The Secret to Building a Unique Bakery Brand: Hip-Hop, Cinnamon Rolls & Community with Lindsay McDonald

Our next guest Lindsay McDonald is a passionate entrepreneur who built a unique bakery brand infused with hip hop culture, cinnamon rolls, and a strong sense of community. Lindsay's journey embodies women empowerment and motivational stories of overcoming obstacles, including funding challenges and personal loss, to create a thriving business.

In this inspiring episode, Lindsay shares how motherhood fuels her passion and how involving family, especially her son, plays a central role in her business. Discover how her creative roots in dance and music blend with entrepreneurial grit, from bartending to fund the venture to navigating early setbacks. Learn about the organic growth of their hip hop-inspired bakery, celebrity interest, and their commitment to owner-operated expansion—a true story of female empowerment and resilience.

Whether you're interested in female entrepreneurship, women inspiring women, or passionate women carving out their unique path, this episode offers valuable insights and encouragement. Tune in for motivational stories that highlight the power of believing in yourself and recognizing your influence as a woman in business.

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ON THIS EPISODE

[00:00] Meet the Passionistas

[00:32] Hip Hop Meets Cinnamon

[01:11] Motherhood First

[02:56] Family Loss and Legacy

[04:15] Dance and Music Roots

[06:44] Love Story and Partnership

[09:12] From Bartending to Baking

[13:22] Store Opens and Takes Off

[14:44] How the Hip Hop Theme Started

[17:07] Why Everyone Loves Cinnamon Rolls

[19:47] Celebrity Buns Stories

[22:32] Snoop Flavor Drop

[22:53] Savory Buns Experiments

[25:22] Owning Your Genius

[27:39] Lessons For Her Son

[29:09] Building With Her Husband

[31:45] Funding Struggles Reality

[35:02] Expansion Without Franchising

[37:50] Where To Find Them

[38:12] Dreams For Women

[39:48] Passionistas Sisterhood Outro

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Passionistas: Hi, we're sisters Amy and Nancy Harrington, founders of the Passionistas Project, where we believe that every woman deserves to be seen, heard, and celebrated. Our mission is simple but powerful to give women a platform to tell their unfiltered stories, the stories that inspire, challenge, and break the silence around what it really means to follow your Passionistas.

On each episode, we have conversations about courage, authenticity, and the messy, beautiful journey. Of living life unapologetically. So what happens when hip hop meets cinnamon rolls? Today's guest is Lindsay McDonald, co-owner of a hip hop themed cinnamon roll bakery in Los Angeles that she built with her husband after starting out baking from home.

What began as a small family idea has grown into a vibrant shop where music culture, nostalgia and bold flavors come together, proving that when passion, creativity, and community mix, you can turn a simple cinnamon roll into something unforgettable. So we are so excited to welcome Lindsay McDonald to the show today.

Lindsay: Hi.

Passionistas: So Lindsay, what are you most passionate about?

Lindsay: I think I'm most passionate about being a mom. I think that's what I'm most passionate about. I think that's what I'm really good at too. Um, our 14-year-old is, um, so special, so unique. He is a complete. Mix of my husband and I, just right down to the T, right smack in the middle.

He has so much creativeness that I bring and he has such kindness in his heart, like from the both of us. And, um, he makes me passionate about what we do, what I do, and, and life. And he is everything. He's everything. So, yeah.

Passionistas: Yeah, we'd like to see him pop up in your, your social media feed. It seems like such a beautiful unit. The three of you are.

Lindsay: Yeah. He's so fun. Like he, when we first started, he was six. I think, and, uh, it was really cool, right? It was like mom and dad, they were, they weren't, you know, at their full-time jobs all the time. And Wow, we're baking and this is really cool and like, I wanna like, throw flour around, you know?

And then it got a little bit more serious and it was like, okay, we are gonna go cater, we're gonna go do like some celebrity things. And it was like, wow. Like my mom and dad are, are doing this and, and like, you know, and, um. Yeah, he, um, he grew up with it, you know, he grew up with it and like being in the store and people see him in the store and he's bagging, he's bagging your cinnamon roll and he's taking your order.

