You don't have to sell your baked goods to have a successful baking business and today's guest is proof of that. Today on the Baking For Business podcast we spoke one on one with Chelsey White, the owner behind the popular blog Chelsweets.
A journey that began with just baking for co-workers overtime evolved and led her to marking her presence firmly in the blogging industry as a top dessert blogger. On today's episode she talks about her courageous decision to quit her corporate job and fully embrace her passion for baking, as well as what benchmarks she set for herself to make the transition possible.
This episode is brimming with practical advice and actionable tips for anyone dreaming of turning their passion into a profitable venture.
In this episode we cover:
Need more Chelsweets in your life? Click here to read more about her story on the blog.
Want Chelsey's tips on pricing? Check out her popular blog post by clicking here
Considering this business model for yourself? Read Chelsey's blog post here with her tips on how to do so.
Loved this episode? Be sure to tag me at @bakingforbusiness and Chelsey @chelsweets as you listen and share the love!
Busines FREEBIES:
Grab my FREE resource guide and get 30 plus resources to level-up your home bakery business click here to grab my FREE guide and get more tips from me every week.http://bit.ly/bakersresources
Are we friends on Instagram? If you enjoyed this episode TAG ME at @bakingforbusiness
I really do appreciate each and every one of you guys and LOVE meeting new baking friends.
You don't have to sell your baked goods to have a successful baking business and today's guest is proof of that. Today on the Baking For Business podcast we spoke one on one with Chelsey White, the owner behind the popular blog Chelsweets.
A journey that began with just baking for co-workers overtime evolved and led her to marking her presence firmly in the blogging industry as a top dessert blogger. On today's episode she talks about her courageous decision to quit her corporate job and fully embrace her passion for baking, as well as what benchmarks she set for herself to make the transition possible.
This episode is brimming with practical advice and actionable tips for anyone dreaming of turning their passion into a profitable venture.
In this episode we cover:
Need more Chelsweets in your life? Click here to read more about her story on the blog.
Want Chelsey's tips on pricing? Check out her popular blog post by clicking here
Considering this business model for yourself? Read Chelsey's blog post here with her tips on how to do so.
Loved this episode? Be sure to tag me at @bakingforbusiness and Chelsey @chelsweets as you listen and share the love!
Busines FREEBIES:
Grab my FREE resource guide and get 30 plus resources to level-up your home bakery business click here to grab my FREE guide and get more tips from me every week.http://bit.ly/bakersresources
Are we friends on Instagram? If you enjoyed this episode TAG ME at @bakingforbusiness
I really do appreciate each and every one of you guys and LOVE meeting new baking friends.
Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with the bottle of DeCerono and one Bundt Cake Pan. Fast forward to today, from news to magazines, speaking on national stages and more. I can truly say that baking has changed my life. So now, as a bakery business coach, I get to help others have the same success. I've helped hundreds of my students across the world in my global membership program create six-figure businesses, mainly from home.
Speaker 1:The Baking for Business podcast is an extension of that, from actionable tips to valuable tools and resources that can impact you as a business owner. I truly believe y'all. We would never have been given a gift if we couldn't profit and prosper from it. So come on, darling. What are you waiting for? Hey? What is going on? You guys? And welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm super excited to be here with you guys today, because it's very seldom that we actually have a guest that's someone who I follow, so this is really, really cool today. And so, for starters, shout out to Baking for Blondie, because she recommended this amazing guest. And you know, that's what this podcast is all about women sharing and helping to empower other men and women, and today's guest, I bet, has probably empowered you in one way. Whether you've tried one of her recipes, be it her cookies, maybe you've taken her signature content creation style and redid a cake over and over. You cannot help but to be in love with Chelsweets and her amazing blog. But it didn't start out that way, and today we're going to hear the full story of how her business and one of the most popular blogs, I'm willing to bet actually got started. So, chels, welcome to the podcast. It's so nice to have you, chelsweets, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. You can call me Chels, it's okay. Both work great. Thank you so much for having me and so glad Mandy recommended me. She is just like a ray of sunshine, as I'm sure you know from having had her as a guest, but I'm honored that she recommended me, so that's great.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it. And so to get into your story, because I actually read before we get into the baking part, you were a now bakers, don't come at her, but you actually want it to be a CPA. You went to the University of Washington, so tell us about that. After high school, how did that go?
