Scaling a Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwich Brand
Scaling a Gourmet Ice Cream Sandwich Brand
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show notes
In this week’s episode, Emily Steele chats with Erica Jacobs, the marketing director at Nightingale, a thriving ice cream sandwich company based in Richmond, Virginia, with a growing national presence. Erica shares insights into her role, discussing the obstacles and successes of managing marketing for a growing brand. We delve deep into the unique aspects of marketing a frozen product with seasonal fluctuations and explore the innovative partnerships Nightingale has forged with influencers and other brands, examining their significant impact. The conversation also touches on Nightingale's impressive growth trajectory and the invaluable lessons learned while scaling a business. Stay tuned for a sneak peek into Nightingale's exciting future plans!
TUNE IN FOR TOPICS LIKE:
3:22 Erica’s career journey and what led her to Nightingale
7:00 Building a marketing strategy from the ground up
9:16 Choosing people over performance marketing
11:53 The accidental birth of Nightingale as a brand
14:47 Partnering with Justine Dorian (@justinesnacks) on her cookbook launch
17:07 Adjusting marketing strategies seasonally as a frozen brand
18:58 Advice for staying organized as a multi-hat marketer
21:39 Taking the lead on a rebrand for Nightingale in early 2024
23:34 What’s next for Nightingale (expansion, partnerships, and more!)
Listen to this week’s Local Marketing School conversation!
Other episodes you'll enjoy if you enjoyed Erica’s episode:
#2: Local PR for CPG Brands & Beyond | Delaney Vetter, PR Strategist and Copywriter
#13: Brewing Change and Scaling Impact | Rod Johnson, BLK & Bold
Don't hesitate to reach out! We'd love to hear from you on Instagram and find out which episodes you're enjoying the most. Your feedback is so important to us! Please take a moment to rate the show and leave a review - it supports our ongoing Local Marketing School journey and helps us develop more content that addresses what you’re hoping to learn more about!
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Find Erica: LinkedIn
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This podcast is produced by Hummingbirds. Learn more about Hummingbirds at hummingbirds.com
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Emily Steele (00:01)
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Local Marketing School. I'm excited to bring you today's guest, Erica. She is the marketing director at Nightingale. And I got really excited about this brand. I mean, ice cream sandwiches. How can you not be curious about how a company gets started and grows? Just think about all the amazing flavors, right?
I'm coming to you after being in Chicago for the last couple days. We were at an investor summit, our first investor in Hummingbirds host their founder summit where you have opportunity to network with lot of investors, then also meet the founders and their portfolio, and just enjoy a couple days of just doing founder things, celebrating, sharing the hard things that come up. And so it was so fun. In Chicago, for us, where the event was at is just a hop, skip, jump away. So it was nice to be close in the Midwest. Next week, heading to Boston for the Million Dollar Pitch Competition.
Lots of cool, exciting things happening. And I just love this opportunity to take kind of a step back and have conversations with people at brands that are doing really cool things. So Erica is one of those people that has been at it at Nightingale for about the last four plus years or so. So we'll give you a little bit of background on her and then we'll jump into this show. So Erica Jacobs is her name. She has a unique background in sales and marketing, mostly in the hospitality and entertainment industries.
She started with Nightingale running social media and has grown to manage their entire marketing program. She oversees everything from partnerships to PR to advertising and is the creative director for Nightingale managing all of their visual assets and content. She's been with them, like I said, over four years supporting the founders mission of creating premium ice cream sandwiches that marry Southern classics with European style.
Love it. Prior to Nightingale, her work spanned music touring with bands and social media and almost a decade in the spirits industry where she got her feet wet and everything from sales to marketing and events. And it's so obvious and clear once you hear more of her story, like how she brings all that experience and creativity into the Nightingale brand. So it really started as a freelance role and her kind of shooting her shot like, hey, I want to I want to do your social has really evolved into her being that full time director of marketing.
It's really helping Nightingale get to the next level of growth. And you'll hear at the end of the podcast, all of the big plans they have for 2025 and really what's ahead for the brand. really like love the opportunity to get to know kind of that founder story. How do things start at the localist of levels? How do you get that customer love and loyalty and then take that regionally, nationally and really build that kind of love and obsession from customers that creates the demand elsewhere.
We really dug into that and what I also really enjoyed with Erica is just kind of talking about, you know, being a marketer that wears a lot of hats. Like, how do you stay organized? What do you do? How do you think about it? You when you ask for help, we dug into that as well. So overall, such a fun conversation. I hope you enjoy the episode. Let's dig in.
