Welcome to Season 15 of the Troubleshooting Innovation podcast. Molly Blakeley, founder and CEO of Molly Bz, talks about how she built a nationwide cookie brand from $150 and an InstaPot experiment. Sponsored by CoPack Connect.
In our fifth and final episode, we discover how to let go of limitations and tap into potential.
Learn more about this season here, and tune into Troubleshooting Innovation on Apple or Spotify.
Joanie Spencer: In this final episode, we discover how to let go of limitations and tap into potential. Hi Molly, welcome back.
Molly Blakeley Hi! Thanks for having me back. I can’t believe this is the last one. Let’s just keep going all year.
Spencer: Thank you so much for spending this month with me. It’s been really fun.
Blakeley: Thank you so much. It has been such an honor to even be asked to do this. I was like, Wow, that’s awesome. So I’m pumped.
Spencer: I have really enjoyed this, and I think this is going to be a really cool episode because when we first talked, this was — one of the first things you said to me — was that you really think beyond limits that you don’t like to think in terms of limits. So, we’ve learned a lot about you over these past few weeks, and I want to just sort of step back into what we talked about in a previous episode: What have been some of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned in starting your cookie company, and why is it important for you to like, last week, we talked about your mentorship. Why is it important to share the lessons that you’ve learned with other entrepreneurs and people who are just getting started?
Blakeley: The biggest lesson is working in excellence and having contracts in place. Like, that’s really important, because those contracts will hold people accountable that are trying to be stinkers. So, that, I think, is really important to do, and have the contract written up by a lawyer. Just do it the right way, do it in excellence. I think that’s been a very good lesson that I’ve learned. It was a hard lesson for just a minute. I don’t, I don’t recommend learning the lesson. Just take my advice.
And then the other one is to definitely be limitless. Like, do not limit yourself with your decisions on anything. There’s something that has to unlock inside everybody’s head that that makes them think, ‘I can’t approach that person.’ Yes, you can. No one’s telling — your hands aren’t tied. Like, go up there and say hello to somebody. I go up to all kinds of famous people, like, I’m supposed to be there.’ Hi, I’m Molly. It’s so nice to meet you. I own Molly Bz Cookies. We should collab sometime.’ They’re like, oh, and I hand them a card, and off I go, you know. And some of them call me, and some of them probably block me. But you know, at least I’m doing it, you know.
Spencer: Love it. I love it. So how does that mentality play into how you come up with your cookie varieties and thinking about product development? Because I feel like that’s the part that comes really naturally, and then the lessons are on the business side. But what are some of the things that you you’ve taken these lessons and applied them to creating the cookies?
Blakeley: Well, you know, when I was first starting out — I think it was a year in — I wanted to, like, have some sort of collaboration with a big chocolate brand. So, like, we’ve got Nestle and Hershey and Ghirardelli and all these ones. You know, there’s lots of them out there. And I thought, which is the best one? Because I’m a premium product, I wanted to really could use real ingredients or whatever. And so I thought, ‘Well, Ghirardelli, that’ll be just fine.’ So I Googled Ghirardelli, CEO. Google. And I find out this phone number for their headquarters. They answered the phone. I said, ‘I’m just calling about a collaboration with Ghirardelli, please. Who would I speak to regarding that?’ And they immediately put me through to this guy named Patrick. And I was like, ‘Hey Patrick!’ And you’ve got to understand at this time, I think I just pulled in 19,000 for annual sales. I was just like, ‘I’m Molly with Molly Bz Cookies. And I really want to do a partnership with you guys. I wanted to know what that looks like and how I can make this work.’ Making that call, now they know who I am. Now they know I have cookie company, and now they know that I’m I’m a hustler. So, Patrick said, ‘Why don’t you send me some cookies?’ I did not have printed packaging. I just had a sticker on a clear bag. Sent them to Patrick. Patrick called me and loved them. And he said, ‘We are happy to do this with you.’ And it was one phone call. One phone call can change your life.
Don’t limit yourself, ever, because it really, truly can change your whole life. And so then I had Ghirardelli on my packaging for a really long time. And we’re, I’m still friends with Patrick. We we don’t use Ghirardelli anymore because chocolate prices went through the roof. And I’m sure everybody knows the story, but it was incredible. And so then I just thought, ‘If that worked, I’m just going to do that with literally everything.’ So anytime I was creating a cookie, I would call the company.
