From Shark Tank to Exit: Tracey Wheeler Noonan’s Multi-Million Dollar Deal

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts.

Susan Sly 00:00
Hey there, your friend Susan here. I hope you're having an amazing good day or a wicked good day. Every single episode, I always say, this is the best one—the best one. And if you are new to the show, we're approaching 400 episodes. And I had a complete shift after some life events. I was sitting there like, "Am I going to continue the show?"
Then we ended up getting the trademark for Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®. Our attorney was like, "You're not going to get that trademark," and I said, "Yes, I’m manifesting—we're going to get it." We got it! And I was like, "Let's go!"
I said to our producer, Tisha, "We are all in." And the guests are amazing. My guest today turned a home-based business into a multi-million dollar force of nature. She was on season four of Shark Tank with her daughter and got that business acquired in 2021 by Hickory Farms.
We’re going to get into this show in just a minute, and she's going to talk about manifesting wealth. She's going to talk about grit, tenacity, and the benefits of being on Shark Tank—but also what happened as a result of all that public scrutiny.
We ended up having a conversation after the show was over that went on for about another hour. She's absolutely phenomenal.
And before I bring out our interview, I want to acknowledge you.
Number one, this show is a labor of love. This is one of the rare shows where I am a founder building a startup, which I’m bootstrapping myself, and a mom, and am "life-ing" like all of you—and doing the show for all of you.
So I would love a five-star review. Please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Share the show. If you're on YouTube, drop a comment. Share the YouTube. I would absolutely, absolutely love that.
The second thing is, my new startup is called The Pause Technologies, and we—my co-founder Dr. Mia Chorney and I—as two women, and with her being a health practitioner, we envision women navigating perimenopause, the menopause journey, in a very different way.
It’s very confusing. There is a significant amount of time, money, and effort spent by women, and they don’t have 24/7 support.
So with my background in AI and health and wellness, we envisioned a world where women would get 24/7 support, where they could track their symptoms, where they would get insights, where they would have that ability to be back in control—whether it's two in the morning and having a hot flash or not sleeping, or it's two in the afternoon at work and not feeling supported—that there was always someone there with you.
So thePause®, which is an app that is available in the App Store and the Play Store—currently only in North America, but soon to be globally—that is what we have created. And we are building it in flight.
I want to thank our first few hundred test users who gave us feedback. They talked about features they wanted. They've been absolutely amazing. And now it is available to the world.
So go to the App Store or the Play Store and search “thePause® Menopause App,” and you will find us. And if you’re currently using the app, please give us a five-star review.
If you are a guy listening to the show—we have over 50% guys—love you, love you, love you. Please share it with any women in your life who are 30+ and starting to feel those early signs of perimenopause.
And yeah, let’s go out there and create change.
My guest today is a self-made entrepreneur. She turned a home-based cupcake business into a multi-million dollar brand with no college degree—as I said, no MBA—and zero formal training.
What she did have was an idea, a KitchenAid mixer, and the guts to figure it out. And she applied to Shark Tank.
You’re going to hear how she manifested it against the odds and was chosen out of, I believe, 100,000 applicants.
She and her daughter Danielle landed a deal with the king of all sharks, Kevin O’Leary, and Wicked Good Cupcakes became one of the show’s standout success stories.
And she's going to talk about the ridicule she received. She did a first-of-its-kind royalty deal with a shark—that had never been done—and she was put down, dragged through the mud, and has endured.
We’re going to talk about life after the acquisition, going through a very painful separation—divorce after 25 years—her journey of self-discovery, and what she is up to now.
So if you're thinking of starting a business, if you currently have a business—doesn’t matter—this episode is for you.
It is my honor and privilege to bring to you the amazing Tracey Wheeler Noonan, co-founder of Wicked Good Cupcakes.

Voice Over 05:32
This is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®, the show that brings the no-nonsense truth of what is required to start, grow, and scale your business. I am your host, Susan Sly.

Susan Sly 05:45
Tracey , welcome to Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®. My beautiful Boston boo—that's going to be my name for you now.
All the longtime listeners know Boston’s not my hometown—it’s my spiritual hometown—and it is so great to have you here.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 06:01
Oh, thank you so much. And then I won’t try to hide my Boston accent, because it’s who I am.
I do a lot of interviews, and I try to tone it down, but I love when I can be truly me. And so you’ll hear all that Boston coming out, and you’ll get your fill.

Susan Sly 06:19
Oh good, yes, I can never get enough.
I think that’s why—going to MIT twice, doing Boston Marathon six times—I want to do four more. But the great thing about being in my 50s is the qualifying time keeps getting slower. So it’s fantastic.
I want to jump in. People know Shark Tank, you and Danielle. They know—like, you know—an author, a speaker, an entrepreneur, an exit. They look at you as this woman who is—if those of you who aren’t seeing on YouTube—like, Tracey is 60, but she literally looks maybe—I would go like 34, bordering. Depending on what she was wearing, might get carded buying a bottle of wine. Like seriously.
So, here you are. But going back in time, I was watching the Shark Tank episode, and I remember so clearly that start, right? Like you and Danielle, you have the cupcakes, and all of the sharks are loving them. I think, you know, Mark finished his like in record time—you were giving him a second one—and it’s all warm and fuzzy.
And then—like blood in the water—sharks literally attacking. Like two minutes in, they’re like, “Well, anyone could do this.” And, “What’s the shelf life?”
What was going through your head in that moment? Because you looked so composed.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 07:55
Oh, great question. It's really perhaps one of the most nerve-wracking things I have ever, ever done.
One of the things that you try to block out—yes, there are five very intimidating (lovely, but intimidating) people sitting there—all talking at once, all asking you questions at once.
The two things that I tried to accomplish were:
I didn’t want to remind myself that 8 to 10 million people would see this episode. Like, right? It would’ve been game over had I thought about that.

