Meet Richard Reutter

We recently connected with Richard Reutter and have shared our conversation below.

Richard, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Long before I had the opportunity to officially work with my Mom at Caroline’s Cakes, I admired how she approached each and every task in her day, each person that she interacted with, and each challenge that she faced. Her determination was admirable and watching her taught me a lot, so I am happy to say that I got my resilience from her. A large percentage of any problem can be consumed by how you choose to handle and react to it. She instilled in me a mindset that put our customer and this business above all else and that mindset combined with a strong work ethic allowed us to work through any challenge that we were faced with.

I would certainly say that the biggest test to my resiliency has been carrying on her legacy at Caroline’s Cakes since she died in 2017. I had the benefit of working closely with her for a number of years and learned so much from her, but the test of doing it without her and maintaining the culture of care that she created has been a challenge that I enjoy facing every day.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am lucky enough to do something that I love each and everyday. Caroline taught from very early on that it was important to understand our business from the back to the front, so I enjoy being engaged in each department on a regular basis. I enjoy starting my day on the bakery floor observing our production process and hearing the excitement from our team as each layer is baked and comes out of the oven to cool. The afternoon is a great time to check in on shipping to see all of your orders ship out. I particularly enjoy looking at each of the labels to see just how many different states we are shipping to at any given time, there are birthdays and celebrations everywhere! Throughout the day I can also be found taking customer calls or working with other team members on fun projects like new cake flavors or packaging adjustments. All of this is so special to me because it feels like I am still working side by side with my Mom. She LOVED this business and the ‘Eat Cake. Be Happy.’ environment that it created and I cotinue to find joy in the processes and traditions that she established here.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I would say that these are 3 of the most important things that I have learned through my work at Caroline’s Cakes.

1. Maturity-I grew up in this business and experienced hills and valleys throughout my younger years that have helped me to improve and mature as a person, a leader, and a businessman.
2. Confidence-I strongly believe that nobody makes a cake like Caroline’s Cakes. There are so many wonderful companies, making delicious products that I enjoy, but I stand firmly behind our product offerings, our approach to customer service, and our team. Having that confidence helps strengthen our team during even the most stressful times.
3. NO ego-There are no egos at Caroline’s Cakes. This was one of the first things that my Mom told me when I was hired in an official capacity. She was willing, and expected others to also be willing, to do any job that needed to be done in order to take care of our customers. Anything from baking and icing a cake, to jumping in the dish room at the end of a long day, to staying late to return voicemails to help the team for the following day. She was willing to do it and she taught me to find the excitement in jumping in on all tasks because of the benefit they had to our greater goals for the business.

For those that are early on in their journey, I would strongly recommend finding a mentor or somebody you respect and really listening to what they have to say about their approach to life, both in business and outside of it. Certainly a cliche would be “Don’t be afraid to fail”, but there is truth in that and I think along with it should be a mentality and a willingness to learn about as many aspects of your business as possible instead of a narrowerd focus on just your role.

All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?

We experienced tremendous growth during COVID. We had the ability to put a cake on doorsteps nationwide despite some quarantine restrictions and we saw that people were still celebrating the happy occasions whether they could be together or not. As a result we saw corporate orders increase as business send gifts to individual team members as opposed to one gift t be shared by the team, we saw cake bites go out to all attendees of a Zoom wedding, and we shipped birthday cakes from coast to coast for celebrations that were restricted by things outside of our customers control. Along with this growth has come the challenges of managing it properly, while staying true to the recipes and Southern baking traditions that are core to Caroline’s Cakes. There is so much nostalgia tied to the traditional flavors that we bake and ensuring that we can scale to meet production and order demands without losing any of those special touches is a challenge and one that we have a had a really fun time facing.
I have memories of this business from its very beginnings in the basement of my childhood home, so seeing how we have grown, developed, and improved our processes has been a lot of fun, but also challenging. As far as trying to resolve this issue, I have tried to stick with a steady approach and avoid making hasty decisions. So many of our cakes are shipped during the holiday season and we have used the other 10 months of the year to test all of the things that we learn each season to make us better for the following year.

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