Carol Piles with Cookie Mama | Tulsa Is Home Podcast Interview

By Roderick Hands | December 31, 2024

The journey of Carol Piles from home baker to successful business owner, sharing the story of Cookie Mama.

Show Notes:

Guest: Carol Piles, Owner of Cookie Mama

Key Points:

  • Humble Beginnings: Carol started baking cookies as a hobby while at home with her first child.
  • Building a Business: She began selling cookies to friends and family, eventually expanding to wholesale accounts and catering orders.
  • Overcoming Challenges: Carol faced challenges like operating out of her home and finding suitable baking spaces.
  • Balancing Business and Family: She learned important life lessons about prioritizing family and balancing work-life demands.
  • Building a Team: Carol has built a strong team of employees who are passionate about baking and creating a positive work environment.
  • Future Plans: Cookie Mama continues to grow, with plans for expanding to new locations and introducing new flavors.

Contact Information:

Additional Notes:

Carol’s story is an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs and those looking to turn their passions into businesses.

Carol’s love for baking and her dedication to creating delicious cookies are evident throughout the interview.

Cookie Mama offers a wide variety of flavors, including classic favorites and seasonal specialties.

Transcript:

Carol Piles Cookie Mama

Suddenly you realize like I was so focused on my life that I look back and just think you can’t get that time back. So even though you’re busy and even though you have this thing going, you still have to make time for the people that are important to you. So that was definitely when I realized like it’s time to figure this out where I’m not devoting 90 percent of myself to a business.

When you have, you know, a family known as the biggest town you’ll ever experience with its unique historical background. Tulsa is home to a diverse range of people and businesses with a thriving economy, delicious eats nightlife and entertainment for all ages. Tulsa is also home to business titans, entrepreneurs, artists, And foodies, whether you’re considering a move to Tulsa or just wanting to learn more about the place you call home, the Tulsa is home podcast is for you.

Welcome to another episode of the Tulsa is home podcast. I’m really excited about today’s. podcast because we get to sit down with Carol Piles the owner of cookie mama. And so she brought along some delicious cookies. We, our kids, our family, we always love stopping in to getting some of your your cookies.

Everything is really good. So kind of the flow of the podcast, we’d talk a little bit about yourself and personal and family and how you got started and it will kind of veer into business and all that. And but tell us a little bit about yourself and where you’re from and how you came to Tulsa and some about your family.

Okay. So I am originally from Spokane, Washington. Far away from here and moved here to go to school. So that was in August of 1992. So 32 years ago, and I just never left Tulsa just stayed. So met my husband, we got married in 2000. So I was here for a while before we even met and got married. And but I just once I was married and employed, we just, stayed.

So it’s been a really great place to raise kids and live. Awesome. Yeah. Well, good deal. So with baking and cooking, have you always been? interested in baking, do you always bake? Not really. I think it started before I got married. I kind of had a sweet tooth and always really liked cookies. And then I was working at Stokely Advertising.

This was before I got married and had kids. And yeah. I was trying to recreate a cookie that somebody would drop off. Basically, they were calling on them, and I really liked this cookie. And so it kind of started that way. I was trying to recreate that cookie. And then after I got married and was home with my first son he would take these .

Really long naps, which when I tell people that they’re like, Oh, poor you, your kids taking a four hour nap, but I was really literally tied to my house in the afternoons. And so I would make cookies and I would try and kind of recreate that first cookie that I really liked and back up a little bit. I did also at our wedding.

I made cookies for our Like our takeaway gift, our party favor. So it kind of was always a little bit of an interest, but it became more of an interest when I was home with my firstborn and it kind of became a little project. So that’s really where it starts. Was there one go to recipe or were you trying a bunch of different stuff?

I was working with a published recipe that I was tweaking, just trying like if I did this, if I did that, and that’s kind of how, that’s how I do a lot of Cookie Mama’s recipes. Now I’ll start with something that I like and I’ll kind of change it or like a lot of my recipes have come from like my sugar cookie recipe.

