We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danielle Edwards a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danielle , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One deeply underappreciated facet of entrepreneurship is the kind of crazy stuff we have to deal with as business owners. Sometimes it’s crazy positive sometimes it’s crazy negative, but crazy experiences unite entrepreneurs regardless of industry. Can you share a crazy story with our readers?

One day I answered a Sweet P’s customer phone call. On the phone was a woman interested in buying 30+ ice pops for her nephew who was just injured. We discussed options and she wanted to take time to consider the details. The next day she called me back, and we confirmed her order of 30+ ice pops to be delivered to her nephews door along with a handwritten card that included a heartfelt message. We delivered the ice pops and snapped a picture of the delivery, afterwards contacting the customer to confirm the delivery and to share a picture and to pass along the appreciation from her nephew and from our team for trusting us with this special order. She was thrilled, and asked, “Have you ever considered selling your ice pops in retail?” “I work at the corporate office of Walmart and I’d like to help you!” I quickly confirmed yes — we had been working on a rebrand, including our logo, packaging, website and etc. Within two weeks I was on a Zoom with Walmart walking though a presentation of our brand.

The zoom call was brutal, there were so many questions we couldn’t answer. But, we wrote those questions down and it became our roadmap for other retail stores that aligned with our shorter term strategy. Over the next seven months, we revised our branding, finished our packaging, and developed a distribution and storage plan before launching in an amazing local independent grocer, Dorothy Lane Market with eight flavors on the shelf.

Danielle , 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?

Danielle Edwards is an optimistic strategist focusing uniquely on people, systems, and impact. She is the owner of Sweet P’s Handcrafted Ice Pops, a family owned and operated ice pop company. Sweet P’s was established in 2010, handcrafting gourmet ice pops in small batches in Dayton, Ohio. Offering more than 300 flavors, including fruit-based, dairy-based, and no-sugar added pops. All of Sweet P’s ice pops are made in-house by their team, using real, fresh ingredients; they prefer to use local and organic ingredients when possible. Sweet P’s ice pops can be found at the Dayton Dragons ballpark, independent grocery store Dorothy Lane Market, the University of Dayton and so many other places.

Danielle is also the Principal Consultant of New Impact Partners, a collective of strategists and subject matter advisors who partner with clients to solve big challenges and define inclusive and equitable paths forward. Additionally, until July 2022, Danielle served as the Vice President of Talent, Communications, and Operations at Teach For America for more than seven years. Leading a team of 14 responsible for hiring and recruitment, diversity, equity, and inclusiveness, learning and training, and cross-team engagement for a larger team of 110 people.

Danielle began her career in strategy and technology consulting with Accenture. For more than ten years, she worked to design and implement strategic solutions for both corporate and non-profit clients. Today, she leverages her skills and abilities in her entrepreneurial ventures and volunteer positions.

Danielle is a proud Alumna of Spelman College and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. She also earned an MBA at the Kellogg School of Management –Northwestern University, where she studied Finance, Management, and Strategy. She is married to Dr. Kevin Edwards, and they have three amazing children Zoe, Izabel, and Kevin.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Sweet P’s started very small commercial kitchen with one refrigerator, one commercial ice pop freezer, and three small sliding glass freezers. With less than 1K square feet there was hardly enough space to produce the one thousand ice pops we made each week. The first summer of producing ice pops, the air conditioning went out and it was 90 degrees in the kitchen during the day, and the landlord refused to fix the unit without the commitment of a longer term lease, a commitment I was not ready to make. Then, the ice pop freezing machine stopped working. How could we make ice pops in a 90 degree space with no ice pop freezer? How could we make enough to cover all of our financial commitments without inventory to sell?

I decided to change our production schedule to produce at night. For months, we made ice pops in the middle of the night when the temperatures outside would go down to ~60 degrees. Also, we found a local air conditioning mechanic to work on our ice pop freezer for a short term fix, while sourcing new equipment from China — talking to 20+ possible suppliers. Many weeks I wasn’t sure if we were going to manage to produce enough to break even, and then, the pandemic hit and our primary sales channels were closed.

I worked through the production challenges and pivoted our sales to a heavy focus on delivery orders. With delivery, we spent more time on the phone with customers and developed stronger relationships and eventually major corporate orders and a substantial increase in online followership.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Our brand reputation has been built from consistently delivering high quality products to our customers and maintaining commitments with customers, partners, and members of our community. Our customers and community have been kind enough to share the good news of our brand with their family, friends, and companies.

We also dedicate a fair amount of time sharing about our product on our social media channels.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweetpsicepops.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetpsicepops
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sweetpshandcraftedicepops/

Image Credits
Brieanna Moore @feedcreativellc