122: Angie Bastian | Founder, Angie's BOOMCHIKAPOP

This episode explores the entrepreneurial journey of Angie Bastian, founder of Angie's BOOMCHIKAPOP, detailing her transition from nursing to building a multimillion-dollar snack brand with her husband.

1. Entrepreneurial success often begins with small, practical steps rather than perfect plans.
2. Grit and perseverance are crucial for overcoming the inevitable challenges of starting and growing a business.
3. The importance of supportive relationships and role flexibility in entrepreneurship cannot be overstated.
4. Women can turn unique challenges into advantages in business environments.
5. Letting go and trusting others with responsibilities is essential for growth and success in business.

1: Introduction

Carly introduces Angie Bastian, highlighting her transition from nursing to entrepreneurship. Carly Malatskey: "Our guest today is Angie Bastian, the founder of Angie's boom chicka pop."

2: Early Life and Career

Angie discusses her upbringing, education in nursing, and the serendipitous encouragement that led her to pursue higher education. Angie Bastian: "I just needed someone to believe I could do it."

3: Founding of BOOMCHIKAPOP

Angie narrates the origins of her popcorn business, started to fund her children's education, which turned into a major brand. Angie Bastian: "It started with a kettle and a tent at local fairs."

4: Business Growth and Challenges

Discusses the scale-up of the business, taking on private equity, and the eventual sale to Conagra. Angie Bastian: "We knew we needed to grow; taking equity was a step towards that."

5: Advice for Entrepreneurs

Angie provides practical advice for aspiring entrepreneurs on starting and persevering through challenges. Angie Bastian: "Move faster from idea to execution to test the market."

1. Start small and iterate: Don’t wait for a perfect plan.
2. Embrace learning through action: Practical experience often outweighs theoretical knowledge.
3. Seek and provide support: Having a reliable partner can be invaluable.
4. Utilize unique perspectives: Use distinct personal insights as strengths.
5. Focus on gradual letting go: Delegate to grow your business effectively.

This episode was first recorded and released in September, 2020.

Angie Bastian, the visionary co-founder of Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, ignited a global popcorn revolution from the confines of her Minnesota garage in 2001. She crafted a beloved brand of gluten-free, non-GMO popcorn that has taken the world by storm. In 2017, Conagra Brands recognized the exceptional appeal of Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP and acquired the company, propelling it to new heights of success.
Angie's outstanding achievements have garnered her well-deserved recognition. She has been honored as a Pioneer in Food and proudly inducted into the esteemed MN Women's Business Hall of Fame. Beyond her role at Angie's BOOMCHICKAPOP, Angie actively contributes to various ventures, serving on the boards of Prospera Foods and Opportunity International Nicaragua. A former Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, she made the bold decision to retire from her nursing career in 2011, fully dedicating herself to the world of entrepreneurship.

With an enduring partnership spanning 28 years, Angie and her husband have built a legacy that extends beyond business success. Together, they have raised two remarkable children and remain an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere. Angie Bastian's extraordinary journey exemplifies the power of determination, innovation, and unwavering commitment to creating something truly extraordinary.

People

Angie Bastian, Carly Malatskey

Companies

Angie's BOOMCHIKAPOP, Conagra Brands

Books

None

Guest Name(s):

Angie Bastian

Content Warnings:

None

Angie Bastian
What do I need to be good at to be great at something?

Carlee Milatzky
Hello, everyone. You are listening to. She leads with Carly. And in this show, we talk to the absolute best, brightest, and, yes, badass leaders. Tap into where your natural curiosity takes you.

Just making sure you're not your own roadblock. Even if you do fall, you're gonna fall and you're gonna lure together, let's build a DNA of what it takes to rise to the top and truly make an impact.

I'm your host, Carlee Milatzky. Hi, everyone you're listening to. She leads with Carly. Our guest today is Angie Bastian, the founder of Angie's boom chicka pop. So while you may not know who Angie is, I can guarantee you've had the famous boom chicka pop popcorn.

