's go. Uh, my sister was the assistant operator in [01:25:00] Fayetteville when she was in college, which is awesome.
Okay. Um, she lives in Austin with her fiance now and mm-hmm. Um, but my day to day is like. I mean, right now, it's so weird with it whenever we're in a store opening, it's just, you know, there's, we're still such a small business. Mm-hmm. Like when we're in a store opening, it's like I'm making granola and prepping bananas in the back of house and Yeah.
Then I'm, you know, we're going home and doing the metrics for our weekly call or whatever. And so Cody is really, like, a lot of his role has been construction, getting it across, getting sort of across the finish line. Like luckily with Dallas, Charlotte, and Austin and kind of in our recent growth, we've been able to have legit GCs.
Mm-hmm. That's been life changing. Like, I almost would, like, I wanna go back and say it's, it's worth it. Just do it. But I'm like, we couldn't have like, and so I'm like, I can't even what say that learn and what
Cameron Clark: you learn from it too. For sure. Like, I know so
KK Goodwin: much about plumbing. It's embarrassing almost. But I mean, my role too, like [01:26:00] I am really good at vision.
Like I'm, I really am good at thinking big picture and honestly being able to balance detail. Um, but I can. I can have big goals in really smart and creative ways. And so I think what I've had to realize is like, I've been in a lot of the, like, the kind of gritty details of like operational things and like, that's not like my bread and butter.
Like Cody is really good at the operational things. I love to solve problems, but like when, when I hear that someone's starting a business, I'm like, please call me. Like, please, I want to, I wanna dream about this with you. Mm-hmm. Like, I wanna think about it with you. And so just within Monica, I think it's a lot of like, you know, whether, whether it's new locations or what's kind of the next thing we're gonna do to push the marketing or the brand story or get customers involved in things or whatever it is.
Like mm-hmm. That's just really where I thrive. Um,
yeah.
KK Goodwin: So. That's kind of day to day. And then my [01:27:00] mom is really great at the people like kind of coming into a store, being able to see what needs to be changed, what is running really well. And so that's just kind of always been what she's been great at.
Mm-hmm. Um, we actually just hired a director of operations, which was huge Oh, cool. For us. Mm-hmm. Because up until literally four, three months ago, maybe not even two months ago, it was literally pretty much Cody and I running the day to day. And like it was, it's too much. And so, um, I will say no matter how much money you do or don't have, like director operations, like someone to come in and like help, I mean, there was no sep there's been no separation between Cody and I and operators.
Mm-hmm. And there's a point when you have nine group texts of stores where you're like, I don't even have a brain space to do what I do. Well yeah. Like I can't think big or creatively when I'm, you know, trying to fix someone's payroll or whatever. So. Roles, I think are [01:28:00] changing, like in a really positive way to kind of go back to where they should be and where we thrive.
But you know, when you're in the grind mode, it's kind of, it's hard to get there sometimes. Yeah. You do kind of get, you can easily get buried in, in the HR or whatever.
Nick Beyer: And just so people understand, I mean, how hard is it to operate nine stores, nine physical locations, four different states, you open? Yeah, it sounds like a couple of 'em concurrently.
So I don't know if Cody was here and you were here. Yeah. Like talk about like how hard Yeah. I mean,
KK Goodwin: so hard. I mean, I, I tend to look at my life. I, I am the most optimistic person ever. Like, I look at my life and I'm like, I mean, it's been hard, but you know, it's been fun, like, you know, whatever. Like, it's not been that big of a deal.
And Cody's the one that kind of always brings me back down to earth and he is like. You've gotta give yourself credit. Like you've done the hardest way to do business, like you've done brick and mortar food. Mm-hmm. Nine times. Mm-hmm. Like, and so I [01:29:00] think when I'm like actually able to sit back and like really think about the details, like it's just easy to be like, every day's it's long.
You been something like pretty hard in every day and so you just kinda all wases out. Yeah. But it's been so hard. Like you have to be passionate. You have to like have some sort of goal that you've like got in mind or a purpose to what you're doing, or else you will like literally, I mean, you'll die.
Mm-hmm. Um, and if you don't have good people, you will die. Like, I mean, literally if we did not have the operators we have, we wouldn't be able to do what we do. And so it does like, you know, it is worth taking. If it's me operating a store, if it's Cody and I operating a store for another month, just so we don't have like an average hire and an operator, like we will do that.
We'd be more than willing to, you know Yeah. Be an operator. Yeah. To make sure we have a good, someone in there that we can trust. And [01:30:00] so it's been really hard learning people, management's been hard. Like the people thing's not easy at all. Um, and then, you know, you have hundreds of customers a day. It's really hard to be consistent with something you're making fresh every single time that you're blending.
