I am so excited. This has been a big week. So first we had
Father's Day, then we had my birthday, then we had Juneteenth. Now we have the summer stoolses,
but all I cared about all week, including not my birthday, was today and getting to talk to my
dear friend, my sister that I always wanted, my friend that I only have met one week in my life,
but I just adored her from the second I met her and you will too. So today on
a jewelry as your side hustle with Sugar Gay is where that's me. We're going to have Stephanie
Daly, who is the owner, the creator, the cook, the love child of Send Your Friend Lasagna.
Send Your Friend Lasagna. Welcome to the show, my friend Stephanie. Thank you. Thank you.
Like seriously, it's been a week and a half. I don't know. Like this week it's just been like
crammed everything in, but I just am so glad that we're going to have an hour today to just
kind of like talk about your business and reminisce about the blocks and I get to learn
more about you and then our friendship just gets that much better. And that's what's so much fun
about hosting a podcast is that you just talk about people, get to ask them everything. So now
you start to start us off by telling, giving us your elevator pitch and all the stuff that we need
to know. Wes isn't here, right? So I can just say what? No, you're not being graded. You're not
going to be thrown off the stage. You're 100%. You got on the stage the first night, didn't you?
No. No. Okay. I'm seeing something else. Okay. I think Jen did. Okay. Anyway, that's our other
friend. Okay. Take it away, Stephanie. I didn't get on the stage at all. I was so sad, but you know,
it was a great experience. So and I got to meet amazing people like you. So I made it all work.
But yes, I am Stephanie Daly. I am the owner of Send A Friend Lasagna in Indianapolis, Indiana.
I created it from absolutely nothing. It was just an idea that I came up with after a friend of mine's
wife died. And I quit my job. I started as a side hustle, and I was working in digital media marketing.
And I remember I just, I told my husband one day, I was like, I have to do this. I have to do it.
If I don't do it, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life. And my very supportive, stable husband.
Okay, babe. You go for it. So yeah, I started Send A Friend Lasagna in 2019, November of 2019.
So it's been going on for a good five years now. Five years. It's, I can't like even like
comprehend that. It's just amazing. It's crazy. So how do they love you, Indiana? Because if you
lived here, we would like to shine on you all the time. Like, you know, I can just smell the lasagna
from here. I want that lasagna. But it has to do with, I never even thought, oh, what a great thing
when like there's a baby that's just been born or somebody's home from the hospital and they
got to feed their family still. And like what a gift that is to be able to share the love of
something that you're making with love and that you get to share it. Now, and how big of a delivery
area do you have around for your location is? So in Indianapolis, we have an Indian metro area,
which is a circle around the city. So we do that. And then we expanded 15 miles outside of Indian
apolis. So it's, it's a good delivery area. We hit a lot of what we call our donut counties there.
So it's a good, it's a good size area. You know, I'm working on other things and
failure is part of success, right? How in there? That's all it is. It's just learning, right? Like,
you bootstrap this whole industry that you've created on a single idea with now you have a
commercial kitchen. Now you have employees that are always have to be responsible and respectful
and fun to be with and getting a delivery drivers. And then so this whole like how people connect
with you, it's like really big because it's a lot of people. It's, you know, I don't know how many
people are that, but here it would be a ton of people. And, and then everybody has a reason.
Nobody doesn't like lasagna, but you really like, if I was to go get like a box lasagna from wherever,
you know, it's not made with love or maybe even not even like real meat or maybe not even like
real cheese or all of the above, like the ingredients aren't that wholesomeness that we would want
and a good Italian mother making a lasagna. Are you Italian now? I'm not. I love it though.
You're like a mama mia that I want to be. It's funny because my grandparents owned a restaurant.
Yeah, it was called Dunham's Prime Time back in the late or yeah late 70s early 80s. And I walked
around like I own the damn place. I was like, I was eight years old telling the cooks, hey, you need
to whatever. Oh, you're bossy boots. That's all you are. Just a boss. I like them. I'm a nice boss.
But my love of food came from that, you know, came from that standing in the kitchen on the
step stool and I know it sounds so like, I don't know, whatever, but just like standing on a step
stool watching my grandmother make, you know, soups or, you know, watching my mom make her own
sauce and, you know, knowing what that smells like and knowing what that tastes like. It can just
take you food can transport you to a different place in your heart and your mind. And those memories
are very vivid and very clear for me. And I, you know, I just know my, my dad was always one of those
people who you always had to have a job. Gotta have a job. Gotta have a job. Be responsible. Gotta
have a job. And unfortunately, I lost him 15 years ago. But when I, if I told him I was doing this,
like when he was alive and I told him, he'd be like, no, you need a job, health insurance,
part of it ever. I know you are. I'm working more now than I've worked my entire, you know,
30 years, 40 years in the industry. I mean, just crazy. I did. So there's a couple of layers of
things that you do really well, besides the fact that you've got by the mystique of the restaurant
industry out of the way at an early age, like you're like, it's about good food. It's about blah,
blah, blah. And it's about, you know, there's a lot of aspects to cooking good food for people
and having it all the things it has to, has to be, you know, look good, smell good, be safe,
you know, be yummy, fill you up, feel like you've got some nutrition behind you. Like,
and lasagna does have nutrition in it because there is so much good tomato in there. It's such a
good thing in the protein and the cheese. But, you know, and then you did this whole other life
where you became a really great marketer. And that's why, I mean, that's, that's the most
invaluable thing. I would say even in my world, like I'm a writer first, because you've got to be
able to have those basic skills, right, to be able to create your, your business. Like it,
you have to be everything nowadays. You have to be the photographer. You have to be the go-to person.
