Business 7 - Outside the Oven

Corbin, The Colonel, Our Cookies and his Creed

Any chef will tell you, it takes more than a list of ingredients to make something great. If you have ever had a pack of our cookies, you have a complete list of everything in them. But I’d like to think that after more than 13 years of baking, and 50+ years of ‘personal experience’ we’ve developed a unique recipe that makes every batch of our cookies and brownies something special.

I’m often asked about my background and how it is that I came to bake cookies. Like most people, my life’s recipe is filled with events and experiences that, combined, brought me to where I am today. One of those experiences was meeting a man who became one of the most recognized faces on the planet based on his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Colonel Harlan Sanders.

A quick stop in Corbin, KY to visit the birthplace of one of the most recognized brands on the planet.

I tinkered with business ideas from a very early age. In high school, I discovered an organization called Junior Achievement and that forever impacted the course of my life. Junior Achievement was an after-school program which gave me the opportunity to setup and run a real company. And to meet successful leaders and entrepreneurs like David Jones, the founder of Humana, Inc.

I had the opportunity to meet Colonel Sanders on a couple of occasions, including a brief appearance in a television commercial promoting Junior Achievement. He arrived as you might expect in his chauffeur driven white Cadillac with red leather interior, wearing his white suite and string tie. He was cordial and greeted all of us. He delivered his lines, “Your friends are in Junior Achievement. You should be too.” and was driven away to his next appearance.

Later that year, I was the Master of Ceremonies for our annual banquet. We honored the Colonel for his support. During the ceremony, he stood up and handed me a personal check made out to Junior Achievement for $50,000. It left an indelible mark on my high school career, meeting someone so well known who really cared about young people and giving back to his community.

Colonel Sanders developed and perfected his recipe for fried chicken in a small motel/restaurant, Sanders Court, in Corbin, KY. Despite the success and notoriety of the food, Interstate 75 routed traffic away from his establishment. Customers dwindled and he was forced to sell the business. At age 65, he went back out on the road, selling his franchise concept of Kentucky Fried Chicken. He had a total of $105 in his pocket.

At a time when most people are winding down their career, the Colonel was just getting started. There were many twists and turns along the road, but eventually he sold his business for $2 million, stayed on as their ambassador, and became one of the most recognized brand names in the world.

Last fall, we stopped in Corbin (as I have done in the past) to visit the original place where KFC was born. The restaurant includes areas where some of his original equipment is on display. It is a reminder and an inspiration of what can happen in business with enough persistence, patience and passion to be the best.

In addition to the Colonel’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices, his recipe for success included a strong commitment to how he treated his customers and franchise owners. The Colonel’s Creed speaks volumes about what can happen when you put the right ingredients in a business, something we aspire to do at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies as well. You’ll find a copy of it on the wall if you happen to stop by the Cafe:

The Hard Way

“It is comparatively easy to prosper by trickery, the violation of confidence, of the weak…sharp practices, cutting corners – all of those methods that we are so prone to palliate and condone as “business shrewdness”. It is difficult to prosper by the keeping of promises, the deliverance of value in goods, in service and in deeds – and in the meeting of so called “shrewdness” with sound merit and good ethics. The easy way is efficacious and speedy – the hard way arduous and long. But, as the clock ticks, the easy way becomes harder and the hard way becomes easier. And as the calendar records the years, it becomes increasingly evident that the easy way rests hazardously upon shifting sands, whereas the hard way builds solidly a foundation of confidence that cannot be swept away.”

While you should avoid saying ‘never’, it is unlikely that my face or the cookies from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies will ever achieve anything close to the level of notoriety of Colonel Harlan Sanders and Kentucky Fried Chicken. I’m comfortable with that.

I do believe, however, that while there are countless places where you can purchase a cookie or a brownie made with most of the same ingredients we use (flour, butter, sugar, eggs, etc.), none will be exactly the same as what we bake at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. That’s because the ingredients of a business are more that simply what is listed on the label. It contains the experiences and passions of the founders as well as the people who help run the business. A small, but important ingredient in our business, came from my chance meeting with The Colonel.

