A new interview in the Mommin' It Business Series is here! Featuring mom owned businesses that support pregnant and new moms.
Today I’m speaking with Whitney Williams Rowell, founder of Miracle Milkookies. Miracle Milkookies provides breastfeeding moms with delicious lactation cookies to help boost their milk supply. Miracle Milkookies are baked fresh weekly and delivered right to your door. How awesome is that? As a mom, convenience is definitely key!
I first met Whitney through a mutual friend and I then had an opportunity to meet her in person when she was visiting New York City. Whitney is a ROCKSTAR and an amazing human. She helps new moms and also female business owners in so many ways, which you’ll learn more about in the interview below!
Miracle Milkookies started out as a recipe that Whitney herself made after she gave birth. A few years later that recipe turned into a company! I’m so happy that Whitney is part of the movement to bring postpartum products to moms in such an incredible way. And now, onto the interview with Whitney!
What does your business do? How do you help expecting or new moms?
It's our goal to give mamas everywhere a little boost. We do this by shipping handmade, all natural, fresh baked lactation 'Kookies' to doorsteps across the street and around the world each week. We also have a podcast on iTunes called Message from Mom, where we interview healthcare providers, mompreneurs, influencers and other inspiring moms about topics (often around shame or real 'mom' issues) that need to be discussed.
Why did you start your business?
I started my business because I am so passionate about supporting new moms. When a friend dropped fresh baked lactation cookies on my doorstep after having my first baby in June of 2015, the gesture meant everything to me during such a vulnerable phase of life. I tried to find fresh baked lactation cookies online, but all I could find were recipes for lactation cookies that included brewers yeast, oats and flaxseed. I had created a recipe for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies when I was younger, so I decided to try adding brewers yeast and flax to that same recipe. Once I made the cookies, I was blown away by how much milk I was producing. I decided to post the recipe to a blog I started when I lived in NYC called Lifestyle Hunting. I don't think anyone other than my mom actually read my blog but I thought I would share the recipe with friends when they started having babies. A year and a half after I posted the recipe, I was pregnant again with my second baby and I checked the backend of my blog to see if I should keep it live or take it down (my last recipe was for the Miracle Milk Cookie). I couldn't believe it, but that one post had over 300,000 visits. So many other moms were benefiting and PopSugar and Health Magazine wrote about it as well! I created a survey asking the blog readers if they would prefer to buy the cookies vs baking them themselves. After an overwhelming response of moms asking to buy the cookies, I decided to turn the Miracle Milk Cookie recipe into a business!
What advice would you give to expecting or new moms?
Give yourself grace. Every single day.
How has motherhood changed you (if at all)?
Motherhood has given me a mirror to see myself in a way I never had before. It has changed me in all the best ways and I feel so honored for the responsibility of raising two young girls.
About Whitney Williams Rowell
Whitney is founder of Miracle Milkookies, co-founder of Collective Thirty One, and the host of the Message from Mom podcast. Born in Nashville & raised in Dallas, Whitney went to college at TCU where she was named Entrepreneur of The Year after launching her first business, a jewelry company called Tramonti by Whitney. During her senior year, Tramonti by Whitney was labeled by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s Coolest College Start-Ups. After college, Whitney moved to New York City where she worked in lifestyle and travel PR, representing luxury boutique hotels around the world and overseeing brand collaborations, events, and social media for her clients ranging from The Surrey in Manhattan’s Upper East Side to OPUS in Vancouver. In 2015, Whitney moved back to Dallas and launched her own marketing consulting company, focusing on representing ‘organizations with heart.’ Several of Whitney’s clients included, Council for Life, Elizabeth Toon Charities, and The Halftime Institute. In 2017, after Whitney discovered that a recipe she posted for her homemade lactation cookies had gone viral, she decided to create a fresh-baked, all-natural, direct to your doorstep lactation ‘Kookie’ company, called Miracle Milkookies. Through the process of meeting with other female entrepreneurs as she grew her own ‘Kookie’ business, Whitney and a friend decided to start an invite only networking group for local female entrepreneurs in Dallas to support one another. The group, called Collective Thirty One, hosts monthly coffees for members, pop-up events and an annual Collective Thirty One Holiday Market that takes place every November. With a passion for moms, female entrepreneurs, and others who are really trying to juggle it all, Whitney launched a podcast on Mother’s Day called Message from Mom. She uses her podcast as a platform to chat with healthcare professionals, mompreneurs, influencers and other inspiring women about the real-life topics that we sometimes feel shame around, trying to bring to light that many of these feelings and experiences are actually normal. When she’s not working, networking, or podcasting, Whitney loves nothing more than spending time with her husband and their two young daughters, going on long runs, baking, and spending time at the lake.
Find Miracle Milkookies here:
www.instagram.com/miraclemilkookies
www.instagram.com/whitneywrowell
www.facebook.com/miraclemilkookies
Contact Whitney:
Via DM's on Instagram or whitney@whitneyrowell.com