Actually, you know, the movie Flamin’ Hot. I didn’t know about anything to do with the story about hot Cheetos at all, but I knew that I wanted to have some sort of recipe, really, of the Hot Cheetos, because I wanted them on my Hot Mess cookie. So I Google Hot Cheetos, and I found about this man, Richard, and then I found him on LinkedIn, and I just friended him because I didn’t have his phone number or anything. He friended me back. And then I messaged him, and I said, ‘Hey, Richard, I’m Molly with Molly Bz Cookies, I have these cookies that I made that have sun dried mangoes and white chocolate, and it’s Ghirardelli, and then I also have Hot Cheetos on the top. Can I send you some?’ And he replied, ‘Sure. Send them to this address.’ You could have knocked me over with a feather. I stood up and started yelling and screaming in my house like this guy just messaged me back. He’s the creator of the Hot Cheetos, like, how is this my life right now? So I send them to him. He does a reel about it. He talks about it as on his medias and everything. And then he said, ‘I’m going to do this show called Flamin’ Hot about my life. They’re going to do, Eva Longoria is the producer of it. And I wanted to know if you wanted to send your cookies for the premiere.’ Yes, I absolutely want to send cookies for the premiere!
So with that said, he and I have been friends now for several years. I’ve sent him lots of my cookies. He’s done lots of posts about them, and he’ll post on my social media, my LinkedIn. We mostly talk on LinkedIn. LinkedIn has been amazing for me. But he’ll post on my LinkedIn, ‘This is the best cookie. This brand is going somewhere. This is the brand to watch.’ Like, he really, truly is awesome. And if you don’t know his story, he was a janitor at Frito Lay, and he is the creator of Hot Cheetos. That whole entire brand, Flamin’ Hot is him.
Spencer: Okay, Molly, you have had a ton of, like, pinnacle moments. You landed on QVC. You’re mentioned in Forbes. You got your product in the Oscar swag. You were granted two Walmart golden tickets, and you had your cookies at the Flamin’ Hot premiere. How long do you give yourself to enjoy these pinnacle moments? Do you stop and enjoy these, or do you just take these wins and then go, ‘Okay, what’s next?’
Blakeley: So he ended up not doing them at the Flamin’ Hot premiere, because we’re in between co-packers. But I was invited, so that was cool. It’s funny because my family, like I was normalized when I was growing up, that you just go and work businesses. My family is now normalized when things like this happen, so we don’t really celebrate these big wins. And it’s kind of like imposter syndrome again, like, so when someone talks about it, I’m like, ‘It is a big deal, right?’ Because my husband’s like, ‘Oh, great.’ And my son’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s just a regular Tuesday mom. This is just what you do now.’ My biggest hype person is Frank, my VP. He’s now like my family. He’s my brother, for sure. And anything I tell him, he only calls me Molly B. I don’t think he’s ever called me Molly. It’s always Molly B, and he’s like, ‘Way to go. Molly B! Oh, that’s great news, Molly B! Man, that gets me excited, Molly B!’ So he’s the guy to call when I need someone to be my hype person, for sure. But yeah, we don’t like celebrate by going to dinner or anything with all these little things. I just, this is life as usual. And I love it. I have so much fun. It’s really a blast for me.
Spencer: Okay, I want to talk about what it’s like to grow this brand nationally while you’re living in Alaska. We’ve talked about it a little bit over the course of the month, but it still seems crazy to me. Because I remember what life was like before COVID, when everything was in person and we didn’t do things remote. So is it just the post-COVID reality that you can grow a national business from anywhere, or is this a testament to your drive, that you are going to get it done no matter what the obstacle?
Blakeley: Both, absolutely both. I always say my favorite thing to hear is ‘No.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ll be right back.’ Like, ‘Tell me I can’t please.’ Because that’s my favorite because then I’ll show you I can 100,000 different ways.
And so I definitely think that when 2020, happened, the COVID or whatever, and everyone went to online, it opened up eyes to so many things with that. I didn’t know any different because I was just starting to Zoom. I hadn’t been to a headquarters yet, so I didn’t know that that was the normal thing you do because I hadn’t gotten to that part in my business yet. So when they’re like, ‘We’ll just send you a Zoom link,’ I’m like, okay, that was just business as usual for me. I thought it was regular. I didn’t know people were flying to all these headquarters. So then when I got invited to my first headquarters, Walmart in Bentonville, was the first, like, official headquarters I really got to go to — that was cool. There’s an energy there, and everyone’s pumped. I mean, it is the, you know, event that they do that is really popular for CPG people.
