We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mike Maddux a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mike, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’ve always been an entrepreneur at heart, even at an early age. So, it came as no surprise that after college and a couple of successful years working in sales for a large corporation, I decided to leave corporate life behind and go into business for myself. I wasn’t drawn to any particular type of business, I just wanted to be my own boss & call the shots. My first bonafide business was a delivery & carryout pizza company. I didn’t have the money for a franchise, so I went to work delivering pizzas for another company for about 6 months, learned the ropes a bit, and then ventured out and started my own pizza delivery company (in a different market area). In order to keep overhead and costs as low as possible, I purchased all pre-owned restaurant equipment, negotiated a good lease rate, and did as much of the work on the store myself as building codes would allow. I dove in head first, immersing myself in the business, working 80+ hours a week. It was EXHAUSTING! While having much emotional support from my wife, family & friends, I found the pizza business to be very competitive, crowded and challenging.
In an effort to distinguish ourselves from our competitors and increase sales, I decided to add a dessert to our menu. At the time, about the only dessert available from pizza delivery companies was cinnamon sticks. I knew we could do better, so I had my wife come up with a cookie recipe. After several tweaks, she created a chocolate chip cookie that was incredible! We tested the cookies with a promotion on Halloween, by sending out free cookies with each pizza ordered. Within a very short time of the first pizza deliveries that night, our phones started ringing off the hook from people wanting to get more cookies. We knew then we had a winner on our hands. However, the competitive nature of the pizza delivery business drained our finances and energy to a point that I had to make a tough decision on our future. After much prayer and consideration, I decided to close the pizza store and move into a completely different business (direct mail advertising).
Fast forward 30 years, and I get a call from a dear friend and old college roommate. He informed me that he was looking to leave corporate life and wanted to try his hand at business ownership. I had given him our cookie recipe when we closed the pizza business, and he had kept making the cookies for friends and guests over the years, and had added some new flavors. He said he wanted us to partner and start a cookie business. I had two other companies that I had founded and was operating at the time, so I wasn’t sure how my wife would react if I ventured into yet another business. However, she was excited about the prospect of reviving her old cookie recipe and expanding on it as a business. So, we all partnered up and started the process.
I’m more of an idea guy, and not so much a baker. So, I pitched the idea of us adding a new twist to our cookie recipe…Moonshine. I wasn’t looking to make an adulterated cookie, but rather, looking for something to make us stand out in a crowded field. My thought was that moonshine had just been legalized and it was trending and much discussed amongst the food and beverage crowd. I believed that marketing our cookies as being made with moonshine would get people’s attention. However, we also discovered that while the alcohol dissipates during the baking process (making them non-alcoholic), the flavors used in the flavored moonshine remain, giving the cooke a flavor burst. The moonshine also keeps the cookie moist for a longer period of time. After some failed attempts at infusing the cookies with moonshine, we finally succeeded at adding it in a manner that actually enhanced our recipe. I had a contact at Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery in Gatlinburg, TN. They were the driving force behind getting moonshine legalized. I called on them, told them what we were trying to do, took them some cookies and asked for feedback. What I got was unexpected, but exciting. They were so impressed with our cookies that I left the meeting with a large order for cookies that they intended to sell in their store. I immediately called my partners, located a commercial kitchen, got the required licenses & permits, and away we went….Moonshine Mountain Cookie Company was born. Although our cookies sold out at Ole Smoky, we no longer sell cookies wholesale. However, our experience with Ole Smoky was certainly strong proof of concept and gave us the needed encouragement to move forward with our own online and brick & mortar stores.
Mike, 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?
I addressed how I got into the business in my previous answer. We offer handcrafted, gourmet cookies, with no preservatives, made from our own secret recipes. Most of our cookies include a splash of flavored TN Moonshine. Just enough for that extra flavor burst, but not enough to upset the preacher! The alcohol bakes off, so the end product is non-alcoholic. In addition to our retail customers, we offer online shipping, and corporate gifting. We have both large and small companies that trust us to send our delicious gourmet cookies to their valued customers as “thank you’s” or also to prospective customers as “ice-breakers”. Relationship Marketing is very effective, and we do a great job of assisting our corporate customers in this area. When you give Moonshine Mountain Cookies, people remember! We are proud of our charitable community involvement, we are proud of the customer service we provide to all of our customers, and we are proud of the positive work environment we provide our team members.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
“I’ve met the customers, and they aren’t me”. I have a tendency to think that our customers would like what I like. Sometimes that is true…but sometimes it is not. I have to challenge myself to look beyond my own personal likes and dislikes and listen, analyze and respond in ways that appeal to customers who think differently or have different tastes. I also have to apply this logic to our team members as well. Example: I have learned to be receptive to cookie flavors that I personally would not have considered, simply because our customers have repeatedly asked for them.
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?
We are in a college town – Knoxville, TN. We love collegiate athletics of all sorts, but are particularly fond of college football. In 2021, N.I.L. (name, image, likeness) was introduced to collegiate athletics. For the first time, players were allowed to legally accept money from businesses in return for their endorsement of that businesses products/services. We participated in a small & modest N.I.L deal with one of the University of Tennessee football players (Alontae Taylor, defensive back). Side note: Alontae Taylor was a 2nd round draft pick in 2022 by the New Orlean’s Saints. In this N.I.L. deal with Alontae, we would give away 2 free cookies at our stores anytime he got an interception. Well, he got 3 interceptions that year and we gave away a truck load of cookies! However, we not only got marketing exposure through Alontae’s social media accounts, we also got much larger media exposure from some unexpected sources. ESPN heard about our free cookie deal with Alontae, and it just so happened that he got an interception during a game that ESPN was covering in Knoxville. The crowd went wild and the ESPN crew celebrated by toasting with our cookies on air! Even the side line reporter broke out a box of cookies and started eating them! We got national exposure from a local N.I.L deal. A few weeks later, Alontae picks off another pass during the Kentucky game and the ESPN announcer begins referring to him as the “Cookie Monster”. We caught lightning in a bottle. We were extremely fortunate to have that all play out the way it did, but we were prepared, and made the most of our opportunity.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://moonshinemountaincookies.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonshinemountaincookies/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MoonshineMountainCookies/
Image Credits
I own all images and have the right to publish them