I’ve kind of morphed into several other different recipes like the snickerdoodle and the lemon sugar, all the other ones. So it’s just, it just kind of was something I played with and how it started. Do you have a favorite? The ice sugar? Ice sugar? Yeah. It’s our bestseller by far. We sell more sugar cookies than any of the others.

And it’s the one that I grabbed the most. I eat it the most often, but, and that’s ironically the very first one that we started with. So, yeah. And so, I started kind of with just giving cookies to my friends or my husband is a mortgage lender. So I would do like baskets with cookies in it for gifts.

And that’s kind of how it. Started as a business. Yeah, actually it’s a great gift. Yeah, it was great. I got a lot of customers. Yeah doing that Yeah, absolutely. It’s been good did when you started where did you start the business? I started out of my home Okay, when you actually weren’t supposed to be doing it at your home because it was way I mean this would have been in like 2000, probably 2005.

I but I didn’t realize that. I didn’t know that you, I was just. You know, it was for friends and then friends of friends. And then I was, I called the health department one day and I was like, Hey, I need to get, I need to get a license. And they were like, well, you can’t get a license out of your home.

You can now. They have the cottage laws now where it’s allowed, but back in 2006, it wasn’t. So anyway, and that’s a, that was a whole journey once I figured that out of. Finding places to bake and which I, you know, eventually I worked out, but it was kind of a challenge at first. Where did you go after that?

So I eventually ended up after I rented space, like from a caterer at one point, and I eventually ended up at Siggy’s Sausage Factory, which was a really good situation for me. Really good situation. How long were you there? I was at Siggy’s for probably 12 years. A long time. I was that long. Yeah, it was a really long time.

I mean, let’s see, 2006, I didn’t start there in 2006. I’m trying to think I don’t, I can’t remember the exact year, but I had started selling cookies at their cash register and like three packs. And. Their customers really enjoyed them and that was when I was at a different kitchen and they eventually were closing and not going to be able to have me in their kitchen anymore.

And so I went to Siggy’s and I said, I’m going to have to Stop bringing cookies to you until I can get a different place to bake them. And so, oh, I think a day or two later, they called me and said, why don’t you come bake your cookies here? And. I was like, wow, that would be great. And so that’s when, that’s how that started.

I they gave me a table and a little area and I brought my mixer and I used their oven. And did you have to go at like early before they came? Okay. And I was usually out of there Fairly early. It was just me. I had just the top shelf of their bakery case. And then they said, well, you could have another shelf if you want it.

And so then I started making more flavors and filled the second shelf and I added an extra table in my area and over the years and I added employees and I kind of took over the corner of the store up front. I added a double oven or a big oven up there and they just really let me grow.

at my own pace and accommodated me. Yeah, it was, they were really good to me. Did you have connections with them before? No, not really. I mean, the only connection is my husband had a friend that he played golf with who knew the brothers. Okay. And so that’s kind of how we got introduced.

And then it just kind of morphed into A good situation for both of us, something for their clientele and then a place for me. And so my customers could come and pick up because before that I was meeting people in parking lots and you know, random places. And so it was a good fit for both of us.

Good. So, yeah. At what point did you feel like you needed, was it a space issue or was it more of a vision of stepping out and getting your own place? Honestly, it was a little bit of both. I really felt for many years that I could and should have my own space, but I also had so many. responsibilities with my kids and how much it was going to cost to do a buildout.

And I just kept hoping I would run into a place that was already in a kitchen that I wouldn’t have to put everything into. And I looked and I never really found the right place. And I was busy. Where I was and also busy with my kids and my husband would say, you know, it’s a little different when you know, own your own business.

And which of course I knew it would be, but I also was. I’m a little bit nervous about big risks like that. And I also didn’t want to, I knew my kids were almost grown by the time that I actually moved into my own space. So it was a little bit different. I didn’t have, you know, little kids that I was running around anymore.

