You are techY podcast

Ellen (00:00):

You are listening to the You are techY podcast, episode number 167.

Voiceover (00:10):

Welcome to the, You are techY podcast where it’s all about growing in your techy-ness. So you can find the tech job of your dreams. And now your host technology learning coach Ellen Twomey.

Ellen (00:27):

Hey moms, are you trying to break into tech? Are you wondering what skills you really need to get hired and how those skills can be worth $45 an hour? Not that $25 an hour you thought when you first started thinking about going back to work? If so, then the You are techY membership is for you. Our combination of courses, coaching and community, come with a mentor support. You need to keep moving forward into your tech career. It’s like no other membership available. We have the exact skills employers are looking for. You learn how to maximize your income with portfolio ready skills that hiring managers are seeking, not to mention the steps you can skip. So you don’t find yourself down that endless tech learning rabbit hole. Join me as we walk you step-by-step through the getting hired process in tech. Sign up at youaretechy.com. That’s Y O U A R E T E C H Y.com. I can’t wait to see you in our membership.

Ellen (01:23):

Erica Tuggle is the founder and c e O of Cook Connect, a platform that connects busy families with early career personal cooks to eliminate the burden of meal planning and enables fulfilling culinary careers, which also extends the benefits of personal cooking to more families with healthier meal options without the time. Eric Duns worked for well-known companies including American Express, general Mills and Coca-Cola where she served in roles in brands and market, but a heavy brand of Sprite, honesty and Coca-Cola. She most recently loved the strategy and growth agenda for Coca-Cola brand is focus on the core customer retention, youth recruitment as the grand director. She has an undergraduate degree from NYU Stern School of Business and an MBA Harvard Business School. She lives in Atlanta with her children ages five and seven. And her husband Nathan. Erica, welcome to podcast. 

Erica:

Thanks Ellen great to be here.

Ellen (02:25):

I love it. It’s so fun to have you and I mean it’s pretty obvious why someone like me would trying to connect various and applicable. Tell us why didn’t you become a founder to connect and what drove you, you personally to start it? I think my audience is gonna be both excited about this town. 

Erica:

Yes, now thanks again for having me. Cook connect. Honestly, it came outta me trying to solve my own problem, which was basically that I could not figure out how to feed my family well without sacrificing things that I wasn’t willing to sacrifice. Honestly, sacrificing health, sacrificing our, our time, sacrificing quality. I grew up on homemade meals from my mom. I absolutely love connecting through food and nourishing our bodies through food. But it was crazy when I was working and building my career, I found it increasingly difficult to figure out how to do that myself.

Erica (03:15):

And so I actually got the idea from other moms when I was trying to figure out like how is everybody doing this? And I found that they were hiring people but they weren’t ever hiring like an executive chef or someone who was super expensive. They were finding people in their community who could help them. And so I decided to try it to try to figure out how to make it easier for more people, including myself, to find those people and two, have better meals without sacrifice and without the time commitment. 

Ellen:

Love it. I think it’s such a brilliant idea too because we often associate personal chef with high end experience. But I know when I will, I will date myself that I still age all the time. I guess it’s not a big deal. When I was younger I’m, when I was in my twenties, I’m from Detroit, everybody lost ca in Detroit.

Ellen (04:00):

I don’t know if that’s true but it feels like it’s true. But I really did not like driving after I was 16 and I drove for six months. I was like, I’m done. What I would spend money on, what luxury I would have would be a driver. Sure. Transfer the world. We got Uber, we got left. Even if it feels like this like fancy exclusive thing, you are really trying to bring personal cooking to the masses. It’s, you know, so I’m kind of hearing you right, exactly right. 

Erica:

Yeah, and it’s been really interesting cuz my, obviously as I shared my perspective on this came from my own problem. So more the consumer side. But as I’ve learned more about the culinary talent that exist in our communities, I’ve just been blown away. I mean, awesome. You have people who are in restaurants who are truly skilled, they might be on the line, they’re not making a lot of money and they’re looking for more flexible opportunities.

