Baking For Business Podcast

#Ep 82:Building A Health Conscious Baking Brand With Sweet Benefits

• Chef Amanda Schonberg

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Imagine transforming a personal passion for fitness and baking into a flourishing business that tickles the taste buds without tipping the scales. That's precisely the journey Katrina Bland, the innovative founder of Sweet Benefits takes us through as she combines her expertise as a personal trainer with her culinary prowess to craft delectable, health-conscious treats. From overcoming the rigorous tests of culinary school to tweaking traditional recipes for a modern, health-focused audience, Katrina's story is a feast of inspiration for anyone with an appetite for entrepreneurship and a love for the sweeter things in life.

In this episode, you will learn:

  • What inspired her to focus on health-conscious desserts
  • How she uses her background to cater to her clients
  • How she uses corporate orders to grow her brand and 
  • much much more.

Love Katrina's story? Be sure to follow her https://www.instagram.com/sweetbenefits/
Ready to enroll in MORE DOUGH? Click here to sign up and join us for the next LIVE class starting Monday, June 3rd 2024.
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Speaker 1:

Hey, sweet friends, my name is Chef Schaumburg. I started my baking business with a bottle of DeSerono 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 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's going on, you guys? And welcome back to the Baking for Business podcast.

Speaker 1:

I'm super excited to be with y'all today. I'm always excited, but today I actually have a special guest, because I love it when I really get to hang with real people, real bakers who are really doing amazing things. And so today I'm joined with Katrina Bland. She is the owner of Sweet Benefits. Sweet Benefits is an e-commerce bakery located in Maryland, and you guys would not believe this, but she actually has a healthy background. She's a personal trainer. So how the hell do you do personal training and baking? But she makes delicious desserts which are very much health conscious, if you so desire, and she speaks from some amazing corporate clients as well, and so we're going to hear all about it. So, katrina, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to your audience.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. You're more than welcome, darling. So tell me, how did you get started? What brought you about into the baking world?

Speaker 2:

I think I got started. Well, I know I got started mainly because it was a connection that I had with my mom. My mom was considered like the big mama of the family, so she didn't give out presents, but she cooked for every holiday, for every event. She baked and she cooked. So she always instilled food and fellowship in us. She's like I may not be able to give you a gift, but I can always give you something good to eat and a safe place to be, and so that legacy has always stayed with me, and in order to honor her, I actually got into baking myself as a career.

Speaker 1:

That is so sweet. I love that. That's amazing. But, katrina, you have a personal training background, right?

Speaker 2:

I do have a personal training background and it's funny because Sweet Benefits is because I was a personal trainer and as a personal trainer I often had clients that didn't know how to incorporate healthy meals, even when it came to desserts. So my slogan sweet benefits actually reflects that. It's like you can have sweets that have benefits. So you can have sweets that have things that have healthy things for you, like cinnamon, which we know is good for inflammation and reducing your blood pressure. So that's actually how Sweet Benefits the name came about, because I kind of incorporated my lifestyle and the fact that I had a passion for baking into one. I wanted people that wanted to be able to indulge to know that you don't have to sabotage your diet in order to have some sweet treats.

Speaker 1:

That sounds delicious, because I've definitely sabotaged my diet before. But we won't get into that. And so you're going about your business. You're baking for your clients. What made you actually decide to say, hey, I want to make this official and to actually turn this into a business?

Speaker 2:

I think my love for baking was always there because of my relationship with my mom, and then I became vegan for a number of years. So it was at that point where I wanted to be able to incorporate a vegan lifestyle also into my bacon. So I decided to go to culinary school, thinking that I could get the technique to help me make products that didn't incorporate animal products. But lo and behold, the chefs in culinary school are like why would you not want to put eggs in it? You know what eggs do for the structure of the bacon? And I'm like, yes, but there are some people that have dietary restrictions or live a lifestyle where they don't want to incorporate those things in there.

