We recently connected with Christine Williams and have shared our conversation below.

Christine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Custom decorated cookies are a pretty well known thing now but I first stumbled upon the art form in 2016. My family happened to be living in Guadalajara Mexico at the time (thus the origin of my business name) and a good friend of mine gave me some meringue powder. Never having used it I found out I could make royal icing with it. Once I started playing around with the medium…..I fell in love with making unique, custom cookies. After about a year of practicing and making cookies for friends I started getting actual, paid orders. Shortly after this we moved to Austin (2017) and not really wanting to get back into education, I decided to open a small cookie business from my home kitchen. It was so slow at first but eventually I started to build relationships and attract a following so I’m happy to say that for the past few years I have enough orders to keep me busy most of the time.

Christine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

From my very earliest memories I have always found a lot of joy in working with my hands and creating things. I really used to love to paint & draw but my biggest problem was that I despised clutter and I just didn’t want my artwork laying around the house, taking up room. This is the main reason I decided that making custom desserts was a perfect fit for me. I could fulfill that need to create and let others take it home with them to enjoy.

I have to mention that I have had the pleasure of working with such nice people along the way and I don’t mean just clients, although mine are the best. Here in Austin I have great network of friends & fellow business women who do exactly what I do and we all support each through referrals, for example if one of us is booked. I can safely say this doesn’t happen in many other industries!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Communication and transparency are of utmost importance in my mind and I feel like these are my strengths when it comes to making sure customers are getting what they expect, Giving more than what is expected has also helped me gain customers who come back over and over again. Added effort goes a long way.
Building a reputation within the professional community is important as well. Anyone who knows me knows they can come to me to borrow/use anything I have including ingredients, tools & supplies. I’m also an open book as to how I do certain techniques.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Oh this is a good one…..”Say yes to every opportunity”. When I first started I did try to say “yes” to everything and I figured out it was not always the best thing to do. To keep my sanity and family life I’ve scaled back the amount of orders I take.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cookiesdelmundo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cookiesdelmundo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cookiesdelmundo
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cookies-del-mundo-austin