Rollin’ Through It: The Art of Perseverance with Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream Co-Owners Bari Segovia & Maliyah Bass

Perseverance

Jul 16

In this episode of "How I Made My First Dollar," we dive into the inspiring journey of Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream, the brainchild of Nashville natives Bari Segovia and Maliyah Bass.

This dynamic duo share their incredible story, taking you from the sweltering summer days of operating Nashville's first-ever rolled ice cream food truck to how they landed a brick-and-mortar in one of Nashville’s most bustling neighborhoods.

Get ready to hear the real deal:

The Challenges and Triumphs of a Food Truck: Discover the ins and outs of running a mobile food business, from battling the weather to how they perfected their signature rolled ice cream recipe.
The Transition to Brick-and-Mortar: Learn the key steps Bari and Maliyah took to transform their food truck concept into a thriving rolled ice cream shop.
Entrepreneurial Advice You Can Use: Gain valuable insights from these inspiring founders as they share their experiences navigating the entrepreneurial rollercoaster and overcoming obstacles.

Whether you're a food truck owner dreaming of a permanent location, or an aspiring entrepreneur seeking inspiration, this episode is packed with valuable takeaways and a healthy dose of motivation.

So grab a virtual spoon, settle in, and get ready to learn how to turn your own delicious dreams into a reality!

Bari Segovia: [00:00:00] On that first day when we made our first sale, June 2nd, 2018, it was hot on that bus. We had like floor fans in there trying to blow, you know, give us a little bit of air. We're in the middle of summer. It's super, super hot, super humid out. And we're rolling ice cream.

Maliyah Bass: The product won't physically roll if it's too hot.

I remember, I honestly think it may have been our third or fourth event. We had to leave the event early because the ice cream's wouldn't roll. So we have this long line. Family, friends, people we don't know showing up to the events. And we're embarrassed. We're like, wow, the ice cream's not rolling. What's going on?

Netta Dobbins: Welcome to How I Made My First Dollar, your go to podcast for entrepreneurial success stories and actionable marketing advice. I'm your host Netta Dobbins, and with over a decade of marketing experience and an interesting journey of successfully building my own business, I'll be your guide here, helping you create a revenue generating business everyone should know about.

If you're already 10 toes down in entrepreneurship or simply flirting with the idea of taking the leap, this This podcast will help you unlock actionable strategies to really shift your business to the next level. Let's get started.

Netta Dobbins: So before we get started with today's podcast, I'm coming in for a special announcement. And to let you know that I am launching a brand new course, that's all about email marketing. The Email Advantage is designed to help you really formulate your email marketing strategy, starting from how do you build an email list to how do you design emails to what email marketing platforms should you even use all the way to, how to use automation tools to set your business on autopilot.

So if you're a small business owner and you are looking to upgrade your email marketing strategy, or maybe even build your email marketing strategy, you can learn more about this course at Netta Dobbins forward slash email. Now let's haop intoto the episode.

Netta Dobbins: welcome everyone to How I Made My First Dollar. My name is Netta Dobbins and I am your host. And today I have some amazing guests that I've actually, I feel like I'm like their big [00:01:00] sister.

I've seen them grow up, not only in business, but Just as individuals. So I'm super excited to have them on and for you all to hear their phenomenal story, about how they built their business and how they made their first dollar. So I'm going to let them introduce themselves. And we'll start with Maliyah.

Maliyah Bass: Hi, everyone. I'm Maliyah. I'm one of the co owners and co founders of Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream. I am a graduate of MTSU. I have a degree in biology. And I'm excited to be here. Thanks for having us.

Bari Segovia: Hi everyone. I'm Bari. I'm one of the other co owners of Rolled 4 Ever Ice Cream. I'm a Nashville native and I graduated from Belmont university with a degree in interNashville business.

Netta Dobbins: I'm super excited because not only are these women amazing business women, but they're also just smart, Many listeners, many people just in general, dream of, escaping the corporate nine to five [00:02:00] world to go into entrepreneurship. And I know that you two are fairly young and you jumped head on into entrepreneurship a bit earlier than most.