If not, then honestly, I'm not sure what you're snacking on, but please go try it out. Anyway, we have an amazing chat about how she started Angies boom chicka pop with her husband. For them, it was honestly just about how to make money for their kids college fund. Clearly, it turned out into something much, much more. So please take a listen and enjoy.

Hello, Angie. I am so excited to have you on. She leads today. Thank you so much for joining. I really am so excited.

Angie Bastian
Thank you for having me, Carly, of course. So, Angie, you are the founder of Angie's boom Chicka pop, as you can see in the background, which is an international snack brand that's really worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and most well known for its popcorn, which is, by the way, I have it as well. And it's delicious. So, Angie, we'll get into that. It was founded in 2001 with your husband, Dan.

Carlee Milatzky
You and your husband. But what I love to do is take me back to when you were in college. You went to Goshen College and you got a degree in nursing, and you ended up getting a master's in nursing from Emory a few years later. But from my understanding, you didn't even know that college was in the picture. So take me to this whole process.

Like, why nursing and. Yeah, kind of this whole. This time in your life navigating your future. Well, thanks for. I rarely go back that far, but we'll have you to go back that far.

Angie Bastian
I grew up in a small community and on a small Mennonite farm. My grandparents were Amish, my mom and dad were Mennonite, and we lived in the back of my grandparents farm for a while and in a trailer. And so my beginnings were very humble. And, you know, my parents were married when they were 18 and 19 and had me when they were, you know, when my mom was 19 and my dad was 20. And, you know, my dad went to two year business school and, you know, developed a career in business, and my mom kind of worked in, I don't know, different places.

And, you know, we had a small farm, and, you know, I. Nobody in my family, in my immediate family ever really talked about college. You know, they never said or set that expectation like, that I should go to college. And I loved school. I loved to go to school, and I loved everything about school.

I know I was a complete nerd in that way, and I never understood why kids didn't want to go to school. That was not me.

But when high school was done, I went to work for my dad. My dad had a small business, and I became his sort of office manager. I did inventory. I did. I typed for him.

I did all the secretarial stuff. I ran and got parts, everything. And during that time, I went to visit my aunt and uncle that lived in Colorado, and my aunt was a nurse, and my uncle was a schoolteacher, my dad's brother. And they looked at me and they said, why aren't you in college? You know?

And I was like, I don't know. You know, do you think I could do it? And she goes, of course you can. You know, of course you can do it. And I was like, oh, okay.

Somebody thinks I can do it, you know, and that's all I needed, you know, and I just. Then it was like, what do I want to do? And I didn't really know, but I just enrolled in what I did know, which was Goshen College, and that was close to my home. It was a mennonite liberal arts college, and, you know, it had a nursing program that was, you know, 100% pass rate on the boards, and, you know, it was really a good program. And I said, well, I'll just sign up for nursing.

That's what my aunt did, and maybe I'll do it. I never really wanted to be a nurse. You know, like, some people know when they're little what they want to be. It was never me, but I did it, and I had a lot of good friends that were nurses and actually loved it. And you, that is so, that's such a cool, like, even such a cool story.

Carlee Milatzky
And just the fact that you needed that one person to tell you, you know what? You can go to college, and you needed that one voice in your head and be like, why not? Like, I can? And so it's very interesting. It's so cool.

I love it. Well, Carly, I think what that taught me and what I remember about this is kids as smart as they can be. And I know I'm pretty smart. I'm above average. I'm not brilliant, pretty sure, but above average.

Angie Bastian
And what they need is somebody because they don't think about things in the way if they don't know. Right. So they sometimes just need somebody to say something to them. Like they can imagine that they would be in college and that kind of validation or narration of what could be or what's possible. Kids can't think that way.

I mean, they're really fairly concrete and they're thinking. And even me, I mean, I graduated a year early and I was only 17, but I still wasn't able to think about, you know, like, oh, you know, my future could be different than what it is in the present, you know, so I think it's really important for, for adults to narrate the possibilities for their, for kids. I agree. Even planting that seed, that little seed is enough for it to grow. And then I totally agree.

