Christopher Knight and Emmanuel Lee

[00:00] EMMANUEL LEE: What'S going on, guys? Emmanuel Lee here. I am 20 years old. Today is September 20th. I'm here in Atlanta, Georgia, with Cookie Chris, and I'll be interviewing him today.

[00:13] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: All right. Hi, guys. How are y'all doing today? My name is Christopher Knight, Jr. 19 years old, also currently in Atlanta, Georgia. And I'm here speaking to my Morehouse brother today, Emmanuel.

[00:25] EMMANUEL LEE: Absolutely. Now, Chris, you know, first off.

[00:31] SPEAKER C: I.

[00:31] EMMANUEL LEE: Just want to say congratulations.

[00:33] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that.

[00:35] EMMANUEL LEE: I want to say congratulations for all.

[00:36] SPEAKER D: That you're going on, but most basic and fundamentally, the fact that you chose the right institution to carry out what you got going on at, you know, I'm saying you came to Morehouse, you came to the AUC, this is where it's at. So congratulations on that.

[00:52] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Thank you. It's actually crazy how I actually came to Morehouse.

[00:57] EMMANUEL LEE: Oh my God. We're gonna talk about it. I want you to talk about it, please.

[01:03] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: All right. Well, I was planning on going to a school in Williamsburg, Virginia, which is where my first store is located. It's called Webb-Mary. And since I'm on the law track, that's a really big law school, so I was planning on going there. But I don't know, as soon as I opened up my store in Williamsburg, And my mom and me, like my entire family, whatever, we didn't really know much about HBCUs. Like we knew they were, you know, historically black college universities, but didn't really know in depth about them. And it just seemed like during, as it was getting closer to like pick what school I really wanted to go to, everybody that came into that store was telling me to go to Morehouse. Hadn't even heard of it. They were just like, yeah, you ever thought about going to HBCU? You should go to Morehouse. You should go to Morehouse. Morehouse, Morehouse, Morehouse, it was just like over flooding with you should go to Morehouse. Even people that went to William and Mary that I went to talk to, some of them were saying to me, go to Morehouse. So we had a lot of research on the school. And then after just like, me and my parents looked at signs from God that people would just come in and tell us about a school that we hadn't even had on our list. And I came and toured the school. And I fell in love with it since that first tour. And I told them I was going here no matter what. And yeah, that's actually how I got to Morehouse. It was so crazy when it first happened, because I was truly planning on going to that school right down the street from my store.

[02:28] EMMANUEL LEE: It's bananas, you wanted to stay home, huh?

[02:31] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: It was more just like a business decision. Women, Mary is like five minutes, honestly, from my store. It's so close. And then with that already being a law school that I wanted to go to in the future, I thought making a connection there, just going there for undergrad would already be great. But yeah, it was just people even, I think, a graduate of Women, Mary, I think he was the law professor there or the head of the law school there. Not sure exactly, but he had came into the story and was like, yeah, you should go to Morehouse. Morehouse is where it's at.

[03:06] EMMANUEL LEE: And we're going to, we'll get into.

[03:08] SPEAKER D: Some of your time at Morehouse as well, but I do want to talk about some of what came before. And, you know, you keep bringing up this store, so we gotta address it.

[03:18] EMMANUEL LEE: And you're calling it my store, too, so we gotta talk about that. Let's talk a little bit about your ownership when it comes to the stores. First of all, tell us about your business, what you got going on.

[03:30] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: All right, well, my business is called Cookie Crisps. We do cookies, ice cream, milkshakes, and all types of fun desserts and things like that. But even though it's a dessert shop, the idea of it when I started it, how I was creating it came from it coming from a place where I wanted the community to come together. Williamsburg is a very old populated town and everything usually closes at around like eight or nine o'clock. And being with my parents, we always traveled a lot in places like New York and stuff like that. Things are open till 12, 1 o'clock in the morning. And being in Williamsburg seeing there was nothing there like that, Especially with that, the college campus right around the corner, I knew like I should have something open and available to them as in college students or just other regular people that wanted to come in for a late dessert and sit down and enjoy something. So that's where the idea of Cookie Crisp really came from, you know, the bacon and stuff came from like me baking when I was younger with my grandmother. Like that's where all the skills kind of originated from, but like the really idea of like what I wanted Cookie Crisp to look like came from that. Wow.

[04:44] EMMANUEL LEE: And that sounds crazy to think about some of the intricacies that go into that. Like, you know, as a teenager, you're thinking about, you know, because there's certain things necessary in order to start a business like that. Like, you gotta, I mean, you know, besides the capital, but you gotta have a target audience, you gotta have a demographic and all that. You gotta be a selling to.

