We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tarianna Velasquez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tarianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

For as long as I can remember, my family has always talked about opening a restaurant, or having a family business. We were always a tight nit family with big goals, little funds and little knowledge on how to go about getting started. I never had a desire to bake, I’m more of a savory cooking type of person. In 2020 at the height of covid I asked my kids, (who were born 2 years apart, both having birthdays within a week of each other in September) what kind of birthday they wanted to have. Their agreement landed on a glow in the dark party. They insisted that they have a glow in the dark cake and glow in the dark cookies. In my brain I said OH CRAP, to them I said ok I will get it done. For next several weeks I combed through Youtube videos, blogs, Facebook pages, Instagram videos and gave Google the title of my best friend researching where to even start. I realized I first needed to learn how to even bake a cookie, yes bake a cookie, because I had never even baked a sugar cookie from scratch before. After I nailed down a solid recipe for the cookie base that seemed easy enough then I had to move on to the icing. I had no idea that the beautiful icing I was seeing on cookies was called royal icing. Royal icing was something so foreign to me, and learning how to use it has broken my spirit more times than I can even count. When you look at decorated cookies you really never realize how much work actually goes into them. So after I have done all of this research, I some what had an idea of what I was doing so I got to work. I did a glow in the dark cake, glow in the dark cupcakes and glow in the dark cookies. Visually then they were perfect, looking back now it’s so embarrassing to see them, they were a mess! The kids loved them, and we didn’t have many guest due to covid but they enjoyed them as well. Now we are going to fast forward to December. After doing all of that research I saw so many beautiful cookie designs that I wished I was able to do, but I just knew that my talent was not up to par for all of that yet. After many days of debating I decided that I was going to make my kids teachers some cookies for Christmas. These cookies were the ugliest things I’ve ever seen in my life, but there they were done and ready to go, so I sent my kids to school with them and they were a hit! The teachers ranted and raved about them like they were some type of rare artifact they had never seen before, which made me very happy. At that point I had my mind made up that I would practice this and make them more for Valentines day since they enjoyed them so much. Valentine’s Day rolls around and I wouldn’t say that the cookies were great but they were defiantly a step up from the last sets and again they loved them. Now the teachers are under the assumption that I am selling these cookies and one asks me how much do I charge. I was like charge?!? I don’t sell these I was only doing them for you guys. She said two simple words that changed my life in that moment “you should”. At the time I was staying at home because the kids were in and out of school because of covid so that gave me plenty of time to do more research. I was a bit hesitant because I wasn’t really sure what was going on in the world or if it would ever be normal again, so I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put my all into something that I’m not actually going to be able to use, but never the less I pushed on and decided I am going to figure all of this out and make something out of nothing. With that I created Tazii’s Snackery, I already had the snackery part because me and my aunt always talked about having a restaurant, she would do the cooking of the real meals and I would sell stuff like snack foods. As far as the Tazii part alot of people get it confused and think that it is my name, it is actually my 3 children’s names meshed together. Tari’on, Azaria and Avarii, if I ever get to become a big business this will be something that I have to hand down to them if they want it. They are already practicing on their decorating skills and they are amazing! As soon as I kind of got my stride and understanding of everything I decided to make me a Facebook page and and let everyone know I was going to start selling my cookies. I wasn’t sure how this would go but to my surprise I had so many supporters already and people filled my inbox to order cookies from me. People loved my creativity, because my main thing was to try to stand out which is where my phrase (where nothing is ever basic) comes from. The response was overwhelming but I was loving every moment of it. I knew nothing about running a business or anything I was kind of just going with the flow and praying that everything worked out. By the time I was starting to get the hang of everything and understanding how I would take on so many customers, tragedy hit my family in October 2021 like a ten ton mack truck. We received news that my aunt, my mom’s sister who doubled as my second mom and the one who guided me into this idea of a business all my life fell sick and we needed to rush to Arkansas to see her. I canceled all my orders and we immediately left to drive to Arkansas and we got to see her that night. The next day just minutes before we were about to go see her again we got a call saying that she passed away. This was the hardest news I have ever had to deal with in my life. She was like my mother and always someone I could talk to about anything. I was torn apart. Just when I get to the point of starting this business we have talked about all my life, now she is gone. I just knew that when I got home I was done with the cookies and done with the business. I didn’t want it anymore, there was no point if I couldn’t share this experience with her. I tried to just get back to normal life and just deal with it, but I was severely depressed and unable to shake it. I was just going through the motions for my kids and trying to act happy. Finally one day I decided I would go ahead and just decorate some cookies just for the heck of it and this is going to sound like something off of a movie but when I put that piping bag in my hand I felt like I was renewed. It seemed that decorating cookies is what I had been missing to get me out of the funk that I was in. I had prayed about it plenty of times on if I wanted to continue and tried to talk myself out of it, but I knew my aunt would be upset about me quitting so fast. Once I got back in the groove of things it was like tunnel vision, not a day passed without me thinking about cookies, practicing cookies, and researching trying to perfect my recipes. This is what brought my joy back and kept me stable and able to not be sad about life without my aunt. Around December my husband was on Facebook and saw a post about a local ice cream and treat shop needing a cookie decorator. He told me I should apply, and my response was, they’re not going to hire me I am self taught and I still don’t know what I am doing. I applied any way, about 3 days later I had a job at Golly G’s. During my interview I didn’t want to seem like I knew what anything about baking so I told them everything flat out, I’ve never worked in a bakery and I don’t know what I’m doing! Working at Golly G’s has been a roller coaster for sure, from being a self taught stay at home mom to going into a production style commercial kitchen. It was the change that I needed though. It has made me better in everyway possible and I am so grateful that my husband, encouraged me to apply and that my boss took a chance on me.

