We recently connected with Carlena Davis and have shared our conversation below.
Carlena , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
In 2017, I started my food blog Spilling the Sweet Tea. As a Southern girl born and raised in Kinston, North Carolina, I wanted to “spill the sweet tea” on traditional Southern dishes and share quick and easy recipes for busy moms. Up until the pandemic, I just took pictures of my food and shared my recipes on my website and social media. I love to cook and enjoy sharing my recipes that were mainly taught to me by my mom with my Instagram followers. My content initially consisted of pictures of my food and the recipe. It wasn’t until I discovered TikTok that I started to share my recipes via videos. During the start of the pandemic, my stepdaughter showed me how to use the app and from there, I started posting cooking videos on my TikTok account. Due to the popularity I was gaining on the app, I decided to turn my food blog into a business in July of 2020.
As a kid, my mom and I made homemade peach and pear preserves. While we were in lockdown, I decided I would make some peach preserves for my family. I ended up making way too many jars and my husband said to me that I should sell them because the jam was just that good! So in August of 2020, I held a popup shop at the end of my driveway. I posted about the popup shop on my social media and I SOLD OUT within a few hours. Not only did people come in person, but I had people asking me to ship the jam. After getting my website upgraded to sell online, I launched my online store in late September of 2020.
The sales over the past few months have been amazing and I owe a lot of that to the support that I received through TikTok and people sharing about my jam on social media. There are so many people who I have never met who have rooted me on and supported my business. In March of 2021, I launched my cookbook called “All About the Jam”. I wanted to write a cookbook to showcase the various ways that jam and preserves could be used in different dishes and provide alternatives to the traditional piece of toast. I self-published the cookbook and it is sold on my website, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart.com.
At one point, the cookbook was #13 in the category of Appetizer Cooking on Amazon. I had people share pictures of my cookbook, featured on their kitchen counters and I am extremely excited and proud of that. In August of 2021, I launched my first children’s book. I got the idea to write a children’s book to empower young readers in the kitchen and teach them the ABC’s of Cooking from A-Z. The main character of the book is my seven year old daughter Maya. She helps me in the kitchen all the time and this book was written through her eyes. Maya teaches young readers about various kitchen tools, cooking techniques and how to cook magic in the kitchen. I am so excited about the book because Maya shared her opinion on the characters and even came up with A is for Apron. The Maya’s World brand is not just about the book but a brand that I hope will empower future foodies across the country. The book is in store at 11 Barnes and Noble locations in the DC area. It is also available on my website, Amazon, Books a Million.com and Barnes and Noble.com
Carlena , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My story is truly born out of living through a pandemic. I also had amazing parents who were entrepreneurs and I saw them build a brand that still lives on to this day. I grew up in a small business and I believe that the work ethic and business acumen that my parents displayed lives on through me. My business started as a pandemic project and has grown from me making jam in my kitchen to now being co-packed in a facility. I believe the time I spent in quarantine shifted my mindset and woke up my entrepreneurial spirit. I am so proud of everything that is happening with the Miss Lena’s and the Maya’s World brand.
My main product offering is jam and preserves but I am looking to launch a biscuit mix in the next few months. As a Southern girl, I want to share the best part of my childhood with the world which includes amazing homemade food made with love.
I am most proud of the following that I have been able to build over the past two years. As I stated before, I had been a food blogger since 2017 but only posting still photos and recipes on my website. It wasn’t until I discovered the power of making video content and building a community online that I started to see that I could grow a business from my love of cooking. I think what sets my jam brand apart is the story behind the brand and the desire to produce all natural jam and preserves that is free of high fructose corn syrup and other additives. Our jam has a homemade taste that is made with my mother’s touch.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
The process of making jam is extremely sensitive and very different from making it in small batches in my kitchen. We had a lot of issues once I moved to the co-packing stage with the jam setting properly. It was challenging to get the right formulation to ensure that the jam set properly in large quantities. In May of 2021, we found an amazing co-packer in Vermont. They helped us get all of our paperwork together and scheduled a test run and 200 jars were made. Only two of the three flavors did well during the test run but we felt like we knew what we needed to adjust for the next run. A few months later, we did another run and we had the same issue. Our best seller which is our peach preserves DID NOT SET when we increased the quantity. The co-packing facility that we chose did not have experience in making jam and didn’t have a food scientist on staff. We ultimately had to switch to a different co-packer who had experience in making jam. I am so glad we didn’t give up and decided to find a co-packer who would help us with our formulation and had experience in making jam. Resilience and perseverance played a huge role in our journey. I had my first pop up shop in August of 2020 and in two years I went from making jam in my kitchen to having it mass produced. At this time, we are still strictly selling our jam online but the goal is to approach grocery stores in the next few months.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I started building a social media presence in 2017 but my social media didn’t take off until I started making video content. I didn’t think I was the type of person who would get in front of a camera and make video content. I started my Tik Tok account in late April of 2020. Due to the lockdown because of the pandemic, I was cooking A LOT because the restaurants at the time were closed. My videos started to take off and I started to gain a following because of the recipes that I shared but also because of the stories behind the recipes. My mom taught me how to cook when I was a kid and I tell people all the time that there would be NO TEA to spill if it hadn’t been for my mom. She taught me everything I know in the kitchen and I shared those life lessons and stories of growing up in Eastern NC with my followers. I currently have 620k followers on Tik Tok, 54k followers on Instagram and I get about 3.3 million monthly views on Pinterest. I am very consistent with my posting. I post at least 5 times a week. I normally record what I make for dinner or breakfast on the weekends and share it with my followers. I also post about my business and how I am growing my jam brand. It has meant so much to have a community of people support and encourage me through my entrepreneurial journey. I say all the time that “no one supports you more than a social media friend that you never met.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.spillingthesweettea.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spilling_the_sweet_tea/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/spillingthesweettea
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJDZv_24zWLkodRQb-3cN3A
- Other: Tik Tok- https://www.tiktok.com/@spilling_the_sweet_tea Pinterest- https://www.pinterest.com/spillingthesweettea/_shop/ Children’s Book website- www.welcome2mayasworld.com IG- welcome2mayasworld
Image Credits
Photo Credit- Ebes Olumse and Melena DeFlorimonte
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