[05:05] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, so I truly, I always give, you know, glory to God, because that was, it was really just him. When I first started baking, I don't know if you know the story, but it was during COVID and I was actually just playing the game a whole bunch. I had just stopped playing basketball for some reasons and whatnot. And my mom was like, you're always on the game, you need to get off and go do something. So I started baking out of my mom's kitchen to like, you know, just have some fun to do. I'd always like baking. I thought I was therapeutics, get your mind off stuff and whatnot. And I would bake chocolate chip sugar, you know, all the basic types of stuff. And my parents, my parents are foodies. We're really big foodies, all of us. Usually when we travel, we do it just to go eat food in different places. But I would bake for them and they were like, you know, this is pretty good and using a little bit of creativity, I was just like, you know, what if I started doing different things like Oreo, banana pudding, strawberry shortcake, different cookies like that, right? Tried those out. Parents said I actually had a gift for it. So at this point, I said, you know, maybe I could, you know, make a little money off of it, see how it goes. So I started off selling it in school and all my peers, the faculty and the staff, they were all very accepted of that. And they said it was really good as well. So I said, okay, the school like it, got one school down. Next thing you know, one school found out, liked it, the school I went to, and then the other schools around the neighborhood found out about me as well. So they wanted them. So I had people selling in different schools as well. And after this, I was like, you know what, it's time to try to see if I could sell through Facebook, sell through Instagram. And I think I did it. I started that at 16.

[06:51] SPEAKER C: And.

[06:53] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Two years of hard work of doing that, the Williamsburg community really put back into me. They saw I worked hard at it and they enjoyed the product as well. And I would say I gave back to them that store so they could go into. But it was really just God's timing on how that happened. I would say, like, I went out and went door to door. Well, I did do that occasionally as well, but the Williamsburg Community was just very supportive as well. It was just all of them. And. And God, to be honest with you. So that's how that came to be.

[07:26] EMMANUEL LEE: Absolutely. Gotta give praise to the most high when it's due.

[07:29] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yes. Right, right. And that.

[07:32] EMMANUEL LEE: That sounds. That sounds real. You know what I'm saying?

[07:36] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I promise you, it came out of nowhere. I promise you it did. I was selling in school. Next thing, you know, I had people texting me on Facebook. I. We just made the Facebook account. People saying, oh, my daughter came home with this cookie. Is this yours? We'd like to buy some. It started off with maybe selling two dozen to school a day, and then two dozen at my school, two dozen at the schools around the neighborhood as well. And then I'm up late at night after school to maybe two in the morning doing eight dozen or so.

[08:06] SPEAKER C: Because.

[08:07] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: People all around wanted it in the community.

[08:11] EMMANUEL LEE: Dude, that's, that's bananas. And I don't wanna, I don't know if this is bad to say, but it sounded like you said you, you was dealing dope in high school type stuff.

[08:19] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: No, no, no, nothing like that.

[08:23] EMMANUEL LEE: But the way you put something in.

[08:25] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Them cookies, man, I put a lot of love and a lot of dedication into it. People can taste it. I say that.

[08:31] EMMANUEL LEE: That's wonderful. That's wonderful. So I do wanna, let's establish a little bit of a timeline, right, to when some of these, you know, because that store popping up there. I'm not gonna take time, you know, compared to when you first start. So you started baking in during COVID When is that?

[08:47] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: 2020. I don't know. Don't got the exact dates on me at hand, but I know I was 16, so if we do the math, maybe like, oh, what am I? 19 now. Oh, math is looking my head. Had a long day.

[09:01] EMMANUEL LEE: You feel it? Old, huh? I feel it.

[09:02] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah. Honestly, honestly. Probably, probably around. I'm trying to look through some photos right now, see if I can find it. Probably around 2019, 2020, somewhere around there. Okay.

[09:12] EMMANUEL LEE: Late 2019s. Okay.

[09:14] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, 2019 or 2020, one of those years. And then did that for about two years in my mom's kitchen. And actually, I had no idea a store was coming. At first, I didn't want to store at all. Again, this is supposed to be like a little fun thing to do, and people like this, so I was like, why not keep doing it? But my mom said that the man was getting too much. She told me to get out of her kitchen. That's really what she told me, she told me to get out here and get a job. I was doing too much. I had asked for my, I think this is my 18th birthday. I asked for my 18th birthday. I said, I've been saving up money for the past two years. Do y'all mind helping out on buying half of the store, half of the down payment for the store? And I paid half, they paid half. And that's what I did for my birthday. That was all I got. Then the entire summer I worked on that store. This is my first year ever not really taking a vacation or doing nothing. Family oriented. We were in the store working, trying to get it set up before I had, you know, head off for the next year.

[10:15] EMMANUEL LEE: So the first store comes and, and this is senior high school, I'm guessing.

[10:21] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, senior year of high school.

