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I first found Ms. Olivia on Instagram in search of a GREAT cookie maker for my 10 year business anniversary and open house. She was so fun and creative to work with. I gave her my idea and she just went with it and came up with the most amazing cookie design that reflected my brand in a way I could not have imagined. Since then, I have been totally obsessed with her delightful confections and designs and her bad ass bossbabe story. She is deliciously funny and incredibly talented and I am so excited that she agreed to collab with me on my professional growth project titled The Entrepreneur Mama Series. The project series highlights local moms who are successful Entrepreneurs. Each mom shares how they balance being a mother and their businesses. You can see my other interviews here and here.
Here is a Olivia’s boss babe story…
1. Tell us a little bit about how you started your cookie business? Where can people find you?
When I started my cookie business it was actually not a cookie business it was a ‘Baked Treats and Pastry’ business. I specialized in pastries, breads and a very popular scone. Decorated sugar cookies were not even on my radar. If I was asked to make them the customer would get a hard NO from me. However, after some time I started with a few cookies. Then a few cookies turned into a few dozen. And then the most amazing thing happened…word of mouth kicked in with customers. Customers sharing your info is huge for a business. So my pastry business turned into a cookie business somewhat organically and it’s been the best! It wasn’t a smooth transition and so much hard work has gone into it but it was the best decision for my business. The easiest easy to find me is on Instagram. It is mainly just pictures of my cookies, cakes and gnomes.
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2. You are a single mom and have a special relationship with your son. Does he share your funny humor? What do you want him to remember most about you when he is older?
Being a single parent is HARD. Being a parent HARD. My kid though, he’s amazing and makes all this worth it every damn day. We are both are so fortunate to have a spectacular family support to help us. You want so much for your kids as they grow and my want for him as he grows up is to be a good person, care for others, take no sh*t and always try again when you fail. It’s important that he sees me fail with the Bakeshop and then to get up and keep
going. It’s not always pretty but it’s reality and pushing yourself out of the box is a great example to a pre-teen kid. He 1000% has my sense of humor. Which I feel is one of my greatest traits I could pass on to him. And if you follow me on Instagram and watch my stories, you know I have the humor of a teenage boy and it is completely inappropriate. No apologies!!
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3. Can you share with us how you manage your busy successful business and balance quality time with your son? Any secrets or tips your would like to share with our readers?
Having a business that is based out of your house can have a way of taking over every aspect of your life. That is 100% not an exaggeration either. When I first started the bakeshop it was a few hours here and there. As my business grew though the few hours turned into so much more. Particularly with a cookie business where the busiest times are Wednesday through Sunday. I would like to say I started out with a clear plan and mapped out my orders but that would be a big fat lie. It consumed our lives for a period of time. Every weekend, most free time during the week. Eventually I hit a wall and realized things had to change. So I started saying no to orders, took three days off each week, ran business errands while my son was at a school and prioritized my damn life. Best decision I made was to draw that line so I can have the time with my son we both want. Trips to Los Angeles to visit my sister, night trips to Target to buy stuff and eat ice cream in the parking lot and having a full Sunday of video games and Harry Potter movie marathons. You can’t get this time back with them. It’s not always like that though. Some weeks are Bakeshop centered and no free time. I found a balance though and that’s the very best I can do. Just try.
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4. What is the most requested cookie design? What was the most bizarre or challenging one and why?
My most requested cookie design is definitely for Baby Showers. Procreation is alive and thriving! No particular design specifically but babies are always being born and people generally like to get cookies for those parties. Plus, who doesn’t love babies! My most favorite type of cookie to design though is when a customer calls with a really random story for a really random cookie. I’ve made some really fun cookies over the years like a pink moose, a human heart, a cookie that said ‘Sayonara Tom’ (Tom was the name of a tumor) and a cookie that matched a tattoo. The back stories are the best part. Everyone has a story about why they want to buy cookies and that’s the best part of my job is hearing them. The hardest cookies to make are when customers want exact replicas. I can’t offer them. I’m not a machine, I’m a person and duplicating is not something I can do.
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5. Your gnome obsession is truly funny! Can you share with us how that came about and how many gnomes do you own? Which is your favorite and why?
GNOMES!!!!!!! You want to talk about gnomes? We can talk about gnomes! It is true, I have a deep obsession with gnomes. If you ever come to my house to pick up an order you will see all the gnomes on my porch. Honestly, I don’t how the gnome collection started. I think it started with the Travelocity gnome from the commercials. Then it just grew over time. Outside I probably have 25 and then more gnome adjacent things scattered through my house. My dream job would be as a gnome designer where I could design inappropriate gnomes that you could have around your children. I’m totally serious too! I talk about my gnomes a lot on my Instagram page. I have the sweetest customers too, they’re always tagging me when they see gnomes and around Christmas time I was gifted with some lovely gnomes. My favorite gnome is a Trex that is getting attacked by little gnomes. So good!!
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6. What do you have planned for your business in 2019 that you would like people to know about?
I am a huge introvert. I also suffer from social anxiety so growing the Bakeshop business has been really tough for me. The social interactions have taken a lot of work to learn how to cope with. But I love my business and growing it is really important to me. I have reached a really good spot with the Bakeshop where I’m booked months in advance and my work load is full. I would like to venture out into other aspects though. I do have a goal that I would like to achieve in 2019. I would really like to teach a kids cookie decorating class. I think I would be really good at it and I think it would be so much fun to do. So keep an eye out for that, hopefully it’ll pop up!!
Tonya Riggs specializes in natural light portraits for newborn, baby, maternity, family, and child photography in Clovis, California and the greater Fresno County Area. She also provides travel sessions to the Monterey Bay Area including Santa Cruz, Capitola, Soquel, Aptos, Watsonville, Carmel, Monterey and Salinas.
I would love to begin planning a natural light portrait session for your baby. One year sessions are a wonderful way to capture this milestone. Please message the studio for a non obligatory phone consult and list of our current digital collections menu.
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