Ashley Boeckle is owner and co-founder of Buff Bake — The Better For You Snacks. A company that sells all-natural protein nut butters and protein cookies. Boeckle is an entrepreneurial go-getter who always knew she’d create her own path.

Growing up, Boeckle hated school, so right after college she started her first food company. A couple of years later, she sold her company to a local buyer and moved to California to start Buff Bake with her cousin.

Within a week they had the company incorporated, within a month a live website, and before she knew it their products were sought after by many retailers.

In this episode, we look into why you need to pursue your passions, how to grow a business, what’s it like to be an entrepreneur in the food business, why you need to use Google more often, and much more. Enjoy!

A post shared by Buff Bake (@buffbake) on Mar 22, 2018 at 10:45am PDT

Dream big and never give up

Ashley Boeckle received her entrepreneurship drive from her dad, who grew up poor and became a self-made millionaire, owning over 40 bars in Las Vegas, NV. Boeckle never liked school, she was a straight D student, but always felt like she was smarter than her teachers. Right after college, she decided to pursue her passion of baking and started her own business.

In 2014, she moved to California with her cousin to start Buff Bake, selling protein muffins in farmers markets in Orange County and Los Angeles. Once they realized muffins’ shelf life was too short, only two weeks, they created nut butters. Shortly after, with the help of Instagram influencers, Vitamin Shoppe and more retailers reached out to Buff Bake and business was booming. Today, Buff Bake is on the shelves of many retailers worldwide.

“Literally, that’s how I figured everything out, it’s Google. Google taught me everything: How do I find a co-backer, how do I find muffin packaging, how do I make nut butter.” — Ashley Boeckle

A post shared by Buff Bake (@buffbake) on Feb 15, 2018 at 7:45am PST

Key Takeaways

• Shelf life is a huge factor in the food industry — Most retailers want products with at least 9 months shelf-life as food needs to be shipped, stored, and then purchased by customers. Today, a lot of companies create supplements as those last for two years on average.
• Keep doing the things you are passionate about — If you work hard on your passions, creating value for people, eventually you will be approached by someone who will offer you something of big value for your hard work. Keep hammering!
• Scale your business gradually — Buff bake co-founders used to cook all their products themselves for a very long time. They only scaled the business when they couldn’t keep up with demand. Now that they’ve grown so much there are now 40 people on their production line. At this scale, they find it easier to let someone else manage the production than hire employees and do it on their own.
• Productivity is not about where you work from — On a usual day, Boeckle works 6–8 hours at the office and takes calls and answers emails later from home. She feels like she is more successful not in the office. Thanks to Slack, Skype, Dropbox, and other amazing technologies, it’s easy to communicate and work with people at different places without constricting our life to one physical location.
• You can learn way more stuff from the internet than from school — Use Google when you want to learn something new. You’d be amazed at how much you can do by yourself utilizing knowledge other shared on the internet already. When used correctly, the internet can be your best teacher.

“I personally feel like I’m more successful not in that office. It’s just more motivating to be out and free.” —Ashley Boeckle

Connect with Ashley Boeckle

Connect on social: Instagram, LinkedIn, Buff Bake Instagram

Resources: Buff Bake

Recommended books:

How to Be a Badass and Stop Doubting Yourself: The Ultimate Guide to Greatness and Power

How to Win Friends & Influence People

Thanks for tuning in!
Ryan and Yaya