[10:22] SPEAKER C: Yeah.

[10:22] EMMANUEL LEE: So the first store comes senior high school. What comes after that?

[10:27] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: All right, so senior high school is the first store. And then I just opened up my second location in Richmond, Virginia. Literally maybe a month or two ago.

[10:38] EMMANUEL LEE: Okay.

[10:40] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Don't have, thank you so much. Don't have the exact date on that either. You know, when I'm at college, I do handle some of the business side, like the online media and all that, but like as in the dates for all those things, completely out of my head with all the classes I'm taking.

[10:53] EMMANUEL LEE: Yeah, which is fine.

[10:55] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah.

[10:56] EMMANUEL LEE: So, grinding through college and all that.

[11:00] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, looking for those dates, once I find those, I'll let you know. But yeah, that came, beginning of sophomore year.

[11:08] EMMANUEL LEE: For sure. So, so the first door. And then tell me a little bit about what happens after you accumulate the first door, some of the issues that might have came about, because I want to talk about you actually, you being in the kitchen as well, like what came with.

[11:25] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, I definitely. Okay, so it's, I actually got a lot of interest stories about the first store. The first store was. Very difficult. My parents are business owners themselves, but things in completely unrelated to the food service. So this was our their first time as well as my first time doing something food related. So going through the process of learning everything that we had to have down packed to make sure we were, you know, could legally sell items out of a brick and mortar and all of those things, we had to figure all that out. But let me let me tell you about this. Okay, so. First, first day we opened. So it wasn't even our actual first day of opening. We, you know, we had a soft opening for family and friends. And, you know, even though it's a soft opening for family and friends, if people that aren't family and friends come and say, can we come and, you know, buy some and try out the product, nobody's, I'm not going to turn them away because they just came here to support me. So even though the first soft opening was supposed to be family and friends, again, I don't have the exact date. I'll let you know when I find that. But, It was a really big turnout. It was, again, the Williamsburg community was very supportive of me. So we had a few family and friends come very early and then right after them, it was just a whole bunch of people saying, Hey, it saw me in the newspaper, had saw me on, I don't know, Instagram, Facebook, said they wanted to try me out, all this other stuff. And, yeah, the first day we actually, I remember this vividly, me and my mom and dad were in there like the week, the entire week before, just making a lot of dough. In the back of the kitchen, you know, because we were expecting a big turnout as well with how the Owensboro community was responding to me being on Instagram and Facebook. So I was like, you know, it's gonna be a lot of people. We need to make sure we have a lot of dough. I think at this time we had one freezer, maybe one refrigerator or so. So we had the freezer stacked up with dough and refrigerator halfway to it with dough.

[13:14] SPEAKER C: Right.

[13:14] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Thinking this is going to be enough. Our hours, our regular hours are like, so it's Tuesday. Tuesday through Thursday we're from 11 A.M to 11 P.M and then Friday, Saturday and Sunday we are 11 00 a.m to 1 A.M and it varies depending on how busy and slow we are. Yeah, that first day for the soft opening, how long, how long do you guess we lasted? Just, just, just take a guess from, we opened at 9 A.M. when do you think we had to Call it quits. Shoot.

[13:52] EMMANUEL LEE: The way you talk and I'm going halfway through the day, maybe I have to cut it short.

[13:56] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, yeah, I wish. We maybe two hours. I think we had sold out of all the cookies we had. And mind you, we're doing this week or two preparation of just like lots of dough. And then this is also six flavors of six flavors of dough as well. I do six flavors a week. So it's also six flavors of do it that we're doing a lot for, for that week before. And I'm pretty sure we sold out at, like, maybe 1, 1 p.m. Yes. Didn't even make it anywhere close. And it was a blessing, of course, but at the same time, we had people, we had locked the door and closed it. We had people pulling on the door, trying to get in and things like that. And I, I was just like, yeah, sorry, we're sold out. We don't, we don't have any more. They said, you don't have anything. We'll take, we'll take. I said, no, we really don't have anything. Like, we're out. Everything. And not just what was crazy about this was being out of the stuff. The day was also crazy. Again, this was me and my parents first time ever doing anything in the food business, right? And we have to train the staff, essentially. And we're training the staff, but at the same time, I've never been in the food business either. So even though I can tell them what to do and I know what I should do, I've never dealt with a customer before either, honestly, in a store situation. So we're honestly all in this together is what I told him. I said, you know, there's nothing better than a good training day, then the actual first day of work. That's going to be our training. That's our actual training day. So we had, we had a lot of doozies and mess ups, but, you know, at the end of day, everybody was happy with the product. And it was, it was a pretty fun day. It was a pretty fun day. A lot of people that, I like to stress good customer service, something I like. Because my parents, we like to go out to eat a lot. So customer service, I'm really big on. So I had been stressing with them the whole week, you know, make sure the customer service is good, make sure they get their product good, make sure they get it fast so they can sit down and enjoy it. Even though I was stressing that, you know, when the door is opening, you have a line outside of the door, it's kind of hard to remember all that. So between us, selling all the cookies and, you know, the employees being, like, kind of flustered because they didn't know the first day was going to be this big. But it was a great experience overall again because the idea of Cookie Cris came from, you know, I wanted people to have a sense of community, somewhere to sit down and eat late at night and things like that. I mean, even though we didn't last till late at night, there were still a lot of people in the lobby like they hadn't seen each other in maybe 10 or so years. They somehow both came out at the same time and reconnecting to the point where like in my stores I play music It was so many people talking. We had just decided to turn the music down to let people hear each other better because everybody was just enjoying the conversation and whatnot on that first day. But yeah, it was a great day. It was a really great day. It was a really hectic day, but it showed me how much work it really takes to turn the small mom and pop or doing it from the kitchen to an actual business.