Right. So I want to hear more about like Maliyah, you have a degree in biology, Bari, you have a degree in interNashville business. What were y'all doing before you decided, Hey, let's go all in on an ice cream shop.

Maliyah Bass: So I was actually working in clinical research and I was taking a gap year because I was preparing to apply to dental school.

So that is the track that I was on before jumping straight into entrepreneurship.

Bari Segovia: And for me, I was working in HR at a healthcare company at the time. on my way to climb the corporate ladder, and then me and my best friend Maliyah here came up with a cool idea.

Netta Dobbins: So let's talk about that too, because we didn't say earlier that y'all are best friends, but they are Nashville natives.

They're best friends. They've known each other for ever. So talk to [00:03:00] me about, you know, Maliyah is doing clinical research. Bari you're in HR, both are very, structured. I need to wear business casual or business professional to work, like I'm in my zone . And then we shifted to something that's fun and light, which is an ice cream shop, a rolled ice cream shop .

Talk to us about where this idea even came from.

Maliyah Bass: Yeah, so we were on a spring break trip our junior year of college. Rolled ice cream was trending on Instagram at the time. Bari always usually puts our itineraries together when we travel. So she sent me literally like 20 plus videos of Rolled ice cream. So it was a must to do while we were in New York. We traveled to New York, get there.

The line is wrapped around the building. So we try the ice cream and basically, after we tried it, we were like, this is so cool, we should bring it back to Tennessee. At the time, there were no Rolled ice cream shops in Tennessee, but we were still in college.

So [00:04:00] we left New York saying that if we were to do this, we would do it better.

Netta Dobbins: So this was before y'all graduated before you even got into corporate America, you have been sowing seeds of we want to do a Rolled ice cream shop,

talk to me about, I guess, some of those first steps, like when you said, okay, Bari, okay, Maliyah, let's actually try this out. What did that look like while you were still in corporate America?

Bari Segovia: So, I think, Maliyah, correct me if I'm wrong, we would talk every day, like, after work and just say how unfulfilled we were with our corporate jobs, and we kind of went back to the idea of rolled ice cream when we were in New York, we're like, that would be so cool if we just brought it here, at the time, Maliyah's church had a bus that they were selling for $1,500 and we thought that this would be pretty neat.

a great opportunity to jump on something and just try it out. $1,500. You can't beat that. so we ended up getting the bus and, her parents also own a food truck and operate a food truck and they had been doing it for a while. So they helped [00:05:00] us along the way. So we were like, this is kind of a match made in heaven.

So let's just try this out and see how it goes. Still keep our jobs, you know, let it fuel the business idea, and see just where it takes us.

Netta Dobbins: So, okay, we got the, we got the truck. We're like, yeah, $1,500. We're going to do Rolled ice cream. We're still going to work corporate. What was the moment where you were like, we can't do both of these?

We're making enough money to sustain the business right now. what was that shift? When did you notice that it was time to, bet all on yourself?

Maliyah Bass: So, I don't think we mentioned, but we are the first Rolled ice cream food truck in Tennessee. Snap, snap, snap. Yeah. so the demand was very high. I was answering calls in the conference room while I'm supposed to be writing contracts. We're taking off for work and having our computers. On the food truck while we're working.

so we just came to the conclusion that if we wanted to see where this business could [00:06:00] go, we had to jump all in and we were both living with our parents at the time. So I think that's something notably to mention because we had no bills. So we were able to bet on ourselves with the support of our parents.

We actually fasted for 40 days before we quit our job. And with the fast, we were just praying that this was the right decision. This is where God wants us to be. after those 40 days. We quit our job and we were booked for the whole month of April. Like our first month that we, went out full time, we were completely booked.

Netta Dobbins: Talk to me about I guess how your corporate skills translated into the business skills to run your business because you both have two completely different backgrounds, corporate backgrounds, right?

I guess like this question for both of you, but I want to start with Bari international business. We're running a business, right? How did you see some of the things that you were doing in corporate America translate into the business that you were [00:07:00] building?

Bari Segovia: So being in HR, obviously. You know, ins and outs, hiring, firing, onboarding, all of that good stuff.

now in the business, I can definitely see the translation, to it. just because for one, we're hiring a lot of people we are interviewing, doing all those things. I was specifically in the e-learning part of, HR. So I didn't do a lot of the laws and stuff like that. I think it's kind of funny because again, I got a business degree, but I didn't take the entrepreneurship class series at all.