So, yeah, yeah. Coming out of college, you're a nurse practitioner at this moment. So walk me through this moment where I assume you meet Dan and you guys start dating, getting married at this moment. When did you have a passion for nursing? Did you envision yourself being a nurse for the rest of your life or what did you view a future versus in the moment?

Carlee Milatzky
How did you balance the future versus right now? Yeah. Well, and I would say I came out of undergrad as a nurse, went straight into ICU and went into Ers and worked there and worked with handicapped kids for six years and then did like, worked in open heart recovery. And I just kept trying to grow and learn and experiment with different, that's what's really beautiful sort of about nursing is you can do all different kinds of things within the profession. And then I kind of built enough confidence in myself that I was like, well, I could probably do grad school.

Angie Bastian
I'm going to go to grad school and become a nurse practitioner. And at the time, I had worked with a lot of patients that were recovering from heart surgery or a heart attack, and a lot of them were depressed. And so I got interested in why that happened and what was going on. And so what I thought is I'd go back to grad school in mental health or psychiatric nursing, but I hadn't really understood that to be a separate specialty. And it really wasn't at the time.

It was just. Just. You could be a therapist, sort of nurse, but not a nurse practitioner that was doing clinical, specific clinical and diagnostic work. And I really wanted to do that. And so because I didn't think I'd be a very good therapist because I don't sit still for very long, and I want to tell people what to do, you know, and therapists don't do that.

So, you know, coming out of grad school, I was interested in multicultural healthcare, and I got my psychiatric nursing degree with a gerontology co degree and sat for my boards and decided to go to New Mexico. And I went to New Mexico and worked in a private hospital that had the contract for indian health service and the Navajo tribe and the Zuni tribe. And that's where I met my husband. He was teaching school in Gallup, New Mexico, at the high school, Gallup, coaching baseball. And I was working in the hospital, and he was living with his uncle, and he was from Minnesota, and his uncle was the CFO of the hospital.

And there were just a bunch of random people out there working in the systems in Gallup, New Mexico, and we just kind of hung out, and that's where we met. And then so you. And so Dan's a teacher. You are a nurse practitioner. And then from.

Carlee Milatzky
So, listening to other podcasts with you, tell me now. Founding Angie's boom chicka pop. So tell me about how it was more so just thinking about your future for your kids and really, like, okay, we need to start planning. So tell me that story. Well, we had two kids in New Mexico, and then, you know, little kids, and you're scrambling to, you know, be a good parent, and you're scrambling to make your career grow.

Angie Bastian
And we eventually moved back. We first moved to my home, which was Sarasota, Florida, for three years to be close to my family. And then we decided to move to Minnesota and where Dan's hometown is, and that's Mankato. And when we got there, it was like we were both just restless, and we just, our children were three and five at the time. And we just said, you know, let's start something.

You know, let's do something. We need to, like, get going on a college fund for these kids because education was so important to me and so important to Dan. And so, you know, we hadn't started yet, so we just bought this kettle and this tent, and we used a credit card to pay for it, and we. And we were like, well, this should be. We could do this on the weekends and in the evenings and, you know, at fairs and festivals and streets.

Street carnivals and farmers markets. And we can bring the kids along, and we could teach them how to make change and work alongside of us, and it'll be fun, right? Like, so that's how it started in the fall of 2001, you know, we started pop popping kettle corn, like, in front of grocery stores and on street corners. Yeah. And it basically started, right, baseball games.

Minnesota Vikings football games, you know, stuff like that. Anywhere anyone would let us pop. So in these. And so first, when did you guys realize, like, okay, this is actually something. This is actually something like, we should.

Carlee Milatzky
We can quit our job and we can devote our lives to this now? Well, we did that sort of incrementally. We did that when we got an opportunity to sell in local grocery store chain in Minneapolis St. Paul. And that's when Dan.