Erica (04:46):

They’re looking for different ways to practice their craft. And so it was really exciting to me when I started to uncover that part of the business a little bit more too because there’s so much talent and even beyond the people in the restaurants, right? You probably know people who are awesome cooks who may not wanna start their own business, but on the side, hey, it’d be a great gig tip for them. So that’s exactly what we’re trying to do. Let’s tap into that, turn in and see how we can help more people. Have a personal shack. Pretty amazing. This is so amazing. And so, you know, I mean we’re just talking about the masses, but like who should use Sox and why? Yeah, like give us, walk us through like the like a even a day-to-day example of how they wake up. Yeah, absolutely. Any busy family.

Erica (05:24):

So think about two parents who are in their careers committed to their careers about alo, committed to their families and trying to juggle everything. So I can picture right myself, you working, trying to figure out how to get the activities done after school, homework, juggling literally everything. Hey, if you wanna work out or <laugh> do something that’s not in that list of things. Forget about it. And then, oh yeah, what are we eating for dinner? Which is what makes everybody wanna pull their hair out. So that’s the person, like that’s the family. That’s the load that they’re carrying. Our hope is that we can can take some of that load that they don’t have to worry about the mental burden of figuring out what to eat. And then of course the time to prepare to shop, to clean all of that is, is taken care of by us.

Ellen (06:08):

Ooh, the cleaning. Ooh I think I forgot that part. My listeners will know that I am not a fan of my, okay, so let, so, so that’s really interesting. So you know, you started Cook Connect because of this pain point that, but what would you say the best part of it is isn’t giving people shoot industry more opportunities to, to generate income, which as you and I’ve spoken before, like this is, it’s a b really low theme industry, especially when you first get started. Yeah. Can you speak a little bit about that? 

Erica:

Yeah, absolutely. And so it is, it’s funny that you mentioned the cleaning cause that’s what customers I think sometimes think of. The best part, from my perspective, I have really connected with just the accessibility of it. And when I say that you’re talking about this culinary talent, I that’s behind the kitchen or in the kitchen of your favorite restaurant, they don’t typically have access to these types of jobs.

Erica (07:01):

It’s either because they don’t have, you know, the, excuse me, it’s either because they don’t have the cache or they don’t have the connections or they don’t know how to market themselves and how to get the customers, whatever it might be. They just don’t have access to it. And to your point, Sarah, to you’re in Atlanta making 15, $17 an hour, you know, working in the kitchens and a family, you know would pay a babysitter likely more than that. And that’s what we are basically providing is them the opportunity to get that more lucrative income but also while they’re still, you know, maintaining some of their other work. I would also say it’s similar for the families, right, to be able to access the benefits of this, you know, personal chef type lifestyle, the health benefits, the time savings, I mean it, it’s a dream, but to what you were talking about before, just like private drivers, it doesn’t have to be a dream for you know, the top, you know, 1% or whatever of communities.

Ellen (07:55):

Yeah. Let’s, so fantastic. Or let’s talk a little bit of tech. What technical skills do you feel have helped you the most in your career? And if you could even speak to like do you feel techy? Why or why not? And how do you view that whole concept of being a founder of a technology? 

Erica:

Yeah, it’s a great question because I, I’m not a technical founder <laugh> and I’m very transparent about that. But it’s interesting because as I’ve been just introduced more to the tech world or the techie world, I’ve actually realized that there are so many kinda attributes to being technical. And so for me, I really, I consider myself techie because I have a deep appreciation for technology and the value it can bring to simplifying our lives, bettering lives, that sort of thing. From a skills standpoint really. And as I’ve learned in Building Cook Connect, my skill comes from more you think about the customer perspective and how that plays into the product and how that plays into things like UX or how that plays into customer journeys throughout your product and your experience.

Ellen (08:55):

That’s where I’ve seen some of my more, if you will’s technical skill come through, it’s certainly not encoding. It’s certainly not in, you know, bleeding out even as simply as it can be the wire frames. It’s really an understanding the consumer and how those journeys should happen or will happen and also what data sets are required to support those. Yeah. Which is such an important piece of that because so much of technology is to like understanding and then communicating exactly what’s needed. And I think that, you know, in my experience that can be undervalued and undervalued skill, people don’t quite understand how important it is and how much money and time you can spend if you are not able to communicate that. It’s really, it really is part of, it’s really part of that process. So I That’s a great, that’s a great answer so I love it.