And then last week he was, you know, buttering the dough and he's like the real deal. It's really cool.

Passionistas: Well, it sounds like you're setting a good example. Was family always important to you? Did you have a close family growing up?

Lindsay: I, you know, we didn't have this humongous family. I feel like I always wanted, um, I lost my brother.

He was only 41 when we first moved to LA 10 years ago. We, we moved here to like all be together and my brother lived here first, and then, uh, me, my mom, my husband, our son, like, we came out and like my brother was having a, a son. We just all wanted to like raise our kids together and be together. And like he, he passed away suddenly from like a rare heart thing that we didn't even know he had.

You know? So I lost my brother and that was the hardest thing that I've ever been through. 'cause we were 10 years apart, but we were best friends. And now. Not to say that like family wasn't super important, but now it's even more important than it was, you know? So like every moment, every, every chance I get, like it's, it's like I want, I wanna make the memories and I, and I wanna hold onto them and I want like my son to have really good memories and like I take care of my dad and like my parents.

And so it's just, yeah, family is something that's really, is really important to me for sure.

Passionistas: We can relate.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Passionistas: So what role did music and creativity play in your early life?

Lindsay: Early life. I was a, I was a dancer. We, I did a lot of, um, hip hop. I did, um, a lot of tap, um, which was so funny. 'cause tap is such like a, it's like a dying, like not a lot of people.

I don't meet like a lot of tap dancers, you know. But the, the dance school that I went to in Philly, like, they specialized in tap. So I got to tap with Ion Glover in New York City. And, um, uh. You know, uh, just, you know, to name one. I mean, there was, so, it was just, it was every day, every night of my life through high school.

Um, I went to a creative and performing arts high school. So, um, I went for dance. So it was like big in hip hop. It was big in, uh, jazz, uh, African, lyrical, um, ev like everything that you could manage, like imagine like I was in like the Puerto Rican Day parade. Every year we did the Boscov Thanksgiving parade every year.

So music was, is such a huge part of me and my husband like it. If you think about it, it's crazy. Like it gets you through grieving, it gets you through depression, it gets you through like these like super happy moments, right? So to bring that into a business that we get, that I get to do every day. It's like, it's, it's so fun.

It's so great. Like, we go into the bakery every day and like, we pick what genre we're gonna listen to today, you know? But like, when the, when the guests come in, it's, it's always hip hop, right? Because we, that's what we both grew up on. Um, so, but music, like just to be, just to be so. Involved. And so like, like Broadway, like we used to, we, like we, my mom used to take us like to New York.

Once a year we would see one show, right. And like, I remember I auditioned to Be a Rocket, um, my senior year of high school. I was like a quarter of an inch too short. And that was okay. Um, but I knew that that was what I wanted something with music. It just, that's what I wanted to do.

Passionistas: Um, our sister is a tap dancer or was tap dancer, so we, we get the tap thing. Okay. If I'm gonna go see a musical, I'm always like, there has to be tap dancing.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Passionistas: It's, that's a musical.

Lindsay: I love that. I love that.

Passionistas: Yeah. Um, so where did you meet your husband? How long have you known each other and where does his. His dad, you know, mu love of music come into this.

Lindsay: So I met my husband in high school.

I was a freshman. He was a junior, so he was older than me and I remember seeing him for the first time on the staircase that came from science and went, I was going up and he was coming down, and my husband has these beautiful eyes that are very, very light colored. So they shine in the sun. I always. I always say he loves when I say that, but um, that was the first thing I noticed.

And then I feel like his energy was the second thing that I noticed because he's such a, he has such a good soul. Um, and we immediately became friends and I feel like we always just kind of had this crush on each other. And then, um, he graduated, he went off to Yale. He's a very intelligent. Person, I'm always jealous.

I'm like, I wish I was as smart as you. Um, and uh, we always had the same friends growing up in Philly, so like his guy friends and my guy friends were the same. So we kind of rekindled like as like college had ended and we started dating and then that was it. That was, we never looked back. It's, we've always been together just, um.