[17:07] EMMANUEL LEE: Yeah, for sure.

[17:08] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I got one more interesting tour for you. And this one, this one's gonna be short. It's not gonna be, it's not gonna be real long. I'm pretty sure this was maybe our second or third day open. I can't exactly remember. Second or third day open. We were, we were cooking some cookies. We were prepping. It was like 6 A.M. in the morning, somewhere around that time, you know, prepping, baking a whole bunch of cookies. Because, again, first day we sold out, so. Even. Oh, I didn't even put this in after the first day we sold out. Of course, we have no more dough, and we're supposed to be open tomorrow. So everybody had to stay back and help roll the dough that me and my dad were making so we could actually have cookies to sell for the next day. So we didn't leave. We didn't leave till maybe two in the morning or something like that. It was. It was a. It was a crazy day, but second or third day, we got all this dough. We're cooking in the morning. Tell me why the oven goes out. Oven is completely a brand new oven I just bought three days ago. Completely just goes out. Stops working, won't cook, won't turn on. We try to fix the breaker. We're calling electricians and all this other stuff. They're saying the oven just won't work. And this day, it's actually raining. So me and my dad have to call some of our neighbors to help us get this new oven that we ordered and pick it up and bring it inside the store. And I don't know if you know, but these ovens are like. 400, 500 pounds. Like, you need, you need five grown men to pick these up. And then this is, the Williamsburg store is a very, I don't want to say a small store, but it has a thin door in the front. So we trying to turn it all different ways. We put it on the dolly, putting it on trolley, trying to get it in. It's in, mind you, it's pouring outside, raining. We're all soaking wet and stuff. And then this is also around, like, maybe 10 a.m. so we're supposed to be open. So there are people looking, they're coming up to us asking while we're trying to lift this oven. Are you guys open? You guys baking cookie? I said, sorry, we're not. We're not even open right now. The oven went out. We don't have any cookies. We have, like, maybe one pan or two pans of chocolate chip back there that were able to be cooked before the oven went out. But we're like, no, you don't want to do that. And then draw a crowd. But, yeah, that was. That was also a crazy day. I even went out brand new. Had to get an entire new one. Yeah.

[19:25] EMMANUEL LEE: Now those sound like crazy learning experiences.

[19:29] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: But also just really was bonding moments.

[19:32] EMMANUEL LEE: I'm sure those create a certain type of bond and camaraderie amongst who you got.

[19:42] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: It definitely did. It definitely did. Even between my parents, our connection grew a lot closer from this as well. Yeah, they really, they were already pushing me to be great when I was doing it at home, but, like, now that I have the store, it's on a different level. So they have to really, like, help out a lot more than, I mean, they were already helping when I was doing it at home, but that was, you know, again, one dozen compared to maybe cooking, I don't know, 20 dozen a day or something like that is complete different. So they had to really put their foot forward and help me out with that. So, yeah, the. The level of bonding between all the people that helped out in those situations. It's really deepened.

[20:23] EMMANUEL LEE: That sounds about right. I want to ask, Chris, you know, you tell me that your parents were entrepreneurs as well.

[20:32] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah.

[20:34] EMMANUEL LEE: There's sort of a spirit that I feel like comes with that title, right? And as far as I've seen it, it usually seems to be passed down, like generations for some reason. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's in the food or in whatever, but you know, it seems like that's something that is.

[20:51] SPEAKER D: Passed down amongst Generations. Do you think that your parents were part of the reason why you decided to do this yourself? And then I also wanted to ask something else I want you to touch upon is the grind that was necessary in order to be successful at this.

[21:07] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Right?

[21:07] SPEAKER D: Like, you're talking about you're up at six in the morning, up until one in the morning. This is a grind that you're going through. It's not as easy as people think it is.

