We recently connected with Rachel Anthony and have shared our conversation below.

Rachel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about an important lesson you learned while working at a prior job?

In addition to cookie decorating, my main career is in marketing even though I didn’t go to school for either. Right out of college, I did a digital marketing apprenticeship because I wanted to work in marketing, but knew nothing about it. My first and current job in the field gave me every opportunity to grow and showed a lot of trust in my capabilities which taught me how to bet on myself in whatever else I wanted to do.

I was hired by Practice Cafe, a small dental marketing company based in Austin (if you’re a dentist you should check us out at practicecafe.com for all your dental marketing needs!). My first role was Client Representative where I helped manage the digital marketing projects and communicate with the clients.  As opportunities arose, they considered me someone who could take a new role in stride, so I moved into the sales department where I could learn important sales communication tactics that have translated into my cookie business. I then moved into the digital marketing department and up to Digital Marketing Manager (my current role) where I’ve grown my technical and managerial skills. Being trusted to learn and thrive in these new roles has taught me that I can pursue my baking career alongside my marketing career. You’re capable of much more than you’d think, so give it a try!

Rachel, 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?

Keep Cookies Weird is a cottage baking business, which means I run a bakery business out of my home kitchen. Growing up, I got into baking because my mother made wedding cakes as a side hustle. She let me help her with the cakes and setups at weddings, which fostered my excitement for baking and decorating. Those experiences, combined with my love of Christmas cookies, especially decorating sugar cookies with my cousins, grew my interest in the decorated cookies niche. After college, I moved to Austin and finally had the time and kitchen space to start experimenting with decorated sugar cookies.

When I look back at the first batch I ever tried, I’m humbled by where my skills began and proud of where they’ve progressed. With practice came a more professional look to my cookies, and eventually, I started letting friends and family order sets of cookies for parties. After a couple of years, a kids’ birthday party led to a referral customer, which was much scarier than baking for people I already knew, but it went off without a hitch. One summer, my cousin gave me the idea for my business name since I’m based in Austin, and we’re all about keeping Austin weird.

In 2023, I had the opportunity to go to Cookie Con in Orlando, FL. This convention combines all things cookie decorating, business advice, and fun. I learned so much, and putting it all into words is impossible. I saw such incredible displays of cookie skills and inspiring business stories that the second I got back, I decided it was time to get serious. I founded my Sole Proprietorship, signed up for my first market, and bought everything I needed to be ready for it. Within a month, I’d had my first market and was excited for the next one.

I’m most proud of taking that leap of faith and throwing myself into all aspects of growing this cookie business. I have a lot of heart, and I throw it all into my cookies, whether I’m working on a little 2-dozen baby shower custom order or 7 dozen cookies for a market. I’ve even expanded the menu for markets to include gourmet cookies and marshmallows for a delicious variety.

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

Referrals have been the most significant source, although Keep Cookies Weird is still in the baby stages of business growth, so that could change! I’ve seen some success from social media (primarily Instagram) as well. A creative business is a business that can have a lot of content to post on social media, so that’s been a significant addition to my production process. I film nearly every cookie decorating process, invest in affordable lighting and backdrop materials to give the videos and photos a more professional look, and schedule a content calendar to keep my feeds active. For a baking business, you want your products to look good and taste good, which is where referrals come in handy. Talking with other cookie decorators, we all have a loyal client base that orders for every event, and we hold them close to our hearts because they’re a big reason for our growth!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience is funny because you don’t feel very resilient when you’re in the thick of it. You feel like you’re barely scraping by. Only when you reflect on your experiences can you see how much you overcame and what it took to get you to the end. I would say that the second market I ever did was both the most stressful, most fun, and most prosperous market all rolled into one. My first market was just a little pop-up at a brewery in late September with a few other local makers, so it was low-stress.

The second was the big Downtown Holiday Sing-Along & Stroll on Congress Ave. in front of the Texas capitol. It was a massive event with over 100 vendors. I went all out, tripled the amount of product I was making, and added gourmet cookies to the menu, all in the middle of the usual hustle and bustle of the holidays and traveling to see my family. Not to mention, Keep Cookies Weird is still only a small side business for me, so I only have evenings and weekends available to work on it. I was a ball of stress for three straight weeks, running on very little sleep to get everything done. Ultimately, I nearly sold out of everything and had the most fun.

Looking back, I see how hard I worked and how much care I put into the preparations to ensure that the result was what I hoped it would be. Resilience brought me from one end to the other. It’s easy to allow the stress to overwhelm you, but with the proper support and attitude, you’d be surprised how much you can accomplish!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keepcookiesweird/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keepcookiesweird
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-anthony/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@keepcookiesweird email: [email protected]

Image Credits
All images were taken and/or edited by me!