Emily Steele (03:12)
All right, hey Erica, welcome to the show. So excited you're here.
Erica Jacobs (03:15)
Hey Emily, thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.
Emily Steele (03:18)
Yay. Okay, well, let's dig right in. Tell us more about your career journey and what led you to join the Nightingale brand.
Erica Jacobs (03:24)
Yeah. So I have like a mixed background in sales and marketing out of college. I worked in the music industry for about six years. I managed bands and I did some show booking and promotion for some venues. And then out of that, I kind of transitioned into a role in the liquor industry. So I was a liquor rep for about seven years, which is also kind of a mix of sales, marketing, events, promotion, sponsorships, all that kind of stuff. And then out of that, I transitioned into a freelance work where I was doing what I call creative management, just kind of helping people manage different sorts of creative projects. And while I was doing that, I started doing social media and I was working with a bunch of Richmond companies and that's how I connected with Nightingale originally. I just reached out to see if I could do their social media and that ended up working. We connected and I've kind of grown with the company from there into their marketing director.
Emily Steele (04:15)
I love it. And I love just the subtle, like I reached out to them and then they hired me. Like, there's obviously more to that, but I just love the like, you like shoot your shot, right? Like if you think there's a cool opportunity, like why not reach out and you just did that, right? Did you send an email or DM or how did you do it?
Erica Jacobs (04:24)
Yeah. Yeah. So actually, so I had a friend that was working, doing some like little event work for them at the time. And so I just had texted her say, Hey, is this Nightingale looking for help with social? And when I first reached out, actually said, you know, no, we've got someone right now. And so I was like, shoot. I'll, you know, whatever onto the next one. And then a few months later, I just figured, you know, I still really want to work with them. I still was obsessed with their sandwiches. And so I just hit her up again and she was like, actually perfect timing. Like the guy that's been doing this, just told us he can't do it anymore. So she sent me Hannah, the owner's email, and I reached out to Hannah and we met in person and just kind of hit it off at our first meeting. And she was like, yeah, let's just go with it. so, yeah, just kind of started there doing the social. So it was kind of a cool connection. And yeah, it's nice when stuff like that comes together and you reach out and it turns into a real opportunity.
Emily Steele (05:11)
Like, I love that. What year was that? Okay.
Erica Jacobs (05:26)
Yeah, that was in 2020. So Hannah and I actually met for the first time on like March 12th or 13th. It was like literally the day that everything was closing for COVID. So there was like a little bit of uncertainty in the beginning, but you know, we kind of kept in touch over those like first week or two. And then she was like, let's just go with it. And at that time they were pivoting a little bit from a focus on food service to more retail stores. So it was a really good time for that. As a lot of restaurants were shutting down for a bit, people were buying more in the premium products from their local grocery stores and all that kind of stuff.
Emily Steele (05:27)
Yeah. Okay, so yeah, you joined in 2020 and the business is pivoting like based on COVID, but maybe like more velocity towards retail just because like that's the move to in the CPG space. So when was Nightingale established? then what did like, okay, so, and then the marketing house, what did that look like after you joined?
Erica Jacobs (05:56)
Yeah, so Nightingale was started in about 2016 when Hannah made the first extreme sandwich. And like I said, there really wasn't much of a marketing department when I joined. Like there had been someone else kind of running social on the website. So I took over that. And then I've really worked with Hannah to build out the marketing department. You know, now we have Delaney, our publicist. Next year we'll be bringing on a team to handle social media. So we've been building it out just kind of as we go. So there really wasn't much there when we started or when I started with Nightingale.
Emily Steele (06:35)
Okay, okay, cool. So can you talk about some of the marketing strategy, obviously being started in Richmond, like probably built a lot of proof of concept in the area and then you join, you're moving into retail. Like there's like quite a gap of things that probably happen between being local and then going to distribute further. What are some of those things that happen along the way?
Erica Jacobs (06:56)
Great. Yeah, and so it's been just kind of a wild ride. Like last four years we've been growing like crazy. So constantly growing that strategy, constantly adding a little bit more budget here and there so we can work with influencers, do sponsored posts, all that kind of stuff. So we haven't done a ton of like traditional advertisements. Like we haven't really done any paid Facebook ads or stuff like that. But we started working with influencers a couple of years ago. So that's been great to do some collaborative posts or have them create content for us. And we've definitely been building that out a lot more this year. We also work, so we sell through distributors. So we work directly with their sales teams. So educating their sales teams, providing them with like flyers and POS and promotional materials and all of that kind of stuff is another big part of the strategy so that they know what they're selling and just kind of connecting with them and meeting their teams and getting to know them so they know what they're selling and who they're selling it for. And they know the story behind Nightingale.