[21:15] EMMANUEL LEE: Even though it is baking cookies, but this is not that.

[21:19] SPEAKER C: Right.

[21:20] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I'm gonna answer in reverse order. I'm gonna start with the grind, right? So, you know, let's take it all the way back to the kitchen again, right? So I think I'm a junior at this time starting to bake cookies at home. I also play on the basketball team at my school for the varsity basketball team, starting point guard. Yeah, yeah, really. So, you know, full day of classes, right? Full day of classes. And then, you know, basketball practice and, you know, extra trainings that my parents have probably set up throughout the day after school, workout sessions and all that. So maybe I was doing, I think, two workouts a day, not including, you know, basketball practice for the school.

[22:09] EMMANUEL LEE: And this is covet, too.

[22:11] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, this is during COVID as well. So, you know, it's even harder. You got to practice with the mask on. You can't breathe. It's, it's crazy. It's, it's so crazy. Mask all wet. You can't even take it off because they gonna, they gonna take you out the game, try to change it. So, yeah, it was, this was definitely a crazy time. But, like, think about, imagine, you know, for all the student athletes and stuff out there, you know, four day classes, you two, three workouts a day. You got homework, you got to get done. And then after that, you got to do your job to make these cookies, right? So, I mean, by the time I finished this, because the boys practice last, they practice after the girls and whoever else needed the gym. So we probably practiced at around, like, eight, nine o'clock. So after eight, nine o'clock, you know, get your during. Gotta take the shower, whatnot. Gotta still do your homework. So at this time it's maybe 11-12 o'clock, you know, it's been a full day, you ready to go to sleep? You still got to get up in the morning at 7 for school, you know what I'm saying, for the next day. But duty calls, so, you know, get up after you finish doing your homework, go downstairs and the grind, the entire day is a grind because it also drains you mentally, but like the physical drain is crazy as well because then I don't have a store in my parents' kitchen, so I'm standing up doing, and at this time I have a little small mixer, not like a big commercial mixer, so I'm doing a dozen at a time where in my stores I have right now, I'm able to do four dozen at a time. I got two mixers or three mixers or so, so it's a lot faster in the store, but one dozen at a time of six flavors, and I probably need a dozen or so each flavor, and that doesn't seem like a lot now because of how I understand what I do in the store. But back then, before I had the store, you know, six dozens because of six flavors was a lot to be doing at 12. 12, you know, 12 a.m. and then to think I have to decide now. Well, I brought the dough after I'm doing all the dough and doing all the dough probably took an hour.

[24:18] SPEAKER C: So.

[24:19] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: So now we have 1am, right?

[24:22] SPEAKER C: And we.

[24:24] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Sometimes be down there and he would help me. And he would roll the dough I would make it but again they have their businesses as well so he'd be tired I'm not gonna force him to do it so sometimes he would say you know this is part of the grind you gotta do it yourself today I said alright so on days I had to do it myself take me an hour to make the dough take me another hour or so to roll the dough now it's now it's one o'clock 1:00 a.m. in the morning again I gotta be up for school in five six hours or so.

[24:55] SPEAKER C: And I.

[24:55] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Actually got to get up earlier because depending on the day, sometimes I would bake all the cookies in the morning before school so they could be extra fresh and sometimes I would bake it that night. So, I mean, but you know, those, it was, it was definitely a grind. Even before I got the store and the store itself, oh, what are you saying?

[25:17] EMMANUEL LEE: You gotta love the quality though, like the effort that's put into these cookies.

[25:22] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: And that's what I was saying. You said, you said it was like drugs, some nice. They can, they can truly taste the love and hard work that's in there. That's why they're so good. I promise you, I promise you. I can grind that. The mom's.

[25:37] EMMANUEL LEE: Hello, Chris.

[25:39] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Hey, can you hear me? Hello? Yeah, you're back.

[25:43] EMMANUEL LEE: You're back. You cut up for a little second. Say again what you were saying.

