No school for the 4th day in a row…and you’re wondering what in the world to do with those children of yours that are climbing the walls.
We challenge them to make a Cookie Text video. We don’t want to put too many parameters on it, but we had to have some rules, so here’s the deal:
Entrants must be school age: 4-18
Entries should come from within our service/delivery area.
Submit a video by uploading to a sharing site like Vimeo or YouTube.
Length: At least 30 seconds and no more than 2 minutes.
Video should be accurate…ex. use the right names for things associated with the Cookie Text brand, don’t mention a flavor we don’t offer, etc
Music is welcome but should be created by you. We can’t use popular music without purchasing the rights to it. So we want to use your stuff!
Need props? Let us know what you need and we’ll do our best.
Funny? Touching? Silly? All those are good. We are looking for creative, original, and accurate.
Submissions imply we can use your work to promote Cookie Text.
All submissions that MEET THE GUIDELINES AND RULES will be considered and the submitting individual/team will get a free CookieText® cookie cake!
Winners Receive
The Winning entry will receive $100 and if it’s submitted via a school/class we’ll donate an additional $100 to your classroom. Unless, of course, you’d rather have more CookieText® cookie cakes!
Deadline for all submissions March 15, 2015
Email your name(s), contact information, and a link to your video to tweet[at]www.cookietext.com
We are a small operation here and can’t employ lawyers or insurers to validate our contests. Trust that every effort will be made to run a fair and honest and unbiased contest. We will do everything we’ve committed to do in the way of prizes.
So now when they tell you their bored, you can combat boredom, and challenge them with cookies and cash! Please share this post with educators you know in our region who might be able to work this challenge into their curriculum (if we EVER return to school)!
It’s not something I talk about often, the loss of my parents. But there are times when it’s foremost in my mind. Birthdays–mine, my children’s, and this week, the company’s, do not pass without my wishing my mom and dad were here.
The Loss of My Mother
Long, long before Cookie Text, LLC, I was a little girl growing up in Phoebus, Virginia. I had freckles, a pug nose, and as many siblings as fingers on my hands. One day I was woken up and most all of them were gathered in the kitchen. My father, seated at the head of the table, told each of us to grab a sibling and hang on. I left that table without a mom. She had died in the night. A heart attack. I was nine years old, days from entering 4th grade.
I made lemonade in a brown pitcher. Family came. Family left. Still no Mom. I’d sit in Mrs. Young’s 4th grade class and she’d tell us to, “get your Mom to sign the paper,” and I’d feel a wave of confusion, sadness, and grief that I was certain no one else at Moton Elementary understood. I didn’t even understand.
The Loss of My Father
Fast forward nine years. I’m a senior in high school. This time there’s a diagnosis. My dad has cancer. Terminal: Lung, liver, and brain. He lasted a year. He died when I was home for Christmas break my Freshman year of college. I went back to school and no one knew. It wasn’t like I’d suddenly left mid-term. People weren’t asking, “Why weren’t you in class for a week,” they were asking, “How was your Christmas?”
I felt alone. I lived in the college town at the time, and took the bus to campus. I remember thinking that I’d never hurt myself, but if I stepped off the Centro and got hit by a truck, that would be okay.
Somehow life went on.
I went on. Like the thought on the bus, it never occurred to me to voluntarily quit. If something happened out of my control that would be okay…but otherwise I just kept going. In all the weirdness that was my childhood. In all the tragedy and unknown, somehow it never occurred to me to stop moving forward.
My Business Turns Three
And for some reason, amidst this week’s peppy Facebook posts, I find myself more reflective on Cookie Text’s third birthday than usual. Maybe it’s because there have been so many moments in the past year that I’ve questioned it all. There have been things that I struggled with regarding the business, especially trying to balance it and my family.
Am I misappropriating my time?
Am I neglecting the boys?
Is this ever going to amount to anything?
What in the world ever made me think I could start a business and then run a company?
