Outside the Oven

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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Welcoming people at the front door

A few weeks ago an email with a subject line, “Front Door Ideas-and a Cookie-Worth Stealing” popped into my inbox. It was a post about how a hotel chain welcomes customers at their front door with cookies (not ours – but that’s okay). It made me think about some of our customers and how they use our cookies to welcome clients “at the front door”. Perhaps more importantly, I thought about how we welcome clients to our front door – our website.

Making others feel welcome is something I grew up with and had the chance to share with Debbie several years ago when we visited my Aunt Opal, before she passed.

Aunt Opal welcomed us as soon as we arrived — Aunt Opal with Debbie and Anna

We were traveling back home and decided, on a whim, to stop by. She lived in the house where my grandmother was born in 1890, a chance to re-visit a piece of family history. We knocked on the front door for our un-announced visit (family visits in the country do not require reservations) and after exchanging greetings and hugs, we were welcomed in the house. It was close to lunchtime and she offered to prepare us a ‘little something’.

I like to think that Aunt Opal was really a seven foot tall woman packed into a five foot frame. With seemingly no effort and barely taking a break from telling stories, she put together a feast that would have fed at least two dozen people. We sat down in the kitchen where my grandmother ate as a child and I can’t remember a time in my life when I felt more welcome.

After lunch, we spent time catching up on family news. She gave us a tour of her garden, a plot that would have been a challenge for people half her age to tend. We left well fed, with an arm full of preserves and some rich memories. I can almost smell the cornbread and find myself re-telling this story almost fifteen years later.

What does this have to do with Anna’s Gourmet Goodies? I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. We bake cookies, but are really in the experience business, creating memorable impressions. To make that happen, we do our best to practice principles I learned growing up of making people feel welcome as soon as they come in the door.

This past week, we added a new client. After sending us their order, we helped them edit the message a bit, corrected a few typos (did not even tell them) and offered up an alternate package that better suited their needs and actually cost less. Yes we are happy to have the business, but more important, we wanted to make them feel comfortable and welcome right away.

When we send cookie gifts for our business clients, branded with their logo and message, we know that in many cases they are trying to make their clients feel welcome. By practicing the family values I learned growing up over and over again, we try very hard to make it look as easy as Aunt Opal did preparing that meal, leaving an equally lasting impression that hopefully will inspire recipients to tell their story to others as well.

Our ‘house’ might be digital (website, Facebook, Google+, Twitter), but if you happen to stop by, we’ll try our best to make you feel welcome right from the start whether you are a first time customer or a member of the Anna’s Gourmet Goodies family. And if we do it right, perhaps you’ll tell that story to someone else 5, 10 or 20 years from now and in turn, welcome others the same way into your ‘house’, wherever that might be.

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I met my match on Valentine’s Day

I was living in Louisville when I met my match. I’d moved back to my home town from North Carolina after winding down a business I started upon graduating from Duke. I started a second software company in Louisville, but that one also fizzled out after a few years. I re-started my career working at a local company selling engineering software and hardware.

I dated a little, and while there were some terrific women, nothing really fit my idea of a long term relationship. Friends and family fixed me up on a few blind dates – most of which ended often before the dessert course was ordered.

I saw an ad in the paper (yes – back when we read newspapers) for Singles Night at the Hawley Cooke Bookstore on Valentine’s Day. I remember thinking that if my mom were still around and I told her I met someone at an event like this, she would likely approve. It was worth a shot since most of the other avenues were not guiding me to the kind of person who might be a good fit.

This card helped me find my life's match. — This card helped me find my life’s match.

The plan for the night worked like this: When you walked in the door, there were two baskets – one for men and one for ladies. The bookstore cut small children’s Valentine’s in half, one in each basket. You had to go around the room, introduce yourself, and see if the cards matched. If they did, you entered a drawing for prizes. The idea being this was a clever way to invoke conversation and find possible ‘matches’.

I can’t remember exactly how many people where there, but it was a crowd. My first match was an attorney from Louisville. While we enjoyed some conversation, it was pretty clear that she might not make it past the main course at dinner, much less the dessert menu.

I was thinking of calling it a night when I noticed this beautiful young woman that I had not spoken to. She was there with a friend, and while she was attempting to be social, did not seem all that interested in finding ‘a match’. She walked up, introduced herself and asked to see my card. I showed it to her and she said, ‘Well, aren’t you lucky – it looks like we matched.’ I’ve heard people tell stories about the moments they remember when they first met their spouse – this is mine. I was indeed very fortunate that day.

We enjoyed some conversation and finally, as I was walking her out to her car, I asked for a phone number. She obliged.

