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

Alright, Stacie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Where to start? I go back to January of 2021. I made a life changing decision that left me close to homeless. I left a toxic place in my life and needed to find work – fast! I had no savings, maxed out credit cards, and $4,000 worth of expenses left for the month of January. I had no time to freak out, only time to figure out my next steps leaving emotion out of the equation. I took a large risk leaving a place I was comfortable, dependent upon, and financially secure for 6 years to a place I had to hustle to make rent on my own. I remember I reached out to everyone I knew that took care of the SugarFaceBakes brand over the course of 2020 when I was dependent on my other half and had the world handed to me on a silver platter while I scaled…and I did from July 2020 to December 2020. Early 2021 I refused to go back to corporate and knew deep down I could make a business from my strengths- social media. I giggle now when I told my mother I was job searching when in reality I was client searching! Mom, as you read this- now you know! Social media became my hero because I knew how to “work the algorithm” for not only for myself but for other brands. I nailed down my first client completely confident I could get the job done for her and her brand needs for social media visibility. Little did they know, they were my first client…. ever. A little white lie turned into an empire for a good amount of time and now I run her entire social media brand. One client led to the next and by the next month I started to scale. I was able to move, pay off my debts, increase my credit, buy a new car, and used all my money to invest in my SugarFaceBakes brand to publish my first cookbook, hire 4 amazing people, and create a platform for online cooking and baking classes with bonus online yoga classes. I risked my personal values, my life, my brand, my money, everything was on the line during the time of rock bottom with the power of confidence and drive. Long days and sleepless nights drove me to the place I am today investing my time not only in SugarFaceBakes, a healthy, balance lifestyle brand, but also YogaTres. A yoga studio I call my second baby as of this year in January 2022.

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

I am a jack of all trades and a master of risks. I am most proud of my brownies kits (this is how I came up with the name SugarFaceBakes you can read about in “The Best Damn Cookbook” on Amazon), my online cooking, baking, and yoga classes, and for proving to myself I can juggle two business yet still make time for the people that helped me get where I am today. A work life balance was a struggle for a long time. I am extremely family oriented, however, for a good part of 2021 I was absent. I am to the point where I can make time for my world, my mom and dad.

My brand started with a blog 4 years ago. I learned to build a website from the ground up, explored social media, and took branding classes for social media- how to monetize your social media. I then invested in people and their knowledge to figure out my next steps and also hired to training my team today the best trick and practices for online brand awareness. These are all valuable lessons learned, putting money back into the business to scale.

I have my toes dipped in a little bit of everything but my main job right now is building the SugarFaceBakes online Culinary Academy and Total Body Transformation memberships for a balanced lifestyle between low impact movements and healthy eating habits. What all goes into food blogging, web maintenance and winning money through social media is the content. Each piece of content I put for my brand starts with ingredients, recipe, cook/bake, and then shoot. Then, editing, blogging, marketing, key word research, social media video/static photo uploading, engagement period, and uploading stories to keep people engaged. Pinterest is a whole different beast. You can find me on both Instagram and Pinterest and laugh because you know the details that goes into food blogging and piecing together posts for you like and share. Any social media brands’ end goal! All of this was trial and error with lots of self research and education. This is something I am extremely proud of as well, learning to do it all on my own until I transfer control to someone else to do the detailed work for me. It a great deal of learning, but knowing how to do it yourself is the bottom line before anyone is hired. I see this in client frustration- they hire out without knowing how to do it themselves and potentially are *screwed over* because they don’t know the first thing about who they are tossing their money to. Know all parts of your business like the creases in the palm of your hand.

Any advice for managing a team?

Be a friend, but also be a boss. This is a fine line between you running your business and your employee/contractors running your business. I am always honest about what I need to be honest about when it comes to managing a team but not every detail needs to be looped to your staff. To be blunt, it is your business, not everyone else’s. If there is a issue with your staff, ensure you speak with them separately and as an equal…but with authority. The work place is an environment everyone should be treated with respect, the boss is the glue where the staff is the concrete. We need people to help us out so appreciate them, write them a thank you card, never retaliate…never, and be patient. Structure is key, I set the standards from the very beginning. For myself, I leave my problems at the door and slap on a smile because everyone wants to be in a positive place…for some it might be an escape from home. Conflict resolution plays a huge part when something isn’t running as smoothly as possible. No on ever wants to get fired/laid off/etc. but it happens. When this happens, and it has, it is important to stay calm and collected without making it a long conversation. Be a friend, but also be a boss.

Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?

I recently bought into the yoga studio I taught at for years. Formerly YogaOne, then YogaWorks, now Yoga Tres. The third yoga studio in the Bellaire triangle at Bellaire and Chimney Rock. I started my teaching journey with YogaOne after 1.5 years in corporate sales. I tossed the pencil skirt and heels and inherited a lifetime of yoga pants (very expensive one LOL) and inner peace. I was lucky enough after covid hit and shut down YogaWorks in 2020 to now work for YogaTres started by Amanda Hale, an original owner of YogaOne Pearland before it sold the YogaWorks company. I started teaching there in April 2021 when it first opened and hopped on the chance to invest in Janurary 2022. I am now a co-owner along with Heather Heft and Amanda Hale. I love teaching and I believe in myself, just as I did in January 2021 when I had no money, to help grow a community I have called home for 7 years. I invested my last few thousand I built up last year in my savings to risk it all to scale this studio. Cheers to another “living on a prayer” moment, but with more experience this time. If you put in the work, money, the time, the sleepless nights, you will have 96 problems but those won’t be one. You grow by the effort, knowledge, and drive. What you put in, you get out. It is a completive market but I work as if “someone is taking away my business 24/7” – Mark Cuban.

The process of acquiring ownership I believe starts with trust. People like people’s people. I have proven myself to the original owner my entrepreneurship skills, I have gained her trust, and spoke powerfully and truthfully my scope of work within my desired percentage of ownership. It is almost like an interview. Then, the documents are sent. Know your numbers, know the lingo, know what to look for and ask about. Just like buying a home, you need a thorough understanding of what you are putting your money in. If you don’t know, ask. Ask as many people as you can that you can trust to give you the best advice and guide you to your decisions. At the end of the day, we are all liable for our decisions and actions. My end goal is ROI, dividends, and future scaling. How quickly can I get there? I can give you an answer at the end of the 4th quarter!

Contact Info:

• Website: staciezollarsliving.com, yogatres.com
• Instagram: @sugarfacebakes, @yogatreshouston
• Facebook: @sugarfacestace or Stacie Zollars, @yoga tres
• Linkedin: Stacie Zollars
• Other: TikTok: @sugarfacebakes Pinterest: @sugarfacebakes

Image Credits
Al Torres Photography