With a degree in mass communications from Oklahoma Christian University, Andrea Rogers Walters planned on pursuing a career in radio or television, but God “cooked up” another plan for her life.
Walters graduated from Oklahoma Christian in 2000. After graduation, she immediately went to work for KOCO in Oklahoma City as the video editor.
She worked there for less than a year before moving back to her hometown of Wichita, KS to care for her mother who, at the time, was diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time. Her and her mother hatched a “crazy idea” and purchased an already existing flower shop. Within one year of owning the shop, her mother passed away and Walters relinquished ownership of the business.
From television to flowers, Walters became a stay-at-home mother to raise and care for her two daughters, Mattie and Harper. With her time consumed, she said she had no desire to work or hold a job, but this is when God’s “recipe” called for a new ingredient.
Walters attended a cookie decorating class in 2013 with a friend and bought all the required equipment. She went to the class, “learned nothing” and shoved the tools into a forgotten drawer. Then, in 2014, her daughter wanted to have an “Alice in Wonderland” birthday party, which Walters said she thought needed teacup cookies.
In Walters’ words, “the rest was history.”
Walters now operates a sugar cookie decorating business out of her home, known as Andy Kay’s Cookies, in Wichita, KS. Last year, she appeared on Food Network’s Christmas Cookie Challenge as a contestant. She creates only custom bulk orders, except for the occasional pop-up shop at her local pottery store.
However, the occasional pop-up shop will soon become more frequent as Walters purchased a 10-foot camper, which she is renovating into the Cookie Camper. Hoping to be launched in Spring 2019, Andy Kay’s Cookie Camper will be a cookie food truck, holding pop-up shops around the city and state—possibly even making an appearance at her alma mater in the future.
Q: How do you think your mass communication major and time at OC prepared you for your current cookie career endeavors?
“When I first started doing cookies, I started doing a lot of videos and tutorials. I became really good friends with a lot of people in the cookie world because I was really comfortable on camera. That’s something that I would say is hard to come by. A lot of people are good at decorating cookies, but they’re not great on camera. It even put me where I was comfortable enough to apply for Food Network last year. It was very long hours of interviews that I went through for Food Network. When I got done, the producer said, ‘You were by far the easy interview.’ For me as an entrepreneur, I really see the two work hand-in-hand. It’s not how I intended to use my degree by any means, but it has truly helped me become successful at what I do.”
Q: What was the point when you realized cookie decorating could be a personal, lucrative business?
“When I started doing cookies, I was just a stay-at-home mom and I say ‘just’ but it’s by far the hardest job I’ve ever done. When you’re with children all day, you start losing your mind a little bit. I’m a creative person and I really needed an outlet where I could still be at home with them and still do something that I love to do. It’s therapeutic for me on some levels and its really nice because I can set my own hours and I take the orders I want to take. Now that they’re both in full-time school I’ve been able to take more orders and do more and it’s opened a lot more for me.”
Q: Why have you kept working out of your home part of your business model?
“The stress and pressure of owning a brick and mortar business is so hard. It’s something that I’ve done now and I don’t want to do it again. It’s hard to have employees. It’s hard to have all the extra costs of a business location. People ask me all the time if I’m going to hire an employee, and I say ‘no’ because people buy my cookies because I’m the one doing them and I’m the one putting the art into them. Right when you walk into my house, I have this really cute little office that’s just for my cookie decorating stuff, so it’s worked out really well for a family.”
Q: How does your business expand beyond Wichita and your home?
“Two years ago, a friend of mine who’s a vendor that sells stencils for cookies asked me to come and teach at a weekend event in McPherson, KS. I went and it was a whole weekend of cookie decorating and it was just so much fun. I taught three more times at three other weekends. Then, I was invited by Cookie Con to teach. Once again, because of journalism and mass communications, I’m very comfortable speaking in front of people. I’m usually pretty easy to listen to and learn from. I’ve gotten such great feedback from it that I love being able to do that in addition to my business. So, my business is based here in Wichita but because of the teaching, it has expanded it across the states. I’m able to do that and travel with that.”
Q: How did the opportunity to appear on Food Network arise?
“Last summer, they put out that they were wanting people to apply for a new show they were doing called the Christmas Cookie Challenge. I had seen it online but didn’t think twice about it. I kept having friends and neighbors sending me the link saying, ‘You have to apply, you have to apply.” I sat down one day and said, ‘I’m just going to apply so they’ll leave me alone.’ Then, about two days later, I got a phone call from one of the casting directors in New York and I missed the call. He left me a message and I didn’t even hear it. So, two days later he called me back and said, ‘So, are you interested?’ I had to do a Skype interview with them, which led to a Skype interview with the heads of Food Network. Next thing I know, I got a phone call that I was 90 percent on the show but they couldn’t give me a confirmation just yet. The next thing I know, I had airline tickets to New Orleans.”
Q: Where did the idea for a pop-up shop originate from?
“It was the most bizarre thing. The head of our Food Truck Coalition here in town contacted me and said, ‘We have a huge food truck showdown this weekend and we need one more judge to judge the event,’ and I said, ‘That sounds super fun.’ Then, I started going in my mind, thinking ‘OK, we have a hot dog food truck, we have Mexican, we even have cupcakes’ but I’ve never seen a cookie food truck at all. Then, I just happened to be on Facebook Marketplace and this cute 10-foot little camper popped up and I just had to have it. Within two or three days, I had already given the woman a deposit and my husband jumped in the car and drove six hours to get it.”
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