I wanted to be really composed facially—and not give editing any opportunity to put a stupid face I made or have me look uncomposed, if you will.

So basically, I went back and watched—we were on Season 4—I went back and watched every single episode from Season 1 to the end of Season 3 so I could see the questions. You know, which questions were dominating? Which ones did they ask all the time? Which ones did I need to know the answers for?
And I went in with the attitude of: as long as we don’t look like sore sports or really sad if we don’t get a deal, we’ll have been successful.
And I did know my numbers. I did. I ran a business—I had to.
The really funny thing was, I was the first person to accept a royalty deal on the show, and social media fucking ate me alive. Like, Twitter—all the men on Twitter. I can remember a dude from Texas saying, “What a stupid woman. Women should be in the kitchen. They shouldn’t be conducting business.”
And I wanted to say to him years later, “Dude, we just sold a company for millions and millions of dollars. How do you like me now?”
Like, that whole commando keyboard thing—people saying awful things about us. And not just business-wise, but about what we looked like, what we sounded like. People didn’t believe we were from Boston. Just all these things.
I had such a wonderful staff, and they forbid me to look at any social media. Because anytime someone wrote something about Danielle, it was just devastating. I mean, she’s my daughter. She was 21 years old when she was on the show. She was still a young girl—like, she shouldn’t have real-world business experience.
She worked really hard, but she wasn’t running the company.
So all of that was the experience. It was exhilarating. It was fun. It was nerve-wracking. Obviously, it ended well for us.
Kevin was great to work with. He really wanted to humanize himself, I think. And in doing so—by doing the deal with Dani and I—he kind of took this mother and daughter and, you know, raised them out of obscurity and helped them build this business.
When in reality, I believe—he may agree or not—we gave him some humanization, right? He actually was now dealing with a mother and daughter and working with us to build our business.
So it was a really good pairing, and we worked hard. We didn’t ask him for anything.
The $75,000 that he gave us? We paid that back in six weeks. So we were completely free.
And the reason I did the royalty deal—which obviously these idiots didn’t understand—was:
When someone is making money, like Kevin did per jar, he is inspired to get us onto television, to get us making money. Because he makes money every time we sell a cupcake jar.
Whereas, if you take equity in a company and you have to wait for an exit that may never happen, you may never see your money.
So for us, it was motivating for him to make sure. And he got us tons of television.
Every time we were on TV, we did this. You know, like after we aired on 20/20, we did almost $400,000 in sales.
So how dumb am I? Like, I knew that.
So I would throw him pitches for different shows, and he would get us on. People weren’t going to listen to me calling them, but they’d listen to Kevin.
So it was a great partnership. He’s very nice. He’s black and white—there’s no gray area. You see that on the show.
But he supported us and believed in us. And you know—we had five updates. I don’t know if anyone's had five updates.

Susan Sly 12:54
I think the royalty deal was brilliant.
A bit ahead of its time for things like affiliate marketing and things like that—or influencer marketing.
If we were packaging that deal today, it would essentially be influencer marketing, and Kevin’s the influencer. He gets a little bit of each cupcake jar—and that’s the way it goes.
It would be so commonplace.
But you essentially did something that pioneered. Because I’ve seen other episodes where they did royalty deals—and you were the first.
I want to ask you, as a mom—mom to mom—I had, I can’t remember which episode it is, our team will let me know...
My friend Kirpa, who was on The Bachelor when Colton was on—and Colton came out as gay—she got a lot of shaming on social media.
She was criticized for her weight, for how she looked—it was ugly.
When she was on the show, Tracey , she was talking about how dark it was, how she became depressed, how it really affected her mental health.
What were the conversations you were having with Danielle that no one ever saw when this was all going on?

