What's the Startup?!

The Power of Showing Up: Maurice on Resilience, Support, and Starting Up

• Sprocket • Season 2 • Episode 6

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In this episode of What’s the Startup, we sit down with Maurice, founder of Doggy Eats, to hear the inspiring story of how a love for his dog and a problem-solving mindset turned into a growing business. Maurice shares how he went from baking homemade dog treats to solving real issues for pet owners, all while navigating the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.

We dive into:

•The moment Maurice realized his passion project could be a business.

•Why community and support are everything when you’re starting out.

•How consistency, discipline, and showing up for yourself make all the difference.

•Practical tips for time-blocking, staying motivated, and managing the inevitable mood swings of being a founder.

Plus, Maurice offers an inside look at his experience in Sprocket’s West Kentucky Innovation Challenge and why connections and mentorship are so critical for early-stage entrepreneurs.

🎧 Tune in to hear Maurice’s honest take on building something from scratch, staying the course, and the importance of showing up—no matter what.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Sprocket Podcast! If you’re ready to dive into the world of startups and innovation, visit us online at Sprocket WKY to learn more about our mission and how we support entrepreneurs like you.

Ready to check out the space? Book a tour with Tiffany, our Community Coordinator!

Got a business idea? Apply for a mentorship session with one of our experienced mentors!

Stay connected and join our growing community on Instagram for the latest updates, inspiration, and behind-the-scenes looks at what’s happening at Sprocket.

Let’s turn your ideas into reality—together!

Sprocket is proud to be supported by Team Kentucky, the Commonwealth's Cabinet for Economic Development. Learn more about their initiatives and resources at ced.ky.gov.

Kaylan:

Maurice, thank you for joining us on What's the Startup. What is the startup? What's the startup with you?

Maurice:

Yeah, thanks for having me. The startup is Doggie Eats, my own dog food and treats company. Thank you to Sprocket for all of the help in trying to start it, but yeah, that's what we're focused on.

Kaylan:

Yeah, so tell us a little bit about Doggie Eats. And how you got started.

Maurice:

Yeah, so Doggy Eats just started from the love of my own dog. Just trying to find the most nutritional food and treats as well. Treats specifically, she had a, had stomach issues tiardia. And I just found the most wholesome products to just help her, her tummy issues.

Kaylan:

Yeah, so that's brilliant. So you're,

Maurice:

you

Kaylan:

started making these, these treats and you were like, this is helping.

Maurice:

Yeah, she had it and then we went to the vet, of course, have to make, she was given antibiotics, everything. And when you have a pup that's just, Diarrhea. And you're working like a nine to five, it, your life isn't regular. So you want it to stop as quickly as possible. So I was doing everything online, every research I could on Google, Google Scholar, Bing, any search engine. Like, how can I get this to stop? And pumpkin seeds. is what came up. That's, that's how I started. I was like, all right, I'm putting pumpkin seeds and pumpkin in our food. And then I was like, well, I could just put this in a treat. And I didn't see many pumpkin seeds or pumpkin treats. And I myself love to bake, grew up doing it with my mom. So I was like, let's do it. And then later on we started selling them. I was like, let's do it. Tell

Kaylan:

me about that moment, like the, the in between, you're making them for yourself and then you were just like, you know what? There's a business here.

Maurice:

Yeah. Yeah. So that moment I was always looking and I was always looking, thinking, I'm like a entrepreneur, like mind track, like, What can I do? What, what does look good? Just trying to find out more about myself. So, in the in between of making the treats, realizing that it was helping her, and then having other pets. I was going to the dog parlor at that time. So, other pets, like trailing me because they can tell, I was like, you know what? This could this could actually be a thing. This could actually be a thing. So that was it. Once I decided that like dogs like it, it helps my dog. Then it's just piecing it all together. How do I make this marketable and profitable?

Kaylan:

Yeah. What was your next step from there? You're like, okay, I'm going to make a business out of this.

