Mikayla Frick and Her Frick'n Good Cookies

I had so much fun talking with Mikayla Frick, Founder and CEO of Frick'n Good Cookies. This 25 year old is a rising star in Detroit, Michigan with her amazing cookies. Let me tell you what...they are frick'n good. Within two years, she has grown her business from selling on Facebook to selling in major retailers across the state.  In addition, these cookies will be sold at all concession stands during University of Michigan football home games. 
Her business acumen and cookies have earned her companyThe Rookie of the Year Award at Eastern Market and a nomination for Best Cookies by Hour Detroit Best of Detroit 2022. Listen and learn as she shares how she has grown this company into a very successful venture. Let her story be an inspiration to pursue  your dream and know that it's okay if you don't have it all figured out.
Keep up with her latest products and exciting news on her IG page.  Connect with me on my website and follow me on my IG page for help on building and growing your career!

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Transcript

0:00

attention. All of my dreamers out there, I had so much fun talking with McKayla, Frick, founder, and CEO of fricking good cookies. This 25 year old is a rising star in Detroit, Michigan with her cookies. Let me tell you what they are fricking good. Within two years, she has grown her business from selling on Facebook, to selling in major retailers across the. in addition, these cookies will be sold at all. Concession stands during university of Michigan football home games. Her business acumen and cookies have earned her company, the rookie of the year award at Eastern market and a nomination for best cookies by our Detroit best of Detroit, 2022. Listen and learn as she shares how she has grown this company into a very successful venture. Let her story be an inspiration to go after your dream and know that it's okay. If you don't have it all figured out.

Jodie 0:57

Hi, Mikayla. It's so nice to have you on job shadow and I'm excited to know what you've got going on.

mikayla 1:06

Thank you. I have heard about

Jodie 1:09

your cookies for years when you used to bake them for your roommates at Michigan state university. One of which was my daughter Madison. Yeah. Most recently you were awarded rookie of the year at Eastern market and you are being nominated for best cookies by our Detroit best of Detroit, 2022 awards. That's huge. Yeah. So there is lots of exciting news happening for you and for your company. And I kinda wanna get started with, so what inspired this idea?