What comes out of our oven every day is more than simply raw materials, it is the sum total of a lifetime of experiences and a focus on what we consider the most important measure of success for our business and what we do – to create a simple moment that brings joy and happiness to the person who bites into a cookie or brownie that we’ve made. It’s not always been easy. Building a business takes time. But from what I learned early in life from people like the Colonel, hard work and doing the right thing is ultimately the best recipe for success.

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Cookies and brownies baked with a bit of history

Every business has a story and history, some longer than others. The supplier for our primary ingredient at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, organic whole wheat pastry flour, comes from a mill that was a business before America was a country. Founded in 1755 by Thomas Lindley, Lindley Mills operates at the same location and is run by a ninth generation descendant, Joe Lindley.

It’s the only flour we’ve ever used for our cookies and brownies. And while I could get a distributor to deliver the product, I’ve made it a point to take time to get to know the folks at Lindley Mills and pick up our order at the mill. We usually stop in with a supply of our cookies made from their flour that are always well received. It might seem like a small thing, but I believe that having a personal connection to an ingredient produced by a descendant of the founder of a businesses started more than 254 years ago, adds more to our product than simply great flour.

Anna and I hiked up the creek to the site of the Battle of Lindley's Mill. — Anna and I hiked up the creek to the site of the Battle of Lindley’s Mill.

The mill was the site of one of the largest and most hard fought engagements in North Carolina between the British Loyalists and the Whigs. Anna and I toured the battle ground some years ago where the markers tell the story.

On September 12, 1781, Loyalist leader David Fanning crept into the state capital, then in Hillsborough, secured the town and captured over 200 prisoners including Governor Thomas Burke. They moved the prisoners down to where the Wilmington road crossed Cane Creek at Lindley’s Mill.

On the morning of September 13, the Whigs ambushed the Loyalists as they were crossing the branch, killing their commander, Colonel Hector McNeil. The Loyalists managed to secure the prisoners at the rear of the Spring Friends Meeting House and Fanning organized a flanking attack on the Whigs. The Whigs held their position for several hours, but were eventually driven back. Fanning, who was wounded, turned over command to Colonel McDugald who managed to reach Wilmington safely with the prisoners.

In total, more than 250 men on both sides were killed or wounded. They were cared for or buried by the local Quaker community. While not a victory for the Whigs, the battle served as a turning point, inspiring them to double their efforts, fight on to suppress the Loyalists and ultimately, win the war.

The mill was operated by the Lindley family for more than 100 years. After that, it changed hands and operated as a variety of grain related businesses. In 1975, two hundred and twenty years after opening, Thomas Lindley’s descendants re-purchased and restored the mill to operation. They’ve been grinding organically grown grain there on the same site, for the past 39 years.

There are a lot of reasons why the cookies and brownies at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies taste so good. We developed the recipes and the process we use to make each small batch, by hand. Rather than simply tell you ‘we use the finest ingredients’ (a phrase you’ll find on just about every cookie or food site in the world) I thought you might like to know a little more about the history behind our ingredients.

We just picked up a large load of flour to begin getting ready for the holiday baking season. I placed our order with June and Dewey helped pull the bags. Mr. Joe was busy that day (as he usually is), but I’m pretty sure he managed to get one of the cookies we delivered. They loaded us up, and I stopped on my way out to snap this picture of the mill, surrounded by the brilliant colors of fall.

The history of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies is relatively short, going back a scant few years to 2001 when Debbie and I founded the company after I won Grand Champion at the Cheesecake Bake-off Competition for my Apple-Bourbon Cheesecake (yes – that’s another story). Lindley Mills not only provides us with a reliable source of a superior quality product, but adds an important ingredient to the soul of our business – a real sense of history and some perspective on time.

I always look forward to taking a ride out in the country to visit our friends at Lindley Mills whenever we need a load of flour and a dose of perspective. We’ll carry it back to the bakery, mix it up with our other ingredients, and continue to turn out incredible cookies and brownies that are filled with passion, love and more than a little bit of history.

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Plan your gifts to avoid this happening at work

Giving someone a gift, whether a friend, customer, employee or co-worker, is an action meant to create a moment of happiness, both for the sender and the recipient. However, when that process gets interrupted unexpectedly, it has the potential to create the opposite effect for the sender.

We witnessed this recently when a potential customer came to us for help with her Holiday Gift plan. We were one of several vendors and the person in charge did a considerable amount of work putting together samples, pricing, lists, etc. Alas, the program was canceled at the last minute when someone cut the budget. While she was professional in every way, I could hear the sound of disappointment in her voice.