You have to be everything. But you got those good two really great things. Those things your dad
would be proud of that you really have great skills. Like seriously, your marketing is amazing.
Thank you. I like to think that I was born a marketer. I was telling, you know, jokes at my
grandparents' restaurant to people at their tables. I'd tell them, tell them they were my big mouth
frog jokes. I'm trying to eat their prime rib and crab and stuff. And I'm like, you want to hear a
big mouth frog joke? And they're like, oh, hey, little girl. I mean, I just never, I was like,
of course they want to hear my, of course they want to hear my joke. What the hell, right?
You're going table to table and doing a little side hustle there. I'm just keeping everybody
happy. I'm not bringing you some, you know, butter or anything like that.
Huh? Adorable. You're adorable. Oh my God. I'm such, so funny. The way, and anybody who has been
in the restaurant business can tell you it is a mess. I mean, you have to be crazy, like crazy as a
fox to want to be in this industry. But once it gets a whole, it gets a whole of you, you fall in
love with it and you can't do anything else your whole life. I mean, I can't do anything else.
I'm not going back to marketing. You know, I spent 10 years in digital media marketing,
but I've been marketing products my whole life. I mean, I sold shoes and I was 16. I was the top
one. I was the top producer in my region when I was 16 for nine last. I was an insurance person.
I did, you know, I got to territory. My territory was the biggest one. You know, everybody loved me.
So I mean, I've always just had that hustle, I guess is the right word or the grit to just,
you know, okay, here, this is a hundred, but I can make 200, you know, I can make 300 or whatever.
So I've always just had that type of mentality. Yeah. Entrepreneurial spirit.
I know, but I didn't know I was an entrepreneur. I didn't know because I was always like, you know,
everybody was like, you have to have a job. You have to, you know, have a job. You have to have a
boss. You have to, you know, have insurance, you know, all the things that we think about, you know,
in our daily lives. And, you know, like I said, I'm fortunate to have a very stable husband because
I can go real quick. So we're the same. We have the same husband. It does matter. Like, you know,
there's, there's a whole side of our lives that people don't know about that is really
because our husbands are there to back us up. And that really makes it all possible. I get you.
I remember you telling me about your husband the first night I met you, like, I get it. Like,
it's, it's a partnership. And my husband, if I said, oh, we're going to do this entrepreneurial
thing, he would just cry. He'd be like, no, no more. Please just stop. We could have had money
if you hadn't started on this jewelry journey. Mr. D doesn't cry. At least I don't know that he does.
Maybe he doesn't like bathroom when I'm asleep. But it is kind of true. Like, it's like, geez,
geez. Right. Because there's so many, I think it's very hard to have a business when you've got,
there's so much demands on you. I mean, now apps are now costing money. That's the new thing that
just kind of is coming up. Like, you have to be able to like do all of these things. And, you know,
your thank you notes and your, you know, all the little special touches that you put in within your
product all costs money. Like that's something that a lot of people don't realize. But like,
it's not just the lasagna. You've got your storage, you've got your overhead, you've got your insurance.
All of the poor little things. It's hard to have a business. And bootstrap it. Number one, like,
I hope your friends buy a lot of lasagna from you. Do they? Because if I was there, I would be. I'd be
like, I'm very lucky. I've had, you know, the weird part about my business is that I started it
before COVID. And it was, you know, I was doing okay. And I looked back at my journals as I journal
stuff, you know, so I can remember when I'm old and can't remember shit. I remember my goal was to do
30 lasagnas a month. That was my goal. When I first started Center Friend Lasagna. And now I do
anywhere between 125 and 150 lasagnas a month. I mean, consistently, December is crazy, right?
Because I do, you know, employee, like gifts instead of like giving them a ham, they give them a lasagna.
That's beautiful. Yeah. And so it just, it morphed in when COVID hit, it morphed into something
so different from what I thought in my head it was going to be. But I'm just like, you know,
me, I'm going to roll with the punches, right? I'm just going to keep going. And nobody's going to
tell me to stop because this is mine. And I'm going, right? How did COVID affect you? Plus, plus,
plus? Was it all good? Because I would have been ordering. It was awesome. I mean, I had just started,
like I said, in November, and then COVID hit in like, we heard like sprinkles of it in February.
And in March, when the lockdowns happened, I heard, you know, people talking about essential
workers. And I thought, well, I'm an essential worker, right? Because I'm delivering food to people.
Yes. Yes. So, so I, you know, I just, I was in a big social media community,
you know, just through other outlets or whatever. And I said, Hey, you don't want to leave your house.
