We were lucky to catch up with Tricia Arce recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tricia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How has Covid changed your business model?
We were a dessert place that people came in for the experience. You’d bring in your friends and family and watch us toast a gourmet s’more for you and then you’d sit and enjoy that dessert. With COVID, being shut down for a year of in door dining and then the ongoing surges of the virus and people not really coming in and sitting in big groups the experience is almost non existent.
So we had to start thinking of new ways to bring customers in without the trick and pony show.
So we’ve started to refocus on our brand and trying to become more of a candy and dessert shop. We’ve now introduced cupcakes into our menu because everyone loves cake and there is always something to celebrate.
Our hearts are still passionate about marshmallows so we are going to focus on making different candies that involve marshmallow and still be the one location you can buy marshmallows to enjoy at home and marshmallow gifts to give.

Tricia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We started Fluff It Marshmallows in 2013 from home. Marshmallows were a way to cope with the passing of Tricia’s grandmother, Tricia found it very therapeutic to place her grief and healing into something that made people smile. We then started out at farmers markets on weekends and weeknights. Then we wanted to test the waters and did a Kickstarter and our minds were blown when we exceeded our goal and thought maybe we have something.
In 2014 we opened up our store front in Gilbert, AZ and created gourmet s’mores. We figured what a great idea to create handmade s’mores indoors in the cool AC, no campfire required. So we opened the first S’mores bar where customers came in and picked a flavored marshmallow that we toasted in our handmade Graham cracker s’mores bowl and topped with all their desires. We have fun creations like the Brownie Bomb, Grasshopper and PB Cup to name a few.
In 2016 we had to change our name to Toasted Mallow due to unfortunate legal challenges. We are a unique dessert shop and if you love marshmallows then you’ll love handmade marshmallows even more. We’ve created a recipe that does not include any corn syrup or corn starch and use a kosher gelatin. Nobody makes marshmallows the way we do.
We have been blessed to write a recipe book called “Marshmallow Heaven” and be on the Cooking channel show “Unique Sweets”.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
What we have learned about social media and small business is that you have to remain authentic. Customers want to buy from someone with a story, they want a connection. They feel their hard earned money is going towards a business they can connect too.
Consumers want to know about behind the brand and why it makes the product so special.
I’ve never been shy on social media, I share the very difficult times and the very happy moments and its truly helped our business. Consumers love a good story and they love a great success story and knowing they are part of it.
It’s about connection and not just with the customers but with people who might be feeling the same way or wanting to start something of their own. So stay as authentic as possible.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Social media but it’s different now. In 2016-2019 there were social media outlets like Insider, tasty and buzzfeed writing about fun food trends like unicorn everything, birthday desserts and fun donuts but since COVID the trends are more based on survival. Because of social media we gained so many followers and so many fun opportunities. Our videos were getting over 300k views, 10k shares and tons of comments because of social media. It’s a crucial part of small business without it you really can’t market yourself without spending thousands that could be used elsewhere.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thetoastedmallow.com/
• Instagram: Toasted.mallow
• Facebook: @toastedmallow
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tricia-m-arce-0a312b49
• Twitter: Toasted_mallow
• Yelp: Toasted Mallow