Speaker 2:

And so I really went to culinary school for the love of it and to get more education on the science part, so that for that reason I learned that I was probably going to have to do this on my own and to do more research. Because the chefs are like we have the best butter, the finest butter, the best, which they do, which they really did, we have the best eggs, and they couldn't understand why. So I said, okay, I'll learn the technique here and then I'll be able to make the replacements on my own. So that's really when I decided that this will be a business for me and I want to be a one-stop shop for people that need non-dairy, that maybe need vegan or need a gluten-free friendly option, and so Sweet Benefits is how it came about.

Speaker 1:

Man, yeah, butter is definitely. Butter is amazing, but so are your baked goods. And so tell me, what are some of the things that you offer at Sweet Benefits that follow those dietary guidelines that you mentioned?

Speaker 2:

So, we have our French macaroons, and French macaroons are naturally gluten free because they're made with almond flour, almond meal, yes, and so they can also be made dairy-free if you make your filling dairy-free. So there's many different ganaches or fruit fillings that you can use in macarons that make a dessert for somebody that's following that particular lifestyle to be able to enjoy. So I always am educating my customers and letting them know. Did you know you can get macarons? You know, I mean, I also make non gluten containing cakes, but sometimes you want something that you're familiar with and people don't know the ingredients, and so they're like, oh my gosh, French macarons are gluten free yes, they are, and it can be made dairy free as well. And then I also do gluten free cupcakes and cakes as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I eat up some macarons and you're right, they're naturally gluten free and it doesn't dawn on us. I just, I just eat them because they taste good.

Speaker 2:

They are so good. They are so good and one of the patisserie items that I loved even before I went to culinary school, and I was lucky enough to have a French chocolatier when I was in culinary school and yeah, so I also had a love for chocolate. I love dark chocolate, and when you learn from somebody that that is their culinary expertise, it just gets even better.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely yeah, dark chocolate has so many amazing health benefits that I know of, and I need to start eating more than that, but it'd be the milk chocolate that'd be calling a sister's name. So so, yeah, and speaking of which, so in this industry, it can just be so easy, because these are the things the gluten free, the vegan that we don't see really glamorize much. You know, we see the unicorn cakes and everyone's into cookies now. And so how is it for you to stay on path? Is it ever hard? Did you ever try other trends? Or were you just certain like no, this is my lane. I'm going to stay in it and believe in it.

Speaker 2:

Well, I feel like, because I'm so passionate about it it is my lane and I do recognize trends. I also want my customers that have those dietary restrictions to know that you can also be on trend with those items, because I can make that item for you with your dietary restrictions. So the whole purpose of Sweet Benefits was because I never wanted people to feel left out. If you have a doing non-dairy and so many allergies have come about now, kids are allergic to everything, which we never had growing up. You literally can't even take cupcakes and stuff to schools because so many kids have allergies and some of them are severe. So I just wanted to have a bakery where, whether you were now, I can bake with eggs and and I do for the customers that want regular baked goods. But I also want people to know that if you are non-dairy or if you are vegan or if you're gluten-free friendly, you can still indulge and enjoy and your things can look just as beautiful as the regular baked goods.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and so you're sharing your passion with people, you're educating people on your profile, you're growing your business and raising your brand awareness, and so I know you as an amazing student, because you've also recently completed some corporate accounts accounts with some really big people and so tell me what got you, or what made you decide to step out of the box and to look into adding corporate accounts to your baking business?

Speaker 2:

I'll tell you that I got a baking coach and she teaches an amazing class, mordeaux, and it literally is that it gives you the pathways to be able to add different revenue streams to your business that I didn't even know existed. So just by taking your class, you gave us so many different avenues to be able to incorporate other sources of revenue for our business, and that is amazing. And obtaining corporate clients is a part of that class. So many different platforms that you shared with your students allowed us to be able to flourish in our business and be able to cater to corporate clients, and I love it. I do, I love it. I love the class. We learned a lot and, as a result, we're able to get some really good corporate clients get some really good corporate clients.

Speaker 1:

You're so kind and I love having you as a student and to someone who's listening, because I think people think that you know they sign up for the class. It'll be a walk in the park, but you actually you stuck it out, you know, and I remember it was a couple months after the class. You showed up, you did the work, but then I got a message that you get a request for 650 cake jars. What the hell did that feel like, getting that email?