Speaker 2:Okay. So I always wanted to be a CPA might which I think is a creepy thing to say, because a lot of people, I think, have broader ambitions when they're a kid. But my dad's a tax accountant. It runs in my blood, as I like to say. So I had always wanted to be a CPA. I took accounting classes in high school. I liked them. I got like early admitt to the business school at University of Washington. I was always on that path, like that's where I saw myself. I graduated, I did take a CPA. I became a CPA and I worked in public accounting and corporate finance for six years before I started baking full time. The whole time, though, I was like building up my business. So that makes it seem like it's like a light switch transition, which it absolutely was not. But yeah, I actually really enjoyed being an accountant. It's kind of interesting having had two careers now, but I enjoyed both. I obviously think I like what I do now a little bit more, but I really enjoyed my previous corporate world as well.
Speaker 1:So wow, so accounting you guys? Yeah, a lot of times people hear numbers and either they're a spirit or afraid, but so it seems like, like we said, numbers ran in your blood. You love numbers, so that's awesome. So what inspired you because I also read you sold for a little while your baked goods before you actually had a blog. So what inspired you to go from CPA to start baking?
Speaker 2:Yes. So I had never baked before. I think a lot of people that bake now grew up doing it with their parents or like their grandparents, but I never really baked as a kid. I'd maybe make like a box mix for a friend for their birthday or something when I was a teenager, but really didn't bake it all growing up.
Speaker 2:And then when I started working, my hours were super long. I was working until like 10 at night. It was just like really intense and super boring, like accounting, especially auditing is not for the faint of heart. It's just like spreadsheets on spreadsheets on spreadsheets. And I would get home and I was just feeling really like unfulfilled and kind of stressed. And so I think I like made a batch of cookies my first month of working and I just really loved it and that sounds silly, but it just was like really therapeutic and I brought them into the office. Everybody loved them and it was just like a really fun thing to do and look forward to. And so I started baking more and more. Eventually I started like dabbling in cakes and then I started making cakes for all the birthdays on my team.
Speaker 2:I was on a really big team at work, and that's kind of how I started making cakes and eventually, a lot of my friends were started pushing me to sell my cakes because they're like people want to buy them. I really didn't want to, because I just didn't want it to take away the fun and, like as I think many people listen to this podcast know like selling cakes is stressful. It's like a lot of coordination, a lot of communication and just like the timelines can be difficult, especially if you have a full-time job. So eventually, though, I did, and I started selling cakes and it was fun because I got to make a lot of different things, I got to try different techniques, and it's fun kind of having your hobby paid for.
Speaker 2:However, when I first started, I did not know how to price a cake and I just didn't know anything about the cake world at all. So I really was learning everything as I went, and I think I share it every year, usually on my Chelsweet anniversary of when I went full-time. But if you look back at my first cakes, they're like terrifying, but everybody starts somewhere. So I really learned as I went and started pricing my cakes. Eventually, all my friends and even customers were like you need to be charging more. And that's never a good sign if a customer tells you you should be charging more and I had a lot of demand. So I did venture star raising prices and like tried to get things kind of back in alignment between demand and price. Huge hit be100. It was really interesting. Yeah, that's how I got into selling cakes.
Speaker 1:Well, so that's really cool. And so now you said you were bringing them to work, which I think is awesome because it sounds like you were using your employees kind of like a focus group to get your flavors and and Feedback and stuff. When you were doing this as a business, what was the name of your business?
Speaker 2:It was, it was still Chelsuit, so what's funny is that name. Like I didn't come up with that, I'm not that creative. A friend of mine who was on my audit team we were all throwing around at we used to work in these windowless conference rooms. Don't ever become an auditor and.
Speaker 2:We're all like chatting and working and we were trying to think of a name for like what I should call it and we were throwing around a lot of like really silly suggestions. But that co-worker is the one that came up with Chelsuit, so, um, it came up. He came up with it pretty early on, so I think that's kind of what I went by for the most part Majority of the time.
Speaker 1:What a blessing, and so when you're operating Chelsuit selling, what were some of the things that you specialized?
Speaker 2:and then I think I mostly did layer. I think I almost exclusively did layer cakes. I hardly ever did cupcakes or anything like that, just because I don't think I was even. Also, it was just like a different time. That was like 2015, like I Was only posting videos, weren't even really a thing on like Instagram yet, which is wild but I was just posting pictures of cakes and so people were mostly contacting me just for cakes for parties and things. So it was really just a variety of cakes, but I really focused on buttercream cakes. I didn't do much with fondant, mostly just because I it's not my favorite medium to work with and I also had never worked with it before, so I just wasn't good at it either, you know. So I really focused on buttercream cakes, yeah, yeah, I was.
