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

Matt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

I hope our legacy is that I brought quality products at a great value to the community of SE Topeka.

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?

We opened 8 Iron Therapy in August of 2021 with the hope of bringing golf indoors during the winter time, supplementing the golfers outdoor round with rounds inside a climate controlled facility. I was a golfer that put the clubs away in October and brought them back out in April. No longer will golfers in Topeka have to do this for we are golf, year round!

The Sweet Tee opened in June of 2022, bringing homemade ice cream to SE Topeka. We take great pride in the ice cream we make with recipes that we developed. We continue bringing new flavors weekly with the help of feedback by our followers and customers. We’ve evolved into many more products to include milkshakes and bakery items!

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

Bringing customers back is no easy task. Although we feel our ice cream hold its own, customers want options. We’ve evolved over the last 6 months in so many ways! One thing we felt strongly about was bakery items and breakfast items for our community. We today have donuts, cookies, muffins, and cupcakes for sale, made fresh daily.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Before the ice cream shop and bakery, we used the space for a “Batters Box” which consisted of swing stations and fifty foot tunnel for pitching and batting practice. This was a great idea but very seasonal, We knew we had to pivot to a new business venture in the Spring. After many conversations and research in different industries we landed on a plan that the community could get behind, the ice cream industry. The business has really taken off and now we have pints in six grocery stores in the region.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.8irontherapy.com
• Facebook: thesweetteetopeka and 8irontherapy

Image Credits
Matt Vanderpool