Shahira Marei 3:18
Yeah, so uhm almost eight and a half years ago. So before dirty cookie. I used to work for Boeing for about seven years. And then when I found out I was pregnant, that was kind of the pivotal moment in my life where I was like, Oh, my God, I’m not ready to have a kid right now. I’m still doing my masters. I still didn’t start my business. Sounds like when I was really young. I’ve always wanted to have a business. So but I just kept putting it off and putting it off. And then I think what I realized in hindsight, is that my daughter’s birth was like a catalyst that got me started into the business because I didn’t want her to like be an excuse of not why I didn’t start my business. So as soon as she was born, I signed a five month, five year lease to a storefront in Orange County. She was five months old. And that’s how I didn’t really know what I was going to do or what I was going to put in that store. And it was kind of random, but I don’t believe anything is random. So I met the landlord of this mall, and she had one store left and she was like, Do you want it? I was like, yes. He’s like, What are you going to put in here? I was like, what do you need? And she was like, we can use another dessert concept. I’m like, Okay, perfect. I’m a sugar addict. I love to there. I can come up with something, you know, fun, unique and innovative. And she’s like, here just signed the lease. Give me a security deposit and let me know what you come up with. I’m like, okay, so yeah, so I did that. And I kind of panicked after like signing the lease. I was like, oh my god, what am I going to put in here? And I remember just asking myself was like, What is your favorite dessert? What is your favorite dessert? And I’m like, oh my god, I love milk and cookies. But how do we innovate that? And so I spent like two days on Pinterest, and I found this lady molding cookie dough on a cereal bowl, and like putting chocolate inside and then putting cereal inside. I’m like, oh my god, I can do this, but like in a cup form because I love, you know, dipping my cookies and milk. What if we just, you know, drank the milk out of the cookie. And I couldn’t find anything on the market to make it. There was no more there was nothing I could use. And so I called my aerospace engineer, best friend Alex.I was like, Is there any way we can make like a mold for this cookie cup that I want to create? And he was like, of course, I’m an aerospace engineer, I can make anything, you know, typical response. Like, okay, great. Let’s sit down and work on this. And we did and ended up being a shot glass. Just due to like engineering purposes, it would bake faster, and I wouldn’t like it wasn’t. It was it needed to be a little thinner than a cup. So we ended up with these Cookie Shot Glass mole, we made them and I ended up getting a patent on them. And then I realized, I don’t know how to bake. So I started like, researching. I’m like, Who do I know who’s an amazing baker? My friend from junior high in high school, Elizabeth. I called her up. I actually checked her out on Facebook. It’s been like 10 years. I haven’t talked to her. I’m like, What is she doing? Now? She has started her own cake business. And she was the pastry chef from CIA in New York. I’m like, Hey, Elizabeth, long time can we meet up for lunch or coffee? And I go to her like, listen, I find this five year lease the store. I’m gonna make these cookie shot glasses. I got these molds. Can you help me make the recipes? Like, of course. So yeah, we started the process. And me and her were just like working from home, her house making these cookie shots like failed miserably. They look terrible every time we we’d make them and they were like rock solid. And it took us forever, like six months at least to figure out a decent recipe that was soft and chewy. And yeah. So she taught me the ins and outs of baking, which was amazing. I had no idea was still scientific, like, oh my gosh, I couldn’t believe that much science was involved in that. So yeah, then I learned to bake. And then we just kind of we opened the store and we kind of like started taking off. We got a lot of celebrities. You know, I started gifting a lot of celebrities and stuff in Los Angeles, and they started posting about us. And it was amazing.
Odette D’Aniello 7:23
What year was that?
Shahira Marei 7:26
2015
Odette D’Aniello 7:29
Yeah, that’s amazing. So your your left the eight typical entrepreneur. Well, actually, maybe the typical entrepreneur, you, elite before you looked? Yeah,
Shahira Marei 7:40
I work really well that way. I don’t know why. I work well under pressure. So you just throw me in the fire and I’ll figure it out. Yeah, something like that.
Odette D’Aniello 7:50
So how did you how did you, like, get all the stars to love your product?