I literally took the minimum amount that I needed to, to graduate, to get up out of there, but that wasn't like on my mind. so there are nuggets that I have seen that have translated over to running a business. but again, since I wasn't so focused on entrepreneurship while I was in school, I didn't really pay attention to it as much.

just trying to get that grade and get up out of there, get out those people's way. but I will say that it definitely translates. So from like laws to different structures of the business, how you're supposed to run the business, different things that you're supposed to incorporate.

Just [00:08:00] all of that, all of those things definitely translate over accounting, finance, all of that stuff plays a role in the bigger picture of a business.

Netta Dobbins: Maliyah, we've had conversations on the side where we're like, everything is science. Everything is science.

So talk to me, I guess about perfecting the Rolled ice cream formula. Like, does that relate back to some of the things that you learned in either undergrad or in your corporate job? Like, how did y'all figure all of that out?

Maliyah Bass: So for the formula, it was definitely research. So I, I would consider myself a researcher.

So just having to research what goes into the base and how we can make our base stand out, make it different. But I will honestly say that Bari is the chief product officer. So she does, she deals with the formula. For me, it's more of actually making the ice cream. So the Roll Academy, for instance, we're teaching the science of.

Rolled ice cream and how, [00:09:00] with our ice cream, if you know, when you put it on the plate, it reduces the ice crystals that are in ice cream. So relating that to science and showing that our ice cream is a lot smoother and creamier because of the reduced ice crystals. So just being able to translate that over.

And my background with clinical research, I did a lot of contracts and I had to negotiate contracts and build relationships, and that's all translatable to. Having a business.

Netta Dobbins: So let's talk about starting with the food truck, because I think that that is a strategic move. People feel like If I quit my job today, everything has to be 100 percent ready to go how I imagine it before I can leave, talk to me about some of the initial challenges you faced with starting with a food truck.

and then tell me about your very first sale. So two part questions. Let's start with, actually, let's start with the very first sale. And then we can talk about challenges.

Maliyah Bass: So the very [00:10:00] first sale, wow, I will never forget that. It was on June 2nd, 2018. we had our very first food truck event.

at the time there was a food truck park. We had another food truck that was there and there were goats. Why I remember the goats? I have no idea. But they did goat yoga at the food truck event. And we sold out. We sold out before the event ended and people were coming up to the truck like, are you sure you can't give us any ice cream?

And we're like, no, we literally have no more base to make the product. We were exhausted, but I remember that day we made what we would make in two weeks working at our corporate job. So we were like, Oh, wow. Like this, this might be something, you know? so it felt good. It was very empowering and it was obviously a demand for the product.

It was enjoyable seeing people eat our product and actually want more. We had several people that day buy one cup of ice cream and come back. So we're like, [00:11:00] Oh, y'all are really liking the product.

Netta Dobbins: Talk to me about challenges . Because I guess that in itself is a, it's a good challenge, right?

We were going to our event. It's our very first food truck event. We sold out, but people want more. And we're like, This is great. But , how do we make sure we have enough product for the future, right? That's one challenge. Talk to me about, some additional things that y'all faced when figuring out how to operate the food truck, figuring out how to keep your life and your business schedules together.

Bari Segovia: So I will say, one challenge as well is that obviously Maliyah said that we were the first rolled ice cream truck in Nashville, in Tennessee. so with that, we didn't have a blueprint really. We didn't know how to get the machines, how to put the machines, like just the way to structure the actual truck in itself.

so doing that and having the blueprint for that was like also very challenging. Again, Maliyah's parents, they own a food truck as well. So we had different resources through them to help us mitigate through some of the challenges as well. But [00:12:00] again, we didn't know what we were doing from down to design to logo, going back and forth, like, okay, what do you think the people would like?

What, you know, what resonates with us and like what we want our brand to be. and again, not doing this before, for me, this was like something totally new. I was like a fish out of water. I'm like, I just thought we had a good idea. We went to New York, tried the ice cream and we want to bring it back to the people of Nashville.

