Exec Life
RETURN ON INVESTMENT
Sundae Dreams
SWEET SUCCESS Dylan Lemay grew up in Taylor and began working at a local Cold Stone Creamery franchise, where he hit on the idea to create video posts of his work experiences. Within a few days, he generated thousands of views on social media.
Taylor native Dylan Lemay is living an entrepreneurial dream, thanks to ice cream and social media channels. BY TOM MURRAY
Best of all, there was a Cold Stone Creamery branch in Springfield, and Lemay worked at the store throughout college. He was eventually joined by his sister, Destiny, at both college and the Cold Stone Creamery location. “She’s two years younger than me, so we went to school together for two years — her first two and my last two,” Lemay says. By the time Lemay graduated, he was the manager of the Cold Stone Creamery store. When the time came to hire an assistant, the choice was obvious. “Destiny had grown as an employee and started taking ownership, so she earned her position and it only made sense for her to be my assistant manager,” he says. Soon after making that decision, Lemay experienced what he calls his “tripod moment.” “It was January or February of 2020, pre-pandemic, and I ordered a tripod for my iPhone. As I was pulling it out of the box, Destiny asked, What’s that for? And I told her I was going to become famous on TikTok. I was completely joking. I just was bored, and I needed something to do, like a new hobby, because I didn’t know what to do with my free time.” There was soon plenty of free time to kill, of course, because everyone was staying home as the world seemed to shut down because of the pandemic. “About a month after I got the tripod I was talking to some friends,” Lemay says, chortling, “and they were telling me they didn’t know how to cook and they were going to die because the pandemic was happening and all of the restaurants were closed.”
Lemay grabbed his tripod and went to work. “I jokingly made a few cooking tutorial videos,” he says. “I was trying to figure out how to record them so I could use both my hands. So I took the tripod and I tucked it down into my shirt, and showed how to make hash browns and eggs. I accidentally dropped like half my hash browns onto the stove, and they were burning. It was just a mess of a goofy video and I sent it to these friends as a joke, not thinking anything of it. But that idea stuck in my head.” Shortly afterward, Lemay had another idea for a video. “I made a gender reveal cake for one of my friends, and this was the first time I really put effort into making a video to post on TikTok,” he says. The result was stunning. “It got 300,000 views, and so I was mind-blown,” he says. “I thought it was the coolest thing, and I was like, OK, I think I get this. I understand what I need to do.” What he needed to do turned out to be filming a slew of additional videos while he was actually working at Cold Stone Creamery, simply going through the steps he takes during a regular shift. The response the videos generated was encouraging enough for Lemay to keep producing them. “There was the Saturday where I had this idea,” he says. “I thought it was probably really dumb, but I was going to do it anyway. I didn’t care. I thought it was fun. So, I made this video, like it’s your first day at Cold Stone, and I talked to the viewers and I was training them, scooping out the ice cream and wearing the
MIKE ROSENTHAL
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ylan Lemay’s website proudly proclaims he’s the “largest ice-cream focused digital creator in the world.” What does that mean, exactly? Stand by for details. In the meantime, ponder the numbers Lemay is pulling in these days on his social media platforms: 11 million followers on TikTok, 3 million on YouTube, and another 317,000 on Instagram. Which is why it’s difficult to comprehend that when Lemay got his first job at age 15, dishing ice cream at the Cold Stone Creamery in Taylor, his hometown, it was an unmitigated disaster on the very first day. “I wasn’t a quick learner, and I was just really overwhelmed and nervous,” Lemay recalls. “I was afraid to disappoint people and let them down, and that was all kind of running through my head. I just didn’t want to mess up — and in the process of not wanting to mess up, I was messing everything up and overthinking and coming off as really annoying.” He says he was especially bothersome when he asked questions about what seemed to be the most obvious tasks. “Like when they told me to wash the dishes and change the water, and I asked how to do that, they said take out the plug in the sink — and I asked, Where’s the plug?” Lemay says, sheepishly. At that point, he was a student at John F. Kennedy High School in Taylor — and a kid who loved to play hockey. “I had skates on from pretty much the time I was able to walk all the way until my freshman year of high school,” he says. “That was the last year I played. It just seemed like it was time to grow up and get a job, so that’s what I did.” When Lemay’s fledgling career blew up at that Cold Stone Creamery branch in Taylor, he didn’t even think about putting his skates back on and continuing his hockey career. “I went to the Cold Stone in the city next to us, in Allen Park,” he says blithely, “and got a job there.” That gig worked out and he kept the job right up until the time came for him to attend college. “I grew up in a Christian household and we were taught that you have to go to college, so I thought if this is what I’m told to believe, let’s go to a Christian school and learn more about it,” he recalls. “I went to Baptist Bible College, a really small school in Springfield, Mo. I enjoyed it. It was a fun time. I learned a lot.”
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