Then going to World Market headquarters, that was awesome. Going to Target headquarters. Costco. Every region has a different headquarters. So if you want to sell you have to go to each regional headquarters. So I’ve flown to a couple different ones at the Costco headquarters now, but you don’t have to. But I prefer to now, because number one, if it’s winter in Alaska, I want out. It’s like, ‘I’ll come and see you!’ They’re like, really. I’m like, ‘Absolutely, just name the day.’ So I do that, but mostly my warehouse will send you samples. You’ll get them in two days, and we’ll have a great conversation. You know, that’s kind of where it’s at.
Spencer: Let’s talk about sort of the business strategy for knowing the right markets and the right channels for your cookies, what types of stores they go in. How long did it take for you to dial in where your cookies would perform?
Blakeley: That is such a good question. You know, when I first started, I’m thinking, ‘I’m cookies. Bakery. That’s easy, you know, duh.’
And so I went into a local bakery here in Alaska. It was like a Safeway, I think. I don’t know if you guys have Safeways there, but anyway. They did a floor display in several Safeways here locally, and they put me right next to a dozen cookies for $5 or one of Molly Bz cookies for $4.99, and so that was a miss. That was not awesome. And so I learned, then, maybe I’m not bakery, you know. Because bakery in every grocery store you can get the little clamshell for very inexpensive, and to have an individually wrapped premium cookie, that’s not the right spot for it.
So placement is very important. We started going in grab-and-go when we went into Target a couple years ago. That was key. Grab-and-Go was what was really like, ‘Okay, this is where we go. We’re a snack. I’m a big fat snack.’ It’s like three and a half ounces of snack, you know, and it worked.
We’re still trying to find our space with Boba Doodles. We’ve been on the cookie and cracker aisle, and we are doing okay. But World Market, they’re killing it with the Boba Doodles.
So, it just depends also on the store. Maybe because we are a little higher in a premium, maybe, possibly Walmart is not the right place for a cookie like mine. That’s something that we’re learning, and we’re pivoting. So maybe the three and a half ounce isn’t the right size, but a two ounce, one with less ingredients that we can have a lower retail for that person is the pivot for there. So just be available and open to pivot for what the customer needs, and the customer being the actual store that you’re selling to.
Spencer: So, all right, you’re, you are like the queen of the pivot. You know how to do it. You’ve got it down to an art form.
Blakeley: I don’t like ‘No.’
Spencer: So, you have started and stopped so many ventures just over your lifetime. How did you know that Molly Bz Cookies was the one — That ‘I was gonna go with this and I wasn’t gonna stop’? When was that sort of aha moment?
Blakeley: You know what has been interesting is on all of my businesses, every one that I’ve had there’s always been just like a natural stopping point. So I go until I have interest and someone wants to buy it. So, I’m just doing the same with this. And we’ve started to get interest of people that want to acquire or purchase Molly Bz. And that’s great, but I want to keep building it out because I believe that it’ll be, you know, a several-hundred-million-dollar brand, and we’re not quite there yet. So I want to build it out a little bit longer. I plan to exit in 2027 so if you want to call me — molly@mollybees.com — just give me an email, and we’ll talk about it, Anyway, but with that said, yeah, I really think that, um, this has been my goal. With this one is the first time I’ve actually set a goal of an exit time. So that’s what the goal is. But the rest of them, it was just like a natural process. I was in the middle of working them, and then I’d get an offer. It was awesome.
Spencer: Interesting. So, did you imagine that Molly Bz’ Cookies would go this far?
Blakeley: Not in a million years. I was super pumped for a coffee shop to start carrying my cookies back in Soldotna, you know. Oh my gosh.
And oh, I have the funniest story. So, one of the coffee shops, no matter what, they just wouldn’t carry my cookies. But the managers there at this little drive-through coffee store kept asking me for samples. And they didn’t know that when I would make them samples, it was all the money I had that day. And so I would make them and bake them and make them beautiful, and package them, and then bring them samples, and then come the next day, and they’re like, ‘It’s just not right for us.’
And then, like, a month later, same thing. So I moved to Anchorage, I become a decent-sized business, and go back down to visit. And I go to that coffee shop to get a coffee. And I had forgotten that they had rejected me several times on several occasions. I was just wanting my coffee, and it was the same lady working there, like three and a half years later. And she said, ‘Whatever happened with that little cookie company you were trying to do?’ And I just said, ‘You should Google me. Thanks for the coffee.’ And just drove away, and it felt amazing.