mikayla 1:42

Yeah, so, well, let me backtrack a little bit so funny. Totally my grandma, my grandma ship cookies up to us all the time. So, freaking good cookies is my, my grandma's recipe. Okay. So it's my mom's mom's recipe. She has been known as the cookie lady for years, which then like equated into our family with like my sister and my parents. Cause. Wherever we would go, like we would bring cookies. My grandma would give us cookies and then like, it just became a thing. Even when we came back up to school, everybody's like, where's the cookies. Anytime we went home and came back. We were always like coming back with bags, zip bags of cookies, and they would get eaten, like totally gone. So it originated from my grandma. and in regards to what inspired me to start? So it started, when I guess in college, I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. My dad is an entrepreneur. He owns his own collision shop. And so I've been surrounded growing up by a close family member who is an entrepreneur I've gotten like a glimpse of it. I wouldn't say, I knew fully, what it actually meant to be an entrepreneur, what that looks like. But then in school I went to Michigan state for apparel and textile design. And I minored an entrepreneurship. I always knew I was into fashion and that was something I wanted to do. But I, I mean, I started off as anybody else with a major, I, I think I wanted to be a doctor and I was something in chemistry or something. And that, changed that three or four times. And yeah, it was always just a very creative person. So went to school with that major. I loved it and I got a sense of what it was like to kind of make my own schedule in that program because everything is hands on and. Like there's no test. There were no tests in my program. Like it's making garments and like, it's like project runway, but for school, like we do everything we would design. We would come up with the concept, we would sketch it out. We would source the fabric. We would make the design, like start to finish. We did all of it. There were no tests. You either showed up with a garment at the end of the project or you didn't. So you kind of had to figure out how to navigate that. You, you couldn't like, just like, you know, have do it like a test. You'd be like, oh, I didn't study. You're still gonna have a result. It might not be a great result, but you're still gonna have a result where with the fashion. You wouldn't have anything to show. So like, you couldn't even have like a 50% on a test, like you would have nothing. So I got a sense of what that was like, and I just like fell into it. And I just kind of tried to, in a sense, looking back, make a business of it. It didn't work out. And it was almost like a starter thing in college. And then I can get more into it. But when I graduated. From Michigan state. I was this high. I mean, I did everything with the university. I was top of the program. And that was like on purpose. I sought out to be this four point. I was just so in love with what I was doing. And I loved it so much that every second, it didn't feel like work. I just loved it so much. I just kept creating and doing, and it just kind of like snowballed into this. And I was. Presenting on behalf of the university. I like shows and different events that they would hold for the program. And when I had graduated, graduated that was the hardest part for me, because this is kind of what started all of this. It's a factor of things. When I was graduating and applying for jobs, I was never that person that was like, I wanna work for this company. This is what I wanna do. This is my dream company. I never had that. And when I was applying for jobs, I never was sparked with this is what I wanna do. I just, still didn't know. Like, it didn't feel right. You know, like when something feels right, it just, it didn't click and it didn't feel right. And I had friends who knew what they wanted to do and for me, that was just never it. I was. When I'm doing something I have to like, fullheartedly wanna do it. Or I just can't make myself do something. I did. I just knew it wasn't right. Okay. But I was still applying for jobs, trying to get a job just because that's what we're told to do. Right. And I applied for months, like when I tell you I applied to like over a thousand jobs months, and this was December of 2019. So COVID really became, not that it wasn't a thing then, but I, it didn't hit the us. Hard until March of 20, 20 that's when everybody was like, oh my gosh. So from December to March, I moved home and I was living at home, which was just a total culture shock. To me after being on my own. And you take for granted when you go away to school, having your friends, right next door, having people of your age, a lot of people of your age, majority within one area, one city, you move home and it's way different. So I was always a go, go, go person, sitting at home, applying for jobs. I was almost like depressed. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't get hired. Nobody would even reach out to me. I spoke to people, spoke to people and changed my resume. So many times. And it just it wasn't clicking. And so I was sitting at home. I didn't know what to do. And my dad owning his own business. This is kind of where this comes into play. I just told him, I was like, I'm gonna. Coming to work for you. I need something to do. I just, need to do something. So I started out and would just come in there, work for him. I didn't know anything about collision, so like help answer the phone or file papers. We made a desk in his office, which is where I would sit and work with him. And one day you know, I think it was March or April. We were just driving home. And I had always known that. I wouldn't say, I always knew I wanted to do something with the cookies. I just knew it was a huge hit and it was something that everybody loved. And I remember in college being like, maybe that's something that I will. Do one day. And I remember my dad just being like, why don't you just like, try, try it out? Like, why don't you just like, start it, just see where it goes. And that night I was scrolling on YouTube and I found this video from this entrepreneur and he was like, oh, you know, now's the time to start a business because like, it's the unthinkable right now. Nobody would ever think to start a business during an unthinkable and very uncertain time like this. And that's just kind of what inspired it. It's a long story and it's a whole train of events that just kind of compiled into each other, but that's really how it started. By me, not, you know, one door closing and another door opening eventually. That's, that's just kind of what happens. It's a thing of events and it just works out the way it's supposed to at that time.

Jodie 9:12

Absolutely. I was talking with another graduate the other day, who had some detours along the way. The story of these detours are purposeful. And, you just to have that faith when you're getting ready to graduate and, for those who, aren't quite sure

mikayla 9:31

where they're going, how they're

Jodie 9:32

gonna fit in. Right. What that looks like, because you're right. When you're in school, you have your friends. I'm so glad you brought that up. You have that social connection.

mikayla 9:42

and then when you

Jodie 9:43

graduate everybody, everybody goes a different direction. You kind of start all over again. Well, same

mikayla 9:49

with college. You get done with college and

Jodie 9:52

it's like starting all over again. So, you knew that your grandma's cookies were a big hit and you had this idea, how did you start? What was your first step?