Speaker 1:Um, I feel you as a chubby girl I'm not a friend of, for I always sell people. I know it's a bad joke, but Fondant is just like being with a man that's not circumcised. No one wants to have to pull back a layer of anything to get to what it is that they really want. Just give me the damn cake. That's how I've always felt.
Speaker 2:Never heard that analogy before, but that is actually so so, so, so accurate. That's what? Yeah, but no one. If you make homemade fondant with marshmallows like it's not like it tastes bad, but if you already have frosting you probably don't need like another. And what kills me when I see people is like people like smooth their buttercream perfectly and then they put fondant on and I want to be like it already was so smooth. Exactly, some techniques you need to, though I get it, and some people like working with fondant, so I totally get that. But that's very funny, that's hilarious.
Speaker 1:So you go from selling to blogging. How is that early Journey, like what were you putting out there Initially? Or what made you say, hey, you know what? I think I want to change directions, because you actually have a post that's on your blog and of course you guys listen and we'll link to the chill sweets blog. It's going to be in the show notes, which I think is a really great post. You talk about the different ways that people can get paid, because sometimes people only assume, well, if I want to generate money with this, but no, there's like food photographer, there's bloggers like you. So where did the switch come to, where you say, hey, I think I want to go the blogging route?
Speaker 2:Great question. So Initially when I started baking, like I said, I didn't know what I was doing. I was trying out different recipes and I wanted to keep track of what I was making before I even started selling cakes. So I started at my blog in like 2013 or something, but I didn't think anyone would ever look at it. I didn't know anything about SEO strategy. I was just doing it Mostly for myself, so that I could keep track of all the recipes I was making and things that I was playing around with. So that's why it started. It wasn't like I had some grand scheme of where any of this would ever go. I didn't plan on any of this, but I started I don't even know how.
Speaker 2:So I was sharing cakes, I was selling cakes, I was sharing them on social media and somehow, like, food Network found me on social media and they shared a snap of me on social media and they shared a snapchat article about me, which was weird and I didn't know. They didn't like tell me they were gonna do it. My friends sent it to me and I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. This is so cool. Funny story my handle used to be chel sweets NYC because chel sweets was taken and in the article they misquoted my handle and just put chel sweets, not chel sweets, nyc. And I was like that's such a bummer. But like, whatever, it's cool that they know who I am, and still a cool thing. And then I was like I bet that account got a lot of followers today I'm gonna go check it and somehow that person had like given up their handle or didn't have that handle anymore. So because Food Network misquoted my handle in that snapchat article, I was able to get chel sweets the handle without the NYC. So that was cool. But so I didn't even.
Speaker 2:I have no idea how they found me to this day, but they, they wrote the article and then a few weeks later they emailed me and were like, do you want to come in and do a shoot with us and make some cakes and videos for social media? And I was like, of course, that's so cool. So I did that. It was like the best day ever. And then after that, they Contacted me and were like we, it was at a time in start of 2017 when Facebook was super pushing live streams. So they're like hey, we're trying to get a lot more live streams going on Do you want to do a weekly live stream for the Food Network? And I was like sure I was saying yes to literally everything.
Speaker 2:And then I that was my first like a ha moment of realizing how much content creation can pay. Because the amount they were going to pay me for my weekly live stream was like more than I would make making cakes all week. And it was a different type of commitment of having a set time, having to like be presentable, and live streaming is terrifying, especially when it's not your followers. But I realized like oh wow, this is a really good opportunity and I started sharing my recipes more seriously than because on the live streams weekly People be like where can I get the recipe? And it was a great way to like drive traffic and help people. So I was like that's when I started more seriously blogging and then I didn't learn about actual blogging of like strategy, keyword research.
Speaker 2:I don't even like SEO to make sure everything's all friendly and yes, until 2019, when I quit my job full time. But in the process between 2017 and 2019, I started doing partnerships and things. A lot of opportunities started presenting themselves that made me realize that I really could make this a full time job. So that's.
Speaker 1:That is amazing and what a blessing. I mean, we all would love to get called by food network, you know people ask me all the time like how did that happen?
Speaker 2:and I'm like I don't even know, I don't know, I don't know. It's not like I. I just not like I knew somebody, it just was fortuitous. I will say I was in New York at the time and I think that really helped because going in and getting to work film in their studios, I think that helped make connections that did lead to the opportunities down the road. But I just think I was really lucky and I'm grateful for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you mentioned between 2017 and 2019. You feel like you were blogging, but you didn't really know what you were doing. And it's weird because I'm a firm believer and I have a saying those who listen do the best you can with what you have. And one of the things I love is when following you is too often we see now all of these people who have, like these marble countertops and beautiful white spaces and so we feel well, until I have that, you know like a million dollar home or so I can't show up. But what I remember is that you show up and you had. You would always say I'm in this tiny little apartment and so talk to us about. Did you ever have those feelings of like how some people have imposter syndrome or I can't do this, I don't have a marble kitchen top and all that?