Shahira Marei 7:57
Well, nobody had seen a cookie shot before. So it’s pretty easy. Like when I would message them on Instagram. They would just say yes, we’d love to try them. And then when they received the box, they get so excited. They really like posting about it. So that was really nice. We did do like Kim Kardashian birthday last year. We put her face because we print edible images on them. So we put like all her face on them. And she like posted on stories and stuff. That was really nice. We do. So yeah, they just were very open because it was so unique that they were they actually wanted to share that they got this cool product, right. And I was doing a lot of catering on site or like all the Shonda Rhimes productions like Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away with Murder scandal, just that like multiple. Yeah, she’s my favorite. And she was a big fan of our cookie shots and stuff and all her because it was amazing. So slowly, we started getting our name out there, and it was really awesome. And then we we ended up I did the storefront model for three years. And then I knew the location that I chosen wasn’t a good location, because I kind of just like rushed into it without really looking at the mall. And so I was going to open in Los Angeles. And as I was transitioning, closing that store going to LA, COVID ended up hitting. So I was I felt like I was really lucky and blessed actually that I didn’t sign a new lease in Los Angeles, right before COVID. And we went online, I actually had to let my entire team go because we were doing a lot of catering during that time and we lost all our catering business like overnight. We had started wholesaling to hotels and restaurants. The Cookie Shot also lost that overnight. So I laid off with my business. Yeah, 2020 I laid off my entire staff of about 15 people. And my partner Nadia, she ran the operations who’s my CEO, I I like just that over there. And I was like, listen, we got to come up with something. We just need some time. And I was meditating. And I got this image of like some, someone decorating the cookie shot. So I called her up, I was like, Hey, I think we can launch like a DIY kit. And this was really early on, like, I think was like March 15, when I came up with this idea. So we had just like, let everybody go on the 13th or something like that. And a couple days later, I got the idea. And then I sat on it for a little bit. And then I went to like Walmart bought some sprinkles and chocolate, melting chocolate. And these edible characters for Easter was right around. I was like Easter is a few weeks away. Let’s just take a picture of Nadia with her phone and see what happened when we put on the website. And like we ran some ads behind it. And it took off like crazy. We sold like 400 boxes of these DIY kits that didn’t even exist. Like it was something I totally just made up in a minute. And I’m like, Oh, I guess I have to make these DIY kits. So it was just me and Nadia, literally working alone doing these DIY kits and taking all the orders and baking and doing everything I was too scared to bring my staff back. We did that for two months. Like even my daughter didn’t have school. So I bring her to like put stickers on the boxes and stuff like that. It was pretty crazy.
Yeah. And then that was my sign after two months. I’m like, Okay, we’re getting busier and busier. Let me I think I could bring my staff back. And then we ended up going on the Today Show as like, the highlight of our business that pivotal, like a company that’s, you know, pivoting during COVID. And we ended up on Good Morning America. So 2020 ended up being our best year in our company history actually online. And it was amazing. So yeah, and then we’ve been online since then. And it’s a little bit more challenging now than they used to be in COVID. Because like cost of ads have gone up and stuff like that. I’m super competitive online. So now I’m focused more on like foodservice than getting my product into like, hotels, restaurants and a theme park. And that’s looking really good.
Odette D’Aniello 11:57
Yeah, I was texting you. I saw your I saw your staff at the shows that I was in the food service and the foods. Yeah, that was so yeah, I love the cookies that you also have now stuffed cookies.
Shahira Marei 12:11
Yeah, we launched a couple years ago, again. Yeah.
Odette D’Aniello 12:16
And you have an amazing team. Amazing team. So I wanted to go back. So you signed a five year lease, and then you left it three, what was the impact of that? Were they was your landlord pretty amazing?