Like it's, there's been a lot to that. That's pretty gnarly. Um, so it's not been easy, but man, there's been so many lessons learned. Like I'm, I have come out of the last seven years a very strong person. Um, and I think, like I'm, I, I'm pretty proud to be able to say that. I mean, you don't like, you really, you have to be, um, yeah.
So.
Nick Beyer: You gotta have thick skin.
KK Goodwin: Yeah. And
Nick Beyer: your family's such an integral part of the business. Mm-hmm. How, how big of a support system, how big has that been for you over the last seven years? And I mean, yeah, you think about probably a hundred years ago everybody did business with their family. Totally.
Family, business, and then Yeah,
KK Goodwin: for sure. Feel
Nick Beyer: like maybe culture over the last 20 years said, ah, I wouldn't do business with your family. [01:31:00] Yeah. Like, and for sure. So how big has that been for you?
KK Goodwin: Huge. I mean. I think it's been a strength and a total pitfall for us. Like in, in a way of like, you know, my family has been huge like that, that's been our community because like, they get it.
Like we're in, they're the only people that have understood from day one. And I think we're like, Cody and I took a miss is just like general community because we're traveling constantly. We're moving constantly. And like that has absolutely affected us. Like, and I think that's something in this year that like, that's a hundred percent the change we're making.
That's been a part of like our, there's a reason we're taking this year. Like if you don't have community, like something in your life will fall apart. Um, and so family's been that, but like, you know, when we're in all the way in Austin or Dallas and my family's in Fayetteville, like that's not. That's not part of your day-to-day routine.
Mm-hmm. And so you absolutely have to have community. And I think that's been, that has been a miss for us in a lot of, you know, [01:32:00] certain steps of Mom Ka. And so it's been Cody and I being really just kind of leaning on each other. And there's a lot of great things in that. And there's also a, like a lot of lessons you gotta learn in that.
And so, um, it's, we've had some of the craziest marriage counseling within the business that you could possibly have. Um, but man, like, if you choose to make it, like, make you stronger, like you have to, you have to choose that. Like, you can either choose to let certain things break you or you make, they make you stronger.
And like, I think for Cody and I both, we are both the kind of people that you just buckle down and you choose to make certain, let certain things make you stronger. Mm-hmm. So, um, family's been amazing. I mean, I. I do not know what I would do, where we would be without my parents. I mean, oh my gosh. Like my mom has been such a rock, and my dad has been such a cheerleader and so encouraging.
And like my dad is just the person, my, both my parents, they're the people [01:33:00] that like, I have crazy goals and dreams. I've, I always have been. And not one time has it ever been in my life. Like, that doesn't make any sense. Like,
mm,
KK Goodwin: you could like, that's wild. Like good. I mean, that's really cute of you. Like, I mean, I'll have, I could tell my dad tomorrow I wanna be an Olympic swimmer.
And he'd be like, okay, like, where's the closest pool? Like, and so that's just what I've always like, and like that's my mindset and like I've just always, it's always been like, if you're willing to work hard enough at it, you might be five too, but you go, you go be an Olympic swimmer, you know, like just gotta be willing to do it.
And I think that's just been the blessing of my family is like just. That sense of community, that encouragement, that cheerleading, that like, they're such a rock. Um, but I think like if you are building a business, like you've gotta have, like, you've gotta have community, even just outside of your family too.
Mm-hmm. It's so important.
Nick Beyer: Anything else?
Cameron Clark: I, I, I think that's, that's kind of it there. I was [01:34:00] gonna dive into Yeah. Hope here. The, um, so kind of last couple questions wrapping up. Um, how do you define success?
KK Goodwin: Man, I, it's just so cr it's like I would've answered these questions so different like a year ago and I'm, I think I would've been bummed about how I answered it a year ago.
And I think today, I think like you define success. By laying your head down at night and you're proud of yourself, like you're proud of the way you handled your day, you're proud of the way you treated people, proud of your own integrity, your, like the morals you stood by, the things you stood your ground on.
And like, that's success to me. Like you could live the most ordinary life and like life. If you lay your head down at night and you're like, I, I finished this day. Well that's success. Like, I mean, I think culture makes building a business and the entrepreneurial thing like so cool [01:35:00] and so like this thing to just be in chase after and it's awesome.
It is so cool. Like it's, it is like entrepreneurs are really hardworking people, but like you can be wildly successful and you raised three kids and like that was your day to day was being a mom and doing it really well or showing up to your corporate job and you sit maybe in a cubicle and you're like, I don't.
