My neighbor Brian once told me that ‘We live in the golden age of podcasts’.  I believe that is true. The quantity and variety of content is staggering.  However, like many things on the Internet, not everything is worth our precious and limited time.  I believe Simon Sinek’s content is one of those rare gems, worthy of enjoying and curating.

I am a fan of his books and his lectures.  I wrote about Simon’s most famous Ted Talk based on ‘The Why’ some years ago and how it relates to Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.  Recently, I was listening to one of his podcasts done for Richard Branson’s Virgin Startup organization.  At the end, he had a conversation with Richard and recalled asking him about which of his businesses he would most like to be remembered for.  To his surprise, Richard answered somewhat sharply, “Don’t remember me for my businesses, but for my children.  What type of people did they become?”

We started Anna’s Gourmet Goodies in 2001 and named the company after our daughter, Anna.  The logo is her silhouette made by Karl Johnson, a master scissor artist we met at the NC State Fair.  His client list includes Jennifer Garner, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah, Hilary Duff, Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes, Drew Barrymore, and many others.  We did not know it at the time, but Anna was in good company.

As our company rounds the corner on 20 years in business and Anna is making her way towards her own path in life, I’ve been thinking about our business and many of the lessons we, as parents, sought to instill in Anna.  Our goal with both is to leave a legacy that lives on beyond our years and the cookies and brownies we make every day.

Do what is right
This might be one of the most difficult things to do in business and parenting.   A business exists to provide goods and services in return for payment that ultimately amounts to more than the cost of those goods and services, a profit.  But many times, doing what is right might be in direct conflict with that goal.  Rarely do you find an absolute answer to every situation, you must follow a guidepost.  At Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, our standard is to treat others the way we’d like to be treated.

We make choices and do our best to guide our children towards goals that extend beyond the next few minutes, days or weeks.  Doing what is right in life, and business, is ultimately about focusing on a long time frame, years or decades into the future.  When Anna was in high school, she picked up some part-time gigs as a tutor.  One of her clients was a young girl who had just moved to the area and struggled with learning in several subjects.  Not only did Anna help with her school work, but became a mentor and a friend.  It was the right thing to do.

Do your best
In Miguel Ruiz’s book, The Four Agreements, A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, one of the agreements is to ‘Always do your best’.  It is a guiding principle at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.  When it comes time to undertake almost any task, we strive to follow this rule.  Not perfection, but the best we can do at the time.

As parents, we always tried to help Anna understand and follow this advice as well.  No child is perfect.  The number of people who grow up to win a Nobel Prize, a Gold Medal or a World Championship are a tiny fraction of the population.  But when you do your best, it creates a sense of self satisfaction and fulfillment that cannot simply be measured with a trophy or certificate.

Anna tried a number of sports, including cross-country running in middle school.  She did not always like it, was never first across the finish line, but we supported her, encouraged her and she did her best.

I remember the words of my swimming coach from High School, Jim Erickson, who used to tell us, ‘I don’t care if you are dead last at the end of the race.  As long as you can say that when your hand hits that wall, you’ve given it your best, then you are a winner.’

Take responsibility
This is a tough one to follow.  At a time when businesses and individuals go to extraordinary lengths to avoid taking responsibility, you might ask, ‘Is it really important?’  While I can’t say any single ingredient is the secret to success in business, taking responsibility is high on the list.  We strive for perfection in everything we do at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, but alas, we fall short from time to time.  We’ve shipped packages to the wrong address, left names off packages, and in some cases the packages we ship did not arrive through no fault of our own.  As difficult is that can be sometimes, we take responsibility.  We do this for two primary reasons:  First, to learn from any mistakes and to build trust with our customers.  Secondly, when you work with someone that is willing to step up and take responsibility, customers learn to trust them.  This might be one of the most valuable assets a business can acquire.

Teaching responsibility is an equally difficult task as a parent.  If you’ve had any part in raising a child, you have heard this phrase at some point, ‘That’s not fair!’  This is often true, but sometimes the lesson is so valuable that it is worth the cost.  I remember one time when Anna damaged someone’s car.  Yes, it was an accident and the result of someone else’s bad judgement, but ultimately, we made her take responsibility for the repair.  Yes, I did call in a few favors at the repair shop to ‘ease the pain’ a bit, but it was one of those defining moments that helped shape the person she is and will continue to be in the future, long after I’m gone.

Give back
At Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, we try to take some small portion of both the money and other resources we have and give it away.  Sometimes we let others know and even write about it, like the events at Ronald McDonald House, Caring House, Shepherd’s Table and more.  Not for praise, but for inspiration for others to do the same.  Sometimes, we do little things that no one ever hears about.  Both serve a purpose and are part of the DNA of our business.