Ellen (09:45):

So, okay, you talked about your origin story about starting this company, but you can go a little deeper and maybe even a little broader, but what are would factors most impacted your decision to start a company? Because you know, you, you couldn’t solve this a lot of different ways, you could just solve it for yourself or there are a lot of ways you could have gone with this, you know, why did you decide? 

Erica:

Yeah, it’s a great question. It’s a big decision. I, you know, I always had whatever a bug or an and appetite for trying my own thing, trying to build, you know, my own company. It was part of the reason why I went to Harvard Business School for general management, you know, mba, part of the reason even why I went to General Mills cuz they also focused on general management, never quite had the problem to solve.

Erica (10:27):

So it kind of just sat in me, you know, for a while and I think a few things happened. One, I was really struggling with the problem as I mentioned, I had just had my second daughter, I moved into a bigger role on the Cook trademark team and it was really, it was very visceral kinda experience for me because it’s how I nurture and as I thought about, you know, what problems I would wanna solve, it very quickly became the one not just bubbled to the top so that I could support more women, you know, like myself who are trying to do many things that fulfill them including you know, their careers and raise their family the way they want to. And so that was a big part of it but honestly it was also very personal in terms of where I was. So I felt like, you know, I actually had the idea before and then I really started feeling the pain with the second child and, but it wasn’t the right time before when I decided to leave Koch and to start to pursue this, it was absolutely the right time for me.

Erica (11:23):

Like I felt like I had been in brand marketing for, you know, over 10 years. I had done a lot of awesome work there that I was really proud of but I felt to challenge myself more, I could feel myself getting just excited about it, something new and something that was intellectually challenging and would push me in different ways. And so that was the piece and I had experiences in my career at that point in food and beverage and working with the culinary industry, ACA Cola and working with our food partners that had given me what I needed to be successful at solving this problem. Nice. Oh can I add one more thing? For sure. Important. I had the support system too. I think that’s just really critical and so yeah. And so I remember when I made the decision or when I was making this decision, I called my parents, I talked to my husband, you know, I threw it out to a couple of friends just to hear reactions <laugh> and what was awesome was that everybody was even more confident than I was.

Erica (12:18):

But it was also just really comforting and reassuring to that, okay, I’m gonna try this really hard thing but I have people around me who will, will be able to support and who will be willing to support. And so that was also probably the third most important thing for why it made sense and why I decided to do it. That’s fantastic. So you didn’t just like come home and tell your husband sorry work. I just called in that conversation. I just didn’t think that’s rare. I actually think the fact that you like the people that in your circle that were encouraging to you, that’s not every entrepreneur was experienced, right? Like was they that’s a safe job, you know, you got poke where I’m from is four, oh you get a job with four and you just stay there and that’s the way we call it floats sometimes.

Ellen (13:00):

Yeah. So was there any that, like why would you ever leave poke? What did you get any of that reaction here? You know, I not I’m to my face, my face, but no interesting what I did get and I think it’s a bit of a privilege, but I had worked really hard and so the reaction I got was, you know, if it doesn’t work out like go back or do something else and that’s not always a reality. So I recognize that but it was also really, you know, nice push to make me feel more comfortable in taking the risk.

Ellen:

Fantastic. That’s great. So I feels like you’ve answered this one but let me ask it again because then there’s another takeout this, but how has motherhood impacted your career decision? Yeah, it’s impacted it in a lot and it’s interesting as I think about this, there’s actually, I, you know that book Lena.

Erica (13:45):

So I honestly, I didn’t love all of it but there was one part of it that resonated with me, which was concept around, don’t count yourself out until you’re out. And as I’ve had children and started trying to make decisions in my career, really took that to heart. And so I say that because I mentioned when I had my daughter and I actually interviewed for the Koch jab while I was on maternity leave. And so I came back from maternity leave pretty much straight into that promotion and I wasn’t sure that was the right decision, but I also wasn’t sure that it wasn’t the right decision. So often in my career I think motherhood has obviously been a really important piece, but I have always taken the perspective of let me try to see what I can do to fulfill me and my family and then if it doesn’t work, take a step back.