[25:47] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I was saying, you know, even though my mom's kitchen ground was, was It was definitely a level of ground that I never experienced because, you know, I've always did just school and basketball. Never really did a lot of other stuff besides that, you know, did a few service hours and whatnot, but like nothing constantly. And even though that was a grind, you know, once I got the store, the ground was even harder than that because, you know, I was still selling out my mom's kitchen. So it's not like I had a lot of funding or anything like that. A lot of the stuff in my first store, me and my dad built with hand by hand. My countertops, my shelves, the stands where the registers and stuff are. We built all that stuff by hand. Just some wood and some paint. And we were in there every day over the summer. And again, this is like one of my first summers I'm not able to experience like a vacation or nothing like that. No family bonded time. We were in there every day. Building stuff, throwing stuff away, painting. Yeah. So that grind was. That grind was on a different level because I won't say I don't know how to, you know, do some hard work and, you know, stuff like that, but it was one of my first experiences ever happened. Like, oh, I actually have to do it because this is my thing. I actually got to get on my knees and nail these cameras in and. Or Hammer these nails in and drill this stuff and. You know, it was. That was a real bonding moment for me and my dad because he was teaching me stuff I didn't even know how to do at first. But, yeah, that. That grind was unbelievable. And then, as I was telling you about my, the first door, like how busy it was on the first day opening and stuff, for that, I would have to get up around like five or six a.m. to start baking in the morning. And at this time, I think I had maybe around three or four employees, not including me and my parents. You know that. And it. It was definitely enough people. But again, we were all new to this, so it wasn't something we would have a deep understanding of. So it was the point. Sometimes, like, my grandmother came down once and helped roll some dough. My uncle came in the store once to help roll some dough to help me out. And they were long days. There were days that I didn't get a break. And I didn't get nothing to eat. Of course, the employees did, but, like, me, you know, I gotta stay there. I got work to do. I remember one time I didn't eat for, like, maybe eight hours straight. I was, like, had my breakfast that morning, went to work. But things had to get done, so that's what it was. But it's definitely not just, like, baking cookies and, you know, getting money from it. There's a lot of stuff that goes into it, especially with, like, the marketing and networking part of it. But just like the heartbreak in general, it's just a lot. It's a lot more than people think.

[28:36] EMMANUEL LEE: For sure. For sure. Like I said, Chris, it's a grind. And I respect it. I think above all else, that's what can be respected the most in a way. Getting up every day and just putting in work. We know how it is with sports and all that, but with anything else, sports could be real fun. Activity and you're with people, but that grind, like, yeah, yeah, by yourself, you know what I'm saying? Putting that dough together late night and early.

[29:04] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Literally, like, like, like you said, like, doing cookies again, it started, it's. Cookies is still fun, but, like, when I had, when I was doing in the kitchen, it was real fun. It was real therapeutic. I got that store. I said, dang, I don't feel like getting up today. I just want to lay in my bed for, like, like, past nine for, like, two or eight for, like, two months straight. I was just. Up every day. It really felt like a repeated process of me, like, getting up, doing dough, baking cookies, serving customers, going home, going to sleep, getting up, doing it all over again. I was like, hey, this, this is. Oh, this is a little harder than I thought. Like, even harder than I thought it was of me. Because when I first started, I was like, it's just cookies. It's just cookies, you know, make some dough, bake it, sell it. But, like, it's like, I truly thought it was like that. And my parents tried to let me know, they said, They said, well, I hope you know, if this keeps getting big, it's gonna be a lot harder than you think it is. I said, nah, it's gonna be fine. But I can be honest with you.

[30:04] EMMANUEL LEE: It's a blessing, right?

[30:06] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Just to see how it really is, though. Yeah, I never complain about it, though. I really love what I do. Thank God that I'm able to do it.

[30:13] EMMANUEL LEE: Absolutely. Let's talk a little bit about your influences when it comes to your food, to what you're cooking, who's influenced you, what influences you to create what you create, to cook how you cook.

[30:24] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Well, the baking skills in general just come from my grandmother. My brother was a D1 running back for Michigan when I was younger. My parents were always out of town with him at football games and stuff like that. And I got tired of traveling, honestly. I was tired of going every week and staying in hotels and whatnot. So I would stay with my grandmother a lot and she's where I'm originally from, originally from Virginia, before I moved to Winchester. So I would go down there with her. You know, spend the weekend, and she had this big old cookbook, you know, like one of them old Grandma cookbooks, you know, all them grandmas got. We would do pound cakes, cupcakes, regular cake. I think we did toaster schottles one time, cookies, brownies. You know, we try to go through everything in there, everything that peaked my eye. And my love for bacon really just came from then. I mean, like, again, bacon for me, when I did it in my mom's kitchen, was, like, very therapeutic, something to. Go back to my childhood, I guess. My grandma kind of spawned that love in baking for me because she was always there with me when we were baking. Yeah, that's where, that's where, like, the, I guess, the skill and, like, the thought of cookies came from, because cookies are my personal favorite dessert as well. So that's where I started doing cookies. But, like, as in the exotic flavors and stuff I do, I, I truly. I truly don't know how my mind comes up with it. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's a. It's a different part of my mind. Like, I. When I came up with the strawberry shortcake, I had no idea I was gonna do, like, a shortbread outside strawberry inside with a strawberry crumble on top. Like, that just. It just pops up out of nowhere, you know, random ideas. Like, the banana pudding cookie I have as well. Like, I mean, I don't know if that's a real common cookie, but, like, when I thought of it, It just came up on my mind and something was like, do it this way. And I did it that way. And it works out. Sometimes I do new flavors and, you know, take me two to three times. But I will say most time when I do new flavors, it literally takes me one time to do, which I'd be like so like confused of myself because I'm like, first time I'm trying it, even though these are cookies, it's still like a lot of different ingredients and stuff in there. So the, I don't know where the ideas of the different flavors and stuff spawns from. I can't even tell you about that.

