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

Tierney, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us a bit about who your hero is and the influence they’ve had on you?

My sister was and will always be my hero. Her tenacity, creativity and just pure passion for the culinary arts inspires me every day to keep going. Our culinary obsession probably started in our Nonna’s restaurant kitchen, where we were fed endless plates of angel hair pasta with butter (her choice) and filet mignon (my choice) by our “uncles” from Italy. Surrounded by food and bustling restaurants were in our blood, as we grew and became waitresses for our summer jobs as teenagers. She went on to study at Le Cordon Bleu in London and then ICE in NYC. I took a different journey, but never stopped cooking, and was always in awe of the new sauces she would come back with which would make us lick our plates clean. During the years that followed we would meet at different restaurants around NYC and Brooklyn for our family gossip and to chat about food. It was my favorite thing to do with her. She has always influenced my love of food, for it was our way to connect and have so much fun together. We would even have fun at the grocery store. It was only natural that I eventually gravitated back to the culinary world and decided it was what I wanted to do full time.

Tierney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a self taught baker, starting at a young age in my parents kitchen trying to recreate my nonna’s popover recipe. The cookies I create are for people who love exploring new flavor combinations and who like a balanced dessert, one that’s not too sweet. I am not a sweets person, so I approach cookies as I would a savory meal. I taste the dough and adjust the salt, and acid, which for cookies I think of acid not as an acidic flavor but as a “I can’t stop eating this cookie taste” if that makes sense. Outliers are cookies for people with no sweet tooth I like to say. I am most proud of creating a brand around the cookies I make, that I really can relate to and I think others do too. We provide a monthly box of cookies too which I am really proud of. You can choose a subscription offer or just to purchase as you wish. A box of 12 cookies (4 new flavors each month) gets shipped right to your door. I love creating the different flavors each month and hearing which ones were favorites or were surprising to different customers.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I don’t have a huge audience yet on social media, but I have found one way to grow that I enjoy doing and I think also helps build relationships with other businesses. Giveaways. I have gained hundreds of followers in just a few days by partnering with other businesses in my field and offering a free 3 month cookie subscription.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I think one of the main things that helped me grow was having a strong branding from the get go. My branding and name was something I thought A TON about (after developing the initial product of course). I made vision boards, drew from inspiration from some of my favorite artists, movies, directors, anything I thought felt like where I wanted my brand to go. Fiverr website helped a lot in getting my logo and helping bring my brand to life. I sent pictures to a graphic design freelancer and told them about my vision and that’s how my logo was created. I make sure to spend a lot of time on anything I buy for my brand, and make sure it matches my look and my goals before settling on it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.outliersbakedgoods.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/outliersbakedgoods
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/outliersbakedgoods

Image Credits
Clint Ashlock (for the photos with me in them, the photos of the cookies were taken by me and you do not need to credit them)