We always tried to help Anna develop the same ‘muscle’.  From her experiences at our church serving the Raleigh area, Habitat for Humanity, to YMCA mission trips to food banks and homeless shelters, to volunteer work at the Duke Cancer Center and Rex Hospital.  We wanted Anna to develop the skill of service to others, learning to share some of what she has been given.  Sometimes we hear about this, and others, we don’t.  Occasionally she lets it slip out that she did something or gave someone some money to help them out, not for recognition, but because it is part of her DNA as well.

Make people happy
This is probably one of the most fun aspects of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.  You may have noticed we sometimes use the phrase, ‘Our cookies make people happy’.  We send cookies and brownies to people throughout the United States, for a variety of reasons.  Sometimes as a thank you, sometimes as a celebration or a wish for better health.  And occasionally, as a recognition of recent loss of a loved one.  In all those cases, we try to make sure that when a recipient opens the package and takes a bite of the cookie or brownie, we help bring a moment of happiness to their experience.

I have a vivid memory of Anna that is the combination of everything I’ve written so far and epitomizes the idea of what it means to make people happy.  I don’t have a digital picture, but the image is clear and permanent.  We were traveling and stopped at a Panera restaurant for lunch.  In high school, Anna took it upon herself to learn sign language using the power of the Internet.  She went so far as to start the first club at her high school.  We were getting up from the table when I noticed a couple, sitting by themselves.  I watched and it was clear that they were speaking with their hands, the only ones in the restaurant that day.

I encouraged Anna to go over to their table and ‘speak’ to them in their language.  Somewhat reluctantly, she agreed and approached their table.  She introduced herself and spoke to them in their language.  I can’t remember exactly what Anna told me they said, but the look on their faces was remarkable.  Their smiles were a clear indication that in that brief moment, a stranger took notice and made the effort to make them feel recognized and welcome.  It made them happy.  Watching that as a parent does not get any better than that.

Our products are really good
Of course, these and the other non-physical ingredients of Anna’s Gourmet Goodies might not matter much if our products don’t turn out to be very good.  If you’ve tried our cookies and/or brownies, we certainly hope you’ll agree.  We recently competed in the NC Specialty Foods Association Product Awards and our brownies were selected as the ‘Grand Champion’ over all other specialty foods products in the competition.  It’s always nice to see the hard work and dedication we’ve put into the products and the business be recognized.

After taking a gap year, Anna is back at grad school pursuing her master’s degree in Nutrition with a concentration in Dietetics.  Despite a heavy academic load and working two jobs, she still finds time to pursue her latest passion, running.

She trains regularly and has participated in several races.  This past weekend we watched her compete in the City of Oaks Marathon here in Raleigh where she placed fourth in her age group for the half marathon, turning in her best time yet.  A proud moment for any parent.

This race lasted a scant one hour, forty-seven minutes and fifty-two seconds for Anna.  An important achievement, but only a small part of her race towards becoming a person that will leave a lasting impression on the world and make it a better place than she found it.

In his book, The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek helps us understand that while business might be considered a game, it is not the same as baseball or chess where the players, the rules, and the winners and losers are easily identified.  He makes the case that there are no clear winners in ‘business’, just as there is no way to win the game of life.  The goal in business, and in life, is to stay in the game as long as possible.

We appreciate the accolades on our brownies.  And we hope customers will remember us for how we conduct our business.  But we also wanted to share some of the life lessons we mixed into Anna, combined with plenty of love, tears, heartaches and triumphs that are beginning to come out of the oven, transforming her into the person she has become and will be, long into the future.  It’s all part of a recipe that we hope will last for generations.

It’s easy to say, but hard to do.  It doesn’t matter what business you are in, where you work, or what stage of life you currently find yourself, the challenges we all face are abundant.  Some of these can be overcome, some must simply be endured.  There are resources that can help, but sometimes something as simple as a kind word of encouragement can have life changing consequences.  Ron agrees.

We first met many years ago when my daughter and his son attended the same private school.  We were parents, focused on encouraging and helping our children make it thru the challenging middle school years.  In addition to school functions, we’d see Ron occasionally delivering the mail around town.

Ron is the pastor at the Lakeview Missionary Baptist Church.  From fatherhood to the pandemic, Pastor Ron has always been there to help in some way.  I can’t remember a time when he failed to offer up a big smile, a helping hand, a kind word, just the right verse, and/or a word of encouragement.  One of my favorites was his simple, yet powerful advice, ‘Stay encouraged’.

We ship probably 99% of our orders via USPS Priority Mail.  Occasionally we’ll ship a package via Express and on rarer occasions, we’ll use one of the other carriers.  I’ve shared stories in the past of our experiences with the USPS and in particular, those people on the front lines – the individuals who show up every day and move what has become an overwhelming volume of packages.

