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Building a Community Around Your Business

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Interview w/ Daniel Shear

"On our first bread day, we sold four loaves of bread and a bunch of lettuce and carrots. We went to Florida on a family vacation and a newspaper article had been written about us. The next day we grossed $1600 or $1700 on bread day. That might as well have been a million dollars because it felt like okay, the gate is open, we can run with this. That was confidence building."

Today’s guest is Daniel Shear, co-founder of Season’s Yield, a bakery here in the Shenandoah Valley. We’re chatting about how he and his wife built their business selling loaves of bread out of their house and it’s evolution into Bread Days, a bi-weekly experience that hundreds, sometimes up to 1000, people attend at their farm.

A few things that stick out about his story that I want to highlight at the outset here, they started small, they started working within their limits, and i think it led to something they could have never expected. There’s a tendency to want to start big, maybe go out and get funding or a loan so you can start your business as big as possible. As we chatted, I couldn’t help but reflect that so much of what they’re doing now, and the experience they provide, may not have ever happened, had they not done things the way they did them. They were able to steward what they had, start small, and by doing that they eventually created an experience that people seek after here in Virginia.

Also, Daniel’s background probably isn’t what you think it would be, when you think baker. You’ll hear the insight we appreciated regarding

  • how his background impacts his perspective
  • decision making within business
  • how their values have driven their business

More about Daniel

Daniel is a US Army Ranger turned entrepreneur and baker. He and his lovely wife Fawn have 5 children and live on several beautiful acres in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where they have bootstrapped a successful bakery, airbnb and café. Daniel’s spare time is spent dabbling in new bread recipes, dreaming of startup ideas with Fawn and enjoying the outside world with the children. 

0:00 Intro
3:17 Tell us about your podcast and what kinds of things people can find on it
4:45 What’s been your favorite part about running a podcast?
9:10 What does bread day look like today?
13:01 How did you build your community?
14:42 How important has it been to keep bread days bi-weekly?
16:08 Has understanding your strengths and limits added more kindling to the fire of your current business?
18:29 Tell us a bit about what you did in the army and how that led to baking
25:00 How was the conversation with Fawn about starting a bakery?
29:02 Have you seen bread days pick up surrounding the airbnb bookings?
30:57 How did the café downtown come about?
34:13 What advice would you give to people who want to build a community like Season’s Yield Farm?
41:30 What has the Baker’s Box experience been like?
45:51 How important was your email list in growing the in person side of things and now for the baker’s box?

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