Maurice:

My next step and. At times, I think I regret this, but my next step was like, let's, let's get a logo. Let's try to put marketing, not branding is what I'm trying to say. Let's, let's get a logo. Let's try to make a package. Let's try to try to put, make this as nice and neat as possible. So I did that. I guess the name was a fun thing that I played with for a while. And I really love it now. But just like, it's so simple. Doggy eats, you see it and you know exactly what's happening. So yeah, that was my next step. Just like trying to take it in. Why do you regret the

Kaylan:

branding as your first step?

Maurice:

Well, I don't fully regret it, but at times I think I could have made it like Toyota lean, like I could have made it a lot simpler and cheaper on myself. Because you can start a business and just have like, a basic packaging with really good treats and people will love it. And me just starting, I wasn't understand. I maybe didn't understand that fully. That if you start simpler, you can, you can always grow into, whatever colors you want for your brand, whatever name you want for your brand. So I just didn't start as simple as I think I'd like to. But you make up for it. So it's not so much like a complete regret, but if I were to be in that stage again, I think I would maybe cut that corner for a bit and start a little bit leaner. Yeah.

Kaylan:

That's brilliant. I will say though in your own defense that your branding is spot on.

Maurice:

Thank you,

Kaylan:

It's very professional. Thank you. And it gives some credibility to the, the treat packages too.

Maurice:

Absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. When I first

Kaylan:

saw it, I was like, did I pick this up from PetSmart?

Maurice:

I appreciate that. Huge.

Kaylan:

But I totally get where you're coming from. Like, I could have, I could have pushed the gas a little bit earlier and faster. Mm-hmm If I had spent more time on this at that stage.

Maurice:

Yeah, totally. Get that thousand percent. And you think or, well, I think now about the, the places that you're gonna sell or the places that I was thinking of selling early on, the packaging doesn't really matter to them as much. Like it does give you a better eye and, more credibility. But when we're at a. If we're at the dog park and I have, treats, they aren't really thinking about the packaging, like if I make these and they're for whatever amount you're selling for and they're just sealed, that's all that they care. And even like if you're, I wasn't I think my original plan was to try to jump into farmer's markets. I'm going to do that soon. So really excited about it. But at a farmer's market too, a lot of. A lot of those products aren't professionally branded, packaged they understand that this is a, this is a, this is a starting point and people are trying to get out there. So, yeah, that's what my brain thinks, like, maybe I would start a little bit later.

Kaylan:

And then your next next step, you joined our Innovation Challenge this year. Tell us what that the challenge was like for you and at a high level, like what you learned going through it.

Maurice:

Yeah. The challenge for me was, it was really beneficial. Because I, I got to a point in my journey where I wanted and like needed like minded people a little bit of accountability too. Cause I, I just felt like I was Pushing this thing. I was trying to get momentum and by yourself. It can be easy to get swayed Have have any mood swing, like on Monday, you can be like I'm killing this and then Monday night This is not going well for me so to get in the innovation challenge and have people who are generally at the same step as me who are also having these mood swings and these questions and Wondering what do we do next? That was extremely beneficial to me Yeah,

Kaylan:

because I can imagine If you're outside of that community and you're having these swings i'm killing it. I'm crushing it I don't know what i'm doing. Yeah, you probably feel like an anomaly like There's something wrong with me. I'm doing something wrong You But when you're in a community, you're like, Oh, this is, this is just the status quo.

Maurice:

Absolutely. Cause they're like, your motivation can be fleeting. When, when you're having those mood swings and there's no one to, I obviously have people to bounce ideas off of but they don't completely understand why I feel like, I'm, I'm having these mood swings. So I lost my train of thought. I'll be so honest. But

Kaylan:

again, the value of community of being in with like other people who are on a shared journey.

Maurice:

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They just, they just, the people I'm talking to who aren't on their own entrepreneur journey, maybe don't understand why these things are coming in. And that motivation of like when you are doing great can really quickly. So you want to be more consistent to what you're doing than like working in the motivation stage. And that's what having the other entrepreneurs around did for me. Because now I understand, okay, everybody's going through these swings. Everybody's motivation is up and down. Let's stay consistent and the swings may happen, but you're still doing the work. I don't know.

Kaylan:

What are some of the guardrails that you put in place for yourself to help you stay on track and not burning everything down on a Monday night?

