Episode 740: From Bakery Owner to Blogger – Lessons in Organic Growth and Creative Freedom With Mimi Council

EBT740 – Mimi Council

[00:00:00]  Supercut

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[00:00:14]  Megan Porta

What happens when a Bakery owner trades 16 hour days and a packed pastry case for creative freedom and a food blog, Mimi Council of Mimi’s Organic Eats shares her powerful story from from running one of the first organic bakeries in the country to becoming a full time recipe developer and blogger.

[00:00:34]   

Whether you are a bakery owner, a home baker, or just love a good story, this episode is full of heartfelt lessons, approachable baking tips, and a special discount for Mimi’s Pricing Baked Goods to Make Money guide. You’ll have to check the show notes for that. I hope you love the episode as much as I love recording it. Let’s dig in.

[00:00:56] Intro  

Hi food bloggers. I’m Megan Porta and this is Eat Blog Talk, your space for support, inspiration and strategies to grow your blog and your freedom. Whether that’s personal, professional or financial, you are not alone on this journey.

[00:01:23]   

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[00:01:45]   

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[00:02:18]

Hello Mimi. Welcome to the podcast. How’s it going today?

[00:02:20]  Mimi Council 

I’m good. Thanks so much. How are you?

[00:02:23]  Megan Porta 

I’m doing good. I have to tell you before I ask you for your fun fact. I don’t do this often, but Mimi was the name of my childhood imaginary friend.

[00:02:32]  Mimi Council 

Oh my gosh. I was not expecting that at all because that’s what everybody says.

[00:02:39]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s funny. No, I blamed everything that went wrong on Mimi and she and I even like people think I’m really weird saying this, but, like, I could see, like, she has a shape and everything, so I knew what she looked like.

[00:02:54]  Mimi Council 

I believe in that sort of thing.

[00:02:56]  Megan Porta 

I love it. And I used to, like, my mom would say to me, we haven’t heard about Mimi in a while. Where is she? And I have this elaborate. And I was like, three or four. And I would give her this description, like, oh, Mimi and the gang went to California because they had a van.They had a white van that they traveled in. Like, it was all consuming.

[00:03:17]  Mimi Council 

I live in California, so. Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny.

[00:03:21]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:03:21]  Mimi Council 

I mean, always live in California. But when I was little that I told my mom I was going to move there literally all the time. I was like, I’m going to live in California when I grow up. I’m from Chicago originally, so.

[00:03:31]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny. So the name Mimi has a near and dear place to my heart.

[00:03:36]  Mimi Council 

Oh, my gosh, that’s so funny.

[00:03:38]  Megan Porta 

The fun fact that you didn’t ask for, but I know.

[00:03:40]  Mimi Council 

I love it. I thought you were going to say, I call my grandma that.

[00:03:43]  Megan Porta 

And I was. That’s so funny.

[00:03:44]  Mimi Council 

Yeah. That Everybody says that. And I didn’t even know that people called their grandma that until I opened a bakery. And people would walk in and they’d be like, oh, Mimi’s your name. Like, is this because the name of my bakery was Mimi? It had Mimi in the name originally. So people always thought, is this your grandma’s place? Like, if they heard I was, my grandma had started it or that I started it with my grandma or for my grandma. And I just. I had no idea.

[00:04:10]  Megan Porta 

That’s hilarious. Well, we’re going to talk about your story in just a little bit, transitioning from bakery owner to food blogger, which I’m so excited to hear. But do you have a fun fact to share with the rest of us first?

[00:04:22]  Mimi Council 

I do, and it’s funny because it’s actually about my name.

[00:04:24]  Megan Porta 

Oh, that’s so crazy.

[00:04:26]  Mimi Council 

My real name is not Mimi. My real name is Meredith, but I have been Mimi since I was one. And while Mimi kind of goes with Meredith. Right. If you, you know, you say, oh, my nickname is Mimi. My real name is Meredith. People say, oh, okay, sure. But it’s not. Has nothing to do with my name.

[00:04:43]   

It’s because when I was little, all I would say was, me, me, me all the time. I didn’t speak a lot. I was really shy as a kid. So I just used me as a way to, like, say I want to go outside or say that I wanted, like, food. I would say me, and I would point at whatever I wanted to do.

[00:05:00]   

And so my neighbor friend, he thought that was my name.

[00:05:04]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh.

[00:05:05]  Mimi Council 

He started calling me Mimi and then introduced me to his nanny as Mimi. And then my nanny started calling me Mimi, and it just kind of stuck.

[00:05:13]  Megan Porta 

Spread. Wow.

[00:05:15]  Mimi Council 

Yes.

[00:05:15]  Megan Porta 

So two other kind of crazy things about that is that I was extremely shy as a kid, too. And I think that’s why I came up with my imaginary friends, because they really helped me to communicate with people. I communicated through them. It was like I would tell stories about them. It’s weird.I don’t know. I have a weird brain.

[00:05:33]  Mimi Council 

But you’re to talk about them than talk about yourself.

[00:05:35]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. And then also, my favorite girl name of all time was Meredith. I. If I ever had a girl, I was gonna name her Meredith.

[00:05:44]  Mimi Council 

I love that name.

[00:05:46]  Megan Porta 

It’s my favorite.

[00:05:46]  Mimi Council 

So funny. That’s my dad. My mom for that name. It was my dad’s pick, apparently. Oh, that’s crazy. It was. I was like. And I don’t really meet a lot of other Merediths either, or Mimi’s. Really? Yeah. I feel like both of them have been kind of been coming up a little bit more.

[00:06:03]   

There was like, Mimi on TV show or something. Or even a Meredith on a. Yeah, he’s watching around. I was like, oh. He’s like, you never see my name.

[00:06:11]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, it’s true. It’s pretty rare. And there is another. There’s a blogger. Hi, Meredith from our Love Languages Food. She’s a good friend of mine.

[00:06:20]  Mimi Council 

Your name is Meredith, too. And I love it because she spelled it right, too, because some people spell it a little bit differently.

[00:06:26]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yep. I love. I love the name. So glad to have you here, and I am excited to hear about your journey. So give us just a brief background on your blog, like when you started it, et cetera, and then we’ll get back to your transition from bakery owner to blogger.

[00:06:43]  Mimi Council 

So I started Mimi’s organic eats in 2021. December, basically. 2022. And that was kind of like right when I sold my bakery. And I started it because I didn’t want to stop baking just because I wasn’t operating and owning a bakery anymore. I knew I wanted to keep baking, so I started my blog then while I had a.

[00:07:05]   

I wouldn’t really call it a blog while I had my bakery, but our website, we shared recipes on there as well. So I’m not entirely that new. To sharing recipes, but definitely new to blogging.

[00:07:16]  Megan Porta 

Okay, and when did you start your bakery?

[00:07:20]  Mimi Council 

I started that in 2011, so quite a long time ago. I was one of the first solely organic bakeries in the country. So it was kind of a big deal back then. It was like, 2011, you know, the organic niche wasn’t what it is today. And you couldn’t just go into the grocery store and you’re like, I want to buy some organic cookies.