Erica (14:32):

And that has been actually, it’s worked well for me. And it’s similar honestly for the decision to start Cook Connect because it is, I mean gosh, you know, you’re fully committed, nothing you have to be to get something off the ground and go from zero to wine and so was a very big decision from a motherhood perspective and how that might change me or you know, as a mother I think it’s made me even better honestly. But I also think it has, it has required me to also be very honest about what’s working and what’s not working because they feel like as an entrepreneur some things can very quickly take over because you are so focused on, you know, trying to make the vision happen. 

Ellen:

There’s too much of that I gotta poke. So what does your not like? Yeah, some of it for me, I mean it, and I’m a go-getter, but some of it for me I felt like almost, you know, pushed too far.

Erica (15:20):

I think some of the things are very personal in terms of the decisions women make around how they wanna mapping their careers and that sort of thing. And some of it felt, you know, very, they’re presumptive or pushy and so that was some of what I didn’t love about it. Honestly, it’s been so long since I read it but I, and so I remember that feeling. But I really did like that concept that I talked about because it has helped me I think to continue to move forward and not hold myself back until I realized, okay, you know what, maybe this doesn’t work. Yeah, I think I love all of that because I think that right, like if I look at Cheryl, I mean she’s obviously fantastic. What gave her that confidence to, to work with, I can’t imagine that she would know had any semblance of like where that should go.

Ellen (16:01):

Like it’s such a big risk even though he was smart, like he probably indicat something out, know what’s happened and I don’t know everything about Facebook but like you can’t deny that’s a big impact culturally, but Right. But I do know but even though I haven’t been, I’ve no, I do know like I <inaudible> circle of and I would not make those big choices, right? Like when my kids were young I always wanted to maximize time. Can you talk about looking at your career and making decisions for so long I wanted to maximize time with kids part of like everything around in charge of all these things. And then I realized like, okay, but at a certain point are you being example that you want your kids? Mm-hmm <affirmative> teaching and I was like okay, you know, and also I’m a big personality and part of working and this like, I don’t even think I’ve ever shared this but it’s pretty sunny.

Ellen (16:41):

Part of my working is like my kids didn’t need quite so much Helen, right? Like they didn’t need quite so much mom. They’re like, they need to figure stuff out. I have a huge personality. And so just giving them that space, they, all of them have these bigger personalities. I do. Just giving them that space. Even like volunteering in classrooms and things like that. Like I don’t, I don’t really volunteer in classrooms. I do lots of other things like totally I’ve done that. You know, race kids are, the older ones are older. Yeah. Little ones too, but Valerie ones, but you know, they’re like teenagers and I realize that sometimes in the presence in their life I wanted to more of an example of presence. Does that makes sense? Yeah. Oh totally. No, I totally relate to that And cause it’s, I mean especially I feel like in this chapter of my career they have really connected with Built and Cook Connect and they have, you know, participated and everything from like when we were trying to name it to when, you know, I’m even like testing chefs and every little bit.

Erica (17:37):

So that’s been for me so special because to your point, you’re an example and you’re showing them a way to you know, build their own hopefully livelihood and you know, and their own future and take their ideas and make them into reality and there’s so much power, all of that. And I feel like they’re getting it so much more from this experience. Yeah, I think that’s beautiful. And I shared just like you, I share with my kids some more, some less like ever interested. Yeah. How about like when we ask you about my day, I’m like, okay look I’m a really cute things and this is great learn and where fail and like think about that. And I think it’s really interesting, powerful, in my experience, I was raised by two teachers so my family would never say like, don’t start a company that they’re just, they’re like, it’s crazy all the time, but they’re a hard time about it.