Speaker 2:I think that. Well, number one, our apartment was 554 square feet and I live there with my now husband, so it was cozy. It was very cozy, but luckily we did have this island. The island, though. Like it was super narrow, it was like maybe 18 inches wide so like I could film on it, but it was not ideal. But it was actually really perfect for filming in terms of like it was a nice set ups for live streams and things.
Speaker 2:So I was, and when we moved in I wasn't even making cake videos. So it was really, but I did want a nice or like an acceptable kitchen to bacon. So that part was really nice because I would be up late baking and like it would be nice my husband like be on the couch, I'd be baking and we could like chat and watch TV, and it just didn't feel like I was in a completely separate room, which is why we wanted that layout. So, in my eyes, I mean, from my first apartment, I shared a room with my physical room with my best friend. My second apartment I live with two of my best friends and we had like a little kitchen that was super small, like a hallway kitchen, and there are three of us. So I started baking there really, but it was like super challenging because like we didn't even have like a proper, we had like a small table. But the whole thing was was just what sometimes my kitchen I would be like on the ground, like it was a struggle.
Speaker 2:So, even though my kitchen that I moved into Was by no means glamorous at all, to me Getting to live like with my, with my husband, and like not having roommates and having control over the kitchen fully and having a kitchen that I could really move around in like was like the top echelon. So, even though I didn't have like a perfect kitchen by any means the cabinets were so dark, I hated that but even though it wasn't necessarily perfect, it worked so well and I was so grateful for what I had. So I don't I like have more imposter syndrome now than I did back then. I think back then I was just like having so much fun and enjoying myself.
Speaker 2:I didn't really I didn't really doubt myself as much. I just like loved what I was doing and was so busy I did not have time to think even because I was still working full-time, so Lotta, late nights, but no, yeah, I do think anyone who is scared to start. You do just have to start. Like my first video, my first YouTube video is literally out of focus. Just, you just got to do it, you just got to put it up there and you learn as you go.
Speaker 1:Absolutely learn as you go. I love that, and so did video with learning, did video in itself, because some people they say that public speaking more people are actually afraid of public speaking than dying, which I think is crazy. But so did you know, scared you? Did you always kind of, you know, say I want to be this type of personality, or did you just cut on the camera, be yourself? You were never afraid. I.
Speaker 2:Am an intro. I've never been like I Want to perform anything. No, by public speak. My cheeks heard bright red. Like I, I zero percent enjoy public speaking at all. But something that's really interesting is that when you are like recording yourself or recording a live stream, it's kind of cringy, but it's just you in your kitchen, like you know. People are watching you, but you don't get like or at least I don't get like the same stage. I still feel pressure and I want to do a good job, but you don't have people staring back at you. So that's kind of freeing to me. I'm not as afraid to fill myself in those situations, but like if I were to decorate a cake in front of like 10,000 people, I would like. I would not want to it lie in person I would, I could do it, but I would hate it. It would not be my favorite thing.
Speaker 1:So and so you're, you're baking, you're cutting on the camera, you're uploading to YouTube a lot more.
Speaker 2:So what was the turning point when you decided Okay, you know, because you were still on the job doing this that you were going to actually go all out so I like really tried to do both for as long as I could because I Was starting to make a lot of money with Chelsweets, because, like I was doing partner my first partnership, I was, like you, shocked I was. I felt like people are just throwing money at me, was like it was just unreal and I that really opened my eyes. But I really want to hold out for as long as I could because there's so much uncertainty with being self-employed that, like you To me, I really wanted to make a lot of money to make up for that, and not just that like paying your taxes. Tax situation is different. You don't have health insurance anymore. You have to manage your own retirement. I have to like do payroll literally for myself, based on how my business is set up. There's like a lot of things involved that are stressful and expensive too. So it's like I really wanted to make sure I was making. I wanted to make Twice.