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 14:14
So fortunately, we were so busy. And Danielle was crazy busy—she handled all the shipping and packaging, and making sure that everything got out the door in time.
So she really didn’t have time to go on social media.
And for me, to have people say things like—she had an obvious chess piece tattoo that you could see—and there would literally be people saying, “I’m not buying anything from that company. That daughter’s a skank.”
Just awful. Awful. I was so angry.
It was very dark. And again, thanks to my staff, I just had to step away and let them answer it—handle it—because you have to respond to your social media. You can’t ignore it.
And I just said to her, “All we can do is remember that our greatest revenge will always be our success. What people say—we can’t change that. There are mean people in the world, and we’re just going to have to deal.
And as long as we treat others with kindness and respect, then we’re doing the job we’re supposed to be doing.
We just have to let the rest be static. It’s noise.”
And you do learn, over time, to just be like, “Whatever.”
You know, when people are like, “I could do that.”
Well—go ahead. Go ahead. Do it. Start a company.
Which brings me to another really funny thing I’d love to share, because it’s such a common thing I get asked.
As you mentioned, I do public speaking. I do some mentoring. I meet a lot of people—they’re wonderful.
And invariably, one or two of them will always say something like:
“I’ve always wanted to be on Shark Tank, but I feel like I have to invent something like fire, and I can’t think of anything.”
And my advice is always: no, no, no, no.
What you need to do is take a commodity or a product that you have in the house that you use—say it’s glasses, right?
You have these glasses and you think, “I love these glasses, but if only they did X.”
And I have to tell you—if someone else has these, they’re probably thinking the same thing.
Some of the most successful entrepreneurs have been people who have taken an existing product—and they’re the second or third iteration out.
That’s when things are really fine-tuned. That’s when they are sold. That’s when people become multi-millionaires.
Look at Scrub Daddy.
For how long have there been sponges? Forever.
And he found a formula—and his product is quite intense, actually. He’s a great guy, Aaron.
But he took a common object and made it better. I mean, I have a million of them in my house. Everyone has them. They’re everywhere.
So that’s what people need to think of.
They need to either find a passion project, or find something that just can be made better.
And there you go—there’s your service or your product.

Susan Sly 17:29
Well, and to your point—we were, we were chatting. For all the listeners and viewers, Tracey and I were chatting so much before the show, I was like, "Oh my gosh, we have to do a show."
And what came to mind when we were talking about that was even Apple, right? Apple versus anyone. Like, the iPod was not the first MP3 player. The iPhone was not the first phone that had a camera in it. BlackBerry had a camera in it.
But to your point—people get into a habit, and it's improving upon that habit.
Because even in what we're building with thePause®, there are other symptom trackers out there. There are AI pieces out there. But with my background in AI and health and wellness—bringing that all together under one roof so women can get served.
It’s like, with you—cupcake in a jar. I’m like, it’s so brilliant. As a mom, how many times was I driving, and I would get the kids cupcakes, and then they’re all over the car, right? Like—yeah, it’s genius.
I want to go back. You had a really challenging childhood. You are scrappy. You are gritty.
There’s no, like, MBA from Harvard.
And the real statistic is that 70% of Americans say they want to start a business—less than 7% do.
What was that moment when you said, “I’m going to turn my life around, and I’m going to become an entrepreneur?”

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 19:07
Oh, that’s so easy—when I had kids.
When I had kids, my first marriage didn’t last very long. Lovely gentleman. We had two beautiful children. He was brilliant, hard worker, did really well for himself—but we were just too young.
And so I wasn’t getting much in the line of support financially, and I didn’t have money to go to college, and I didn’t have the time.
So I had to figure out, “Okay, how am I going to support myself?”
And then that kind of morphed into, “Okay, I’m working on making money.” Seeing someone with either like a nice car or a piece of clothing that I wanted—and rather than hating on them because they had something I loved, I would think to myself:
“What do I need to do to get that? Like, how do I focus and work and earn enough money so I can now move up and do the next thing I want to do?”
That was always my drive.
And I had a lot to prove. I really wanted to prove that I was worthy of respect and love, and someone saying, “Hey, I’m proud of you. You’ve done a really good job.”
And I never had that till, like—literally recently. Like, within the past year, have I had someone actually say to me, “You know, I’m really proud of you. I’m really proud of what you’ve done. Look at what you’ve done.”
I would never take a step back and look at what I had done—first of all, because I didn’t want anyone to zoom past me depending on what I was doing. And I never felt really fulfilled or satisfied.
Even after Shark Tank, people would say to me, “Oh, now you can rest. Now you can do whatever you want.”
And there was always this little voice inside of me that kept saying, “You have one more thing to do. You have one more big thing to do.”
And I never could figure it out—until about two years ago when I was forced to figure out my life all over again.
We sold the company in 2021. That was lovely.
I love to think that I made my daughter a millionaire. That’s really cool. Like, she worked hard and earned it. But you know, together, both of us—with nothing more than high school diplomas—did this.
I ended up having to leave—I was living in Charleston, South Carolina. I ended up getting divorced and coming back home to Boston, where my friends and family were.
I’m a writer. I have some books that I published. So I journaled. I believe in journaling and manifestation. Like, let’s just get that out there—that is everything, at least for me, that has created my world 1,000 times, over and over and over again.
And when I found out that my ex no longer wanted to be married, I made the drive home.
And the day I left Charleston to drive back to Boston, I started journaling. And I did that for 13 months.
And if you’ve ever gone through something traumatic and you’ve written things down and gone back and looked at them, it’s like—wow.
I came from there to here. And it’s absolutely crazy.
So this journal culminated with a trip I took to Paris, France. I had been before, but I had never traveled by myself. And I wanted to go there by myself.
I really wanted to be able to grieve in solitude, but surrounded by a lot of people.
So my whole thing was—friends and family were so sad that I wasn’t the same person anymore because of my anger and my grief and what I was going through—that I needed to be somewhere where if I wanted to sit on a park bench and cry, I could do it and no one would give a shit.
Because no one knew me.
And that was good. Because then I could just let it out and let it go and live this anonymous life.
And I actually ended up making friends and meeting people, and I dated a gentleman while I was there.
And I found a Facebook group of women who travel solo—there’s about 350,000 members. Great, great group.
And I would post my journal entry for the day on that site.
And the amount of women who were like, captivated with it—and would interact with me and share their stories and say, “Oh my God, I wait for this every day to eat my breakfast with,” “If you’re ever in England, come visit me,” “I’m going to be in Paris—let’s meet.”
Like, crazy support.
And really great confirmation for me—like, I was on to something. I had sort of found my audience.
And so I had 12 copies of this printed. It never went into publication anywhere.
A production company in L.A. got ahold of one of the copies. I think my manager had something to do with that.
And they loved it.
So I signed a contract, and we’re in development to create a streaming series—which is so cool, because a lot of my writing that I had been doing prior to that had been for the entertainment industry.
So this is just super exciting.
We begin in October really fleshing out the story and working on the direction we want to go in.
It’ll take about nine months to have everything complete, and then we shop it around.
But I’m so excited and so grateful.
And the thing I love the most about it is—it’s a coming-of-age story, but for a woman who’s 60 years old.
It’s not like a 20-year-old coming-of-age story or a 30-year-old.
This is like real shit.
This is someone who has been divorced three times and finally started to find her groove again after a really awful 13 months.
And so that kind of got me to thinking—and you know, we talked a little bit about this before we started the show—
I had never paid my taxes. My ex-husband always paid.
And I had never used a tool, really, other than a hammer to hang something up or, like, a screwdriver.
So here I am at 60, trying to figure all this out.
And I’m also, like, dating again. And, you know, your body image—and you’re conscious of the fact now that you are older.
How do I dress? Do I still dress like how I loved? Will people perceive me in a certain way?
Like—you have so many things happening.
And I thought, you know, if I’m experiencing this after a divorce—there’s gotta be other women who either have gotten divorced or have been widowed, or maybe they’ve gone through an illness, or they’re empty nesters, or maybe they’re just women who want to make new friends.
It’s not easy. I forget the statistic—I wish I knew it—but for women above a certain age, it’s really hard to make friends.
Yeah.
So I started working on something I’ve called The Reinvention Project.
And part of the project—the main crux—is very interactive with women.
I have what’s called the Level Up program, and it’s five steps of exercises in different areas:
Financial: What’s your financial health?

