09/25/2026
Nine years ago, I made a decision that almost everyone around me thought was going to financially ruin my husband and I. 😬
I hired a marketing company to help me grow my real estate business.
Which that might not seem like much but the monthly cost was more than our mortgage. Everyone with exception of my husband thought I was out of my mind.
I remember telling him, “I think this will work. I just need you to trust me.”
And by the grace of God I am so thankful he did.
At the time, I was selling maybe 7 or 8 homes (or as I like to see it family’s not homes)a year. Over the next few years, that grew into nearly 40 families and a business bringing in more than 10 x the commissions then when I started with them.
But looking back, none of those numbers are the most important part.
Hang in there I know this a long read but I promise it’s going to get good……
One of the first people I met because of that decision was Aaron Hudson.
Aaron was looking for a home for his wife Anna and their three kids and two dogs. They were living in a 900 sqft apartment and didn’t think they ever had a shot at bettering their living conditions by buying a home. But decided to take a chance and call that crazy lady on Facebook they kept seeing all the time. Insert me 🤷🏻♀️
One of the things that was really important to him was having a great kitchen because his wife, Anna, has autoimmune disease and he was very careful about the food he prepared for her.
We found their dream home in the little town of Kuna. 🏡
And over the years, Aaron and Anna became more than clients. They became friends.
Aaron eventually started Hudson Baking co in Kuna, and if you’ve ever had one of their cinnamon rolls or sourdough bread, you probably understand why they developed a bit of a cult following. 🧑🍳
Years ago, Tim Chermak, the owner of Platform Marketing, actually helped me create a video about those very cinnamon rolls that went viral. Since then, I’ve had Platform agents and employees from all over the country tell me that if they ever came to Idaho, they HAD to go get one and locals began to label me as the cinnamon roll realtor.
Then about 3 years ago, Aaron was diagnosed with cancer.
He fought hard and went into remission, but the cancer came back. After more than 9 months of treatments and fighting like hell, Aaron was called home to our lord and savior a little over a month ago.
He was only 37.
He left behind Anna and their three kids, who are 15, 12 and 8, along with this bakery they had built together as a family.
Through all of Aaron’s treatments, Anna and their employees somehow kept that bakery going. And after he passed, Anna was determined to keep it going. To keep a piece of Aaron and his legacy alive.
Which brings this story full circle.
Every year, Platform Marketing holds a Mastermind for its clients(hundreds of realtors from across the United States). It’s an opportunity for all of us to come together, learn from each other and grow both professionally and personally. It’s usually held back east in states like Florida, but this year they decided to bring nearly 300 people from around the country to Idaho.
When I found out they were coming here, I told them there was one thing I really wanted to figure out how to do.
I wanted to put a Hudson Bakery cinnamon roll in front of every single person at that Mastermind.🍞
And we did.
Those cinnamon rolls alone meant enough business to cover Anna’s rent at the bakery for the next month.
But I knew what Anna was facing, and I knew that I could do more…..
She was trying to raise money to renovate the bakery, something Aaron hadn’t been able to finish while he was sick. Local contractors have stepped up and donated their time, but she still needed money for materials and, just as importantly, enough money to continue paying her employees while the bakery was closed for the renovations. She truly is the epitome of a small business still looking out for her employees that helped her through arguably one of the most difficult times of her and her kids lives. Many of them worked for 9 months and never took a day off to keep the bakery and their family afloat.
They were about $10,000 short of reaching their goal of doing this.
So I stood up in front of that room of amazing peers and asked for a favor.
Every person sitting there owns a small business. We understand what that means. We understand the risk, the sleepless nights, the people depending on you and how much it means when somebody chooses to support what you’ve built.
Most of us have participated in the $100 Tip Club, where everyone gives a $100 tip after ordering at a restaurant to bless the people serving you.
So I challenged everyone in that room to do something similar for this family.
Help me bless Anna and her kids.
Help us keep Aaron’s legacy alive.
Help her renovate that bakery and take care of the employees who helped keep it running while she spent the last year trying to save her husband’s life.
And people showed up and they showed up big.
By the end of the conference, thousands of dollars had come in.
The next morning, about 20 of us went to Hudson Bakery before people started catching flights home. We showed up with $100 tips, cash and everything that had been raised.
And Tim came with us.
At that point, we’d raised a little over $3,500 toward the $10,000 Anna needed.
Tim stood there in the bakery and told Anna what everyone had done. Unfortunately we still hadn’t hit our goal of $10,000 for them
But here’s where it gets good….
He had one question for her.
Would she be willing to make cinnamon rolls for next year’s Mastermind?
Then he told her Platform Marketing would like to place a futures order.
He told her to consider the additional $7,000 a “futures purchase” on next year’s cinnamon rolls. The part you may not know is this meant he’s going to pay more than double their current cost to help this small business out.
And then he told her one more thing.
Platform was going to fly her to Naples, Florida, so she could deliver the cinnamon rolls in person and attend the Mastermind herself.
Anna was speechless and several tears were shed in that bakery by many.
What Tim didn’t know was that years ago, before Aaron got sick, Anna had heard what we did at these Masterminds and told me how amazing it would be if something like that existed for bakers and small-business owners like them.
Now she gets to go.
I’ve thought a lot about the strange butterfly effect of all of this.
Nine years ago, I took a picture of a book called High Hanging Fruit because some guy named Tim Chermak was using it to convince real estate agents to watch a webinar.
It sat in my phone for months.
Eventually, his marketing worked on me. 😂
I took a chance that scared the hell out of me.
That decision helped me build a business that changed my family’s life.
That business introduced me to Aaron and Anna.
Aaron built a bakery.
A video helped introduce thousands of people to that bakery.
Nine years later, the man whose marketing brought me through the door stood inside that bakery and made sure a widow with three kids could finish what she and her husband started, take care of the people who stood beside them, and keep her husband’s legacy alive.
That’s a pretty incredible ripple from one decision.
Social media gets blamed for a lot, and sometimes rightfully so. It can be used to divide people, tear people down and take from the world around us.
But it can also be used to build businesses, create relationships, strengthen communities and change people’s lives.
I decided a long time ago which side of that I want to be on.
I want to contribute more than I take.
And nine years later, I’m incredibly grateful I found a company, and a group of people, who believe in doing the same.
‼️Thus far we have raised $5970 from my fellow Platform agents and Platform its self is going to contribute $7,000 to help the bakery.‼️