Always. See, I've never, it's really weird 'cause I never get sick of him. And like I always question, I'm like, why aren't I tired of you yet? It's been so long, you know? But, um, he's just a, he's a great dad, he's a great husband. He's a great business owner. Um, it's really nice to have somebody. He's also an accountant, so he keeps our business.

You are right. Yeah. I feel like I'm the creative one. Always bouncing flavors off of walls and seeing what sticks, and he's like, we can afford that. And then he's like, actually, we can't, so let's not do that one again. That kind of thing. So, um, but he is my soulmate, he his soul we're so different but so alike.

Our soul kind of intertwines. And I know that I've met him in another lifetime and I pray that I get him in another lifetime because I just cannot, I could, could never imagine, never not being with him. You know, just best friend, like just. So lucky. I'm so fortunate. Very lucky.

Passionistas: So beautiful.

Lindsay: Yeah.

Passionistas: So when did you decide that you were gonna go into business together?

Did you always have an entrepreneurial spirit?

Lindsay: I, I don't know. Like, I was a bartender for a really long time. Like I, I, I was a dancer and then I got injured, right? And then I was like, oh my gosh, what am I gonna do with myself? So then, um, I really like to bartend because I'm, I'm very much like a people person.

I'm also a good listener, so I feel like bartenders, they're like, uh, chief therapists, right? So, um, people really like to talk to me and I was really good at remembering people and, and making people feel seen and heard, and a lot of people are not seen, you know? And, and, um, I really love the way that bartending used to make other people feel.

And I used to always say like, I'm really good bartender. You know, my drinks are pretty good too, you know? And, uh, I remember just being in, you know, we were all stuck in the house in 2020 and bartending got really interesting because people got very, um, like, they were very upset because of everything that was happening in 2020 and, you know, locked down.

And like, people were just, it was like an awful, it was an awful time. And, um. I, no, I was never really a, I really, I mean like, I can't even say like, I loved working for people because who loves sometimes working for other people, but I was just like, I we're gonna bake cinnamon. We like, who's Cinnabon's competitor?

You know? And my husband's like, I don't know, like, what are you talking about? You know? And I'm just like, well, I'm gonna, we're gonna bake cinnamon rolls. And he's like, so then like we did, and I, and I, I like fought through it for like two years. It was like the hard, like the hardest thing I ever did. I, I spent a year bartending and pushing all of the money that I made from bartending into starting it, and then after that year, I.

I couldn't do the four ams anymore. Anymore, like the mornings. And then I really missed, like taking my son to school. And then my son would come home from school and I would have to sleep. And then I would, I had this like, awful schedule, right? And when we started I was like, it's, that's it. Like I'm, I'm done bartending.

Like we're just, I'm gonna push myself through this. And we were so broke, like there was no money for like. A few years. It was the hardest. It was so challenging. Like in la like being, not having any money in LA is extremely hard, you know? Yeah. And like living with my parents and like, just, and like working these like audit, I would still bartend for like, you know, like parties in the hills and try and make like private bartending and just like anything I could do to make it work.

And then like my husband, when we. This past year actually opening the store, he was still working at a hotel downtown as an accountant, and he got laid off. And I remember thinking to myself like, oh my God, like, not yet. You know, like, we just needed you to keep that full-time job for just like a little bit longer.

And the universe was like, this is it. Like it's all in or nothing. So like, let's see what you guys can do. And day and night, day and night, day and night. And it was just like, we can do this. And we found this space and we, we just, there was no money to like, for the floors and the walls and it was just, it was like pulling from places that you couldn't pull money from.

And it was like learning how to like, use a saw, you know, and like, and like digging up floors and then like, it was, it was just, it was. The purest definition of entrepreneurship. It was like, okay, like you're a dancer. It's like now like you're gonna paint a floor now, you know? It's like, so I've, no, I feel like we just, we fell into it, but I'm like really grateful that we did

Passionistas: well and it seems like you're having a lot of success now like all the hard work is really paying off.

Lindsay: I feel like it, it kind of, I don't wanna say like it happened overnight, but it was like as soon as the store opened, it was like more people were able to find us, right? Because we were in a tent for so long and you had to like, show up here or show up here on this day between this time and, and being.