So I think all of that has been really important in getting the word out there. And Nightingale's just kind of like we have had a lot of word of mouth success, I think, because the product is just so amazing. We have like this cult following of people that they have a sandwich and then they have to have another one and then they have to try all the flavors and they have to tell their friends. And we get emails from people saying stuff like that. I had the sandwich, it was the best I ever had. I had to share it with all the people I work with and all the people I know. And so I feel like that has been a really big part that's just happened organically is just because the product is so amazing, people feel like this passion for the ice cream sandwich and they want to share it with other people, which is just so great. We love it so much.
Emily Steele (08:30)
Yeah, I'm like, what a testament to a great product when people just want to talk about it. You know, I'm like, why don't marketers work towards that? think so often marketers get pushed into this thought of how do I optimize these pages? How do I optimize where the product is in the grocery store? And it's all these little tweaks, but I'm like, why don't you think about how to get people to love your product and want to talk about it?
Erica Jacobs (08:35)
Right, right, right.
Emily Steele (08:58)
It's not good or bad, it's just such an interesting play. So I'm curious, as you think about the stack of how you've chosen to spend dollars, obviously going the influencer route over paid ads was a decision. How did you think about not going the performance, Facebook, Instagram ads, and choosing people instead?
Erica Jacobs (09:18)
And I say for us, because we have had like a limited distribution sort of like we're in like 2500 stores, but a lot of them are independent grocery stores and we have some big expansion in stores coming soon. But it's a little bit harder to do those generic Facebook ads when you're you don't have somewhere directly to send someone to purchase. Right. Like we could do targeted by, you know, an area. But then it's still like, but you have to go to our store and our website and search by zip code and find the stores near you. It's like that felt like it wasn't as beneficial for us because it wasn't like, okay, you can go get us in every single Kroger location, which is just kind of like easier translated, I feel like on those ads. So instead we were trying to work with people who were in markets where we know we have a bunch of stores. So like New York City, DC and Maryland. So finding foodie influencers that are in those areas that we know have a food conscious, excited audience.
Emily Steele (09:54)
Yeah. Yeah.
Erica Jacobs (10:11)
And that just made more sense to us since we didn't have that many points of easy distribution to find. So that's kind of why we did that. And also just because we just like that sort of advertising better. think it puts the brand in a better light. The influencers create really cool content that shows different ways to enjoy Nightingale or maybe shows them finding it in their stores and that just feels better to us than just like the flashing Facebook ad that's repeating on your feed and might not be as interesting or engaging. And because our sales have been so good, we haven't gotten to the point where we're like, OK, well, we need to do something else to really drive the sales. Everything's just been moving and growing so quickly that everything we've been doing has been working. So we haven't had to kind of go back and rethink about that stuff quite yet.
Emily Steele (10:46)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah. No, I appreciate that perspective because I think some people would be like, well, it's really easy to spin up, you know, Facebook ads because you just need the creative. You upload it. It's 15 seconds. Here's their Instagram story. That's like promoting Nightingale. You know, going with people is a more it's just more layers because you're working with a real human who has like, you but I also like it's it's interesting to think about it. It's probably more work, but way more rewarding. And that's typically the sentiment that we continue to hear, think things are shifting really quickly for sure. Yeah. Anything else as you think about Nightingale becoming like a cult classic that you feel like marketing has played a role in through the journey?
Erica Jacobs (11:31)
So the other thing besides obviously just the quality of the product is like, I just think that because the story and all of it is just so authentic and the people that created Nightingale, like, I don't know if you want me to give a little backstory on all of that. So it's created by Hannah and Xavier. They're two professional chefs. Xavier is a classically changed chef from Belgium. He came over here about 15 years ago to open restaurants. Hannah is a veteran of the Marine Corps and when she got out of the service she went to culinary school because she loves food and just felt like the right next step for her. And so they met in the restaurant kitchen and then Hannah created ice cream sandwiches like a dessert option on the menu. And the original idea was just to create like recreate the ice cream sandwich of childhood but in like a gourmet way. So you know the like little skinny ice cream sandwiches with the gooey chocolate cookies. So that was like the idea and then it just got really popular in the restaurant. took off around town. People wanted it for their restaurants, for their markets, for their events. So like the initial creation of Nightingale and then, you know, everything since then, it's all just been like organic and authentic. So we didn't set out to like build an ice cream sandwich brand. It was more just like Hannah, Hannah made this amazing product that she loved and this culinary treat and they wanted to share it with people. And so I feel like because it is authentic, like that comes off in the voice and in the marketing and in everything we do because it is just kind of who we are and how it started, if that makes sense. Like we didn't set out to what kind of cool brand can we build? It was more just like this, we created this amazing product and people seem to love it. Like maybe we can sell this and create something out of it. And so I feel like that just comes through in everything we do because it is just, you know, where we come from. And so I feel like that's kind of nice and helps aid the marketing and kind of helps keep us focused, you know, is this who we are? Does this sound authentic? Is this, you know, coming from the heart of Nightingale?