I'm making fresh lasagna, I'll deliver it to your door. And they were like, what? And I was like,
yeah, fresh lasagna, zero contact delivery. I'm in there with the PPE, you know, the masks, the
gloves, the whole thing. But yeah, we delivered, I don't even know how many lasagnas we delivered.
But that kind of launched what a lot of restaurants have struggled with. It kind of launched my career,
really. Yeah. I mean, it was the, it was the deal breaker for almost every company I know, but you.
I mean, that was meant to be like, think about that. I know everybody else was staying home,
like scared on the couch. And you're like, I got 30 orders today. Let's go. Yeah.
Forget about it. But it was also problematic. It was very, it was problematic. There was some
finesse that seriously went into it. I mean, I had teen lasagna, right? So I mean, think about
like ground beef. So I made my meat and cheese lasagna. If I have 30 orders, which I mean,
I had 40 orders every day, right? And I couldn't find ground beef. So I was like, because we were
limited in what we could purchase, right? We could only buy three of so many things. So we could only
buy three ground beef packages. We could only buy three toilet paper things. I mean, it was just,
it was insanity. But I remember, because I use a local business to get my ground beef. And I knew
they got deliveries on Monday. And I would call them and I'd be like, when's the truck pulling up?
You need to let me know. And they were like, okay, it's going to be here by nine, but we can only
save you three. And I'm like, okay, just get them home for me. And then I would tell my husband.
Everybody had to go get water. I had everybody going out, getting me ground beef, right? I mean,
it was like black market stuff, right? It was crazy.
Sam, you're thinking about butchering their counter back to me. I'm going to give me some meat.
It was wild. It was a wild time. I mean, it was really, it was crazy. But yeah, I mean, I remember
Now the journals from that time would be really fun to go back.
Oh, I've got them. I've got them.
Wow.
Oh, inside my brain. But yeah, I had, oh, I so then my goal was 30 lasagnas a month. And then
it would just like increased by so much. And I remember, and I don't know what Texas is like,
but Indiana was, I mean, it was like a ghost town because we were on lockdown. And so people that
normally would be downtown weren't there. And I remember it's actually, I think it's pretty close
June 15th, I believe is the day that this happened. But this time four years again.
Yeah. So I delivered to a lady that was actually downtown. And she was my 500th lasagna delivery.
And I thought, I can't believe I've done 500 lasagnas. I just wanted to do 30 a month.
I cannot believe I've done 500 lasagnas since November. It's a brand new business.
And then I thought, I'm going to do 1000 lasagnas by the end of the year. And I did it.
And I was like, that was such a big deal to me. And it just blew my mind. And I,
I did like 126 lasagnas through the week of Christmas. I mean, it was just incredible.
And you know, and people love my lasagna. I mean, it's just, they're all fresh. Like you make them
fresh, like every day, like ever many days, there's probably like a cut off time the day before,
like you got to get your order in by whatever. Then you know how many you got to make and then
how the deliveries are all, and they're all layered, cooked, but then they finish it off in the oven
to melt the cheese and get it all hot again. But not frozen. You're not delivering frozen ones.
Ah, such a big job. Like, do you ever go like, Oh my God, I have to cook lasagna today.
Oh my God, I got to cook lasagna. Because making a sauce from scratch is,
it's all from scratch, all of it. I don't make lasagna noodles, because that's just a waste of
time. Yeah, yeah, of course. But I make all my sauces. You cook the noodles to put them in the
pan. Yeah, I cook them. Yeah, yeah, al dente. But I mean, all my sauces are from scratch. Yeah,
everything is from scratch. Because if it weren't, my grandmother would come down and like,
knock me over the head. I mean, you know, you know, what the hell are you doing?
You're a ragu. You've got like the real deal tomatoes happening there. I do. You know,
my husband is a really good cook because he has years in the industry and he has
this favorite white hockey shirt that he wears on rotation. It's not getting a little gray because
it's been years he's been wearing it. But he makes his spaghetti sauce wearing that shirt and never
gets one drop on him. I'm like, covered just opening the can of potatoes. Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna be covered.
Like I'm just, I'm afraid something's gonna jump on me in this gray shirt right now. I don't know
what's going on. I got some wet spots where I had to like do a little clean. Yeah, maybe that won't
show if I just wash it out. Yeah, yeah. Can you believe that you've done all this and you've gotten
tons of great press? Like I know that you're like in the media there and everybody knows you because
it's such a unique business. I'm really kind of surprised that other people haven't hit you up
to do a franchise because it is a very franchisable concept. They just need a really good recipe. And
I then I think you have all that, all the love behind it that you kind of understand how things go.
So have you thought about doing a franchise because people might be listening going,
hey, forget about jewelry, let's do lasagna. That sounds more fun.
Yeah, I have. I really have. The problem is that I'm such a stickler for quality that they don't do
it right. Yeah, they could ruin your business, but they would want to have good quality so it helps
their business too. Yeah, I would have to like pick certain, not everybody can franchise. Now,
I think they'd have to have some industry experience number one. You know, they'd have to have some.
I didn't have, I mean, but I mean, who am I to say that because I didn't have any industries.
Now frog jokes and my grandparents.
