Interesting Journeys into Petpreneurship: Keicha Danzie and the Good Boy Goodies Story

When Keicha tells you about Good Boy Goodies, she does not lead with the cookies, she leads with Mr. Chub, the love of her life on four legs. She leads with reading programmes in middle Georgia for kids living below the poverty line. She leads with what dogs do for people. The cookies are downstream of all of that, and that is exactly what makes her business work and why I really admire her.

She started Good Boy Goodies in 2019. The world changed in 2020. Her entire sales channel was fairs, festivals, and markets, and every single one of them just shut down overnight. She isn't tech-savvy, she will tell you so herself, and so she pivoted to e-commerce anyway, and learned the hard way how to be! She kept a small core of believers fed through the lockdown, and came out the other side with a brand that now sells in over 200 stores across 26 states. Incredible story.

She did it without a distributor. She did it without venture capital. She did it by showing up to the Atlanta Mart three years running and convincing boutique owners one at a time. And then she did something nobody else has done at scale, she put branded dog treat vending machines into major American airports.

I spent an hour with her on a call and I came away with one strong feeling, which is that this is exactly the kind of operator the pet industry needs more of. Heart first, hustle second, the business right behind it, she has her priorities right.

The Petpreneur Discovery

Bule: I only recently discovered I was a petpreneur. My whole career in startup land and I'd never heard the word. It wasn't in Silicon Valley when I was there. Nobody was building pet businesses in the valley. They laughed at me when I went to the dogs. But now everyone's a petpreneur, and I think it's fantastic. So thank you very much for agreeing to come and speak with me Danzie, I am delighted!

Danzie: Great to be talking to you!

Bule: Have you always loved dogs?

Danzie: Animals period, but dogs in particular have always been my favourite since a kid. We always had pets. Even if I had to go to my neighbour's house and play with their pets if we didn't have one at the house. I was always intrigued by animals and the unconditional love that they had. How they were happy to see me whether they saw me yesterday or saw me three months ago. They've always been dear to my heart.

Bule: When did that begin to express itself in your career?

Danzie: I've always been concerned about what dogs consume. But having a business didn't come until I actually got the love of my life on four legs. And I have to say on four legs because my husband gets really jealous if I say the love of my life period. Mr. Chub. We got him in 2014. He is the best dog ever, and I'll fight somebody if they say their dog's the best.

Bule: What were you doing for work back then?

Danzie: I was a paralegal for a workman's comp attorney. Before that, family law.

Bule: The fierce legal world of complexity!!

Danzie: Yes. No dogs in there. It probably would have made a very good segue. Like if I brought my dog, it would have made the office more palatable and more warm and maybe more friendly. Because in that sterile environment, there was no friendly. The attorneys did what they had to do and they had to have that persona, but it wasn't the warm atmosphere that you get when you have a dog around.

Bule: I've seen it on the movies. Not dog friendly.

Danzie: No, not at all.

The Reading Programme

Before Good Boy Goodies, Keicha was running therapy dogs into schools. Her first dog Waverly was a therapy dog. So was Mr. Chub. Both of them worked with kids in a reading programme through Communities In Schools, the nationwide nonprofit that provides wraparound services for at-risk students.

And this is where Keicha won my heart, with this work right here.

Danzie: We work with children that were at risk. We did a lot of work in the schools with the children. We were a part of a reading programme where we would take the dogs in and the kids would read to them. There are studies that show if a child reads to an animal, whether it's a dog, a cat, a hamster, a horse, they're less likely to be embarrassed if they make a mistake, because the dog or the animal doesn't react to that. They just lay there and listen.

Danzie: For me, dogs have always been unconditional love. They're just walking unconditional love. So to be able to give that to a student that might be embarrassed because they have a stuttering problem, or being apprehensive about reading in front of people. Magic.

Bule: You're making me emotional. This is just incredible work.

The Communities In Schools operation in middle Georgia goes deeper than the reading sessions. Kids who need glasses get connected to local optometrists. Kids who need clothes get them from a closet the charity runs. Kids living below the poverty line who would otherwise only eat at school get sent home over the weekend with Backpack Buddies, a programme that packs backpacks full of food.

Danzie: A lot of the kids in our area, we're in middle Georgia, are under the poverty line. The only food they get is at school. So they had an organisation that provided food over the weekend. They call them Backpack Buddies. They pack these backpacks full of food to send home with them so they can have something to eat. And at the core of it was the dog. Because they didn't want to read to me, I'm another adult. So bringing Chub in there just worked.

Bule: Thank you for doing that, I cannot believe what I am hearing.

Danzie: We also work with some of the schools that have testing. In between testings, they would have the kids come in and pet the dogs, because studies show that dogs bring anxiety down. So they would come in and pet the dogs and get ready for the next session of testing.

Bule: So how on earth did you get from there to fierce legal complex work?