In 2020, the USPS delivered some 7.3 billion packages to more than 161 million delivery points.  I’ll do the math for you – that’s an average of 44.2 packages per delivery point.  And some small portion of those packages were cookies and brownies from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.

Running a business like Anna’s Gourmet Goodies is akin to conducting an orchestra.  One important difference is that all the players are not on stage together at the same time.  They come from as far away as Madagascar, where our vanilla supplier, Cook’s, acquires most of their beans.  To the wheat fields of the Western US, where organic farmers nurture the grain to maturity, then transport it to Lindley Mills for processing.  Butter, eggs, and sugar all start in a field somewhere, and a host of hands pick up these ingredients and pass them along, hopefully at just the right time.

Beyond the ingredients, we rely on the people and companies making boxes, ribbon, tape, labels, ink, toner, technology and more to play their instruments at just the right time.  Business, like music, works when everyone in the chain hits their notes at just the right time.

Once the order is placed, we pull together all the ingredients and produce the product, a gift of our cookies and/or brownies.  In our final movement of this symphony, we hand that product off to our friends at the Wake Forest Post Office to begin the journey, along with the 7+ billion other packages, to their final destination.
There are so many hands that we’ll never meet along the way but having a group of people at our local post office has made this final, and in some ways the most important part of the Anna’s Gourmet Goodies experience, possible.

I can’t name every person from their staff of 100+ who help us on a daily basis.  Supervisors Wesley and Marsha are always there to lend a hand.  And when he’s not out on a route delivering the mail, Pastor Ron is there as well – ready, waiting and smiling.

In 2019, we incorporated the ‘Kindness Rocks’ project into some of our customer outreach.  If you have not heard of this, I’d encourage you to visit their website.  They recently added a new ‘Encouragement Pack’ of messages to their cards.  When I saw this, I immediately felt this was something we needed to re-visit in 2021.

This year is turning out to be one of the hottest summers on record.  The pandemic has re-emerged, threatening our physical health, and draining us emotionally.  Hurricanes.  Wildfires.  Global unrest.  There is simply no shortage of challenges that we all face in some form or another.

On a personal level, the COVID-19 virus has ravaged Debbie’s family, with the latest delta variant relentlessly attacking the vaccinated and wreaking havoc on those who unfortunately, have incurred its wrath.  Sadly, it helped end the life of my Father-In-Law, Richard Geiger.  You may remember reading about him in this post.

But today, and most every day throughout the week, we’ll tap the podium, turn on the oven and assemble a group of packages that Pastor Ron and many others will usher to the delivery point.  We hope that the cookies and brownies themselves deliver more than a little nourishment, but a feeling of happiness, of kindness, of hope.  And depending on what the person placing the order asked us to include, there might be a few words on encouragement on the card.

In any case, you can rest assured that our message to those receiving our products that might be facing any of the host of challenges they face today, is the same one Pastor Ron shares with me.

Stay encouraged.

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.

If you’re a fan of the TV show M*A*S*H, you probably watched the final episode, titled ‘Goodbye, Farewell and Amen’.  And even if you are not a dedicated fan, chances are you might have tuned in for the finale.  When it aired on February 28^th, 1983, 121.6 million viewers watched as the end of the show’s 11-year run ended.  More people watched this episode than the Super Bowl that year.

And yet, it pales in comparison to the number of people who watched the year 2020 come to an end.  With a global population of nearly 7.8 billion, it’s hard to imagine that all but a small percentage of that population were not ready, mostly happy, to put the year 2020 behind us.  He never liked saying ‘goodbye’, but I suspect that if Mike Farrell were to revive his M*A*S*H character, BJ, he would gladly say goodbye to 2020.

It’s not that absolutely everything in the year 2020 was bad.  At Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, there were plenty of reasons to practice my word for 2020 – grateful.  We were grateful that we managed to dodge the COVID-19 virus.  We implemented what are now being touted as best practices, early in the year.  We wore masks before they were recommended or required, kept our distance as much as possible, washed our hands obsessively and wiped down everything with sanitizer, for good measure.  Extra work for sure, but worth the price.

We had another record Holiday Gift Season.  While some customers were not able to send gifts this year, others increased their orders, particularly for remote employees.  And we made new friends as well.  For those customers that did not ship with us this year, we maintained that close bond, pulling for them, in some cases weeping for them, as their businesses struggle to navigate the pandemic.

The word ‘farewell’ is a fancy way of saying goodbye, usually reserved as an expression when someone is embarking on a journey.  This past year has been a challenging journey for so many people on so many levels.  Businesses trying to quickly adapt and learn to survive.  Families struggling not just financially, but emotionally, adjusting to new ways of doing the most ordinary of tasks.  And sadly, too many families saying farewell to loved ones who embarked on their final journey.

