We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jabin & Natalie Olds a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jabin & Natalie, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Is owning our own business the right thing to do? It’s something we lie awake at night asking ourselves repeatedly! We could be in a much stronger financial position, personally, if we worked regular jobs. Currently we are only able to pay ourselves about 50% of what we made before we started our bakery. The recent inflation has put even MORE strain on that and what we are able to do to build any kind of security for the future.

We’ve recently seen a fall out in sales and we had begun the process of seeking out other jobs we could work and run the bakery part time. It has been nauseating to think about after putting so much into building our dream.

We prayed and we prayed hard about it, and this past weekend our eyes were opened up to things that are worth so much more than monetary value. We’ve been blessed with opportunities to do things as a family, that we would have never been able to do working regular jobs. God continues to guide our path, and as long as we seek him, our needs are provided for. It’s a hard lesson to learn and a hard one to continue to implement. As entrepreneurs we want to be in control, but we’re really not.

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

We are owners and operators of Three Bears Bakery KC, a Low-Carb, Sugar Free, and Mostly Gluten Free Bakery located in Lenexa, KS.

We started living a Keto Lifestyle in 2017 to try and improve our health to be around later in our son’s life. We lost 100lbs each in a year and a half, but were so disappointed in the products available on the market. Jabin put his Bakery Science Degree from Kansas State University to work, and Natalie began teaching herself through trial and error and shear determination.

We quickly built a large following and have shipped to 48 states, with social media followers in multiple different countries. We are known as the standard of Sugar Free/Low Carb baked goods, and thrive on bringing things to our customers that they never thought they would be able to eat again. No one brings the level of creativity that we do to the products we develop, and our customers LOVE seeing what we come up with! Not a week goes by where multiple customers come in and tell us, “I wasn’t going to come in today, but your post on Facebook sucked me in!”

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

We started with a personal health journey page about a year before we launched the business. We followed other people who were on the same journey to health as we were. We mentally made lists on what people liked to see shared and what they disliked. We found a combination works best for us. From silly fun fact and stats to personal struggles and success within our small business and family and even the journey of plants we have around the shop.

We’ve found that people begin to care about the business, but sometime more so the family behind the business. It really is a family that started with the 3 of us and now reaches international and we love it!

For people just starting social media don’t forget to switch it up and make content that both appeals to you and sometimes makes you uncomfortable. Being vulnerable with your customers is tough, but it’s also touching and makes you real.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth!! It’s take a special type of person to think “I’m ready to make a change in my life and find better foods for me to consume”, then they think “I’m going to walk into this shop where these people probably know more than I do about this”, which is very scary and intimidating. Then they come in and become part of our family. We are so transparent about what we do, how we do it, where do do it (we have a large window into the production space). We don’t know everything but are happy to share what we do know.

Then our prayer is that you leave the shop feeling a little more confident in your choices.

Then you tell your friend about us and chances are they are similarly as awesome as you and they come in.

It’s a cycle that we love! If you provide a great product, great customers will tell great friends and you’ll multiple.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.threebearsbakerykc.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/threebearsbakerybbq
• Facebook: facebook.com/ThreeBearsBakeryKC
• Twitter: @3BearsBakeryBBQ