mikayla 10:02

Yeah, so my first step was living at home in my parents' house. And mind you Growing up. We had, I have one sister and we had lived in a, a bigger house. We had dogs, we had, I mean, you know, we had friends over all of that. And then we went away to school and my sister went away to Michigan state as well. You know, two year, three years behind me. But my parents had downsized because my plan was always that I was gonna go to New York city that has been. My plan. That's right. Yes. They won since I was little that had been my plan and really quick going off the detours. One thing that I, that you said that I wanted to note about was the detours are purposeful and the, the good thing is you just, there's very hard times. You just have to know. This is how it's supposed to be right now, because like you said, from the time you're born until you know, you graduate high school, let's say you go to college. it doesn't matter what your family does. It doesn't matter what your parents do. None of that matters. You're all, you're all on track to do the same thing. You're all going to achieve the same thing until you graduate. And that's when it's like, whoa, because everybody's path then changes from there. So that's a big change. But yeah, so going back to it, so. Living at home. We, my parents downsized, so like there was never purpose for us to move home and COVID hit. So my sister was living at home as well. And we have like one bedroom downstairs, cuz again, it was just supposed to be like, Bedroom to like, you know, stay the night at here or there, like we don't fully live there. So I started selling them on Facebook and I would just bake cookies at home and sell 'em on Facebook. And I remember one day. I got like 30 people who wanted a dozen cookies. So it was like 30 dozen cookies. And I I told my dad, my gosh, I have to bake 30 dozen cookies. I can't come in today. I have so many cookies, we have bake and it was by myself. We didn't have a mixer, nothing. Everything was done by hand. And my parents like a normal size oven, like a normal household oven. Yeah. So that's how it started. It started. Facebook and me selling cookies off of there. And now,

Jodie 12:25

so how long did it take you to go from that to where you are in many markets in the Detroit area. And I also want you to share, those who are local to Detroit, where they can find them, but then also share the big news of our Spartan Riv. Yeah. Yeah.

mikayla 12:42

So if you're local in the Detroit area, you can find us. So Meyer opened a bunch of like corner store markets. Meyer is a Midwest company. They opened some corner stores, so there's Detroit Lansing area, grand rapids, Royal Oak. The one in Detroit's called like Rivertown market. So it's more of like a specialty. They really focus on locally made products, which is really nice. And it's nice too. It carries a lot of like different products that are really unique to the area. And then we're carried at Westborn markets, Vince Joe's a lot of the specialty stores in the area. And then. Yeah. We also, you know, religiously work with Eastern market every weekend. And we're at various different festivals and farmer's markets in the area. And then we signed a deal with the university of Michigan. So now we'll be working with them this year for football games and hopefully eventually basketball games and yeah, supplying to their stadium. So the cookies will be available. The concession stands, which is awesome. Cause it's a locally made product and you walk up, you can get a press, you can get cookies, you know, they'll all be there. So

Jodie 13:54

yeah, that is when I read that on your Instagram post. I got chills because yeah, just to know how you have grown this company. You began this well in 2020, I mean, when COVID hit and had us in lockdown, And goodness gravy. We were all enjoying our food. I will say that, the bogus household certainly was, enjoying the food because it was one thing we could do. Right. We were cooking. We were baking and, and so. So for you to start then, and to be where you're now, how did, you get into Myer? I mean, Myers