Speaker 2:I had benchmarks before I put my job. One of them was I want to make twice myself my corporate salary with Chelsweets, which I did, which I was shocked when I did, but I did. I wanted. I had bought like a really small condo. I was living in New York. At the time, after college, I thought I was gonna move home to back to Seattle and I bought a condo and I wanted to pay it off before I quit my job because, also, it was much cheaper housing prices are crazy right now, but back that one about it was a lot cheaper, but I wanted to pay it off because I just didn't want a mortgage. I already had like my own rent to pay in New York, but I didn't want like a mortgage hanging over my head. And Then I also wanted, I think, to have like multiple streams of revenue, just because it's like it's scary. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket when you are self-employed, because, especially in social media, because things change so rapidly like One one platform has a creator funds, they take it away. One platform starts paying you to do longer videos, they take that away. And I had already seen that because Facebook in 2018 or 2019, I got into a program where they paid a bunch of money for us to basically upload YouTube videos to Facebook Because they were trying to compete with Facebook and it was a lot of money, but the program lasted for three months and then it ended, which I think I knew was. I think I knew that when I signed up for it but just basically, you're gonna be doing this, so you need to have ways to kind of level that out as Income streams, very so that was another goal of mine and the real moment where I realized it.
Speaker 2:I wasn't planning to, but I took a deal of work and a friend of mine who used to work or a finer 29, lucy think. We filmed a day in the life where she was like basically a cake maker, I think, and she came over and made a cake with me and she was planning to put her job the next year to become a content creator full-time. And she just was asking questions like are you planning to do that? And I was like no. And then she did ask, like how much did you make last year? Like what are you? Like what's holding you back?
Speaker 2:And then it kind of was a light bulb moment where I was like wow, I'm like actually really ready to do this and I'm the type of person where when I make up my mind, I want to just immediately go. So I tried to use all of my self-control. I waited until January to quit, because year end is complicated for finance. You need to close the year out and I wanted to wait till after the holidays. But that moment I knew I was gonna quit. And then I did in January. So it was pretty wild, but I knew in my gut it just felt right. So I was nervous a little bit, but mostly excited.
Speaker 1:So yeah, what a blessing. Well, that it definitely paid off and it's wonderful that you did believe in yourself to take that leap. And so you mentioned earlier you said you felt you didn't know much about SEO. And so once you did take the leap after 2019, what was it? Did you invest in a class, a course or book? What was it to where you fully buckled down and said, okay, I want to make sure I'm doing this correctly so that it is generating.
Speaker 2:Number one. I had no idea how much money it could actually generate. When I started, my friend actually Courtney of Cake by Courtney told me about she was visiting New York, she lives in Utah and she was like, ask, I don't know, we're talking about blogging. And she was like, yeah, I'm on Mediavine. What do you use for your blog? And I was like, oh, I don't have a real ad provider. And she was like what? Then she asked me about my traffic and was like Chelsea, you need to apply to Mediavine. So her pushing me was huge. I didn't know it at the time. I applied. I got in because I did have a decent amount of traffic by that point.
Speaker 2:And then when I quit my job, I had some things change where I had like a contract with Food Network that was basically kind of like a year long salary of me providing certain deliverables each month and it was not huge, but it was a nice chunk of change that I was like this is great, stable income. And pretty much right after I quit my job, they got bought out by Discovery and they canceled that contract, which they're totally allowed to do. But I was like, wow, okay. So I was like I need to really focus on other things, which was absolutely blessing in disguise.
Speaker 2:I was stressed at the time, but it was blessing in disguise because it made me absolutely, 100% hunkered down on blogging and all I did was listen to every single podcast, every single episode of the Mediavine podcast, where they talk about everything. I got in the Facebook group. I was reading everything that I could and that's how I taught myself. They have so many great resources out there and it's free. I think anyone can listen to the podcast. So that's what I did and it sucks that I made so many posts before I learned what I was doing. But I never looked back from that point and I only got better at blogging.
Speaker 1:So yeah, we had to go. That's our self. Education is the best way we all have to get into personal development one way or another. So at least you found the resources that was needed, and kudos for having a friend to tell you hey, you can really be doing this. And so how do you manage now? Because, also within this time period, you're no longer a girlfriend. You became a wife and made your own wedding cake. Yep, tell us about the wedding cake. What were the flavors?
Speaker 2:It was literally just all fun, fetty. It was just for okay. So I had made practice wedding cakes and I had made wedding cakes earlier that year. I had never done wedding cakes before before the year before. So I made one of my best friends wedding cake and she had four different flavors, which was great. I loved that for her, but I was like whoa, that is so much work. So for our wedding cake I was like absolutely not, we will be having one flavor. So it was just fun, fetty, through the whole thing. I made it a few days in advance so I was able to like film the whole thing and enjoy it. And then we had all of our family and friends coming in from out of town, so I did that and then I was able to like enjoy our time. Delivering. It was like the most stressful thing ever the morning of and adding fresh flowers, but it's okay, it was good.