[32:47] EMMANUEL LEE: For sure, I feel it. I mean, for us, I consider myself.

[32:51] SPEAKER D: A creative as well. I consider you a creative, and I feel like for us creatives, sometimes these ideas and what we come up with, the innovation is not explainable. It's just us.

[33:02] EMMANUEL LEE: It's just you, really. And that's part of what makes you special, so I feel it. Something I wanted to touch upon, And it's interesting because, you know, I'm not going to say we don't get a lot of people like you, but quite honestly, like in this community of cooking, I mean, you know what the stereotype is when it comes to the kitchen.

[33:23] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Right, right. It definitely started like that in school. I had a few people tell me that. Chris, why are you baking? You know, that's, you know, the stereotypical things that guys that age would say and stuff like that. But how I looked at it back then was, well, I guess this is more the entrepreneur side of my parents telling me. I said it was making me money. Why would I, you know, it was something that I liked to do, something that spawned from my grandma and I'm making money from it. And I'm like, I'm enjoying it and I'm making money. Why would I let somebody else tell me that's not where I should be, what I should be putting my effort into and my energy into, you know what I'm saying? You know, and most times people that was telling me this was, they weren't doing anything themselves productively, so I would, you know, brush that off. That don't. I ain't let stuff like that get to me for real, for real, because the people, the same people that was like, you shouldn't be baking, you shouldn't be doing that, were the same people that were buying the cookies from me later down the line. So I never, you know, let that get to me.

[34:26] EMMANUEL LEE: No, that's, that's. I don't think you could have said it any better, Chris.

[34:31] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: No, that's true. That's how it plays sometimes, bro. They try to get at you, and then they'd be the ones acting like they supported you from the beginning. But, you know, I ain't got no hate to him. They ain't got no hate to them.

[34:42] SPEAKER C: They.

[34:42] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: They was doing them. I was doing me for sure.

[34:45] EMMANUEL LEE: I feel like that's the most P way that you could go about it.

[34:48] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah, what's more.

[34:49] EMMANUEL LEE: What's more P than being like, well, I'm getting money, so what's up?

[34:52] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Like, that's, like, that's literally how it was, bro. I was just like, yeah, bro. How much you make this week? Nah, I never say nothing like that when you stop playing. I was definitely saying that in my head though. In my head. Definitely.

[35:13] EMMANUEL LEE: Okay, Chris, so just, you know, the interview is winding down and we've, you know, it's such a great conversation. It's, you know, I'm saying it's been very intriguing and inspiring, even though I'm older than you. Like, it's inspiring to hear you talk what you got going on. Just some quick rapid fire kind of questions. I wonder, you know, transitioning over to Morehouse, what are some ways that you've kind of incorporated Morehouse, the AUC, this community, what are some ways you're looking to impact the college community over here?

[35:43] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: I will say college has been a different experience. And I'm not going to even say I have an answer for that. I'm still trying to figure out college. I mean, I know sophomore years and freshman year, but college is also college. You get new experiences every year. That you wouldn't have planned for that freshman year. So I'm still figuring that out, but I know, you know, I put my best foot forward in everything I do. So right now, I even have cookies on campus. I'm about to start selling those right after this meeting. So I'm doing that. And this, I guess, interacting, making connections, you know, something important in college is always making connections with people and networking and stuff. So I just, you know, I try to be authentic, authentic with me. Genuine me and, you know, let that carry its weight right now. But, yeah, college, I don't know. College, you know, I'm doing my best. I'll say that it's a, it's a new experience. I'm still learning. I'm still figuring stuff out.

[36:34] EMMANUEL LEE: Absolutely. Look, as a fellow college student, Chris, I could tell you that's all you can do.

[36:39] SPEAKER C: Right?

[36:39] EMMANUEL LEE: The absolute best. Can nobody judge your college experience you got going on, especially your college experience. Just, you know, just keep doing you, man. I wanted to ask, let me make sure, I want to make sure I phrase this correctly. Like when it comes to like a business plan or what you got going on for the next few months, maybe a year, what do you think, what do you think might that might entail?

