Talking With The Ice Cream Lady
Jen talked to us about owning an ice cream truck in Ontario, Canada, and the pleasure she’s getting from community love.
Pumpkin Nut icecream on glazed donuts, homemade caramel sauce, fresh and local strawberries or peanut butter brownie soft serve, those are only some of the mouth hanging, drooling on, delicious concoctions of Bowl of Cream, a local ice cream truck business from Ontario, Canada.
“I’ve been doing that for over a year now and I’ve been the happiest I’ve ever been” smiles Jen Tomecek, the lady behind the icecream and the success.
Stay at home mom for a while, she toyed with the idea of opening a food truck for some time. Primarily conceived as a winter-soup/summer-ice cream kind of deal, when Jen started she quickly realized that the ice cream kind of took a life of its own.
Then it was about refining the concept. “I thought ok, the area where I live in has really high-end agriculture, so we have fresh strawberries and blueberries and peaches, a lot of really great stuff. So I thought, serving ice cream is a blank canvas, and then I can pair it with other local bakeries and fresh products and make my own sauces and it would just be that much better. My goal was to create ice cream that I would want to eat, and use layers of local stuff”, explains enthusiastically Jen.
The perpetual obstacles of the entrepreneur
When asked about her journey towards her ice cream truck, Jen laughs and starts by saying that icecream was never her passion, she swears. “I was looking for something where I could primarily be a stay at home mom, but kind of add to it. Something that was mine, something that I had control over. I wanted something that if I worked hard on, it would pay off”.
Jen remembers the early hour’s doubts. The wall she hit right away when she had to handle generators, electricity, watts, and power. She thinks back on it as the biggest obstacle that she had to overcome. “I guess it’s not the generator in itself. It’s just the catalyst. It’s realizing that you’re always working towards something. I thought if I just get everything right at the beginning, it will be perfect and then I’ll just run. It was so naive” she smiles.
You are always figuring it out, you’re always finding solutions, all the time, constantly
She realized early on that entrepreneurship was solving one crisis only to cheerfully walk towards the next one. “If you’re growing, if you are not staying stagnate, there’s going to be something. You just have to roll with it, you can’t let it paralyze you. You are always figuring it out, you’re always finding solutions, all the time, constantly”.
Local inspiration and experiments for creative delights
For her creativity and ice cream ideas, Jen relies on the local products. “I find that a lot of icecreams are too sweet. Don’t get me wrong, ice creams with Oreos are great, but they’ve kind of been done, so, I was just looking for something a little bit fresher. Whatever I could make locally was the inspiration”.
She talked about her incredible caramel sauce that’s like “liquid fudge” that she ruined a couple of pots to get to, experimenting. She talks about the great local bakery that helps her with her ideas and creates things when she asks. She talks about texture, sweetness, the ratio in the ice cream bowl, and yummy stuff left for the last scoop.
Jen plays on seasons, follows the freshness road. Autumn brought a lot of pumpkin spice creations. She also loves to hear from customers, asking her to make this or that, bring new stuff on the menu. “Sometimes I have to reign myself in because I make ice cream creations, I have too many on the menu, I try to add a new one every time” she laughs.
An ice cream truck as fulfillment therapy
It’s truly an inspiration to chat with her. She talks about her job and her business with sparkles in her eyes and a go get some attitude. “I feel so fulfilled. I thought I didn’t really like work but I love it. I love all aspects of it. I love to meet people, I had real connections, it’s so much more than ice cream”. She remembers the lady who told her that her peach ice cream reminded her of her grandma and the peaches she used to have there. The parents and grandparents coming to her truck with their families.
“For me, it’s basically like I’ve invested in therapy.”
“For me, it’s basically like I’ve invested in therapy. I could have gone up to therapy because I wasn’t feeling fulfilled, and would try to find my purpose and spend all the money on that. Or I could invest in that, take the gamble, and build the business” she reflects.
She thinks about her version of success. It has never been money. When she started, she didn’t care about making a profit, not even paying herself. She just wanted to be able to pay her bills and do something that made her feel good, have something that was hers. “Making a connection with people and seeing their smiles, that’s the reward. Just doing something that you like, making people happy”.
The freeing power of acceptance
She is grateful for all the help she got and she’s getting. “You can’t have it all unless you ask for help. You have to ask and not be controlling. You have to let go”. She says she could tell us 50 stories of the kindness and support of her community. The guys who brought her spoons when she was in need. The kids who store her tables and chairs when she forgot them. The people queuing in the rain to get ice cream. “It’s good ice cream and it’s yummy, but this is more, they believe the local supporting a local business and the layers of locals in my business. When you’re buying my icecream you’re buying something from the local bakery, from a local farmer. The people in my community really appreciate that”.
“I’m flawed, and I swear, and I’m making mistakes. But I get to be really me”
She feels embraced by her people, and more than that, accepted. “It’s very rewarding to think that I’m just me. Flawed, and I swear, and I’m making mistakes. But I get to be really me, authentic, and that’s really freeing. And my kids think it’s pretty cool that there’s is an icecream trailer parked in their driveway all the time” Jen finishes, laughing merrily.
