Stuckey's has been a staple of America's highways. At its peak, Stuckey's pecan rolls, Texaco gas, and homemade candies dotted almost every interstate across every state. But a series of buy-outs and lack of attention shuttered this iconic American staple.  

In this episode, Fran Racioppi is joined by Stephanie Stuckey - the third generation Stuckey to run the brand after buying it out of near bankruptcy two years ago. Stephanie is a lawyer by trade now leading not only a chain of franchised roadside stops and a pecan snack company, but also the resurgence of the American road trip.

Read the full episode transcription here and learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website.

Highlights:

-Stephanie explains the opportunity in owning and scaling family businesses, recounts the history of how Stuckey’s grew, and lays out her path to turn the company around. 

-The Stuckey’s brand is an example of a company’s need to continuously evolve and pivot to meet changing customer requirements, while maintaining quality control and brand value.

-Stephanie provides her views on entrepreneurship, failure and the definition of “The Girl Boss.” 

-Stephanie shares her perspective on storytelling, building a community on social media and how she grew her following from 0 to over 60,000 in 18 months.

-Fran and Stephanie show the importance of brands placing focus on their strengths and the value they bring to their customers through an in depth discussion on Pecans. 

Quotes:

-”Initially it was just making money. It was his side hustle...When he started to get the vision was when he realized he was starting to solve a problem.”

-“The visionary founder was no longer around to help steer the direction of Stuckey’s...it lost the magic.”

-”There is a reason that family businesses fail. It’s because that sense of excitement and entrepreneurial spirit gets lost over the generations.”

-“Handing wealth to the next generation does not instill hard work ethic at all.”

-”I focused on my strengths. I’m a big believer in strength building and looking at what is your core competency; and then you compliment that with others who fill in your gaps.”

-”The great thing about being at the bottom is that you have nothing to lose.” 

-“I think it’s poor manners if all you ever do is post about yourself and you don’t comment on other people’s posts.” 

-”Empowering a smart, energetic management team to then filter down to the people they supervise is what is going to help create the brand.”

-”In any good brand you are building a community internally and externally.”

-“For every ‘yes’, there are four to five ‘no’s.’ You are constantly having to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and keep going.”

-”When you are small and scrappy, you have to distinguish yourself. You cannot win the volume game.”

-”If you are not failing, you are not truly an entrepreneur.”

Stephanie’s Three Daily Foundations to Success:

-Do something creative

-Keep a gratitude journal

-Exercise to maintain consistency

This episode is brought to you by Analytix Solutions; improving the efficiency of your business across people, process and technology through multi-divisional outsourcing solutions.