Like seriously, okay, well, it was meant to be. That's what it was. It was meant to be that you
had this idea. It was a great idea. And now you've wrote you're on fire. And now you're going to be
on Amazon Prime with the blocks. So, you know, let's just talk about the blocks a little bit
because we're halfway through our hour and we haven't really discussed it, but
it's gone so quickly. I know. I love talking to you. I'm so happy to be on this with you.
So at some point it's going to be on Amazon Prime. Have you connected now? We have lots of friends
from that. That was like the point, I think of us going there is that we made like all of these
connections. Like you and I will always be connected. We have lots of people, we all know those
names, and that are like part of us now because it was why we went there, right? Like we went there
to connect with other people that are also entrepreneurs. So it really gave us that to
take home. Like I do have a Google alert for all things blocks in West Bergen. But have you been
key? Do you have anybody from the blocks that was in your area? And also tell us about your
Mother's Day thing because that was very clever. Oh, I mean, so nobody, there's a couple people
from the blocks that are in my area and they reached out to me, you know, when I posted
in our group or whatever. One of them was coming from, I can't remember, during the Solar Eclipse.
But she, it didn't work out. And then the other one I haven't had an opportunity to meet. But I mean,
I'm friends with everybody on the line just like you. We have our updates and you know, you guys
are my people. I mean, you and the salsa lady and I mean, just there's just too many to say. I mean,
it's just like, if I say all of them, then we forgot my name. Yeah, yeah, somebody will be mad. We
forgot nobody. But it was big. Oh, you know what? Here's the salsa lady. She was in one of my groups
and she goes, Oh, I wear my minerals in my bra. I'm like,
That doesn't surprise me. Okay. But the bra lady from the busted bras, she contacted me and she's
like, Oh, do you want like a free bra? I'm like, No, no, no, I don't want a free bra. I want to
create something that you can buy from me. And then that would be a better thing for my business.
And then I can talk about your business and all that. So you know what I mean? Bra times,
they're acoustic, which that means that it spells out a word. So there are minerals and each mineral
has a, you know, like appetite a, B for barrel, blah, blah, blah. And so it's a little broad timer
and I have eight different words that I was like, smile and happy and hope and, you know, blah,
blah, blah, you know, kind of words that you would want close to your body. And so I made these
broad timers for the busted bra lady because of the salsa lady. I love that. I'm finishing
them up today. So there'll be like 1999 at the cash register and they're in these glass tubes.
So you can see what's in there and everyone is different. And I'm just doing the paper part of
it, the insert that goes in there that the trauma actually will hang on. So, you know, it is just
about like making those little connections, you know, like enlisting and paying attention and
and all that. What did you come away from the blocks learning or what did you get out of that
experience? I had so my big thing when I started was that is going to be a local business. And
and I still want, I wanted to be a local business, but the I was against shipping completely 100%
against it. And so many people at the blocks were like, Oh my God, I want to taste your lasagna. Oh
my God, I want to have your lasagna. When can you ship? When can you ship? And I'm like,
you know, if you if you want to grow and you know this, you have to try. You have to do the
hard part. What really scares you, right? And that scares me for obvious reasons. You know,
you know, when I deliver or when somebody my driver delivers in Indianapolis, I know what it looks
like. I know what it tastes like. I know the condition that it's in. I know, you know, everything
about it, but sending it out into the world. It could be 89 degrees when it gets there, right? So,
I mean, it just and I put my entire heart and soul into these lasagnas. I mean, I can't even tell you
like, I mean, I know you do. I know you do. I do. You do. Like, seriously, I don't understand. But
is there anybody in your area that does gold billy? Because you just have to go see how they do it.
And then you can go, Oh, I get it. Freeze it solid, have the ice packs, have the, you know,
the whatever the whatever the dry ice, the whatever and see how they do it. Because it's a process
I order from gold belly often, especially during the pandemic. Oh my God, it was such a treat.
We got so many great things. But and it always was good. It always would work. Yeah, I'm just
going to have to, you know, commit myself to some more research to it. And have you ordered anything
from gold buddy to be sent to you because that would be another thing. Yeah, I should do that.
You know, I'm such a type A personality. So when I do something that doesn't work, I, you know, take it out of myself. So, it's going to work. Everybody
else can do it. You can do it. It's just a matter of some getting that right little pocketing.
And the right, you know, and so I'm kind of in the thick of it right now. It's going to happen. It's just
maybe I need just some better angels. You know, I mean, maybe the people that I had asked, not
I don't know what I'm saying. But yeah, I mean, it'll work out. I want people to have my lasagna. I want my people to have lasagna everywhere. I have to refund orders once a week, at least once a week from somebody outside of Indianapolis who has ordered my lasagna. You know how painful that is as a I'm so sorry, as a, you know, a small business, how painful it is to work out.
I'm going to have to refund. Yeah, because you can't provide the products for them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I can't even imagine what you must be going through for that. Like I get it. Like it's a, but it's possible. So, I know it's possible.
The other thing is also restaurants or, you know, like restaurants could be carrying your lasagna as a takeaway, or those kind of restaurants that are kind of takeaway, and also grocery stores, like why couldn't they have like frozen.