So I will say that was a challenge. also it was hot on the bus. So now, you know, we have an air condition. We've upgraded a lot of things just through the process of working on the food truck since the beginning. but again, on that first day, when we made our first sale, June 2nd, 2018, it was hot on that bus.

We had like floor fans in there trying to blow, you know, give us a little bit of air. We're in the middle of summer. It's super, super hot, super humid out, and we're rolling ice cream. what else was a challenge? I feel like there were so many different obstacles.

Maliyah Bass: I was going to say it's, aside from it being hot on the bus, it's also challenging to roll while it's hot on the bus.

The product won't physically roll [00:13:00] if it's too hot. So just, Having to position the bus to where you're not directly in the sun. I remember, I honestly think it may have been our third or fourth event. We had to leave the event early because the ice creams wouldn't roll. So we have this long line, family, friends, people we don't know showing up to the events.

And we're embarrassed. We're like, wow, the ice cream's not rolling. What's going on? So just doing research on. a product that is not really here and having to figure out, I guess that's where the science of it comes from, of how the ice cream will actually roll.

and I would also say when we started with the food truck, having the funds to start. So originally our idea was to go to a bank and get money. Well, they're looking at us like, no mam.. So we had to figure out how to fund it ourselves. So Bari and I are working our nine to five jobs using [00:14:00] those checks

to fund the food truck, asking our parents for help, asking our grandparents for help. So honestly, thankfully we, we have families who really support us and who believe in our dreams because they were really willing to give us their dollars to fund our business.

Netta Dobbins: You, I want to just give some context around the business loan part, because I also think that a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand that aspect.

When you go get a business loan, you want to show that you have already made money, and this money is going to help you expand. Most of the time, the money isn't for you to get off the ground, right? They want to know that they can make their money back. I think that, when we're thinking about funding, we're like, I'm going to go get a loan and I'm going to do all this stuff because the bank's going to give me money and it's going to be enough for me to launch.

When in reality, That's not exactly how it works. we'll talk about that a little more on a different podcast, but just wanted to give some more context to that and to why Maliyah was like, banks don't do that. So [00:15:00] 2018, we have the truck. We've been ups and downs on the truck.

The truck that you have now, is this still the church truck?

Maliyah Bass: Yes, it is. It's still there.

Bari Segovia: Still rolling.

Netta Dobbins: Still rolling. I love that. And I love, I love that because it's something that we started out with. It wasn't perfect. But for 2018 to 2024, we've made modifications. We've grown, it's grown with us.

That's like a staple part of your business, right? So congratulations on that. I want to talk about getting your physical store now, which is huge .

Walk us through that journey, because I know how complex it was to actually find a store that you liked and kind of bet on yourself to take it into a physical location.

Maliyah Bass: So I'll start with saying that we didn't even necessarily desire having a store. we were originally approached with being in a store. And then after That first approach, several people kept approaching us, but all of the approaches fell through. So, [00:16:00] Bari and I were like, okay, well we obviously need a store, everyone's approaching us about getting a store, let's get a store.

so originally we were actually working on getting a store that was on 3rd Avenue, a street over from where we currently are. We were in the process of building it completely out ground up. And just it just wasn't working. So one day we got a random call saying that we actually have a restaurant on 4th Avenue.

Would you guys be interested? We're like, wow, 4th Avenue, Rolled 4 Ever. You know, it was everything just worked out. So getting the store was a challenge trying to find the location that we wanted because we were very specific with where we wanted to be, who we wanted to serve, so several qualifications, but I'm glad that we had those qualifications because it was able, it allowed us to have an easy "yes" when that time came.

Netta Dobbins: So you said that things fell through and it was pretty vague But I want to hit on it a little bit more.

We don't have to go into too much details, but Oftentimes [00:17:00] things don't go as we plan right we can have this big vision And then something happens and we have to reimagine the vision or reiterate the vision, but the goal is still the same. So talk to us a little bit about , what fell through and how did you overcome that?