[00:07:40]   

You couldn’t really do that back then, I think, like, really, you could buy Newman’s Own. You know, like the copycat Oreos. Like, they’ve been on grocery store shelves for a long time, but there really wasn’t, you know, all the things you could buy today. Like at Whole Foods and at World Market, there’s, like, you could buy organic chocolate chip cookies anywhere, really, but you couldn’t do that then.

[00:08:00]   

And so I really started it because I, you know, saw that there was a hole in that market, right, where it’s like I was doing inorganic lifestyle and, you know, buying organic ingredients and, yeah, you could buy butter and sugar and flour and all that stuff. That was pretty easy, you know, back then.

[00:08:17]   

But you couldn’t be like, I want a slice of organic carrot cake, and I don’t want to make it myself. There wasn’t really a lot of options for that at all. So, yeah, that was, you know, why I started the bakery.

[00:08:30]  Megan Porta 

So you ran it for about 10 years, is that right?

[00:08:33]  Mimi Council 

Yes, a little bit over 10 years, yeah.

[00:08:35]  Megan Porta 

Okay. And then what made you decide that you wanted to be done with the bakery and move into something different?

[00:08:41]  Mimi Council 

The bakery was a labor of love. And I think anyone that has ever baked for a living or even if you’ve worked in a kitchen, like, you know that it’s a lot of hard work. It’s really long hours. It’s really long days. Even if you don’t own it, like, you could work in a kitchen and you could spend 15 hours there easily, you know, and that was kind of one of the reasons where I was like, gosh, I’m at the bakery for 16 hours every day, seven days a week.

[00:09:09]   

And it was easy to do that. It was just easy. We were busy, and we had a lot of stuff going on. And where. Where I live is I’m in a remote mountain town, a tourist town, ski town. So it’s busy, and we, you know, we get, you know, influx of people on the weekends, holidays, that sort of thing.

[00:09:28]   

But it’s also really transient, and so it’s incredibly Difficult to find staff because people want to move here for the fun of it. Right. They want to move here for the mountains and the skiing and the climbing and the lakes and all that kind of stuff, which I fully support. But also a lot of people don’t want to work.

[00:09:47]   

And so that was something that struggled with from the very beginning. When I first opened the bakery, I worked there by myself for basically the first year with the help of my husband, who is amazing. And he kind of got. He got laid off from his job like a few months after we opened the bakery.

[00:10:05]   

And so he just kind of ended up working for me, which was great. It worked out perfectly. But we didn’t really hire someone until about a year. And when I put out my first hiring sign, I was like, super excited. I was like, oh my gosh, it’s gonna be so fun. I get to hire someone.

[00:10:18]   

They’re gonna be really excited about working in a bakery where we just serve people delicious cookies and cakes and things. And I literally was like, it was like crickets when I put out a hiring sign. And I was like, am I missing something? How is it so hard to. I thought I would have applicants, like, I thought I would have a handful to choose from, you know.

[00:10:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:10:41]  Mimi Council 

And eventually I did get some. And the first woman I hired, she was really great. I liked her a lot. But that I didn’t really know that it was going to be that challenging for the staff, like to find staff, staff. And, you know, as we grew, we kind of had a staff about 8 to 10.

[00:10:57]   

Was kind of like an average, average staff number. And like, people were always coming and going. Always had like a handful of people that were a little bit more full time and then a handful that were, you know, more part time. But it was just really, really hard to find good help and really hard to find people.

[00:11:15]   

Especially having the bakery that I had. We focused solely on organic ingredients, but we also served vegan gluten free options too. So we wanted to be that full service bakery for people that could come in. Like, no matter if you had a food allergy, no matter if you had a dietary restriction. We wanted everybody to feel welcome.

[00:11:34]   

Like, our motto was dessert for everyone. So if there was cookies, there was also vegan cookies, There was also gluten free cookies. So it was a little bit more in depth because we were worried about, you know, being mindful of allergies and making sure the staff was knowledgeable on vegan and gluten free information.

[00:11:50]   

And like, not everybody was familiar with that kind of stuff. So it could have been overwhelming for some employees, I understand. But I also had, like, books and training, and I was very organized and detailed and stuff, so I made it as easy as possible for people. And some people thrived, you know, and.

[00:12:08]   

And some people just didn’t, you know, like, sometimes the customer would be like, oh, what’s vegan today? And the girl would be like, nothing. And I’m like, hey, in the back, running out from, like, the open kitchen, you have this and this and this and this. That’s vegan for you.

[00:12:22]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh.

[00:12:23]  Mimi Council 

You know, so I had a lot of challenges with staff over the years, and, you know, after 10 years and you’re still having, like, the same challenges with staff, it just gets, like, really, really frustrating because I just felt like I had to be there all the time.

[00:12:38]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah. That’s a lot of pressure. I mean, you can’t. You can’t virtually pass that off. People have to be in the store with you.

[00:12:46]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, but people that are in the store, that was my thing, too. It’s like, I didn’t have to be there all the time, but it’s like I also did, because depending on who was there, I’m like, can I trust this person to ensure that someone’s not going to get sick because they used the wrong flour when they were baking, because they weren’t paying attention?

[00:13:03]   

Or, you know, can I trust them to take an order properly? And then we make somebody the right cake? Because we were juggling, you know, all these different options, which is something that set us apart. And our community, like, was so grateful for. For that, you know, like, I had people that were like, oh, my gosh, I can actually get a wedding cake that I want.

[00:13:23]   

And that’s delicious, because you guys make options. And so it was just challenging, you know, to, like, want to be there 100% for my customers, but then also trying to have that time for myself, too.

[00:13:37]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Yeah. That’s a hard balance that you were navigating. So you got to a point where you realized you. You needed a change. So what happened then?

[00:13:46]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, so, well, Covid happened, and so that was hard because of where we were located, especially because one of the things that happened during COVID was, like, our community or whatever was, like, told second homeowners and tourists, like, don’t come here.

[00:14:01]  Megan Porta 

Oh.

[00:14:02]  Mimi Council 

And so that, like, made it, you know, people weren’t going out anyways, but people were doing takeout. And sometimes the restaurants were kind of actually, you know, some of them were doing a little Bit better because of that, if people were, like, eating out or whatever. But it was really challenging because more than half the houses in this area that we live, our second homeowners.

[00:14:21]   

And so if we don’t have that business, the community here is, like, really struggling. So that was super challenging. But we ended up making it through. We actually got some help from the barstool fund, which was amazing and an amazing experience that we went through for that. But we did make it through.

[00:14:36]   

Covid. I ended up hiring back some of my staff because I sent. You know, I put everybody on unemployment during that time because I was like, I want to make sure you guys getting paid. Don’t come in if you don’t want to. You know, all that kind of stuff. And then when we opened back up, I was like, if you want to come back, you can.

[00:14:52]   

I wasn’t, like, forcing people to come back. But then it made it even worse, really, the staffing challenges that we were having. It was even harder to, you know, to get people to work. So we stayed open for a while, a little while after that. But I was just like, this is even worse.

[00:15:10]   

And I was like, now I’m here. Now I’m just chained to the. To the bakery where before I was like, okay, I’m there all the time, but I would try to take a day off a week. And I was just like, it’s just incredibly hard. And the staff was really what did it for me, where I was like, I can’t keep relying on people that don’t care about their jobs, right?

