Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lyndsay O’Neil. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Lyndsay, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you manage your own social media?

I manage all our social media personally. I find that no matter how large our company grows, I still want to remain as personal as possible with our community and customers

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I started Caking at the young age of 13 years old when my mom signed me up for cake decorating classes at our local craft store. From there, the next 4 years I made cakes and sweets for family and friends and anyone else who knew about me. Word of mouth was my biggest way of advertising, besides my little facebook group called ” 13 Candles Cakes” Into high school I obtained my first job in a bakery as a cake decorator. From then I worked 4 1/2 years with that company all while doing my gen eds for what I thought would be my future in nursing school. While in the midst of deciding “school wasn’t for me” I was at the point in my work where, with the help of my parents, we offered to purchase the bakery I was employed at.

Fortunately , they turned down that offer. While at the time, it was a bummer, it was the biggest blessing in disguise. I then continued to get to work and move towards what is now my life. I dropped out of college and started the journey to open Cake House Design in 2016. Since then I have learned so much and continue to learn every day. I remember telling my self, I was taking the easy road out by quitting school and opening a bakery. It definitely has not been easy, but every day has been a dream that I didn’t know I deserved.

Cake House is known for its fun and quirky cakes. We create what pinterest hasn’t shown you yet. I take pride in being a completely custom bakery. We don’t replicate anything here, instead everyone walks out with a one of a kind piece of art.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

When I first opened Cake House Design, I knew I wanted to be apart of as many weddings in St. Louis as possible. I was and still am obsessed with weddings. In order to be apart of these life celebrations, I immersed myself in all things weddings. I researched all the best wedding vendors, venues, florists planners ect. I made sure to learn about who they were, the work they do, and who the owners are. I knew I had to make a name in the St, Louis Wedding Community, It is a very tight knit community. I started visiting businesses personally, introducing myself and bringing product. I had to let people know about the “new kid on the block Building relationships with wedding vendors was so important to me. Knowing and gaining their trust was and still is key. You can ask just about anyone who knows me and they will tell you I know the best in the industry and because of that, we are apart of the best wedding hosted here in STL.
Relationship is everything.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I feel like this is a very common answer to this question, but COVID obviously !

When covid hit, something happened inside of Cake House. Our staff was nervous, I was nervous. But as their employer, I felt I had a duty to preform. I owed my staff everything I could give them even if I wasn’t getting a paycheck. From the moment businesses started closing their doors, I promised my staff that I would keep our doors open no matter what. That they would not lose their job, they would stay employed and the work would come.

While for a month and a half we “closed our doors” for walk in business, we were STILL OPEN! We immediately pivoted. If no one was allowed to walk in our doors, we were going to walk out ours and bring the sweets to our community. We offered deliveries with in 15 miles of our store and our business exploded like no one could imagine. I remember our social media SHOWED UP in more ways that one. We were announcing delivery locations, making multiple posts a day and so much at this point it’s a little blurry and also crazy to believe it was almost two years ago! I remember there were several days that our phone would ring so much we couldn’t have a conversation with a customer on the phone because so many calls were trying to come through at once.

While COVID was very difficult for our world, Cake House Prevailed and Prospered and we are so very grateful for our hard working staff who showed up day in and day out for the unexpected everyday!

Contact Info:

• Website: cakehousedesign.net
• Instagram: @Cakehousedesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CakeHouseDesign