Mindfulness and health

Spirituality

Relationships and boundaries (that’s a really important one)

And then finally, tell us your story—what did you learn about yourself?

But it doesn’t end there.
When they get to the final level, they now can mentor the next group of women who are coming through.
It’s gamified. It’s fun. It’s thought-provoking.
I encourage a lot of journaling. I give some resources.
It’s really just there as, yes, a guide—like, “Okay, you’re starting over, you’re reinventing yourself, you’re finding yourself, you’re making friends.”
But it’s also sort of like a self-awareness thing. Like:
“I really don’t drink enough water.”
“Why is my sleeping terrible?”
“Why am I a doormat?”
“Why am I letting people tell me how I should live now, when in fact, I’m kind of learning how I should live now?”
And it’s just kind of like a checklist.
Then we’ll be offering workshops, retreats, and travel together as groups of women.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 28:51
And just, you know, chats and Zoom meetups, where I'm going to have professionals come in—like someone who's great at functional medicine, or someone who's great at meditating and mindfulness, or someone who's a really great bookkeeper who says to you, “You know what? You need to do this.”
And I’ve included in this my online entrepreneurial course. So anyone who wants to start a business can take this course. There's eight modules, plus some mini mods, videos with experts, and they can actually learn—
Hey, at this point in my life, I'm really great at arranging flowers. I'd like to do that.
Hey, I'd like to build the next rocket ship. What do I need to do?
Like, find yourself. Find your joy. Don't give up. You have so much more life.
And I think for my generation—I'm 63 now—we grew up with a whole, you know, “You should be seen and not heard.” And it's a really dangerous thought process, and a lot of us grew up with that.
Because it created little girls who didn't speak up, and little girls who didn't think their voices were important. And they weren't heard in school, which meant they weren't going to be heard in the workplace, or they weren't going to be heard in relationships.
It all just pig-piles.
And no. That’s not right. We have a voice. We have an opinion. We have disposable income.
And yet, we're ignored by Madison Avenue.
It's like—I could go on and on and on for, like, hours about it.

