Cheesecake Lollipops with a Sweet Talkin’ Twist

As soon as I tasted one of these delicious cheesecake lollipops was at the WCTC – Pewaukee Chamber Grow Your Business Expo, I just knew I had to feature this story.

I met Hannah and Stephanie for the first time at the WCTC – Pewaukee Chamber Grow Your Business Expo and am so excited to introduce them to you.

They don’t just make your ordinary cheesecake lollipops though… theirs have a very unique twist! And this isn’t your ordinary business. This is the mother – daughter team of Hannah Otten and Stephanie Bykowski.

Read on…

Year Your Business Started?

September, 2011

What type of business is it?

Special event dessert catering & Wholesale Bakery

Why did you start this business?

Hannah Otten and myself, Stephanie Bykowski, created Sweet Talkin’ Treats. We are, a mother-daughter team with very different talents but like values. For years friends, family, and hotel and restaurant teams where Hannah worked have said: “Wow, Hannah you are a dessert genius! You should start your own business!”

I experienced events that altered the direction I was skipping through my life in. After much soul searching, thoughtful reflection, and well my mother saying: “When is Stephanie coming back?” And more startling, my 29-year-old son Chad saying, “ I miss my Mom”. It was time to be back among the living.

Sometimes the energies align, the door is opened and you muster the courage to walk through it. For me, Hannah’s gentle encouraging sprit, amazing baking talent, and the idea that Cheesecake Lollipops could spark conversations, laughter and tender moments for all who gathered around them (and my son’s words ringing in my head), gave me courage, energized Hannah, and Sweet Talkin’ Treats emerged.

It is a tremendous blessing that Hannah and I have very different talents. I often point out that Hannah is the “sweet” one, I am “talkin”’ (and sometimes salty). We knew that the combination of our gifts, along with the support of our family and friends, we could do this.

It helps that a real, honest to goodness bakery in the greater Jefferson county area didn’t exist. Sweet Talkin’ Treats, L.L.C. fills a community need, created a niche, and customers have responded wholeheartedly and faster than we could have hoped for.

What keeps you moving forward?

Customer response to the baked goods we provide for coffee shops and the like has been fabulous! Hannah creates new exciting flavors to keep things “fresh” and our retail partners love how their customers look forward to tasting them!

The reaction from people who have ordered the Cheesecake Lollipops with our customized messages/questions and fun advise or “fortunes” has been nothing less than extraordinary! The Cheesecake Lollipops taste amazing, a huge variety of flavors, and customers tell us how much fun they have with them.

Exactly what we hoped would happen. It has gone “viral” by way of customer referrals! Birthday party treats turned into a bridal shower order which turned into table treats for a wedding, which created an order for birthday party treats for a seven-year-old to bring to school (Chocolate Chip Cookie flavored!).

But here are a few of my favorite stories… a business acquaintance ordered the lollipops for his Grandmother’s 87th birthday. She was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Sweet Talkin’ Treats created custom questions/messages that Lee said, in an emotional moment at A BNI Meeting, “sparked conversations among his family, including his grandmother, that they had never had before, she recounted her travels, how she enjoyed golf and swimming, stories about her children and favorite holiday memories”.

To Sweet Talkin’ Treats that is a heart-warming treasure. (We love that story, too!)

We have had similar response from treats provided for a retail partner “The Roots” who’s owners father had passed away due to complications of ALS. The people gathered to reminisce, laughed, told stories, and shared happy moments at a time they hadn’t imagined smiling again. To steal a line from Steele Magnolias: “Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion”.

That is what inspires Hannah and I to do more, put our heart and soul into the baking, packaging and special messages that make Sweet Talkin’ Treats fresher any other bakery we know.

What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs?

Muster your courage. Engage your friends & family. Accept help when it is offered. Learn that what appears to be a mistake, is more often than not, an opportunity. Laugh at yourself often (and I am just going to say it, occasionally at the expense of others;-) Join BNI, best networking time and money I ever spent.

Tat Too this quote on your heart: “Magic is believing in yourself. If you can do that, you can make anything happen.” -by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

What else would you like to tell us about your story?

My daughter is amazingly talented yet humble, charming, funny, smart and unassuming

We are forever grateful to the customers who have become fast friends, who believed in our dream and share our passion to bring people together over tasty dessert.

Connect with Sweet Talkin’ Treats on:

Website: www.SweetTalkinTreats.com
Facebook: Become a fan of Sweet Talkin’ Treats on Facebook
Twitter: Follow Sweet Talkin’ Treats on Twitter
LinkedIn: Stephanie Bykowski on LinkedIn

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Thank you so much for sharing your amazing story with us! We wish you lots and lots of tasty success!