Speaker 1:I got it there. Did you take the Uber? Cause I've seen you deliver sometimes I'm like it took an Uber and then we basically we had like a very low key wedding.
Speaker 2:We got married like in Central Park and then we rented out the basement of one of our favorite bars. It's like a nice bar that has like really fancy cocktails. It's not like a smelly beer bar. I had to walk. It was like a big room but it was downstairs. I had to walk down these stairs outside that somebody had thrown an ice bucket down the night before or the morning before, as they were clear, I don't know. But I had walked on like icy steps with it and I was like I'm gonna drop this, but I didn't it was okay, but it was very.
Speaker 2:once I got that, once I like dropped it off, I felt so much better.
Speaker 1:So oh my gosh, I don't. Most of us already have a lot of pressures with just doing wedding cakes in general, so I guess, doing wedding cakes on your own wedding day, but it was kind of nice though, cause, like say, something goes wrong, no one's gonna get mad at you for, like, messing up your own wedding cake.
Speaker 2:It's way more pressure for other people, and I kind of reminded myself of that as I made it, so that helped.
Speaker 1:That's true. You didn't have a bride's ill of an answer to it, so yeah. So now, how do you balance blogging, being a wife and a pup mom? How do you balance all of that?
Speaker 2:I think I've always been like very work focused and I'm lucky I had like a very supportive husband. There were lots of trials and tribulations. When I first quit my job and I did not have very good work-life balance, I was like super stressed, I was learning a lot and like I finally had time to do everything that I had never had time to do. So I felt like I wanted to just do everything but like you can't. You can't just like work 24 seven, especially in like a creative field. A lot of what I do is not necessarily creative, like it's back-end work or like strategic work, but to actually bake and decorate things, you do have to like channel some creativity. And so I kind of quickly learned you cannot force everything to happen all at once.
Speaker 2:I've gotten so much better with work-life balance over time, but I also had no work-life balance before I quit. So I think I felt like I had to keep working that hard, even though I had one job instead of two now. But it was just like a big adjustment and my business has changed so much over the years too, like I make more money now than I did back then, which is amazing and wonderful, and I just partnerships have evolved a lot Like TikTok came along. The whole landscape has changed. In a way, like short form video is, I used to make a lot of long form videos for YouTube. I don't really do that anymore because it's just like the amount of work to create that and YouTube isn't my primary platform. It's not worth it to me. So I just mostly do short form videos now and that has helped me get a lot more like balance in my life and it's worth prioritizing because so many platforms are prioritizing vertical videos.
Speaker 1:So that's all. I love that. So many people struggle with that. They're trying to do all the things and now I meet so many people who are trying to be, I guess, content creators. But you mentioned something really important, which is delegating, because we can't, you will burn out. So I'm a big person into systems. Even I tell people who are new, who are just getting started, I'm like, hey, even if you can't afford to hire someone, there has to be some system, something like Instacart, where you can get the groceries delivered versus you being in the store for an hour. So do you have any particular systems that you use, maybe like a later scheduling or even meal prep or groceries? Do you cook for anything that helps you to save time as an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:I order all of my groceries. I think that is one of the best things ever. Sometimes people live in areas where, like you can't do it, but if you can't it is like you pay a fee. But to me, like the amount of time to like go there and I don't really fun facts about me I don't really drive a car I love, I hate driving. I didn't drive in New York, so moved here to Seattle and I live in walking distance of a lot of things, but I don't want to carry 25 pounds of flour, however many blocks, to my apartment, which I did have to do in New York, which was really hard because I did not do grocery delivery there. Anyways, so like yes, that I believe being organized also just like helps a tons. Like I always have my days laid out in a nice flow in Google Calendar. I always am planning ahead. I do use I use tailwind for Pinterest scheduling and things like that, and I have some contractors that help me with like my newsletter or help me make Pinterest pins and help me proofread blog posts, because no matter how many times I read something over, if it's like a long, especially cake recipes, because there's like so many components, it is inevitable that I will like miss something. So it's really nice to have another set of eyes on it, to just sense, check and make sure everything looks OK. So I definitely believe in.
Speaker 2:I tried delegating more things like video editing in the past, but there are some things that I really do like doing. I enjoy doing myself. I don't like going back and forth and it was just like faster and better for me to do myself. So it is like a balance of what you can delegate and what you can't, but the things I can delegate or just to make my life easier. Also, I don't cook at all. I do not cook ever. I like eat a lot of frozen meals. I eat like a lot of yogurt and cottage cheese and I eat out a lot, but I do not cook ever. I make myself like ramen, top ramen, that's it. It's like it's slightly fancier ramen, but yeah, it's ramen and.