Susan Sly 30:37
To your point, nothing has changed.
Less than 1% of VC dollars last year went to women-led startups.
We see that women-led startups of all kinds are more profitable in their first two years. Women have to be grittier.
The statistics are abysmal.
And to your point—we’re also in, and Tracey and I were talking about thePause®, what we're building on the technology side—there are 50 million women in the United States in menopause.
By 2030, it’s 1.1 billion.
It’s the fastest growing suicide rate. Sixty percent of women are on antidepressants in this cohort. Fastest growing divorce rate.
And to your point, Tracey , there's loneliness, there's depression, there's everything—but there's also an opportunity to reinvent yourself.
To write a new chapter. To say, “You know what? There’s no prince coming.”
And Tracey and I were talking about this before the show. I said to one of my daughters last night, I’m like, “Honey, there’s no prince coming. You get to be your own prince.”
It’s not like the Disney fairy tales of Rapunzel or Snow White or Cinderella, where the prince comes and suddenly the girl becomes wealthy and everything else.
We get to be our own person.
And Tracey, I am so curious. I want to—like, going back to the journaling. And I love journaling and manifestation.
And journaling is so powerful in terms of just a release—like, taking what is in my head, or when my central nervous system’s out of alignment—I can journal.
I want to know: Were you journaling before the acquisition?
Because we have so many founders on, and they all have the question I always ask when someone was acquired, which is:
What was happening leading up to that acquisition?
And now I want to ask you, girlfriend—what was going on for you, like, spiritually?
Because I really believe, as crazy as this may sound—it is Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®—if we're not aligned energetically, we may get offers, but something always falls through, or something.
But what was going on for you spiritually before the acquisition offer came in? And how did that come to be?

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 33:01
Oh, so—I absolutely love this. This is my jam. One hundred percent.
So first of all, I’ve always manifested.
And I like to walk by myself. And when I would walk by myself, I would say things out loud, like, “I’m going to be a millionaire someday.”
And I may have not had a pot to piss in when I said that.
And I actually said it to one of my sisters-in-law from my first marriage.
She called me when my dad passed away—this is six years ago—and said to me, “You’re not going to remember this, but we were at Castle Island in South Boston with our kids, and they were playing, and you said to me, ‘I’m going to be a millionaire someday.’”
Now at this point, I’m living in three rooms. My kids don’t have a bed. They’re sleeping on a folded-up quilt on the floor.
And yet—I said this out loud.
I don’t even know where this came from.
So I think I was manifesting but not knowing I was manifesting.
Writing—I’ve always loved writing. I’ve loved reading. I love the written word.
Yes, I would journal, keep a diary, do all these things. Not as consistently as I do now, but definitely had thoughts and ideas.
And I really have to say, even though I didn’t have the education piece, I never felt like I couldn’t do something.
Like, I never felt like—if I wanted it, I would just do it. Like, why wouldn’t I do it?
So I have that innately in me. And I think that is innate in some people.
There’s a lot of risk aversion, especially when it comes to starting a business or even believing in yourself.
People just don’t.
And it goes back to the being seen and not heard, right?
Because in my generation, if you said, “I’m really good at this,” you were boastful.
And that wasn’t a good trait to have. You had to be quiet and just do your thing.
And no—I say no.
We need to speak up and put everything out there.
And so, manifesting—when I go to bed at night, if there’s something I want, the key with manifestation that’s tough is really believing it’s happened.
Like, manifestation should be you living your future right now.
And sometimes that’s hard. Like, for people who—let’s say, someone needs money and they’re manifesting like, “Oh, I need money.”
No, no, no.
You’re not going to believe that, because you’re feeling lack. You feel lack.
What you need to do is find a word and repeat the word over and over.
So a good word for manifesting, if you need money, is “wealth.”
Because it’s just a word. So if you just manifest and say, “Wealth. Wealth…”
There’s a great book by Joseph Murphy called The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.
And I bought that book, and I have given that book probably to five different people. It’s just a powerful book.
And there are wonderful manifestations in it.
And also—Joseph… Joseph, is it Dispenza? Joe Dispenza. Love him.
Love him. My boyfriend introduced me to him. And all of his Becoming Supernatural, that whole series—I listen to that.
I meditate. I wake up at like three in the morning, and I’m up, I work, and I go downstairs so I don’t disturb anybody, and I listen to his audiobook. And I listen to the guided meditations.
I think there’s a level of creating your universe and creating your future and believing that it’s there—and just hearing signs.
Hearing the words. Hearing things. Being observant.
Because you do get signs.
And so when I wanted to go on Shark Tank, I remember telling my ex-husband. I was all excited: “I’m going to apply to Shark Tank.”
And his attitude was like, “Well, good luck with that. You know, 100,000 other people want to be on it too.”
Well yes, but—they have to pick 100 people. So why not?
And I applied. And I got a call two days later from casting.
And then when we had the company, I would say, “We’re going to sell this company. We’re going to sell it.”
And again, kind of being brushed off, not being believed.
But I knew. I just knew.
And so when it came time to sell—I remember saying to my ex-husband, “You know, we did a couple of campaigns with Hickory Farms, and they really liked us. They were great to work with. They were respectful of the brand. We sold out. Their customers loved us.
Why don’t we reach out to them?”
And so we did. And they were like, “We were just saying we need to acquire more dessert brands—and we love you guys.”
And we were successful.
It was perhaps the easiest acquisition in all of acquisitions—because it just fell together.
We were aligned.
And really, the rest is history. It was a six-month deal. It was nothing. Like—it was amazing.
So grateful. Thank you to the universe and all the powers that be, all for everyone’s highest and best. It worked out.
And again, I just believe—whether it’s taking over your finances, taking over your health, taking back your boundaries and who you are, and letting people know, “I’m okay, and this is how I’m going to move on.”
We have to have that voice. And we have to believe that we actually can do it.
And once you believe it, and you realize it’s really not that hard—it’s freeing.
And it opens up the door now to do bigger things.
Like, “Maybe I will take that solo trip,” or, “Maybe I will join this group and meet new people,” or, “Maybe I will start a business,” or, “Maybe I will speak up at work and get more respect, or more responsibility, or more recognition.”
Whatever it is you want—just go for it.
And you will receive it.

