We were lucky to catch up with Diana Grechukhina & Vladislav Orlov recently and have shared our conversation below.

Diana Grechukhina &, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Everyone has their own definition of success as well as different measuring systems for it. While for one person to be successful might mean to be able to read, for the other – to own a $10 million company. It would mainly depend on the individuals’ background. However, we think whatever the case is, there are some similar and shareable components to each success story. In our opinion, to succeed something, the individual should 1) be disciplined; 2) be ready to work; 3) know the value of the money. Of course, this list is not complete, there are a lot more qualities and features one should comprise, but these are the must. To elaborate a bit: 1) whatever your goal is, you need to discipline yourself. If you want to lose weight, you need to work out, eat well, etc., if you want to get more work done, you need to adhere to a certain schedule and probably wake up earlier. Whatever that is, no one will do it for you. You have you and you need create certain rituals and habits to stay organized and disciplined. 2) We are realists, meaning that we think if you want something you need to work. No one will just give or gift it to you. You can’t depend on the government or your parents, or anybody else. learn to rely only on yourself and expect nothing from other people. 3) You can make a $100 or $10,000 a day and still be poor, if you don’t know the value of the money. Just be smart about your finances and don’t jump over your head trying to impress someone or prove something to your peers or friends. If you can’t afford an expensive car, don’t take a loan, and spend all the money that you have on that monthly payment. Maybe buy something simpler and in the meantime save up and invest in stocks, property, art collection? Whatever you find interesting and/or affordable. Again, all these pieces of advice are strictly subjective, but that is what we stand by.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Waffle-Licious is owned by a young couple, Diana and Vlad. We are passionate about our products, thus we put our heart and soul into it. Waffle-Licious is a small cozy shop specializing in bubble waffles. A bubble waffle is a Chinese, Hong Kong to be precise, sweet snack made in a special waffle iron. The main ingredients include eggs, flour, milk, and sugar. We believe that this gem has been long hidden from us, therefore we have decided to take on the responsibility of making the first introductions. Not only did we polish it to perfection, but we also let our friends (customers) play a key role in creating the qualities of the gem, by fully customizing it. One can pick his/her base (chocolate or vanilla waffle), filling (what goes inside the waffle), farm-made ice cream, and toppings.

Important to note, we don’t want you to only take pictures of our amazing-looking waffles (don’t get us wrong, we DO want you to take pictures of our product and share them with your friends), but we want you to actually ENJOY, SAVOR, INDULGE, and RELISH our delicious bubble waffles. Therefore, we make sure they taste well-balanced and not sugary. By choosing your filling and toppings, you can actually control the level of sweetness of your waffles. Let’s say you select pistachios as your filling, vanilla ice cream, and maybe top it off with some pretzels, as a result you get a semi-sweet waffle. Salted pistachios will neutralize the sweetness of the waffle, so to say. However, if you want to go all-in, we are here for it! Stuff your bubbles with M&Ms, get a Cotton Candy ice cream, and finish it off with even more M&Ms, rainbow sprinkles, and Reese’s Pieces. Every sweet tooth will be 100% satisfied!
Our batter is made from scratch daily and our ultra-premium ice cream is from a local farm in Silver Spring. Not only do we want to support our local farmers and small businesses by collaborating with them, but also, we believe that our friends, i.e. customers, deserve the best in everything, including delicious, high-quality, homemade food.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Diana and Vlad have an extensive experience in customer service. We love meeting new people and hearing their life stories. We treat our customers like our friends. We always try to learn a little about each customer, if she/he doesn’t mind. We strike a small conversation to make him/her feel more comfortable and relaxed. Sometimes when you go to order your food or elsewhere, you might feel tense or there is that awkward silence. We want our customers to feel welcomed and at ease at our place. And, of course, social media and marketing makes everyone drool

How did you build your audience on social media?

Our main rule is to be consistent. You want people to often see your page before their eyes as a reminder. There are so many amazing food places that if you don’t post consistently, you might be simply forgotten. However, your consistency shouldn’t impact the quality of your posts. If you think that you can draw people in by posting blurry pictures daily, you are very wrong. In this case, post less but make sure that the quality of the pictures and videos is high. Otherwise, there is no point in doing it at all. Also, we try to make our posts and stories interactive. You want people to comment, like, and share your posts, thus you have to think strategically.

Contact Info:

• Website: thewafflelicious.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waffle_licious.official/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waffleliciouslittleitaly
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/waffle-licious-baltimore

Image Credits
Pictures belong to Waffle-Licious