Speaker 2:

I think, had I not been in the class, it would have been overwhelming, right, but we have so many tools in our tool belt that we learned from the class and we have the community that when you get something like that, if you aren't comfortable with it, you can go to the community. We can also contact Chef and be like, listen, this is what's going on. What is your advice? You know what I mean, how do we handle this? And so that's what we do, that's what I did, and it seemed like a big feat. But when you're equipped with the things that you need and you're organized, we keep track of our inventory and the class makes it easy for us to be able to take on orders like that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the main thing is being organized, knowing that if you get in a bind and you need some help, you have a community, but the EC community. We also have chef that's always there to be able to provide us with the guidance. We also have chef that's always there to be able to provide us with the guidance, and she did and I did, and it was amazing. It was amazing, it was amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you go, girl, and that order alone, not to put all your business out there, but as a four figure check from just one client, and so many people in this industry think that those type of checks only come for people who do fondant or wedding cakes, but four figures. So how did you feel when you got your big check? It's like, yeah, I know, that's right, show me the money. Yeah, so fast forward. Now you've also had the privilege, which a lot of my students have, of baking for not one, but two Amazons.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes, yeah. We have a lot of fulfillment centers in Maryland and when I first got my first order, I was like looking at the address and you don't recognize it at first, and then you know, you map quest it because you want to know exactly where you're going. And when I pulled up, I saw that the ASW smile and I was like what? This is Amazon? Because when you get your order it might not always say Amazon. I was shocked. It was a large order, so I knew it had to be a company, but I didn't know if it was just like a building or, you know, like some corporate event or some company having a big event for their staff. But it is, and it was a company, it was a corporation and it was Amazon. And I've baked for them a lot Different locations. Yeah, it's been a blessing.

Speaker 1:

And now so many people think, well, that it's easy for a chef like me because I've been around or I have a big following, but what I love to share with people, you're an average baker. Your account you're under 600 followers, correct?

Speaker 2:

Correct. Yeah, yeah, so followers don't equate to money. Amen, I'm here to tell you that. So don't be discouraged because you don't have a lot of followers when you're equipped with certain other resources and platforms. Your followers and your customers don't come from Instagram. They don't. They come from a lot of different other places. And so I'm here to tell you, don't be discouraged by that, because I did not think that I would ever get the corporate clients that I got. I don't have 2000, 3000, 10,000 followers, no, but the people that I have have found me from different platforms and from Google and um, I don't even know if those people know I even am on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, honestly, yeah, honestly. And so that's something that I'm big with teaching my students, because when we put all our eggs in one basket and only rely on social media, there are so many other places that people can find us that we don't even know until someone puts us on, and so that's always. My big thing with the Mordor class is to put other people on and say hey, you think social media is all right, check out some of these places.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Would you say I know the Mordor course is around 400 and that's high for some people. Would you say that it?

Speaker 2:

was worth it. Oh my gosh. Yes, absolutely. There are so many platforms and so much information that we learn from the course that you're going to make that money back tenfold. I mean, it's an investment in yourself and if you are a business, it's a tax write-off. So I think what we have to realize is that in order to have a business, you have to invest in yourself and in your business, and doing those things will make you more profitable in ways you didn't even really realize, because I didn't even know some of these platforms were even out there. So I think the information is powerful and knowledge is wealth.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely. I definitely believe that, to anyone listening who wants to be like you and maybe offer more health conscious things or to kind of, you know, do things that bring a little bit more joy to them, versus following some of the trends and having all that baker burnout, what would you say to encourage anyone as a personal trainer?

Speaker 2:

I would say everything in moderation. That's with anything in life. You know what I mean. But I feel like life is meant to be enjoyed and we enjoy it through food, through fellowship, through friendships, and so there's so many things that you can do, there are so many ways that you can not overindulge. There are so many things that you so many baked goods out there that will help you satisfy your sweet tooth and not sabotage your diet, and they'll be beautiful, they'll be enjoyable, they'll be delicious, you'll enjoy it. You'll exercise, if that's what you're into, and you know you'll have a good life. It's okay, it really is. I mean, and you know you'll have a good life. It's, it's okay, it really is.