Maurice:

So a lot of it for me, I have a life coach Fantastic fantastic person And they really helped give me like tools You to, that just help my brain be like, this is, this is fine. Maybe take a step away from it, but this is fine. You really like what you're doing. So do it. Like when you, you only have those mood swings when you are passionate about something and when you care, if you aren't having those moods, this is how I feel. I don't want to speak for everyone. If you, if I wasn't having those mood swings, then do I, am I fully invested in it? So that's what my life coaches helped me with. It's just like understanding and appreciating that the mood swings are a part of the journey. And would you rather be doing anything else than having these mood swings for something you're creating that you really enjoy? And that's, that's my main thing I lean on is just like a constant reminder of there's nothing else that I would rather focus on. So ups, downs, highs, lows, anxiety, appreciate it all and let's keep working.

Kaylan:

I feel like we could just end it right there on that quote, but I'm curious to know what are some of those actionable, practical tools that you've been learning that help you?

Maurice:

It's mainly mainly health based for me, so just making sure I'm getting a consistent workout in and I like to do it before I get down to work like mentally just because I can wake up and I can I, the first thing I do is going to be hard, it's not going to be like a fun ish workout. It's going to be hard and through that I have to think like, all right, did you wake up today for this to be easy? No, so let's, let's keep doing this. And that, once like you're up and that switch is flipped, it follows into the next thing. So you, you crush that workout or you crush whatever you were doing. You knew this morning wasn't going to be easy. You go into your work now motivated that whatever you do today was not supposed to come easy. You, you're working for this. So that's a huge one for me. Also just eating right. It seems wild that I had to have a life, life coach tell me this. But, but. But actually having like a plan, of what you, what you will eat, when you will eat is crucial because now you can, you can time block. You can sit there and be like, all right, I know I'm going to eat at this time. So I have between my workout and this, I have two hours. Those two hours are hours that don't count. World out, we push this, we, we push this business as far as we can. We do everything we need in this two hours, eat, come back the next hour, 30 minutes we have meeting or whatever, but just time blocking, eating right, working out, everything, everything trickles. Everything affects everything is what. Me and the life coach always talk about like, everything bleeds into everything. If you're doing great in one area, you'll want to do great in the next.

Kaylan:

But it makes so much sense because if you wake up and you do a hard thing, you're stretching your capacity

Maurice:

to

Kaylan:

experience and withstand hard things. So that hard things can happen. don't necessarily feel so hard.

Maurice:

Yeah, and they're separate, too. Like, one is, one is really physical. So, when you do sit down, half of your brain is like, well, at least I'm not moving. You know what I mean? At

Kaylan:

least that's done.

Maurice:

Exactly. You're like, alright, cool. I'll, I'll do something really hard in another way because my body is, Yeah. So, yeah.

Kaylan:

I'm curious to know your approach to time blocking. So, you're really, really busy. You've got a lot to do. You've got a lot going on every single day. You sit down, and I'm sure you don't want to spend the first half hour of your two hour time block figuring out what you need to do.

Maurice:

How

Kaylan:

do you plan your priorities so that you can just sit down and get right to work?

Maurice:

Yeah. There's a Sunday, Sundays, Sunday, Sunday morning, I am going through everything in my calendar trying to figure out what. Where this fits my actual like full time work schedule. What, what I'll be doing there. If I'm opening closing I know that I'm going to have an hour lunch in between. So that's always an hour where I'm, I'm, I'm doing things. This isn't like, Oh, fun. Let's go grab a meal. No, you bring your food. That's an hour to work. If you're closing your, your morning. to be productive. If you're opening, nights have to be productive. So you just, but Sundays is essentially what I'm saying. Sundays are when I'm starting everything. We're going to meal prep. We're going to, we're going to time block. We're going to make sure that I understand the meetings that are coming up, at least who I'm supposed to be meeting with. And I say Sundays, But that's just like a good day in my brain. Every week doesn't, every week doesn't fall on Sunday. I may have to be a Friday that I have off. And I'm like, Oh, okay, let's, you know what I mean? This is this, the next day I have off is in four or five days. I have to do this now, or the next four or five days are haywire. But yeah, there's a specific, there's a specific time where we are. Going in and time blocking.