I know, I know! Not my typical upbeat self. I realized one day about a month ago that I could quit. That was weird. I realized almost in the same thought that that’s never been who I am. I stay on the path. I keep moving down the road.
I want to think that the stick-to-it-ness came from my Mom and Dad.
Good People Show Up
I believe, however, the reality is it came more from the aftermath of losing them. It came from the people that appeared in my life whenever I needed a lift up or a push onward. Again and again they showed up. They still show up to this day.
From my third grade best friend who appeared at my mom’s graveside, to my 4th grade friend’s mom who would make time when I spent the night to sit and chat with me. I mattered to a mom, that mom, even if I couldn’t ‘matter’ to my own.
From my friend Belinda’s mom who gave me her daughter’s hand-me-downs before she was finished with them because she knew my widowed Dad was overwhelmed to the guy that worked with my brother and got us younger kids passes to the YMCA so we could get out of the heavy house we were living in.
In college it was the coworker who asked me to learn to play racquetball with her. I think her rides to the gym kept me from stepping in front of that aforementioned truck. She’s a best friend to this day.
I could go on year by year: people that passed into my life and showed extreme kindness. People that formed a virtual safety net to keep me from crashing down. People that provided the exact encouragement I needed at the precise moment. They still exist in my life today. They take many forms: siblings, friends, secretaries at my kids’ school…they now even appear as customers.
Look for the Helpers
No one can stop horrible things from happening. There are going to be hard times, both in life and in business. But as Mr. Rogers said, ““When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
It’s these helpers that lift me up. It’s these helpers that keep on believing in me and in CookieText. Even when I can’t make sense of it all. The helpers have never let me down. I just always know I need to take more time appreciating their presence than lamenting my losses.
Birthdays Can Be Bittersweet
Birthdays without the ones you love are a little bittersweet. Of course it’s awful that my Mom and Dad are gone. It’s sad my boys never met them. It stinks that my parents have never had a CookieText®. But birthdays when you’ve got so very many people that have graced your life, they have to be more joyous than anything else. I have been blessed beyond measure for years with people that lighten my life, encourage my dreams, and make my heart soar.
Besides, as my brother Jerome says, “I bet they have CookieText® cookie cakes in Heaven.”
So on that note, thank you all of you helpers for walking this road with me. It’s not without it’s valleys, but the peaks are oh-so-great.
As a business owner and salesperson, do you know what you are really selling? Well, unbelievably delicious cookie cakes, of course…but clearly the person asking the question was looking for something more meaningful. So I thought for a bit. What Are You Selling?
Last week, when we sent out a CookieText® cookie cake to the staff of a local nursing home, we were delivering heart-felt gratitude from the family of the cared for.
When we went into the nearby subdivision and dropped off a CookieText® cookie cake to a new mother, we were celebrating the joy that new life emits.
The CookiePic® cookie cake for the woman who suggested to her friend that she use the same real estate agent as she did, and told her why, well that was from that Real Estate agent. It was two-fold…it was a thank you and a promise she won’t let her down.
The sampler pack of Emoti-Cookie® cookie cakes going to CNU tomorrow, that’s love from afar, from a mom who misses her boy.
And that CookieText® cookie cake that high-schooler used to ask his date to homecoming, well that was sweetness with a touch of hope.
The CookieText® cookie cake I dropped off to my friend, for her family to share as they gathered to mourn the passing of the grandfather, there I was delivering our family’s sympathy and compassion.
We’re Selling More Then Cookie Cakes
So sure, we sell CookieText® and CookiePic® cookie cakes, Emoti-Cookie® Text cookie cakes and Emoti-Cookie® Pic cookie cakes. In so many delicious flavors, no less. But I contend that what we’re really selling is more complex than that. I think we deliver a lot more than cookie cakes. Cookie Text is about helping people to share their personal message exactly the way they want to say it.
Though we didn’t launch Cookie Text specifically as a college-student service, we are in close proximity to four Universities (ODU, CNU, W&M, HamptonU). As we’ve built our brand and gotten our footing, we’ve done what we can to reach out to parents of these schools to let them know we can provide CookieText® cookie cakes for their students.
