We recently connected with Amanda Jonsay and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I started out as a home baker, specializing in buttercream cakes to floral wedding cakes and pavlovas. It seemed like every entrepreneur around me was using Instagram to market themselves, but I had no idea what to do and how to start.

I invested in thousands of dollars’ worth of masterminds, online groups, coaching… you name it! What I unfortunately realized though was that all of these groups were focused on online businesses, trying to reach a wide, global audience.

I was trying to reach a LOCAL audience, but no one really addressed that. On top of trying to figure out Instagram on my own, I also struggled with imposter syndrome, my mental health, and finding a community who understood what I was going through and could support me.

Bottom line: I felt alone.

My mission is to empower home bakers and help them not feel so alone in this crazy journey. I transitioned from being a home baker to now providing mentorships and resources around launching and marketing a home bakery so that it’s not just an “expensive hobby” anymore.

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

I’ve been baking since I was 11, which is when my obsession with Martha Stewart started! I eventually became the go-to baker in my family, and through word of mouth, I began a tiny little home bakery, making treats for friends and family, and so on.

Once I graduated from college, I was juggling a home bakery as well as working in the corporate world. I would have loved to just have my home bakery as my full time career, but everything and everyone around me told me it was “safer” to get a corporate job and have steady income, 401K, etc. Basically, my baking should be, and made sense to be, a hobby.

I always wondered throughout those years though: “What would it look like to do this full time? What if I went all in?”

After a few years of going back and forth, asking these “what if” questions, I decided it was now or never. I didn’t want to keep wondering anymore, and if things didn’t work out, I told myself I would be proud for at least giving it a shot.

But of course, just when you think you’ve figured it all out, life throws you a curveball. A few years after selling cakes and being part of the wedding industry, I thought that this was it. This was what I was meant and called to do. But there was something inside of me that kept saying I wasn’t going in the right direction. When I first heard this voice, I thought it was just fear, so I ignored it. But the more I ignored it, the louder that voice became, and I knew deep down that yet again, it was time for another transition in my life. This voice was telling me that I would still be in the world of baking, but I needed to help people, specifically women, in some way.

Not really sure what this looked like, I started hosting cake workshops for local bakers and would teach them how to fill and fros cakes and do different designs. After connecting with them in person as well as through Instagram, and learning more about them and hearing their dreams of wanting to start their own bakery, I found out that I absolutely loved helping them – to the point where I wanted to keep them accountable and do what I could to help them succeed.

That was when it all clicked and made sense. I knew that I needed to help bakers reach their dreams and give them the support that I always wish I had when I started.

Flash forward to today, I now help home bakers launch and market their dream businesses through online 1-1 mentorships and resources.

It’s really amazing to now see how full circle this all is, because when I started Just Bakecause, I always wished for a guide or mentor who could help me through my anxiety, fears, and struggles as a new baking entrepreneur but I never found that – which is why I strive to show up and be there for all the bakers desiring community and to be seen and heard.

Diversity and inclusion are extremely critical components of my brand as well because I believe that more women of color need to be represented, especially in this industry.

When I started my business, I would have loved to see more women who looked like me, but there was such a lack of diversity that I actually believed I wouldn’t be successful or even noticed, because of how I looked.

There are so many talented, undervalued women out there who I want to acknowledge and lift up. If you’ve ever felt like you weren’t good enough to make an impact or start your business, I see you and I want you to know that you are WORTHY and you have something so special to offer that no one else can. There is an audience out there who needs you to show up exactly the way you are.

I love sharing my story because I want to show that my journey has been and will continue to be MESSY and imperfect. I’ve gone through so many pivots, hospital visits, therapy sessions, multiple careers…but these were all necessary for guiding me to a career where I finally feel like I’m at home, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I am a huge fan of checking in with clients, even after our sessions are completed. Whether it’s sending them a surprise gift, mailing them a card, or DM’ing them on Instagram, I genuinely want to know how they are doing, and how I can still support them. I know every season of business has its challenges, and I want them to know they are never alone and have someone on their side, cheering and rooting for them!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had a sales coach who always reminded me that “I don’t know people’s money story”.

Every time I had a call with a potential client, I would get anxious about telling them the investment for working with me. I would assume certain things, offer a discount right away based on what they shared with me previously, and doing this caused me to attract and work with the wrong type of clients.

I had a lot of mindset work to do, and needed to uncover not just my personal stories and beliefs around money, but I needed to believe that what I had to offer could change people’s lives and businesses, because it did.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.justbakecause.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/justbakecause
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/justbakecause

Image Credits
Ailina Dohn