We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eliza Hucks . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eliza below.

Eliza , appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The first step was to convince my older sister, Nancy, that popcorn was a good investment/ idea! One phone call later and she was hooked! We started looking into the idea and after looking at a few popcorn places in the area we landed on Tastebuds Popcorn! We met the owners, Jenn and Jay, and instantly felt at ease with them and we absolutely loved the Popcorn!!! It was delicious! After we tasted the Chocolate Peanut Butter we were sold! We decided then and there that Hickory had to experience Tastebuds’ popcorn!!! After that the first hurdle was finding a location! As Jenn and Jay advised this was the most important step!! Nancy and I really toiled over location. There are so many areas of Hickory that were options, but finding the most affordable and the most traffic was daunting! Nancy had been in the retail food industry working at Edible Arrangement but I came with no experience! I have been raising my twins and my older boys and helping my parents on their farm in my spare time, before that I rode and trained horses. So when I say no experience I mean no experience! The next hurdle was all the behind the scenes: setting up the LLC, bank account, sales tax, payroll, quickend , Square, website, social media, marketing and on and on! Thankfully, my husband, who has his CPA, has been an immense help and I am slowly learning! And my oldest helped me with our website and another friend and neighbor has been helping me with the social media! Meanwhile, my friend, Elizabeth Kaiser, who is a decorator, was kind enough to help me prepare the store! She is incredible! Together, we did many DIY projects! Again, this is out of my comfort zone, but worth it! From a dress made out of popcorn to life sized popcorn buckets for our grand opening to large popcorn kernels made out of some foam stuff ( thank you you tube!) we had fun! Nancy and I figured out Facebook marketplace to find some great accessories and great people! ( We found our cabinet maker on Facebook Marketplace; he made us fantastic cabinets!). Then, I googled all sorts of used equipment places and met some incredible people along the way that we’re willing to take the extra time to educate me on display cases for chocolate and merchandisers ( another word I learned along the way!). From deep cleaning used double sinks and learning about the Department of Agriculture, it has been an adventure! And when it all came together it was worth every year, drop of sweat, and frustrating moment! It is a beautiful store that Nancy and I are very proud of and again the popcorn is amazing as are the chocolates! Nancy and I divide up all the tasks and honestly it is amazing to work alongside my sister and friend! We communicate well and so far things are running smoothly! And we both love to work in the store and share our love of the popcorn and to interact with customer and help them find their favorite flavors!! And we have a great team of friends helping us in the store! We are looking forward to Christmas season, which is Nancy’s favorite holiday and mine too and the popcorn flavors sound delicious! We are so thankful for all the help that we have received from family and friends who have made this journey possible! And to our sister, Comer, and our brother, Alex, who thought we were a bit crazy but who supported us throughout and our husbands who we are beyond grateful to and our children! And we are so thankful to our parents who continue to support us, who gave us the entrepreneurial spirit, and who helped us hands on by tearing out shelves in the demo phase, hauling off trash, picking up our Merchandiser in Asheville and display case in Charlotte with a horse trailer and so much more! Thank you to everyone who has helped us on this journey!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Tastebuds Popcorn Hickory offers over 70 flavors of gourmet, hand crafted popcorn! It is made from scratch in Belmont, NC and Nancy picks it up weekly! We have a variety of flavors ranging from Dill Pickle, our best seller, to Blackberry to Decadent Dog, a made from scratch caramel with a dash of sea salt and a touch of vanilla drizzled with white chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate to Unicorn Poop, to Banana Pudding!!! We also have hand crafted chocolates made in Charlotte, NC and family owned and operated as well! Plus, we have candy and mini melts ice cream! Nancy and I love all things sweet and we wanted to share that love with Hickory, our hometown! We also have party favors size bags for any occasion and tins for gifts and so much more!!

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Definitely social media… and participating in fundraisers, which gets Tastebuds Popcorn Hickory out in the community and helps the community— Win Win

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I will be honest. I do not know much about social media so I asked for help. For so many of the hurdles, I asked for help! Social media is probably our biggest marketing platform and I knew I would need help keeping us with it and setting it up so I asked simply asked for help. I asked a young person who is a friend and neighbor and it has worked out beautifully!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tastebudshickory.com
• Instagram: @Tastebudshickory
• Facebook: @tastebudshickory
• Yelp: Tastebudshickory