We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Makayla Roberson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Makayla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I started my business in 2020 as a side business. A few months later I was diagnosed with Lupus and Fibromyalgia. I had to put my all into my business and quit my job. As I took this risk and leaned into it. Starting my business at the age of 20 and now 24. I have no only started a very successful baking company that’s working with the Nisqually tribe, local grocery stores, juice bars, coffee shops and more. Even a local arcade, but I also follow my passion in teaching cooking and baking classes and educating our community in how to prepare food and the innovative edible education. Currently I am not only a business owner and teacher but I also serve on our Thurston county Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees and SPSCCS culinary advisory board. I work closely with the school to house inters wanting to have an entrepreneurial perspective while in the call. And I am currently in partnership with the city of Lacey and the EDC to build a kitchen to elevate companies like mine, foster ghost kitchens, have a food business school, and a space for community cooking classes in partnership with the food bank.

All from taking a risk. And i did this through the pandemic!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Makayla Roberson. I got into my industry because I grew up cooking and it’s always just been a part of me so naturally, it was very easy for me to choose this as a career. At a young age, I was struggling with homelessness and many other other struggles that come with that, but one thing that I could count on, was that I knew how to cook I knew how to feed myself I knew how to take care of myself . I have always been someone who bakes for my friends and family, and I find very much joy from doing that, so starting my business was really just getting down to me starting to charge for these type of things. I’m I’m always trying to get something done or learn something new so when I started my business, it definitely was easy for me to just jump right in and put my all into it.

The That we provide is commercial baking goods to local businesses, such as grocery stores, coffee, shops, restaurants, etc. we carry things from 4 inch cakes to cookies to cupcakes to cake pops to brownies, even croissants! And we also teach cooking,baking, and cake decorating classes to the community to help them strengthen their skills in the kitchen and their confidence!

What set my business apart from others is really my heart and my passion for what I do this is truly my ministry, and I believe that I will touch many lives with my story, and so being able to share this means more than I think most people know. I put a Bible verse on the back of my labels so that people can feel gods love in and see him working me when they start to hear my story here about how I struggled with homelessness and drug addiction and all this stuff as a child, and then to come into entrepreneurship with a disability is super impactful.

I’m most proud of how I’ve been able to step out of my comfort zone and create a unique career that is catered to what my purposes and not what the culture wants for me. I’m also really proud of the fact that I have created a business from just a simple hobby, and it’s now became something that people who are around me can look up to.
What I really want my potential clients or followers to look at is my DoorDash account my upcoming classes and keep an eye out for when this new kitchen opens! This will change our community!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

What helped build my reputation in my market was being genuine and providing a quality and consistent product no one wants a cake that does not taste good or a cookie that is dry and so making sure that I put quality into my craft is a big part of what makes my business so popular and then building my reputation being genuine and kind always goes along way and people. Remember that there are many people that do business that do not have good attitudes are not kind to their customers, and it shows in how their business is spoken about the community how their business grows what referrals they get and so I think that it plays a big part two have these qualities.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a baking company isn’t easy especially when you’re starting up the kitchens that are in our area they do not have the proper cold storage or the proper oven to be able to produce the things that I produce and so over the past two years of trying to expand on top of dealing with health issues and trying to manage you know staying on top of that we have been in a major struggle to find a kitchen that can facilitate the gross that we’re looking for for our business and so after two long years finally, we have received an one oven to start baking at a mass production rate. However, we are still looking for two more ovens and these are about a 50 grand investment for us to do that which is a far more than most food. Businesses have to invest for just one or two appliances, so that being said that has been a major obstacle for us that we have just been not backing down in and just keep pushing for because we know that it will happen..

Contact Info:

• Website: Makssnackshack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makssnackshack1?igsh=anFzaGhrbDVwY2wx&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Makssnackshack?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/makayla-roberson-80435425a?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app