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

Diana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I think the last article we were featured in we touched on this subject. I had been in the oil/gas industry for years. My previous employer, I was with them for 7 years. I absolutely loved it a majority of the time. When we had our last little one at the beginning of the pandemic March 2020, I was hit pretty hard with health issues due to pregnancy. After having Phineas, I don’t think I was ever the same after. We had him in daycare and same with our middle child, but it was starting to get pretty expensive. After discussing with my husband we agreed that it would be best for me to leave and focus on baking. I think that is where the big risk taking started. 2022 has been, by far, our most successful year! At the tail end of 2022, I took on a pretty big order. It was for 28 pies. I was super excited and just thrilled. The not so thrilling part is, it was just me lol. My mom ended up helping me towards the end which was incredible. Well, my customer received some feedback on the pies she gave to her clients, she’s a realtor, she said next year they are going to need 150! Cue all the alarms going off. Haha! How was I going to pull off 150 in my little oven?! Well, I started to talk to a few people and about the amazing news and trying to get my ducks in a row to make sure I’m not scrambling last minute. Well, the youth minister at our church came to me and said he may have a solution. The owner of a comic book shop, Comix Cafe, had a kitchen and some ovens he wasn’t using anymore. So I reached out to them and checked it out. Turned out to be a huge blessing! And now we’re officially baking for them and have a kitchen we are using for our current orders! It’s been amazing. We just started there the 10th of January and have been pretty much selling out each week! We have even started Cookie Decorating Classes there monthly!

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

I started baking when I was 13 with my grandpa. I truly enjoyed that time in life and it was so fun to just create with food! I started baking for just family and then eventually started to sell. I worked at a law firm and they hired me to make the monthly birthday cakes for their firm. It has truly been a blessing to do what I love and to be able to use the talents that God has given me to make others happy! Super thankful for my amazing customers whom have been amazing in supporting me live out my dream!!

Right now, we make custom cakes, cookies, and other treats. We also have brownies, gourmet cookies, and other treats at Comix Cafe that are readily available for purchase! We started our cookie decorating classes back up again and have been so grateful the amazing space that they have provided us to hold classes! It’s been a blast working with this awesome small business! We are looking into being able to ship cookies within the US in the near future, now that we are operating in a commercial kitchen, as well!

I think one thing that helps set us apart is that we have our clients’ best interest! I do my best to get cakes and treats within their budget and am completely honest with them. I do my absolute best to make sure we can help make their day as special as they are. We don’t always get the bid, which is 100% ok. Our products are luxury items and we make sure that you get your money’s worth. Just seeing our clients’ happy faces when they get their treats makes it all worth it!

I am proud that we have been able to do what we love. We spread God’s love through our baking and truly blessed with all He has provided for us. One thing that I do is pray that God’s work and love is seen and felt with all of our orders. That we are able to spread that kindness and love to others. It’s been an amazing and super bumpy journey, but wouldn’t have it any other way. My husband is a Navy veteran, so we are veteran owned. I am also a latina, so we are minority owned as well. We love to give back to our community with our products.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think 2021 was the hardest for us to get through. I had just quit my job and my husband ended up getting hurt that same month. Worker’s comp took forever to get filed, we had 0 money coming in, and well my business wasn’t really picking up either. It was super stressful, but I kept at it. There were times where I just wanted to give up and felt alone, but knew that I just couldn’t. I have 3 kiddos and my husband to support. I couldn’t give up. I started joining all kinds of groups and getting advice and support from there. Started to focus more on this and work on marketing. Lots and lots of praying and putting in the work needed. Eventually we joined a marketing group that helped us exponentially. It helped us dive into the world of cookie decorating classes and such.

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

I’ve touched base on this in our last feature, but I’ll go into a little more detail. I worked in the oil and gas field for 7 years. It was some of the best years in a work place. Absolutely loved it. The people became like family to me. During Covid, I started to bake and decided to kind of do this as a side job. Just to make a little extra. I had just had our baby during this time and any extra was extremely helpful. My company was amazing and super flexible with what my capabilities were after this. Eventually, after talking to my husband, we thought it would be best to pursue this dream career and make it reality. I’ve worked since I was 14 years old. So going from corporate American jobs to being a business owner was a complete change for me. I had a lot to learn and still have a lot to learn! Lol. Then we went and are now part of a commercial business and taking our business in a whole new direction and expanding. It’s been amazing to see God’s work in all this!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scentsandsweetsbydb/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scentsandsweetsbydb
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-brooks-3440b65a/