Having the location, it was like, okay, like so now I can find you, you know, Wednesday through Sunday between this hour and this hour. So like, so then more people were showing up and then more celebrities were finding out. And then because of the theme, because of the, like people, more people were, oh my God, this is so fun.

Like, this is so cool. Like, I love the way this makes us feel, kind of thing, you know? So, um, yeah, it just kind of like. It caught on and then it flew, you know, and then we were on, you know, we've been on like every news station I think this year. Um, you know, KTLA and NB, C and A, B, C and CB, like, and I, we turned the, somebody's like, oh, I saw you on the, I saw you on the news.

And I'm like, eh, yeah, that's us. You know? And it's weird. It's still very, um, it's very weird still.

Passionistas: Yeah, but very cool. That's, it's just amazing.

Lindsay: Yeah. It's so fun. Yeah.

Passionistas: Yeah. Yeah. So you touched on it. You touched on it a little bit, but talk a little bit more about how the hip hop theme came into the whole thing.

Lindsay: So we. We're at our first popup, which was, um, Angel City Market, which I will forever be grateful for them because they, it was like straight outta COVID. Everybody didn't know what they were doing or in a tent. And it was like one of our first couple popups. And we would go, like every Saturday for like a, you know, a few months straight to like, just to make some money, to make some extra money.

And my husband, like, someone would come up and they would say, oh, what do you got? And my husband would say, this is the OG cinnamon roll. This is the big papa. And I remember looking at him going, why'd you call it that? You know? And we both love Biggie Smalls. Like he's one of, he's my husband's favorite rapper, you know?

So he's just like, well, I mean, like it's, we always knew that we wanted it to be directed towards hip hop in, in some kind of way. And when my husband called it the big Papa, I remember maybe like the next week, sitting at home while he was at work and. Just like obsessing, like I obsessed over this for every day.

I still do. And I remember thinking to myself like, what if we took other flavors and named them after other hip hop artists? But somehow the flavor reminded us. Of them in like some sort of way. So like Little Kim has this, uh, music video where she wears like different color hair. So that's why we, she is the Fruity Pebbles, because Fruity Pebbles is blue and it's green and it's red and it's, you know, it's all these different colors.

So from that, from that day on, we came up with maybe five or six flavors, and now we have 35 rotating in the store, and we have like. 35 on the back burner that we haven't even launched yet. Like it's just, it's so many. It's, and some of them are just like absolutely insane. But yeah, so that's how that came about.

It was, what, what's beautiful about it is that it was a complete accident. You know, like it wasn't planned. This wasn't something that we always thought we were going to do. Like it was very organic. It happened very organically to where we both were like, oh my gosh. This is such a good idea kind of thing.

Passionistas: Yeah. Yeah. It's so unique. So it just sets you apart so much. Yeah. Um, so why cinnamon? Like, okay, you talked about that time during COVID, right? Right. Why cinnamon buns for you and why do you think people like me admittedly, are so obsessed with cinnamon buns? What is it about cinnamon buns that makes people go crazy?

Lindsay: I think that it's nostalgic, right? So it reminds you of like a certain. Part of your, of your life? Like if it's either like it's Christmas morning or it's like for, for me it was just the mall. Like it reminds me of like being younger and going to the mall and I always got cinon, you know? And I just remember like, 'cause I feel like 2020 in the past few years, like cookies.

Or like a thing, red crumble, and then like everybody had a cookie company. And I remember, like I, I wanted to pick something that no one else had really picked yet. And it's so funny to me because cinnamon rolls this year are so big, they're everywhere.

Passionistas: It's crazy.

Lindsay: And it's like to have thought about baking a cinnamon roll before all these other people, it's like weird that somehow, like I, I caught onto that before everyone else did, which is like, that never happens, right?

Like I feel like we get influenced by so many other people and so many other companies, but to like. I don't, it was so ran, it was just like, okay, like, you know, you have Annie Ann's pretzels and then you have the other one here, Wetzel Pretzel. Right. So they're, they're together and they're like, I got the better pretzel.

And, but it's like, how come no one ever did like another cinnamon roll company there is Sine Holic, right? They were like a big shark tank thing, but um, they're all completely vegan. Which is a great idea. Um, but I just remember thinking like, well, why are they just, they're in the mall, but they're nowhere else.

