Earlier this year, my friend, mentor and sometimes cookie maker at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies tapped me once again to help put the final touches on his latest book. Jack Spain and I have collaborated on our books in the past, and for his latest work, “Different Tracks: Lessons From a Diverse Career Journey” I helped with the title, the cover design and wrote the forward (pick up your copy to read it!). It is a collection of stories, insights, and wisdom from his career choices, and it reminded me of my Mom and her love for quilts.
It’s probably been two years since I ventured out to any type of business networking event where I’ve had the opportunity to learn about other people, their career path, and of course, talk about Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. The question about my career journey came up more than once, “How did an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business end up baking cookies?” It was not a straight-line journey and includes a patchwork of experiences that I continue to add every day, outside the oven.
I have not updated my resume in probably 20 years, but if I did, it would certainly not fit into any type of template. It is long, diverse and to an HR professional looking to fill a position based on a keyword search, might just bring their AI (artificial intelligence) engine to its knees. But I believe that is exactly the reason that Anna’s Gourmet Goodies is here, some 20 years later and it is one of the ‘not-so-secret’ ingredients to our success.
I grew up in a modest, suburban home where both parents worked. Of all the various skills I learned during my 18 or so years there, it was an attitude of, ‘yes, we can figure out how to do that’. From fixing things around our house, to building a cabin on a lake, to helping a neighbor with their lawn mower or washing machine, my parents came from a generation where self-sufficiency and the ability to tackle almost any task was viewed as an asset. Sure, we enjoyed the conveniences that emerged in households during the 60’s and 70’s, but I also learned to repair or create what I needed, often from materials we had around the house.
My Mom grew up in a farmhouse with eight brothers and sisters, raised primarily by a single mother – my grandfather died young from tuberculosis. She shared stories of my grandmother and how she managed to raise and feed a family. She made quilts and clothing for her children not as a hobby, but out of necessity.
I’d be hard pressed to come up with a simple formula, or recipe, that explains precisely how I ended up at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, baking, packing and shipping cookies, making people happy almost every day. But I do believe that it is the patchwork of experiences that has made this possible. In my early years, it was lawn care, construction, painting that framed my experience. From there I added customer service and sales experience. Post MBA, I embraced computers and technology adding everything from network wiring, to assembling computers and servers, software development, consulting and project management. For my last gig in the corporate world, I rode the dotcom train with Jack, holding something like seven titles in four years, mostly due to my response, when asked, “sure, I can do that”.
Our chocolate chip cookies have a scant (9) ingredients. When mixed in the right order and baked to just the right temperature, they are incredible cookies. But it is more than the ingredients and the well-defined processes that make up Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. I believe it is the patchwork of experiences that have gone into the business that are key to our success over the years. When the burner on the oven developed a crack, I found a machinist to weld and repair it. When I needed a special tool to cut shortbread, I worked with a friend and a metal shop to design and fabricate it. We use technology to give us an edge in custom printing client note cards and labels, as well as preparing and uploading shipping data to our postage system. Every system and process ultimately came from diverse experiences and is designed to bring comfort to our customers and their recipients, just like one of Mom’s warm blankets on a cool evening.
Don’t get me wrong, we don’t say ‘yes’ to every request at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. If you are looking for a wedding cake or a tray of cookies for your next BBQ, we are not the right choice. But for what we do, bake and ship cookies as gifts that delight the recipient, our processes and ability to deliver more than what our customers expect, comes from this patchwork of experiences I’ve gathered along the way.
This past year, more than any in my memory, has given all of us the chance to pause and think about a lot of things. Maybe you are wondering how you arrived where you are, or what the future holds. I encourage you to look back at your ‘quilt of experiences’ and see them as an asset, something to be cherished and valued. Who knows when they will come together at just the right time and propel you on the next leg of your career journey.
I was fortunate enough to save a few of the quilts my Mom either made, or had made, during her lifetime. They are among my most cherished possessions because they remind me of her, the lessons learned, and the experiences I’ve added to my career quilt over the years. I’m happy to say that the curiosity that drives me towards finding those scraps of experiences continues to this day.
And while the quilts themselves are not on display in the bakery at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, the collective patchwork of experiences from my career journey are baked into every batch. And just like that warm quilt on a cold morning, our hope is that all those who share our cookies and brownies, feel the comfort of something that is made from more than a list of simple ingredients.