They were driving themselves and that. So the timing felt really good. And I had also grown out of the space. I’ve had so many people we were. Bumping into each other. And I think sometimes I think some of the guys at Siggy’s were like, we were driving them a little crazy. They would say no, but I think that we probably were.

Yeah, it was probably it was time, but it was we still take cookies over there every day. They’re still a part of my business. Yeah. It’s fun, fun to hear the journey and just how it it morphs and a lot, you grow into different phases and all that. So how many employees have you had over the years?

So I think when I was at Siggy’s, I had like five or six employees. I started at My first employee was like an intern type of situation. And I was like, well, this will be great. She’s learning and I can see what it’s like to have an employee. And then she ended up staying on and then I hired a couple more people.

So I think by the time I left Siggy’s I had about six and now at our store, I think we’re at about. 17. Okay. So it’s a lot. It’s a little different. It’s a good team. Yeah, it’s a good team. It’s really good. So how long has the person that’s been there the longest? She has been with me, I think six years.

Okay. And then before that I had somebody who was with me for about six years when she just had a baby. So she’s. Okay. She’s not back Yeah. And probably won’t come back. Yeah. But yeah, it’s hard finding those good people that stick around for a long time. And yeah that’s cool to hear. Yeah. I have some really good employees.

Awesome. Yeah. What would you say your favorite part about owning a business? And then I’m going to follow up with. What’s the worst part? I think my favorite part has been really just watching it more from this tiny little thing that was a hobby that I kind of thought in the back of my mind, Oh, this could be a business.

And I had some friends who really encouraged me about making it a business, but I just watching it like come together and actually be what I thought it could be. So that, and, but the most unexpected part about being a business owner is that I have loved is just watching my employees become friends and do things outside of work together and build friendships and It just kind of reminds me of when I met some of my closest friends at work and that are my lifelong friends now.

And I’m like, I didn’t realize that I was going to get to watch those things happen at my place that I mean, these girls, they’re just, they’re so funny and they’re so fun and they are becoming close friends and it’s been an unexpected part of enjoying the process of being a business owner.

That’s encouraging. Yeah. They’re great. So what are the, have been the more difficult times or maybe just, what’s the part of running and owning a business that you just, Don’t like well, ironically the best part being the employees, the worst part can also be employees, not because I don’t have good employees, but just because there’s always something.

And so it makes It makes it hard when people call in sick or people leave and you’re like, I can’t, I need this many people or, you know, during the holidays when it’s really busy. I think going from Siggy’s where I was managing six people, I didn’t understand what it would be like to go from like, Oh, we’re done working for the day.

We can leave. And Siggy’s is going to sell our cookies the rest of the day to now, you know, I’m managing people for shifts all day. Just the learning curve of owning a business and making all the decisions about the building and employees and scheduling and ordering and doing it on a scale that I wasn’t used to.

I didn’t, I, there was a bit of a learning curve and the first year. I worked literally like probably 12 to 15 hours a day every day. And after doing that for about a year, you just realize like, I can’t keep doing this. It’s not It’s not good. So that was the first year you were at your new location.

Yes. Yeah. Just moving. And I, it was like a love hate. Like I was so happy at first, like, Oh, we’re busy. And you know, it’s exciting to have business, but it’s also just a learning curve. You have to figure things out and figure out how you can have a life again and come up with systems and Just Make it so you’re not there 24 7, which I think is probably the case for every small business owner.

They’re trying to, you know, do this thing and start this business that can make money and be what the vision is for it, but also still maintain having a life outside of the business. For sure. So that’s, was the hardest part. Do you think what has been your life lesson that you feel like you’ve either maybe really matured in or just really looking back, you’re like, I’m really glad I went through this and I learned something because of it.

I think my life lesson is, During that time, I I lost my dad unexpectedly from a heart attack and I had been the year leading up to opening Cookie Mama was extremely busy, which is why one of the reasons I needed to move out of that space. I had grown so much during COVID, which I was one of the lucky people whose businesses did well during COVID because I was.

located in a meat market where people are coming every day. But I was so busy then like planning the new space and opening the new space and working so much that during that time was probably the time that I had focused the least on my family, my parents and my siblings, and you know, just the people in our lives.