Emily Steele (13:34)
Yeah, totally. I feel like a lot of people I've had on this show also resonate with that approach of how do you build a brand from a cool story? Like we also, like at Hummingbirds, like I built a community of content creators in Des Moines, my own little city in Iowa, right? Like I didn't ever think like, I want this to be like a billion dollar venture-backed software company. Like that was never the intention. It's like, let's get local voices trying things and making a difference for the brands in our own backyard. And like, cool to see where we've come from that moment, but the story is all about like those local people and our voices that matter. And I think it's really set us apart in the market just like Nightingale. Like it's like made with like there's a heart and soul like to the brand. And I do think that resonates and it's hard to sometimes articulate that until you have the experience with the brand. So definitely resonate with that for sure. As I think about how I buy and what I do. So, okay, well, I'd love to talk about some of the partnerships you've had. So I think you worked with someone who had a cookbook launch. Do want to share a little bit more about that?
Erica Jacobs (14:35)
Yeah, yes, we worked with Justine Dorian. Her handle is Justine Snacks. I think she's a little bit better known by that name. But yeah, she is a fan of Nightingale and we wanted to work with her and just kind of do a partnership. But we wanted to do something that was a little bit more than the traditional collaborative post because we have a little more budget this year. We had Delaney working with us to set up some events. So we wanted to do something that we hadn't done before. So we did a sort of like ice cream in the park. Cookbook Celebration Party for Justine in Brooklyn in June. So yeah, that was just kind of like another fun way to work with someone where there was some posts involved, there were some stories involved, but then there was this actual event where we got to engage with everyone. We got to have like a media happy hour and engage with a lot of media people. We got to invite about a hundred people from the public that could come. And it was just kind of like pizza and ice cream and summer celebration. And so that was really neat and just another cool way to have like a bunch of different touch points where we're engaging with people about nightingale. And, and again, for us just having people be able to taste the product and eat the ice cream and talk to them about the ice cream. And so that was really cool. It was the first time we've done something like that. And I was, you know, not, not sure how that was going to compare, you know, to posts or other sorts of smaller activations we have done. So that was, it was really, really fun and really successful. And we felt really good about kind of the exposure we got out of that.
Erica Jacobs (16:00)
And again, just like another fun way to showcase the brand where it doesn't just feel like an advertisement or like a sponsored posts, but more of this like engaging engagement opportunity. And we got to connect with so many different people too. So beyond just Justine and her awesome team to work with them and put this together, we got to invite a bunch of media people and kind of engage with them in this different sort of way where you're just getting to know each other and having pizza and ice cream. And it's less like, here's this pitch I'm trying to get you to write about, you know, it's just kind of a fun sort of relationship building moment too. So that was really cool.
Emily Steele (16:10)
Yeah. Yeah, and like these types of partnerships are more of a lift than most types of things, but it's like, my gosh, all of the things you can quote unquote get out of it, like R &D, like you're getting to know people like, what do you think? What are you experiencing? Like real conversations and people getting to know a brand like in the moment, I think just has a lot of so much value. It's hard to even put like a number on it, you know? Yeah.
Erica Jacobs (16:29)
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Emily Steele (16:54)
Okay, so you're in the ice cream space, so talk to me a little bit about marketing strategies that are more seasonal. So what are you doing in the winter versus the summer versus spring? Right.
