By Gabbie St. Pierre
Michelle Stading, MOT, ’19, has always loved to bake. When she found out her hours as an occupational therapist would be reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she thought back to the new sugar cookie recipe she had recently tried out. She began making smiley face-shaped cookies to share with family and friends. The cookies went over well and requests for more started to come in. In need of some additional income and with plenty of time on her hands, Stading decided to take her cookie baking to the next level.
Over the course of a week, Stading came up with a company name, drew a logo on her iPad and created a website and social media channels. The name of her company came from how Michelle was feeling.
“I was so grateful that people were even interested in buying my cookies and even more grateful that baking was able to provide me with a source of income during this difficult time,” she said.
After graduating in May of 2019, Stading passed her board exams and began working at Shriners Hospitals for Children — St. Louis and at First Steps Missouri. “I was just getting used to the transition from college into the working world and my hours were starting to ramp up when the pandemic hit,” she said. “I knew I needed to find another way to have an income.”
In just a few weeks’ time, Stading went from baking small quantities of cookies for family and friends, to receiving orders from all over the United States and fulfilling orders of more than 500 cookies. A recent order was from the owner of a company who was looking to spread a little positivity to his employees. He ordered cookies from Grateful Goods with messages like “#workingfromhome,” “stay healthy” and “thank you”— and, of course, Stading’s signature smiley faces but with the addition of face masks.
But Stading isn’t alone in figuring out her new business. Her fiancé, Mark Cohen, ’18, also started his own business during quarantine, a marketing agency called 212°. “Six months ago, neither of us would have thought we’d be running our own businesses,” Stading said.
The couple credits much of their success to the values they were taught while students at Maryville. “Faculty and staff members and their examples of leadership helped make us into the people we are today,” she said.