mikayla 14:29

is huge. Yeah. So the interesting part and going back to COVID you guys said like, you're, that's what everybody was doing. And so I think it was like the right time and the right place. Yeah, because cookies are something. You can send to somebody, you can eat at home and they're close to your heart. It's something your grandma made, it's a comfort food. Yes. And so it was a comfort food during a time that needed it. And at that time, supporting local businesses was emphasis. So greatly because there were so many businesses that were going under because they didn't, you know, during a time like that, nobody knew how to handle it. And So that right there was just like the right place, right time. And what's interesting is when I went into this, I had no plan. I had no plan that this was gonna turn into a business. I had no plan of what we were gonna do. I never had an idea of what this would be. I just was making cookies to pass time. So I started selling them on Facebook and somebody was like, Hey, you should check out the Royal Oak farmer's market. I didn't even know that farmer's markets were a thing. This is how uneducated I was throughout the whole food industry. I didn't even know farmer's markets were a thing. We were still baking cookies at home. So one day I just walked into the farmer's market. Got ahold of somebody. And I got a chance to start selling our cookies there. So mind you, when you're selling baking cookies at home, there's a, a certain like number of foods that fall under this category that you're allowed to bake at home, which would fall under the cottage law. So you don't have to work out of a licensed kitchen, but again, you're only allowed to grow so much and you can't really get to those next levels, but we didn't know what we were doing. I didn't know what I was doing. So like at that point that wasn't. A big issue. And my parents were hands on helping me as well. So started selling at the Royal Oak farmer's market. And then we were selling probably like, I don't know, like, you know, 50 dozen or something, 30 to 50 dozen. We were like, oh my gosh. So I remember it would be late at night and my parents and my boyfriend were in there. We were baking in my mom's kitchen, like bacon, all these cookies for the market the next day. And yeah, it was just becoming. It was becoming a lot for a small household for a small kitchen. That's it's a lot on my parents. We had to store this stuff there. And again, it's not, it wasn't a lot of stuff at that point, but still in your house, it's an invasion of, of space. Mm-hmm also it's very messy. So yeah, so that was happening. And then I was still working with my dad. We would get up. 5:30 AM go to the farmer's market, sell the cookies. And we are doing that every Saturday. So my dad his manager who works with him also owns a bakery. He owns a cupcake shop, which originated from his mom. And so it was based in Sinclair shore. Which was not far about 20, 30 minutes in the area. And so my dad was like, we should see if you can rent space from him, late at night. Cause it was getting to the point where my mom was we gotta do something cuz it's just, it's a lot, like it's taken up the area. So I was able to start renting from him. Hourly. I only needed a couple hours a week on their off time. And I think at this point we were doing like Sundays or sad. I can't remember like Friday nights. But just a couple hours is like all we needed, but we would drive there and bake the cookies. So then it kind. I can't remember how it escalated from there, but from there, it's just like, oh, like, this is great. We can do a couple other farmer's markets. Like, why can't we do that? Like, if we can do one there's many more in the area, I started to learn more about them. Cuz people are like, oh, you should look into this farmer's market, you know, as you build a clientele and you talked to more vendors, you learn more you network. That would be awesome. I can't remember the timeline exactly, but a lot of farmer's markets are only open like may to October 31st. There are select ones that are open all year round, which would be like Eastern market Eastern markets all year round. It's a very known market all year round. You can go to Eastern market. And Eastern market is like a, I would say more prestigious market is a lot harder to get into than any of the other ones. My dad had a contact. For Eastern market, somewhere down the line. And so he had introduced me to him. I talked to him a little bit, it was still a huge process to get in. But we got into Eastern market and then at that point we were probably five to seven markets, the following season. Starting in may. And so that's when it kind of like ramped up. We got licensed by the state of Michigan in the kitchen that we were renting. So you could do that. You can be licensed in a kitchen and get a license, even if you're only needed 12 hours a week, whatever that looks like, like you can still get licensed in that area. So we did that. What a lot of people don't know was there was ups and downs, it was hard. It was very hard. I've never had employees or con people work for me or anything like that, which I had to learn how to start navigating that because I needed help running these farmer's markets. And the other thing was we started scaling to like five to seven markets and. We would have to go buy all the ingredients. So at this point we would bake like Thursday and Friday night and we couldn't go in until like 6 30, 6 37. O'clock when the bakery had closed. And at that point we had all worked all day. Cause this is not our full-time job. We would go in at seven o'clock at night. We would also have to grocery shop the day before and buy, I mean, hundreds of pounds of stuff. Cart it into a household because we couldn't leave it in the car. Cause it was hot. Put it back in, go there at seven o'clock at night drive there, bring all the ingredients into the bakery. Cause we couldn't store them there cause they didn't have room bake all the cookies. Then we would have to package all the cookies, put all the cookies back in the. It'd be like 1:30 AM. By the time we were done, we'd do it again. The next day, work the next day. Do it again. And then sell 'em on the weekend. What got very difficult was like, at some point that wears you out. We did that for six to seven months, I would say. And it was just getting to the point where it was like, okay, We're going in the next season. Like if we're gonna do this and try to attain this, and at this point I was starting to learn a little bit like, okay, we wanna do these markets. This is what it looks like. We can't do this. It's just not feasible to do it, doing it, renting it at this spot. And at that point, the biggest issue was like storage for us. We had nowhere to store ingredients. We had nowhere to put anything. Everything was just overloading. We were killing ourselves driving 40, 30, 40 minutes to the bakery late at night, baking. Awful times. And then having to do it like that. And we did that for months and months and months straight. So then there was, you know, that opportunity where we are looking for a bakery in the meantime of that we are at Eastern market. And Meyer, which was opening. The one in Detroit was the first one that opened the corner store was looking for local vendors. So we knew we needed a place. We knew we needed, you know, we just knew something needed to change. Meyer had approached us from there. Like, I love your cookies. His name was Marcus. He was gonna be the store leader at this location. And he was like, I'd love to talk to you guys about carrying the cookies at our store. At that point, we knew nothing about wholesale. You know, we met with them, they were awesome. The greatest people to work with. We still like my favorite people to work with to this date. And so that's kind of how that's the story of that. So they found us at Eastern market. So just at a farmer's market, they approached us and tried the cookies and that's the thing is. There were so many times like, you know, you would lose money or like you would lose, like that happens. That happens. And I don't think a lot of people understand that. And I can get more into depth about that, but there were some very tough times on that. But yeah, Meyer found us by approaching us at a market.