Angie Bastian
We. Dan and I talked about it, and we just decided he's, you know, my job can probably support the family, and he can maybe quit teaching and go full force with the business. And so we, you know, we, for three years, sort of concessionaires, you know, going around, and we were licensed as a mobile food unit. And then in 2004, you know, we found a commercial kitchen. We bought some indoor equipment, and he started full time, and then we started building the business.

I kept working as a nurse and doing sort of the books on the side and doing the marketing piece, and he started building the operations and did most of the sales, you know, and meeting with people. It wasn't until 2011 when we took private equity money, that they said, you know, we're investing in you and Dan, and so we kind of expect you to be there full time, too. And I had really worked my nursing time down to just a day or two a week. And that's the moment I was like, well, okay, I had 28 years of nursing. I thought that was a pretty good career, and I'd be willing to try something new and learn as fast as I could how to be a business leader instead of a healthcare leader.

Carlee Milatzky
Amazing. So, first, a lot of people have these ideas, but there's a difference between having an idea and then actually getting started. And so I think I want to know any advice you have for people who have these ideas. But almost like, okay, let me see if there's something there. Like, you guys bought the kettle core machine, or you bought that machine and you tested it, and you iterated and tried seeing where it could stick.

So what advice do you have for people to actually get started and going and testing? Well, you know, since, like, I didn't know how to write a business plan. Neither did Dan. Right? Like, we had no idea.

Angie Bastian
We just jumped way ahead of ourselves, you know, and I, what I've seen in retrospect, as I've mentored a lot of, you know, entrepreneurs with great ideas, is that they pause in the beginning maybe a little too long to just get this idea perfect and the business plan perfect and everything covered, you know, and all their projections just right, you know, and they haven't sold a single thing yet and they haven't tested it and they haven't done anything, but they have this, they have a perfect business plan, you know, a perfect business plan that's going to change tomorrow. I'll just tell you that. So I would just say, you know, move faster. Like, move faster from idea to execution to test the market, to see if the product is actually relevant, to see if you actually like doing what, what this is or if consumers have feedback for you because they, I guarantee you they will have feedback. You can think you have the most perfect product and they will tell you why it's not perfect.

And then you need time to, like, figure out how to create something that people want. And you may, you may think it's, you may, you may be ahead of, you may be ahead of the consumer market. You may be behind if you haven't been watching trends carefully enough. And you're not going to know that until you get out there and start trying. Yeah.

Carlee Milatzky
And you guys, you and Dan are both the epitome of the idea that entrepreneurship can really be learned. You don't have to, you don't have to study it. You don't have to learn about it really, to dive into it? And so do you think, like, talk a little bit about that, but also, do you think that that kind of gave you an advantage not knowing and really just, like, diving in and going with instinct maybe over, over, like, what the books say? Well, and I wouldn't know what the books say.

Angie Bastian
Right. Like, so I don't, they're, the books are probably right about a lot of things. We just didn't know what we were wrong about, and we made a lot of mistakes that were probably expensive mistakes that a lot of people could avoid if they, you know, if they had, you know, foundational information that we didn't have, but we didn't let that stop us. And I think, you know, just, just, I think everybody needs to be aware that the odds are against you, you know, no matter what. And so you just have to reconcile with that and say, you know, the perseverance, the grit, the fortitude, the decision that you.

That you make, whether you're a learned entrepreneur or you're learning by experience, it is. It is the. It is the. The perseverance that will get you through. I mean, the learning in itself is helpful, but it takes some grit to make it happen.

And that's where I think that's where maybe we had enough of that to get us through. Do you think that grit? Because I think common among a lot of entrepreneurs is that grit, because, as you said, it's not easy. There are bumps in the road. There are challenges, and it's really about persevering.

Carlee Milatzky
How did you. How did you. Do you have any tips to be persever, like, to persevere a lot and have that grit? Is that something that you could practice and learn, or is this something that really you have within you? No, I think it's absolutely learned.

Angie Bastian
And I would say. I would call it I use my nursing brain because when I. And honestly, you know, as a nurse, you sometimes, like, I would work for 12 hours hour shift and not pee, not once. You know, it was too busy. And I would.