Our Holiday Gift Planning Guide

If you have worked on any project at a company only to have your work discarded, the project cancelled, or the budget cut at the last minute, you know how this can kill your motivation. Dan Ariely, Professor of Psychology & Behavioral Economics at Duke University did some interesting studies on what really motivates us at work. And as it turns out, it’s not money, although that does play a role. One of the most devastating and de-motivating things people face in the world of work, is to pour their heart and soul into a project, only to have it canceled or discarded.

Professor Ariely gave this TED talk on his research into what really motivates us:

Professor Dan Airely discusses what really motivates us at work.

Or you can read a summary in this blog post if you prefer:

What motivates us to work?

For individuals who send out our cookie gifts, this type of situation does not really apply. But, as we head into the season where companies traditionally send out gifts, chances are this situation has the potential to come up more than once. In addition to the desire to be generous with employees and customers during this time of year, there is also pressure to make sure that expenses don’t exceed revenues.

At Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, this is an important time of the year for our business. We certainly want to help individuals and companies create an experience that generates a moment of happiness that lasts well beyond the season.

We can’t magically create ‘budget dollars’ for any company, but we can help make sure that what we do is a good fit for each of our customers. Our menu is pretty simple – two types of cookies and chocolate brownies. We offer a variety of packaging options to fit a range of gift budgets. If what we have on the website doesn’t exactly fit, please ask us for options. And if you ask us to do something we can’t or doesn’t fit our business, we’ll tell you straight up.

To help our customers (and even those who choose someone else for gifts) think through the process, I’ve created a simple (4) step guide to planning a project around sending gifts. It’s not complicated, but worth thinking about, especially if you are delegating this task to someone in your company. I’ve updated our worksheet template to include some new macros and sorting options that help categorize gifts and recipients. (If you have any questions or issues after downloading, please give me a call).

You can get all the details and download your copy here.

I’ve always believed that sending gifts should not feel like a burden. Everything we do at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies is designed to make our cookie and brownie gifts easy to send and always well received. And if it is your task to take on this project, we hope that you (and/or your company) have the budget in place and we’ll work with you anyway we can to make sure the end result is worth the effort you put into the project. Making people who send and receive our gifts happy, is what motivates us every day.

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Sometimes the best gifts are free

This might seem a little odd coming from a company in the business of sending out gift boxes of cookies and brownies that while reasonably priced, are not free. We certainly do hand out cookies without collecting payment on occasion, but doing that for everyone would be a very short term business strategy. And yet, we believe in sharing a gift of high value to those who need it without collecting a penny or attaching a caveat. It is our knowledge and expertise.

Several years ago, I was honored when Howie Rhee, Managing Director, Student and Alumni Affairs & the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business asked me to help out an alumnus who was interested in starting, of all things, a cookie business. I met with Randy and Liliana to hear their story and share some of what I’ve learned along the way. They ended up using our bakery for product development and testing.

Eventually, they set sail on their own, setting up the business in Liliana’s family bakery in Miami. And while their cookie business ended up not taking flight, I’m happy to say their love for each other did. They are now married and off on the next leg of their journey together.

Recently, Howie asked me again to offer up my experience and advice as a part of a mentoring program at Duke that was created by Melissa (Duke ’87) and Doug Bernstein. If you’ve been shopping for toys, you’ll probably recognize the Melissa and Doug logo. As entrepreneurs who understand the value of giving back knowledge, they started the Melissa and Doug Entrepreneurs Program at Duke University to help students pursue their dreams of starting a business.

I was paired up to mentor an amazing young woman, Becky Holmes. Becky is a senior at Duke and comes from Pennsylvania. Her dream is to pursue her passion by developing her company, Ello Raw. She makes dessert bites (think truffles) from raw ingredients. Healthy, delicious and satisfies the need for something sweet.

My first meeting with Becky was via a phone call. She described her business, was prepared with a list of questions and sought answers to help move closer to her dream. During that brief call, Becky demonstrated an insatiable desire for knowledge, gathering bits of information from my experience and combining it with nuggets from other mentors. She understood the value of experience and was extremely grateful.

