We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alan Goodman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alan below.

Alan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

When I initially founded A Goodman’s Desserts, I studied the dessert industry and started down the path of opening a bakery. But I never really felt comfortable with running a brick and mortar business. From the overhead, health inspections to the need for employees, I learned from my corporate experience that I wouldn’t enjoy this business model. As a Lean professional, I had to think a bit creatively about my approach. My wife and I had moved to Milwaukee over 10 years prior but had lived in several other states. In the event that we would consider moving, I needed a nimble business model that would work from anywhere. And I needed to reach customers with a quality product that would be convenient to obtain. So I chose the path of an e-commerce model with a retail rollout strategy. In order to pull this off, I would need to produce product in volume. I started with renting a commercial kitchen. I was making orders of cookies for the Milwaukee Bucks and spending long nights in the kitchen. I realized that by being a solopreneur and still working a FT (albeit flexible) job, that this manual production wasn’t going to be sustainable. So I partnered with a co manufacturer and taught them how to make my sugar glazed butter cookies. And it worked out as I was able to start working on my business by making deals and less time working in the business. In my opinion, this was a faster way to begin to scale my business and learn the in’s and out’s of co manufacturing and operational partnerships.

Alan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So I started baking from scratch over 4 decades ago. As a native Philadelphian, I learned in our family kitchen – under duress. I lied to my parents about spending time after school at the library when I was actually playing basketball. When I was caught, my punishment was helping my Mom in the kitchen cooking dinner. As I started to enjoy cooking, we graduated to baking the family dessert recipes. My first solo dessert was a vanilla layer cake with chocolate icing. With my Mom’s instruction it turned out well. That’s not to say that I haven’t burned cookies or had a cake collapse in the middle. But that process of following a recipe and problem solving when things went wrong or a change was needed fascinated me. Adjusting ingredients, adding new ones and understanding the impact on the final result was something that I enjoyed. When I look back on it, I can understand why Lean Six Sigma process improvement appealed to me in my corporate life as we focus on process improvement, problem solving and waste elimination – all areas that overlap with baking. I held a variety of leadership roles in my corporate and non-profit careers and I was ready for a change. I wanted to invest the long hours I spent on someone else’s dream to being living my dream and passion. So I started A Goodman’s Desserts in 2018 and i haven’t looked back. I use my lessons learned in my past experience on my business. I’m most proud of taking this shot at being a business owner (I have since started a second business as an Operational Excellence consultant). I have stepped out of my comfort zone to participate in pitch competitions (I’ve won 3 out of 4) and take big shots with companies and investors to expand my business. I don’t always win in these scenarios but I’ve become comfortable with the failures and disappointments that come along with risk taking. My company motto is ‘Reach for Goodness.’ I truly believe that “when you have a good dessert, it changes the energy in the room.” It makes you feel good. I spend a lot of time on ensuring that the desserts taste just like your Mom or Grandma’s desserts when you were a child, made with ingredients that you can find in your cupboard or pantry. The goal is to ‘Eat Good. Feel Good. and Do Good.’ Take that positive energy from a delicious dessert and the warm memories and satisfaction that come along with it, and do something good for someone else. Serve someone and make their day good. That’s the goal.

I have 2 products: A Bourbon Bread Pudding and a Sugar Glazed Butter Cookie. As consumers become comfortable during the pandemic with food delivery, I want to make premium, high quality desserts that can be delivered to your door wherever you are in the nation by ordering online. Convenience is important. When you have a dessert, you should feel that it was worth the indulgence. So do I.

Outside of my business, I am have been married to my wife Lisa for over 22 years and we have 3 children.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Business ownership can be a hard and lonely road, especially if you are a solopreneur. And as I started my business, i learned early on that it takes time to build your business in a way that it can consistently operate and to grow your clientele. In this there are shifts in strategy and focus. In the second year of my business, After a year in business, I had what we call the ‘big elephants’ that I wanted to obtain as clients. Naturally, living in Milwaukee and having basketball as part of my origin story, the Milwaukee Bucks were on my list. It was a dream actually to have my desserts in an NBA stadium. So I went to an event featuring the President of the Milwaukee Bucks – Peter Feign – and had a brief chat about my desire to do business with the Bucks. He promised to introduce me within the organization. And true to his work, I received a call 3 weeks later from the head chef. And then the pandemic hit. I wasn’t sure how to proceed and put the business on hold until I could devise a strategy to pivot. And I didn’t have much money so I was scrambling for grants and putting in my personal funds. Thankfully, the owner of the Ambassador Hotel provided an opportunity to rent their hotel kitchen while the hotel was closed temporarily during the pandemic. It was a great opportunity to continue to bake desserts. But I was still unsure about the spread of COVID (kitchens were a hot spot for spread) so I was baking on my own. So when the opportunity to make cookies for the Bucks during their 2020-21 Championship season came back around, i jumped at the opportunity.. It led to some long nights fulfilling the cookie orders alone the kitchen. But this was my dream and I wasn’t going to pass it up. I had faith that this was a door that God opened for me and I was going to run through it. From this opportunity, I received 2 grants from the Bucks, Fiserv and Hennessy, appeared on the Jumbotron at a Bucks/Sixers game and made a great partnership that helps my brand.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I started my business in 2018, I was still working a corporate job. My goal was to slowly build the business over the next 5 years and eventually move into it full time. But I was laid off a month later. With the business being so new, it clearly wasn’t big enough to maintain my family’s lifestyle (or even pay the bills). I had to decide what to do. About 6 months later, I was contacted by a local college about a full time teaching / department chair position. My initial thought was that this would take time away from my business. But I had to focus on the long game as this role would be best for my family. What I didn’t realize was that I was going to gain additional exposure from the activities that came out of my new role. Through my role as a department chair, I became a national speaker, teach and mentor businesses (small, medium and large) and teach children. I now run camps and workshops focused on problem solving to help others, through Lean, to learn how to identify problems and inefficiencies in their business and life, and implement improvements. I never expected to be speaking as much as I do now. I am more comfortable speaking, pitching, coaching and consulting – and just telling my story.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://agoodmansdesserts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/agoodmansdesserts/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alandgoodman

Image Credits
Headshot provided by The Refinery Photo Studio – Milwaukee, WI (I own the photo but wanted to give credit to the photographer) Black and White Photo – Darren Hauck of Darren Hauck Photography (I own the photo – just giving credit to the photographer)