I just didn't even have to. I didn't even think about it until I was done. I was like, oh, my goodness. I didn't go to the bathroom the whole 12 hours. So, I mean, that is.

That's a. That's a. That may be sort of a crude way of explaining perseverance, but what it is, is it's about, you know, sort of self sacrificing for the goal or the good of something else. And so if you don't believe your business is worth doing, you're probably not going to sacrifice some of those things, those things that maybe when it gets really hard to do. So it's really important that you have some agreement.

And I think for Dan and I, as partners in this thing together, we sort of had agreement that this was pretty important for us to continue to do. But some days he would be like, I'm ready to give up. And on other days, I would be like, why are we doing this? And I think that's why it was helpful to have each other, because on those days when I was ready to give up, he'd go, I got this. I'll take over.

And we had some role flexibility. Or I would say he would just be like, he was, like, fried and had a migraine. And I would say, okay, I've got this. Like, I've got this phone call. I'll do this meeting you know, so we, we had this flexibility and our own little team partnership that we then grew.

And that's, that's another thing. I think entrepreneurs sometimes get. They get wrong. They hold onto things way too tight because that's the only way they, they want it done, the way they want to do it, and they think they're the only ones that can do it. And I think when you're moving from, as an entrepreneur, you're the janitor and you're the CEO at the same time.

And if you can't let go of a couple of those tasks and teach someone else how you want it to be done, you're going to stifle your organization. You're going to stifle yourself. And so entrepreneurship, I believe, is, is a series of letting go. It's knowing everything and then giving, handing it off and trusting that you have brought the right people on to help you and that you trust the people that you've brought on to help you, and you trust your partnerships and you trust people to be good and to do what they need to do. And that's what I think makes a successful organization.

Carlee Milatzky
Yeah. Wow, Angie, I love that. I think that you gave so many lessons in that answer, even starting with perseverance and almost recognizing that you're creating something bigger than yourself and, like, what you're creating can impact hundreds. So, like, that should be getting you through it. And, and then obviously, like, hiring and the ability to let go, I think that's.

I think that's very, very important. And I could see that standing in the way, for sure. Well, and it's. And letting go is not letting go of perseverance. It's.

Angie Bastian
It is just a different way. I mean, I do think entrepreneurs feel sometimes like they have to do it themselves, and that's what perseverance is, but I don't think that's what perseverance is. Yeah. No, it's completely two separate things. Do you have advice in terms of, like, did you struggle to let go and give, give the reins off to someone else to do things where.

Yeah, it's hard. Yeah. Because you want them to do it the way you want it done. Right. Like, it's.

You're so identified with your company or your, your product and what you've created. And so I think, you know, we had a fairly long trajectory. It was 16 years, and so we had time to let go in incremental pieces, you know? So, so, Angie, I want you to discuss. So, obviously, she leads is all about the female leader, and so I want to know, as a female founder, you're with your husband, you founded with your husband, but I want to know, in those early stages, was there ever a, you know, feeling like, okay, I'm the female founder?

Carlee Milatzky
And maybe when, like, for instance, getting funding by VC firms or whatnot, did you ever feel like, okay, Dan, you take this over because I'm a female, maybe they'll respect you more? Or do you ever come across these dichotomies and how you dealt with it? It's a reality of female led businesses that they don't get the same amount and level of funding that male led organizations. And there are a lot of things in place that are currently in place, and a lot of female funded organizations, female funding mechanisms, oriented mechanisms that are in place now that weren't in place, you know, 1012 years ago. But so I see it changing.

Angie Bastian
And yes, there were times when I was the only woman at the table at the boardroom or the only woman at the table at an investor meeting. And, you know, it can be a little intimidating. Intimidating. But, you know, I think all things are a matter of perspective. So what can be intimidating can also be my advantage.