Shahira Marei 12:30
No. I was very lucky. When I was transitioning, and I was looking at another location, a friend that I had met, actually in a class that I was taking was had a juice place in another area. And he I told him like I want to, I want to give up my lease. And he was like, Yeah, I’ll take it. So he ended up taking my lease. I got very lucky. I believe. When things are meant to work out a certain way. There’s like nothing that can stop it, you know, from happening. So I knew I had to leave that store. And then just God sent me the right person to take over my lease and it just keeps things work out. You know, when you’re on the right path. That’s what I feel like
Odette D’Aniello 13:17
I agree. What did where did you move the production to when you closed that facility? Well, we were
Shahira Marei 13:24
Well, we were always out of making it off site because my store is really small. So we were always making an offset kitchen for years. But last year, we ended up moving to like Las Vegas to a co packer for the first time and company history for us to move, outsource our production and then we just moved again a couple months ago to Arizona. Things didn’t work out with that first co-packer. But this second co-packer looks pretty good. So we’re in Arizona and our production.
Odette D’Aniello 13:52
Can you tell our listeners what a co-packer is?
Shahira Marei 13:56
Yes, that’s like a manufacturer for your product. So if you don’t want to do it yourself, you can find a manufacturer to do it for you. It is a little bit more expensive. But if you you have to find the right one too, because I definitely learned a really big lesson when the first one was not the best fit. ended up costing us double what we were paying originally to make them in house and just not the best partnerships. So yeah, you have to it’s like a marriage. You got to find the right one that.
Odette D’Aniello 14:28
Yeah, what does that mean, though? What does that mean when it’s double the expense? Like is it double the rent? Or is it per cookie? Is it because of the minimums are high? What is it?
Shahira Marei 14:40
Their minimums are high. And just the first co-packer was not the best or efficient person or company to really make our product if they don’t have like experience and in lines and stuff. It was costing him a lot to make like it was costing him more to make what we were making in house. And it was just because he was not efficient. And the way that he laid out the production facility wasn’t efficient. And so there’s a lot of things that he could have done better that he just ignored because he didn’t have time for it. Because he had so many other businesses that he was also manufacturing for this. So that’s also another thing, like we were the small fish for him. So he didn’t give us a lot of attention, which ended up costing us more and it wasn’t really cool. So yeah, definitely learned a lot from that. So when I went over to the next one, it was like, everything was laid out upfron, you know, fix clause no matter what. And yeah, it’s definitely a lot better.
Odette D’Aniello 15:43
That’s great. That’s amazing. So, um, I know that when you were pivoting, you told me that you were when you will be when you’re pivoting in 2020, you had this opportunity. Your marketing strategy was pretty incredible. Were you able to scale the business. Can you tell us more about that?
Shahira Marei 16:11
Yeah, so in 2020. Well, what happened with Facebook and Instagram is there was an iOS update, the iOS 14, which basically, they can’t track people anymore, like they used to everybody is able to opt out so that negatively impacted us.
Odette D’Aniello 16:30
There’s no more cookies. That’s ironic.
Shahira Marei 16:34
Yeah, that’s exactly that really mess with all small businesses online. Because now I was able to serve, I would know that Odette was watching the Food Network, I can know that. I knew you were visiting Food Network website. So I could target you with my product if I was looking for someone whose audience was watching Food Network. Now, I have no idea. No idea how to target people anymore online because they’ve taken away all those options like I can’t. So when it was very specific, like I could say, give it to these women who are watching the Food Network at this time of day, like things were very, very specific. Now that Facebook is serving it to everybody. And that’s just quadrupling our costs, because it’s not the right audience, we have random people watching it, that it’s not the right fit. So it’s just gotten so difficult the last couple of years since the iOS update. Difficult, more expensive. And we didn’t have that issue in 2020. And 2020, you would just, we would say, like we put in 1x. And we were like seven axing it very easily, because we knew exactly who we’re going after. And it was amazing. And I think we’ve lost that forever online. I don’t think it’s ever going to come back. I think now people just need to become more creative. Find ideas outside of the box, to really be able to succeed online again, at a very cost effective way, like big companies can afford to throw money like crazy ads right now. And, you know, not be that profitable. It’s the smaller ones that are gonna struggle and have been struggling.
Odette D’Aniello 18:23
Wow! You know, we don’t do Facebook ads. So I didn’t know. I mean, I knew about the the iOS app update, but I didn’t know I didn’t really have impact, because we never used ads. We just kind of are lucky being that. But you are like, you went on Shark Tank, though? So, tell us about that.
