Creepy Valentine Bug Cookies Led to a Job From Orkin

For Valentine's Day, Maddie Gartman made cookies shaped like bugs.

Gartman, a cookie decorator in South St. Paul, Minnesota, who posts videos as Garty Goodies, iced them to look lifelike. She said they were very realistic and very creepy looking, and she had made them just for fun.

Then Orkin contacted her. The pest control company had come across the bugs in her feed and asked her to make cookies for the company.

The exchange shows how Gartman usually lands advertising work. Brands see a decorating video she has already posted, decide it fits them, and ask her to make a cookie version carrying their name.

That kind of discovery matters because her business depends on keeping several kinds of work going at once. Most of her income comes from teaching in person decorating classes, while sponsored videos bring a smaller share and payments from social apps vary sharply, sometimes as little as $20 in a month.

Asked about brand deals, Gartman said people usually find her because she has made a decorating video. Besides Orkin, her partners have included Kodak, Paramount, and Alaska Airlines.

Gartman was once a high school English teacher who started baking at home to help pay bills after leaving teaching to stay home with her son. Her TikTok audience is just short of a million followers, and she films decorating videos in a small home studio and teaches other decorators.

She says she never could have predicted that path and plans to keep riding the wave while it lasts. One of the jobs along the way began with a Valentine's Day bug she made for no client at all.