Right? Like, so I am the only woman at the table, so I'm the only voice that is unique and different in. In a very dramatic way. And so I use that as a, you know, sort of motivation for me to assert myself. And I would also say that I never felt sort of maligned because I had my husband there and someone was listening to him or was willing to fund, willing to fund, you know, like, turn to them and turn to him, or my brother in law, who was our CFO, and, you know, because God knows, I don't know a whole lot about finance.

My. My expertise is sort of people and branding. So, you know, I was, if it takes my brother in law and my husband to get us funded and us to perpetuate a female oriented consumer brand, that I could use my voice in a whole different way. Okay, I'll use whatever asset I have. So I think it's.

I think it's true that it's hard for women to get funded. And I was one of those women that I didn't care if it took my husband and my brother in law to help us get funding. I was happy for that to happen. Yeah. And I think what you said, like, the gap is, is slowly closing, but it's still there.

Carlee Milatzky
It's a reality, but it is slowly closing. But I think even, like the advice to other females, it's more so being able to, like, switch, switch it all also, you know, like, switch it. Being like, I am the only female. Like, that's a value. I can provide my value in the room right now as the only female.

So I think that's something that, you know, we can take away and implement so well. And here's the other thing. Because of that, you can then challenge your team and say, look, look around. Like, where we need to hire more diversity in our organization. Where can we start?

Angie Bastian
And you know that when we hired a senior VP of operations, the next three major senior hires he did, because we simply talked about it. We're all women. We had, like, a woman run our plant. We had a woman senior vp of supply chain. We got, you know, we got.

He went out and did it, like, incredible. So, you know, you just have to tell people what you want, and they'll go do it if they can find the talent. And the talent's there. Yeah. And then the next step is not even having to tell them, and then they do it.

Right. It's already done. Right. But you first have to tell them. I think a lot of folks are not used to just sort of, maybe if I bring this back in the same way that I, as a kid, didn't realize I could go to college.

These people, these guys are just used to doing it the way they do it. So you tell them, they're like, oh, most people are like, oh, okay, sure. Think about it. They never notice that there's only one woman in the boardroom. They're getting it now, but, you know, but there's no reason not to speak it and not to ask for it.

Carlee Milatzky
Definitely. I think that's very, very valuable advice, for sure. So I am wondering. So Angie's boom chicka pop. So it got acquired by Conagra Brands in 2017.

So how was that process for you and really kind of giving it? Did you still view it as, like, my baby that I'm giving up, or. Yeah, like, talking through that process. And then also, I'd love to know, where is Angie today? What are you up to today?

And what brings you that same joy that Angie's boom chicka pop brings or brought? Yeah. Yeah. Well, the sale to Conagra was sort of the climax to a, you know, a journey of investor participation. So we first took investors in private, small private equity out of Boston in a minority position.

Angie Bastian
And when we did that, we understood that there would they, you know, what they do is to, you know, add value and then, you know, get their appreciation out of. Out of the business. And so we knew that they would sell. And at that point, that would have been 2014. And we thought, well, maybe a strategic buyer would buy us at that point.

But private equity came in again, a larger private equity company, and bought the whole thing. And we reinvested and sat on the board. And so it meant that our whole team could stay together again throughout the, you know, the investment thesis that they had, which was always sort of three to five years before they turn a brand. And so we knew we were probably going to be together another three years. But with that in mind, we knew that eventually it would sell.

And we were transparent with our employees. We provided granted equity shares to our employees so that if we had success, that our employees would have success. And so everyone was working. It wasn't a surprise when we sold the conagra. It was a celebration, and it was exciting because we had created Angie's boom chicken pop, which was a female oriented brand with a female voice, that celebrate, celebrated, you know, something a little different on the salty snack aisle than potato chips, you know, and sort of, or a kid's something.

This was, I felt like equal representation of women on this felty snack shelf. And that's, you know, in an empowering, positive way. And so, you know, I was so excited when we had a large company like Conagra that was interested in the brand, in the positioning in the messaging to the consumer, and the consumer got it and loved it and loved the product. So it was sort of like letting go of my baby that grew up and went off to a really good college. That's what it felt like to me.