Erica Jacobs (17:01)
Right, that's a great question. And that is like a conversation that we're always having at Nightingale is how can we solve the seasonality problem? And so we have kind of like two main things that we do. And one is our limited release flavors. And so we release those throughout the year. So we'll always drop a few for the summer and the spring, but we always do like a fall winter holiday release. So we do specific holiday flavors. Like this year we're doing an apple cider, chocolate peppermint bark, gingerbread caramel, which is so good, red velvet cheesecake, it'll just be on our online store. But so we do these limited release flavors that are very holiday specific and they come out just, you know, October, November, December. So that's one way that we drive, you know, purchase and trial during those months as we have these flavors that people know they're only going to get this time of year. That also helps our retailers. They have something new to offer during those months and the food service clients.
And then another thing that we do is just our sales team and our marketing team is focusing on the southern states, the warmer states, growing our business and our distribution events activations during the winter months in Florida, Texas, Southern California. So all of that kind of from a sales marketing perspective, like our team is working on what opportunities we can develop in those areas to kind of have running through the winter. Is it like an event series with the dolphins so that we have, you know, some events going on and business like that, that's going out throughout that season.
Emily Steele (18:24)
Yeah, it definitely takes a different type of creativity and strategy to think about products that can feel more seasonal, but be like, no, it doesn't have to be that way. Let's eat ice cream during the holidays. I love that. Okay, so you are a marketer who wears many hats because you're at a smaller, earlier stage type of company you came in doing social, but then of course, it's like, what about the website? What about this?
Erica Jacobs (18:27)
Right, right, exactly.
Emily Steele (18:48)
So many marketers have been there on their journey. So if you have any advice for the marketer who wears many hats, like how do you stay organized? How do you think about success? Tell us all of your secrets.
Erica Jacobs (18:54)
Okay, so the number one thing that I do or the number one thing I rely on is the notes app on my MacBook. just I keep a list of everything. I write everything down. That's like the number one way I say organized is like list, list, list. and then just another, I mean, and Nightingale has been amazing with this, just like providing all the support that I need when I need it. But I feel like a good thing that I've learned is like just not being afraid to ask for help when you need it. Or there's certain parts of my role that I feel like. As we've grown, I've kind of maxed out my personal ability, like with our social media, we'll be handing, hiring someone to create the content and all of that next year. You know, I'm not a videographer, I'm not a photographer, creating content is a full-time job for a reason. And so as we've grown, I've just kind of maxed out my abilities, but yeah, just kind of knowing when you feel like you've hit your cap at what you can do and not being afraid to ask for help, that's been really big for us. And again, Nightingale is very, very supportive and always let us know what you need and you know how we can help you and how we can support you and all of that kind of stuff. So I know that's not always the case, but that's been something that's helpful for me. And then we just, do a lot of, you general planning, goal setting, and kind of keeping up with all of that sort of stuff. So, which comes back to making lists really, just having everything organized in lists.
Emily Steele (20:11)
Okay, my question for you is if you're an open your notes app, how many notes do you have total?
Erica Jacobs (20:17)
That's a great question. So, don't even, how do you know how many? Let me see. I have lots of personal ones. So have 348 notes in there, but I have like my main Nightingale note sheet, which is pretty long. Just have one like work note list that goes on forever. Yeah.
Emily Steele (20:19)
Okay. Okay, that's incredible. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yep. You're like, so it's like all in one versus like multiple. Mm -hmm.
Erica Jacobs (20:40)
Right. And I'm actually, honestly, because we've been growing so much, we have a ton of stuff going on for next year. I'm working on like a new spreadsheet, a new way to organize my notes a little bit more by section because I have so many different projects now. So, you know, PR and influencers, merch, you know, social, all the other things. So I'm working on an updated organizational system for myself.
Emily Steele (20:51)
Yeah, -huh, I relate, got to that point and ended up using Notion and that's been like such a game changer for me. I'm like, okay, where's, my gosh, I'm like going to send you a Loom recording after to see if I can convert you to be like the biggest Notion fan because it's similar like Notes, but then you can start to segment of like partnerships and sponsor and then I've got media and then I've got a section for this and the way you can organize is really fun. So, shout out to Notion.
Erica Jacobs (21:06)
I haven't heard of that. To check it out. Please do. awesome. We are obsessed with organization. Yeah, I will definitely check that out. Yeah. No, that's awesome.
Emily Steele (21:27)
This could be your next thing and I'm like you're welcome and I'm sorry for like the time is going to take. I love it. Okay, any memorable experiences or achievements in your journey you can share with us and listeners?