Shahira Marei 18:41
Yeah, sure. Think I’ve been applying for Shark Tank since 2017. I was a finalist in 2017. But it didn’t work out, which was a blessing actually, because we didn’t know anything about e-commerce at that time. And if we’d have aired, it would have been disastrous. So even though I was pretty upset about it in 2017, in hindsight, there’s a lot that happens. In hindsight, you’re like, oh, shoot, I should have that was actually a blessing. Yeah. And I shouldn’t have been so upset about it. But yeah, it wasn’t until 2021 Where I finally got in and I pitched and it was August or June 2021. And then they didn’t air it till April 2022. So I’m just waiting, because they do overshoot. So you never know. If you’re even if you pitch and they shoot you like there’s 30 companies that get cut every single time, every season because they overshoot by 30 companies just in case something happens. Y
Odette D’Aniello 19:41
You mean going to the stage? I don’t know much about Shark Tank. So tell me like, what’s the application like, do you like overshoot meaning the whole stage bit that’s like 30 extra people to do that?
Shahira Marei 19:54
Yes, they shoot 30 extra companies just in case. Yeah, and then those already don’t like there’s a chance that you so you never know even if you do pitch to the shark, your episode may not get aired. So, I was sitting there and anxiety for like, at least like 6, 7, 8 months just waiting. Six, seven months I was like, is it gonna air is it gonna air? And then finally I got the email thing it was gonna air on April 8, 2022. And I was like, Oh, thank God, like we really needed. We needed the, you know, publicity. And because the ads were just not working anymore. I’m like, how do we reach people? So this was a fantastic opportunity. It was life-changing for me Shark Tank really did change the course of our business in so many ways. And what else happened? The process was intense, you know, you have to apply with long applications, like 30 pages, and then you submit a video and then you pitch in front of producers. And then you after you pass like the pitching of the producers, which are about 30 people, you you then get in you get a pitch date, like to come into the studios.
Odette D’Aniello 21:08
So how did you get investors?
Shahira Marei 21:15
On the show? Yeah, I got Robert Herjavec. Back. And then, but yeah, that was good. He was really excited. I had Lori and Robert kind of like fight over it. But it was it was good. It was really good.
Odette D’Aniello 21:28
That’s awesome. Well, if anybody wants to know you could look it up. Look up the episode on YouTube. Correct? Is it on? YouTube is it on YouTube?
Shahira Marei 21:37
Yeah, yeah, it’s on YouTube.
Odette D’Aniello 21:42
So now, I wanted to also talk about like your planning, like, what are your plans for the future?
Shahira Marei 21:50
I’m definitely scaling, Dirty Cookie. More volume for sure. Like with the, you know, wholesale industry, I think there’s a lot of opportunity for other people to use our products. You know, theme parks, we just got into Disney in California, we got into SeaWorld in Orlando. So I’m very excited about that. We’re working on Canadian partnerships right now. So that’s going to be super fun. And I do have, you know, a couple stores in Egypt where my family is originally from. I just opened that two years ago. So and it’s doing really well out there. So we’re looking at bringing back Dirty Cookie as a franchising model across the whole country, because it’s doing really well as the storefront which includes like cookies, coffee, and ice cream. So it’s a full stop dessert shop concept.
Odette D’Aniello 22:37
Oh my gosh, and what part of Egypt?
Shahira Marei 22:40
It’s in Cairo?
Odette D’Aniello 22:42
Oh, my gosh, that’s amazing So then, who’s running it?
Shahira Marei 22:47
So I, I split my time between Egypt and the US. And I have an amazing team down there. I’m really good about, you know, picking my team members. So everything now is managed virtually for the most part, like here and there. So it’s great. Like, I can manage them both. And I have amazing teams on both sides that really help.
Odette D’Aniello 23:13
That’s a superpower thinking your team’s? You know, 100%? Yeah, using teams is all of it. You know, it’s all of it. That’s, so what are your like? What are your tips to pick a good team?
