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Tamara Keefe is the CEO, Founder, and Flavor Temptress of Clementine’s Naughty and Nice Creamery, an ice cream shop with eight locations in the Greater St. Louis Area that serves unique small-batch ice cream flavors, including alcoholic and vegan options. Clementine’s is one of the few Micro Creamery’s in the world, a designation that requires strict ingredients and production methods that helps them produce the best ice cream in the world. Clementine’s is a two time winner of the North American Ice Cream Association’s Flavor of the Year (2019 and 2023), the most distinguished honor in the ice cream world.
Tamara talks to Cynthia about her love and passion for ice cream, dating back to her early childhood, and how it helped her carve out her current lifestyle and path to genuine happiness. Tamara started out in corporate America, rising steadily through the ranks to become a highly successful executive. She exceeded her wildest dreams of achievement, but it wasn’t what she thought it would be. She was miserable and had to get out. This episode describes what she did next and how she was able to trade suits for scoops.
She doles out the truth on the sacrifices she had to make personally and professionally to make her dream come true, including downsizing her home and adjusting her management style. This is a masterclass on entrepreneurship, leadership, and betting on yourself. When it’s over, if you need a little taste of happiness, then don’t forget that Clementine’s ships!
1 – Intro 00:24
2 – Winning the Oscars of Ice Cream 01:14
3 – Locations 02:17
4 – Ice Cream solves everything 03:12
5 – Some of our speciality flavors 03:44
6 – What’s a micro creamery 04:38
7 – Vegan offerings 08:45
8 – Starting my own business 09:45
9 – If you had a safety net, what might have changed 11:43
10 – Why you were miserable in corporate America 13:29
11 – Was there a moment of realization that you were unhappy 14:11
12 – Meeting with girlfriends, Clementines birthed 16:03
13 – Childhood origins of ice cream 17:47
14 – How she got into the food industry early in her career 23:11
15 – Following unconventional paths 24:20
16 – What kind of risks did you take? 25:28
17 – Coming from humble beginnings 26:56
18 – Downsizing when you start a business 28:34
19 – Defining Happiness 31:28
20 – Falling in love with St. Louis 33:02
21 – Would you go back and change anything about your journey 34:12
22 – What challenges and obstacles taught you the most 35:21
23 – Was there a moment that helped you discover that? 36:45
24 – How did you make the necessary leadership changes 38:41
25 – Culture of clementines 41:43
26 – How do you maintain culture over many locations 43:01
27 – The ice cream shop experience 44:09
28 – Storytelling nuances of Clementines 45:43
29 – Any challenges faced as a female? 50:52
30 – Power of No 55:05
31 – Prioritizing the employee experience 56:16
32 – How did you get to the point of being so fearless 58:10
33 – Importance of having a local ice cream shop nearby 1:00:11
34 – What’s next for Clementines 1:00:32
35 – Cool events they put on 1:01:29
36 – Advice for success 1:02:30
37 – How do we find you 1:05:30
Content Notice
This podcast and all She Lift Project content represents the opinions of Cynthia Kirkpatrick and her guests. The content here is for informational purposes only, and should not be taken as professional advice – financial, legal, medical, or otherwise.
Views and opinions expressed in the podcast and across all She Lift Project media channels are our own and do not represent that of our places of work. While we make every effort to ensure that the information we are sharing is accurate, we welcome any comments, suggestions, or correction of errors.
“We outperform ourselves by 30% when we’re in a good mood… if you actually want to get more productivity, know what makes your people happy.”
“When you’re diagnosed with lymphedema, I feel like you go through all the stages of grief. And there are moments where I get angry still. There are moments that I’m very happy. There are moments that I’m sad.”
“Joy and gratitude will transmute anything. So if somebody’s going through a healing journey, focus on your joy, what lights you up, that’s the thing that’s going to heal you. So lean into that.”
“There’s people out there that think they’re good at everything and they’re not. So I think for us, it’s really that business entrepreneur that’s wearing a lot of hats, that wants to wear some hats but doesn’t want to wear them all.”
“I got thrown out of the OR the very first day after 10 minutes. The surgeon walked into the room and he opened up all the doors and he screamed as loud as he possibly could, ‘I will not have Dr. Feinberg’s wife in my room!!’ See, I wasn’t Dr. Feinberg. I was Dr. Feinberg’s wife.”
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