[00:15:31]   

I was like, I care about my job, you know, and I care about, like, the work that we’re doing here, where it’s like, yeah, we’re not saving lives, but it’s. We’re making people smile, and we’re giving people cakes and cookies to celebrate, like, huge milestones in their life, like their weddings and their baby showers and their anniversaries and all that kind of stuff.

[00:15:50]   

And so it is meaningful work, right? In a way. And I want to work with people that care just a little. Like, I get it. A job is a job. And especially for some people, a job is a little bit more of a job than it is for others, and that’s fine. But it was just, like, a really long time coming with, you know, a lot of just staffing problems, where I was just ready to work with some people that were a little bit more mature, cared a little bit more about the mission, you know, whatever that may be.

[00:16:23]   

And so that’s where I was like, you know, it’s been over 10 years, and we’re still having these issues that it’s kind of not going to change. And as a business owner, you know, there’s times when you have to kind of step back from your passion and, like, what you love doing and decide if, you know, if you need to make a change, like.

[00:16:42]   

Like I did, then where it’s like, it’s been over 10 years and this is still happening. Do I want to keep going like this? And I was like, not really, because this is kind of making me hate baking.

[00:16:54]  Megan Porta 

No. And you don’t want that. And I think 10 years, I don’t want that.

[00:16:57]  Mimi Council 

You know where it’s like, yeah, it’s like the big picture. Sure. Still love it. And I still love the big picture of a bakery. I mean, who doesn’t? It’s like, you walk and you get a sweet treat. Everyone’s all friendly and nice. That’s how it should be. But the reality was, it’s like I was in there for 16 hours every single day.

[00:17:15]   

I was making hundreds and hundreds of, like, sprinkle cookies, these cookies. And it’s like, how many more of these cookies can I, like, are best selling cookies? Sure, of course. Yeah. I have to have them every day. But it’s like, how many more sprinkle cookies can I make before I hate them?

[00:17:29]  Megan Porta 

Yes. That’s a lot of sprinkle cookies. 10 years is a good run, too. I think that’s something to be proud of. You put in a solid decade of running a bakery. That’s amazing.

[00:17:40]  Mimi Council 

Yeah. Well, so I ended up selling the bakery, too. At that time. I had posted it for sale for a little few months, and then I actually ended up selling it. So it was a little bit bittersweet because it got to stay open for the community, but it was weird being there. Being there.

[00:17:57]   

Yeah. And so the woman that bought it, I know where I’ve known her for a long time in town, and she actually. She kept it open. She just closed it a couple months ago.

[00:18:07]  Megan Porta 

She did. How do you feel about that? Is that weird?

[00:18:11]  Mimi Council 

It’s a little bit weird, but it’s also like. It’s kind of like the same. She was having the same problems I was having, and she doesn’t even last as long as I did. You know where she was just like, I can’t find anyone that is. Can help me. And she’s like. And that’s where she.

[00:18:26]   

She just closed it just, like, two months ago. And she’s like, I can’t do it because I can’t book all these weddings for this coming summer and not have anyone to work because then I won’t be able to come through for these brides. And that’s going to be a terrible thing, you know, So I get it.

[00:18:42]   

Like, I get, you know, I get it. It’s just hard.

[00:18:45]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:18:45]  Mimi Council 

You know, have a business and have it doing well, and you can’t really even succeed in it because you don’t have the staff that is required because it’s a lot of manpower, you know.

[00:18:56]  Megan Porta 

So obviously blogging is a natural fit. After you left your bakery, how did you decide on blogging? Did you always have that in your mind? Did someone mention it to.

[00:19:07]  Mimi Council 

No, actually, I didn’t. I, like, never really thought about it. Like, one of my friends is Julianne from Beyond Frosting. She has actually been. I’ve known her for a super long time because we both used to work in action sports before we were in the food industry. And when I opened my bakery, I think she had just started her blog and she was like, I’m a food blogger.

[00:19:26]   

And she, like, did an interview with me and she’d always come into the bakery and support and buy stuff. And I just never really understood what she did, to be honest. Like, I knew that she did it and, you know, and she, like, I’d been to her website, you know, try to support and everything, but I didn’t really understand it.

[00:19:41]   

And so I kind of knew what it was, you know, from the beginning of the bakery, but I didn’t really understand. I was like, people are baking all this stuff and they’re just taking pictures of it and put it on the Internet. It’s kind of just weird. Like, it doesn’t make any sense.

[00:19:54]   

Like, who are they giving all this stuff to? I was wondering. And so I have written three cookbooks as my time as a bakery owner. And so I love writing books and sharing recipes, and I. I really want to keep doing that. And so my customers at my bakery were really what pushed me to do that.

[00:20:13]   

That was like, kind of how I said at the beginning, where we had our website for the bakery, right? So we list all our flavors and things you guys could look and order and that sort of stuff. And customers were constantly asking for recipes or obviously recipes from the bakery, but also, like, any.

[00:20:28]   

They just wanted more from the bakery. So I started sharing recipes on the bakery’s website. And it wasn’t a blog. It was just like, oh, here’s a recipe. And it was like, just posted, you know, on the website, and people could kind of look. And so I’d been sharing kind of recipes there for a while, and so it was familiar to me just because of that.

[00:20:49]   

But it wasn’t. Like I said, it wasn’t really blogging. And, you know, because I’ve written a few cookbooks and I really love that. I was kind of just like a natural fit where I was like, I need to have, like, my own website that’s not affiliated with the bakery, you know, and so that was kind of how that started.

[00:21:04]   

Yeah.

[00:21:05]  Megan Porta 

So you started the blog how soon after the bakery closed?

[00:21:09]  Mimi Council 

Well, I kind of started it, like, immediately. I mean, maybe I had it for a few months before. I can’t really remember. I was like, I need to just move recipes onto my own website was kind of like what I was thinking. So.

[00:21:23]  Megan Porta 

Okay.

[00:21:24]  Mimi Council 

It was like. And I think I did that when I put the bakery up for sale, you know.

[00:21:29]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:21:29]  Mimi Council 

Where I was like, what am I going to do after this? I’m not really sure. So that was kind of when I started that.

[00:21:35]  Megan Porta 

And then you dove right in. Did you just. From there, it was like, no looking back, or did it take you a while to gain momentum?

[00:21:42]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, well, I kind of had some momentum because, like I said, we’ve had, you know, customers at the bakery that have been following along for a while. And so I kind of just jumped right in to that from there. And luckily, I did have people that knew me already, and I had a social media following already from the bakery.

[00:22:02]   

So I kind of just changed over my Instagram bakery page, and I didn’t sell that with the bakery. I kept it. And so that had kind of built a larger following. So I kept that and kind of made announcements there, and then just kind of started sharing my own recipes on my site.

[00:22:16]  Megan Porta 

And it looks like you’ve. I mean, you’re a solely organic baking recipe site. Right. So it’s the same theme.

[00:22:24]  Mimi Council 

Same theme, really? It’s called Mimi’s Organic Eats, because I do a little bit more than just baking. We do savory recipes, too. And then I also do dog recipes, which is something that not a lot of people do. I get made fun of a lot of time for that, but I love it.