Right. Or they're in the airport, but like, you know, where, where else are they? So I remember thinking like I said it too, like, we're gonna be the next sine bun. Kind of thing. So that's kind of where that, I just wanted to, I didn't wanna do croissants because to me they're really hard, even though cinnamon rolls are really hard.

But it was just picking, it was literally picking a pastry that like no one really touched on. And I got really lucky, I guess. Yeah.

Passionistas: Or maybe you are a trendsetter.

Lindsay: Yeah, maybe. I love that. That's, I like that for me.

Passionistas: Um, have any of the celebrities that you have, um, named buns after come in to eat their bun?

Lindsay: Um, so. Salt and Peppa, we do a lot of their, um, they do a lot of like benefits and things like that for St. Jude and stuff. So we always do those. And then they asked us to do a flavor for Spinella, who is a, who is a part of Salt and Peppa, but she's not salt and pepper. She's, you know, the DJ for them. So, um, have they like physically come in?

No, no, like we, like Chief Keef comes in a lot. Um, we do a lot of cinnamon rolls for orders for him. Um, Kelly Rowland comes in a lot, um, which I'm sure she sees the Beyonce or the Bay up on the wall, you know, so that's fun. Um, but we hope, like, we hope that they come in and love it. Um, we do change their name a little bit.

We don't use their image. We use like a interpretation. We have an artist who draws all of our stuff, who's amazing. Um, so we take the idea of them and we redraw them to where, how we see them, kind of, you know, so, um. We don't use their full name, things like that to avoid any kind of conflict in the future.

But we would love, you know, if they came in and saw it. And we have an idea of a few that know that we exist, um, which is fun. So, um, but we would love to, you know, we try and send. We get lucky sometimes. Like we sent to Rizza from Wu-Tang last week, which was really cool. And then, uh, Michael B. Jordan, that was really cool.

We did that one a couple weeks ago. Not that he has flavors up there, but, um, we had like a few members of NSYNC come in, um, and I'm always like, oh, like you guys should get a flavor. And he's just like, no, no, that's, you know, 'cause he is not hip hop. But, um, no, hopefully someday we get. Everybody that's on the wall in 'cause they mean something to us.

You know, they, they were there when we went through like a really hard time or, or when we, like me and my husband, we actually just found out this year that we both fell in love with the same song when we were younger and it was an LL Cool J song, and I cannot believe that. We never, after all these years, we never had this conversation of like, where you were, how old you were when you fell in love with hip hop.

And it's the same exact song and it's, and it's wild. Would love to tell ll that someday, you know what I mean? Like, and he has such a good flavor. So someday I hope

Passionistas: it seems like it would be the perfect stoner food that you could get snoop into.

Lindsay: Absolutely. It's so funny,

Passionistas: it feels like Snoop should have a room at the,

Lindsay: every, every four 20. We actually drop Snoop Dog's flavor. So his flavor comes out once a year.

Passionistas: Yeah. I think next year this, this, uh, this year is gonna be the year. And you have savory flavors too, right?

Lindsay: We, we, uh, we pop up down Smorgasburg every Sunday, which is downtown la In our first year there, I tried everything and anything, right?

I was just like, I can do this. Like I, I'll do this. And they had a pizza day and I was like, we're gonna do a pizza bun. So I came, I switched our dough. It's more of like a savory instead of like a sweet brioche dough, right? So, um. I just, I came up with that recipe and then I just, I did like the whole pizza sauce and cheese and pepperoni.

I did it without pep and, and we bake it and then it comes out and then we have these like pizza ovens down at Smorgasburg on pizza day. And um, we would like, top it with, like Jean, you put it in the pizza oven and it comes out just like pizza. It's crazy. And like it got it like caught on. So much the taste Made had us on for pizza week.

So we're on TV now, pizza week, and I'm on taste made by myself. My husband's at work. I'm just there and, and, and. Here I am with this pizza bun next to these like amazing other pizzas in la Right? But they wanted like different pizza options. So of course, like no one's ever heard of a pizza, cinnamon roll, you know?