Danzie: In my younger days that was my field. But you have to find a way to marry passion and profit because you've got to make money. Understanding how to do that was a journey, and it's still a journey for me.

Bule: Yes you do. Well said. So you tried serious professional legal. You got bored of it. You went into dogs and did good. And then went back to legal again because you needed money. But then the dogs found you again. Is that right?

Danzie: About a year into the legal world the second time around, I was like, yeah, no. This nine-to-five rat race isn't for me. I need the warm and fuzzy. I need the interaction. Don't get me wrong, being in the legal field you do get satisfaction when you win a case, or you have an individual that was hurt really bad on a job and the attorney helped them out. But it's not warm and fuzzy like a cute dog.

The Cookies

The idea came from frustration. Keicha could not find treats for Mr. Chub where she actually understood the ingredients on the back of the bag.

Danzie: Chub is the best dog ever. When I would go to look for treats for him, it would be things that I didn't know what it was. Just like I want the best for my kids, I read labels. I want to make sure that I'm not giving my children something that could be detrimental to their health over time. The same was the case when it came to Chub.

Bule: And what did the research tell you?

Danzie: I know people think about things short term, but I think about the long term. Over a period of time, how can whatever this is affect my dog? I started to do research and found out that it's very detrimental. Might not be today or tomorrow, but over time, giving them grain or red dye or whatever it is that we wouldn't consume can be detrimental. I thought, well, if I'm having this problem there has to be other pet parents that feel the same way.

Bule: We all know deep down this food the industry is selling us isn't what we'd eat ourselves if we had a choice. They're preying on our convenience and wilful ignorance. So God bless people like you who try to fix that problem. But seriously, making cookies, is that something your grandma taught you to do?

Danzie: My grandmother never taught me how to bake cookies. That was an adventure in itself. I am not a baker by trade. So I worked with a bakery, because in the state of Georgia in order to bake and sell dog treats they have to be prepared in a commercial-grade kitchen. And I worked with some of the local vets to ask them questions. How nutritious is sweet potato? What are the benefits of blueberries? If you had to pick quinoa or rice, which would you do? Having those conversations with experts in their field actually helped me to formulate recipes.

Bule: I would pick strawberries, but what did you launch with?

Danzie: Four flavours. Peanut butter, pumpkin, oatmeal, and a bacon cheesy bite. We wanted something nutritious. Treats that you can actually feel good about giving your fur baby, just as you would your regular baby. Oatmeal is very beneficial for the gut and the coat. Blueberry is good for eyesight and teeth. Sweet potato, same thing, coat and skin. Coconut oil is really good too. Even if you don't give them my treats, if you've got some pumpkin puree and you put it in their food every day, that will help with digestion. And some coconut oil in their food every day will help with skin and coat from the inside out.

Bule: So this actually all sounds good enough for me to eat, is it?

Danzie: Human grade. If you said hey Keicha, bake me some cookies, the same quality of ingredients I would bake your cookies, we use for our treats. Humans could eat them. I don't suggest humans eat them, we've got so much other stuff we can eat. But if a human ate my cookies, it would not hurt them.

Bule: I'm obviously going to eat your cookies. Which one's the tastiest?

Danzie: The dog will eat them all, but I would have to say either the blueberry or the sweet potato because they just have that flavour in them. The bacon cheesy is good. It's crunchy. The peanut butter is good too. Of course I've tasted them all. If I wouldn't eat it, I wouldn't give it to my dog.

The cookies come in hearts and bones. The brand is Good Boy Goodies, which Keicha is a beat too modest about, its such a great name!

Bule: Good Boy Goodies. It's so sticky. It just rolls off the tongue. It seems like a perfectly natural fitting name. Good brand names are like that, they just feel comfortable. Although I have a good girl at home.

Danzie: I get that all the time. Girls can definitely eat them too.

Bule: She'll still eat them. Don't let it ruin your brand!

The Atlanta Mart Strategy

Bule: Where can I buy these? Where are you in?

Danzie: The majority of our distribution is concentrated in the southeast, simply because I'm in Georgia and we're not with a distributor. We are in over 26 states. In Georgia, Atlanta specifically, they have this thing called the Atlanta Mart. At the Atlanta Mart, they bring over 90,000 boutique owners. These boutique owners are shopping for their shelves, shopping for things that's going to be beneficial in their area. That's how I grew my paw print. I call it my paw print instead of my footprint. I did it for two or three years consecutively. That's how we grew into the 26 states.

Bule: 26 states is incredible! But without a distributor, you must have been working hard to get tht much traction. How many stores?

Danzie: Over 200.

Bule: Wow! 200! I'm blown away. That's amazing. I'm going to come to Georgia and start wandering around stores looking for them. I want the magic of seeing them in a store. I want to support your business by buying some for my dog. I'm not about the freebies. I'm all about helping business owners grow.

She built that with no distributor, no co-founder, and no outside capital. Just Atlanta Mart, three years in a row, talking to boutique owners. Wow.