[00:22:41]   

And there’s a lot of people out there that love it, too. But of course, I had to keep with the same organic niche because that’s just how I live and the ingredients that I buy. And sometimes it’s challenging if people are baking and you want to make a certain recipe, and then somebody Calls for a certain food dye or a certain sprinkle or something that doesn’t really fit into your lifestyle.

[00:23:00]   

And so that’s kind of how I differentiate myself a little bit. Because, you know, if you find something on my website and you’re living, you know, an organic lifestyle and you, you don’t want artificial colors or you don’t want anything like that, you know, you can make it look exactly like that. And I think that’s a big deal.

[00:23:17]   

Especially now.

[00:23:19]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:23:19]  Mimi Council 

You know, kind of shifting their mindset. And finally, the red number 40, number 40 band or whatever that is, you know, I mean, people could make the choice this whole time, but hopefully that’ll kind of just help people make the choice.

[00:23:33]  Megan Porta 

I need to look through your website because I’ve recently discovered that I have an allergy to a handful of different oils.

[00:23:42]  Mimi Council 

Oh, yeah. Seed oil free category.

[00:23:45]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh. You’re my new favorite person. Okay.

[00:23:47]  Mimi Council 

This is awesome because I actually stopped eating them like you did. Yeah. So which ones are you allergic to?

[00:23:54]  Megan Porta 

Well, it started out with soybean oil, which I feel like is in every baked good on the planet.

[00:23:59]  Mimi Council 

It’s crazy processed ones for sure. Yeah.

[00:24:03]  Megan Porta 

And then it turned into sunflower oil and then coconut oil, of all things.

[00:24:08]  Mimi Council 

And then.

[00:24:09]  Megan Porta 

Oh my gosh.

[00:24:10]  Mimi Council 

Coconut oil.

[00:24:11]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I had a reaction to coconut. It’s so.

[00:24:14]  Mimi Council 

In my 10 years of owning a bakery, I’ve only had one person ever come in saying they had a coconut allergy. Like I’ve never heard of that. That’s crazy.

[00:24:22]  Megan Porta 

And I can eat other forms of coconut, which is weird. So I don’t know what that. That is all about, but it’s. It seems like the oils keep compounding. So it’s like I can, I could have sunflower oil six months ago and now I can’t. So I’m like, well, let’s see how this goes.

[00:24:39]   

I might soon be alert. Allergic to. I can eat canola oil still. But it might hop on the bandwagon. I have no idea.

[00:24:45]  Mimi Council 

That is so interesting that you’re fine with canola oil but not coconut oil.

[00:24:49]  Megan Porta 

I know, I know. It’s so weird what my body is not liking. But yeah, it’s been really hard to navigate that because like I said, it’s in every single baked good. I look at the packaging and I’m.

[00:25:01]  Mimi Council 

Like, it’s in sprinkles too. That’s like the oils.

[00:25:04]  Megan Porta 

Oh, gosh. I didn’t even know that.

[00:25:06]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, Even in, like the plant based diet sprinkles. Like, I am a Huge fan. And constantly push India tree, which is like, one of the best ones. That’s what we use in my bakery for over a decade. They have pretty much like, every color of sprinkle bright pastel rainbow. They have everything you could need.

[00:25:22]   

They have, like, snowflake decorating things and hearts and, like, all the holiday stuff, and it’s all. And they have their nature’s colors line that’s like, they make both. They make artificial colors, and then they do their nature’s colors line. So that’s the one you got to look for. But they use seed oils in their stuff.

[00:25:38]   

It’s not seed oil free. It’s free of artificial colors. Like, there’s no sprinkles out there that I have found that are free of artificial colors and free of seed oils.

[00:25:48]  Megan Porta 

And so, so crazy.

[00:25:49]  Mimi Council 

It’s crazy. It’s hard. So, you know, if you’re on the seed oil free category, my website, you won’t see anything with sprinkles, but, like, you can use food dyes and, you know, I use, like, beet powder and spirulina and stuff like that, where you can still get colorful things for celebrations without that sort of stuff.

[00:26:06]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. So good to know. And I learned all this the hard way. I have a favorite ice cream that I was able to eat in April, I think was the last time I had it without getting sick. And then I had it in early May and had a reaction. I was like, what?

[00:26:21]   

What am I reacting to? And I looked at the ingredients, and sure enough, soybean oil was in this ice cream because it has, like, little brownie chunks.

[00:26:30]  Mimi Council 

Okay. Yeah. Because it’s used stable. It could use as a stabilizer. So.

[00:26:34]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I hate it. I hate that it’s everywhere, but it is everywhere. Like, candy has it. I mean. Oh, palm oil I also reacted to recently.

[00:26:44]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, that’s a big one. It’s in so many things. Yeah.

[00:26:48]  Sponsor

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[00:27:05]   

Probably just to go for it. You know, what could it hurt? There was no negative aspect to it. It could only be a positive growth.You have all these women coming together who have experience in the blogging realm. So it’s not like we were all from, like, different companies or areas. Like, we all know the struggles of food blogging in particular. So just knowing that this was a good opportunity and to invest in it. And to try your best,

I guess I would probably say to Cheryl, 20, 24, definitely do it. It’s an investment in you. It’s an investment in your business. You will see results from it as long as you’re willing to put in the work. And I would say to Cheryl, too, that, yes, I know this is the biggest investment, you know, you’re planning on making to date for your business. And it seems scary, but a lot of times the scary things are the things worth doing. Go ahead and do it. You’ll figure out the money. You’ll. You’ll have the money to pay for it.

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[00:28:17] Megan Porta

So, anyway, I digress, but I’m going to check out your site because it’s going to be super helpful for me. Thank you.

[00:28:22]  Mimi Council 

And then, yes, I’ve been doing that for a little while now, but it’s like I’ve had recipes on my site for longer, you know, and, and it’s like I’m not opposed to sharing things, you know, with seed oils if it’s made better, you know, like, you know, with people want sprinkles and like, you know, my husband Newman’s own organic Oreos, like I was saying, the ones that we bought at the grocery store for a long time, he loves those, but they think they have palm oil in them.

[00:28:47]   

Oh, I’ve been eating them in quite a while either, but it’s still a much better Oreo substitute, you know, than the regular ones that have other things that are worse.

[00:28:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s good to know. Good to be educated.

[00:28:59]  Mimi Council 

Yeah.

[00:29:00]  Megan Porta 

So how did the transition go from bakery owner to blogger? I’m. I mean, obviously there’s a lot of similar skills that you could carry over. Like, obviously the baking.

[00:29:11]  Mimi Council 

Yes. And then.

[00:29:13]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s the easy part. Telling stories about your food, because I’m sure you’ve done that from the beginning and just kind of having a knack for trends and knowing the things that people want.

[00:29:25]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, that part of it actually is a little bit more fun as a blogger because, like, knowing what people want is key to, you know, having a successful bakery because you have to have stuff that people want to buy. And here’s just like a little funny story. Like, the first year that we were open, like, I didn’t make plain chocolate chip Cookies.