So I was ready to sort of step away and let go and, yeah, and it will always be mine, right? It still has my name. It will still always be mine in my head. So, you know, I want it to be successful. I want it to thrive out there in the world, and I'll do whatever I can to help in that way.

Carlee Milatzky
Yeah. And then for you today, I know you're also involved in investing, so. Yeah, talk a bit about that. So today. So I stayed on with Conagra for about two years as a consultant on the brand.

Angie Bastian
And during those two years was a transition. And I would just say that transitions for entrepreneurs are necessarily easy when there's, you know, in this way, because you're so busy and you're so used to going full force that it took us a while to take a step back and say, okay, now, what kind of purposeful things do we really want to do? And so what we did was we invested in some small brands. We participated in a. In this sort of endeavor to create a for profit organization out of a nonprofit organization that funds community economic development in Nicaragua.

And they're selling cassava flour, and, you know, their profit will go back to farmers. And they built a school and they built a hotel, and they're educating people and building roads. And so we get to do some fun things like that and get to make investments in people. And we've been doing some investments in mentoring and serving on some boards. I love it.

Carlee Milatzky
I think that's so great. I love to hear that. So, okay, Angie, for final two questions I have to ask. Here it goes. So, one, what's a passion or hobby that you have that's just unrelated to any of your work?

Angie Bastian
I love to garden. I love to get my hands in the dirt. I'm looking out my window right here, and I've got all kinds growing, all kinds of weird foods. And I love it. I just love it.

And, you know, when our life was so busy and crazy, I didn't have time to garden. Because gardening takes a lot of effort and a lot of time. Yeah, I know. During this time, I think a lot of people have taken up gardening. I think it's meditative.

Carlee Milatzky
It's a great space to go. So I love that. It's a great lesson, too. It's a really good lesson in life. Right?

Yeah. Okay, so, final question, which, by the way, I've loved this so much. So thank you for coming. But final question is, what's a talent? What's your hidden talent?

What's a talent? Weird, fun talent that you have and no one really knows about. So I'm gonna go first. Okay. So what I usually do is I throw blueberries and I catch them in my mouth.

But for you, it's a special, special occasion. I'm gonna try with Angie's boom chicka pop. All right. See how this goes. Okay.

Angie Bastian
All right, Carly, let's see it. Okay. So, here we go. Okay. This could.

Carlee Milatzky
This could really go one of two. Okay. Oh, my God. Let's go.

Wow. That went well. I will say. I practiced a few times before. I practiced a few times before just because blueberries is a little heavier, so it's all right.

It worked, right? Yeah. All right. What's your hidden topcoat? That's exciting, because I wasn't sure you were going to bring popcorn or blueberries.

I brought popcorn. I did it. Popcorn. My secret hidden talent. And honestly, this is going to sound so gross.

Angie Bastian
I can pick up things with my toes. Okay, what's the weirdest? Can you pick up anything? Is this like a. I can pick up peanuts.

I can.

I can pick up trash with the trash can. Yeah. I think. I think that's a great talent. I think it comes in handy often.

Carlee Milatzky
So well done. Well, well, Angie, I want to say thank you again. You've taught me so much. I'm excited for others to see and just learn from you. So, really, thank you so much for coming.

Angie Bastian
Well, thank you for having me, Carly. Good luck.

Carlee Milatzky
Thank you so much for listening to the show this week. If you enjoyed, please spread the word. Tell someone about she leads or post about it on social media and tag us. If you want to contact us. Feel free to send over a message through the she leads Instagram pagehe leads show.

If you want to follow us on Twitter. Our account is at Sheely show and mine is Arlie Milatsky. This episode was produced and edited by Nick Firchau. Thank you. Also to our partner, Floodgate.

If you are passionate about startups and want to learn more about the starting journey of those who have built groundbreaking companies, I highly recommend listening to starting greatness with Mike Maples Junior, the founding partner of Floodgate. He has an incredible show that, in my opinion, is definitely worth your time. Thanks again.