I’d like to say that reaching these parents has been easy. Not so much. I’ve had the most success with Christopher Newport University. They now allow me to attend their freshmen move-in vendor fair and put fliers in goodie-bags for family weekend. I’ve made countless trips to Hampton University. I’ve brought samples and fliers. Still no luck.
A fellow soccer parent who is a professor at William and Mary was kind enough to give me the information I needed to participate in the W&M freshman-move-in vendor fair. I couldn’t be more grateful. When I dreamt up the company, I imagined delivery within a very specific mile-radius. We’ve evolved though and currently deliver all the way from Virginia Beach to Williamsburg.
Delivery Areas
We currently offer free delivery to free to Hampton, Poquoson, most of Newport News, and Yorktown.
Based in Yorktown, we can’t send a driver to Williamsburg or Norfolk with a fresh-baked CookieText® cookie cake and not cover the cost of getting it there (at least until we have Cookie Text kitchens in Williamsburg and Norfolk)! So there is a fee for delivery to Williamsburg and Southside. You can always check delivery charge by zip code on our Delivery Areas page.
Cookie cakes are not created equal
Of course, one can go online and find several companies that would ship cookies to their student at any of the four local universities. These items might even be slightly more affordable than CookieText®. But they won’t be made from scratch with butter and sugar and eggs and vanilla. They’ll have shortening and corn syrup and preservatives. And they won’t have been baked that day.
At the risk of being corny, the store bought cookie cakes won’t be made by moms who love their kids as much as you love yours.
It wouldn’t be much of a tagline, but sometimes I’d like to say, “CookieText®, baked and delivered by people who give a crap.”
We treat your delivery like it’s a delivery to our own child that we love and miss. We make it from scratch, bake it to order, hand-deliver it to their college campus, and then text your child to let them know it’s waiting for them. Why? Because if I was trying to send something to my child from afar, I’d like the very same. So would every person that we employ.
I won’t sleep on the sidewalk for just anything. I do have standards, you know. But sleep on the sidewalk I did. Right between the couple with the neoprene lunch boxes that convert into placemats and the lady with the pop-top jewelry.
The couple to my left had flown up from Miami. They already had a successful product and a 5 star rating on Amazon. They were hoping to get on Shark Tank, the hit ABC reality show to increase their exposure. My line neighbor on my right was confident that her aluminum can jewelry was so new and unique that she was going to be the next big thing. She was just as sweet as she could be.
Then there was me. What brought me here? Sleeping on the sidewalk in a beach chair at 3am in Greenville, North Carolina? I’ll tell you the Interstate didn’t take me to Greenville. It was a two lane road through towns that had rolled up their sidewalks at 10pm.
There are four types of people
In life there are optimists, pessimists, cynics, and realists. I’ve come to find I’m some crazy combination of the four.
The optimist says: “I’ve got a great product that is a big hit, with the right guidance and backing, we could go national.”
The pessimist has read the statistics: According to Karen Ano, with Hearst Publications, “Of the more than 35,000 people who now try out each season, fewer than 150 make into the tank.” And then of those 150 countless numbers end up on the cutting room floor and never make it on television.
The cynic in me says, “It’s all about casting the right combination of people and products. It’s a tv show first and foremost, not just about the ideas with the most potential.”
And the realist says, “There’s a snowball’s chance in hell, but I’ve got to take the shot.”
So there I was. Sleeping on a sidewalk waiting for a wristband so I could take my turn pitching to a member of casting for Shark Tank. I could go into my amazing ability to create conditions in which I can sleep in any environment, but that might make you insomniacs jealous…so I’ll back track a little.
Shark Tank calls Cookie Text
April 2013: my cell phone rings and I let it go to voicemail. I listen and it’s a gal from Shark Tank wanting to talk to me about Cookie Text, LLC. So I call her back, she interviews me on the phone then proceeds to send me the full application via email. The full 29 page application and the 10 minute video requirement. I did it all (with a lot of help and support from my friends). I made a special trip to FedEx it within their 7 day window. Then I waited.