Jodie 22:55

Well, what I, what I've heard you say, couple things have stuck with me that would be really helpful to point out is number

mikayla 23:03

one, networking. You, utilized

Jodie 23:06

your network, your connections. Don't be afraid to use connections. And then number two is that you were learning on the fly. You didn't have this all figured out. You were quick to adapt. And I think a lot of the students I've talked to just get stuck in that. They're supposed to, know. They're intimidated by if they don't know. And, and whether it's to open their own business or it's to go work for, you know, a large organization, a small organization, whatever that looks like. There's this feeling that they have to have it all figured out instead of this, you're gonna learn as you go and, and look how quick you were to adapt to. And, and it sounds like you surrounded yourself with a good support system too. And, I think that's, again, whether you're looking to start your own business or you're looking to go work for someone else surrounding yourself with a support system is imperative to help you get to those next

mikayla 24:06

steps and the networking thing like that was networking. I didn't even. I don't even know what networking meant. I still do that to this date. I go to, we go to a big festival. No different than if you're taking on a job. I wanna learn from people. I will take an hour. Like if we get there an hour early, everybody's setting up, you also gotta figure out same with the, like, this is just, you know, you can apply this to anything. You gotta figure out what the best time is to talk to. Typically in my books. It's first thing in the morning. You're fresh. First thing in the morning, you're just starting your day. So if we go to a festival or somewhere else, I'll try to start approaching like other vendors who do, like, let's say we do cookies or somebody who just does barbecue. I just wanna introduce myself, like, have you guys done this event before? Like, what do you expect? And then where are you guys from? What other events do you guys do in your area that you highly recommend, or do you think we would be a good fit there? And so now I've learned how to really use that to my advantage. You know, network that, I mean, that is networking and networking can see very, like, what is that? The bigger picture. But to this day, I still do that. You just have to like talk to people. And the one thing, like I found that's been very helpful is like going into a conversation. I'm not a know-it-all, I'm not somebody to sit here. And you wanna learn from somebody you wanna go into it. And just be honest, where you're at, where are you? Want to look into and the right people will talk to you and the right people are there for a reason. Yeah. So to this day I network all the time and that's what networking means to me. And I think you just had to figure out what networking means to you. And the other thing I think that would apply was going back when I was saying about some of these markets and. One market that stuck out. When I was starting, we were doing Ann Arbor farmer's market. It was all year round, barely covered. I would get up at 5:00 AM when it was eight degrees outside, put my snow pants on, everything on and I would go. Get there at 6:30 AM. Cause the market started at seven. I would set up and sell cookies from seven to one or three o'clock or something. And they, I think there was a day I made $110. Like it wasn't even worth my time to drive there. All of that. I've had people who work for me, same thing, but looking back. Yes. Some people would look back and be like, that's such a waste of time. And looking back, you can say that, but in the moment it teaches you consistency and it teaches you to be accountable cuz at the end of the day, nobody's gonna do it except you. So if you don't hold yourself accountable and be like, all right, last week was a bad week. This week was hard or last week, last month we made no. You gotta get up and do it again. And you're not gonna learn. If you don't continue to push yourself and push yourself. And at some point, you'll learn if something will click of what the next step needs to be, but holding yourself accountable. And networking was two of the biggest things that I was doing, I didn't even know I was doing, but was very helpful in getting to where I got to at this. Yeah, cuz you, you kept showing up right. And never stopped showing up even when it was very, very, very hard which