Ellen (18:22):

It’s not like why are you doing that? They’re like, that’s who you are. So I just have a different principles. So, but my husband is entrepreneurial and so that that kind of only steps with us. I often think, oh my gosh, my kids are being raised in such a different way than I was viewing the world from a different way. Right? As teachers there’s this, and I was a teacher so I know like you have to know what you’re talking about. You have to entrepreneurship, there’s so much like don’t know Laura fail, right Failure. That is something I had to grow to in my adult that oh my goodness, I’m excited for my children to really learn that and benefit. That’s what I’m sure you share those stories with your daughters like a failure or when something doesn’t work. Yes, we do. And that’s like, you know, we always do that.

Erica (19:09):

How is your day today? And like if I’ve had a crappy day, I’d tell ’em, gosh, it was a really hard day and this is why and this is what happened. And I think it’s one, I just think it’s healthy, you know, for them to know that things don’t always go well. Yeah. Because they absolutely, you know, need to be able to roll with the punches. It’s one of the things that I feel like this experience is, is making me tougher. Honestly. You have to get tougher, but I’m happy to share that with them because of that. And when things are great and helping them understand the details, they get it. Some things are a little bit abstract or hard to understand but like, I met with this person and we talked about this and then I did this and then I, you know, followed up on this et cetera and can follow that.

Erica (19:50):

And I think it just opens their eyes to your point, to a different way of being, which is really fine. Hoping there’s curiosity there, there’s perseverance there that starts to really develop for them. Yeah, that’s fantastic. Okay. 

Ellen:

What’s the hardest part? Hold on, sturdy. You were saying something earlier that made me think about this. 

Erica:

It’s the emotional experience. I’ll call it a rollercoaster <laugh>, that’s what it is. And the emotional experience. And I’ll be honest, I don’t think anybody meant that to me. You know, everybody talks about, you know, obviously the challenge of finding your first users and you know, financing the business and all types of things that are kind of the nuts and bolts. But I don’t think people talk a lot about just the emotional component. I mean cuz it’s everything from your own confidence, right? And I’ve had to work through and think about that where, you know, you might have five people telling you that you know, you’re not doing the right thing in in one day.

Ellen (20:43):

You have to take what’s valid in that feedback, but also have some conviction around some things that you’re doing. And so it’s a really interesting development exercise for me in some ways to emotionally make sure that I am maintaining confidence in myself, make sure that I’m also not sweating this semester, you know, in a lot of ways. And to your point, you have to be comfortable with that, which is not my background. That was not what we did at a Coca-Cola very well or at any of the other large companies that worked at very well. So it’s all of those things while there are, there’s some I guess, skill component to it. There’s also a lot of emotional development to it. Oh, and I mean you brought the brands so you’re obviously a good student. So straight up you might have the best educational pedigree on the podcast.

Ellen (21:34):

I’ll let you take a look. As you know, third in HBS is pretty powerful. That’s a pretty powerful time. Oh shoot. My husband is was on the podcast. He’s probably the podcast still. Oh, he, he likes to say Harvard. Harvard’s second checking. Totally disregard. But anyway, so not, so I think that being a good student can be a hin starting. It’s interesting cause in some ways I think you’re right cuz there’s a little bit of rule following there and it’s starting companies, there’s quite a bit of rule breaking in other way. I love that. And the way that I’ve addressed that is by surrounding myself with people who can help me push me, you know, in, in some of those ways can help me get more comfortable with it. Even, you know, mentors who are like, wait you kidding? For you. Like, just do it.

Erica (22:18):

Nobody cares. Try it and figure it out. Nobody cares yet. They will. And then the other piece, education, being a student where it does help me, I think that I do love to study like problems and things like I, I love and especially people, which is why I went into marketing and so, and brand. And so yeah. So that piece I think helps me. But you’re right, there’s definitely, there are definitely something that I have to overcome, you know, in order to function as I need to in building a startup. Yeah, that’s super interesting. Okay. All right. What advice? This is my favorite question. You know what’s funny? You, you’re like, I love that question, the type question everyone lost question. Which I do too, and I think it’s really important for my audience, but this is my favorite question cause the answers are so fantastic.

Ellen (23:03):

So I’m just gonna set the button bars really high soon, y’all let me down. So the advice that you, you’ll give to a woman, especially a mom Yeah. Who’s considering starting a tech company, especially if she’s a non-technical founder, what advice would you give to her? 

