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

Elizabeth, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

To be honest, I originally wanted to incorporate something distinctly Texan into my business name. But all the good ones were already taken, so I had to shift my focus. One complaint I heard very often about sugar cookies was that they were either pretty OR tasty, but never both. If a cookie was beautifully decorated with the most intricate details, it likely tasted like cardboard. And if a cookie tasted like heaven on earth, it probably wasn’t visually appealing. Was it even possible to make a gorgeous cookie that was also delicious? That’s a conundrum, for sure. A Cookie Conundrum.

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.

In the summer of 2019, within a six-week period, three of our children blessed us with granddaughters. It was an eventful summer, to say the least! While attending one of the baby showers, I got my first good look at decorated sugar cookies. I could not get over how cute they were and I was immediately obsessed. I quickly enrolled in YouTube University and began spending all my free time watching what my husband refers to as “cookie movies”. I learned the basics and began to practice decorating techniques on Pillsbury slice and bake sugar cookies.

Once I gained a little confidence in my decorating skills, I tried out a few cookie recipes. Friends and family (and even a few strangers) agreed to blind taste test them and provide feedback. The results showed a clear winner and that is the recipe I still use today.

My cookie creations made their debut at a Christmas in July party held at our church. They were a success, which encouraged me to keep practicing and learning new decorating techniques after work. Eventually word spread about my new side hustle and I began receiving requests for holiday cookies from my co-workers. By January of 2020, with a solid customer base and a steady stream of orders, I decided to leave my full-time corporate job to focus my attention on baking.

Of course, I had no way of knowing a pandemic was lurking around the corner, threatening to shut down so many businesses. During that time, however, our community and those from surrounding areas really started to buy local and shop small. Because of them, the orders never stopped coming. People were stuck at home and in need of something to lift their spirits and it seemed cookies were doing just that. DIY cookie decorating kits provided a fun activity for families to do together and fun, bright colored decorated sugar cookies helped lighten everyone’s mood.

Eventually, things started getting back to normal and birthday parties, weddings, baby showers and corporate functions were back in full swing. Farmers markets and networking groups were also starting back up and I took advantage of them as an opportunity to get my name (and my cookies) out to a wider audience. It was around this time I began expanding my offerings and setting up a monthly pop-up shop at a local custom graphics business. Soon after, I began offering cookie decorating classes at one of our local wineries and participating in several of this area’s vendor markets.

Because many people consider decorated sugar cookies to be for special occasions only, Cookie Conundrum started offering monthly subscription boxes that include a dozen seasonal “just because” cookies. Sometimes you just need a cookie that looks and tastes great, and this is a great way to ensure that you get one!

Cookie Conundrum has been growing steadily for nearly 5 years, thanks to referrals from my amazing customers. I believe my track record proves that customer satisfaction is very important to me. One of my greatest joys is knowing I am “the cookie lady” for so many people in my community.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

As I mentioned before, Cookie Conundrum officially started in January of 2020. It was a fledgling, one-woman show at that time and one of my sisters wanted to help promote my new business. Her church was hosting a marriage conference over Valentine’s Day weekend and they wanted to give cookies to the attendees. I scheduled an appointment with the team that was handling refreshments, bought a fancy binder, and walked into the meeting like I’d been doing this my whole life. (Fake it ’til you make it, right?) I knew going in that this would be my largest order yet – estimating it to be around 200 cookies. That was both exciting and terrifying to me. I had no idea how I would be able to bake and decorate that many cookies, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.

It was all I could do to maintain my composure as they tallied the final cookie count – 800. I remained calm as I calculated the cost, gave them my quote and explained the payment process. I even remained calm when they accepted, confirmed the order and walked me back to the lobby. It wasn’t until I reached my car that I began to hyperventilate.

I enlisted the help of my mom and aunt and between the three of us, the order was completed and delivered as promised. It was also the first of several 800+ cookie orders for them.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I have been blessed with a customer base that loves what I do and loves telling others about what I do. Word of mouth is definitely the main way I get new customers. In the beginning, I relied heavily on Facebook to communicate with my customers. When a new request for cookies came in, I would look up the person’s profile to see if we had any mutual friends. Nine times out of ten, there was someone on their friend list that had ordered from me in the past.

In addition, my customers are great about sharing my information in community groups/pages on social media when members ask for recommendations for custom sugar cookies. (Some of them recommend me for anything baking related which gives me the opportunity to try new things, if I choose to.)

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cookieconundrum.com
• Instagram: @txcookieconundrum
• Facebook: @txcookieconundrum