Jodie 27:40

I, and so that brings another point I want to highlight is the expectation that something's gonna happen overnight. And, as a business owner myself, I can totally relate to that. There are days when you're starting out, that you. is this, is this worth it all this time and heart and soul, I am putting into this, is this worth it? Right? And you just keep showing up, keep showing up and eventually it just, it starts taking hold. And, and so I wanna point that out to others to make sure that they, to not have the expectation that something is gonna happen overnight, because very rarely does it. And it's it's my opinion. It's not meant to happen overnight. It is meant for you to go through those steps and grow through those steps, grow through those struggles, you know, show up. And when it's eight degrees and I know how cold it gets in Michigan and, you know, and to, and keep doing that. I think that's important and. And to be fearless. That's another thing I really hear out of you is you're fearless. You're not afraid to talk to people and, and you're not afraid to be humble and Hey, so how are you doing this? Right. I think that's what makes you refreshing as an individual is, is that you are humble and you're not afraid to learn and, to keep going.

mikayla 29:04

Yeah. And I tried to. Give a helping hand as well. Because for me, it was very frustrating when I get it. There's these people who've been doing this for years. Like the last thing they really want, probably wanna do for some of these people and this, I mean, not everybody wants to help you. Not everybody wants to take the time to do whatever it would be to talk to you. But for example, Even to this day, there are people I would see at festivals and be like, oh my gosh, I love your product. I work with and closely work with various different Meers. I know the people over there, like, is that something you guys be interested in? Like, I'm always working to help other people because people did do that for me, like some vendors. But I wish there was like more of that. I'm not afraid to. Openly, talk to other vendors, like, oh, this is how it's going, or, oh my gosh, you're having a horrible day at a festival. Or I don't know. You know, that's helpful. And there's a big learning curve. And so if I can, obviously I feel like everybody needs to go through that learning curve. And try to understand that, this is where you are right now and it might not be where you wanna be, but. You have to be present and you have to just show up every day and know that again, going off of being fearless, the other thing I think about is it's so scary to me, the scariest thing is not failure. It's not success. It's looking back, being older in your life and oh, I wish I would've done that. Or I know a lot of people who say that, I wish I would've did that. The scariest thing is you have one life and like, it's so cliche to say, but not taking the opportunity to do what you love. Even if you don't know, at some point, I think it's just making the best of it and what can I do to show up every day to try to, and it'll all, it'll all pan.

