We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Whitney Espinosa. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Whitney below.
Alright, Whitney thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I strongly believe that a person starting or running a business must find their niche and excel at it. It’s impossible to please everyone so find one thing and do it better than anyone else. I promote myself as a health conscious baker, providing healthier option desserts. My hope is that through word of mouth, people on special diets will seek me out. Instead of them trying to go to a full service bakery to see if they can make something vegan or gluten free, for example, they can reach out to me to make them something that I have been perfecting for years for my own special dietary needs. I can make just about anything but I don’t claim to be “full service bakery”. When I am asked if I do wedding cakes, I decline. I’d rather leave that to the bakers and pastry chefs that specialize in that sort of thing. I wouldn’t want to overextend myself and take a chance of producing a sub-par product. That being said, I wouldn’t turn away someone wanting fully decadent and sinful bakery items. I am darn good at making those as well!
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?
I have always loved to cook. More importantly, I love cooking for people. I’ve catered and I worked briefly at a high production bakery. I’ve been able to engage my creative and artistic talent through baking and pastry making. Everything I make has to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye as well as delicious. The next step was trying to incorporate my lifestyle and healthy eating habits. I LOVE dessert and sweets but wanted plant based options as well as low or no refined sugar. I also wanted to explore gluten free and low carb options since that is a requirement for many people, After a lot of research and trial and error with swapping out ingredients I’ve created some keepers. I try to use quality ingredients, often organic, and everything is hand crafted and made to order.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My life has been a series of acts. First act was before kids, enjoying the single life and pursuing higher education as an artist and art history major. Then the second act the kids came along and life was all about them until they went off to college. During that time, I managed to complete my bachelor’s degree in Art History and worked part time as an art curator for a local children’s non-profit company, Young Arts Arizona. Act three, second child heads off to college and life decisions need to be made. Which direction do I take my career – in the arts or pursue my love of cooking and baking? I’d dabbled in catering and had provided baked goods for a local art gallery during an internship and it was extremely well received. I sent out applications and my resume for gallery and museum positions as well as at one bakery. In my head and heart, I was leaning toward my love of baking. It came down to the one bakery position and a sales position at an art gallery. Well, one thing I know for certain is that I am no salesperson so it was an easy decision to go with the bakery, That was my first pivot then after several months of doing high production baking I realized that was not going to nurture my love of the craft but rather suck me dry in short order. That’s when I pivoted again in order to start my own business. It’s been slow going the last three years. I am still trying to find the capital to expand but I am slowly but surely building a steady client base.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Two words – quality and beauty. I am building the reputation of using high quality ingredients and providing healthier option pastries and desserts. These small batch, all hand made products are not only very delicious but also beautiful.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: mixingmagic_wtnypaige
- Facebook: Mixing Magic by Whitney