We recently connected with Sarah Horak and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

In 2012, my husband, Nick and I became bar and restaurant owners after buying three hospitality businesses that we had worked at for several years. Nick handled operations and I handled all of the finances and behind the scenes office work. And that worked really well for us for a long time. Until COVID. In the middle of March 2020, we laid off almost one hundred employees after mandatory closures for bar and restaurants. Not knowing what would be next and having three kids to support, we went into what I can only describe as, “do whatever it takes mode”. We took out huge loans to buy the businesses and even more to renovate them. Those loan payments and all of our overhead bills were still due and I was in the middle of graduate school for the second time, to top off the chaos. We knew we were going to have to get creative to keep things afloat. After a couple weeks, we were able to start opening and do “to-go” only service. Only one of our facilities has a full service kitchen, so we decided to focus all of our energy there and to do a super limited food menu with as many up-sell items as possible – growlers of beers and margaritas, cocktails to-go, merch, gift cards and my husband’s favorite cookie that I had been making for years – salted bittersweet chocolate chip. We had these on the menu at the bar since 2019, but they were never a huge seller – but an easy dessert for our kitchen to crank out. We brought back only a handful of staff to operate and I was in charge of taking the orders by phone. My history as a beer tub girl did me well in this situation as my main goal was upselling. “Would you like to add on a pack of cookies to your order?” Before long, people started calling and just ordering cookies! So I started making half pound cookies in addition to those salted bittersweet chocolate chip cookies (which we now call “The OG” or “The Original”) and sold out week after week after week. We kept making and selling the cookies through the bar and by the end of 2020, it became obvious that the cookies needed their own brand and their own kitchen. And that’s how Real Good Cookies was born. In 2021, we built out our own commercial kitchen and by the end of that year, had shipped our cookies to all 50 states. By the end of 2022, we’ve grown to a staff of eight that has made and sold over 123,000 cookies through online sales direct to customer, wholesale accounts and by partnering with local schools and organizations for fundraiser programs.

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

How I got into the industry:

It’s been a wild ride to get where I’m at today. To do that story justice, I’ll provide a little backstory. I grew up in western North Dakota and joined the North Dakota Air National Guard when I was 17. A week after high school graduation, I left for training and when I returned, I moved to Grand Forks to attend the University of North Dakota. In my third year there, I met my future husband, Nick, who was a bartender at the time. He was a hard worker and his role continued to expand until he became a manager. And then he started having me help out filling shifts as needed – bartending, serving, and beer tub sales – until I started managing another bar our boss owned. Over time, Nick became the General Manager of the three bars our boss owned and I started doing all of his bookkeeping. My undergrad was in financial management and I thought it would be good experience before I graduated. Nick and I got married and we planned to move to Denver, which is where his parents live. We met with our boss and turned in our notice. But instead of accepting our notice, it became a four year conversation about the possibility of us buying those three bars. So in 2012, when I was just 26, we became bar owners.

Nick handled operations and I handled all of the finances and behind the scenes office work. And that worked really well for us for a long time. Until COVID. In the middle of March 2020, we laid off almost one hundred employees after mandatory closures for bar and restaurants. Not knowing what would be next and having three kids to support, we went into what I can only describe as, “do whatever it takes mode”. We took out huge loans to buy the businesses and even more to renovate them. Those loan payments and all of our overhead bills were still due and I was in the middle of graduate school for the second time, to top off the chaos. We knew we were going to have to get creative to keep things afloat. After a couple weeks, we were able to start opening and do “to-go” only service. Only one of our facilities has a full service kitchen, so we decided to focus all of our energy there and to do a super limited food menu with as many up-sell items as possible – growlers of beers and margaritas, cocktails to-go, merch, gift cards and my husband’s favorite cookie that I had been making for years – salted bittersweet chocolate chip. We had these on the menu at the bar since 2019, but they were never a huge seller – but an easy dessert for our kitchen to crank out. We brought back only a handful of staff to operate and I was in charge of taking the orders by phone. My history as a beer tub girl did me well in this situation as my main goal was upselling. “Would you like to add on a pack of cookies to your order?” Before long, people started calling and just ordering cookies! So I started making half pound cookies in addition to those salted bittersweet chocolate chip cookies (which we now call “The OG” or “The Original”) and sold out week after week after week. We kept making and selling the cookies through the bar and by the end of 2020, it became obvious that the cookies needed their own brand and their own kitchen. And that’s how Real Good Cookies was born. In 2021, we built out our own commercial kitchen and by the end of that year, had shipped our cookies to all 50 states. By the end of 2022, we’ve grown to a staff of eight that has made and sold over 123,000 cookies through online sales direct to customer, wholesale accounts and by partnering with local schools and organizations for fundraiser programs, where they have donated over $50,000 in cash and another $19,000 through in kind donations to the greater Grand Forks community.