Kaylan:

Truly setting yourself up for success.

Maurice:

Have to.

Kaylan:

Have to. Take some time.

Maurice:

Have to show, show up for yourself. That's, that's it. You have to show up for yourself. It's where you know that everything, everything affects everything. You're the only one that creates that. So you have to show up and do it for yourself. I don't know if it's determination or resilience. I don't know what the word would be. But, effort. I think would maybe be it. Because there are times where you are, everyone's gonna be exhausted. Everyone's gonna be Just like, man, I don't feel like doing this today. Why, why do I have to do this today? You have those times, but show up in those moments, just show up for yourself because you'll be sick to your stomach if you don't show up for yourself, if you're like even if it's something that's not in your mind, like not prioritized or not extremely important and you skip it It doesn't feel good at all. So show up for yourself. And even in that moment, if you're, if you're 25, 30 percent of yourself, you showed, you showed up, you were there and people will forget. People will forget and forgive. Everyone's so wrapped up in their own mind that they're likely not even focused on how on. Kaylin is how on Maurice is. It's just Kaylin was here and she was great today. So she constantly show up and give effort.

Kaylan:

Yeah. I think it's Brene Brown who says, if you just have 25 percent to give and you show up and you give 25%, well, then you gave a hundred percent.

Maurice:

Yeah,

Kaylan:

I think I've seen a graph where it's like what you think showing up every day is and it's like level level level level But what's showing up every day actually looks like is up here down here up here in the middle way up here And then way down here Averages out

Maurice:

Absolutely, because It's a it's a marathon not a sprint, it isn't a game of who can gas out first

Kaylan:

You

Maurice:

know, it's a game of like, who can, who can outlast, who can, who cares enough and has enough passion to consist, consistently do this thing. Yeah.

Kaylan:

So leaning into that, to anyone who is a couple steps behind you.

Maurice:

Oh, I don't know. Maybe a year

Kaylan:

behind you, they're thinking of a, of starting an idea. What would you say to them about The characteristics they need to develop or nurture to stay in the game.

Maurice:

Yeah.

Kaylan:

To do that marathon. It's not about getting your KPIs and doing all this stuff. Maybe it's more about managing yourself.

Maurice:

You know what it was for me, for me, it was like understanding where your support is coming from. And then diving into it. That would have helped me tremendously. And maybe, maybe that isn't what everyone needs to hear. But for me, that was it. Because when I first, like, When I first knew I wanted to do something entrepreneurial, like start a journey in that way, I I have ideas. They're floating. They're all going around. And then you can talk to someone and they can shoot it down and it, it clips your wings instantly to where this idea doesn't get nurtured, to where I, by the, by, by blessings, by the grace of God, I've been able to like, Get to a point where I have something to be consistent to and self discipline myself but a year ago there was nothing for me to Discipline in this way, you know on this journey because I'm just having ideas and every time I bring them up Maybe they are shot down or maybe someone so just I guess what I'm trying to say is, protect your idea and make sure that the people you are going to are supporting it and giving you actual like, yes, you can do this. I believe in you. This, this idea maybe needs to be tweaked in this way, but it's a great idea. Start, start. Just protect your idea.

Kaylan:

Yeah, finding the people who Maybe or maybe not believe in your idea, but believe in you. What did your support network look like? Or what does it look like?

Maurice:

Now, now there's like a, now there's a nice size support network. It's mainly my, my family comes through and my life coach. Yeah.

Kaylan:

Sponsored by

Maurice:

Anthony Ware. She's Louise. But. But my mom, my sister Anthony my partner, it's just really feels good. And once you find that, you, you can go like full force on whatever it is. I think that's in any facet, for me it just happens to be in this, but if there's someone who really loves their job, who really loves, once you like realize, okay, I believe in me. I know what I can do. And these people believe in me too. I can put my entire being into this thing and feel no regret. No one's looking at this as a risky, a risky thing anymore, because I'll put the, I'll put the work in and you see me putting the work in. So it's, it's only a matter of time. I don't know. But a lot of people don't see it that way. And that's why you have to have that support group who is constantly like, yes, this, you, you are. I remember texting my sister at one point in time and I was like, is it crazy that this is like my white whale? And she was like, no, you have a great idea. Attack it and don't stop. But That's a mood swing. But that morning, I'm sure I was like, we're killing this, we're working, we're, you know what I mean? We're getting everything done. And by that night, I was like, yo, am I, is there something I'm missing here? And can you help me understand it? And if that person you reach out to shoots it down in that moment, do you continue to fight for your idea? I don't, it's a question. Yeah.