Speaker 2:I add like, I add like a seven minute egg and I do stuff, but it's not. I don't like touching raw meat.
Speaker 1:Ok, hey that's you know what. Right now it's summertime, so I feel you. I've actually been having like yogurt that I just throw some chia seeds and walnut Someone, because I don't even know the stove one. So I feel you. I feel you, who are some of the people along the way that have inspired you? Are there other bloggers? Or maybe just teachers or speakers? Or where do you find motivation from?
Speaker 2:My biggest baking like idol, for lack of a better way to put it is Sally of Sally's baking addiction. Like she, her recipes were like the first ones I ever tried, first ones I ever read like her I have her cookbooks. I always looked up to her. I did not realize, like how, what her blog really meant at the time when I started following her and seeing what she was doing, but she's like had a huge impact on me and, other than that, a lot of it's just like my friends, I would say, who are content creators and bakers who just love what they're doing and make really good quality content. I really enjoy like being inspired by them and it's fun to see other people who love what they do and who feel the same way about it as you do. So a lot of it is like my on a day to day basis, are like my friends who I just admire their work.
Speaker 1:That's amazing, and that's what friends are for. For anyone who's thinking of taking this route that you've done, maybe they're like you know I no longer want to sell or I just want to put my recipes out there and I just want to share. What are some of the beginning steps or advice that she would have for new content creators who want to do this?
Speaker 2:It's like such a different space nowadays than it was when I first started, but I I do think that I think one of the things a lot of people struggle with is finding customers to start, because if you're making good cakes, once you get a decent customer base you can really like keep going for a long time, because a lot of times you get repeat customers and people talk friends of friends, people go to parties that your cakes are at. It grows pretty organically as long as you can have that initial group of small group of customers. But it is hard and, like I think that just almost every small business owner now laments about, is you basically have to be a content creator to some degree If you're going to have a small business of any sort. So I do think that sharing on social media helps a lot, especially like tick-lock, which is location-based not primarily, but they're not solely but a lot of times it feeds it to people near you. So if you're making a video and people are seeing it near you, that can be a good way to find people.
Speaker 2:But other than that, friends and family are usually a great place to start with for your first customers. I don't know. My other advice would just be to not be afraid to try new things and just to dive right in, because there's no time for hesitation. You just gotta jump in.
Speaker 1:That's so true. I love that advice that you gave. And for all those or anyone who may not be familiar with your blog, where can we read more about you, see your recipes and get into your world?
Speaker 2:Yes, so you can find me on just about every social media platform and luckily I've had the same handle on everyone. So I share a lot of my personal journey and my story on my blog, chelsweetscom, and then I share lots of fun cakes and things on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
Speaker 1:So Awesome, before I let you go, Chels, are you ready for Lightning Round? I am, I am All right. What is your favorite color? Purple and what is your favorite book, or?
Speaker 2:a book that you like. My favorite book, my favorite book, is part of a series. It's like a fantasy series and it's called A Court of Thorns and Roses. That's the series. And then my favorite book in that series is the second one and it's called A Court of Mist and Fury.
Speaker 1:A Court of Thorns, and is that like romance or is that?
Speaker 2:It's like a fey fantasy of like magic and things, but it's so good. It's so good. Just take my word for it.
Speaker 1:I don't know. My favorite series is Fifty Shades of Grey, so you would probably like it.
Speaker 2:So there's not that much spice in the beginning, but there's like spice later in the series. It's excellent, it's so well written Okay, awesome.
Speaker 1:And what is your favorite kitchen utensil?
Speaker 2:Utencil, probably just a really good rubber spatula the amount of things that a good spatula can do. You know, like you always have your favorite. I have like 20 different colored spatulas, but I have one that's my favorite and it is black and it's just the best.
Speaker 1:Who is your celebrity crush?
Speaker 2:So it's not really like a crush, but Guy Fieri, it's not like I like think he's the hottest man on earth, but I just think he's like. I know everyone always has this reaction, but he was like so nice and he's like you only ever hear good things about him and people that have worked with him and like I have been obsessed with diners and drives, diners, dives and drive triple D. I can't think of anything Since it came out like I've always just like been a big fan of his, so I like Adam, the one who does Adam's good too, Adam is good.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I like Guy like 20 times better than Adam.
Speaker 1:But Adam is good too. All right, and lastly, what is a dessert you cannot live without?
Speaker 2:Macarons just like any flavored macaron. I love them. You can just like snack on them. They're in the fridge. They last for forever. They're just great.
