We recently connected with Crystal Flynn and have shared our conversation below.

Crystal, appreciate you joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My greatest inspiration is my mother, a first generation immigrant. When she was seven years old, she moved from Seoul, South Korea with my grandmother to the United States. Despite the language barrier and culture shock she faced at a young age, she found a way to persevere. She is the strongest, bravest, and hardest working person I know. The determination and grit that she had to develop in her youth are characteristics that she thankfully passed down to me. Any time I’ve had to face a challenge or work on my courage, she is the first person that comes to mind. I knew I could take on the risk of pausing my full time, steady job I had worked years to master in order to start a small business because of the traits she has instilled in me.

I’ve witnessed many second generation children feeling forced to live out their parents dreams or to follow a certain life style. This is typically due to their immigrant parents just wanting the best for them, for their children to live out the quintessential “American Dream.” That usually does not involve a creative career pursuit, one that is synonymous with being “a risky choice”. Fortunately, my mother did not adopt that mindset. While she has always wanted me to be successful, she did not care what I chose to be successful at, just as long as I worked hard and honed in my chosen craft. In fact, the arts are incredibly meaningful to her. Seeing how much all forms of art positively impact her life helped develop a deep love of the arts in my own life at a very early age. I firmly feel that I was able to start my own custom cookie business due to being raised in the supportive, creative household that she cultivated for me.

I struggled a lot with schoolwork in elementary school. I strongly remember an evening while I was anxiously scrambling my way through homework at my dining room table, my mom taught me a phrase that I continue to use daily: “just think outside the box.” This one simple phrase has been incredibly useful to me as I’ve stumbled my way through my own small business missteps. Any time something does not go according to plan or I’m facing an unexpected challenge, I force myself to “think outside the box” so that I can find other avenues to push on.

My mother is brutally honest and has never shied away from sharing her opinions, but she has always let me be me and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. One of my main goals in life has always been to make my mother proud: fortunately for me, as long as I’m happy and working hard, she is proud of me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

For nearly a decade, I taught music and art for students as young as four years old up to 18 years old. After struggling with my physical health for years, I made the difficult decision to pause on teaching. Fortunately, the timing of my decision was kismet. One month after putting in my official resignation, the pandemic happened. Lockdown provided me the time I needed to figure out what new direction I wanted my life to take. Most importantly, I knew I wanted to find a slower paced, more creative career. I began to focus on a hobby I’ve loved since childhood: baking. Custom royal icing cookies was the perfect blend of art and baking. During those first few months of lockdown, I began to crucial research information such as TN Cottage Food Laws, best techniques for royal icing cookie decorating, tools I would need, and much more in order to start my own home bakery. By May 2020, I felt ready to announce my business, Butterfly Bakehouse, named after my grandmother who firmly believed she would be reincarnated as butterfly.

Since officially starting my own custom cookie business in the summer of 2020, so many incredible experiences have occurred that I would have never imagined happening to me. For example, less than a year after starting my small business, I was able to compete on the Food Network. I’ve also been fortunate enough to make cookies for so many talented musicians in and outside the Nashville area. In particular, I’ve loved getting to do custom watercolor paintings on my cookies: I feel that has been the best way to showcase and express my creative side.

I am proud of the fact that I have been able to channel my artistic abilities into the baking field: this journey through cookie decorating has been so fulfilling.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

When I first started Butterfly Bakehouse, I was excited to have the opportunity to make about three dozen cookies a week (perhaps 1 or 2 customers ordering cookies). I knew I’d never be able to make a livable income off of what I was doing, so it started a side hustle. I baked using the basic supplies on my kitchen counter and decorated on my dining room table. With time, I was able to accumulate more clients by focusing hard on social media, taking on any order request (including very last minute orders), putting any ego aside to ask if I could host a pop up outside a storefront, and spreading my business name to anyone who would listen. Eventually my numbers went from 3 dozen to 5 dozen a week by taking on any order that came my way; now, I’m making hundreds of custom cookies a week and booked out for months. Since I am a home baker, my space could not keep up with the amount of cookies I needed to produce weekly, so with time I made upgrades. I went from using a regular mixer to a professional stand mixer. Early on, I’d buy my baking materials from my local grocery store: I now have to buy them in bulk. The most exciting milestone was moving from my dining room table to a room in my home which is now the designated “cookie room.” I have my pan rack, packaging materials, and all other cookie supplies in one large room which I’ve dedicated to my small business. What started as a hobby-turned-side hustle is now my main, full time business. I’m looking forward to more key milestones to come.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Since there are just too many wonderful aspect of being a creative person, it’s hard to narrow it down to one. Instead, I’ll provide a small list of reasons as to why it’s so rewarding:

-Being a small part in someone’s special occasions are memories and experiences I’ll cherish forever
-Anytime a client acknowledges your artistic gifts and sends you praise, it’s life affirming
-Being creative on cookies fuels my creativity for more cookies and other projects in my life.
-Bringing a client’s vision to life is simply just fun
-I’m taking part in something I firmly believe makes people happy and betters myself and others: art truly does heal people (even just a small cookie can bring a smile to someone’s face)
-My cookies have literally made people cry: the fact that something that often feels quite miniscule can emotional move a person is deeply meaningful
-I have met some many other wonderful creative cookie makers through this small business journey: being a creative creates community
-Through the creative process, I’m constantly learning and growing. I don’t think this is something that will ever stop as long as I’m being creative

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.butterflybakehousetn.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/butterflybakehouse/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/butterfly-bakehouse-nashville

Image Credits
Rebecca Denton Photography (for the portrait photo only)