So that's how that came about. But we do, we do pizza, we do pretzel. We're from, we're from Philly, so soft pretzels in Philadelphia is like a, it's a staple, it's like a food that we grew up on and we eat all the time. And um, so we do a pretzel that comes with mustard or cheese. Um, that's actually really, really good.

Um, we have a cheese steak bun that we haven't even launched yet. We do one with BIA that we haven't even launched yet. We have a pulled pork and we have a ham and cheese. There's a bacon and cheese. Um. There's just, so there's the savory thing is something that we didn't know if it was gonna catch on.

And, and for the past couple months, people show up now and they're like, oh, where, where's the savory stuff? And it's like, oh, you guys really wanna try that? You know? And so that's really cool. That's really fun because it's, I don't know of a lot of other bakeries that do sweet and savory, you know? 'cause not everybody loves sugar. Right.

Passionistas: Right, and, and, and so much, you know, I don't understand them, but that's true.

Lindsay: Same.

Passionistas: They're not my friend.

Lindsay: Same.

Passionistas: I just wanna say as a side note too, I'm sure your husband is brilliant. And I'm not in any way dissing him, but like you started this interview by saying like, he's really smart and I wish I was as smart as that. You're freaking brilliant. Your ideas. Thank you are, yeah, it's not just creativity, it is creativity matched with vision and that is like, do not underestimate yourself. Yeah.

Lindsay: It's hard to do. It's hard to visualize something and bring it to life. You know, on paper, on paper, my husband is a genius, right? Like, we're so used to like taking these tests and these tests show us like what our IQ or what, you know, what this is. And on paper, he's brilliant, you know? And I just never was like that.

I have like extreme A DD, I'm a DH, DI, you know, I bake too many cinnamon rolls and I'm like, oh, I gotta bake a cake, you know? And I just, my creative brain just, it just, it's always thinking. It's always like, what can I do next? Like, what can I do next to push the limit? You know? And like, you are exactly right.

Like the ability to make something like this come alive. Like I. Have never been so proud of myself ever in my life, you know, ever. And like when I had my son, I was like, wow, like I am like so amazing. Like look at this kid, like he's beautiful, he's smart. Like I remember like I didn't eat sushi. I didn't drink caffeine.

Like I did everything that I was supposed to when I was pregnant. I had this beautiful sun and then like this, like I did this, like this is, and people like drive hours to it and like they just gravitate towards it, you know? And like people who have bad days, like they come in and they, the yellow and the store and the menus.

Like, it just, it makes people like the music. Like, it just makes people happy. Like it makes people's day and like to have been able to create something like that. Yeah, they're just, I don't think there's anything in the else, in this life that I could have done to, that I would, could be more proud of, you know?

Passionistas: That's amazing. What do you hope that your son learns from watching you build this from scratch?

Lindsay: Yeah. You do something that you really wanna do because you're passionate about it, you know? And he saw it, like he saw it from being just this random idea in our living room to this store that potentially, you know, is gonna grow.

Like it's gonna grow into a second and a third location. And, and you know, his, it's so funny, like my husband and I are like all over TikTok and. So as my 14-year-old and his friends and his friends will come up to him or come up to me like, oh, Mr. McDonald, like, I saw you on TikTok today. And like I know that our son is like, oh my God, but like his friends think that we're cool.

Do you know what I mean? Like this is like, oh, like they own the hip hop, cinnamon roll shop. You know? So like I just want him to know that it doesn't matter. You can do whatever you want. You just have to work a little bit harder, maybe, you know, and there's no shame in that. Like you can work as hard, like just, I just, I hope someday that he finds something that he really loves and he works really hard at it, and he excels in it.

And he says like, well, my mom did this, so like, I can do this kind of thing. You know? That's, that's what I hope that he learned from this. So.

Passionistas: Um, people are always fascinated by Nancy and I working together 'cause we're sisters and they, they can't imagine, I can't imagine working with my sister. Um, so what are the, what is the best part about working with your husband and what has it meant to you to build this with him?