[00:29:43]   

Like, I refused to do it because I was like, you can buy a plain chocolate chip cookie at a gas station these days. Like, it’s no fun. Like, we were doing like all these different fun cookies and a little bit more like gourmet and elevated. But I’d still get people come in all the time, like mostly tourists and like people that weren’t as familiar with the bakery as the locals.

[00:30:04]   

And they would just come to the counter and be like, can I get a dozen chocolate chip cookies? And look at the menu. We don’t have that today. And so in year two, I was like, okay, we gotta give the people what we want. And we created a chocolate chip sandwich cookie, which was kind of like an elevated version of chocolate chip.

[00:30:21]   

But it became our best selling cookie. And it was. People would just, just walk in and order it and they’re like, oh, I’ll just get that one. And so you got to make stuff that people want that’s familiar, but you also want to make it a little bit different because you got to stand out.

[00:30:34]   

And when you have a bakery, you have that third thing, making sure that it’s profitable. Right. And you can make delicious things and things that people want all day long, but if you’re not pricing it correctly, you’re not going to make any money. And that was something that I was like very much into at the bakery.

[00:30:52]   

Like, I’m super nerdy about costing and our margins and making sure that we were making money on every single thing we were making. Because otherwise there’s no point to make it.

[00:31:00]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:31:00]  Mimi Council 

And I actually have a course on my website that I. How to make. How to make money. Like selling. Actually make money selling baked goods. Fun. If you just have like a cottage kitchen or you just want to like start selling cakes to your friends and you’re not sure how to price stuff.

[00:31:17]   

It’s. I feel like it’s one of the biggest things that bakery owners or even restaurateurs like, fail at. Like, if you’re not knowledgeable in that space, like smaller businesses in the food space, like, if you’re not pricing your food properly, you’re gonna lose money. Like, it’s. It’s really simple. And I actually do some consulting on the side about that.

[00:31:35]   

It’s just something that I’m passionate about because it’s. Sometimes it’s like it’s not about how good your cookie is. It’s. You have the best cookie in the world and if you’re pricing it wrong, you’re gonna fail. Right?

[00:31:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:31:45]  Mimi Council 

And so that’s one of the things that sometimes at the bakery, like, we’d test out new things, we’d make things, and then I’d be like, we can’t sell this because I can’t price it properly for it to sell. Right. It doesn’t matter how good it is. It doesn’t matter if people want it.

[00:32:00]   

You know, no one’s going to pay this amount of money for it in order to make money because it takes too long to make or it has too many ingredients or this or that. And so there were definitely times when we had recipes or things that we, you know, couldn’t serve, or, you know, we made it one time, maybe for someone because they asked, but.

[00:32:16]   

And someone was like, oh, it’s so good, it’s so good. Why is it on the menu? We can’t do. You know, we can’t do that. And that’s why. So as a food blogger, it’s actually. That’s, like, not even a worry at all, which is kind of fun, because you can kind of make exactly what people want, and literally, like, they’re out there buying their own ingredients and they’re gonna make it no matter what.

[00:32:36]   

So I. It’s kind of fun, but I also, like, really love that part. So it’s. Yeah, it’s. It’s both, but I get to make, like, jokingly, I get to make all the things that, you know, ever wanted without worrying about the costing.

[00:32:50]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Does that translate over into keyword research for you?

[00:32:54]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, that’s like, basically your costing as a food blog.

[00:32:57]  Megan Porta 

Yep.

[00:32:58]  Mimi Council 

Is your keyword research? Because it’s like, you could make something delicious and that it looks so pretty, you can take the best photograph of it, but if you don’t package it properly. Right. Yeah, it’s the same thing. Yeah. So that’s. That’s the vice for there, and that’s kind of like what I’m dealing with now.

[00:33:13]   

I don’t. I wouldn’t say I’m as good as key research as I am at costing for a bakery, but you have that.

[00:33:19]  Megan Porta 

In your DNA, Obviously, that intrigues you and lights you up. So maybe with a little more time, that will become a. Yeah. Passion.

[00:33:28]  Mimi Council 

I’m getting more into it, but I wouldn’t call myself as proficient at it yet.

[00:33:34]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, you’re getting there. So what about the storytelling, telling stories about your food? Did that come naturally once you started blogging?

[00:33:42]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, that was, you know, a fairly easy thing to translate over, especially in my niche of, like, the organic space. I feel like it’s pretty easy to talk about that food and why I chose those ingredients. Right. Or, like, how you can, you know, easily make a better choice just by swapping out your sugar, flour at the grocery store.

[00:34:00]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I can see where that would be so fun for you. Just especially being in a bakery where you’re talking to people all the time, I think that naturally lends to talking about what you’re making. And I don’t know, I would love that. I would love talking about baked goods all day, every day.

[00:34:16]  Mimi Council 

People in the bakery, they want to know, and it’s like, exactly. Yeah. And it’s like they want to know. It’s like they. They want to know where the recipe came from. Or they also realize, like, what flour? Like, the questions I got all the time were, like, what sugar are using? What flour are you using?

[00:34:30]   

What this are you using? Those were like, the big things. Because people are like, I want to recreate this exactly at home. And, like, I share a lot of bakery recipes now. Now that the bakery closed just a couple months ago, I have, you know, I actually got all the recipes back because they close.

[00:34:46]   

And so, like, before, when I sold it, I wasn’t able to share, like, certain recipes because they went with the sale of the bakery. So we had, like, super pop. Like, our number one selling cookie was what we called the mammoth chocolate chip at the bakery. This was. This came after our chocolate chip sandwich cookie.

[00:35:03]   

But it was like another play on giving people the best chocolate chip cookie but making it different. Right. And so this had a secret ingredient in it and something that we never told our customers. And if they looked at the ingredients in the back, like, if they looked at the ingredients on the package of the cookies, they never would have figured out what it was because of the ingredients that were listed.

[00:35:22]   

But the recipe is now on my website, and it’s caramel chocolate chip cookies made with homemade caramel. So we made caramel pretty much daily at the bakery. It was a daily thing. And we were making caramel sauce that we put, like, on our cupcakes and our cakes and stuff. But then we were also making chewy caramel candies.

[00:35:39]   

So those are like those classic little, you know, wrapped caramels. Yeah, you buy at the grocery store. We were making those from scratch every single day. But instead of making them into candies, all we were doing is pouring that caramel onto a silicone mat, and then we were melting it and putting it inside cookies.

[00:35:57]   

And so it basically turned, like, a plain chocolate chip cookie into, like, a really buttery Cookie that had, like, just, like, a little extra flavor. And, like, you couldn’t tell there was caramel in the cookie. Right. Because we had melted it down. So it went the batter. And so the cookie itself just looked kind of dark, kind of looked like a brown butter cookie, but it wasn’t brown butter.

[00:36:17]   

Because people would ask, is there brown butter in this? And you’d be like, no. And my caramel recipe only has three ingredients. Like, we. We were making true caramel. So where we’re dry burning the sugar, that was the technique. Dry burn the sugar, add the butter, add the cream. So if you look at the back of the chocolate chip cookies, it’s worth butter, sugar, cream.

[00:36:37]   

So the only kind of weird ingredient was cream. Right. That maybe might not be in a chocolate chip cookie, but maybe it would be. So people could never figure it out. And they were, like, always asking about it. They were like, what’s in these cookies? Like, what’s different about? They just thought, like, we had the best chocolate chip cookie ever.