Maliyah Bass: Yeah, so we were actually approached by a huge development. and I believe it was 2019. That was prepared to break ground in Fall of 2020. So, the development, the hospitality group that brought it here. They're also in several other areas, and it's very, very successful. So, We were extremely honored, happy, proud to be the chosen like exclusive ice cream vendor.

so because of that, that's what we had our mindset on. We signed the LOI. We didn't sign any other LOIs or look for anything else because we were preparing ourselves for that particular time. Well,

Netta Dobbins: what, what's the LOI?

Maliyah Bass: Sorry, [00:18:00] letter of intent. So a letter of intent is basically the letter that you sign before you get the actual contract. So it's letting you know that this is what the intention on the final contract essentially is going to be. So most of the times when you get an LOI, it is solidified. And to be honest, we have been told that we could have.sued the company, but at the time we weren't knowledgeable on that. so here we are now, and everything works out the way that it's supposed to work out, but they told us a month before we were supposed to pay our first deposit that we were no longer the ice cream vendor. So we were very devastated because we had turned down a lot of things and we're preparing for this particular development to come.

That's what led us to actually wanting a store. Because the [00:19:00] development was going to cater towards tourism. When we had the food truck, we were just catering to our community. That's what our focus was on, but when the development came, we're like, Oh, it brought us back to those two girls that were in New York.

And we're like, Oh, we should also focus on tourism.

Netta Dobbins: So, you know, we had this amazing opportunity with this amazing development so we could focus on tourism. We ended up not being able to go forth with that opportunity.

What was the next step? Like, yes, we're devastated. We're how old? 23, 24, right? what was the next step in launching you to where you are now.

Bari Segovia: I think after that like Maliyah said that we were devastated. We had turned down a lot of opportunities and we had actually kind of stopped like our search within looking for a location just because we were banking on that one.

And there was also some stipulations in that LOI that we couldn't do or like overstep. So we were just like, hey, you know, let's just We're going here. Let's not even look anymore. [00:20:00] so when we did get that note, it was like, Oh, wow, we have to go back to the drawing board. so we were so exhausted with the process and just going back and forth.

And then, like Maliyah had mentioned, we had got a call. So we weren't even particularly looking at this specific location that we currently have.

So we got the call, visited the location, and we thought it was great. we were just like, it's in a prime location, it's literally a street over from the place that we were going to build ground up.. Same location, good area in Nashville, still around a lot of tourists, still super close to downtown.

so during that time, it was kind of like a breath of fresh air, you know, like, hey, this big thing that we had before fell through, it didn't work out, but you know, God gave us something else. And so this, is obviously what's for us. So let's go ahead and roll with it.

so just overcoming that and like also staying positive within that time period. cause there was so many different avenues that we could have done. We could have been like, Hey, forget the shop . We're not even worried about that anymore. Like we're so down about this. [00:21:00] but we didn't let that consume us.

We kept rolling, kept going out with the truck, kept trying to get our brand out there. And you know, things came to us that were really good. So, and now we're here.

Netta Dobbins: And then Maliyah, earlier you had said we're Rolled 4 Ever. It's on 4th Avenue. I don't think that a lot of people understand the significance of the number four.

I didn't know that until I worked with y'all. So give us a little bit more context around why you all thought that was a sign.

Maliyah Bass: My birthday is September 4th and Bari's birthday is October 4th. So the four is significant to us. When we bought our food truck, it had the number four on it. So when we got the call saying that it was on fourth Avenue, we were like, Oh, well, obviously this is God letting us know that four is significant to us.

Netta Dobbins: I love it. I love it. So we started with the food truck. We got, a brick and mortar location, Fourth Avenue, Germantown, which is a bustling area in Nashville, Tennessee. And then we were like, you know, we're killing it. Let's expand. So we opened a [00:22:00] store in Smyrna, Tennessee, which is about what 30 45 minutes away from the Nashville location.

But later on, we had to close down that location, right? Talk to us about the idea of expanding. And then what decision or what happened to make you all say, okay, not right now.