Susan Sly 39:17
Yeah, I love that you shared that, because what’s coming to me—as a sidebar—so I was homeless in 2000.
And I was on radio, I was on television, I owned a business, and in a three-day period, I got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Then my marriage ended abruptly.
Sixteen weeks later, I lost a business. And there I am—homeless.
And I would be, Tracey —I’d be doing these affirmations: “Someday, I’m going to have memorized—and they will take my call—the names of seven people who make over a million dollars a year. I’m going to be a self-made millionaire.”
And I would do that too—with my Sony Walkman, girl—and I’d be out there running or walking in the morning. And I could just see it for myself. Like, I could see that future possibility.
And when things have been stuck for me in my life, it’s because I’m in that state of desperation.
It’s Raw and Real, so I’ll just say it. I’m not in that manifestation mode of seeing it, believing it.
And as we—you know, for everyone listening globally—even in the Bible, it says: “Whatever you ask for and pray and believe in, you will have.” (Mark 11)
It’s Matthew 7:7: “Knock, and the door will be opened.”
Manifesting, believing in—it’s written about in every single religion in the world.
We have that power within us.
My question for you is—you’ve had some really tough days. How do you stay in manifestation mode when it feels like things are really, really heavy?

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 41:01
So—it’s hard.
And everyone has had their shit that they’ve had to muddle through.
The thing is not to stay stuck.
Give yourself a day. If it’s a really big issue, give yourself the time.
I’m a big believer—there’s no expiration date on grief. And you need to, like, just let that wash over you.
You need to feel all the feels. You need to go through it.
And then—you really do need to pick yourself up and move on.
Because the people who stay stuck in grief, or anger, or any of those emotions that are so negative—that’s what the universe pulls toward them.
The universe gives you back what you put out.
And again, I’m a 1,000% believer.
What’s that saying? “What you fear, you draw near”?
It’s so true. It’s so true.
And I—you know, like anyone—I have awful days where I’m pissed off about something, or something’s not going right.
Like, today—I was frustrated. I was looking at my Kindle account. I’m like, “Where’s the money? I’ve been selling books. Why am I not getting paid?”
Like, things that will distract you, or throw you. Now you’ve got to chase someone to get something done—all that ridiculousness.
You need to, at some point during your day, just say, “I’m done.”
And then move into a space where you actually can just breathe.
I’ve told more people—just breathe.
And if you’re stuck—like, I do a lot of mentoring for business—and sometimes people are their own worst enemies.
Because they’ll have a product or service and they can’t move past a problem. And they feel like they have to be the ones to solve it.
And usually, if you ask someone else to come in and just take a look—someone you trust who has a good brain and can help—sometimes they look at it and they’re just like, “What if you tried this?”
And it’s such an obvious fix. But because you’ve just been spinning your wheels in the same direction and not really making that fix or change, having that person come in and make the suggestion can make all the difference in the world.
So you need to go through that bad day, acknowledge it, and then put it to bed.
Wake up the next day and start all over again. It’s a new day.
We’re so lucky—when we wake up in the morning—we’re still here. We’re still able to be with our loved ones and our friends.
And that’s why birthdays never bother me.
I’m 63. Like, I made it to 63.
I’ve had friends who have died in their 20s and 30s—who would kill to be 63.
Don’t look at that as a negative. Look at it as a positive.
And say, “I’m 63. What can I do? What will make this year momentous for me?”
Maybe it’s something little.
Maybe I take a course at a school. Maybe I go out and make a new friend. Maybe I move. Maybe I travel. Maybe I—whatever.
Maybe I make a great exercise regimen for myself. Now I can start feeling good.
Whatever it is—just do something positive. Something positive.
And trust me—I have days still where I get angry or I’m annoyed or whatever.
But you just have to—at the end of the day—put that to bed when you go to bed.
And just get up and move through it again.
And we only have ourselves to blame if we’re not moving forward.
Yes, people can do things to us that are hurtful, or mean, or not helpful. But it’s up to us to move past that.
It is up to us to say, “Okay, I don’t need to be around this person. I don’t need to acknowledge them. I don’t need that negativity.”
The universe will feed off of that.
I need to put out positives into the universe.
And then good things will follow.
And they always do.
But they follow when the time is right for you.
You can’t force things to happen.
It really has to be the right time. And then you see the signs, you appreciate it, and then you can take that and do what you need to do with it.

Susan Sly 45:31
So what are you manifesting on your walks these days?
I’m going to be—around the time your show comes out—I’ll be in Boston, speaking.
So if we were out walking, other than manifesting the Patriots would win this—
Tracey Wheeler Noonan 45:48
Oh boy, that’s a lot of work. Yeah.
Susan Sly 45:53
What would you be saying on the manifestation walk?

