We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Anne Kay. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Anne below.
Anne, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
For as long as I can remember, I wanted to “start” or “create” something of my own. For at least 10 years or more, I have talked about owning a bakery some day, but could never envision owning a brick and mortar and keeping another set of lights on. Then 2020 hit, and in addition to the incredible hardships that year brought, I had a very unexpected loss – my Dad died on December 8th and his death was the type of shock no one could prepare your for. Those kind of sudden life shits make you re-evaluate how you spend your time and energy. During the days and months following, I made a lot of cookies, because warm cookies made me happy. Each night, my family and I would bake fresh cookies to spark a little joy, and one night my husband looked and said “you should try vacuum sealing frozen cookie dough, and if it works, you should sell it!” From that day forward, my dream had a heartbeat, and I have taken little steps each day (some days more like giant leaps) to bring my idea to fruition. I now have a chest full of frozen cookie dough and pie dough at all times, an e-commerce site that I just updated, and I’m the buyer of more butter and sugar than I thought possible. I even have Sweeties swag for sale, if you can believe that. This journey has been a way for me to channel my grief, make people happy and create something of my own that I absolutely love.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Hi, it’s Annie. I’m from a small town in the Midwest. There was only one stop light, an 8 aisle grocery store and the streets were lined with small businesses, including one owned by my parents. It was there I learned the sense of community, supporting small dreams and the value of hard work. Those small town values have carried me through many phases. I’m a mom to two little kiddos, a wife to my super-supportive husband and the snuggler of our beloved chocolate lab. By day, I’m a Pediatric Nurser Practitioner and by hobby, I’m a baker and could not be happier about my two “professional” titles. When I’m not taking care of sick kiddos at work, you can typically find me mixing cookie and/or pie dough. I swear my cookie and pie dough is the best you’ll ever have, because it is homemade by me with so much love.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Regardless of growing clientele I think the most effective strategy to grow in life is to be your authentic self. Just be you. Let your special traits shine. The world would be so boring if we were all alike. No one is more like you than you, so don’t be afraid to show your true colors, go after your passions in life with reckless abandon, and let go of people/things that do not serve you. If you’re authentic, kind and have some grit, the rest typically takes care of itself.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
My favorite marketing story to date is a good friend of mine bought some of my cookie dough in January of this year and tagged me in her Instagram story. When she tagged me another influencer saw her story and wanted in on the action so she bought a few dozen. When that said Influencer shared my cookies on Instagram I gained over 1,000K followers and had 60 dozen cookie dough orders to fulfill within 4 days. The power of influence was everything in that particular marketing strategy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.sweetiesdough.com
- Instagram: sweetiesdough
- Twitter: sweetiesdough
Image Credits
Joni Schrantz and Hallman Ray