Meet Jackie Smith

We were lucky to catch up with Jackie Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jackie, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Easily, thanks to my parents. No matter what I set my mind to, my parents let me try. I didn’t always succeed but I was encouraged to try and to continue to try until it no longer made me happy. When I was in 2nd grade I met a Chinese Storyteller through my moms work and then said I wanted to learn Mandarin. I was then enrolled in a Chinese-American school for an afterschool program to learn the language. Now I didn’t retain any of that but it set me on a path to try new things because I was always given the encouragement to try and be confident in whatever it was I set my mind to. Over the years that included dance, a high school job to paint sample pottery at a paint-your-own potter shop, enrolling in college, applying for various jobs over the years and eventually opening my own business.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started The Cookie Box out of my home in 2019 after being laid off from a corporate retail career where I was a jewelry & accessories buyer. I was going stir crazy while looking for another job and decided to try baking decorated sugar cookies. It was later pointed out to me that this was a natural fit as it combined my need for artistic expression with my background in analyzing and providing customers with what they are looking for. From there the business grew into a separate kitchen in our new house to then it’s own retail location in 2022. Since moving into our store on Hwy K in O’Fallon, we’re constantly working on new flavors to expand our menu offerings including gluten free options. Custom sugar cookies are still the bulk of our business but there is popularity in our specialty items or events like Christmas in July and Merry Swiftmas celebrating Taylor Swift’s birthday in December. We’re focused on making everyone feel like regulars and being the go-to home grown business for “homemade” cookies.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

It takes bravery to take a chance on your self when being an entrepreneur. As mentioned earlier, my parents played a big role in my confidence as I walked through life. I knew at an early age I wanted to study Entrepreneurial Management in college and the education I received at Texas Christian University combined with experience working for entrepreneurs helped shaped my skillset I apply today in my business. Surrounding myself with knowledgable business leaders also lends a great hand and I’m lucky enough to be married to one of those sources who is highly skilled in Brand Management and overall has great business acumen. My advice to others who may want to become entrepreneurs is to be brave, take the leap and believe in yourself. Soak up all of the information that others are willing to give you and have trusted advisers to help you sort through that information.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I think it is better to exploit your strengths and fill the gaps of your weaknesses with people on your team. It’s vital to not only understand your strengths so you can concentrate your time in those tasks but only if you equally understand your weaknesses and surround yourself with people who can help fill in those gaps. Natural weaknesses, I believe, can only improve so much if there are things that you are not inclined to do or understand. Also, it is unrealistic to think one person can literally do everything so letting go of some of the things that you’re not inclined to do and relinquish those tasks to others who have those things as a strength can make a better outcome.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

TSR Photography
@tsr.photography.stl

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