I was featured on The Tamron Hall Show
Hey everyone!!
Can you believe it! I am part of the TAM FAM!!!!! Thank you to everyone who tuned in to the Tamron Hall Show to support me! It was such a surreal experience to be on national TV while Tamron Hall, Kimberly Brown, and Susie Moore tried my TOOTIES and gave me solid business advice.
Tootie Cookies has been a vision that I have had for quite some time. For those of you who don’t know my story I would like to share it with you now.
I am a wife to my amazing husband, Dennis and together we have two girls, Amelia (5) and Liliana (4). Being a mom has been my entire identity for the last 5 years. I worked in education for roughly 6 years before having children. When we found out that we were pregnant with Amelia, we both decided it would be amazing for me to stay home with her for as long as we could afford it. When Amelia was about 3 months old, we discovered that I was pregnant again with Lily! WHAT A BLESSING! It was also scary to imagine being a stay-at-home mom to 2 under 1, which was the case for exactly 10 days before Amelia turned 1 AND living on a single income. The alternative was to return to work and find childcare for my girls, neither of us were comfortable with that idea. My incredible husband worked A LOT to be able to provide for us and I tucked my dreams of discovering ANGELA for another day. I baked whenever I had a free moment (HA) and would bring my cookies to family get togethers. I always sat near the dessert table for two reasons: to make sure my kids didn’t eat everything and to watch as people tried my cookies for the first time. I would feel such pride and excitement when their eyes would close and they would shout, “OK, who made these COOKIES!!” I still never imagined turning this into a business, after all I have two degrees for crying out loud and neither are in the cookie making business!
One day over the summer on a very rare occasion, Dennis “DJ” and I were kid free for the afternoon. We started to talk about our dreams, his vision was so clear- it was inspiring. He turned to me and asked me about my dreams. I felt a little sad and embarrassed if I am being honest because I felt so lost, my default was to just talk about my dreams…. for the girls. Although he has always encouraged me to pursue my passions it never felt like it was the right time for me and after 5 years, I had no idea what my passion was! Was it to return to teaching? Should I get an office job? Maybe I should go back to school for a third time and become an Occupational Therapist!
Finally, I said jokingly that it would be really cool to just bake cookies and make people happy. Dennis DID NOT BACK DOWN. I was waiting for him to laugh, but instead he was bursting with joy! He had so many follow up questions and before I could even catch up with the conversation, we were seeing if Tootie Cookies was available (you’ll have to tune in to the next newsletter on how I settled on the name Tootie Cookies)!
Fast forward to today, Amelia is in kindergarten, Lily is in Pre-K, Dennis took a big, bold leap of faith and is currently working from home as a real estate investor. The cottage law had just been passed in NJ for bakers to bake from home, what did I have to lose! Well, I dragged my feet for a really long time to get my permit and came up with every excuse in the book, BUT I finally completed all of the requirements and received it in November 2022. Since then I have started to find myself, not Angela the wife, mommy, daughter, friend, sister, aunt, cousin… ME! It is not always easy, sometimes I get discouraged, but then an incredible opportunity came to me.
A friend reached out to me about a post she saw regarding the Tamron Hall Show. In true Angela form I quickly dismissed her – sorry Natalie! The post then showed up on my feed a few days later and without thinking I quickly responded. One thing led to another, and your girl was selected!!!!
Two incredible things have happened since being on the show and I am going to tell you right now, it has nothing to do with money.
The first thing that I realized since being on the show is that this was meant for me, all those times in my life that I wished to God something would change for me, or happen for me, it was all leading to this moment. It has given me the confidence to press on and pursue this!
The second thing that has come about since being on the show is related to my girls. My girls are my entire life, this year has been an adjustment to say the least. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about them starting school for the first time. We are lucky that they both have such incredible teachers, I am not just saying that- we are fortunate to have the best teachers in place for our girls and our family because they truly care about their students and their students’ families. I know because Ms. F and Mrs. M have definitely seen me cry on more than one occasion, at the drop of a hat, and have been nothing but caring. Mrs. P is always quick to respond and goes out of her way to be so loving! AND YOU GUYS (sorry I am from JERSEY!) this comes so naturally from them, so please if you know a good teacher, treat them with reverence and respect!! Anyways I digress, but since being on Tamron Hall I have seen a confidence boost in my girls! They are proud of ME, and that proudness has encouraged them to be confident in themselves! This above anything else means more to me than anything else.
If you got this far, THANK YOU, I am almost done, promise. The future of Tootie Cookies looks really exciting!!! We are looking to expand into a commercial space which will allow me to ship and open many more opportunities for the business!!!! For anyone that knows me, you know that I am perfectly comfortable hiding or talking about anything or anyone but me. I am slowly transforming into the identity of business owner. I want you to know that if you ordered from me, watched my awkward IG posts, peeked at my website, or even just reached out to say hi, YOU mean everything to me, and I want to continue to serve you cookies with a smile and a positive experience! To my family and friends, thank you for your continued support and for being my first customers.
Love always,
Angela