Lindsay: I think the best part is getting to drive together to work. Every morning I get a ride to work and then I get a ride home. Um, I think the best part. Probably would be that, um, I get to grow something with someone that I love, you know? And, um, I get to bounce ideas off of somebody who thinks like me, but doesn't think like me, but, but enough to where we like, know each other so well, you know?

And, um. I love, this sounds so weird. I love eating lunch with him every day. Like when we get to eat lunch, you know, sometimes we're like so busy, but just I feel like with your significant other, you spend so much time, right? You have two careers and you have two, nine to fives, and then you see each other for like.

Two and a half hours at night and then it's time to go to bed. And then you wake up and you do the whole thing for five days and then you get two days together on the weekend. And then I just never like thought that that was enough. And I honestly, I tell him this all the time, when he got laid off that I manifested it and.

I always remember saying like, oh God, I wish that he was here. Like, I wish he was here. Not just to help me, but just to like be with me. You know, like just be my support. Like, just run this with me, you know? And I remember when he got laid off, we were so devastated and I was like, how are we gonna open this store without this like, income that's coming in?

You know? Like there was not a bank at all that would give us any money, you know? And, uh, I remember. Thinking to, like, that night I was thinking to myself, I said to him like, this is a good thing. 'cause now I get you like to myself all the time. I have to share you, you know, with any place else. You know, so, but there's a, there's a lot of really great things about.

Working together. And I, it was so funny because someone once said to me like, I don't know how you work with your husband every day. And I'm like, I don't know how I wouldn't, I just don't like, I love it. It's great.

Passionistas: You were saying a few minutes ago, no one would give you a bank loan and now you're here and I'm sure it's felt like.

A forever journey to you. But, um, why, what, can you just talk a little bit for the entrepreneurs that are listening about the challenges of trying to get a loan when you're a new business?

Lindsay: It is harder than. I don't even know what, it's hard. It's the hardest, it is the hardest thing about starting a business.

Like you are so small that your business doesn't have any credit. So the, the banks look at that too. They look like, have you ever, it's, it's so crazy 'cause it's like, have you ever um, taken out a loan before and paid it back? And it's like, well, no. Um, no one will give us any money. So then you, we literally had, we finally got.

Some random company to l lend us some kind of money. Very small amount. But the, the percentage that we had to borrow on it to pay back, we lit. We didn't even need this money and we literally had to take out this loan and pay back some, some, I think it was like 55%. It was like insane. Just to show. That we could pay this money back.

So this money comes into our account. If we sit right, it sits because we didn't need it. It was so small, just so that we could give it back to them, plus our money to show that we could pay this loan back. I mean, like, it is the most insane thing. Um, and it's, it is, it's the hardest thing, especially like.

My husband and I like, we don't come from money. Right? Like my parents, his mom, like very blue collar. Like my mom was a nurse. My dad was a longshoreman in Philly for 50 years, you know, and his mom worked in hospitals her whole life. So like they have these small retirement funds where, you know, they're like, okay, like.

Here's some of this, but like, you have to give it back and then here's some of this. And like, you know, and it's like, dad, like I, you know, I need an oven. And it's like, okay, like here's this, but like, I want it, I want it back. And this much, you know, so that was the hardest part, was the hard and, and for.

Bartending for the first, like two, three years of this. Like I think the reason why it stood for so long was because I made really great money bartending all the cash and the St. Patrick's Dayss and working all the New Year's Eves and you know, just putting all of it, like paying our bills and then whatever was left over it went to.

You know, um, spatulas and it went to, you know, trying out new things and, and you know, different ices like ingredients, like that stuff, especially here in LA is just, it's not cheap. It's really not cheap. So that part's super challenging. It just, you fi you just, you find and know, you, you find, I don't know, you know, they always say like, you find a way, you know, so it, it did like I.

I don't know how, I don't know how we did it. I don't know how we did it, but we did it.

Passionistas: You mentioned opening more stores, so what's the plan? Do you, do you, uh, hope to open more stores, franchise? What's, what's the long-term goal?

Lindsay: We, um, we get franchise questions every day. We get people who want to invest.

They want a franchise, they want one in Virginia, they want one in, um, you know, South Carolina, like, there's been so many of those. And I, we recently were able to cater and event with In and Out and, and we were able to talk to the president of In-N-Out and my husband spoke to like a few other. Higher up over there.