I'm working.
It's a whole other thing, I guess, you know, it is a whole other thing, but Andrea gave me a really great insight into Kroger's opportunity program.
There's a lot of red tape, you know, with any kind of unbelievable business, just so much red tape. Yeah.
There is a local place that I'm starting to work with, but all these things were happening at one time.
Right. And it was like, I need to get one of these things going. Right. And then I can focus on the other ones because being older.
I know I can't do everything by myself. Right. I can't manage this thing and this thing over here. I love making lasagnas and I love having them delivered to people.
And I love getting text messages from people saying this is the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. That part of me will never go away. And I will always do delivery, local delivery, just like I am now.
But I understand if I want to grow, it's going to have to go out beyond me. And before I was on the blocks, I was not okay with that. I was not. I was like, No, it's not going to happen.
But also what I learned from the blocks is that I love my business so much that I am not willing to sell it. A lot of people want to sell their businesses and retire and all that stuff.
But I have a son. You know, I have a niece. I want them to have the same kind of opportunity, a latchkey kind of turnkey thing where is if they want to own a business, they can do that.
And I want to be able to, I mean, I'm not going to serve it up on a silver platter. I mean, I've never had anything served up to me on a silver platter to work my ass off for it.
But if that's what they want, then there'll be steps that they have to do. But I want to grow. I do so badly, especially after the blocks I want to grow because so many people ask me about shipping and everything.
So yeah.
So tell me about how the Mother Save Flower combo design yet. Did that work out well?
Yeah, so that was, I'm always marketing, right? Always in my head. So when Mother's Day came around during the pandemic, I thought, well, people can't be together.
They can't go and see their moms. It'll probably be the first Mother's Day and they can see their mom and who knows how long, right?
And you still want that connection. You still want them to feel the love that you have for them. So I partnered with a local forest.
And I said, we'll do a lasagna flower combo and we'll just put it together. And I went on TV.
And I promoted it. And that was, 2020 was the first Mother's Day and we've done it every year since. I've always worked with a local florist.
I've always done my lasagnas, whatever. And it brings so much joy to people, especially during the pandemic. People were thrilled.
I mean, they were so overwhelmed because you can write notes with my cards and stuff. And so they could personalize it and send it to their mom.
Lasagna is like a hug, right? It's like comfort food. It's like a hug from someone you don't, maybe they're not in your presence, but you know that they love you.
And I was just so fortunate to be able to come up with that idea and be able to give that to those people during that time. And I still do it.
So that works. So they're going to deliver flowers and then...
No, I deliver. So everything comes through me.
Oh, so they pick, you pick up the flowers and then take the lasagnas and all that.
Because I know the florists are crazy on Mother's Day. Like that's kind of like that's their big besides Valentine's Day.
Those are the days that they, you know, can't... I guess you could do it on Valentine's Day too, right?
I have a Valentine's Day special that I started in 2020 with Circle City Sweets. And we do...
The first year we did fresh heart shaped macaroons, they were beautiful and delicious. And we delivered those with the lasagnas.
Last year, so we started doing these cakes so they're like these... I don't know what size. I'm not a baker. I can't bake anything.
I can make anything you want to eat, but I cannot bake anything.
But they're like these six-inch or eight-inch heart shaped cakes and you can get them in chocolate, vanilla or red velvet.
They get a pick, which one they want. And Cindy from Circle City Sweets, I've worked with her since before, you know, from the very beginning.
And they pick them and I pick them up and they get delivered on Valentine's Day.
So, yeah, it's worked out wonderful.
See, these are connections that a lot of people don't think of. Like, oh, as a drawer maker, I should be connecting on Valentine's with some other companies that are already delivering and going,
here, here's this one earring and we're going to sell it to everybody in this community.
That's a special limited edition Valentine's Day edition, right?
Yeah, limited edition Valentine's jewelry.
Yes. And you can do one every year.
Yeah, collectibles.
You can do a limited edition Valentine's earring every year so they can have their collection.
I love it. I wish we lived closer. Like, seriously.
You know what it is? Because it's hard being in a silo and we don't have...
It would be great, but we would never get anything done. We just didn't talk about our diesel.
We just talked about food. I'm so glad this is happening before my lunch so I can...
What do I have? It's yummy because it's a yummy conversation. That's been danger.
I made a coconut cake for my birthday. My husband doesn't like coconut cake.
I'm like, that's why I'm making it. It's just for me. It's not for you.
I can be sure to make a coconut cake with you and you can be sure to have it with Zanya.
And I told you when I met you, it's like, oh, I wish I had macaroni and cheese delivered.
And you said to me, oh, anybody can make macaroni and cheese, girl. Like, really? I don't care.
I don't know what it is. Like, don't... You know, when I talk about box of macaroni and cheese, that we can handle.
And not a good cook. But there's a couple things I can't cook and I want to.
Rice pudding. Never been able to make it. It just ends up like a big blob.
I don't know what that's about. I want that creamy thing.
I can't get it. Macaroni and cheese is like all gets sucked into the noodles and there's like, that looks horrible.
So now, not everybody can. Like, I'm a good cook.