Shahira Marei 23:28
So I always look for people’s motivation of like, why they want to work or why they want to do this. I found that people who aren’t like motivated by money, are my best workers, because they are trying to prove something to themselves or to somebody else. Yeah, so they
Odette D’Aniello 23:47
are there they work really well. Like,
Shahira Marei 23:50
because we are and they need to have flexibility. So people who are used to wearing multiple hats is also a really good sign. Or they they are flexible, because as a startup, or I mean, I still consider us to be a startup After almost nine years. But
everybody has to wear multiple hats. And
those people that can manage that really well usually are the ones that can
Odette D’Aniello 24:16
handle anything. So how many people are in your teams like each visit? Like do you
Shahira Marei 24:25
need to because it’s a storefront in Egypt, because it’s a storefront? Obviously, there’s like, I hire a lot of part time students. So I have like, I have like 15 of them. And then I have chefs and so I think the total was 25 people in Egypt for the store. And then here in the US. I mean, we’re our core team is five but we outsource, like agencies. We have like freelancers that do everything for us. So like just five people on payroll but like the rest is all like freelancers and agencies.
Odette D’Aniello 24:59
Right because We are now being copacked, which is a completely different thing, right?
Shahira Marei 25:04
Correct, yeah. Back in the day, we had all 15 bakers on payroll.
Odette D’Aniello 25:11
Which one do you prefer? Like making it in house or having a copack, thus far.
Shahira Marei 25:17
Very tricky question. Nadia would not agree with me on this. I prefer making it in-house. I like the control. I’m a control freak. I like to be able to when I say hey, we’re gonna try something new today. Nobody tells me No, it’s not a schedule. Yeah, with a co-packer, it’s like, no, we’re not gonna be able to do that. We have production lines, schedules. I’m like, No, but I need to make this now because I have this opportunity coming up. So I’m not going to wait. So I definitely prefer having it in-house. And plus, I didn’t see the cost savings by going to a co-packer if anything, I saw our costs increase because of it. So I just don’t know, I think if you have an amazing production manager, you’re it’s the same thing as managing the co-packer. Yeah, like if you have an amazing production manager. And I think that’s what we struggled with. And I think that’s why maybe my partner Nadia liked the idea of a co-packer more is because we didn’t have a good production manager; we never did. So she was always getting involved on the day to day stuff, which kind of burned her out a lot. But now like having a good production manager with this co-packer makes her life so much easier. And I’m like well, we can build that ourselves. Like we can have our own facility in-house get an amazing production manager. And that could be the same contact amount of contact you have right now with a co-packer. So, really again, comes down to not having the right people on the team.
Odette D’Aniello 26:50
So I, I wanted to pivot the conversation, like what is your grounding factor to like juggle all this, you know?
Shahira Marei 27:06
Well, now I meditate for about an hour and a half every day. i i started meditating five years ago, thanks to Kalika from EO Entrepreneurs Organization, she got me into meditation five years ago. And I started with five minutes a day. And now I can now I can go up to like, eight hours a day if I really wanted to. But I found my sweet spot’s about an hour, an hour and a half. So I do that every day. And it really helps me stay grounded and calm and not panic as much as I used to.
Odette D’Aniello 27:41
Yes! I love that I wanted to bring that about because I know that’s a commonality between us. I’ve, you know, I am an avid meditator been practicing for 30 years. And it’s been the one key thing that keeps me you know, solid in my brain when I’m about to lose my top.
Shahira Marei 28:03
Yeah, 100%. A 100%. And for me to, I pray a lot. So I’m always very, like, grounded and faithful. Like when things are always going wrong because like, things always go wrong in business. Like for me, I don’t think I think anything ever goes according to plan for me. And when it’s just tested my faith over and over again. I’m like, trust the process. Trust God, everything’s working out. Like everything’s gonna be okay. So definitely prayer and meditation has played a huge, huge role in my life.
Odette D’Aniello 28:39
Yeah, I’m, I’m reading a book right now. And I want to ask you what book you’re reading. It’s called Living From a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action. It’s by Michael singer. And he wrote The Untethered Soul. Have you read that?
Shahira Marei 28:53
I haven’t yet heard of them. I just haven’t. My reading list is really long. I’m trying to get through it.
Odette D’Aniello 28:59
What are you reading right now?