Kaylan:

And what has it been like connecting to Sprocket's mentor? We just launched our mentor directory. And I think you're one of the most active

Maurice:

mentees,

Kaylan:

which I think is brilliant. And I credit it to, I credit that determination to Sprocket. Soaking up any resource that you have possible to the reason you won our pitch competition. And I asked you, I will never forget when I asked you, how are you going to celebrate? You said work harder. And that's what I see you do. I was like, this is why this guy won because he's in, in here every day and meeting with the mentors. Yeah,

Maurice:

absolutely. Yeah. There's, that's all that I've ever really wanted on this journey is just a little bit of, a little bit of help, a little bit of direction. And. When you have people that are support group when you have people that are willing to help you are willing to Use their valuable time to give you any tidbit of knowledge. You can hold on to or you can actually use Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I? It makes no sense for, just in my mind It makes no sense for me to look at all of these like Fantastic people who are doing this thing, who are further along than me, or maybe they're even starting it, but they're in their own lane, and they're a specialist in this. I'm not a specialist. I have no clue what's going on in this. If I can get anything, and you can help me in any way, I will be there, because I appreciate that. Like, honestly, and I know that you are here for me, so. Thank God. You know what I mean? Let's do it. The work harder thing is just how my brain is wired though. That's just like you get something great and you can only do one thing, you can only continue to, you got here because you're working. So if it, if you get something great and then you stop working, Why did, what was the past work for, there's got to be something else, were you only motivated by this to do this and it's over and it's done or is there something else that you're still chasing?

Kaylan:

Our West Kentucky Innovation Challenge is gonna be picking back up again for anyone who's thinking about it or wondering, well, maybe I'm not at the right level yet, or I'm not there yet. What would you say to them?

Maurice:

I'd say there is no right level. Do it. Do it. Because everyone, like I said before, everyone's there to support you. So I'm blessed enough to have my mom, to have my sister, life coach, etc. Everyone is it and everyone who's thinking about it joining is has an idea they want to foster People at Sprocket are amazing. They have the mentor deck. They're there willing to help you and support You'll see them day in day out doing it. You'll be motivated to day in day out do it and the people you're going to be competing against It's not a competition Everyone is going to Everything affects everything. They're working too. They now know what your idea is. We're all here to like, help our tides rise. If you do great, I, I do great. If I do great, you do, like, this isn't a, oh, I must, I must win situation. This is a, how can we help support each other? Cause we're both at the beginning of our journey.

Kaylan:

And any knowledge I gain, I can share with you. Any knowledge you gain, you can share with me.

Maurice:

And you never know what a ton of it, a ton of like, what I've been finding is that one of the most valuable things is just the connection. The connection may not, you may have in your mind, Oh, I want X, Y, and Z. And then you make a connection with somebody, and they may not be able to give you X, Y, and Z, but they may know somebody who has a connection to X. And that person may know somebody who has something to Y. That person may, so now, you just follow this path that you created, you went out and you worked for. And you can get X, Y, and Z. You can now have a plan to actually attain it versus just like sitting and waiting for a present to drop into your hands. You just gain connections, make your plan, and then attain it.

Kaylan:

There you go.

Maurice:

Yeah, I

Kaylan:

try. Make your plan. Attain it. Try.

Maurice:

It's always possible to do that.

Kaylan:

Absolutely. Well, Maurice, so much for taking the time to share your experience and your drive and your passion. I personally have learned a lot and I'm so grateful that you took the time to be with us today.

Maurice:

Thank you for having me. I appreciate you taking the time to be with me. I always love, love talking to you and the Spocket family.

Kaylan:

Same here. Thanks.

Maurice:

Thank you.

Kaylan:

All right. Sounds