But, um, they, I think that we would love to do kind of what in and Out does, right? They own every location. They don't franchise. This is something that's so personal to us that to franchise it and allow someone else control over flavors and, and different things like that. Like, I don't know if we could ever do that.

Passionistas: Yeah.

Lindsay: You know, like it's just, it's something that we like. The flavors, like they don't just kind of like pop up out of nowhere. Like the flavor comes up and then it, it's talked about for weeks and then it's the, the artist is drawn and then, you know, we, we put the artist with the flavor and then, you know, and then the flavor gets launched in a way that we find it appropriate.

And, um, I just don't know if, uh, it could ever be franchise. I'm sure it would be like so much more money, but, you know, sometimes money isn't everything. You know, so I feel like at this point we like, this is like so much blood, sweat, and tears. Like, so more tears than anything. Me crying on the floor, like, oh my God, this has to work.

Um, so I just, I we're hoping like. In a year, at the end of this year, like we'll have a, a more of an idea on the second location. Um, we're looking more like we look towards Venice. We, we were, you know, talking about Long Beach, um, Englewood, um, just anywhere out of the valley. We have so many people driving into the valley and we, we do feel bad people driving hours, um, into Sherman Oaks.

Um. We appreciate everyone who understands that it's like where it's close to where our son goes to school. That's literally the only reason why we're there. We just wanted him to be able to get to us as fast as he could after school. Um, so, but yeah, that's, it's de in the plans, like we definitely wanna expand for sure.

Put one on the East coast. That's probably like a five year plan, I think so.

Passionistas: All right, so if someone wants to taste your delicious cinnamon buns, where do they find you?

Lindsay: Uh, we are at 4 3 4 1 Van Nuys Boulevard. There is free parking in the back that nobody knows about. Everyone is like, there's no parking.

We're like directly across the street from Stanley's, which is a great thing because they have great chicken wings and great salads.

Passionistas: And we have one final two part question, which is what's your dream for yourself and what's your dream for women?

Lindsay: My dream for myself is to continue to believe in myself.

I like my dream is to always be strong. I'm such a strong person and my mom always told me that, and I'm like, I know I'm not gonna know. You're talking about. And like from this, from like this and this day and this economy and this, everything that is going on to like still be standing is like, like incredible.

I'm so humbled every day by this business and this life, but my dream for women is to always know that. They can always do whatever they want. Like we are so powerful. We are, we made everybody, like, we made everyone on this earth, you know? And this earth is nothing without women and our perspective and our independence and our self love, and we are love.

You know, and I just, I have been through so many things in my life and so many weird relationships and so many, you know, women, just so many things, and I just hope that women know and always know how strong they are and that we are absolutely capable of everything and anything.

Passionistas: Thanks for listening to the Passionistas Project.

Since we are not only business partners, but best friends and real life sisters, we know how unique and truly special our situation is. We know so many solopreneurs, activists, women seeking their purpose and more who are out there doing it all on their own. They often tell us they wish they had what we have.

So we've created a space for them and you to join our sisterhood, where trust, acceptance, and support are the cornerstones of our community. By joining you become part of our family. We'll give you all of our SIS tips on building meaningful relationships through the power of sisterhood and all the tools you need to thrive in three key areas, business growth, personal development, and social impact.

You'll learn from our panel of Power Passionistas, who are experts on topics like transformational leadership, letting go of perfectionism, the power of community, and so much more. You can connect with like-minded women and gender non-conforming, non-binary people who share your values and goals in chat spaces at online Passionistas, pajama parties, and virtual and in-person meetups.

And you can register for our exclusive series of online courses designed to help you tap into your intuition, find your purpose, bring your mission to fruition, and integrate diversity, equity, inclusion in every aspect of your plan. Be sure to visit the Passionistas project.com to sign up for our free membership, to join our worldwide sisterhood of passion driven women who come to get support, find their purpose, and feel empowered to transform their lives and change the world.

We'll be back next week with another Passionista who's defining success on her own terms and breaking down the barriers for herself and women everywhere.

Until then, stay passionate.