Shahira Marei 29:02
What am I reading right now? Oh, it’s gonna sound so stupid, actually, because it’s it’s not my typical book that I would read. But it’s Chicken Soup for the Soul. I haven’t read that in a really long time. Yeah. But I haven’t read that in a really long time, like 20 years. And I just picked it up. And I was reading it again. I was like, Oh, this is so nice. It’s been a while. But
Odette D’Aniello 29:26
not. Yeah.
Well, I used to be a seventh-grade teacher and Chicken Soup for the Soul was a like all the series I would read a Chicken Soup for the Soul stories to my kids every single day, like one story a day and they looked forward to it because I had just come out. It was in the 90s.
Shahira Marei 29:44
Yeah, I know. It’s really old. But I just there’s something about it that just made me pick it up. And I’m like, I’m gonna read this. I was on a plane the other day. So I’m like, It’s a great book. You know, for the plane, just easy, not not too deep and just it was nice. So that’s what I’m finishing up right now.
Odette D’Aniello 30:01
And then and you have, how old is your daughter now?
Shahira Marei 30:05
She’s nine. So the business is eight and a half. And she’s nine.
Odette D’Aniello 30:09
And how do you manage? Does she help with a business?
Shahira Marei 30:15
She used to. Now that she’s nine? I mean, she wants to work I just don’t let her it’s because everything’s like virtual now on productions everywhere. It’s not the same where was in house, she would come with me to the kitchen. She put stickers on the bags. Yeah, she loves working. She’s been working since he was, like two years old. But now it’s a little bit different for sure. But and she keeps telling me Mom, tell me, let me teach me how to do email. I’ll do I’ll answer all your emails, because she sees me all I’m doing. I was like, emails, emails, is like, what if I start doing your emails for you? I’m like, I really want to just nine years old. So give it a few more years, baby.
Odette D’Aniello 30:57
It’ll be full of emojis.
Shahira Marei 31:01
I know. Right? Sending it’s our cloud at Disney emoji.
Odette D’Aniello 31:06
That’s awesome. Well, I would love I would love to see you and you know, chat in person. I know. We’ve been you’re like across the country. You’re in Georgia. So yeah, well, yeah. Yep. At another event, and we’ll chat more. But I do have one last question as we wrap up. So if you were to talk to your younger self, what would you tell her?
Shahira Marei 31:44
Ah, well, like when I was starting the business, anytime, anytime. I would probably tell myself not to be so hard on myself. Because I think I’ve always been super critical of myself. And it’s never good enough. No matter how far I get. It’s always like, No, you need to go further further. So till recently, I kind of slowed down. Like kind of that beating on myself, because I was just like, nonstop. It’s just never enough. And I’m like, No, I have to take a step and realize I’ve come really far. Even though it it feels like I’m so far away from my goal. But I was like, I’ve done amazing things. I’m okay, I’m good. Like, and that was never a conversation nice to have with myself before. It was always like, why are you so slow? Look, everybody else is ahead of you. You’re so like, why aren’t you making as much money as everybody else? Like, what’s wrong with you? Like, I would be very, very hard on myself. Even when I was young in school, too. I was like, Well, why aren’t you 4.0? You need to be 4.0. So I was always like pressuring myself and studying my butt off to get to 4.0, which eventually I did. But it was, I was just so hard on myself all the time. And I think there’s just unnecessary pressure for no reason. I’m like, Why did I do that to myself, because it takes a toll on your body. Like I get physical pain on my shoulders and my neck and my back because of how much stress and pressure I put on myself much like, worth it.
Odette D’Aniello 33:11
Not worth it not worth it. And we just have to be careful to like, what voice we’ve adopted in our heads because a lot of it, it’s not our voices. It’s, you know, other people’s voices that somehow get lodged in and you just keep repeating on cycle.
Shahira Marei 33:26
Correct.
Odette D’Aniello 33:29
Thank you so much, Shahira. Such an enlightening conversation and I I can’t wait to see you and give you a big hug and eat some cookies. So appreciate you. Thank you so much for being on the Celebrity Gourmet Podcast.
Shahira Marei 33:47
Thanks for having me.
Outro 33:52
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