I never heard a word.
Shark Tank Emails Cookie Text
Fast forward one year to April 2014: I get an email. A different person in casting had seen an old email exchange and sent an email asking if I was still interested. Of course. So she calls me and again I interview on the phone, complete the mega-application, submit a video, and even send sample products. I thought I’d submitted a great package. (Again, within their timeline.)
Again: I never heard a word back from them.
Shark Tank Open Casting Call
I follow Shark Tank on Twitter and Instagram. I knew they did some filming in June. In my mind if I’d been selected from the April application I’d have been in L.A. in June. So amidst the social media I noticed the open casting call in Greenville, North Carolina. For those that don’t know, Cookie Text is based in Yorktown, Virginia, and at the time I didn’t even know there was a Greenville, North Carolina. Thanks to Google Maps I figured out it was just 3 hours away.
So I filled out my third application, this one graciously much more brief. I knew it would be my last time. I also knew I had to go to Greenville. I had to see this through.
Maybe it was the statistics that sent me: if they get 35,000 applications, did anyone even look at mine? I had to make sure I’d been seen. I knew once I’d been seen, that if the answer was no, I could accept the no. I just couldn’t accept the ‘who knows’?
So I arrived in the line about 2 a.m. I offered the extra two chairs in the back of my “Cookie Cruiser” to a couple of nearby folks who were sitting on the pavement…and then I dozed. Well, I dozed between trips to the port-a-pot (though I felt calm, clearly my bladder was nervous)…I arrived as one of the first 25. By the dawn’s early light the line snaked down the block and around the corner, with the end further than I could see. I kept thinking of the guy that walks down the street at the end of the movie Pretty Woman saying, “What’s yo’ Dream?”
Into the Shark Tank…foyer
Finally, wristbands were distributed, I switched from flip-flops to heels, and it was time to enter the building. We went right up the stairs to a beautiful waiting area where we were briefed by a casting director. He told us they’d call our number. We had a minute, but not exactly a minute, they weren’t going to cut us off at 61 seconds. He told us a lot of other stuff too, like this was the most obscure town they’d been to, but the attendance was as good as Seattle or Austin.
Then I waited for my number to be called. It wasn’t long. I was only #21. There were about 6 people from casting working at once. Each had his or her own table and the applicant walked up to the next available table when it was his or her turn, so it moved very quickly.
My number was called. I got my stuff together and quickly the next available casting person was ready for me to give my pitch. And…she recognized me and CookieText® cookie cakes. She was the one that called me in April, that I routed my application to when I sent it to California. So the optimist says, “That’s good my product and I are memorable.”
The Takeaway from my swim with the sharks
But there was the realist: The part of me that most needed to attend the casting call. The part of me that needed to see this pursuit to the end. The part that knew, when I walked back to the Cookie Cruiser, that I wouldn’t be getting a call to head to L.A.
I was a little sad. But I was more proud and relieved than sad. I was proud I followed through to my finish line. And let me be abundantly clear. It was my Shark Tank finish line, not my Cookie Text finish line. Sure, Shark Tank would have been cool, as much for me as everyone who knows and loves the company and brand, but it’s not the only way to make all our Cookie Text dreams come true. It’s one of hundreds of routes to success. I’d drawn my line in the sand. If I went to Greenville and still didn’t get a call, I was letting go of that route.
Lots of my pride and belief comes from the love of you all, the customers and fans, so you gotta know that means the world to me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
I heard today on MarieTV (if you are in business and haven’t tuned in, check her out her website www.marieforleo.com) that failure and success aren’t necessarily different paths. They are often the same path. Success is just further down the road. So down the road I go.
I had to see Shark Tank through, and I’m very glad I did. But a ‘no’ from them isn’t a no to CookieText® cookie cakes. I firmly believe in the products, the concept, and the brand. Maybe most importantly on this long road, I still believe in myself.