What sets us apart: We make our original “The OG”, salted bittersweet chocolate chip cookies every week as well as a rotating variety of ridiculously large half pound cookies. We bring back customer favorites but often are releasing new flavors every week. We only sell online when a batch is in the works, and when it sells out, it’s gone! Our customers love to see the new flavors and it’s so fun to see their reactions to the crazy flavor combinations we come up with.

Most proud of: I’m definitely most proud of our ability to pivot, persevere and prosper in the midst of the chaos of COVID and the mounting pressure we had to keep our businesses afloat during that time.

Main things to know:
We keep things simple by using quality ingredients, some of which are grown and harvested right in our backyard, like flour from the North Dakota State Mill and sugars from American Crystal Sugar. We bake in small batches to ensure quality and consistency in every batch.

Our goal is to make our cookies as ridiculous as possible. Half pound cookies? Yes. Different flavors every week? Yes. We’ve made hundreds of flavors and still get a thrill from seeing people’s eyes light up when looking at the flavors and getting to bite into a Real Good Cookie.

​Our cookies are available through four unique avenues:

Through our online shop, when a batch is in the works.

At our cookie van, at events throughout the summer and fall.

Through our select network of wholesale locations.

Through kids in our community working on a fundraiser campaign.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As cookie sales began to grow consistently at our closed tap house, I had initially believed that those cookie sales would drop or completely stop once we started getting “back to normal” at the tap house. They didn’t. They continued to grow and I decided to keep going with things. But it became increasingly difficult to properly market our cookie sales and also get the public to know that the taphouse was getting back to normal. It was a lot of messaging that was hard to blend together. So at the end of 2020, I knew we were at a point where it was necessary to separate the cookies from the taphouse and to launch their own brand, which was one of the things one of my kids said when conducting a little quality control, “this is a real good cookie!”. That stuck with me and is how we came up with the Real Good Cookies brand name.

It was great that cookie sales were continuing to grow, but as I mentioned, we were also trying to get our taphouse back into normal operations. That meant that I couldn’t have cookie supplies, equipment and packing materials spread out all over the place. I had the amazing support of another local business owner, who owns multiple Bully Brew Coffee shops, and she allowed me to use her bakery kitchen, which at the time, wasn’t being used. It was an incredible amount of work and organization to be moving ingredients and supplies back and forth, but it was a necessary step for us to continue to grow without taking on any debt. During that time, we were able to save enough funds to later buy our own large bakery equipment and build out our own commercial kitchen.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Because we already had a built in clientele from starting cookie sales at the taphouse, we were able to use that base to grow our Real Good Cookies social media right out the gate. And we’ve continued to work hard to create fun content that keeps people engaged on social media through fun photos, videos and of course, everyone’s favorites – giveaways! My best advice about social media is to just be consistent with it and make sure that it is a reflection of your brand’s voice. Track your analytics and if possible, use a social media scheduling website that makes recommendations for you about the best times to post to achieve the most views.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.realgoodcookies.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/realgoodcookies
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/realgoodcookies
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@realgoodcookies
• Other: Tiktok: @realgoodcookies

Image Credits
Izzy Waite