I’ve had the opportunity to meet with Becky since then, offering up stories on what I’ve learned at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, sharing my list of contacts and connections to help her in pursuit of the dream. In a few weeks, I’ll have the honor of traveling to meet Melissa and Doug at their home in Connecticut. They are hosting an evening for students (Becky among them) who are pursuing their passion and the mentors who are helping them.

Knowledge and experience isn’t something we limit to mentoring entrepreneurs. It actually happens on a regular basis at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. It might be something as simple as a call from a customer, asking if we bake pumpkin spice cookies, or can bake a cake for birthdays, or some other request. It’s not something we can deliver, but I’m always happy to try and help someone find a place that can deliver what they are looking for. I enjoy sharing our experience in the gift business, whether or not they ever place an order. If our products are not a fit, it’s okay. I’ve probably lost more than my share of sales over the years, but the value received from giving the gift

of knowledge and experience far outweighs a few dollars here and there.

“Giving intangibles works like lighting candles. When you do it, you create more lit candles, not fewer.”
–Tim Sanders, Author of “Love is the Killer App”

I believe a culture that values sharing knowledge and expertise isn’t something accomplished by conjuring up text in an annual report or a mission statement. I believe it is woven into the fabric of the business. When I look back at my personal journey, the road is filled with individuals who gave me the gift of their time and expertise, helping light the way for me on the road ahead.

When someone sends a gift from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, we’re in the business of creating a memorable experience for every single person who opens that box, or tastes that cookie. But we are also happy to give the gift of our experience to friends, customers and young entrepreneurs like Liliana and Becky. Hopefully, somewhere along the way, they’ll look back and see a small section of the road with a sign reminding them of something they received from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, besides an incredibly good cookie. I consider that a pretty sweet gift.

–Chris

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A great harvest takes time and work

Sometimes in our personal lives and our work (yes – even in the cookie business), we do things that need to be done, with no immediately visible benefit or payoff. In the digital world, we have near instant feedback, access to information, friends, family, resources and more. There are however, worthwhile things we must do that require time and effort without immediate feedback or reward.

In October 2012, I wrote a post titled ‘The business benefits of pruning blueberry bushes”. (If you were not among the two or three people who read it, you can check it out here.) It was another of my attempts to draw lessons from seemingly unrelated life activities. Pruning is one of those things that farmers and gardeners know is essential for plants and trees, but it has many parallels to life and business as well.

After some serious pruning and a few years of sun and water, the harvest came in.

About five years ago I decided to take on the task of reviving the blueberry bushes at our family’s camp near on the Pungo Creek in eastern North Carolina. They had suffered from years of neglect and were over grown with other vegetation. I worked in the early fall and late winter by removing what did not look right – other trees and plants that had claimed space among the blueberries. Thorny vines strangled the bushes, preventing them from bearing the wonderful fruit they were intended to produce. It was real work cleaning out all the unwanted plants and trees and transferring them to the burn pile, but a welcome respite from the mental stress of running a business.

I felt the work had value, but knew it would not produce any immediate results. It might be years before I saw the result of my efforts. Knowing that if I cut too deeply, they might not survive, I took the longer view, doing a little bit of work each season. We visited some during the summer months in the years following and I watched as the bushes began to recover, yielding some fruit each year.

During this time, we also did some cleaning and pruning at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, balancing the need to remove activities that would allow us to grow without damaging the core business. It was hard, especially after the downturn of 2007-2008, but we continued to make changes that felt right and would hopefully yield a harvest over the long term.

That process continued over the past several years and I extended it to other areas as well. Earlier in 2014, I ‘pruned’ another business interest where I had invested significant time, effort and resources. Not an easy thing, but it felt like the right thing to do, giving me more room to grow in the long term.

During these past five years, an interesting thing happened at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. When we stop and look back at the results, an area of our business that we wanted to grow, managing birthday and anniversary gifts, has begun to flourish. We’ve added companies who choose to send birthday and/or work anniversary gifts to employees and/or customers throughout the year. They give us a list – we manage everything from there. It is something we’ve nurtured and grown. (If you know anyone interested in this service – you can send them here to learn more).

While this is clearly not ‘pruning’ for these companies, it is something they do as part of a long term view. They are nurturing relationships with the people who are critical to their business. While I’m sure they get positive feedback from some of the customers and employees about the cookies and brownies, the benefits are real but may not be immediately evident. A great harvest takes time to develop.