Bari Segovia: So the decision to expand, in our industry, you know, having multiple locations is like that dream idea. Like, okay, let's pop up with several different locations to serve several different communities at once. so that was kind of like the vision. the, where we moved to in Smyrna is where Maliyah and I grew up.

we went to Lavergne high school, graduated from there, which was like, what, five minutes or less away from our second location. we also started in Rutherford County. With the food truck. So that's where like our base of customers were when we originally started so we're just like, okay, let's take it back home in a sense, and give a space for where we grew up and the people who we started with. So [00:23:00] we were just thinking like, hey, we do good in the food truck in Rutherford County and out this way. So hey, I think that a brick and mortar will be perfect out here.

And to be honest, throughout that process, it was still Like kind of easy process. Maliyah, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that we saw the listing called them and it was kind of like, Hey, you know, you guys can get in. The realtor and the landlord was super intrigued with our business plan, our business model and thought this would be great, on Sam Ridley, which is where the location was.

And we were just like, Hey, this is a lot easier than. All the other brick and mortars that we've tried to get in Nashville and just going back and forth, things falling through, it was kind of like, hey, this is yours to take basically. And so we're just like, huh, this might be a good thing, good idea.

And I think that our reasoning behind it, we had good intentions going out there, but I don't think one, we did enough research and two, I think that we just should have waited. I think that we kind of got trigger happy and was like, okay, let's do it. This is kind of easy. [00:24:00] It's going a lot smoother than the Nashville location.

But I don't think that we took a step back just to kind of get an overview of like, Hey, This might not be for us right now. We just got the Nashville location running in a good, work, workflow and everything. So let's not add too much on our plate. And also at the same time, again, it's just me and Maliyah and we're also running a food truck.

So two brick and mortars plus a food truck. And we're the only ones who are doing everything pretty much outside of our employees. So I just think it was too much. and again, like I said, we didn't do as much research. So, Now we know that tourism is a really big thing for our business that those are the people who come and really patronize our business a lot.

And you don't get a lot of tourism out of Rutherford County. Like you said, it's 30 to 45 minutes away from the city. so most people just aren't traveling out there.

Netta Dobbins: So I think the idea is like, you know, this is easier.

This came to us, but did we look at operations? Did we look at finances? Did we look at our internal bandwidth? Is it something that we are actually ready for? [00:25:00] Because even like every opportunity that's presented to you could be amazing, but it might not be good for now. I think the benefit of the opportunity was like, you know, if you want to do this, it's yours, but now, you know, exactly the steps that you need to take to make it fruitful.

All right. So we are winding down. We've talked a lot about perseverance with y'all story. I feel like, which I love because once again, I feel like I'm in the front seat of seeing y'all grow. So, The last thing I want y'all to do is give one piece of advice, a quote, whatever it is for an entrepreneur or a small business owner who may be thinking about taking the leap on themselves.

Maliyah Bass: This is my my new one that I love. So I feel like a lot of times, you know, like in business, we are kind of scared to fail. But honestly, like if you fail fast, and you get that over with, and you know what you need to do to move forward, [00:26:00] it's It's easy to just keep going.

Bari Segovia: And I would piggyback off of that and say, don't be afraid to ask for help. I think as entrepreneurs, as small businesses, sometimes you get into that little box of like, Oh, I don't want people to know I'm struggling or Oh, like, I just don't know what to ask or I don't know who to ask. but just ask.

Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't wait so long and get so deep in a hole or in the thick of it. And you know, then it's like really, really hard to climb out of it. If you have a question, try to seek help or seek the resources that you can ask so that you can lean on that.

Netta Dobbins: Love that.

Let the audience know where they can stay connected with you, where they can come shop with you, all the things.

Maliyah Bass: Yeah, so our location is located in Historic Germantown, 1120 4th Avenue North, Suite 102, we're the cute pink building. and then you can find us on Instagram, all social media platforms, actually, at Rolled, the number [00:27:00] 4, ever ice cream. My personal Instagram is queen. mb.

Bari Segovia: And my personal Instagram is miss M I S S underscore Bari. B A R I

Netta Dobbins: Thank you both so much for being on this podcast. You know how much I adore you. I think this story is super important when we think about once again, perseverance, making your way through it, the stumbling blocks you're going to take. On your way to being a successful entrepreneur. So I really appreciate your time and I can't wait to continue to see you all shine.

Bari Segovia: Thanks for having us.

Netta Dobbins: Bye everybody.