And then suddenly I lose this person who is one of the most significant people in my life. And I’m like, I hadn’t even, I mean, of course I was still talking to him and I knew it was going on with him, but suddenly you realize, like, I was so focused on my life that I look back and just think you can’t get that time back.

So even though you’re busy and even though you have this thing going, you still have to make time for the people that are important to you. So that was. definitely. When I realized like, it’s time to figure this out where I’m not devoting 90 percent of myself to a business when you have, you know, a family.

So that was a significant life lesson. Yeah, for sure. So going on that, do you feel like with the systems, do you think it’s more, , software and systems and the tangible things, or is it more people That has allowed you to not work those. I think it’s people. Super. Yeah. I think it’s been letting people maybe giving up some of what I thought, oh, I had to do myself.

Yeah. And let some people rise up and take over. And when you don’t have a choice, you’re like, I have to leave town. I’m gonna be gone. People step up when you have a good team. And so, it’s been teaching people and, hiring the right people and, you know, also systems of like, you know, making your life easier.

And I’m still working on a lot of that stuff, figuring out you know, the best practices, how to do things to make it more efficient and not so labor intensive and, you know, things like that. But we’re improving, getting better and now I can leave. That’s huge. It really is. Yeah. It’s been big, took vacation and you know, a couple of vacations and so it’s been a lot different.

Good. Yeah. So specifically with cookies, how many different recipes do you have? Well, first active and then, do you have any idea how many you’ve had over the years? We have about, I would say 18 standard flavors that we keep in the case always. So, People can pick out their favorites that they come for and they can always come back for them, like the ice sugar, the chocolate chip, the snickerdoodle there’s probably 18 different flavors that you can always get unless it’s sold out that day or something, but we keep them as regulars and then we rotate.

I would say two or three of the specialty flavors, we rotate in and out. We try new things. We see what people, if it sticks or if it’s seasonal, like in the fall, we have our pumpkin doodle with cream cheese, molasses spice comes in the fall and we keep it all winter. Yeah, it’s good and people love it, but we only keep it.

During the winter months and then it goes away and it comes back. But so we have, you can look forward to those coming, but then also you can always get your regular flavors that you like to. , have you ever made new recipes or anything from? inspired individuals or modeled it after anybody, or has anybody come to you and said, you should do this, or you should try that.

Oh, I have people tell me what I should do all the time. You should do horse treats. You should do dog treats. You should do. So, but I mean, also cookies, like you should make this cookie that my grandma used to make. And sometimes we do like we we did, we called it the better than loft house. Cookie. I don’t know if you know, those loft house grocery store cookies , that my kids always like took to school when, cause they had to bring packaged or whatever.

And so we did like a homemade upgraded version and it was delicious, but it was kind of a pain to make. So, but we do things like that. Or we did a Gilmore girls coffee house or coffee cake cookie once. You know, just fun stuff. Apple pie cookie, peach pie cookie, cherry pie cookie. We’ve done those kind of seasonally.

And right now we’re doing a cinnamon roll cookie. That’s just like one that we’ve kind of brought in and we’ll rotate out with something else. German chocolate. My wife’s favorite is the cinnamon roll. So we we like to have some of the fun ones that, you know, especially. The kids like, like the things with like the s’more and just things that are a little bit out of the box and fun and kind of trendy.

But we also just like your basic chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, raisin, stuff like that. So it’s something for every one, which is kind of what I feel like sets our shop apart because , there are, you know, daily probably at least 22 flavors in our case. And at least 18 of them are. They’re all the time.

So do you get more walk ins, individual purchases or pre orders for parties, or do you, what are all the different ways that people, so it’s actually a mix of all of that. And a lot of corporate business that we do for the holidays, a lot of. Gift boxes where people can send to their clients with their logo on the tag and say, you know, Merry Christmas from.