Give me something to cook. Not those two things. Can't do it. I don't know why.
So you can expand out too. Like, that's another thing.
But what's also so great about your company is the name because it's so memorable.
It's like, what is that? What am I going to do? Oh, yeah, I'm going to send my friend, LaZonia.
Like, that was genius.
You know, it's so funny because I've had several people ask me because this whole thing started because a friend of mine's wife died.
She died very early. She was very young.
And I was like the LaZonia person in the family, right?
So if somebody died, my mom would call and say, you need to make so and so LaZonia and I would take it and just, you know, whatever.
So I made him a LaZonia that day, the day of her celebration of life.
She died of cancer called rectal cancer 33. I mean, just horrible.
They had a little man, you know, a little guy and he was devastated.
You know, he's just devastated and it was a horrible loss.
And I remember telling him I didn't know what to do.
So I brought you a LaZonia and I still get so emotional talking about it.
And I came home and my cousin came over and she's very crass.
He would love her. And I said something about sending a friend LaZonia.
And I said, you know, I had to make a little sign a son and I'm a LaZonia.
And she said, that sounds like a business. And I was like, no.
And she goes, yeah, maybe.
So I started, you know, thinking about it. And then I just became obsessed with it. Right.
And just obsessed. How can I do this? How can I do this? What can I do?
I'd have to have a meat LaZonia. I'd have to have a plain LaZonia for picky eaters.
I'd have to have a vegetarian LaZonia for vegetarians.
Oh, there's gluten free people. I'd have to have a gluten free people.
What was that one dish that I had that one time at that restaurant?
Oh, it was a Gorgonzola LaZonia or it wasn't a Gorgonzola LaZonia.
It was Gorgonzola dish, Gorgonzola cream sauce that I had that absolutely loved.
So it just all came like, it just all came like flooding, flooding, flooding.
And then that one day I told Mr. D, my husband, I said, I'm just going to do this.
If I don't do it, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life.
You invested in yourself because you did know it was a really good idea.
Do you market to funeral homes because that would be smart to have your little car there?
Yeah, they have their, so funeral homes here in Indianapolis are weird because they're like big franchises.
Yeah, or predominant.
Yeah, there is one funeral home that probably, you know, sounds horrible, but I could have a punch card, right?
It's like the next one is free kind of thing, you know?
But I just haven't gone that way.
And I like that spin on it because people just don't cook and batch cooking like this anymore.
People don't cook, period.
No, I totally agree.
I take all of our extra leftovers to next door because my next-door neighbor is not picky about what he eats and his wife doesn't like to cook.
So he's happy for anything except for my cook and a cake I might not share with him.
But besides that, like he's happy to have anything that's cooked because people just don't cook.
I cook every night.
I do.
Home from lasagna, right?
Yeah, I do.
I come home from lasagna and I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I get it.
I mean, we don't eat out.
So it's a huge treat when we do.
And but we cook.
I know if this is true for you, but when I do go out, I'm disappointed.
Every time.
I would say 75% of the time.
Yeah, I don't care.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Or like this one little hamburger place that we sometimes go to at our ranch.
It's like, oh, it was really good.
And then now it's not.
And you know what?
Can't go back there anymore because they certainly can't cook anything to just get a bad night or something.
But yeah.
So people don't cook these meals to take to people anymore.
Like, I guess they just go pick up a pot of sandwiches from the grocery store.
But.
I remember when my dad passed away.
15 years ago.
I mean my parents have a deck that goes the full length of the house, right?
And there were all these flower arrangements, all of them.
And I'm like, what the hell are we going to do with all these flowers?
But the food that they brought us was so, it helped so much.
And that's what I want to do.
People are like, oh, I have to have this lasagna this day because they died on this day,
the funeral's on this day, and then they need it this day.
But the loss doesn't stop there, right?
Exactly. The next week and the next week.
Yeah. So, it heals my heart being able to do that for people.
I don't know if I ever told you this when I was at the blocks,
but there's a women's shelter here in Indianapolis that I work with.
It's called the Coburn Place.
It's a domestic violence shelter for women and children.
And they have on-site housing, so they do apartments and stuff like that.
So, I bring the new residents a lasagna.
Every new resident gets one of my lasagnas in their refrigerator when they get there,
so they don't have to worry about cooking for one night.
Why did I?
Yes, I'm kind of speechless because that is something that you're taking on that is gigantic.
I am a victim of that.
I lost an eye because of domestic, and when I was that time,
they didn't have any room for me in the shelter.
I was so moved that I couldn't even get a room.
And now you're giving them a lasagna and a room.
Time to change.
That's why I'm like, wow, what?
I'm going to get in on that deal.
That's a great thing to have been so helpful.
Seriously.
Crazy good.
Those are my heart.
I was lucky enough to be able to have a couch to sleep on,
but some people are not that lucky.
I think that's a good thing to have a couch on.
I don't know if it's a good thing to have a couch on,
but I think it feeds my heart to be able to give back.
I always feel better when I give back.
That is how we cure our blues is that we help other people and not in
and in turn, changes everything.
I am all about being altruistic and helping other people.
It is what we're here for.