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 45:59
Oh, I would be—I would be saying—so let’s take, for example, this new project I’m working on.
Like you, I’m totally bootstrapping it. Free as hell.
I would be saying, “Okay, I need someone to come into my life who’s going to help me get the word out.”
That’s the biggest thing: finding members, finding people who are like-minded, who want to be a part of this journey, who want to build their own tribe—whatever sayings you want to use.
So I’d be out, looking, thinking about, “Where can I go? Who do I know?”
Because it’s all about getting people to help you build your business.
It’s not about you working super hard. It’s about having other people work to help you grow the business.
So I think right now, for me—right now—it’s like:
How do I grow this?
Who do I contact?
Who do I reach out to?
Who can help me?
Where do I go to find that help?
And oddly enough—I think we talked a little bit also before the show about networking.
And I find networking to be a double-edged sword.
Like, you can meet a great person in networking, or networking can be, like, the biggest scourge and the worst experience.
And again, as a woman—I don’t know if you know this, but I was nominated as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year three times in a row.
And there was always a big networking event beforehand, then the night of that gala when they chose from us finalists.
And I can remember one year—my ex and I were standing back to back. I was speaking to a woman, he was speaking to a gentleman.
And I could hear what the gentleman was saying to him.
And the man said to my ex, “So come on, be honest. You’re the brains behind this operation, right? You’re really the one.”
And this poor woman is talking, and now I’m not listening to a word she’s saying because I’m so infuriated with this man.
And my ex, to his credit, said, “No, no, no. Like, we all have our strengths. And we all do what we’re best at.”
And the guy’s like, “No, really, you’re the one, really, who built this company.”
And I turned around and I looked at him.
And he’s like, “Oh… Tracey , don’t you look pretty tonight.”
That was the attitude.
And it got better. It got better.
I go to sit at my table. I sit next to a professor from UMass Boston, and he says to me, “Oh my God, I teach a women’s entrepreneurial course. I need a really strong figure to come in and speak to them.”
And so I’m thinking—me? Great, yeah!
“Can I have Kevin O’Leary’s contact information?”
Oh my gosh.
And I looked at him and I said, “No. Go on Shark Tank yourself and get it yourself.”

Susan Sly 49:11
Good for you.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 49:13
I'm like, fuck you, dude. Really?
You have smart, beautiful, strong, entrepreneurial women. You want this strong person to come in and speak to them, and you're gonna bring a man in?
Oh my God. At that point, I thought my head was gonna explode. I just wanted to leave. I was so frustrated and so annoyed and just so, like, this is so typical. This is so typical.

Susan Sly 49:39
It happens all the time. It even happened to me last night.
I was at a mixer, and in my former company, we did the largest deployment of computer vision AI at scale that had been done in U.S. history.
And last year, I was voted one of the top women in the entire world in artificial intelligence.
Yeah, and I'll be in a room, and they'll have people speaking on AI who are AI consultants, Tracey . They've never deployed AI. They maybe read, like—you know, to their credit—maybe they read some newsletters or whatever.
And I’m like, hello. I'm right here.
Like, there are people speaking on AI who've never deployed AI, and I'm like, what do you know?
And it's—it's amazing to me how often we're still passed over.
And this is my life’s work. Like, people are always like, well, what do you—you know, with startups, they want to see what your exit plan is.
So I'm very vocal. We will build this company. We will sell this company.
I have enough energy to do it until it’s the time, but it’s going to happen.
What am I doing after? I will spend the rest of my career elevating female entrepreneurs.
Like, that is the bottom line. End of story.
Like—you know, give me a gritty, scrappy woman who’s been through hardships and come out the other side? I will bet on her all day freaking long.
Like, the best startup right now in my startup portfolio as an angel investor is in FEM wines.
And Jen, who was on the show, said she lost her wine bar during the pandemic, came back, started a wine business.
She’s risen in four years to—I think—the number three or number two canned wine in the U.S.
She has the Delta Airlines contract, Neiman Marcus contract.
And this girl is so scrappy. Like, every investor update, Tracey, it’s like—new height, new height, new height.
And all day, every day, right?
And I interview guys on the show who have gone through hardships and homelessness and are scrappy.
And yet, still, we’re still living in an era where, as I said, the funding is disproportionate, the views are disproportionate, and especially with men in our generation.
Oh girl, yes—it’s amazing to me.
Tracey Wheeler Noonan 52:03
Well, women are just naturally really good at running businesses because they have homes to run—a lot of them, right?
And you have to run it like a business.
I had three kids when I started my photography business. My youngest, Danielle, started going to daycare at three months old.
So I had meals, and I had activities, and I had school, and I had work, and I had all of this to schedule and make sure it all worked and was cohesive, and everyone got to where they needed to go.
And I think that we’re just better at delegating. We’re better at organizing. We’re better at scheduling.
And it makes us great entrepreneurs.
And to his credit, Kevin O’Leary has done a lot with women from Shark Tank because he believes in that.
We had an opportunity to speak for Inc. Magazine in New Orleans—this was several years ago—and he had just all his female entrepreneurs on the stage, and we all talked.
And it was great. It was—it was for Inc. Magazine and it was wonderful.
And I mean, honestly, give a woman a task and it’ll get done quicker, faster, more efficiently—

Susan Sly 53:28
—and perfectly.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 53:31
That. I mean—

