Meet Nandi Thompson

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nandi Thompson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nandi below.

Nandi, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

Resilience comes from the foundation of a family I’m surrounded by. My family has always been my biggest supporter; they tell me to keep going each chance they get. They always remind me to breathe and take my time if I get stressed or overwhelmed with completing a big order or creating a new recipe.

Customers have also contributed to my resilience by supporting and telling me how proud they are of me. Seeing how excited a customer gets when they receive their order reminds me to keep going and why baking is a passion of mine.

I’ve built resilience within myself by overcoming occasional stressful baking situations. Also, by participating in events like dessert festivals. I used to have anxiety when it came to selling my product in person, but the more events I did, the easier it became to have a conversation with customers! Now I truly enjoy seeing new faces & being able to converse with them. My passion for baking and making people happy, is truly what keeps me going!

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My name is Nandi Thompson and I am the proud owner of Nandi’s Gourmet Cookies! In 2020, at age 18, I started my business, graduated high school, and started college within the same year. During college, I was baking part-time while also being a student taking 4 to 5 classes a semester full-time.

In 2023, I successfully graduated early with honors (Magna Cum Laude) from Georgia State University! This year, 2024, will mark the 3rd year I have been in business. I started with just 5 types of cookies on my menu and I now have 20 flavors and counting!

Nandi’s Gourmet Cookies bakes fresh, homemade cookies weekly. The most exciting thing about baking is putting a smile on people’s faces when they bite into the cookies. When someone is finished with their meal, many people look forward to dessert, and in my case, it’s exciting to know that it can be one of my gourmet cookies.

My menu offers more than regular cookies, such as chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin; I also have specialty cookies that I try to uniquely make. One example is my famous caramel peanut butter cup cookie, which has a peanut butter base with peanut butter cups on top, drizzled with caramel. I plan to make my small business flourish and to have my cookies in other small business storefronts and continue to vend at several events around Atlanta.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three most impactful skills I’ve had during my journey are self-motivation, time management, and stamina. Baking can be stressful, but these three skills always get me out of a stressful situation.

Starting a business and operating a business can be challenging. Self-motivation helps build the confident mindset that you can be an entrepreneur and that you will be able to run a successful business. Time management helps reduce stress, especially if you write and plan everything. Stamina can be a hard skill because procrastination gets the best of us sometimes, but reminding yourself not to give up and to keep going always has a better outcome on your goal!

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

Nandi’s Gourmet Cookies is looking to partner with other small black businesses. I’ve visited several black-owned businesses in my area and introduced myself. Conversations with different business owners are always informative, mainly because I am so young and still have things to learn about the business world. Having several partnerships with other black business owners with storefronts will give me the exposure I need to get my own storefront eventually!

Past partnerships have included Bleu Aesthetics ATL, a women-owned esthetician shop, and Truth Honey, a women-owned business specializing in gourmet honey. Both partnerships took place during the holidays; Bleu Aesthetics gave my cookies to her customers after each appointment, and Truth Honey had drizzled gourmet honey cookies in her holiday boxes!

If you are interested in a partnership, the best way to contact me is via email nandisgourmetcookies@gmail.com

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