Erica Jacobs (21:39)
Let's see so many, because I just feel like I've gotten to take on so many cool projects with Nightingale. I told you my background is kind of mixed in sales and marketing, and they've just given me the chance to manage all of these projects that I don't necessarily have a ton of experience in. But earlier this year, like the beginning of this year, we did a rebrand and released kind of a rebrand. did a little improvements on our logo, and we added some coloring to the packaging, and we redid our chomp-sized boxes. I got to oversee that whole project. course, we worked with a design company and all of the people on the Nightingale team were involved in the decision-making process, but I got to oversee that entire project, which was really fun. I love like the art design side of things. And so it was fun to work with the design company and, and see the ideas come to life. And it was definitely some roadblocks and challenges along the way. And, but that was all just like an awesome learning experience. And I feel like I learned a lot of things about how we should and shouldn't do things and who should be involved and how to kind of handle the conversation at different parts of the process. So that was really fun and memorable for me and just like a really big, you know, overhaul of everything we redid, everything we have, all of our packaging, all of our POS, all of our marketing material. So it was a really big project, but very like satisfying to finish and the feedback we got was amazing and it really just like boosted the brand so much. So that was really fun to get to work on.
Emily Steele (22:39)
Yeah, and I feel like those projects, they do have an end date, right? Like it's completed by, so some things are so ongoing that you don't always like get to see the fruits of it. It's just different, right? Like your social media, it's like you're always, yeah, like always on. Like you see the impact weekly, monthly, but this is such a finite, like we did it. It's launched, it's real.
Erica Jacobs (23:08)
Right. Right, right, right. It's not like this big release. Right, right. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, all right, this day we're launching about it. We're sharing the post, launching the website. So yeah, that was really exciting.
Emily Steele (23:23)
Super cool. Time to wrap up. Anything next for Nightingale that you could share with us or what are you guys thinking about as company?
Erica Jacobs (23:30)
Yeah, we have so many big things on the horizon. We have like a couple of really big distribution launches that we'll be sharing in January. So those are going to be some big, that's going to, one of those is going to bring us fully nationwide. So that's super exciting. and then we are also working on some fun flavors for next year, some fun brand partnerships with maybe some other food flavors or food brands, and then just creating some really funky, interesting flavors. And we're also working on some, like line expansions that I can't go into too much detail yet, but just some innovative plays on the ice cream sandwich. So we're hoping to have a couple of new things in the works for next year. So we just have a ton going on and we've got, we're working on some big events for next year. We're hoping to do some big flavor launches, maybe with some of our brand partners. And then we're hoping to do maybe like a really big music festival or event activation like that, that we haven't done before. So next year is going to be a really big year for us, of expanding a lot of the marketing stuff that we've been doing. So yeah, we have a lot of stuff in the works.
Emily Steele (24:33)
My gosh. I'm like, what's next? It's not like, we're probably going to have a new flavor and open up like in one other store. It's like, no, like things are going to 10x next year.
Erica Jacobs (24:42)
Lots of stuff. Yeah, we're also actually working on getting our own Nightingale factory. Right now we are working in, there's this cool like complex in Richmond that are these old like Philip Morris tobacco warehouses and someone bought them and the idea is they're like customizing them into all these different sorts of, you know, factories or warehouses. And so we've been working in one of those 20,000 square feet facilities that we've kind of customized, but we've been outgrowing it really quickly. So right now we're in the process of buying our own building and building out our own, you know, big Nightingale factory. So that's, that's super exciting. That'll be, you know, it's something we're working on over the next 18 months, but, that's like a big, really big step for us. So yeah. So much going on. Right. Yeah. Super cool. Yeah. It's been really cool for everyone involved and everyone on the team is just like eager to learn and has been teaching themselves all these things as we go. And so, yeah, it's been, it's been amazing. Yeah. Super exciting.
Emily Steele (25:14)
It's a huge milestone. Wow, what an amazing experience like you get to have. That's so, so fun.
Yeah, so cool. Well, thanks for, thanks for taking the time to share a little bit about your journey, Nightingale and all the things you have going on and the marketing advice, of course. Like everyone needs a little bit of that from time to time. So where can people find you Nightingale? Tell us the things.
Erica Jacobs (25:41)
Yeah, so nightingaleicecream.com and then our handles on the social medias are just at nightingaleicecream. So that's where we do most of our activity. And then we're pretty heavily distributed on the East Coast. That's where we're based in Virginia. So we're in all the Fresh Mrket locations. We're in a ton of independent retailers and on our website, you can search by zip code for all of the stores near you. Yeah, wonderful. Thank you so much, Emily. Bye.
Emily Steele (26:15)
Cool. Awesome. Thanks for being on the show today, Erica. Yes. Bye.
