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Time to Stop being so Nice.

Fine. Go. CookieText

Here we are! October 3rd marks 8 years of delivering CookieTexts. I tend to sit here at the keyboard around this time of year to reflect on the past 12 months.

I still love my job.

A highlight of the year was working at a Career Fair at John Tyler Elementary  in Hampton in the Spring. I met the cutest little boy.

He asked me: “What do you like most about your job?”

I said: “Everyday, I get to help people be nice to other people.”

That’s my job in its most basic form, and I love it, but everything isn’t always so simple and every year of CookieText comes with some personal growth, too.

This year I’m learning that I need to focus all that connecting at work and to stop helping people be nice to other people in my personal life. I know, it sounds harsh, but hear me out…

For example: I typically might text my son’s Uncle to say something like, “Andrew is going to be a 4-H counselor!” in hopes that the Uncle would congratulate Andrew and make a big deal of it. Uncle would be in the loop, Andrew would be happy to be congratulated. It sounds nice right?

My child is 15 years old. If he’s going to have a relationship with his Uncle, one or the other of them needs to take the lead on that.

I think I lost a bit of myself in fostering relationships and connecting others.  I tried to be the bridge between too many people and in doing so my role in all these people’s lives was murky. I’ve had to resort back to asking myself, “what is my intention?” when I’m intervening.

Most of the time when I asked myself that, my intention was to strengthen a connection or relationship between two people fully capable of sharing that information between themselves if they chose to. By doing that kind of stuff all the time I was trying to manufacture other’s relationships for them, and maybe worse, giving people a false idea of who the other person was.

I mean if my son wishes you a happy birthday every year, you’ll think “Wow! what a thoughtful guy”…but if he does it simply because he’s told to do so by me every time, is he really that thoughtful?

And where do I stand in all these relationships I was trying to bridge? I was connecting two others, but how strong is my personal connection to each person? Do I value them? Do they value me? And if they do value me, is it genuine or simply because I’m doing their legwork?

I know, it’s a lot to think about for a cookie blog. But that’s one of my big takeaways for the year:

It’s time to keep my aiding and abetting of niceness at CookieText Headquarters.

I get to help people be nice to other people every day, and I get to do it on a deliciously personalized cookie cake…I can bake it and personalize it, I can even sprinkle and box it, but it’s not my role to place the order or to know who should say what to whom: that’s entirely up to the parties involved.

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Can you make a $5 cookie cake?

Prologue:  

Since this blog was originally published we’ve gained some fans and some readers…we thought it was worth re-visiting, especially since the Juggle for Hunger event is tomorrow at CNU. Read through to the epilogue for what’s changed since this post…;) 

 

I lost both of my parents at a fairly young age, so I find myself very adhered to men and women I respect who are older than I. I’m not quite sure if I’m looking more for guidance or approval, but that’s okay, it might not matter.

One of the people that I have grown to respect as wiser and more worldly is my middle son’s soccer coach, Steve Shaw. He’s a soccer Guru. He can spot a player with potential and coach them into a true asset to any team.

There’s more than that to Coach Shaw, though. Steve Shaw is a believer. Not just in our youth. He’s a believer in God and His goodness. Coach Shaw believes that if we all give a bit more of ourselves than we are now, then the world as a whole will improve.

See, Coach Shaw is well-traveled. Me, not so much. I work to make a little impact nearby, but Coach Shaw has his sights set on China and places I’ll likely never see. I guess that’s where trust comes in. When someone you respect asks you for something, you have to trust them.

I know nothing about China. I have many abilities, but the dynamics of world politics, poverty issues, and how I could possibly have a role in them is not one of them.

The Challenge

It was March 15th. We were at a soccer tournament in Prince William County. Hanging out in the lobby at the Hampton Inn, and Coach Shaw asked, “Can you make a $5 cookie?”

As part of his initiative called Juggle for Hunger, Coach Shaw was hosting a Collegiate exhibition soccer game between Christopher Newport University and William & Mary. All the funds from the event were going to benefit his mission work in China. We could sell the cookies at the game.

Well, a CookieText® cookie cake retails for $25, and even a bag of CookieBites™ is $12. So a $5 cookie cake was a challenge.

To make a long story short, we came up with a $5 cookie. We call them our Emoti-Cookie®, because they are the perfect size for an emoticon. We made 250 of them for Coach Shaw and sold them at the CNU vs. William & Mary soccer game.

We gave them to Coach at cost (true cost, not labor). So every bit of  money made went to his mission work. When the exhibition game ended and we had leftovers we brought them to his church the next morning so that his peers could offer donations to his cause in exchange for an Emoti-Cookie®.

When all was said and done, we almost tripled Coach’s investment. Which is great. But that is not the point.

The Result

“Can you make a $5 cookie?” That question completely altered our business.

Our desire to help someone we respected resulted in a major payoff.

We expanded our product line. We now offer the cutest little homemade, hand-delivered $5 cookie cake you will ever find. We sell them by the 6-pack to make them deliverable. They are a huge hit.  They are adorable and irresistible. They are just right.

Our signature item, the CookieText® cookie cake, is the backbone of our brand. It is the foundation of the company.

But the question, “Can you make a $5 cookie cake?” resulted in the development of a product that, in keeping with the brand, offers a bang for the consumer’s buck while increasing the number of potential customers who receive our product. More people get one, more people like one, more people learn about Cookie Text, visit our website, and hopefully purchase our CookieText® cookie cake products.

So, yes. We can make a $5 cookie cake. For all the right reasons. Great product. Fair price. Thanks, Coach Shaw, for the challenge.

Epilogue:

Coach Shaw has moved on to become my youngest son’s coach and we just learned that he coach my middle son’s team again beginning in the fall.

April 14th marks CookieText’s 5th year sponsoring Juggle for Hunger. Our business has grown such we no longer ask Shaw to cover our costs. Last year we switched over to bags of CookieBites and they were a hit, so that’s what we’ve done again this year. 

Come see CNU face W&M on April 14th at CNU…and have some CookieText while you’re there…this year’s proceeds benefit the purchase of water purification systems in China.

Learn more about tomorrow’s event here.

Learn more about my boys’ soccer club at www.valegacysoccer.com .

Learn more about CookieText at www.cookietext.com .

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