Inspiring Conversations with Teneisha Thompson and Angel Cephas of Trust Yourself ADKT, Bell’s Reines

Posted by Lisa Peteet on August 08, 2022

Today we’d like to introduce you to Teneisha Thompson and Angel Cephas.

Hi Teneisha and Angel, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Names: Teneisha Bell-Thompson and Angel Thompson Cephas

Teneisha and I are a mother and daughter dynamic duo who own and operate Bell’s Reines – Gourmet Cookie Brand. We started our company in early 2019 as a food blog with the idea of sharing our delicious restaurant-worthy food and beverages. My mom Teneisha decided that we needed to start selling the amazing food from the blog. The love and happiness we found with making recipes, playing around with different high-quality ingredients, and seeing friends, family members, and new customers was priceless. Amazingly, for two years we streamlined our products to focus on what ultimately brought us joy. Creating miniature treats such as miniature cakes, cookies and cupcakes had us singing and dancing while in the kitchen. Consequently, our customer base were more focused on our cookies and started to request specialty flavors as well. As a result, the direction of the company changed to produce miniature cookies as our sole product.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our journey has been very informative, educational, and challenging. We knew once we narrowed down our products, we needed to brand ourselves. The inspiration is to become a household brand for generations to come. Our first step was to find a design company that also had successful case studies. We reached out to around fifteen (15) design firms. Some were very pushy, some explained their busy schedules, and some just did not respond at all. We were able to interview five design companies. This process was very discouraging, we did not find the right fit.

Subsequently, we begun another search and reached out to four (4) more companies. During this process, we never lost hope and felt we will meet the right design firm in due time. Of the four (4), we really took a liking to one company in particular. The potential scheduling delay was understandable due to their work ethic and nature. The executive decisions made were to wait and know we are almost there to see our vision come to life. The best was worth waiting for, and we are still working with that design firm today.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Bell’s Reines is a gourmet mini cookie brand. We make small batches and bake with lots of love using the highest quality of ingredients. Bell’s Reines is Non-GMO Project Verified.

Our motto is Life is Sweet, Savor the Small Things.

Our brand promises are as follows, which sets us apart from others:

Hospitality means cookies.

Nothing says hospitality more than home, and nothing says home more than all of the love we put into baking our cookies.

Clean, High-Quality Ingredients, For Real Y’all!

Not only are our cookies handmade in our kitchen, they are also made in small batches with simple, high-quality ingredients. You will not find any nuts, artificial preservatives, or artificial flavors in Bell’s Reines products.

A Female-Powered Brand

We are a minority mother-and-daughter-owned and operated business that knows the buying power of women and the influence we have on supporting small business.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Growing up we both believed the sky was the limit. Teneisha is an outspoken, fun, charismatic, driven, spontaneous woman. Angel is a nerdy, detail-oriented, shy, and highly motivated woman. Between the two of us we hold undergraduate degrees in chemical engineering and psychology. Also, received master degrees in business administration and chemistry. We love learning and are eager to explore infinite possibilities.

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