Susan Sly 53:33
Yeah, because to your point—especially those of us who’ve been single moms—we just—we have to execute, right?
There’s no question.
I—when I got up this morning, I was like, “Today is execution day.”
It doesn’t matter, like, how much caffeine I require or whatever it is, there is stuff that is getting done.
And there’s—the end time is when it’s done. That’s the bottom line, right?
And to your point—and I think the thing I’m most excited about this next chapter for you is taking all of the wisdom that you’ve gained and pouring it—what I’m hearing—like, pouring it back in.
And when we talk about elevating the next generation of entrepreneurs, a lot of people will think that’s Gen Z.
We’re talking about elevating the next generation of entrepreneurs who are women 50-plus.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 54:27
100%. Absolutely.
Because they have so much life left.
We have so much life left.
You know, your grandmother at 50 is completely different than we are at 50.
It’s just a mindset. It’s health consciousness. It’s not giving up. It’s, “Hey, what can I do now? What’s left? What’s exciting? What haven’t I done?”
And at that point, they were like, “Okay, well, you know, I raised my family. If they worked, they worked. They were done.”
And it was just sort of like that coasting.
And I don’t want to coast, man.
I want to, like, go up and down those hills as fast as I can—

Susan Sly 55:13
—I'll try. I started to learn how to skateboard.
Like—63.
Tracey Wheeler Noonan 55:19
My daughter went to the skateboard shop with me—it was Danielle. It was so funny. She's sitting there like this, and, you know, that gentleman who's helping me pick out my board and the trucks and the wheels...
And Danielle—I got on the skateboard, and Danielle pushed me out the door. And it's just—she's like, “Mom, this is really what I love about you. You just don't care, and you're not afraid.”
And I said to her, “And that's how you are too. And that's how I raised you.”
And you know what—we need to teach and give that gift to more people. Like, you can do this.
You don't necessarily have to skateboard, but you can start a business. You can, like—call me anytime. When I public speak, I give my email to people, and they will email me.
Like, reach out to me. You're not alone.
Like, don't listen to the naysayers. Find someone who's positive and supportive, who can—who can lift you up.
Yeah, it's the biggest thing. Just stay away from this whole thing. If anyone takes anything from this, it's like—stay away from the negativity.
Grieve. Be angry. Shed that past life—like, get rid of it.
You're a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Here you are. Like, get rid of it and move on.
And life is really wonderful, and it's there for you to participate in. You just have to do it.
No one can do it for you. They can help you, but you have to make that decision, and you have to be the one to propel yourself into that life you really, really want and deserve.

Susan Sly 57:04
Yes—and deserve. Yes, yes, yes.
Well, Tracey , you are an inspiration, and I am so excited—thank you—to not only have a front row seat of what's next for you, but also just to be able to say, like, you know, when—when people I know are having those dark moments—like, look at Tracey . Right?
And that's that point. Like, you know, there's always a yes. There's always putting one foot in front of the other. There's always something juicy to have in life.
And turning out the negativity—there's, you know, many opportunities for people to go there.
And I always say it's like a drug, right? You know, negativity is like cancer of the soul.
I love what you said, like—you know, grieving doesn't have an end date. You know, just ride it.
Do what you need to do. Go start—you know, whatever it is you're going to do. Start skateboarding. Or become an angel investor in FEM female startups. Or do something that brings your soul joy in this next iteration—because you get to write it.
You're such a badass, sister.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 58:18
So are you. I love it.
And I love these types of podcasts because we’re finally—going back to being seen and not heard—we’re finally feeling free and feeling worthy of being heard.
Like, I have something to say, and it could really help someone.
And I'm not going to be quiet. I'm not going to just sit and quietly watch the rest of my life go by.
I want to do things. I want to go places. I want to help people do things and go places.
And I think if we all just take that attitude, then there's going to be a lot of lovely women out there who are just enjoying that life—the life that they really want and deserve.

Susan Sly 59:07
Tracey , thank you so much for being on the show.
And when—when this—the production gets released, let’s bring you back so we can share it with the world.
And I would just—we will share all of your socials and everything in our show notes.
And you are an amazing bright light on the planet. Keep shining, sister. And you go, girl.

Tracey Wheeler Noonan 59:35
Thank you so much. Thank you for having me on. It was wonderful, and I really enjoyed talking to you.

Susan Sly 59:39
Thank you.
Well, to all of our listeners, wherever you are in the world—please share the show.
Tracey and I would love a five-star review because, as Jamie Kern wrote in her book Worthy—we are worthy.
We would love that. Share us. Tag us.
And I would also encourage you to really go and make sure you are following Tracey and support her in all of her endeavors.
So with that—God bless, go rock your day, and I will see you in the next episode.

Voice Over 1:00:10
Hey, this is Susan, and thanks so much for listening to this episode on Raw and Real Entrepreneurship®.
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After you leave your review, go ahead and email reviews@susansly.com.
Let us know where you left the review, and if I read your review on the air, you could get a $50 Amazon gift card.
And we would so appreciate it, because reviews do help boost the show and get this message all over the world.
If you're interested in any of the resources we discussed on the show, go to susansly.com.
That’s where all the show notes live.
And with that, go out there, rock your day, God bless, and I will see you in the next episode.

This transcript has been generated using AI technology. There may be errors or discrepancies in the text. The opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the show or its hosts.