Speaker 1:Well, from the bottom of my heart, you did throw me off with the guy one, but you know what he's. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I knew when you said that earlier, we were like with the lightning round. I was like you're not ready, you're not ready for this.
Speaker 1:I'm not ready. I was looking for like a chin and Tatum, or like a John Travolta, maybe even I don't know, but it's, we'll take it. But from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your story with us, as well as your blog. I really do appreciate it and I know that everyone listening has appreciated it as well. And just lastly, before you go, what is just any general advice that you would give to just a business owner, because you did stay with knowing numbers, especially in our industry, how so many people are either afraid to charge their worth, they don't want to charge. What advice would you give to someone who wants to jump, who wants to do this full time, as far as pricing and knowing your numbers and just being an entrepreneur in general?
Speaker 2:It's like. Number one like I said earlier, I'm obsessed with spreadsheets, 100%. Some people really hate numbers and spreadsheets, though, and I totally get that. I think one of a really eye-opening thing to do even if you don't do it for every cake, for your most popular recipes, or even one recipe just to fully price it out from ingredients to boxes, even technically, amortization of, like your KitchenAid, whatever other big equipment you have, and see how much it costs. And just make sure, number one, that you're at least charging how much it truly costs you to make, Because I think a lot of times, people underestimate how expensive things are and that you also should be adding in like extra because you're spending hours making a cake, right.
Speaker 2:So, number one, making sure that you're truly covering your costs and accounting for your own time. And then, number two, if you're not super into numbers, you don't wanna do that, like my general rule of thumb, because I think almost every baker I think very rarely does a baker charge more than they should. So I think my main advice is always charge more than you think you should, and I, even with like partnerships and things like that like sometimes I'm throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks and what rates people take. But, like a lot of times, you'll be surprised if you charge more. People are generally absolutely okay with it, so and if they're not, they'll tell you. You'll learn, you'll figure out where the right sweet spot is. I'm not saying charge like an exorbitant, insane amount of money, that's impractical. But almost so many home bakers are charging a lot less than they probably should. So that would be my general rule of thumb or like piece of advice.
Speaker 1:I love that, and Chelsea also has a blog post which actually goes over her thoughts on pricing, which is pricing and percentage and stuff. So we'll link that as well in the show notes If anyone listening will like to go read that blog post, read any post on her blog and support the blog as well. Chelsea, thank you so much for coming on the show. It was an amazing pleasure and I really appreciate it having you here today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you so much for having me, man. This was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:How amazing was Chelsea? You guys, the Chelsweets blog is really awesome and I love just her fun and funky spirit whenever she cuts on the camera and shares content. There are so many different ways for us to follow our passion in this industry and I'm really grateful that she came on today and shared her story because hopefully it will inspire someone else. We don't always have to sell our bakes in order to be home bakers. You can still bake for business in a different way, and Chelsea really displayed that. A few of the things she touched on that I really hope you guys did not miss over Number one do the best you can with what you have. What I love was that she didn't allow her cozy New York space or anything to set her back. Oftentimes I speak to you guys and you put such harsh lines over yourself, like these big glass ceilings that you're trying to break through, and I'm like yo just get started. And so she shared how that she learned along the way and that is the best way to do it Do it afraid, do it not knowing, do it scared, but just do it anyways, and learning as you go is one of the key ways for you to follow your passion and do that if it's what you choose. Another thing I love is that she mentioned when she baked with her friend and when she spoke to Kate by Courtney.
Speaker 1:It is so amazing, as women, for us to have other positive women in our corners. You know, chelsea was recommended by Mandy of Baking with Blondie, whose book you guys should have already had. And you see Baking with Blondie. You see Chelsea, you see Kate by Courtney. All of them do the same thing, but yet they're all okay, they're all buddies. So let's always remember that it is community over competition when it comes to anything. You never know how you can bless another woman or another man just by putting a positive seed in their ear, because there is more than enough room for all of us, and the sky is the limit when you follow your passion, and Chelsea is a perfect example of following your passion but also doing it the right way.
Speaker 1:She shared how she set those benchmarks. You know, I know it's always a dream I want to just quit my job and bake, but in between that, like Chelsea mentioned, there is a healthcare, there's retirement, there's savings, there's things like that that you want to keep in mind if you are choosing to switch over. So make the transition slowly, just pace yourself for when you're ready to do it, put in the work and continue to show up and follow your passion so that you can fulfill the dream of whatever it is that you want to do in your baking business. Again, special thanks to Chelsea so much for sharing her story. I know that it's really gonna bless somebody. Thank you guys so much for listening to this week's podcast episode. Take care and bye for now.