[00:36:53]   

And that was the goal, right? Yeah.

[00:36:55]  Megan Porta 

Oh, my gosh, that’s so. I’m so starving right now. I need to. So the cookie that is brilliant and delicious.

[00:37:04]  Mimi Council 

Well, yeah, I. I literally just shared that recipe, like, last month on the website, because I. That was one of the ones, like, especially when the bakery closed. Like, I had people sending me messages on Instagram, and they were like, can you finally share this cookie recipe we need?

[00:37:17]  Megan Porta 

People are just waiting for that moment.

[00:37:20]  Mimi Council 

We were. And so I was able to share it. So I talk about that on the bakery or talk about that on the website, how that recipe, you know, was from the bakery. So those kind of recipes are really fun to share now because they have a lot of history and a lot of story behind them.

[00:37:33]  Megan Porta 

Oh, I love that so much. So what else was hard? As you trans became a food blogger, you mentioned that keyword research isn’t your favorite thing yet. Not yet, but I’m getting there. But was that hard to begin with? And what else was difficult?

[00:37:49]  Mimi Council 

That was hard, but then also, like, figuring out that more. Because, like, in a bakery, if you make more cookies and you have customers, you will sell them. Right? So, like, more baking, more cookies, more things kind of translates to more money, right? If you’re blogging, if you’re just, like, cranking out recipes and, like, posting all these things, but you’re not really doing other things, it doesn’t really translate to more.

[00:38:13]   

Right. So that was something that I kind of had to learn where it was like, people and were asking Me for recipes. And it’s like I. I come from baking from 16 hours a day. So, like, at first when I was like, oh, I could post a recipe every couple days, it’s like super easy for me.

[00:38:29]   

It’s like, no problem at all, you know, but if you’re not doing the keyword research and making your posts, you know, stand out in that way, that’s not really going to do anything for you. Right.

[00:38:39]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. That’s something that you don’t know until you get in and you learn the hard way.

[00:38:45]  Mimi Council 

Yeah.

[00:38:45]  Megan Porta 

There’s a bat. There’s such a balance with knowing how much to create and what to publish and what not to. What to hold back on.

[00:38:53]  Mimi Council 

Exactly. And that’s. Yeah, that was kind of hard for me at first because I was like, I’m just used to baking all the time. Like, that’s the easy part.

[00:38:59]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. And what about photography? Was that something that came naturally?

[00:39:03]  Mimi Council 

Yeah. So I’d actually been doing photography for a long time because when we first opened the bakery, I have a lot of friends in this town that are photographers. Like I mentioned, I’m in a tourist town, remote mountain town. So I have a lot of action sports photographer friends. Like, they shoot snowboarding or skiing or climbing or I have wedding photographers.

[00:39:21]   

Right. That sort of thing. So I had friends at first taking photos for me all the time. And I was like, hey, I need help. Like, we need website photos, we need this. And we do photo shoots at the bakery. And I was always kind of like, meh, I’m not like. Like, I was like, happy because my friends were helping me out and, you know, doing me a favor.

[00:39:40]   

But I was never, like, fully excited. And I was always there trying to be like, well, what if you do this? And what if you, like, do this? And my husband was like, you need to do this yourself. And he got me a camera. And he was like, you need to just figure this out and do this yourself because you’re never happy with, you know, whoever else is doing it.

[00:39:56]   

And so I just ended up learning that a long time ago. And I’ve been taking the photos for the bakery, for our website, for Instagram, for ads, for all that kind of stuff for a long time. So that part was, like, really easy to me. And, like, that’s honestly how I was making money during COVID Nice.

[00:40:10]   

I was doing, like, freelance photography stuff for brands and stuff like that. So I’ve been doing photography for a long time.

[00:40:17]  Megan Porta 

That’s great because I think that can be a huge, huge learning curve if you go in not knowing photography at all.

[00:40:24]  Mimi Council 

It’s like for a long time too. And so I was pretty lucky that that that’s like the easy. That is literally even easier than baking for me. Yeah, yeah. So. And that’s super fun. And I’m doing more video now, so that’s something that I hadn’t done as much of at the bakery. I have a YouTube channel that I just started last year, so I’m doing quite a bit more of that.

[00:40:44]   

So that’s great.

[00:40:46]  Megan Porta 

And then are there any things about the bakery that you miss?

[00:40:51]  Mimi Council 

Yes, definitely. Though, you know, when you’re at home, it’s like nice to be at home and by yourself or, you know, work at your own pace. Especially for me, where I was like kind of almost needing that to like, need that break from the staff that was like either constantly asking me questions or constantly letting me down in some way where I was just like, do it myself mode.

[00:41:12]   

So at first it was like, really great and fun and that sort of thing. And I get to hang out with my dog every day, which is like, amazing because I’m like that weird person where it’s like my dog friend. So that’s really great. But you don’t get like those in person connections, you know, like you were saying, like, people want to talk about your baked goods and that sort of thing, but it’s not really that talking about it.

[00:41:33]   

It’s more just like seeing those, like regular customers that I knew for so long and seeing them walk in the door and just walking in. And like, the second they walk in, they’re just smiling, you know, because it’s like they’re in their happy place and they may just be on their lunch break or they might have just like went to an appointment or something that wasn’t that fun.

[00:41:53]   

And this is kind of like their way to, you know, make their day just like a little bit better. And maybe they’re just getting like one cookie. You know, I had regular customers that I literally saw like every single day, but she’d be like, I just need two cookies. I’m not gonna buy a ton because I don’t want to have them in my house.

[00:42:10]   

Right? But she’d come in every single day and she’d get her two cookies, you know, and that was her thing. And so that kind of stuff is, you know, stuff that I’ll miss is like, those people that I got to know over the years, the people that like, supported my business from the very beginning that just really cared so much about the, you Know the recipes and the things that I physically made most of that stuff.

[00:42:33]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:42:34]  Mimi Council 

You know, so that’s really hard. And then knowing that it’s not going to be there for those people to, like, have their. Their favorite pumpkin pie or their favorite apple pie for Thanksgiving, you know, like, where they used that for 10 years or even more. Right. That’s kind of sad, that.

[00:42:51]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, absolutely.

[00:42:53]  Mimi Council 

Letting those people down a little bit.

[00:42:55]  Megan Porta 

I mean. No, I. It’s not. You. You’re not letting them down. I know, but I know what you mean.

[00:43:01]  Mimi Council 

You can make it at home. Can I tell you? Can I walk you through it? Can I zoom with you?

[00:43:05]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. Do you. Have you ever considered that doing, like, cooking classes or. Maybe you do.

[00:43:13]  Mimi Council 

I did. So I did it during COVID actually, to make money. Like, during COVID when the. We were struggling. Like, I wasn’t making any money from the bakery, so I was doing, like, all these different things to make money. And that was one of the things that I was doing was I was doing, like, zoom cooking class.

[00:43:28]   

And it was kind of. It was honestly kind of fun. And I was doing it through a platform. I think that started, like, right around that time. I don’t know. They had reached out to me, but they shut down a while ago. I forgot what it was called, and so I kind of just, like, stopped doing it around then.