Jodie 30:57

It does. And it did

mikayla 30:59

for you? Yeah. Some it did. It did eventually. It

Jodie 31:03

did. And it, and it still is because I'm guessing you're not done

mikayla 31:07

growing. No, no. And it it's been very fun along the way. It's just, it's crazy. And. Yeah, there's there was so many heartaches and there still is various hard times. But now I'm getting to the point where I'm starting to get the groove of it. I'm starting to learn and it's fun because Our business model. Okay. It's always evolving about where we wanna go about what we wanna do. We started out Facebook and then we did farmer's markets. We don't sell on Facebook anymore. And now then we are doing all farmer's markets. Then we got a taste of like what these like big festivals were, that's see 200, 300,000 people. Well, then we were oh, that's where we wanna be. So then we scale back on the farmer's markets and we only do. One or two. And now our majority is we do a lot of festivals and then we got a taste of what working with stores was. And so it's always evolving and you never know what's gonna be next. And I think that's the most exciting part, even with the deal with U of M, like. Nobody handed that to me. And I think a lot of people, like one of the things I struggle with is I just turned 25. I'm a very, very young entrepreneur. And I recognize that. And I understand that, I have a lot to learn. I haven't Being taken seriously as a female and a young entrepreneur is very hard. I'm a part of a business group in Detroit. And I am the youngest individual there. And so that's been a little bit of a struggle and I going back to the U of M thing, I think a lot of people think. You know, I, my dad's very well connected that somebody just granted me this opportunity, which is not true, connections doesn't mean you're cheating or you're taking a step, which I think is also a big misconception that that's right. Oh, you just got that because of your dad or because of this connection. Which is not true at all. Use your connections to your advantage. Your connections might just be a helping hand I can give you some advice on this. And I have somebody who you can talk to and then you talk to that person and it's oh, I love your attitude. I love. How you are as a person, it's like many interviews along the way, you're still doing the work. That's right. So I think with the U OFM thing, I think a lot of people think oh, this 25 year old girl could do that on her own, like, haha. You know, I talked to people they're like, so how did you do that? So who puts you in place with that? No. The funny thing is no, I had zero connections to that. Nobody put me in contact with that. That was solely all me who did that. So was like six weeks ago. I it was funny because we were at the east Lansing art fair, and this is when it was slow in the morning I was going around talking to vendors. And there were these barbecue people and I always wanted to try to. Sell at like a game day or something, Michigan state something bring a food trailer. I know it's a whole thing. I didn't even know where to start. I didn't even know what the license, I didn't know any of it, but I knew that was an option. So I was talking to these barbecue people and they were like, oh yeah. We did one game last year here, Michigan, Michigan state. And they basically were saying they signed a contract. So initially that was my plan going into it. I was like, okay. We knew we were gonna grow. I was like, we were gonna buy a food truck, a food trailer, we were gonna do something. So I was like, Well, let me see if I can get in contact with somebody and figure it, figure it out and see if I can bring a food trailer on site. So I started doing that at Michigan state. I couldn't figure out how to get through to somebody. I was trying and trying. So then I was like, let me try the university of Michigan. I gave myself one day. I was like, I'm just gonna sit here. I don't have a lot to do today and I'm just gonna start calling people. I look up numbers. I just start calling people. I explain, I'm trying to get in contact with whoever's in charge of the vendors or concession or food for home football games. Cause I don't know what you classified as, but I'm just trying to like figure my way down. I probably called and spoke to. I don't know 20 people, but I figured it out. I continued to just call. I just picked up the phone and started calling. And finally I got through, I got through like a voicemail. I left a voicemail, somebody emailed me back and it wasn't the right person, but they were like, I know the person, I think you're trying to get a hold of, let me give you the email. So. I shoot him an email. He calls me back and I was kind of explained to him what I was trying to do. And they were like, okay, you know, do you have some samples? Can you bring 'em in? So I was like, sure. So I got a meeting. I went down there and I brought samples. What's funny is along the way, these things that you don't know. When I went there, the company that runs the concessions, there is very similar and close friends with the company we've worked with before for like, we did like the Autorama in Detroit. So that gives me some validation going into it. I have some experience of what I'm trying to do. I explain the trailer. And they were basically like, you know, I get what you're saying, but. With the percentages, you know, cuz you're the percentages you're gonna take. They're gonna take they're like you're gonna hit such a small portion of the crowd and they're right, because that stadium's huge and you're gonna be a one entrance or one exit. So true, good point. You're not gonna hit a good amount of people, it might not be worthwhile. So. I think like, just the way I presented myself in that meeting and just like I was pair, I brought stuff in something must have caught their attention. And they were like, you know, would you be interested in at this point I didn't really understand what it meant, but they were like putting cookies at our stance. That way you can put cookies at stands across the stadium, that way you can. People in every area. And I was like, yeah, that sounds great. The meeting started off like that. We dropped off samples. We left that day. We looked around the stadium, kind of got an idea. I think that went great. They texted us, said they love the samples. And so then I had. Two weeks to figure out how to make a display and how to do all this stuff has happened very short time. I figured out how to make a display. I came back in, I had a PowerPoint, I had everything laid out and it went from all of that to why don't we just do every concession? There's 120 concessions. Wow. So it started from that to now we're gonna be making, you know, 30,000 cookies for them. Again, that's a lot of cookies. So I figured out how to, you know, navigate that myself and that's the other thing is at the end of the day, I've learned Use your connections and they are great. And don't try to ever burn a bridge. But at the end of the day, all you need is yourself. You need to be confident and you need to believe in yourself. You don't need anybody else. You just need yourself. You have to like, do the work yourself. You just need to believe in yourself. And that's truly all that you need. That's how I got this deal. It's a huge thing, but all I did was pick up the phone and started calling people. That was it. Tenacious, right? Yeah. I mean, just very like you did what, like you're never gonna get a whole, you know, that's just the common thing. I was like, Nope, I'll figure it out. I love

Jodie 38:42

it. I love it. And for those who are listening, Michigan state, so for McKayla to graduate from Michigan state university and to be selling these amazing cookies at university of Michigan's a big deal, cuz that's a big rivalry. It.