It does not happen very often, but we filled an order this year for 2-packs of cookies that were used as part of a memorial service.  We were asked to create a simple label with a photograph.  Out of respect, I did not ask any additional details about how or why.  We baked and shipped the order, hoping that in some small way, we helped the friends and family wish their loved one farewell in their final journey.

The word ‘amen’ originated in the Hebrew Bible.  It is most often used in Christian, Jewish and Islamic worship services as a conclusion to a prayer.  Colloquial translations of the word mean to express strong agreement or to verify something is true.

If you are a person of faith, you’ve probably used the word amen to mark the end of a prayer.  If you are not, you still might have used the word to mark strong agreement, or at the end of an event.  In either case, it’s fair to say that for many different reasons, people all over the globe are happy this past year has come to a close.  Some of us will emphatically add an ‘Amen’.  As Seth Godin replied in one of my emails, ‘here’s to better days’.  Amen.

In a few weeks Americans will celebrate a holiday dedicated to the idea of being grateful, Thanksgiving.  First celebrated in 1621 and declared a national holiday in 1863, it is a time of tradition, of family, of gratitude, of celebration and of remembrance.  For me, it is a holiday that renders some of my most vivid memories.  And while 2020 will most certainly be different for all of us, we still can focus on the idea behind the holiday.

I don’t know about you, but I am tired.  Mentally, physically, and emotionally.  Just as the smoke from the devastating wildfires in California, visible from space, hover over our planet, a cloud of discourse has coated our nation and much of the world.  Health, economic and social issues have touched all of us in some way and despite our resilience, it is easy to become worn down.  And in that state, gratitude might not be the first thing to come to mind, but it might just be the answer to finding a way out of the clouds.

Several years ago, I wrote a post about my experience with a sudden heart event and how it helped me focus on why I was thankful.  I replaced the tradition of setting ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ by choosing a single word to focus on for the year.  As I shared in an earlier post, my word for 2020 is ‘grateful’.

What we focus on has a powerful impact on what we see around us.  Try this.  Enter this search term in your favorite search engine, ‘what you focus on is what you see’.  You will find a range of articles from bloggers to sources like National Geographic, Inc Magazine and Psychology Today.  All lead to a similar conclusion that what we focus our thinking on, is what often ends up in our experience.

I’ve never compiled the text from the messages on gift cards we include with packages at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, but I am confident that most of them focus on the idea of being ‘thankful’.  Whether thanking a person for their help, a client for referring business, or an employee for a job well done, we send out gifts of gratitude almost every day.

Despite the overwhelming challenges of 2020, I am grateful for many things at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.  We have taken every precaution we could and have avoided the virus.  And unlike so many businesses that have suffered, and sometimes forced to close through no fault of their own, we’ve grown this year.  We have developed deep and long-standing relationships with our customers, our suppliers and have added some new friends to our family of customers.  I am grateful for this and so much more, every, single, day.

One of the interesting side effects of sincere, humble gratitude is that it is beneficial for both you and for others.  For ourselves, it is hard to stay in a state of despair when you focus on gratitude.  And for others who are hurting and suffering, recognizing their plight while humbly, not boastfully, being grateful for what we have is a sign of respect.

One of my favorite stories about gratitude, or lack thereof, comes from the late Dr. Wayne Dyer.  He shared it on his audio series ‘The Power of Intention’ and probably in his writing somewhere.

‘A woman was walking down the beach with her grandson when suddenly, a large wave swept over them and carried him out to sea.  Unable to see her grandson in the water, she looked up and cried out, ‘Dear God, please return my grandson to me!’  A moment later, a second wave crashed on the beach and deposited her grandson on the sand at her feet.  She paused for a moment, looked up and said, ‘Uh, he was wearing a hat’.

If I am honest, there have been times in my life when something wonderful has happened and rather than focus on that, I’ve looked for the hat.  Maybe you have as well.

This happens rarely, but occasionally at Anna’s Gourmet Goodies.  We sent out cookies to customers not too long ago as a thank you.  One of those customers let me know that they ‘were not the right kind’.  A little poking in jest or looking for a hat – maybe a bit of both.

At Anna’s Gourmet Goodies, we have been working as never before to plan for the Holiday gift season.  We are not sure what to expect, but already have orders in the queue from customers sending out gifts, expressing their gratitude to those recipients on the list.  It is an amazing thing to be part of and whatever the remainder of the year brings, I’ll be focused on my word and making sure every package we ship includes a healthy measure of gratitude.

I don’t know how we’ll celebrate the Thanksgiving Holiday this year.  It will be different.  But we are grateful that Anna will be home with us to celebrate, be thankful and create a memory or two.  And I’ll be happy to see her, even if she is not wearing a hat.

“When you change the way you see things, the things you see will change”
-Dr. Wayne Dyer