[00:43:42]   

And that’s kind of when I was like, maybe I should just do YouTube videos, because then people can kind of watch them whenever, you know, and then that kind of helps, too. So I kind of just transitioned to that. But the live stuff is kind of fun, too, because people get to interact a little bit more and they get to ask the questions being there.

[00:43:58]   

But if anyone bakes my recipes, they know that if they ever ask a question on YouTube or send a DM or an email, like, I always respond, you know, so I’m always there for people if they’re, you know, making something and they have. They need. Need help or they have a question. And even if you’re messaging on Instagram, I’m usually pretty quick.

[00:44:16]  Megan Porta 

And in person, I imagine you get just that immediate feedback that we don’t get. Blogging, right? Yeah. Or we get the bad feedback.

[00:44:25]  Mimi Council 

Blogging.

[00:44:25]  Megan Porta 

We don’t. We don’t get the positive feedback.

[00:44:28]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, you get the bad feedback at a bakery, too. And it’s almost like I feel like it’s like those, you know, those funny posts that people are always sharing, like, oh, this recipe came out terrible, but I switched the. And I did this, and I Didn’t do this. That’s kind of like the bakery equivalent of that is like, I went into the bakery and I got this cookie and this person was rude to me in line.

[00:44:50]   

Like, it’s like, oh, it’s not even, like, anything to do with the bakers. It’s like someone is, like, having a terrible day and they go complain about it on the Internet. Right. That’s, you know, we got our fair share of those as well. Where it was like, didn’t have anything to do with the baked goods.

[00:45:08]   

Someone is just clearly upset about something and they’re just on your yelp.

[00:45:12]  Megan Porta 

Unleashing. Yep.

[00:45:13]  Mimi Council 

Unleashing. Whatever. Yeah, I suppose you, you get it both times, right? Or it’s like, you know, someone’s like, this cookie was rock hard, and it’s like, oh, did you leave your bag of cookies open at 8,000 altitude for two hours? Of course it’s rock hard. You know, stuff like that. That’s kind of like the, you know, the vlogging equivalent of I just decided to change all this stuff and not listen to anything that you said.

[00:45:40]  Megan Porta 

Right. And I suppose it’s worse to hear it in person because you actually have to sit there and listen to it. But in the blogging world, you can choose not to listen.

[00:45:49]  Mimi Council 

Yeah. You can choose to just block them or, you know, just like, ignore it or whatever. And it’s, it’s, it’s like kind of like out of sight, out of mind. Whereas, like, sometimes I, I. We’ve had, you know, 10 plus years, you. You see it all. We’ve had people get very upset about things that were not our fault, that they did that were, you know, that sort of thing.

[00:46:09]   

We also have seen people get upset about things that were our fault. And then it’s terrible when that, it’s terrible when that happens. Right? Where it’s like a delivery gone wrong and something happened, someone’s wedding cake in the transit process, and that wasn’t our fault, but we’re responsible in it, and we do.

[00:46:26]   

And we did, you know, and we did, and we make it right. But that’s just what you do, you know, you have business and you have people working for you. Like, stuff just happens sometimes.

[00:46:34]  Megan Porta 

Yep, it does.

[00:46:35]  Mimi Council 

Yeah.

[00:46:36]  Megan Porta 

What are some of your favorite parts of food blogging? Now that you’re over on this side?

[00:46:40]  Mimi Council 

Now that I’m over on this side, it’s really the creativity part. Like, I said that part of it. Like, as a bakery owner, you don’t get that as much, you know, because you have to be Mindful of making stuff that people want. Right. And that’s, like, a lot of classic things. And then also making things that are going to make you money, because that’s, like, your main thing.

[00:47:02]   

And so getting to be a little bit more creative and making a little bit more different desserts is really fun. And I honestly have had a lot of practice with that, because whenever someone would mess something up at the bakery, layer of like, oh, I put double the amount of cranberries in this.

[00:47:17]   

Or I put this in this, or I. I don’t know what’s in here. I would, like, turn it into, like, a mini chopped TV show in the bakery, and I would make something out of it. And then sometimes we’d sell it, like, as a special, because that is better than just purely throwing something away.

[00:47:32]   

Right. Or we’d give it away to regular customers because that’s, like, marketing efforts. Right. That someone that comes in all the time, they got something special that no one else got, you know, so there’s ways to use up your waste like that that we would do all the time. But now it’s, you know, I just get to do that.

[00:47:47]   

I’m not usually throwing a bunch of stuff in, not knowing what I’m doing in my kitchen, but I get to decide what kind of, like, cool and different interesting things that I want to make. So that’s super fun. And then I’ve always really been into the photography, so that I get to just do much more on a daily basis now than I did before.

[00:48:05]  Megan Porta 

Yep. And then obviously, the benefit that I think a lot of my listeners are, are wanting and seeking and loving is the time. Freedom.

[00:48:15]  Mimi Council 

Yes, definitely. That is something that I like. It took me, like, a little while to get used to. It was, like, weird, like, not waking up and, like, having to be somewhere all day and not coming home. You know, like, getting up, packing a lunch, going to work, not coming back till it’s dark.

[00:48:31]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:48:32]  Mimi Council 

And now it’s like, I think, like, the first year that I didn’t have the bakery, I, like, didn’t even set an alarm ever. Like, I didn’t ever wake up before. I just, like, woke up. It was just, like, so luxury feeling.

[00:48:44]  Megan Porta 

Yeah. I never use an alarm. I haven’t in so many years. I love it.

[00:48:50]  Mimi Council 

Yeah. I mean, I don’t use one anymore, but it was just like that weird thing, transition. Transition of, like, not having to do that and, like, not having to get up and then just having a leisurely morning. That’s something I like. I’m just so Grateful for because it’s something I hadn’t had for so long.

[00:49:06]   

So long.

[00:49:07]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:49:07]  Mimi Council 

You know, and it’s like, before the bakery, I worked at 9 to 5, I worked in action sports. So it’s like to be at the office around nine, you know, it’s like you still have to kind of get up and do stuff. And so now it’s just kind of like wake up when I want to, I make breakfast, I walk my dog, I work out.

[00:49:22]   

You know, it’s like. And then I start my day, which is nice. And having those flexible working hours is just really nice.

[00:49:29]  Megan Porta 

The leisurely morning is glorious, isn’t it? I love it. Oh, yes.

[00:49:36]  Mimi Council 

I wouldn’t trade that ever. But it’s like my bakery too. And we were a dessert bakery only, so we opened at 11. So, like, even though I was like, yeah, I get up early and I like, I was in there at like 7 or like 8, it wasn’t like 2am shifts. Like, I had worked at a bakery before where if you were baking, you were there at 2am because they opened at 7, and it makes sense.

[00:49:56]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:49:56]  Mimi Council 

You know, so that was one of the nice things about my shop when I opened, I was like, I’m not doing that. I was like, no one can function like that. You know, we had to. We opened at 11, and that was when we opened. She’s like, no one needs a cookie before 11.

[00:50:07]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, that’s funny. So for people listening, because I know people. Some people have bakeries or maybe they’re in the food space of some sort. Outside of blogging, do you have any tips for them from going to that. Whatever it might be, to being a food blogger? Yeah.