Know really what my purpose is, but I'm gonna do it. Well, like that's success to me. Like you just, you, you do, you finish your day as well. Like that's, I think I, that's, that's my success. That's like what I'm chasing now is really like, if mom call is ripped from me tomorrow. Okay. Like, I, whatever is next. I just want to like lay my head down tonight and be like, I treated people well today, I handled myself well today.
Nick Beyer: Mm-hmm. Wow. So amazing. It's amazing. Um, before, before we go to NWA, just where, talk a little bit about. [01:36:00] Where Monica's heading, some of the dreams you have. Yeah. It sounds like you've had more time recently to reflect Yeah. Even though this is gonna be a year of pause and like totally rest. What exciting things Yeah.
Can people look forward to?
KK Goodwin: Yeah. I think, um, the biggest thing is like, we're probably gonna take a pause from new markets and we're gonna cluster where we are. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, you know, a second store in Houston, Dallas, if that's us expanding Northwest Arkansas, just taking more time to like, be able to go back to where we are.
Mm-hmm. Um, why. Because we've built a really strong foundation. And I think like to us, the strong foundation has been these new markets. It's been kind of the brand recognition in a lot of different cool, fun places. And so now like we have this like, you know, you think about Mama and you're like, yeah, they're in cool, fun spots.
Mm-hmm. And like it's got a cool vibe and um, now we want it to be a part of people's day to day. Truly. Like if you live, like for me in Dallas where I live, I'm not [01:37:00] tech. I'm like 12 minutes from the store. Like I want a store to be like two minutes away from me. Like, you know, I mean it's, we want it to be truly a part of people's kind of day to day.
It's not like the thing that you just do on Saturday mornings or whatever. Mm-hmm. Um, and so that is probably like the biggest reason why, and like just operationally makes a lot of sense to cluster where you already are. New markets are the hardest thing to do. Like Yeah, it's you new, like construction teams are traveling.
It's. I mean, it's new management, new staffing. I mean, if we open a second in Dallas, like, oh my gosh, my life would be so much easier than going all the way to Austin. You know, you can, you can, and we wanna build our team, like our operators. We wanna, we want them to be able to be operators over multiple stores.
We don't want them to just have one store forever. We want them to grow, like, especially some of our city people. Like our operator in Houston, he's awesome. He was director of operations for Chick-fil-A for 15 years. And like that dude like needs more stores. Like he's awesome, you know? And so we wanna grow people.
[01:38:00] Um. And then I think too, like I wanna be able to step out a little bit from my focus really only being new stores and like I wanna jump back into the lifestyle side of Monica. Like yeah. Mm-hmm. I want mom to sell swimsuits that we've designed. Yeah. And just like, you know, cool things like that. Like, I mean, I had a dream like so early on that we were gonna do a music festival one day.
Like, I don't know how crazy we'll get into all of that, but just like when you think of Red Bull, you don't just think of the energy drink, like you think of so many things. Like, I just think there's a lot of ways that we can, I think we've built a great foundation of what Mama Ka can be as a lifestyle brand, and I wanna be able to explore a little bit more of that outside of just thinking about it as a smoothie bowl.
Yeah. Yeah. So,
Nick Beyer: wow. So good.
Cameron Clark: That's awesome. Um, so last question here. You know, we're north of Arkansas focused here. The first, uh, store was here. Yeah. Um. What's your vision for [01:39:00] Northwest Arkansas? Um, could be with Malika with, without it just like, what's your vision for Northwest Arkansas?
KK Goodwin: Yeah. I mean, I think the coolest part about Northwest Arkansas is like all of the, like the cool places that people have built here.
Like there's local spots all over the place and I just, I, that's my dream is that people would just keep opening local spots. Like, I mean, when we opened in Fayetteville, I didn't know if I'd ever move. Like I didn't know if people were gonna show up if I would just operate this one little Fayetteville store forever.
And like, but that's what makes Northwest Arkansas, I think so amazing is like people do they dream here. And like my dream for Northwest Arkansas is that people continue to do that and feel like they have the confidence to, if there's a lease on the square, sign it. Do something. Yeah. And like if you fail, you'll learn something and like, it's not gonna be the end of your life.
Like, yeah, just keep doing things, like keep opening things, keep trying things like I think that's just been. The coolest part [01:40:00] about Northwest Arkansas is the amount of people that are willing to try things. Yeah. Like there's a, like, honestly, like if I'm talking to a community and like, um, I don't know, like another city or something, like, I feel like I have to really harp on the like, stop measuring every risk and just, just do it.
Just like, go for it. But I feel like when I'm like, with this audience of Northwest Arkansas people, I'm like, I don't feel like I have to harp on that. Yeah. Like, I just, I feel like people are so willing to like chase their dreams here, like to really get creative, jump out, do things. So honestly that people just keep doing that.