I'm not sure how many that equates to,
but you certainly are a godsend to those women that are, you know,
you're so generous to do that.
I don't think of it. I just think it's just my service.
Are they close to you?
Huh?
Are they close to you? Is it somewhere close?
Yeah.
So I'll just like, you know,
I have my contact there. I'll say how many lasagnas do you need this month?
I'll say 10 and I'll just bring in 10.
Wow. You are so like, seriously,
you need to have that written up somewhere too because that's so rare.
So I saw on a TV show that you were doing,
there was a bunch of women sitting there with you. That's not them, right?
That's not them. That wouldn't be them.
Who was all on the stage with you when you were doing a TV show?
Was that just you and the, I was looking for the pink hair.
I'm like, I know she's got to be in that picture.
Which one is she? I couldn't see. I don't know.
When you did a TV show about, I bet it was for Mother's Day.
I was on your, you know, no?
Oh yeah. Yeah. That might have been one of my first,
I had short brown hair then. So yeah.
So when did the pink come in? Cause the pink is so happy and so visual.
The pink came in during COVID because I couldn't see my hairdresser.
So I discovered a company that has this leave in conditioner color.
And I started purple, but then I went pink. I always, just, I'm a unicorn.
I just always wanted pink hair. And so I'm like, here it is.
I love it though. But doesn't it make you feel good when you look at yourself
and it's like, yeah, I'm, I got the, the jam happening on my head.
Yeah, I do. Yeah. I love it. My, my stylist is amazing. So yeah.
Is, is pink your favorite color?
No, purple is my favorite color.
Oh, wow. Well, purple is the color that changed the world. Did you know that?
I did not.
Yeah. Oh, if we had some wine, I'd sit there and tell you the whole story.
But it's actually, it's actually a title of a book.
And I used to have all these jewelry parties, right?
And everybody would go, like I talked to everybody and they'd go around and say, oh, what's your favorite color?
And then, you know, I would tell them something about their color, but the purple, it was always somebody purple.
And that really was the chance where I got to really like explain to people about color and color therapy and just history of color and everything.
And it's my like talisman and, you know, people that love purple are very passionate about their purple.
So now that I know that I'll have to make you something purple so that you have something purple of minds, because I, I know that I know that people are like, they'll, they'll run to get anything.
Aqua, but they'll climb over you to get something purple.
Definitely.
I'm really into Moonstones right now, too.
Yeah.
Okay. So how does that start? That's just your color of choice right now is kind of moony.
No, Moonstone is just it's something that goes back way back to my childhood.
My aunt Jean would do tarot cards and she would like do a tarot card reading for us and it just kind of always she was very like,
she was kind of a hippie so she was into that kind of stuff and I, I just led into it like the Moonstone and I think Labradorite, am I saying that right?
Yeah, I love those.
I'm kind of into the watermelon tourmaline too, but it's expensive so I don't know. Anyway, yeah.
Well, you don't even know how much I got about all that around here.
I can't even like imagine I would just like walk around in your place and be like, what? Oh my God.
Oh my God. Here's a purple necklace. I'll show you right here. This is cool. This is a giant, well there's actually two sitting here.
This is a giant, it's actually really big. I don't know if you can see how big it is.
That is huge.
It's a giant, a CZ. Yeah. It's a colorized gem and even on the back it's really pretty.
Oh wow, it's really cool.
And then it has these, these are really old glass purple from back here. It's like so pretty. I wish you could see it from the, from the, with the color, the light shining through because it's just like so purple, like crazy purple.
Yeah, it has purple pearls. That's kind of fun. You know, the pearls coming off. So there's the sharks too.
Oh, that's, yeah. You did one of those for Tyler, right?
Yeah, Tyler got one with like gold and, yeah, for a movie. So that's cool.
Yeah, I know that's crazy.
Good for you.
I think it was just like, it was great working with him. Like, whatever.
So it was all good memories, like whatever it's all good memories. So what are you doing the rest of the day, by the way? What's the rest of your day look like?
Um,
Nothing. I'm going to cook dinner and I'm going to relax. I'm going to take a mental health day tomorrow and,
and zone out.
And kind of decompress like later I've got, you know, I've got a bunch of emails that I need to send out about certain thing that kind of went haywire thing go the way I wanted it to
things happen.
You know, so I got to follow up with that stuff. But tomorrow I'm just, you know, I, I have to, I have to take a mental health day every once in a while because it is a lot. Right.
Yeah.
It's a lot to do.
And you have to do what your body tells you to do too. And if I get like some inkling of like, okay, really, you're done for the day. Just it's okay. You're done for the day. Don't, don't press it. It's like, okay, I'm going to just, you know, turn, turn off social media for a while.
Turn off because it is, you know, I think social media is kind of is like the good and the bad and the ugly. It definitely is a time suck like crap.
I just saw I've created 350 reels. Well, I think of the amount of time in my life I use to create that the energy that it took to create those reels. Blah.
It's a lot, right? Like, and does anybody even see him when the algorithm switches and they switch up the algorithm? You get nothing. You get like ghosts.