You know, first United Bank, that’s who my husband works for. It’s like, and then we’ll put like the logo and his name on it. Or you know, we also do cookies with logos on them. We can print the logo right on there. So we have, we do a lot of corporate gifts and things like that. And then we do a lot of parties like catering orders.

Then we do a lot of decorated cookies, which are. A good part of our business, but they’re also like the most stressful part, because then you’re talking custom cookies and they take a long time to make and only it takes an artist to make them. So we have that and then we have a lot of walk in after school kids come in.

Just people who need stuff for the weekend. We have take and bake, so you can put the dough in your freezer and just take it out, like, two cookies at a time and bake it. And can you get those in Any flavor? We do them in the original flavors, like kind of some of the more basic ones, like the chocolate chip and the snickerdoodle, I think birthday cake, that’s popular because you can just walk in and grab them out of the freezer.

And then you don’t have to worry about like, how many days is this going to be good for? I need it, you know, I want to take it to the lake and bake it three days from now. So that’s kind of a thing that we’ve added. We also Have some wholesale accounts that we do. We’ve got, we sell to readers. And then Siggy’s, still we’re in Siggy’s.

So we take cookies over there every day. Good deal. And then readers, we take cookies too, probably three times a week. Yeah. Yeah. So just kind of a little bit of everything. We have all kinds of different clients. Yeah. Do you have any, anything big on the horizon? Changes or you kind of found your sweet spot?

And, no, I think, I have the itch maybe for another store. It’s just a matter of finding the right location and. just being willing to take the leap again. But I think, I mean, I think I’ve been, I mean, Cookie Mama has been well received by Tulsa. And I’m part of that’s because I built my clientele for so many years before I opened a store that when I opened the store, I already had customers.

But you know, I hear a lot from people like, Oh, I had to drive all the way to South Tulsa. And so I, Midtown is calling you, the Midtowners that say that, but no, I think that I think it would be nice to have another store. Yeah. So it’s. Something that’s I don’t have anything picked out yet, but I’m definitely thinking about it.

Yeah, good deal I’ll make it easier for us to pick up some cookies. We’re at the office So, you know as far as you know, keeping with the theme Tulsa’s home. You know, what is something about Tulsa, or if you’re telling somebody who doesn’t know anything about Tulsa, like what is Tulsa to you?

And why do you consider Tulsa home? I really love Tulsa. I, when I first moved to Tulsa, I mean, it was hot August, crunchy. Yeah. It’s a brutal month. I’m From Washington state where it’s like cooler and green. And I remember thinking, why do they call this place green country? But I can’t even August. So, as it’s over a hundred, , it’s Definitely become home to me.

I love it. I love that it’s affordable. I love that there’s good schools, good public schools. I just think it’s comfortable. It’s a comfortable place. I really like it here. I mean, obviously I never left after I’ve been here for 32 years and my husband’s not from Tulsa either. So we both opted to stay and I’m trying to think of something more significant, but just, I’ve made great friends.

I’ve It’s a great community. Yeah. It’s a great community. I like the people. That’s good. Well, how can people get in touch with you? Do you want, you know, whether it’s social media or do they call and make orders or what’s the best way? A lot of different options. We’re on social media, we’re on Instagram, we’re on Facebook, we’re on Tik TOK, which I never use, but eventually I will.

We have a website, cookiemama. com. You can email us at hello at cookiemama. com or you can call the store. Our website is, needs a little bit of, it’s a little bit of a work in progress, but the flavors are listed there and you can order on the website. I think stopping in is probably the best thing.

Come in and see the store and yeah, call. We’ll get to you. Well, I appreciate your time today and just as we, yeah, it’s kind of learn a little bit more about you and the business and kind of how everything got started. And this is a very, you have a good story and. You’re definitely, as you said, well received in the community and everybody, you know, everybody knows who you are and who knows, you know, cookie mama.

And yeah. So you put out a good product. Yeah. Yeah. So we really appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. We’ll talk to you again soon. Okay. Thanks.

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