[37:09] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Well, I did just open up the new store, so right now as in, you know, most stores and stuff like that moving forward, not really looking on that as that one is just opening. It's running smoothly already, but, you know, still just having. I need to. With me not being there, my parents need to be able to, like, help out a little bit and figure that out. But moving forward, it's on God's time. And again, you know, I never just say, I'm gonna do a new store every year, do a new store every six months. It's truly just like, you know what? I feel like I've gotten to this point. I pray about it. God lets me know when it's time to do something more. And that's more for, like, the Virginia, Virginia part of this story right now. But for, like, down here in Atlanta right now, I'm trying to get my cookies out to every single dorm. I have a pretty, pretty okay name on Morehouse campus right now, so still trying to get big on Morehouse campus. But I'm eventually trying to, you know, move to Clark and Spelman as well, try to get the product out there so people enjoy that and, uh. Not even in the money aspect, but it genuinely makes me feel good when I see people eat my cookies and say, like, this is one of the best cookies they've ever had, you know, to see something like I can actually put joy on somebody's face. Like, I have a few reactions from people at my house that I've tried before from last year and this year. And, like, you know, they didn't know me a lot last year. Yeah, I'll just say last year for them, right? They didn't know me a lot last year. So when I was telling them about it, they were like a little skeptical. So I started off giving a few away for free. Gave some away to my, you know, my dorm mates and stuff. And they was like, yo, these are, these are, like, actually good. These are better than crumbled. These are better than, you know, I'm saying, insomnia and stuff like that. And I was just like, I've been trying to tell y'all, y'all just wouldn't listen. And now those people are, like, you know, consistent customers and stuff like that. So I like putting the, putting the surprise and seeing the smile on people's faces when they actually try my cookies for sure.

[38:58] EMMANUEL LEE: And real quick, I got two quick questions for you.

[39:01] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: One, you know what?

[39:06] SPEAKER D: I did have a quick question for you. I wanted to ask, but let's start with any advice that you may have for any upcoming entrepreneurs, any young culinary, you know what I'm saying, artists or whatever cooks, what are some advice you would give to them?

[39:22] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Number one advice I would say is be real with yourself. I say that just because, like, again, cookies are my favorite dessert. And if I ever made a cookie and I was like, you know what? Insomnia is better than mine, or crumbles better than mine, or any other cookie place that people have tried is better than mine, I wouldn't be doing cookies right now. I'm doing cookies specifically because I truly believe I got one of the best cookies in the world. Again, I know you said quick answer, but let me, I'm gonna tell you a little bit. My parents, again, travel. We eat out a lot. Yeah, my mom. My mom is my biggest supporter and my biggest hater at the same time. She will find cookie places on Instagram. We will fly there wherever they are and literally go there just to try the cookie so she can say, oh, this cookie is so much better than yours. We do it every single time. I remember during the summer, we flew to like three different states to try some cookies. I think we went to Miami, we went to New York, and then we went to, we actually came to Atlanta, try some, right? Every time she was so hyped. And this cookie about to be so much better than yours. I'm about to. I'm about to. It's about to let you know your cookie ain't that good. She would get there. She would start dogging the cookies she was tasting. Now, I ain't gonna say what she was saying, but she was like, baby, you got one of the best cookies. I I need one of your cookies. I'm already go back home. And I said, I keep telling you, stop, stop, you know? But, yeah, that's advice. Be real with yourself. If you got a good product and, you know, you got a good product after that. After that first point, then it's time to take that leap of faith. A lot of people are scared to do it. Because they don't have the funds or, you know, might not have the right equipment and stuff. But if you never start, you won't ever get to where you could be. So you really just gotta start once you are real with yourself, for sure.

[41:03] EMMANUEL LEE: And that is 100 real. And we're just about done. I just got one more question for you, Chris.

[41:09] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Any time. Go ahead.

[41:11] SPEAKER C: Yeah.

[41:11] EMMANUEL LEE: Any goals outside of, you know, the Arts? Because I, you know, I don't want. You're not just cookie, Chris. All right, you, Chris, as well. So what are some goals you might have on campus? Outside of campus, what else you got going on?

[41:24] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Right now, I'm trying to join some student organizations. I am currently in hold on, Chris. Hello, Chris. Hold on. You.

[41:48] EMMANUEL LEE: Okay, okay. You're back.

[41:50] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Say.

[41:50] EMMANUEL LEE: Say again. You said you were. You were joining some student networks.

[41:53] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Oh, so sorry. The internet and sweets East is a little. Yeah, but I feel it.

[42:00] EMMANUEL LEE: I was in the last year, so I'm already knowing.

[42:03] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: Yeah.

[42:06] SPEAKER C: Yeah.

[42:10] CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT: On the can y'all hear me still? Can y'all hear me still? Yeah, you just got somewhere in the criminal law field, either defense or prosecution. So trying to make some. Connections and steps towards that. And then just overall being more active on campus last year. So trying to be more active this year.

[42:51] EMMANUEL LEE: Absolutely. Look, Chris, once again, my name is Emmanuel. If you need anything, you let me know. It's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today.