Life has gotten busy in the past few summers and I must admit that I have not had the chance to check on the blueberry bushes as often as I should. Last week I had the opportunity to make a trip down to the camp for a little R&R. When I walked out to the garden area to check on the blueberry bushes, it was overwhelming.

In the nearly 30 years I’ve been going down there, I remember harvesting blueberries, but not like this. I spent several hours over two afternoons picking nearly three gallons of these beautiful berries, marveling at the bounty the bushes offered up. And I am certain that the crystal blue Carolina sky, cool breezes off the creek and the summer rains will produce even more of this bounty throughout the rest of the season.

Would any of these things happened if I had not chosen to prune and clean? To make tough decisions? To do the hard work without immediate payback? Probably not.

We hope that when our customers send a gift from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, they’ll get immediate feedback at least some of the time. Then again, they might not. I do, however, believe that when you take the longer view, somewhere down the road the harvest comes in. And if it’s anything like the yield from the blueberry bushes, you might need a bigger bowl.

My take on a popular cobbler - try it for yourself! — My take on a popular cobbler – try it for yourself!

P.S. I made good use of the harvest, creating a Belhaven Buttermilk Blueberry Cobbler that was mighty tasty. Here’s a link to the recipe if you’d like to try it for yourself.

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My first Father’s Day memory

If you are a movie buff of any level, chances are there are some favorites that you’ve watched over and over again until you remember everything. While I recorded the day my daughter was born on video tape, that is one ‘movie’ I will always remember, even though I only saw it live, once. It was the day I became a father.

It was going on towards 3 a.m. and we had been at the hospital for more than 12 hours. I attended all but one of the birthing classes, prepared the nursery and felt like I had done my best to get ready for our new addition. Enya music played on my laptop and whatever Debbie asked for, I did my best to try and help.

When the time finally came for Anna to make her entrance, the doctor and the nurses got busy. Things went well, even though the doctor was forced to use a suction device to move her into place. At this point, I was in total awe of what was happening and probably as aware and awake as I had ever been. I mumbled ‘okay’ to the doctor, and resumed my position as the protective Dad, watching every movement with my eyes fixed on the young child about to make her way into the world.

When she came out and I knew Debbie was okay, I moved quickly to the table where the nurse cleaned her and helped her utter that first cry. I watched everything, waiting to step in at any sign of danger. I realize now this is what a father does, it is in our DNA. That’s how it started for me more than 16 years ago, and it is still the same today.

This young visitor stayed with us for a few days

A couple of days ago, Debbie was mowing the lawn and discovered a tiny fawn, tucked away in the brush, looking not much more than a day or so old. Seeing the little baby laying there and the mother not around, my fatherly instincts kicked into high gear. I was ready to jump in, do what needed to be done and protect the fawn from any harm.

But, I stopped for a moment, did a little research online, and learned a bit more about how to care for what I assumed to be an abandoned fawn. We watched some throughout the night, but kept our distance knowing that the mother (and perhaps the father) would return to care for their baby. I like to think they left it there, feeling as though it were safe under our watchful eye. They had no idea.

This morning, I got up early and walked carefully to the woods to see how our young visitor was doing. It was gone. The cycle of life in nature worked as it has for thousands of years and this little fawn is off with its parents learning how to get along in the world. I was reminded that some time in the not too distant future, my little baby will go off to find her way in the world.

In a couple of days, we’ll celebrate Father’s Day. This means different things to different people, depending on how you embrace the responsibility of being a father (or better yet – a Dad). You might celebrate this day with a special dinner, some presents, a card, or maybe just a hug and a thank you. Fathers everywhere appreciate all these things.

For me, having Anna understand that there is nothing else in the world like the love of a father for his children will be enough. Knowing that our desire to nurture and protect them is something that ranks up there with the greatest forces in nature. Understanding these things would be a great Father’s Day present for any Dad. None of us have been perfect throughout the years, but on some level, we’ll always be there watching and ready to step in and protect as only a father can.

I hope you’ll take time to remember your father this Sunday, and if he is still around, share something special with him however you can. If you’d like to send him something sweet, visit our website and see if there is anything we can send that might make him feel special. I guarantee that I’ll personally look over every package that goes out, making sure that everything is just right, as fathers do.

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