mikayla 38:57

So, and you probably, when I graduated from Michigan state, I was like, I hope this doesn't break the deal. they were like, oh no, they're

Jodie 39:05

laughing. I hope that whoever listens to this, I hope that it inspires them to, believe in themselves and not be afraid to take risk, to not be afraid to put themselves out there. I'm sure you've had some setbacks but, I don't hear you caught up in those setbacks. I hear you, whatever they were, you just, you move, you learn from 'em and you move

mikayla 39:28

forward in them. There's always a solution to every setback. There are setbacks, there are issues every day, something's always happening. You can't control it. There's always gonna be an issue, but there is a solution to everything. And I think the thing is like not getting so caught up in it. So at this point, like we had our mixer break list. Like there's always something and our mixer is down. It happens. There's a solution for everything. And. Getting like overwhelmed in the moment or like freaking out about it. It doesn't help the situation. And you can't think clearly there's always gonna be setbacks. And I think you just have to know that, at some point you'll go through so many setbacks. You're like, okay, like this is fine. Like, how do we, how do we deal with it? How do we approach it? Yeah, there's always gonna be something.

Jodie 40:20

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, and I had to laugh when you were talking about, you had to put together a quick product demo for them. Well, see, there's, you know, back to college when you had to put together the garments and do these shows

mikayla 40:33

and absolutely. And how that all came into play in this, and people are always like, I know that I am, I know that I have a gift and that I was talented with making clothing. I know that, I know that just the way that. People tell me, I understand. And I see that it still plays into today and I'm not saying I'll never do that again, but I know that it's not the right time for it right now. And that's okay. Just understanding that there's no pressure. I have the rest of my life. I don't have the capability to bring that on right now. And I don't know what that looks like, but I know that the door could open again one day, but when I had to put together that Quick presentation. And I had to create mockups and all of this. I used things that I learned in school programs that I learned in school. My creativity from you know, working in fashion, one of the cool things we're gonna do is a rivalry pack which is gonna be our two best sellers, our chocolate chip versus our peanut butter stop chocolate chip, which will be on sale there. And. The other thing is we had that meeting, it went great. They love the mockups. So when I say mockups, I'm talking about a three tier display and a single tier display. I mock it up, but I need to figure out how to produce it. So you know, there's various companies. In various areas all across the world, there's a lot of time differences. So there are times that I was setting my alarm for 2:00 AM because I needed to communicate with somebody and their time is way different than our time. And then I'm like, I need this product like ASAP. So figuring out how to meet deadlines and how to do all that and understanding, okay, here's your opportunity. Like you just gotta make the best of it. That's exactly what I did. I know it's very crazy to a lot of people and it is very tenacious, very crazy to do, but you can do anything you really can, like you just gotta know and believe in yourself that you can do it.

Jodie 42:40

I that is the perfect place to end you're exactly right. You're inspiring me to know that we can do anything. And so I hope that whoever listens that they feel that way too, so okay. Where if we're not local to the area, where

mikayla 42:56

can we buy your cookies? So you can order them online. Okay. We ship nationwide, it's fricking good cookies.com. And you were working on getting into more stores nationally. We do wholesale to one store in like St. Louis, Missouri right now. Another like fresh time. Myer situation. So we're working on more and hopefully in the next few years, we have more availability for people in different areas. But right now you can always order online. Well,

Jodie 43:27

that's great. I will put the web address in our show notes and then. If you're ever in Greenville. Yeah. Cause Greenville is a big foodie area here in South Carolina and there it's food truck galore. It's such a fun place to be. So if you're ever here, you need to reach out to me and we will show you the town and you can stay with us too. If you'd like with plenty of space.

mikayla 43:53

Yes.

Jodie 43:55

Absolutely. Thank you so much for your time. I really

mikayla 43:58

appreciate it. I've loved it. Thank you so much.

44:06

I hope you enjoy listening to Mikayla. Share her story. About growing her cookie company fricking good cookies. And let it be a reminder that We are all called to a purpose and that purpose is unique for each one of us. Whether it's growing your own business like McKayla or following a corporate path. I hope hearing her story inspires you to keep moving forward. Learned from the obstacles and be willing to evolve as you journey along your path remember, you can connect with me on my website. Jodi Boggis. Dot com or follow me on Instagram at Jody Boggis underscore careers. All links will be in the show notes.