Speaker 2:

I mean you just have to find a balance, and in everything we do, we find a balance. You know what I mean. We eat well when we can, we have dessert, we have good desserts. They're all health conscious desserts out there. The main thing is that you enjoy life. Yeah, don't feel like you can't do something, because you can, even if you have to do it in moderation, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And not only can you do it and bake it like you do, but you can also bake an amazing profit from it as well. Absolutely yes. And so what are your future plans for sweet benefits? Are there anything that you have coming up or any anything that you want to add?

Speaker 2:

There is. I'm looking to do some development with some recipes that I'd like to be able to share to my customers or to some bakers. I do make French macarons, so I'm actually thinking of releasing an ebook for French macarons for beginners, a 101. So if you're interested in making that patisserie, that petite cookie that everybody loves and thinks is very temperamental, it can be temperamental, but there are things that you can do to produce a really good product, a really enjoyable product. Produce a really good product, a really enjoyable product. So I'm thinking of releasing an ebook for that and maybe a class that you could watch that will give you some step-by-step instructions. So it's one thing to see it on the ebook, but you also have that second assistance if you need it. I need to see the steps and then I'm thinking about actually producing a course for that, in addition to being able to, possibly, I have brownies on my menu that are very popular, so I'm actually looking into shipping those statewide. So some of the things that are on the horizon for me.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome you go, girl, For anyone listening who is interested because, yes, I have been on her and I have told her this will greatly benefit the community. I always believe in all of my students. Once they have hit an amazing level of success, that they can have another opportunity to generate income by blessing the next person. And so if you're a baker that's struggling with macaroons, you can definitely learn from a personal trainer and someone who's attended culinary school. So be sure you slide in her DMs and say add me to the macaroon waitlist. That way she can add you on her waitlist when her course comes out. From the bottom of my heart, Katrina, thank you so much for coming on the show. I really appreciate you being here today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Chef. I appreciate the opportunity and if anybody's on the fence, you guys need to go ahead and make that investment in yourself and your business. You won't be disappointed.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, and I'm so happy to have you as a student, but even more so happy to have you as someone who helps and blesses other people. So thank you for sharing your story with us today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

All right, you guys. So how awesome was that interview. Special thanks to Katrina of Sweet Benefits for sharing her story and her journey. I wonder how many other personal trainers or really health fit conscious people we have out there. You know, life is all about balance, and so kudos to her for being able to balance the two as well as shout out to everybody else who does listen If you are vegan or gluten free or dairy free. The entire dietary way of baking is really really big now because, like she said, there are so many people with allergies and it's so nice that people have other options.

Speaker 1:

So, to all of you guys who are baking like that, kudos to you for being an amazing source of hope in your community and, as Katrina mentioned, I am super proud to have her as a graduate of the More Dough program, and if you would like to start adding corporate clients to your baking business as a source of additional revenue, then we would love to have you in the program. Also. At the time of recording this this comes out Wednesday the doors to More Dough actually open on Thursday and they will be open until May 31st only. So More Dough is a five-week group coaching program. I teach it live. There's always replays. You get access to the program even if you cannot attend, and we go over step by step how to prepare your home baking brand or your home bakery shop so that you can start to attract corporate clients. And so, if that's you, if you love to work with some amazing companies, some of my past students have worked at places like Amazon, target, walmart, lexus. There are so many different wonderful corporations that actually love hiring local, small, based on businesses.

Speaker 1:

And, just like Katrina stated, even though her following is small, she's not worried because most of her clients don't even come from social media. And that's how I am, and that's what I'm always trying to tell you guys is to diversify your income, spread out the ways that you make money, and this is an amazing way of doing so. So I would love to see you in the more dough course If you were interested. The link will be in the show notes or you can just always DM me the word more dough information on Instagram and then I will send you information on the more dough program. Just shoot me a DM saying more dough information and I will send you the info. All right, thanks you guys. So much for listening to the moon and back. I hope that her story and her message inspires you guys as well, and take care and bye for now.