Erica:
Such a good question. And now you’re right. I’m scared of this bar. You immediately come to mind. Wait, we’ve just had a great conversation. Obviously you know each other before, but like, I’ve really connected with women in this space who are more technical than me, but who are also so, so supportive. Like, one of the things that I, and everybody always asks me, oh, what do you like about, you know, being in the startup community in Atlanta is the support that is like when I say number one and it’s typically coming from women and underrepresented founders like myself, and not just us, but there’s something special about the connection we can have with each other.

Erica (23:58):

So one of my top piece advice is to find your women. Like find the ladies who are, you know, in the space, know what they’re doing and can really support you because it is hard. It is very hard, right? And so you need that. So now I’d have, you know, groups that I’ll, you know, slack or go to lunch with or whatever I need. And they can do the same because I think we need to help each other, right? Yeah. Get to where we wanna be. And when I think about motherhood, there’s also something about being really clear, even still on why you’re doing this and what you wanted. Because I do think in last year, in my first year we, there was a lot that, there’s still a lot to figure out, but there is a lot to figure out. I felt like I knew nothing all the time.

Erica (24:41):

<laugh> and put myself in it. Yeah. 150%. And that wasn’t all healthy for me and my family. And so I had to remember why I was doing this. The, you know, the purpose behind the problem. I wanted to solve what I wanted to do for other families, but also what we wanna do for our own family. And so I think that’s something that’s really important too, because as I mentioned before, it can be all consuming and people talk a lot about that. But you do have, I had someone gimme some great advice at the top of this year. Like everything’s a choice and you have to figure out what choices are right for you. But make those choices. Don’t, you know, let them, that is so good. 

Ellen:

That’s such great advice. I love it. I love it. Everything’s a choice. You make me think about, you’ve said it a couple times and then me think about dinner and what, when we’re talking about cooking mats, right?

Erica (25:29):

And we’re talking about, we’re talking about home stops and, but when I’m at dinner and my kids are talking and I’m trying to focus and then my brain travels off to student work and then I just bring it back like it’s a choice, right? Like to be present and Yeah. And listen, it’s, it’s like, oh, it’s so sweet. You know, like, oh that’s totally, it’s a, the thought of it like, oh yeah, Ellen, just bring it back. But when your 10 year old son is talking to you about, you know, I’m gonna say Star Wars, but that’s one of the more interesting topics, you know, like what I, we can talk about some things that I do not care about. Okay. One of his random books. But that in like that is the hardest thing for me because I love that he’s talking about a book that he’s reading and I just wanna be there and I wanna be present and I want, and then it’s metrics I real, you know, mean and then you come back and that’s, that’s real, right?

Erica (26:21):

Like that’s part of what yeah, part of what donated company is about, I think. Yeah, you think about it all the time and so to your point you have to actively, you know, give some of that time back. That’s fantastic. Okay, so now everybody in the whole world’s gonna wanna try Coconut Connect. We’re available. You’re available. It is latest. So right now, yes, coming to local area, coming to Nationwide. So very soon, you guys. Very soon. 

Ellen:

So where can people find you? And then I hate you have an Oscar for I you we did. So people can go to our website to find us and learn more. It’s cook connect.com. K o n e C t. So no C in the middle. But you’ll find the, you’ll be able to peruse the menu, see some shafts and even book if you’re interested. And if you do book, you can use the techie promo code. So it’s just techie and that will get you $40 off of your personal service with that. 

Ellen:

I love it. I love it. So cch y techy book connect $40 off. How awesome was that, Erica, thank you so much for coming down the strokes. 

Erica:

Absolutely. Thank you Ellen. I, it was really fun. I enjoyed it. Me too.

Ellen (27:30):

Hey if you enjoyed listening to this podcast you have to sign up for the You are techY email list. Imagine being in the tech job of your dreams. Join me to get the strategies training and never ending support to get hired. Sign up at youaretechy.com. That’s Y O U A R E T E C H Y.com. I’ll see you next time.