Meet Reagan

The vending machine play came from a different question entirely. If you can put a snack into a major airport, you have repeatable revenue forever. Nobody had put a dog treat vending machine into a major American airport. Keicha did, and she gave it a great name. She called it Reagan!

Bule: Tell me about your incredible vending machines.

Danzie: We have a vending machine at DCA, the airport in Washington. We have another one at Birmingham Shuttlesworth. And we named her Reagan. She's a Good Boy Goodies branded vending machine. Treats, accessories, necessities, toys. And what we're really proud of is we just got into Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. Not in the vending machines yet. We're actually in three of the Hudson stores in Atlanta. We had to go through the process of building out a display, and they're going to extrapolate that out over time into several of their stores.

Bule: These are major airports. Serious customers.

Danzie: Yes.

Bule: Honestly, coming into this call I just thought you were maybe a solopreneur who makes cookies at home. What do I know? But no, you're not. This is crazy success. How many cookies are you shifting through Reagan a month?

Danzie: Around 300 vends a month.

Bule: That's great regular sustained repeatable business. You just refill the thing.

Danzie: We have a guy that's boots on the ground there, a family friend.

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The Hospitality Vision

Reagan is the start. The next play is smaller, and it is pointed straight at hotels.

Bule: If one of my hotels wanted to install one of those machines, it'd make them money from day one. Have you got point-of-sale displays for nicer hotels?

Danzie: That's what I'm working on. I'm trying to get a programme that is more inclusive, from arrival to departure for your animals. We've seen the change when children started to travel with their parents. Hotels started to have kids' menus, started to have activities for the kids to include them. I think that we're on that same road when it comes to pets and dogs. I would love to get a programme where when you check in, if you have your dog, you get a gift. Maybe it's a treat and a bandana and a toy. And then in the room there's a card you can scan that tells you what restaurants locally accept dogs, and what the trails are.

Bule: Love the sound of all of this. Where do you see the pet industry going over the next five to ten years?

Danzie: I see the movement being not just "oh, you have your pet" but "we're welcoming your pet." It's intentional. It's inclusive. It's like their children. I have two different niche markets. You have the millennials who are waiting longer to have kids, and so their dogs are in essence their babies. And then you have the baby boomers whose kids have grown up and moved out, and now their animals are like their babies. So I see a wave of people coming through with a different mindset about dogs in general. And we're going to have to catch up with that.

Bule: Lots of catch up required from the hospitality space!

Building Through COVID

Bule: From making your first cookie, how long did it take you to get to 26 states and 200 stores? What was the grind like?

Danzie: We started in 2019. The world changed in 2020. All of our points of sale were going to be fairs, festivals, and markets. Of course, outside closed. The first two and a half years of my business was just trying to stay afloat.

Bule: That's a grind. How did you keep the faith?

Danzie: It's not easy, and I'm not tech-savvy. So you put that in the mix with the fact that I'm a personable person. I want to talk to you about your dogs. I want to pet your dogs. I want your dog to try my treats. And none of that was happening. So I had to pivot and learn how to articulate my passion, how to get people excited about my passion and about my product. We had a strong following before, a core group of people that really believed in our product, really believed in me, believed in what we were doing. When we went to the e-commerce platform, it was a very hard thing for me. But just staying in front of people, making sure they understood what we were offering and how beneficial it was going to be for their dogs over time.

Bule: That sounds incredibly hard.

Danzie: It was very hard, and it was during a time that no one understood. Generally speaking, if you go through a hard spell, you can reach out to someone else that's gone through one and they can guide you. No one had a roadmap to COVID. No one knew what you do when you're starting a business and a pandemic happens and the world shuts down. No one had that experience under their belt to help. So it was literally trying to figure it out. I call it flying a plane while we're building it.

Bule: You're a genuine bonafide startup hero. You know that. I'm so happy COVID is sort of over so that people can get the real Danzie Good Boy magic!

Danzie: Me too!

Advice for Petpreneurs

Bule: What advice do you have for petpreneurs looking at the world and trying to find their way in it? Many are young, perhaps don't quite know what they want to do yet, but they know they want to be part of this and be like you.

Danzie: Three things come to mind. Identify your why, because that will always keep you grounded. Why do you want to start a business? Make sure you really, really know what that is. Then being able to marry passion with profit. Because if it doesn't make money, it's just a hobby. At that point you need to rethink or revamp what you're doing. I'm not saying make a lot of money fast, but if that's your ultimate goal and it's not your passion, then you're going to burn out quick. And the third thing, always bet on yourself. Always bet on you.

You know what you want to do. Just do it.

Bule: I love it. Thank you, Keicha. That was beautiful.

This concludes our interview. Please give Keicha Danzie and Good Boy Goodies a follow if you can, Keicha really is fantastic and I don't care what she says!

I will eat one of her cookies before my dog does :)