You know, it's like, you know, you do everything, you do everything you put in the tag words, the hashtags, you put in all that stuff and it's still unless you're paying meta, they can chomp that down where you then it's not even in scene, but they'll send you a little notice
like, oh, you're doing really good on your, oh, is that really like,
I didn't see my stuff like open up the doors like that algorithm is real, right? Oh, well, girl.
I get it.
I remember working for one of the agencies I worked for and I was a social media manager. So I would manage multiple accounts and do their content and all that stuff and I would be like, why did they not do their own social media? I don't understand why they're paying us to do this.
Now I understand. Now.
Oh my gosh, yes. And yeah, because you're trying to jungle everything and then all the sudden, wait, I should be recording this so I can do a post.
But you are really good about, and I learned this from you is that you had things that were posted by time like you like put it down as like do this because I'm like, how are you posting all this and you're not even there.
It's like, no, I just have it all scheduled.
I haven't scheduled. Yeah.
Because I can't. That's something that people should learn how to do more so that it does show up on a consistent basis. So okay, just talk us through how to do that one time.
And then we'll we'll finish up our hour. But this is a really good thing if you've been listening for this whole hour. And he got to hear let's learn one good thing from Stephanie because she is brilliant on this.
And being able to schedule so you don't have it. You can take a mental health day and things are still happening like you could pre schedule for the whole month if you want.
You pre schedule a whole week. I'm going to Mexico next month. All gonna be scheduled. Yeah, because then nobody knows if you're home or not, which I think is so important like seriously.
Yeah. Okay, so if you have a meta business account, yeah, to the business suite, and you want to make sure that your Facebook and your Instagram are connected.
Yeah. And then you think of your content or whatever. So you can make a post with a picture and say it and meta actually has active times. So if you click on that active time, it will show when the people that follow your account are most active.
Mine are mostly active and it can be different for everybody. But mine are mostly active in the evening, which makes sense because they're working families and they're not scrolling until after the kids go to bed right.
So you can just schedule and you can say I want this post on June 20 at 920pm and it will automatically go to Facebook and to Instagram if you want. So yeah, that's what I do.
Okay, that is something that I'm going to try out and you know how it goes.
I have all the meta, I have all the business, I have all that. And I have seen it before but then I like jumped on it.
But if you want help, we can walk through it.
Okay, I'm sure I can figure it out too. There's got to be a full share.
Yeah, but I'd love to reach out to you and say okay, Stephanie, here we go. Let's do this.
But I am proud of you. And okay, so the blocks is going to be coming on. We don't know, but it's going to be on Amazon Prime and both Stephanie and I will be at some level on there.
I have no idea. I'm like, I hope they didn't get me like yawning or falling asleep.
No, but you know, there was a lot of us. So I have no idea how that will play out because it was kind of unfair how many people that we were going to be there and then how many people actually showed up.
I did send Wes a little gift for his daughter just hoping maybe that'll help my chances of getting on there, who knows.
But you know, it is what it is. Like it is what it is.
It'll be fun. I wish we were all together so that we can all watch it. But definitely after it first comes on, we'll have to have like a group disruptors meeting so that we can and so it's been so much fun to see everybody soar since that.
And grow and doing so many great things. Yes.
Yes.
And the last gift that we gave each other is that we lifted and pushed everybody and think about where we're going to be this time next year. You're going to be like the number one seller on on the frozen pizza is delivered to Alaska.
And it's funny that we were all strangers, but by the end of the first day, it was like we were family. I know that is what I was wanting. It is what I needed. I did need that camaraderie.
And I miss you. And I love you.
I love you too. And I'm so proud of you. And I'm thinking about you all the time. And we will, I think they should be like a group. I think we should have a group meeting and just like, okay, you call your five friends and I'll come my friend for a little talk again.
Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing.
Yeah, we were all like, that was the wild part to me. It was like, oh, I've got an idea for you. Oh, I've got an idea for you.
It's like when two brains come together, we make one really good brain. Right. Right.
Yeah, maybe earrings for you today.
They're new.
Yeah, well, I just had to drill some holes in them, but aren't they pretty. I'm getting together my, my Christmas collections. That's going to be part of it.
Easy thing. Easy gold plated brands.
Okay, dear, when we reach our Stephanie from send your friend lasagna.com send a friend.
Yeah.
Best lasagna you've ever had if you're in her area, the Indianapolis area and it's been a huge pleasure having you on my podcast today reminiscing learning talking is not jewelry, but we're all in the same game of how do you get, how do you get your message out to the world?
How do you get that following? How do you create a product that's sustainable that's going to go forward and help your business grow? You've got it down in space girl. You're so good on your social media.
Follow her on Instagram. I'll have all the links along the bottom in the description of the podcast. It'll take the day or two or maybe even on Monday it'll come out.
It's going to be some behind the scenes stuff has to happen and I'll use one of the pictures that I have of you since I have some good pictures of you.
And unless you have one, but thank you for your time. An hour went by too fast. We could have chatted all day, but we'll do it again because it's really good.
My goal to reconnect with you is my little soul sister in the lasagna world. So I think about you dear. You're my friend.
Okay, well here we go. Have a great mental health day and enjoy it a lot.