When you trust your instinct and do things your way, there’s no limit to what you can achieve. For the final part of our Own Your Story video series, we spent the day with Sweet Mickie owner Emma Head to find out how she found the courage to start her business and where the inspiration for her fun designs comes from.
Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Emma Head and I am the owner of cookie company Sweet Mickie
Can you tell us about your background & how that helped you get where you are now?
I come from a family of food business owners; with my mum having a cake and dessert business and my grandma owning cafes and restaurants. So I’ve grown up around inspiring women who owned their own businesses. I didn’t think that I would ever do the same but I’ve ended up continuing the family tradition. My mum in particular has been a huge source of inspiration for me and I’m often calling her up for tips and advice, especially when I was first starting out.
My background was in marketing and social media. I used to work a corporate job but one Christmas when I was making gingerbread, I saw these little candy hearts and thought ‘how fun would it be to put those cute slogans on cookies?’ I wanted to make my own jokes and add my humour to each cookie and the idea for my business really started from there.
Having the background of working for others has been incredibly helpful in helping me market my own business, especially through social media.I went from a corporate job writing corporate tweets and now I write cute quotes on my own treats! My old job didn’t make me happy and now I get to make people laugh every day.
What inspires and motivates you?
I think I’m definitely motivated by making people feel good and just making them laugh. Movies, social media and music are a great source of inspiration and I love taking the time to sit and write down any funny little quotes I’ve seen. Often I’ll be listening to a song and find a lyric that is really sweet so I’ll take inspiration from that.
Why did you decide to start Sweet Mickie?
I started Sweet Mickie because I was looking for cute gifts to send my best friend Lisa who was living inter-state at the time. I was considering sending flowers but thought “you can’t eat flowers!” so decided food gifts would be a great business idea.
How does your everyday routine help you to stay creative and inspired?
I try and stay creative by taking some time out each day to just drink a coffee and listed to music.
What piece of stationery can you not live without?
I like to have a to do list and keep a paper diary. If I don’t write something down I forget it so that’s how I keep organised. I also like the Weekly Planner, it’s great for keeping track of our orders each day. I put in the jobs we have for the week and it’s a great visual way to see how we’re tracking.
What does ‘own your story’ mean to you and how do you live an authentic life?
I think owning your story for me means embracing your history and your family. It’s about being confident in finding your own voice and being true to yourself.
How do you hope to inspire others?
I like to encourage people to be playful and silly and it’s OK to have a laugh and a joke sometimes.
If you could say one thing to the world through your work, what would you say?
If I could say one thing to the world, it would be just have fun. Life is short so just enjoy each moment and be kind to each other.
We hope Emma’s story inspires you to put yourself out there and try something new. Discover our Own Your Story Collection.
Watch our video with Emma Block here and Bobby Clark here.