After a few stumbles arranging our first date (Debbie’s memory on this differs from mine), we started seeing each other on a regular basis. We shared many of the same interests, yet we were different in many ways. Most importantly, we became friends and that carries through today, 21 years later.

A few years after we met, my career brought me back to North Carolina. In a leap of faith, Debbie decided to also move, leaving behind her job of 17 years as a paralegal. Shortly after the move and a little more than two years of dating, I was convinced this was a match that would stick. Fortunately, she did not swallow the engagement ring in the glass of champagne I served that night and said ‘yes’ to my proposal. We were married on, what else, Valentine’s Day in Louisville.

We shared our story with the bookstore and they were so excited they featured our wedding on the local news channel. I’m not sure how popular Valentine’s Day is for weddings, but it makes it nearly impossible to forget my anniversary.

After my trip to the ER last year, Debbie says she does not want a repeat of that day. I have no worries that will happen again. I’m not sure exactly how we’ll spend the day, but it will probably involve a nice meal with both my Valentines – Debbie and Anna. We’ll probably cap it off with some big chocolate brownies from Anna’s Gourmet Goodies and a scoop of raspberry sorbet – one of our favorites.

Valentine’s Day for me is a reminder of just how lucky I was to find my match on that fateful night at a bookstore in Louisville. I hope you’ll take time to remember how and where you found your match, and share that story. And if you haven’t yet found your match, keep looking. If you can still find a local bookstore, that might be a good place to start.

Of course, if you’d like to send the special person or persons in your life something memorable, hop on over to our website. We’ll bake, pack and ship it, and toss in a little extra scoop of love, no additional charge.

Have a memorable Valentine’s Day,

–Chris

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Sometimes a delivery failure is great service

The holiday shipping season is coming to a close for us. We have cookies and brownies en route to almost every state and a couple of military bases around the world. A few of our shipments travel via FedEx, but the overwhelming majority are carried by the men and women of the United States Postal Service. While we’re confident they’ll arrive as scheduled, we are particularly happy that one package shipped via USPS was not delivered.

Our gourmet cookie gifts are delivered by the USPS. — In this case, great service was their priority.

One of the things we do to make sure cookies arrive where they should is to check each address against the Postal Service database. If it doesn’t return a valid 9-digit zip code, we don’t ship the order. But, there are some things that we cannot catch. If it is a good address, but the recipient has moved, the package will be returned. This year we had a client call us with a different address issue that our database could not catch. It seems that the package was addressed to a husband and wife, only the wife had passed away earlier in the year and their list was simply not updated to reflect that change.

Our client called immediately once we sent the tracking information to see what could be done. I’m guessing this would not be the first time something arrived at this widower’s home, but our client was genuinely concerned and asked for help.

I looked up the number for the post office in that zip code and called the Postmaster. I explained the situation, he immediately understood, and perhaps more importantly, he empathized. He asked that I send an email with the package information and a request to stop delivery. Turns out the package was actually being delivered out of another office, but he offered to handle everything. It arrived that day and was to be delivered the next morning.

I notified our customer that the Postal Service was trying to locate the package and stop delivery. I can only imagine how many packages they were processing on that day, but there was never a mention of effort required or any complaint from the Postmaster.

The next afternoon, I received a phone call. Delivery had been intercepted and the package was to be returned to Anna’s Gourmet Goodies. I notified our customer and they were overwhelmed with gratitude.

Depending on who and where you strike up a conversation about the United States Postal Service, chances are good that you’ll hear some type of complaint about delivery, service or whatever. Bashing the US Postal Service is right up there on some people’s list with baseball, Mom and apple pie.

But it’s not on my list. Frankly, we get great service from the USPS. Not perfect, but we’re not either. This is one example where a delivery failure was actually the result of outstanding customer service. Not because he was required to do so, but rather because a compassionate human being understood the situation and did what he could to help. Great customer service comes from people who understand the rewards of serving others and are not afraid to take action to help.

Given the number of orders we shipped out this holiday season, odds are good that we’ll get returns for some reason. And it is possible that some packages will not be delivered when they should be. Failure happens. No one on this earth is perfect. We’ll do what we can to help.

You can rest assured that anytime I’m standing in a crowd and the subject of the Postal Service comes up (it does happen), you won’t find me serving up any complaints. This one act of selfless service covers a lot of other mistakes. You see it just so happens that the addressee who passed away this year shares my wife’s name, Debbie. And I’m very thankful that our postman won’t be worried about stopping delivery of any packages coming to our home, addressed to my wife.

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