Like, and like, don't feel like you have to measure up to something that's in Dallas or in Austin or like wherever it may be that you feel like is bigger or shinier, like, Hmm. Fayetteville has like, I mean, north Arkansas has like so many freaking cool things that started here, um, that like, are just as amazing as things in like those bigger flashy cities maybe.
So. Sure. Yeah. [01:41:00] Um, yeah. I mean, and it continues to just be a place that I absolutely is like, it is like my retreat man. Mm-hmm. Like I, I take a breath of fresh air when I pull into Fayetteville, and I just like, I hope that's the way it always is. You know, you just come over that hill and you're like, man, this is, this is the place to be.
This is it. Yeah. Yeah. It's
Nick Beyer: amazing. Well, one of the things we like to do at the end of every episode is just kind of highlight really the biggest things we learn from you at kk. And so I think one of the first things, and it stuck out really early on, but your creativity and thinking differently. Um, I, I think the, the piece you highlight spot in the, in the middle of nowhere, like people come into your home
KK Goodwin: mm-hmm.
Nick Beyer: And like faithfully coming back, like Yeah, that's, that's different. Like
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And, and taking risks that, I mean, your 21-year-old gal who just graduated high school. Yeah. Like that's really different. Yeah. Like, that's not what anybody else is doing.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And so I think thinking differently as you think [01:42:00] about different people we've had on the podcast or, um, different founders of businesses, like they, they did have to think differently.
Mm-hmm. And I think you model that really well. Um, for us even with talking about the lifestyle, the things you wanna do with the brand and the lifestyle of it. Yeah. Like, that's different. That's not. There's no franchise that is going to be able to replicate totally that creativity. So love that. The next piece, and I think we've seen it in a lot of our founders, but you're absolutely, you're hyper obsessed with your product.
Mm-hmm. And I think what's cool about your story is you kind of reversed engineered it. Mm-hmm. Like you were hyper obsessed with your product and then you're like, okay, this does make money. Like Yeah. But you took all the risk. Totally. You focused on the product and like, the success or, or the, you know, fruit came after.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: After you already did it. Yeah. And so I think that that part's just really, um, cool. And I think the last piece, I think the thing that what, adding
Cameron Clark: onto that first Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And
Cameron Clark: [01:43:00] in the product, like you, you knew what the product was. Mm-hmm. And you know who you are. Mm-hmm. And your family. It was like, it was like both of those, like with your gut, it was like,
Nick Beyer: you know, let's go.
Yeah. Like, we've got it.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And I think the last piece, and he just kind of hit on it. Like your conviction mm-hmm. I think is one of the strongest that I've been around. Like, your conviction to expand to mm-hmm. Nine different markets. Like that's crazy. Yeah. That's a little bit of lunacy. Oh yeah. For, but for sure.
But that's also conviction, kk. Yeah. And I mean, you talked about that even pausing this year, like everyone culture, you listen to podcasts. Yeah. You, you, you meet with different business owners, they're like, what? Now you're having success grow. Totally. Go chase it. Yeah. And you're like, no, yeah, we're gonna pause this year.
You know why? Because that's what our business needs.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: And no one knows that except you. Yeah, totally. Because you founded the business. Totally.
KK Goodwin: Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Um, and then I think even just hearing you talk about your vision, like you're, you're, you're talking about growing people in your organization, like that's [01:44:00] conviction.
Mm-hmm. That's not just growing to grow For sure. Like that's growing because you have a true conviction about what you're doing. People who work for you. Mm-hmm. Like you truly care. So yeah. Just really fun to talk to you, kk. It's fun. Thank you. Get to go to college together and then, you know, this comeback full circle seven years later for sure.
And so it's so
KK Goodwin: awesome. That's the other cool thing about North Arkansas. Everything ends up full circle somehow. It's like, it does. It is so cool. It's so fun. So thank you guys. Like y'all have complimented me so much in this. I think like probably for any founder, like you're in your day to day so much like it is such an honor for I think people in like my seat to be able to like hear from other people that, like, you think what we've done is, is something cool, like something worth talking about.
And so thank you for highlighting what y'all highlight. It really does mean a lot. And uh, it gives us some, some wind in the sails a little bit to keep going.
Cameron Clark: Absolutely. How can people get ahold of you or like Ika in general? Where Yeah, where do people go? [01:45:00]
KK Goodwin: Uh, Instagram's probably the best. Um, mama Bowls is just, it's the, that's the business.
Instagram and then KK Goodwin. I think there's an underscore in there somewhere, maybe at the end. Yeah. Uh, and then you can always email me KK at Mama Cobbles. So sweet. Yeah.
Nick Beyer: Thanks. Thank you guys. Thanks for being on kk.