[00:50:30]  Mimi Council 

So if you guys are, you know, if you have a bakery or you’re baking just like cakes out of your house and you maybe want to stop, you know, doing that as often, the best thing would be to do is to start your website first. And, you know, don’t. Don’t not have an email list.

[00:50:46]   

That was one of the things that I had an email list at the bakery, and it was pretty large, but I sold it with the bakery. So I was like starting from scratch from my email list. And so that was hard because that, you know, all those people and stuff that I knew over 10 years, they.

[00:51:01]   

I mean, some of them followed me, but it’s just not the same. Right. As having that list. And so, like, if you can keep that list, that’s amazing. You know, like, if it’s your shop and you’re not selling it right. Or if it’s just your home business, like, make sure you’re getting people’s email lists when, you know, you ring them up for their cake and all the apps, you know, like square, whatever, like they have things where you can easily get those.

[00:51:22]   

It’s super easy. So make sure you’re taking advantage of that. And then, you know, you can always start your website and do it on the side while you’re still baking.

[00:51:30]  Megan Porta 

Yeah.

[00:51:31]  Mimi Council 

And that’s, you know, one of the best things that you can do. Also start taking photos and investing in that, that side of it as well. That will only help your other business too. Right. It’s like if you’re selling baked goods, you gotta have pretty photos for people to want to buy them too.

[00:51:48]   

So that’s also a win win. You can’t ever go wrong with investing in, you know, photography.

[00:51:53]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, you really can’t. And then also we kind of touched on this. But the trends, knowing what people are loving, what season, what’s seasonal, what’s just popular right now. So you can translate that to your blog as well.

[00:52:07]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, definitely. It’s like all those, you know, bestseller seasonal items, like those will transition into, you know, the seasonal things that you, recipes that you would be want to be sharing during that time. It’s really the same thing. And it’s kind of even like the same timelines too and everything, you know, so it’s like by the time you start being like, oh, apple pre ordering apple pies for Thanksgiving is like kind of when you want to start promoting your apple pie recipes and all that stuff.

[00:52:32]   

It’s really just the same thing. It’s just a different way, different platform of promoting it.

[00:52:36]  Megan Porta 

Do you have any overarching business tips that you learned from running a bakery that anyone listening would benefit from hearing?

[00:52:44]  Mimi Council 

It would really just be, you know, your costing. Right. Like, that’s my biggest takeaway and my biggest tip for bakery owners or even any business owner. Like, if you’re not familiar with your costing, you’re doing yourself a big disservice. And like some people pass that task off or, and that’s fine as long as you have someone that’s capable.

[00:53:04]   

But you know, I’ve worked with people and like, like I said, done consulting for bakeries and stuff. And it’s amazing how many people like don’t like know what they pay per ounce per sugar in it, you know, and that’s like one of the biggest things where it’s like, oh, well, yeah, I think I paid this.

[00:53:22]   

But like, when was the last Time you updated your costing, you’ve been updated in like six months, then that’s a problem too because your vendors are changing pricing on you all the time, you know, so you really just have to be up on that costing to make sure that, you know, you’re making a profit on all that hard work.

[00:53:38]   

Because it is so much hard work.

[00:53:41]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, yeah, it really is. Is there anything else that you feel like food bloggers, either in your shoes that you were in or just generally for food bloggers speaking, that they should know?

[00:53:55]  Mimi Council 

No, I mean really just like baking from scratch doesn’t have to be perfect. That’s what I would say. You know, people want to be able to make something at home and I think just showing them that they can do it and not worrying about getting that perfect looking pie right or that perfect looking cake, I think being more approachable is just something that’s going to resonate more with people.

[00:54:19]   

So if you don’t have the perfect looking pie, just still shoot it anyways. Like, I do it all the time.

[00:54:25]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, no, I think that that’s something we all need to hear. The perfectionism thing seeps into all our bones occasionally.

[00:54:32]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, I know. And I, I have the perfection gene a little bit, but I just feel like with food it’s like nothing is ever perfect. And I know that’s part of the beauty of it too, where it’s like, yeah, I see these perfect cakes and perfect pies on Instagram, but I’m like, who actually is making those?

[00:54:47]  Megan Porta 

Yeah, I know, exactly.

[00:54:50]  Mimi Council 

It’s not the reality of it. It’s like, and even as a professional baker and I, I baked thousands and thousands of pies and like, I, I know how to bake a pie. I’m a professional at it. But it’s not gonna be 100 perfect every single time. Like the juices, the berries, it might, you might get on your pie crust a little bit.

[00:55:09]   

It’s totally fine.

[00:55:11]  Megan Porta 

Right? And showing that.

[00:55:12]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, I think showing that is, is a good thing.

[00:55:15]  Megan Porta 

And I think, you know, people appreciate it. People appreciate seeing the real life. Well, thank you for joining us, Mimi, and for sharing your incredible story. I loved hearing about everything that, that I don’t know that’s translated and hasn’t translated and how your experience all went. So thank you so much.

[00:55:34]  Mimi Council 

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

[00:55:37]  Megan Porta 

We’ll put together a show notes page for you. So if anyone wants to go look at those. We’ll put all of our notes from today. You can head to eatblogtalk.com/MimisOrganicEats. Tell everyone where they can find you. And then also the pricing offering that you mentioned, do you want to talk about that again too?

[00:55:57]  Mimi Council 

Yeah, definitely. So you can find me @mimisorganiceats.com and on Instagram, obviously Mimi’s organic eats and YouTube as well. Love for you to come join me on YouTube. It’s so fun over there. And then my guide that I was talking about is called How to Price Baked Goods to Actually Make Money: A step by step guide.

[00:56:18]   

And so I walk you guys through exactly how to cost out your baked goods, how you can be successful if you want to start a baker, even just like a home baked good baking business. You just want to make, you know, birthday cakes here and there, but you want to charge your friends a fair price.

[00:56:33]   

I think that’s like a really hard thing too. Being a food blogger, I’m sure people get asked all the time, like, can you make me a birthday cake? Can you do this? Like you want to say yes, right? But at the same time, if you’re not making it for your blog or if you are, but you can’t cut into it, right?

[00:56:48]   

Because like I’ve like glued cakes back together, you know, for friends birthdays where it’s like I cut a slice for photos, I frosted it back together and I brought it to the party.

[00:56:59]  Megan Porta 

I’ve done that.

[00:57:01]  Mimi Council 

Everyone’s done that, right? But you know, sometimes it’s like fun to just make a birthday cake too. And it’s not something that you want to share on your blog, but it’s a fun thing to do. But you still want to just make a little extra side hustle. That’s a great guide. And I’m always, you know, here if people have questions.

[00:57:16]   

It’s something I’m super passionate about. And there’s like super easy like, like literally template spreadsheets. You plug and play stuff. Cool. Super, super fun, I think.

[00:57:28]  Megan Porta 

Yes. Everyone go check that out. Thank you again, Mimi for being here and thank you for listening food bloggers. I will see you next time. 

[00:57:39]  Outro

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Eat Blog Talk. Please share this episode with a friend who would benefit from tuning in. I will see you next time.