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.

My name is Tarianna Velasquez l, I am the owner and operator of Tazii’s Snackery. I am married to an amazing man who doubles as my business partner and we have 3 beautiful children who we are training up to run our family business. Tazii’s Sanckery specializes in customized decorated cookies. It doesn’t stop there, I have an abundance of treats that I like to create for my clients. Most of my treats and cookies will always have some type of twist to them to try and make them my own I just like to call it “a lil razzle dazzle’” My catch phrase is “Where nothing is ever basic” which is found on the back of my business cards because I like to always go the extra mile and add extra details, or something special to orders to make them truly customized. If you know me in general you know that I am a very over the top and dramatic person and I want people to see that when they see and taste my products as well. I’m most proud of the progress I’ve made and the commitment I’ve had to my business in such a short period of time. Though I know I still have a long way to go I am very proud of all that I’ve accomplished being a mom of 3, working a full time job and running my own business. There has been so many bumps in the road since I started my business but it has only made me stronger and able to overcome everything that is thrown at me. Nothing makes me happier than when my babies see me working and come up to and ask for a hug and tell me how proud they are of me and how great I’m doing. What I want everyone to know is that I put my heart into my business, it’s not solely about the profit to me in this, when you learn my back story and why this business is so important to me everyone will understand why I work so hard, and why I don’t take breaks and why I don’t eat and sleep like I should. It may not seem like much to some, but I am trying to make something out of nothing and that is big to me.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think something that I had to unlearn is the thought that everyone is on my side and I do not have to be a people pleaser. I have always kind of had a no nonsense type of attitude. I’m very nice, but I’m also blunt as well and I have been trying to work on that on my end with not saying everything that pops in my head. With that being said I had recently been trying to take a new approach to life and be more cautious when it comes to things I say and do. With me trying to take that new approach it seems that I got a bit lost in the sauce and started letting people take advantage of me and not even realizing it until I felt like I had been crossed. I had to remember that I have to stand up for myself and not let anyone manipulate me into anything just because I am trying to be nice for their benefit. I’ve learn it’s ok for me to have my boundaries and that I need to stick to them and I do not have to let them down just to please someone else.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My mom and my husband have played a big part behind the scenes through this whole journey. From encouraging me to step out of my comfort zones all the way to helping support my visions financially. They both talked me into applying for my first big event in October 2022. Being a vendor at the local markets and events here in town helped build my reputation tremendously! Just being out where people are able to see us and interact with us personally helped draw them in. People are able to meet me, my husband and my kids at most events and they also get to sample several different things we are selling at the time for free and they really love that. People can really tell when you put your all into something, and they let me know that every time they see my cookies and taste our treats. The community in Clarksville has been amazing and I look forward to working with so many more people in our community.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/taziissnackery
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/taziissnackery1