Spencer: Oh, that is amazing. So okay, you have an exit date that you’re you’re trying to reach, but when you think about the brand, what do you imagine, or envision, 10 years from now, when you are shopping and you see Molly Bz Cookies and you’re not part of it. What does that look like? How does that feel?
Blakeley: It feels awesome in every way. Just pride, like so excited that it continued on, and that people are doing big things with it, and knowing that it was something that I created from the jump. I think that that’s so cool. And be able to just be a grandma, enjoy my grandbabies.
But also, after I exit, one of my goals is do a nonprofit for foster kids. So, I don’t know if you want me to get into that at all, but it’s, it’s a pretty cool program that I’ve already started to implement them a little bit in Alaska, and I think it’s going to be a big deal.
Spencer: Yeah, tell me about it.
Blakeley: Yeah. So okay, it’s a Blakeley Foundation after my dad, who taught me how to be a solid working person, along with my mama. And it’s called Entry Level Academy. So, a lot of these kids that are in the foster care, when they age out, they’re just like, don’t have anywhere to go, especially in Alaska. It’s a thing. I’ve kind of seen this around everywhere that, like some people, are only foster parents for the check and not for the kid. And so these children are not taught to work. They haven’t been given the right chance. So, I want to start this academy where they can stay there. We’ll teach them how to write a resume. We’ll do all the things, but we’re also going to teach them every single possible entry level position in the restaurant field. So every four weeks, they’re going to learn new things.
So, for four weeks, they’re going to be a line cook, and then a fry cook, and then a prep cook, and then they’ll do front of the house, and then back of the house. They’ll learn how to do barista. We’ll do bartending. We’ll do all the things. And by the time they graduate from the school, we will be able to have kids with experience in every part of it, and they’ll be able to have job placement. Because restaurants need employees. They’re desperate for employees. And so it could work both ways.
And so having that program, and I think there are programs that are similar, but mine is really wanting to focus on the foster children. And so having that program, having restauranteurs, like managers or whatever, come in and just walk around and start making offers to these kids. Like, ‘When you graduate, I’ll hire you. Come now and start training. Be an intern while you do this. We are here for you.’
But I also want to have a working restaurant at the exact same time. So I want them to actually be in a live restaurant. And everyone that comes knows that this is the program they’re coming to. And when they tip the kids, it’ll go into a whole thing that’ll be divided upon all of them at the time that they graduate, and hopefully that’ll give them an apartment. We’ll get them their interview clothes. You know, all the things that they need to have a good start at life.
The State of Alaska has even got a program that, if someone would hire them off of from graduating our school, the state of Alaska will pay their wages at wherever they’re hired for the first six months.
Spencer: Wow, oh, that’s really cool.
Blakeley: Yeah, so cool. And I want to make it national. That’s really where my heart is. I just want to help people. I want to teach them. Also, one of the courses they’ll learn for four weeks is how to build your own brand. So just inspire them and let them know that maybe if they had a hard time or people didn’t believe in them, we believe in them. Everyone gets that chance
Spencer: I love that. That really just embodies the theme of this episode in being limitless. So that’s really cool. Okay, I have one last question to wrap up this episode and wrap up the season. This is going to be kind of a curve ball for you, but I want you to just take a minute and explain for us what cookies, entrepreneurship and lipstick all have in common.
Blakeley: Cookies, entrepreneurship and lipstick. You can never leave the house without lipstick. My mother taught me that. It was part of the uniform at her restaurant. And entrepreneurship always needs to be in your back pocket because you can make anything into a business. So when you go into anywhere, always think how you could change it and make it better. So all those things combined on being a super entrepreneur.
Spencer: I love it. I love it. So then you never leave the house without any of those things. You should never leave the house without Molly Bz’ cookies.
Blakeley: I got a purse full right now. I’m always packing!
Spencer: Okay, Molly, that is all I have for you. I just have to say, thank you so much for spending this month with me. You are an incredibly interesting individual and super creative. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen as much grit and hustle packed into one person.
Blakeley: Oh, wow! Well, thank you so much. Watch the brand. There are some amazing things coming, and some of it is not cookies. Get ready.
Spencer: Okay, all right. So are we gonna expand outside of cookies?
Blakeley: There’s a film crew involved, yeah. It’ll be fun.
Spencer: Okay, awesome! Well, here’s to you, here’s to this brand, and here’s to some amazing cookies.
Blakeley: Thank you so much.
Spencer: Thanks, Molly. It was really a pleasure.
Blakeley: I had a blast.
